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

"Beep...beep..."

The jarring busy signal echoed through the empty Provincial Party Committee Office No. 1, like a death knell.

Sha Ruijin held the red, secure landline stiffly, his palms sweating so much that the microphone was slippery.

In the past three minutes, he has experienced the longest and most humiliating reprimand of his life.

On the other end of the phone, the roar of the top leader in Beijing was so loud it could practically lift the roof off the Hantong Provincial Party Committee building.

"Sha Ruijin! Is your brain filled with mush?!"

That high-ranking official, who usually remained calm even in the face of a collapsing mountain, was truly enraged this time.

"Look at the state of things in Handong! The fax machine in the Foreign Affairs Office is practically smoking!"

"The ambassadors of three Western countries personally went to the ministry with letters of protest and slammed their fists on the table!"

"Just because your local factories lost power, their entire global supply chain has been thrown into chaos!"

Sha Ruijin swallowed hard, still wanting to offer a few words of explanation.

"Sir, this is just a temporary setback. We are working hard to fight against capital..."

"Fight my ass!" the chief cursed without holding back.

"The overall market index plummeted because of the collapse of your Handong sector! You've dragged down the national macroeconomic data!"

"Is that an iron fist? You're smashing people's rice bowls with a sledgehammer!"

The most fatal blow was the ultimatum the top leader issued before hanging up the phone.

"Forty-eight hours! I don't care what method you use, even if you beg or kowtow!"

"The Lingxiao Consortium must resume operations! Stabilize foreign investment and people's livelihoods!"

"If you can't do it, you and Li Dakang can pack your bags and go sit on the sidelines at the archives! Your political careers are over!"

These words definitively condemned Sha Ruijin's much-vaunted political maneuvering to death.

Sha Ruijin flicked his wrist, and the red microphone fell to the mahogany desk with a "thud".

He slumped into the large leather chair, as if his spinal cord had been drained.

His face was ashen, and his eyes were glazed over.

Li Dakang, who was sitting on the opposite sofa, suddenly shuddered.

Seeing Sha Ruijin's absent-minded appearance, his heart sank.

"Secretary Sha... has the higher-ups really given a death order?"

Sha Ruijin didn't look at him, but mechanically turned his head to look at the gray sky over Jingzhou outside the window.

The cold rain continued to fall, hitting the glass, but it couldn't wash away the city's current state of disrepair.

"Retired to the second line, sitting on the sidelines."

Sha Ruijin's lips trembled as he uttered these eight words.

For an ambitious regional official, this was a thousand times more cruel than being executed.

He cannot back down, he absolutely cannot leave Handong as a criminal at this critical juncture!

Since I cannot die, someone else has to be the sacrifice.

A fierce glint suddenly flashed in Sha Ruijin's cloudy eyes, like that of a trapped beast.

"Li Dakang, you just submitted a self-criticism; that shows you know what's good for you."

Sha Ruijin suddenly sat up straight, pressing his hands firmly against the table until his knuckles turned white.

"But this is a huge scapegoat. You, as the municipal party secretary, can't satisfy Yan Qingfeng's appetite."

Li Dakang was taken aback and swallowed hard.

"So you mean...?"

"Whoever takes the knife to investigate the accounts must take the shield to withstand the consequences!"

Sha Ruijin gritted his teeth, a ruthless glint in his eyes.

"Where's that idiot Hou Liangping? Tell him to get to my office right now!"

Meanwhile, in the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Provincial High People's Procuratorate, in the Director's Office.

The room was filled with a strong smell of cheap tobacco and the sour smell of rancid instant noodles.

Hou Liangping's eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, like a gambler who had lost all his money.

He was slumped over his desk, staring intently at the case report on the "body found drowned in Guangming Lake" that had just been sent by the Municipal Bureau.

His hair was a complete mess, like a bird's nest, and the buttons on his uniform collar had long since popped off.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!"

He slammed his fist on the thick file, making the coffee cup on the corner of the table rattle.

"Six grown men were broken in the arms and legs and drowned in pig cages—this is blatant murder!"

"Why should Yan Qingfeng get away scot-free? I don't believe this case can't be solved with irrefutable evidence!"

Hou Liangping roared hysterically.

The young police officer Xiao Gao, who was standing next to him, was so frightened that he kept backing away. He was holding a forensic report in his hand, unsure whether to hand it over or not.

"Director Hou...please calm down," Xiao Gao said, forcing himself to speak.

"Calm down my ass! Bring me the autopsy report! I want to see how they were tortured to death!"

Hou Liangping snatched the documents from Xiao Gao's hand and quickly flipped through them.

He froze after reading only two lines, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

"Minor injury, level two? Malnutrition?"

Hou Liangping suddenly raised his head and stared at Xiao Gao as if he had seen a ghost.

"Those six assassins aren't dead?!"

Xiao Gao looked miserable and helplessly spread his hands.

"They're not dead. Not only are they not dead, but when the city police came to pick them up, they weren't even seriously injured."

Xiao Gao swallowed hard, his voice filled with deep despair.

"The people from Lingxiao Security were too ruthless. They dislocated the joints and then put them back together, so the medical examination didn't even show a fracture."

"The Ministry of Justice even sent us a banner, saying that our police and the public are working together to build a safe community."

"Director Zhao Donglai was so angry that he threw the banner into the trash can, but he still had to hold his nose and process the exemption procedures for their legitimate self-defense."

Hou Liangping felt his head buzzing and his vision go black.

The legal standards he was so proud of were, in Yan Qingfeng's hands, reduced to playdough that he could manipulate at will!

Not only did they not kill anyone, they also legally and compliantly dismantled an overseas assassin organization!

Just as Hou Liangping was about to break down, the internal phone on the table suddenly rang.

Xiao Gao quickly answered the phone, listened for a couple of sentences, and his face turned deathly pale.

"Director Hou... It's Secretary Bai from the Provincial Party Committee Office on the phone. Secretary Sha wants you to bring the official seal of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and go there immediately."

Hou Liangping took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart.

He grabbed a few statements from the table and stuffed them into his briefcase.

"Perfect! I'll go see Secretary Sha right now. I refuse to believe there's no law in this world!"

Fifteen minutes later, in the Provincial Party Committee's No. 1 Office.

Hou Liangping pushed open the door in a flurry of activity, just about to start reporting on the case.

"Bang!"

A thick blue folder came flying at me.

Hou Liangping instinctively dodged, and the folder hit the door frame, scattering pieces of paper all over the floor.

"Secretary Sha! What are you doing!" Hou Liangping was stunned, his face full of astonishment.

He saw Sha Ruijin standing behind the desk, his chest heaving violently, his eyes looking like he wanted to devour someone.

Li Dakang, standing next to him, was like a turtle hiding in its shell, not daring to even look at him.

Sha Ruijin walked around the desk and strode up to Hou Liangping.

He pointed to the scattered papers on the ground, his voice as cold as the wind blowing from hell.

"Look what's on the ground! Pick it up and let me see!"

Hou Liangping bent down, picked up a piece of paper, glanced at it, and his face turned deathly pale.

That was the "Decision to Terminate Investigation and Withdraw Case" issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

In the lower right corner, there was a red seal that Ji Changming of the Provincial High Procuratorate had prepared long ago, and all that was left was for Hou Liangping to sign it.

"Withdraw the case? Secretary Sha, this case cannot be withdrawn!"

Hou Liangping got anxious and crumpled the document withdrawing the case.

"Yan Qingfeng just set up a courthouse at Guangming Lake last night. This is a serious case of organized crime, and I have a confession in my hand!"

"Snapped!"

Sha Ruijin showed no mercy, delivering a resounding slap to Hou Liangping's face.

The blow was so forceful that half of Hou Liangping's face swelled up instantly, and his gold-rimmed glasses flew off.

Li Dakang, standing nearby, trembled with fear and didn't dare to breathe.

"Involved in organized crime? Have you lost your mind?!"

Sha Ruijin, his eyes red, spat all over Hou Liangping's face.

"They arrested mercenaries wanted on the overseas dark web! They were acting in self-defense on their own private estate!"

"Your confession is worthless! The city police will still have to give them a 'good Samaritan' bonus!"

Sha Ruijin grabbed Hou Liangping by the collar and slammed him against the door.

"You spent three days and three nights checking the accounts, and what did you find? Besides proving that he's a law-abiding and philanthropic person, what else did you do?!"

Hou Liangping was stunned by the beating. He covered his burning cheek but still stubbornly refused to admit it.

"But we can't bow to capital! We represent the dignity of the law!"

"Dignity? Ordinary people have lost their jobs, and you're talking to me about dignity!"

Sha Ruijin shoved him away abruptly, as if looking at a hopeless idiot.

"Your dignity can't buy a drop of tap water in Jingzhou! It can't buy a single penny in the bank!"

He pointed to the document dismissing the case on the ground and issued the cruelest death order.

"Sign your name! Stamp your seal!"

Sha Ruijin's voice echoed in the office, carrying an air of tyranny that brooked no resistance.

"Now, immediately, right now! Take this document and go to Lingxiao Manor!"

Hou Liangping's eyes widened, as if he had heard something out of the blue.

"You want me... to bow down and apologize to that unscrupulous businessman?"

He shook his head frantically, took two steps back, and resisted.

"I'm the head of the anti-corruption bureau sent by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. You think I'd go and beg for forgiveness? That's impossible!"

Hou Liangping's inherent pride made it impossible for him to bend down.

"Even if I, Hou Liangping, take off this uniform, I will never become a capitalist's dog!"

"Take off your uniform?"

Sha Ruijin laughed, a laugh that sent chills down one's spine.

He slowly walked to his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a file folder stamped with a top-secret seal.

"You think you can walk around with such high and mighty attitude just because you've taken off your uniform?"

Sha Ruijin slammed the file folder onto Hou Liangping's chest with a "thud".

"Zhong Xiaoai used her personal connections in Beijing to forcibly mobilize a joint investigation team, exceeding her authority in handling the case. This is an abuse of public resources!"

Hou Liangping's expression changed drastically, and he gripped the file folder tightly.

Sha Ruijin looked down at him, his eyes icy and piercing.

"If you don't step out of this door today, tomorrow, all of the Zhong family's businesses in Beijing will be completely wiped out by the Lingxiao Consortium's offshore funds!"

"Your wife and your father-in-law will both be buried with you, along with your hypocritical arrogance!"

Hou Liangping's psychological defenses collapsed at that moment.

His legs gave way, and he slid down the door panel to the ground, closing his eyes in despair.

He finally realized that in this crushing power and money, he was just an ant that could be crushed at any moment.

Sha Ruijin looked at Hou Liangping, who was slumped on the ground, without a trace of pity.

He bent down, picked up the document withdrawing the case, and forcibly stuffed it into Hou Liangping's hand.

"Hou Liangping, I'll only give you ten minutes to prepare."

Sha Ruijin stared intently at him, pointed outside the door, and roared, shattering the silence in the corridor.

"You're not going? Fine! Secretary Bai, call two armed police officers in! Even if you break his legs and tie him up like a dog, you'll still have to throw him at the gate of Lingxiao Manor and make him beg for mercy!"