Me! A high-ranking official!

Luo Ming's mouth, which he had wanted to retort, was sealed shut as if by a lump of cold mud. The color drained from his face at a visible speed, and his whole body began to tremble violently uncontrollably.

He understood; he finally fully grasped Luo Shuishan's implication.

That's the case of Wang Xiujuan, Luo Jiahai's daughter-in-law! Five years ago, it was his beastly son, Luo Zhiyong, who raped her while drunk, driving her insane. Back then, if Luo Shuishan hadn't stepped in and used his power as the village secretary to force Old Luo to give 50,000 yuan to change his story and commit perjury, his son Luo Zhiyong would have been arrested and imprisoned long ago!

That was a death scythe hanging over the heads of his entire family!

Luo Shuishan's meaning couldn't be clearer: if Luo Ming dares not take the blame today, not only will he lose this respectable accounting job, but if Luo Shuishan turns around and digs up old accounts from back then and loosens his grip even slightly, Luo Ming's son's life will be completely ruined, and his whole family will be doomed!

A deathly, oppressive silence followed.

Luo Ming knelt on the muddy ground, the light in his eyes gradually fading, eventually turning into endless chill and despair.

He bit his lip until it bled, and tears streamed down his face, landing on his dusty shoes.

He slowly lowered his head, and said in a hoarse voice, as if resigned, "I...I'm sorry, Village Chief Shuishan...It was me, I was unhappy to see Secretary Zhao showing off...I paid for it myself, and did it in your name privately...I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Hearing Luo Ming personally take all the blame, Luo Shuishan's tense back finally relaxed, and his heart, which had been hanging in mid-air and almost exploded, finally settled back into his stomach.

But he still had to keep up the act. Luo Shuishan immediately put on a heartbroken expression, pointing at Luo Ming with anger and despair, and said in a sorrowful voice, "How could you be so foolish! You've done such a wicked thing, how am I supposed to explain this to the whole village! You... sigh!! You've really broken my heart!!"

The elderly people watching nearby were also confused by the sudden turn of events.

The old woman stared blankly at Luo Ming, who was breaking down in tears, and asked in surprise, "Really...really it wasn't the village chief of Shuishan who sent you to find us? Then...what about the 300 yuan per person that Secretary Zhao mentioned...what exactly happened?"

Luo Ming lowered his head, gritted his teeth, and remained silent. He knew that from today onwards, he had become a universally condemned rat in Luo Family Village. He was too ashamed to stay in the mud slab factory any longer. The thought of carrying such a huge burden of blame made his tears of grievance flow uncontrollably.

At this moment, one of the elderly men who had been shrewdly calculating finally realized what was happening.

The old man glanced at Zhao Jianguo, who had been sneering silently to the side, and then at Luo Shuishan, and suddenly realized what was going on!

There was no three hundred yuan at all! And there was no one hundred yuan that was withheld!

From beginning to end, that was just a single sentence Zhao Jianguo used to incite anger! This new secretary, without firing a single shot, tricked these old hands into believing him with just one sentence, turning them into pawns and using them to storm the village chief's mud-brick factory headquarters, stirring up all the trouble behind the scenes!

"Ahem... um..." The old man's face instantly turned red to the roots of his neck. He felt like he had been made a fool of, and he was so embarrassed that he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

He tugged at the sleeve of the elderly woman next to him who was still asking questions, and said in a low, angry voice, "Stop yelling! Just leave! Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough already!"

The old men exchanged glances and realized what was going on. They, like a bunch of old sparrows, dared not linger in this grove where the gods were fighting. No one mentioned the three hundred or two hundred yuan anymore. They hung their heads and slunk away along the wall, faster than rabbits.

Zhao Jianguo crossed his arms and looked down at Luo Ming, who was sitting on the ground, his face ashen, with a mocking smile on his lips.

He knew that Luo Ming wasn't inherently bad; at most, he was just a snob who relied on Luo Shuishan's power. The reason he was willing to take such a huge blame today was purely because he was ruined by his good-for-nothing son. Luo Shuishan held his most fatal weakness, and he dared not disobey.

However, Zhao Jianguo felt no sympathy whatsoever.

No snowflake is innocent in an avalanche. You, Luo Ming, watched helplessly as your son raped and drove someone insane in order to protect your own son. You even cooperated with Luo Shuishan to give false testimony and bribe people to cover up the crime. Party discipline, national law, and moral principles cannot be violated.

Today, you've fallen to this state, becoming a scapegoat and being trampled underfoot. This is nothing more than the retribution you, Luo Ming, deserve for your own actions and for aiding and abetting evil!

"Village Chief Shuishan." Zhao Jianguo put away his sneer, strode forward, and patted Luo Shuishan on the shoulder in full view of everyone. His tone was full of authority and admonition: "Now that the matter has been investigated and it is Director Luo's personal moral decline and the absurd thing he did, then I will not pursue the issue of your poor teaching. However, the village cannot tolerate such a destructive village cadre."

He raised his voice and gave the order directly: "When I get back today, I will write a report to the town's discipline inspection commission about this egregious incident. I also hope that Village Chief Luo can personally inform everyone of the results of the handling during tonight's live broadcast of 'People's Talk,' and clean up the village committee."

After saying that, Zhao Jianguo straightened his collar, didn't even glance at Luo Ming lying on the ground again, pushed his electric scooter, and walked out of the mud board factory gate with great momentum under the watchful eyes of all the factory workers.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Zhao Jianguo woke up.

After washing up, the first thing he did was turn on his phone and send a long message in the "Luo Family Village - A Loving Family" WeChat group:

"Good morning, fellow villagers! I am Zhao Jianguo, the village's resident secretary. Tonight at 8 PM, I will be starting our second live broadcast of 'People's Voices' from the village committee. In tonight's broadcast, I will first give you a detailed report and breakdown of the progress of various tasks in our village over the past week. Secondly, I will also plan out several key tasks that our village will focus on in the coming week and in the short term. These are matters of vital interest to every household, so I hope that after dinner tonight, everyone will actively participate in the discussion in the live broadcast room and offer your valuable suggestions!"

After sending the message, he quickly ate a bite of breakfast and went out to get busy.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the roar of a car engine suddenly came from the quiet dirt road in the village.