Me! A high-ranking official!

Hearing about the progress, he laughed with satisfaction, his gloom from the evening vanishing: "Well done! That's fast! Speed ​​is of the essence in war."

"Now that we have a teacher and the classroom is ready, our makeshift team is officially set up! Tomorrow at daybreak, our next step is to officially announce to the whole village that we're starting to recruit students!"

After chatting with Li Gan for a few minutes and telling him and Xiuxiu to go and rest, he went to the tap to wash up. As he was drying his face, he pushed open the door of the prefab house, ready to lie down. Just then, Li Gan suddenly burst through the door like a gust of wind, holding his phone and shouting excitedly, "Brother Zhao! Look! Something terrible has happened at the Culture and Tourism Bureau!"

His heart skipped a beat, and his brows furrowed instantly. What could possibly go wrong at the Bureau of Culture and Tourism?

Taking the phone from Li Gan, his gaze swept across the screen to the urgent text message that had just been pushed out. The bold, black text read: "Breaking News! A building collapsed during renovations at an immersive ancient-style experience project in Linshui County, resulting in the immediate death of one worker and serious injury to another!"

Upon seeing this news, his heart skipped a beat.

The ancient style experience project in Xiaozhai Village was the first key plan he had proposed to the bureau! According to the county's strict order, the renovation had to be completed within two months. Now, the project had only been under construction for twenty days when a major safety accident involving lives and property occurred!

"This is utterly ridiculous!" he cursed inwardly. When the investment group started construction, didn't they even conduct the most basic on-site geological and structural surveys? How could they allow a dangerous building to collapse and cause such a tragic accident that killed people!

At this critical juncture, with such an incident occurring, the Director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, as the project's leading unit, Zhang Baocheng, is absolutely culpable and must bear significant leadership responsibility!

Looking at Li Gan, who was beaming with excitement, he frowned in surprise: "What are you happy about? Someone died!"

Li Gan exclaimed excitedly, "Brother Zhao, I'm so happy for you! Those damn leaders in the Culture and Tourism Bureau were always making things difficult for you, and now that you've made such a huge mess, that old fox Zhang Baocheng is definitely going to be in big trouble. Isn't this karma?"

"People have died, that's a living, breathing human life! What's there to be happy about!" he scolded.

Li Gan was taken aback by the scolding, scratched his head awkwardly, gave a dry laugh, and dared not say another word.

After returning the phone to him, he couldn't help but feel a chill of fear. He was now a village-based cadre assigned to the countryside, and legally speaking, the mess in the bureau had nothing to do with him anymore.

Is this a misfortune or a stroke of luck? If he hadn't been ostracized and had successfully secured the position of head of the leading department, he, as the department head, would definitely have been made the scapegoat for tonight's building collapse that killed people! He could have been demoted to the lowest level or even faced imprisonment!

Seeing that Li Gan was still standing there dumbfounded, he waved his hand and said, "Alright, hurry up and go back to your room to sleep! There's a ton of work to be done in the village tomorrow."

After seeing Li Gan off, he took out his phone and quickly scrolled through the various work groups in the county.

Sure enough, all the groups were in an uproar, and the internal group of the Culture and Tourism Bureau was in a state of panic. Guo Tao, the office director, had issued three emergency notices, requiring all middle-level cadres to return to the bureau immediately for a meeting.

Someone in the group quietly posted a few photos of the scene. In the pictures, an old brick and wood structure house was completely reduced to ruins. The area was cordoned off, and firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and nearby villagers were crowding around it. Several rescuers were carrying a worker covered in blood and unconscious from the rubble. The scene was shocking.

He sighed deeply, locked his phone screen, and was just about to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

"Buzz...buzz...buzz..." His phone suddenly started vibrating wildly. He picked it up and saw that the caller ID was Zhou Qingyan!

A strong sense of unease welled up inside him, and he immediately pressed the answer button.

As soon as the call connected, Zhou Qingyan's extremely weak voice, accompanied by painful gasps, came through the receiver: "Jianguo... I was in a car accident on my way back... on the highway from Xinyang City back to the county... it should be within Yueqian County."

He was instantly startled, and sprang out of bed like a spring! He asked in shock, "You were in a car accident?! How are you? Has the ambulance arrived yet?!"

Zhou Qingyan groaned in pain on the other end of the phone, her voice broken and strained, yet filled with a deathly stillness: "My ribs are broken... My stomach... It's bleeding... Come... Please don't alert anyone else..."

The words "bleeding from the stomach" were like a cold, sharp knife piercing his heart.

Although he had long known that the child in Zhou Qingyan's womb was destined to die, and that their marriage was originally a sham, as a man, he still found it hard to accept when such a tragic accident actually happened before his eyes!

"Hold on! Don't fall asleep! I'm coming right now!" he yelled into the phone, grabbed the trousers draped over the chair and haphazardly pulled them on, then grabbed the car keys from the table and rushed out.

"Don't alert anyone..." Zhou Qingyan whispered again, using the last of her strength.

As he passed Li Gan's makeshift house, he kicked the door open and yelled inside, "Ganzi! I have an extremely urgent matter to attend to, and I might not be back for the next couple of days! Tomorrow, tell Luo Ming and Zhu Yan that everything in the village is proceeding as planned. If anything happens, call me!"

Before Li Gan could even wake up from his dream and respond, he had already rushed into the yard, opened the SUV door, and with a fierce roar of the engine, the car sped into the darkness like an enraged beast.

The county road was deserted at midnight.

His face was grim, and he floored the accelerator, speeding the car up to 120 miles per hour!

A cold wind blew in through the cracks in the car window, slowly calming him down. A sense of surprise and fear gradually surfaced in his mind. What a coincidence! This was far too much of a coincidence!

In the evening, Zhou Qingyan's mother, Xu Mu, the mayor of Beicang, had just been involved in a serious car accident on the highway. As a result, Zhou Qingyan was also involved in a car accident on her way back that night!

Isn't this a natural disaster, but a man-made one? Could it really be the work of Xu Mu's political enemies? Did they intend to wipe out the mother and daughter? Or was it the work of that powerful second-generation official who had been relentlessly pursuing Zhou Qingyan, driven by love turned to hate?

He quickly reviewed the situation in his mind. Zhou Qingyan must have rushed back to the county overnight because he learned about the fatal accident at the Cultural and Tourism Bureau construction site and was in a hurry to deal with the crisis. This gave the mastermind the opportunity to create an accident on the highway!

According to the location sent by Zhou Qingyan via WeChat, it was a full 200 kilometers away from Luojia Village.

As soon as the car entered the highway tollbooth, he floored the accelerator, and the speedometer instantly soared to 180 mph! The entire car was like a black phantom flying close to the ground, tearing through the gale-force winds in the night.