Nominal: Starting with an entrance exam for a PhD in Economics at Peking University

“But… then I’ll become a traitor to the entire Han Dong officialdom.” He finally said it, his voice hoarse, “I won’t even be able to carry out my work.”

Zhong Xiaoai didn't speak immediately. She picked up her cup and took another sip, as if she was organizing her thoughts.

It started to drizzle outside sometime during the day, and the raindrops made a soft, pattering sound as they hit the windowpane.

“Dad said that there’s no hope for you to advance further in Handong,” she said. “When the leadership changes next year, he’ll let you go back to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate to study theory.”

Hou Liangping's body stiffened slightly.

He didn't speak, but Zhong Xiaoai could tell that his words were like something falling from a great height, hitting him and forcing him to bear its weight.

“Dad also said,” Zhong Xiaoai continued, her tone flat as if she were talking about something very ordinary, “that with your personality, there will probably still be problems after he retires.”

Hou Liangping looked up at her, his eyes filled with anger, grievance, and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"So he gave up on me?" he asked.

“He hasn’t given up on you.” Zhong Xiaoai shook her head. “He’s finding you a way out. The research office at the Supreme People’s Procuratorate isn’t an exile; it’s a soft landing.”

"A soft landing," Hou Liangping repeated, his tone bitter. "How old am I this year?"

“I know.” Zhong Xiaoai’s voice softened a little, “But Liangping, Dad gave you a chance, but you couldn’t seize it.”

Hou Liangping remained silent for a long time.

The sound of rain was intermittent.

A corner of a cushion was pressed down on the sofa. Hou Liangping reached out and pulled it out, clutching it in his hand, head down, like a big boy.

Suddenly, he looked up and said, "I'm handing over Ouyang Jing's case to you. If I uncover a major case involving a vice-ministerial level official, won't you be able to advance your career?"

Zhong Xiaoai's heart tightened, but she didn't intend to hide it anyway, and she couldn't hide it. She nodded: "Yes."

Hou Liangping chuckled self-deprecatingly: "That's true. I'm just a useless piece of trash anyway, so don't worry about whether I live or die. Just consider it a waste to be put to good use."

Zhong Xiaoai looked at him, and something in her heart softened. But she still calmly said, "This is our optimal solution."

Hou Liangping: "But that was my worst possible solution."

Zhong Xiaoai: "But your current situation is a choice you made yourself. When you came down, I repeatedly told you to follow the rules and procedures. Did you do that?"

Hou Liangping remained silent for a long time. "Then what should I do?" he finally asked, his tone no longer defiant, but filled with a very real sense of confusion.

"First, make sure Ouyang Jing's information is solid," she said. "Don't create any more complications, don't overstep your authority, secure all the necessary evidence, complete all the procedures, and hand it over to the inspection team."

"and then?"

"Then, listen to Dad, go back to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and stay there. Haoran will be starting junior high school soon." Zhong Xiaoai's voice was very soft.

Hou Liangping didn't speak, but he was thinking.

He seemed to hear his father-in-law on the phone, speaking in a nonchalant tone, clearly outlining his future, a calmness that chilled him to the bone.

"Dad gave up on me." He said it again, his voice low.

“He didn’t give up.” Zhong Xiaoai squeezed his hand. “He just arranged a path that’s more suitable for you.”

Hou Liangping smiled bitterly and said, "Is it suitable?"

Zhong Xiaoai nodded firmly: "It suits you, it's just that you don't like it."

Hou Liangping fell silent again. He had been silent many times tonight, which didn't fit his nickname "Monkey."

Then he said, "Since Qi Tongwei is afraid of getting involved in this matter, can we frame him? Then we can give Li Dakang a hand, and maybe that way I can gain Sha Ruijin's trust."

Zhong Xiaoai: "No, at their level, everyone is suspicious of everything. Even if we do nothing, Sha Ruijin will still be suspicious of Qi Tongwei, but suspicion won't make Sha Ruijin take any action against Qi Tongwei. His status is different from ours. And if we frame Qi Tongwei but don't have any evidence, it will actually clear his name."

"More importantly, as an inspection team member, I can handle cases impartially, and it's not up to me to decide who gets preferential treatment."

Hou Liangping looked up at her, then changed the subject: "How's Haoran doing lately?"

Zhong Xiaoai was taken aback, then remembered what her father had said and laughed: "He took the exam, got a perfect score in Chinese and 98 in math, but changed the correct answer and regretted it so much that he couldn't even enjoy his chicken leg."

Hou Liangping paused for a second, then smiled—a genuine, relaxed smile: "This child takes after me."

"Just like you?" Zhong Xiaoai looked at him. "Like you in what way?"

"Trying to be clever only makes things worse," Hou Liangping said, his tone tinged with self-deprecation.

“Xiao Ai, I know that handing over Ouyang Jing and Li Dakang to you is the best solution, but I still feel uneasy. Can you not handle this case?”

Zhong Xiaoai said firmly, "No, this case is the most suitable and the easiest. Moreover, when the inspection team comes to Handong, we can't make too big a move. We also have to consider the impact. This might be the only big fish we can catch."

Hou Liangping looked at his wife and smiled, "Yes."

"I was just kidding."

Chapter 140 Interrogation of Ouyang Jing (Part 1)

The interrogation room was on the second floor, one of the innermost rooms.

The room was small, with white walls, a long table, and a few chairs.

The curtains were drawn two-thirds closed, letting in diffused light that was neither focused nor warm. There were only two things on the table: a stack of white paper and two pens.

There was no recorder, no camera, and no machine sound.

Zhong Xiaoai arrived ten minutes early, placed the folder on her left, glanced through the materials, then closed it, sat up straight, and waited for someone.

When Ouyang Jing was brought in, she was more presentable than Zhong Xiaoai had expected.

During her detention, her hair was still neatly tucked behind her ears, and she wore the same dark blue suit she was dressed in on the day she was arrested. It was a little wrinkled, but you could tell she had stretched it out. When she entered the room, she first scanned the room, making sure she saw every corner before sitting down in the chair opposite her.

My back wasn't fully against the chair back; I kept it upright, leaving about three-tenths of a distance between me and the chair.

Zhong Xiaoai had seen this posture many times. It wasn't nervousness, but defensiveness, a sense of dignity—the last shell a woman who had wielded power within the system for over twenty years was leaving for herself.

Ouyang Jing looked around, her gaze lingering on the white paper and pen on the table before settling on Zhong Xiaoai's face.

The woman opposite her was younger, with short hair, no makeup, and wearing inexpensive clothes. She didn't put on any airs and just sat there calmly.

Ouyang Jing slightly raised her chin, subtly weighing the person in her mind.

Zhong Xiaoai didn't give her a chance to weigh the options.

She pushed the stack of white paper and a pen toward Ouyang Jing, and began to speak in a calm tone, as if assigning a routine task: "I am Zhong Xiaoai from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's Handong Inspection Team, and I am in charge of today's interview. Ouyang Jing, write down your dealings with Cai Chenggong. The time, place, amount, method, and witnesses."

Ouyang Jing glanced down at the blank sheet of paper, then looked up, a faint smile playing on her lips.

She spoke in the tone a vice president often used when receiving a subordinate branch manager, saying casually, "Director Zhong, I don't quite understand what you mean by 'interactions.' My relationship with Cai Chenggong is a normal banking business relationship."

“Then write down all the normal business transactions.” Zhong Xiaoai’s tone remained unchanged. “When did it start? When was the first loan approved? In what setting did you first meet? Write it down.”

Ouyang Jing was silent for a moment, then picked up a pen, wrote a few lines on the paper, put it down, and gently pushed it towards Zhong Xiaoai. The movement had a nonchalant ease, as if she were simply going through the motions.

Zhong Xiaoai took it, read it carefully, and then looked up: "What you wrote was the first contact in March 2014, in the bank's conference room, with Wang, the director of the credit department, and Zhang, the risk control manager, present."

"Correct."

“But according to the information we have, Cai Chenggong’s company had contact with your bank in October 2013, and you were the one who received them at that time.”

Ouyang Jing's eyes flickered, but she quickly regained her composure and spoke in a steady tone: "The one in 2013 was an initial consultation, not a formal interaction. I'm used to counting from the time of formal contact, so I remembered it as 2014."

"You remembered it wrong?"

"I remembered it wrong."

“Write down what happened in October 2013 as well, including the time, place, and people present.” Zhong Xiaoai pushed the paper back.

Ouyang Jing took it, wrote a few lines, and pushed it back.

Zhong Xiaoai looked at it and asked again, "You wrote that only you and Cai Chenggong were present. But you just said that 2013 was the preliminary consultation. In the preliminary consultation, the bank's vice president would meet with the client alone, and no other staff members would be present?"

Ouyang Jing paused for a moment: "That time was more casual, it was at a restaurant, not a formal occasion."

“Restaurant,” Zhong Xiaoai repeated the word, slowing down her pace, “Which restaurant?”

"I don't remember very clearly, but it was in Jingzhou, near the administrative center."

"Which street is it?"

"...I really can't remember."

"Besides the two of you, is there anyone else here?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"determine."

“Okay.” Zhong Xiaoai made a note, turned to a new page, and pushed the paper over. “Then write down the general content of that dinner party, what we talked about, how long it lasted, and who suggested meeting first.”

Ouyang Jing picked up her pen, wrote a few sentences, then stopped, her tone carrying a hint of impatience: "Director Zhong, I really can't remember these details; they happened four or five years ago."

"It's okay, write down as much as you can remember, even if it's just one sentence."

Ouyang Jing wrote a sentence and pushed it over.

After reading it, Zhong Xiaoai was silent for a few seconds before speaking: "You wrote that he contacted you first. But we got his phone call records from that time, and it was you who called him first that time."

Ouyang Jing pressed her finger on the table, then released it, her voice still steady: "I might be mistaken, it's been so long."

“I made a mistake the third time,” Zhong Xiaoai said, her tone devoid of accusation, simply stating the facts. “It’s okay. Write down the correct version. You were the one who contacted him first. Write down why.”

Ouyang Jing took the paper, lowered her head, and held the pen in her hand, which remained suspended on the paper.

This conversation lasted for nearly three hours.

The paper is pushed over, then pushed back, then pushed over again.

Every time Ouyang Jing wrote something down, Zhong Xiaoai would raise questions from another angle. If there were any inconsistencies, she would be asked to explain them. After explaining, she would write again, and then Zhong Xiaoai would ask questions again.

Ouyang Jing's dignity was quickly worn away by this pace.

She started by writing very little, and later she would stop after writing only one or two words, put the pen down on the paper, look up at Zhong Xiaoai, and ask with a forced sense of composure: "Director Zhong, what exactly do you want me to write?"

Write down the truth.

"What I wrote is the truth."

"Then why doesn't it match the information we have?"

Ouyang Jing took a deep breath, placed the pen horizontally on the table, and stopped touching it. Her posture was no longer as upright as before, but her voice remained calm: "I'm tired, I need to rest."

"Once everything is explained clearly, you can rest naturally."