In name only: The land of Handong, I shall rule its fate.

Hou Liangping slept soundly, a smile playing on his lips.

He finally achieved the life of being waited on hand and foot by Zhong Xiaoai, and was awarded a second-class merit and escaped the turmoil between the two major vortexes of Handong. The bullet to his chest was well worth it.

But the style can change drastically very quickly.

Lin Zhiyuan's headshot was like a demon appearing in a good dream, as if he were standing from God's perspective and could see his plans in Chuzhou clearly, but it didn't matter, he could handle it.

So what if he becomes someone's weapon? It's not like it's the first time; it's his old profession.

But the dreams became increasingly strange.

It seemed as if sirens were whispering, beckoning the sailors on his ship to head towards the Dead Reef.

don't want!don't want!

Hou Liangping felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. He struggled desperately to open his heavy eyelids, only to see a white expanse.

Oh, I'm dreaming. I'm still in the hospital.

Zhong Xiaoai was standing by the bed, seemingly on the phone with someone, but somehow her voice sounded a bit like a siren from a dream.

"woke up?"

Zhong Xiaoai hung up the phone with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Xiao Ai!"

Hou Liangping squeezed his wife's hand.

"You look terrible, are you feeling unwell?"

Zhong Xiaoai noticed the beads of sweat on his forehead and turned to press the call button by the bedside.

"It's nothing, I just had a nightmare."

Hou Liangping pulled the other person aside and explained.

"It's good that you're alright."

Zhong Xiaoai breathed a sigh of relief and complained, "That nightmare was spot on. Do you know someone's been secretly investigating you?"

"Investigate me? Investigate me for what?"

Hou Liangping was a little confused. Could it be that those people in Chuzhou were taking revenge? Or were the people in Zhao Dehan's ledger making a comeback?

"Your dealings with Tsai Chenggong."

Zhong Xiaoai said.

"what?"

Hou Liangping was even more bewildered. If his name hadn't been mentioned, he would have almost forgotten about this childhood friend recently. "Wait, what kind of business dealings could I possibly have with him? Didn't I report all the cigarettes and alcohol he gave me, including the toys he gave Haoran, and return them with money?"

I'm still a little angry about this.

Cai Chenggong swaggered over with the goods, left them, and ran away. There was nowhere to return them, so he had to transfer money and report it to the authorities. He tried to recoup his losses by taking the cigarettes and alcohol to a specialty store, but it turned out they were all fake and the store wouldn't accept them.

A one-time loss of tens of thousands!

When Cai Chenggong went again, he was immediately turned away.

"I'm asking you!"

Zhong Xiaoai felt she'd been giving him too much of a hard time lately, so she immediately turned cold. "Do you know who's investigating you? Chen Hai! Your good brother! Who's setting a trap for you? Cai Chenggong! Your childhood friend!"

"I told you long ago not to contact your old cronies. This is what happens when you don't listen."

Chen Hai?

It turned out to be him!

Hou Liangping felt a tightness in his chest again and coughed, but he quickly looked at Zhong Xiaoai and asked, "Xiaoai, what happened? Tell me."

While comforting him, Zhong Xiaoai recounted the whole story, her tone revealing a hint of smugness. "Executive Lin and the others clearly still want to drag you and the Zhong family into this quagmire in Handong, so I simply called Secretary Sha and told them to handle it themselves."

"Zhang Guofeng from the Provincial Procuratorate just called me; the person has already been arrested."

"However, they didn't reveal what Chen Hai and his team actually found out."

Chung Hsiao-ai's approach is quite good; she sees through the surface to the underlying truth.

Since Chen Hai caused this mess, we might as well hold onto Sha Ruijin, Chen Hai's biggest backer, and let them investigate themselves. This would also prevent the provincial government faction from taking advantage of the situation and avoid the impact of Chen Hai's unauthorized investigation.

But for some reason, Hou Liangping had a very bad feeling.

My mind started working at an unprecedented speed, and then suddenly went blank as if I had thought of something.

"Ryohei, what's wrong?"

Zhong Xiaoai asked urgently, Hou Liangping's face was ashen, and large beads of sweat dripped down his face.

"We've fallen for their trap!"

Hou Liangping smiled bitterly, "Xiao Ai, you shouldn't have interfered in this matter. A proper investigation and sorting out of the facts would have been a good thing, as it would have proven my innocence to the greatest extent possible, since I didn't do it."

But now that you've made arrangements, even if the investigation turns out to be unsuccessful, others will have something to say about it; the worst thing is if the investigation ends up unclear, which is euphemistically called "presumption of innocence," but there's also a harsher term for it: "a cadre with problems."

What!

Zhong Xiaoai's expression also turned sour. Her original intention was to disrupt the game, drag everyone into it, and let others fight while extricating Hou Liangping from the fray.

Instead of getting out, I got stuck.

"It's alright! It's alright!"

Hou Liangping glanced at the flustered Hu Daniu and reassured her, "Which cadre doesn't have a bad reputation? Your current rank won't matter. Besides, I still have my medals of honor. If I'm careful, nothing too serious will happen."

Zhong Xiaoai recovered and clenched her fists. Damn Qi Tongwei, damn Lin Zhiyuan, they actually tricked her with just a few words under the guise of a reminder.

Boom!Boom!

There was a knock on the ward door.

The couple exchanged a glance and saw the seriousness in each other's eyes; this way of knocking was unlike that of medical staff.

"Enter!"

Huang Hao shuffled in with his round body. "Comrade Liangping, Comrade Xiao Ai, I am Huang Hao, the leader of the Provincial Procuratorate's resident disciplinary inspection team. There are some things I need to ask Comrade Liangping."

"Given Comrade Liangping's special physical condition, Comrade Xiao Ai may sit in on the proceedings."

Huang Hao said with a smile.

She skillfully distinguished between personal relationships and procedures, forcing even the furious Zhong Xiaoai to force a grateful smile.

"Comrade Liangping, Chen Hai and others have filed a formal complaint against you for partnering with Cai Chenggong and Ding Yizhen, the owners of Dafeng Factory, to operate a coal mine and for illegally receiving 40 yuan in dividends."

Huang Hao picked up a stool and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Is this true?"

"Just a reminder, the Minsheng Bank account from which the payment was made was opened four years ago using your identity information, and the 400,000 yuan dividend was paid out at the beginning of last year."

Huang Hao told everything without hiding anything.

"I have never opened a Minsheng Bank account, nor have I participated in coal mine operations, let alone received 40 yuan in dividends."

Hou Liangping did not answer immediately, but pondered for a while, his face darkening further. "But I did go back to Jingzhou four years ago to attend a reunion with my high school classmates, including Cai Chenggong. We hadn't seen each other for many years, so we had a few drinks."

"Finally, Cai Chenggong took me back to the hotel."

"It's possible that around that time, Cai Chenggong took the opportunity to use my identity information to open an account."

Huang Hao then inquired about the timing of the gathering, which was indeed closely related to the account opening time.

"But this is only one possibility, and it cannot completely clear Comrade Liangping of suspicion."

Huang Hao calmly said, "You stayed in Jingzhou on the day you opened the account, and there is also suspicion that you authorized someone else to handle it."

"No!"

Hou Liangping shook his head. "I previously worked at the Anti-Corruption Bureau and had no time to get involved in coal mine operations."

"in addition…"