I feel right at home in the world of the courtyard house.

Office of the Minister of Metallurgical Industry.

"Minister Li, please don't worry. We are not detaining you or interrogating you; we just want to understand the past situation."

In Li Jing'an's office, he sat on a separate sofa, facing three men dressed in black Zhongshan suits. Although they were polite and outwardly showed him ample respect, he knew in his heart that this was a new era, and this day had finally come.

But he wasn't afraid; he was upright and had nothing to fear.

"Hehe, what do you want to know? I'll definitely tell you everything I know." Li Jing'an stood to the side, a cigarette dangling from his lips, looking very relaxed.

The three people opposite each other exchanged glances and nodded. One of them then turned around, picked up a notebook, opened it, and prepared to take notes.

"Minister Li, you and Zhang Qiuqiao have a very good relationship, right?"

Li Jing'an narrowed his eyes, knowing he would be asked that question.

"Yes, I have a good relationship with them, but it's just a personal relationship and we don't have any work-related matters involved. I have never used Zhang Qiuqiao's connections to get any benefits for myself. My career path is all traceable, and I have never gotten to this position through opportunism."

The man opposite nodded and said, "There are rumors that you frequently visit Zhang Qiuqiao's residence and often eat and drink with him. Many people say that you are a key figure hidden around Zhang Qiuqiao."

"This is slander, utter slander!" Li Jing'an declared righteously. "My relationship with Zhang Qiuqiao is completely innocent. Even though he's in custody now, I can still say that it's purely a friendship between us. Someone is definitely trying to use this to attack me. We have no business dealings whatsoever. You can ask Zhang Qiuqiao for details."

"Okay, Minister Li, we will verify it. I also trust your integrity; after all, you are a role model, having been featured in the newspapers for acts of bravery more than once."

The man then changed the subject: "Could we talk about your work experience next?"

Li Jing'an couldn't refuse, of course, but he shrugged indifferently and waited for the other party to make a move.

"After you became the director of the Revolutionary Committee of the steel rolling mill, what explanation do you have for the fate of the original leadership team?"

"Of course, there's nothing wrong with saying this." Li Jing'an flicked his cigarette ash. "Except for the former deputy director Li Huaide, I took the initiative to protect the other leaders at the beginning of the movement, and they weren't affected in any way. You can verify these things with them. As for the changes in some people's situations later, that's because my protection caused some dissatisfaction among the comrades below. There was nothing I could do; that was the environment at the time. I can only say that I did my best. Later, because I didn't want to get involved in this kind of politics, the steel rolling mill's special task force handled it exclusively."

He paused, then continued, "As for Li Huaide's case, it was handled jointly by me and some departments in the city. His case file should still be there. He was dealt with for corruption. The specific reason was that I reported him, and then other departments followed up with the investigation, trial, and verdict. I don't think I did anything wrong, right?"

"You did absolutely nothing wrong with dealing with such corrupt officials. Every leading cadre has the obligation and responsibility to act as you did." The man nodded and then asked, "Could you tell me about the former vice minister of the Ministry of Metallurgy who committed suicide in your factory, and also about Director Yang of your steel rolling mill who passed away later?"

"I know all that you're talking about. I was very sorry about the death of that vice minister because these matters were handed over to Xu Damao, the head of the special task force at the time. When I heard the news of that leader's suicide, I was also very angry and expressed my dissatisfaction. I dealt with Xu Damao at that time, directly removed him from his position as head of the special task force, investigated other issues of his, and finally transferred him to the movie theater."

Li Jing'an took a sip of tea and continued, "As for Director Yang, I'm not very clear about that. I had already been transferred to the Ministry of Metallurgy at the time. I read the report back then, which said he was unwell and had suddenly fallen ill. As for whether it was related to work or something else, I don't know. Because he was also under the management of the special investigation team at the time, which was headed by his successor, Yi Zhonghai. You can ask him for details."

Li Jing'an answered fluently, completely absolving himself of any responsibility.

"Okay, then there's another question. From what we understand, there were always many students staying at your steel mill's No. 1 guesthouse at that time. What was going on?"

Hearing this question, Li Jing'an's face showed a hint of helplessness. He sighed and said, "I can only say that this was not what we wanted, and we had no choice. The main reason was that some students from surrounding cities came to Beijing to make connections, and they had nowhere to stay. I saw that they were so young and unfamiliar with the place, so out of compassion, I let them stay at the First Guesthouse. I didn't expect them to call on their friends and treat the guesthouse as their base camp. After that, it was full of them. At that time, the political climate was not right, so we couldn't do anything drastic to them, nor could we ask them to leave. So we were very helpless about this and could only let it be."

After Li Jing'an finished speaking, he shook his head with a wry smile, looking utterly absurd.

The person taking notes was writing furiously. Suddenly, a playful expression appeared on their face as they asked, "I heard that Leader Wei from the Municipal Party Committee is your father-in-law, is that true?"

"Yes," Li Jing'an nodded in reply.

"At that time, Leader Wei was severely criticized and struggled against. Those people..." The other person didn't finish speaking, but just looked at Li Jing'an.

Li Jing'an frowned and said, "I don't know. At the time, everyone was struggling to protect themselves. I didn't find out if it was those students in our guesthouse who did it, and I didn't dare to ask, for fear of getting myself into trouble."

"Then let me ask you, were those students who went to Dingling the same group who stayed at your steel mill's guesthouse?"

When Li Jing'an heard him steer the conversation towards Dingling, a weight was lifted from his heart. Since that was the topic, things were easier to handle; after all, he already had a plan.

"These are indeed the students staying at the guesthouse. I even arranged for a truck from the steel mill to take them to Dingling, and I went along myself." Li Jing'an had no intention of hiding anything and told the whole story directly.

Li Jing'an's generosity left the three people opposite him somewhat bewildered, and they exchanged glances.

Why?

When Li Jing'an heard the question, he suddenly gave a bitter smile: "Why? Because I can't stop it, so I can only go with the flow."

"Do you know how much damage you've caused to national cultural relics?"

"Of course I know, because those are national treasures! I even went there myself." Li Jing'an suddenly dropped a bombshell, catching the other person off guard. "But I secretly rescued the most important part of that batch from the Dingling Mausoleum."

"What?" The other person couldn't believe it and asked again.

"When they were discussing going to Dingling to destroy the Four Olds, I found out. I immediately felt it was very inappropriate. Those are priceless treasures, important material evidence and documents for studying past history. If these students were to destroy them like that, what would be left for future generations? They would only be able to see fragments and photos. So I made up my mind to help them. I used the steel mill's truck to send them there, and I even personally led the people from our factory's security department. I said I was going to participate, but actually I went to rescue the cultural relics. At that time, they were going to hold a denunciation meeting in the square outside the gate with the coffins of the emperor and empress. I took advantage of this opportunity to load all the more important and larger cultural relics onto the truck and then took them to the steel mill's warehouse. They have been there ever since and have never been opened again."

"Minister Li, as far as I know, you did indeed store cultural relics in your warehouse at the time. I heard that they were stored together with cultural relics from the street, and those cultural relics were eventually taken away and destroyed, right?" the other party asked with a frown.

"Hehe, what was destroyed were the things confiscated from Liu Haizhong's home by the street's propaganda team. Since the street didn't have a dedicated warehouse, they were all stored at the steel rolling mill. So when the street wanted to destroy these items, I couldn't refuse, and I could only let Liu Haizhong take them away. I remember that the unified destruction of the Four Olds caused a huge uproar at the time, and it was presided over by Liu Haizhong. Almost everyone from his street was there. You'll know about this if you ask around. But the things from Dingling didn't belong to the street, so I didn't let him take them away. They stayed in the warehouse and were well preserved."

The three men bowed their heads and exchanged opinions for a moment, then stood up and extended their hands. Li Jing'an quickly stood up as well and shook hands with each of them in turn.

The leader of the group said, "Excuse me, Minister Li, we're sorry to have disturbed your work. We will verify all the information you provided. We hope this hasn't caused you any trouble."

"Hahaha, I, Li Jing'an, have always acted with integrity and honesty. I'm not afraid of anyone investigating me. On the contrary, I think it's good that they investigate, so that others can see clearly what kind of person I, Li Jing'an, am. After all, black can't be white, and white can't be black."