Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

The family compound for retired cadres of Handong Province.

The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated, casting a hazy gray veil over the rows of old red-brick buildings.

The air was filled with the heavy, earthy smell of freshly turned soil.

There was also a faint smell of ammonia from the fermentation of urea fertilizer underneath, which pungented the nose and made people itch when the autumn wind blew.

A few drops of cool dew clung to the rose petals, teetering on the verge of falling.

Ji Changming, the former chief prosecutor of Handong District, was squatting by the flower bed in his first-floor yard.

He was wearing a white cotton shirt that had been washed until the collar was yellowed and the cuffs were frayed.

He was wearing a pair of black cloth shoes covered in dry mud.

He was clutching a large pair of rusty iron shears in his hand.

Several bluish veins bulged out from the pressure on his thumb.

"Click, click."

The rough iron blades snapped shut, and several overgrown, thorny rose branches fell into the mud.

Sticky green plant sap oozing from the cut.

The juice smeared onto Ji Changming's index finger, which was covered with age spots.

It was slippery and had a raw, grassy smell.

On the edge of the flower bed next to it, there was an old Red Lantern brand radio with peeling paint.

The antenna was stretched out very long, emitting the morning news broadcast with a "zzzz" sound.

The radio speaker was distorted, and the harsh static occasionally drowned out the female anchor's voice.

According to the latest overseas news, the T country's government issued a national-level statement early this morning.

"In light of the need for adjustments to international energy strategies, President Bassoon of Country T has signed an executive order."

"We voluntarily transfer 50 years of absolute control over the largest lithium mine in the southern part of our country to the Lingxiao Consortium free of charge."

Ji Changming's wrist suddenly trembled.

My muscles twitched uncontrollably.

A muffled "hiss" sound.

The rusty scissors tip tilted and cut the flesh of his left thumb.

A gash more than half an inch long instantly opened up.

Bright red blood beads immediately appeared.

It trickled down from under the fingernails, dripping "plop" onto the dark brown, wet mud.

They smashed out small, dark red, fishy-smelling pits.

He stared intently at the broken radio, like a wooden stake devoid of pain.

His eyes were wide open.

"Hey! What are you doing, you old codger?!"

The screen door of the house was pushed open, and the old man's wife rushed out carrying an enamel basin of water.

Seeing the blood on Ji Changming's hands, he was so anxious that he kept slapping his thigh, making a "slap slap" sound.

"You think you can get yourself bloodied just from cutting up some cheap flowers?! Do you think you're still that armed police officer you used to be?!"

My wife put the enamel basin on the ground, splashing water all over the floor.

He grabbed the greasy coarse cloth apron he was wearing and was about to press it against his wound.

"Quickly, go inside and get some iodine! These rusty iron shears might give you tetanus!"

Ji Changming did not move.

He let his wife tightly bind his thumb with rough cloth.

A piercing, throbbing pain shot through my fingertips.

But there wasn't a trace of pain on his face.

Instead, there was a chilly air mixed with ice shards.

It shot up his tailbone and straight to the top of his head, making his scalp tingle.

The old man's shirt on his back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"Voluntary transfer... Screw 'voluntary'..."

Ji Changming struggled to scrape his dry esophagus with his Adam's apple.

He swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, his throat as hoarse as a broken bellows.

"That's blatant transnational robbery! A sovereign nation like Thailand was completely humiliated and stripped bare by Yan Qingfeng!"

"Why are you meddling in other people's business, you old man!"

His wife squeezed his hand tightly and glared at him irritably.

"Yan Qingfeng is practically a living god in Handong! Didn't he get discounts on all the water, electricity, and gas in this courtyard?"

My wife spat on the ground.

"Stop talking nonsense! Yesterday I went to the morning market to buy pork ribs, and the fat butcher only accepted Lingxiao Points!"

"If the conglomerate's drones hear you say that, they'll deduct our family's credit score, and we won't even be able to buy rice!"

Ji Changming abruptly shook off his wife's hand.

Ignoring the blood still seeping from his thumb, he slumped down on the small wooden stool next to him.

The canvas of the stool could not bear the weight and creaked as if it were about to fall apart.

He raised his uninjured right hand and roughly rubbed his forehead with the rough back of his hand.

I wiped the cold sweat from my palm.

His mind raced through images of the fates of his former colleagues.

Tian Guofu, who sits in the main seat at meetings all day and drinks specially supplied Longjing tea.

During an unannounced visit to a grassroots community, he was mistaken for a commercial spy by a group of elderly people buying groceries.

He was strangled by the rope used to tie the pig until his eyes rolled back, and was kicked in a mud puddle in the street until his ribs were broken.

What now?

The dignified secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission is imprisoned in Qincheng Prison along with Zhao Ruilong.

They were fighting over half a spoiled, hardened, cold steamed bun.

Two old men, whose combined age is nearly 150, were rolling around on the cement floor, pulling each other's hair.

The crevices under my fingernails were full of blood vessels from the other person's face.

He then thought of Hou Liangping, who was always spouting righteousness and legal principles.

His records show he has been deregistered and is now a charred corpse; he is now using the alias Li Jianguo.

Being an unregistered resident, he didn't even have a broken umbrella on a rainy day.

Huddled next to that stinking green trash can in the back alley of Lingxiao Building.

Like a mangy dog, it rummaged through the mutated sweet corn cobs that the lower-level employees of the conglomerate had left over and thrown away.

He wailed and cried while chewing on corncobs soaked in swill.

The crying was so mournful it sounded like a ghost's, and with red eyes, she still wanted to apply for a job cleaning toilets at the Lingxiao Building.

"Old woman, you're right, Yan Qingfeng is a god..."

Ji Changming stared at the dried bloodstains on the back of his hand and suddenly grinned.

His smile was more like a grimace, causing the age spots on his face to tremble.

His eyes were filled with lingering fear and relief at escaping death.

"That's a living Yama who eats people without spitting out the bones, and can kill someone even by plucking a single hair!"

He tilted his gray head back.

The gaze passes over the low red brick wall of the family compound.

He stared intently at the city center, more than ten kilometers away.

The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated.

But the towering Lingxiao Building, its silhouette resembling a giant black sword, is firmly nailed to the ground of Handong.

The dark gold cloud logo on the building's exterior wall gleamed with a blinding cold light against the gray-blue sky.

Even from this distance, the overwhelming and violent aura still made one's chest feel heavy.

Ji Changming was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

The earthy smell filled my lungs, cool and refreshing.

He felt that the smell of fertilizer, which he usually found nauseating, was now the most reassuring air in the world.

Seeing his dazed expression, rolling his eyes back, his wife was too frightened to shout loudly.

He could only kick the stool's leg with the toe of his cloth shoe.

"Old man, what's wrong with you? Are you possessed? Are you going to bandage this hand or not?"

"Bag my ass! Losing a couple of drops of blood is nothing!"

Ji Changming gripped his knees tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning pale.

His teeth were chattering, making a soft "clucking" sound, as if he were about to be frozen through.

"Thank goodness... I retired early."

Ji Changming stared at the dark golden light of the distant building, his withered lips trembling as he muttered to himself.

"If I were still in that position, I, Ji Changming, would be the one scrambling for stale bread and picking through trash like a dog!"

"To oppose this living devil is to wish you hadn't died a miserable death and your ashes hadn't been scattered fast enough!"

The old man sighed, took off the blood-stained apron, and threw it into the basin of water.

A faint layer of light red rose to the surface of the water.

"Alright, alright, I know you're lucky. Stop having this tantrum. I'll go get some corn porridge from the kitchen."

My wife picked up the basin, turned around and walked into the house, when suddenly she seemed to remember something.

He muttered something casually.

"By the way, I just saw a message from Old Zhang's wife in the WeChat group."

"They say Secretary Gao Yuliang... apparently his stomach ulcer has worsened, and he's being released on medical parole today; he's going to be released from prison."

Ji Changming suddenly turned his head.

The force was too strong, and the large tendons in my neck were stretched painfully, making a soft "crack" sound.

A complex, ashen look flashed in his eyes.

"Is Lao Gao getting out of prison today?"

He looked down at his thumb, which was still oozing blood, and gave a bitter smile.

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper grinding hard on a rough wooden board.

"His blockhead has spent his whole life playing with legal principles and the art of balance."

Ji Changming shook his head, his cloudy old eyes filled with sorrow for his former colleagues.

"If you saw this Han Dong now, where even his mother has to look at Yan Qingfeng's face when she drinks a sip of cold water."

"Do you think he might as well just die of a terrible illness behind bars and have a headache?"