Me! A high-ranking official!

As drowsiness gradually crept in, he casually tossed his phone onto the pillow, turned off the light, and closed his eyes.

Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly heard a very faint rustling sound outside the door.

It was as if someone was gently prying the lock with something. If it were an ordinary person, they might just think it was the sound of the wind or a night owl scratching at the door, but Zhao Jianguo, who had been transformed by the treasure bowl, instantly woke up and opened his eyes.

A very slight, crisp "click" sound.

The door was gently pushed open.

A cool night breeze slipped into the room through the crack in the door. He didn't move, but squinted his eyes and looked out in the pale moonlight.

A slightly hunched dark figure crept in, and although the light was dim, his heart skipped a beat just from the silhouette.

Luo Ming?

It was Luo Ming!

What sent a chill down Zhao Jianguo's spine was that Luo Ming was tightly gripping a gleaming kitchen knife in his hand.

Like a wandering ghost, Luo Ming slowly and heavily groped his way toward his bedside under the moonlight.

His heart sank, and even his breathing slowed down instinctively. It seemed that the reprimand he had given the old man during the day had not only failed to make him repent, but had instead driven him to another extreme. Luo Ming was determined to die with him, wanting to kill him in order to secure that tiny chance of survival for his son, Luo Zhiyong!

He remained outwardly motionless, but his muscles were already subtly tense, poised to strike, silently watching Luo Ming approach.

Luo Ming stood at the head of the bed, breathing heavily, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably. He slowly raised the kitchen knife in his hand, holding it high above his head.

One slash and a life is lost.

However, the cleaver, held high in the air, remained suspended for a full half-day without falling.

By the moonlight, Zhao Jianguo could clearly see Luo Ming's face, which was extremely distorted due to excessive tension and turmoil. His old face was covered with beads of sweat, and his eyes revealed madness and despair, yet also a trace of cowardice that was hard to conceal.

He sighed inwardly.

It's truly both hateful and pitiful how parents can be so devoted to their children. For the sake of his good-for-nothing son who committed a heinous crime, Luo Ming has exhausted all moral boundaries, even daring to take up a knife himself to commit murder.

Seeing Luo Ming raise his hand and stand at the head of the bed for three or four minutes, he hesitated to bring himself to strike, and even the hand holding the knife began to tremble and lose strength.

He finally couldn't stand it any longer. Stop pretending to be asleep and coldly broke the silence in the darkness: "Are you going to cut or not?"

This sudden question was like a thunderclap in the quiet night!

Luo Ming's already taut nerves instantly collapsed. He screamed "Ah!" as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight, so frightened that his soul almost left his hand. He turned around and scrambled out of the door!

He sat up abruptly, switched on the bedside lamp, looked at the empty night outside the door, rubbed his temples wearily, and pondered the matter in his mind. There were surveillance cameras in the village committee compound, and even if there weren't any in the house, as long as he called the police now, with the footage of Luo Ming breaking in with a knife on the surveillance cameras, the evidence would be conclusive, and that old man would definitely be in deep trouble and would go straight to jail.

Luo Ming dared to do this because he clearly had no way out for himself and was prepared to die together with him!

Just as he was hesitating whether to call the police, he suddenly heard stumbling footsteps coming from the yard again.

Looking up, they saw Luo Ming, who had just fled in panic, now stumbling back like a lost soul.

The kitchen knife was gone, probably thrown outside. Luo Ming stood blankly at the door, his eyes bloodshot, staring silently at the man sitting on the bed.

Suddenly, Luo Ming's knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the hard cement threshold with a "thud." Then, as if all his bones had been emptied, he collapsed to the ground and began to wail without any regard for his image, his cries filled with suffocating despair.

He frowned slightly, put on his coat, stood up, and walked over to him, looking down at him: "I understand your thinking. You were indeed desperate, but you should be glad you stopped at the last moment. Otherwise, the nature of the matter would have been completely different. Not only would you be going to jail for attempted murder, but you would have also cut off Luo Zhiyong's last chance to live!"

"Secretary...Secretary Zhao, I'm not human! I was truly bewitched!" Luo Ming cried hoarsely, his face covered in tears and snot. "Please, just pretend you didn't see anything and release Zhiyong! If you agree, I, Luo Ming, will serve you like a slave for the rest of my life. I'll do whatever you ask. I beg you, I'm willing to repay your great kindness for the rest of my life!"

"Stop with the nonsense." He interrupted the other person without any mercy: "I already made myself clear during the day, this matter is not up for discussion."

"The only thing you can do now is to quickly call Luo Zhiyong back to turn himself in and try to get leniency from the police. This is the last bit of face I can leave for your Luo family. As long as he turns himself in, even the matter of you breaking into my house with a knife tonight can be pretended never happened, and I won't pursue it at all!"

Upon hearing these words, which sounded like a final verdict, Luo Ming was filled with despair. He went mad and banged his forehead against the ground repeatedly.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The dull thud of kowtows echoed in the night, and soon the skin on his forehead was broken and blood seeped out.

"Please, Secretary, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have done things for Luo Shuishan, I shouldn't have come to you in the middle of the night... Please give me a way out... Please give Zhiyong a way out!"

"Director Luo Ming." He sighed and turned around wearily. "As a father, I understand your feelings and I sympathize with you, but I still stand by what I always say: a country has its laws, and a family has its rules."

"Even if we take a step back and say that this blood debt is owed to Wang Xiujuan and Luo Haitao, I am at most an outsider village cadre. I have no right or qualification to say a word of forgiveness on behalf of that unfortunate couple."

Luo Ming lay on the ground, convulsing and sobbing uncontrollably.

After a long stalemate, the night wind dried her tears, and she finally realized that the young man before her was an unyielding rock, impervious to both soft and hard approaches. Neither money, threats, nor tears could change him.

He slowly stopped kowtowing, numbly got up from the ground, wiped the tears and blood from his face with his mud-covered sleeve, and staggered into the darkness like a walking corpse.