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

The air in the first conference room of the provincial party committee was filled with a nauseating, fishy smell of seafood.

Team Leader Qi sat in a leather chair, his face dark as he brushed the dried fish scales off his cashmere coat.

His triangular eyes were fixed on Li Dakang across from him, as if he were looking at a lump of mud that couldn't be plastered on.

"Li Dakang, weren't you quite capable back in Jingzhou?"

Team Leader Qi grabbed the official document on the table, rolled it into a tube, and slammed it down on the table.

"Now foreign capital has fled, infrastructure construction has stopped! 300,000 people are stuck in the streets with no food!"

He pressed, enunciating each word clearly: "As the Party Secretary of the Municipal Committee, what do you intend to use to patch up this colossal hole in Guangming Peak?"

Li Dakang's face was ashen, and beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks.

He was so disgusted by the imperial envoy's foul-smelling words that he couldn't lift his head, feeling more nauseous than if he had swallowed a fly.

But in front of this high-ranking official from the capital, he didn't even have the right to talk back.

Someone has to take the fall! This fire has to be diverted!

Li Dakang's eyes darted around, and he suddenly turned to look at Secretary Jin, who was standing trembling in the corner.

"Where's Sun Liancheng? He's in charge of the cleanup work for the abandoned Guangming Peak project!"

Li Dakang slammed his fist on the table and roared loudly.

"After making such a huge mess, where the hell is he? Call him right now and tell him to come over here and get a scolding!"

Startled, Xiao Jin quickly pulled out her phone and stammered a report that she had made a mistake.

"Secretary Li, District Chief Sun... he said he has cosmic vertigo and can't come."

"Cosmic vertigo? Has Sun Liancheng lost his mind?!"

Upon hearing this, Li Dakang was so angry he almost fainted.

He rushed over and snatched the phone from Xiao Jin's hand, his fingers trembling as he tapped the screen.

"Turn on speakerphone! I'm going to see how he manages to knock me out today!"

The beeping waiting tone echoed in the deathly silent conference room.

Team Leader Qi watched Li Dakang's performance with a cold eye, as if he were watching a clumsy farce.

At this moment, in the district mayor's office on the second floor of the Guangming District Government Building.

The heavy blackout curtains were drawn tightly shut, and the main lights were off in the room.

Sun Liancheng, wearing a dusty old jacket, was carefully wiping something with a fine velvet cloth.

In front of him was a newly repaired Celestron large-aperture astronomical telescope.

On the desk, dozens of official documents concerning "workers demanding back wages" and "unfinished projects" were piled up like a small mountain.

He glanced at the urgent documents, sighed, and shook his head helplessly.

"Buzzing—"

The internal dedicated line on the table started vibrating wildly, and the three large characters "Li Dakang" appeared on the screen.

District office director Lao Liu stood aside, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

"District Chief Sun, Secretary Li has called eight times in a row, are you really not going to answer?"

Sun Liancheng put down the velvet cloth, picked up the enamel teacup, and strolled over.

He pressed the answer button and casually turned on speakerphone.

"Sun Liancheng! Get your ass up to the Provincial Party Committee's main conference room right now!"

Li Dakang's roar, as loud as a broken gong, exploded instantly, causing ripples to spread across the water in the teacup.

"Team Leader Qi from Beijing has arrived! You must give a clear report on the aftermath of the Guangming Peak incident today!"

Sun Liancheng blew on the tea leaves on the surface of the water and slowly took a sip.

He knew his old boss all too well: when it came to achievements, he'd push for promotions; when it came to blame, he'd pass the buck.

This isn't sending him to report on his work; it's clearly sending him to be the imperial envoy's punching bag!

"Secretary Li, my body really can't take it anymore."

Sun Liancheng spoke in a weak tone and even coughed twice in a pretentious manner.

"Just now, when I looked up in the direction of Bright Peak, I felt dizzy. The doctor said I had sudden cosmic vertigo and needed to rest."

On the other end of the conference room, Li Dakang was so angry that his veins were bulging and his lungs were about to explode.

"You're talking nonsense! What rubbish about 'cosmic dizziness'!"

He completely abandoned all pretense of civility, speaking recklessly in front of high-ranking officials in the capital.

"You were quite energetic when Yan Qingfeng withdrew his investment, but now that you're being asked to take the fall, are you out of your mind?"

"I'm warning you, Sun Liancheng, if I don't see you within half an hour, you can forget about your position as district head!"

Li Dakang issued an ultimatum, panting heavily as he waited for the other side to back down.

As Sun Liancheng listened to the roar on the phone, he turned to look at the vast night sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

The night is beautiful tonight, with not a cloud in the sky.

The Orion Nebula should be clearly visible with this new telescope.

"Secretary Li, please feel free to take off your hat. This mess, this battle of the gods, is something I, a mere mortal, really can't handle."

Sun Liancheng spoke calmly, without the slightest fluctuation, as if he were discussing what to eat that evening.

"When President Yan was here, the people here had food to eat."

He reached out and touched the cold metal barrel of the telescope.

"Now you've smashed the pot to save face and want me to cook? I don't have the skills to cook without rice."

After saying that, Sun Liancheng pressed the hang-up button.

The world is quiet now.

Old Liu, watching from the side, was so shocked his jaw almost dropped to the ground, and his legs were trembling.

"District...District Chief...did you really hang up on Secretary Li?"

In the officialdom of Handong, Sun Liancheng was absolutely the first person to dare to hang up on Li Dakang.

"Why not hang it up?"

Sun Liancheng pulled a sick leave slip from the drawer, and with a flourish, signed his name.

"Yan Qingfeng controls the economic lifeline of Handong. The capital sent people to flaunt their official power. Li Dakang wants to use me as a sacrifice."

He casually slapped the sick leave slip onto Lao Liu's chest.

"Go and hand over the reins. Tell them I'm seriously ill and on indefinite leave. Let whoever wants to manage things in this district take care of them."

Old Liu held the sick leave slip and swallowed hard.

"What about those hundred-plus unfinished projects at Guangming Peak? That's all our district's territory!"

Sun Liancheng walked to the window, pulled back the curtains, and pointed the telescope at the brilliant starry sky.

"Old Liu, look up at the universe."

He leaned closer to the eyepiece, a contented smile playing on his lips.

"Earth is nothing but a speck of dust in the universe. Whether it's Yan Qingfeng or Li Dakang, they're nothing but a fart in the face of the vast galaxy."

He adjusted the focus, completely immersing himself in his own sea of ​​stars.

"Life is too short to fight tooth and nail for political achievements. What's the point? You might as well look at the stars."

Sun Liancheng's voice became ethereal, as if he had ascended to heaven.

"Let the gods do whatever they want, I'm lying down. As long as I don't get up, no one can make me take the blame."

The camera cuts back to the first conference room of the provincial party committee.

"Beep...beep...beep..."

The busy tone of the call being disconnected echoed shrilly through the hands-free speakerphone.

Li Dakang stood frozen in place, holding his phone, like a wooden stake.

His usually stern face was now a fascinating mix of red and white.

The dignified municipal party secretary was ruthlessly hung up on by a district head in front of the imperial envoy!

Team Leader Qi sat in the main seat and let out an undisguised sneer.

"Wow, Secretary Li, that's quite impressive. Are these the soldiers you trained?"

This mockery was like a slap across Li Dakang's face, stinging painfully.

"They don't even respect you, the top leader. No wonder Yan Qingfeng dares to bully you in Handong!"

"Sun Liancheng has gone too far!"

Enraged, Li Dakang grabbed his phone and smashed it on the floor.

The screen shattered instantly, and the phone slid to the corner of the wall.

Sha Ruijin sat beside him, rubbing his temples with his eyes closed, not wanting to say a word.

Even the district chiefs below understood the situation and simply gave up. The morale of the officials in Handong has completely collapsed.

Without Sun Liancheng to take the fall, the Guangmingfeng project lost its last official scapegoat.

That quagmire that cost billions is now a stinking piece of dead flesh, rotting solidly in Li Dakang's hands.

Just as the conference room fell into a deathly silence, Secretary Zhang's phone suddenly started vibrating wildly.

Xiao Zhang glanced down at the screen, his face instantly turning deathly pale, as if he had seen a ghost.

Ignoring the rules, he crossed the table and handed his phone to Team Leader Qi.

"Mr. Qi...please take a look at this video that just came out." Xiao Zhang's voice was trembling.

Team Leader Qi frowned and clicked on the video.

In the footage, hundreds of drones look down from the sky at the densely packed unfinished pits of Guangming Peak.

The background noise was actually the roar of Li Dakang slamming his fist on the table and forcing donations in the conference room.

The top of the video was filled with comments cursing "corrupt officials forcing out conscientious businesses" and "ruining ordinary people's livelihoods."

Team Leader Qi's hand, gripping his phone, bulged with veins. He abruptly turned to stare at Li Dakang, gritting his teeth.

"Secretary Li, your achievements are now famous all over the internet. Do you think the Lingxiao Consortium's next move will be to tear down the roof of your provincial party committee?"