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

Liang Jin's expression turned very ugly.

"Thirty years west of the river, thirty years east of the river." Liang Qunfeng's voice became somewhat ethereal, as if he were talking to himself, "Never underestimate a young man's potential..."

The room was extremely quiet.

“Back then, you suppressed him and set traps to harm him, and I didn’t care,” Liang Qunfeng said in an old and hoarse voice. “It’s not because I didn’t know, but because I thought a young man without a background couldn’t cause any trouble. But now? He’s turned the tables.”

He turned his head and looked out the window. The sycamore trees outside were bare, their branches intertwined like a tattered net.

"He didn't come back this time to reminisce. He came to settle scores."

Liang Yu finally spoke, her voice trembling slightly: "Dad, what should we do?"

Liang Qunfeng remained silent for a long time.

Then he slowly turned his head, looked at the three children, and said, word by word:

"Cooperate actively, confess and you'll be treated leniently, just accept your fate."

The three words struck the hearts of the three people like three heavy hammer blows.

Liang Jin suddenly stood up: "Dad! How can you accept your fate? I... I still have a chance... I can find someone... I can..."

"What opportunity?" Liang Qunfeng's voice suddenly turned stern, his gaze sharp as a knife. "Trying to pull strings? Transferring assets? Destroying evidence? Do you think the Discipline Inspection Commission is just sitting around doing nothing? Do you think the Discipline Inspection Commission didn't detain you because they're giving you this opportunity?"

Liang Jin was speechless, standing there, her lips trembling, unable to utter a word.

“Throughout my life,” Liang Qunfeng’s voice lowered again, carrying a sense of desolation in his twilight years, “I’ve seen too many people struggle at the last moment. The more they struggle, the more tragically they die. Why? Because they always think they still have a chance, always think someone will come to save them. But in the end, who comes?”

He closed his eyes.

"No one is coming."

Silence fell over the room. Only the clock on the wall ticked away.

Liang Jin sat on the sofa, his hands covering his head, his shoulders shaking violently. Last night he had tried countless methods—pulling strings, transferring assets, destroying evidence—but every avenue was blocked.

He was like a fish trapped in a net; the more he struggled, the tighter the net tightened.

“And you,” Liang Qunfeng said, looking at Liang Lu, “Xiao Gangyu is not a good match. He will definitely turn on you. You don’t have any children to hold you back. Get a divorce and leave each other with some dignity. That way, he won’t bite back at us.”

Liang Lu lowered her head, avoiding her father's eyes.

Liang Yu's tears finally flowed. He squatted in front of the wheelchair, held his father's hand, and wept silently.

"Dad," his voice choked with emotion, "I'm really scared..."

Liang Qunfeng gently patted his hand, as if to comfort him, or as if to say goodbye.

"What's there to be afraid of?" His voice was very soft. "What's meant to come will come. There's no escaping it."

He looked at Liang Jin: "Your company, those lands, those sums of money, pay them all. Don't try to hide them. You can't hide them."

Liang Jin nodded silently, but a trace of resentment still lingered in her eyes.

“Dad, some of that money…it’s not just mine…” he tried to explain.

“If it’s not yours, you shouldn’t keep it.” Liang Qunfeng interrupted him. “Do you think you’ll be fine if you distribute the money? If those people take your money and something happens, you’ll be the first one they implicate.”

Liang Jin's body trembled. He knew his father was right, but he was unwilling to accept it. That money, that land, represented over a decade of his hard work, his livelihood for the rest of his life. To have to hand it all over was worse than death.

“Dad…” his voice was hoarse, “Can I…”

"No." Liang Qunfeng's voice was soft but firm. "There is no room for negotiation."

Liang Jin closed her eyes. Two streams of tears slid down her cheeks.

The four remained silent for a long time.

"Dad..." Liang Lu began, her voice soft, as soft as a leaf in the wind, "Are you really abandoning us?"

Liang Qunfeng looked at him with heartache, helplessness, and something indescribable, almost fatalistic.

“It’s not that I don’t care about you,” he said softly, “it’s that I can’t.”

“You are completely unaware of the brutality of the struggle, and you have no idea of ​​Qi Tongwei’s future power in the province.”

He leaned back in his wheelchair, looking out at the sky. The sky was so blue, almost unreal.

A bird flew past the window and quickly disappeared into the distant woods.

“Go,” he said. “Confess everything you need to. Be polite and try to get leniency.”

The three siblings stood there, motionless.

"Go ahead," Liang Qunfeng said again, his voice weary. "I'm tired."

Liang Jin and Liang Yu got up and helped each other leave.

Liang Lu finally moved. She bowed deeply, then turned and slowly walked out. When she reached the door, she stopped and turned back.

“Dad,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

Liang Qunfeng didn't speak, but just silently watched the three siblings.

The door closed.

Liang Qunfeng was the only one left in the room.

He suddenly remembered something from many years ago.

Back then, he was young and working as a county party secretary at the grassroots level. Once, he dealt with a young cadre who had made a mistake. The man's father came to him, knelt before him, and begged him to spare his son.

He did not agree.

The father knelt at the entrance of the county government compound again and was taken away by staff.

Later, he knelt down at the entrance of the county committee dormitory.

He was finally moved and, within the limits of the rules, treated the case leniently.

He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

The world is a cycle; now his child is making mistakes too. Is there anything he needs to do?

He called over the caregiver, Xiao Wang, who pushed him to the toilet and helped him sit on the toilet.

Xiao Wang then left and closed the door.

Liang Qunfeng touched his shirt pocket; there was a handkerchief inside. It was prepared for him by his wife and the mother of his three siblings, and he had kept it with him ever since his wife passed away.

Now, inside this handkerchief, there are quietly more than twenty sleeping pills.

From the moment Qi Tongwei was transferred to Handong, he secretly saved his sleeping pills, which he usually used to help him sleep, all for this day.

Liang Jin and his group might have a侥幸心理 (a sense of wishful thinking), but Liang Qunfeng wouldn't.

As for the Liang family's matter, kowtowing to Qi Tongwei would only solve the problem temporarily, and might even provoke Qi Tongwei's more intense retaliation. Besides, he really couldn't bear the shame of losing face.

He's 84 this year. Even if he passes away now, wouldn't it be a worthwhile endeavor?

right!

For the sake of the children, my wife probably feels the same way.

He opened the handkerchief.

……

Splash—

"Xiao Wang, come here for a second. My handkerchief fell into the toilet and it's clogged. Can you get someone to fix it?"

I'm getting old, useless now, Parkinson's, and I dropped my sleeping pills and handkerchief down the toilet together.

It's not that I'm afraid of death, old woman, you'll forgive me, right?

You probably will; you'll always forgive me.

……

……

……

As the saying goes: children and grandchildren have their own blessings.

I haven't lived enough yet.

Chapter 179 Birds of a Feather

When I came out of the sanatorium, the sun was still blinding.

The three cars were parked in the parking lot at the entrance. No one spoke, and each started their car and drove away.

Liang Lu was the last to come out. She stood at the door, watching her two brothers' cars disappear in two different directions, and stood there for a long time.

Then she walked to her car—a red BMW Mini.

Small, exquisite, and understated, but those in the know can immediately tell it's not cheap. Just like herself.

She got in the car, fastened her seatbelt, and started the engine. The Mini sped out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

The sanatorium was located in the suburbs, and the road back to the city was a two-way, four-lane avenue. Streetlights shone one after another, illuminating the road brightly. Liang Lu drove slowly, at 60 mph, steadily in the middle lane.

The car was quiet. She didn't turn on the radio or play any music. She needed quiet, she needed to think about things.

But her mind was blank. It wasn't that she didn't want to think about it, but that she dared not. Just thinking of Liang Yu's ashen face, of Liang Jin's head bowed, avoiding eye contact, of her father's calm, almost cold tone when he said, "Accept your fate," made her feel a tightness in her chest, and she couldn't breathe.

She took a deep breath and rolled down the car window a crack.

She suddenly remembered many years ago, when her father was still in power. At that time, the three siblings gathered together for the New Year. Liang Jin, drunk, slammed his fist on the table and said, "In Handong, who dares to touch anyone from the Liang family?" Liang Yu chimed in, "That's right, they don't even know who our father is."

At that time, she also felt that the sky wouldn't fall. The Liang family's sky was held up by her father.

But now, the sky has fallen.

She shook her head, dismissing the thought, and stepped on the gas. The Mini sped up, overtook the slow-moving truck in front of it, and merged into the city's dazzling river of lights.

As the car turned into the compound of the provincial public security bureau's leadership residence, the security guard at the gate spotted the red Mini from afar, opened the gate early, and even saluted. Liang Lu didn't respond and drove straight in.

The compound wasn't large, consisting of several gray-white residential buildings constructed in the late 1990s. They looked ordinary, even somewhat old. But behind every window lived prominent figures from the Provincial Public Security Bureau. The Liang family owned quite a few properties; they even had a large 160-square-meter house near Handong University, where Liang Lu worked. It was fully furnished, but they hadn't lived there for more than a few days.

She still prefers living here.

It's not because it's convenient, it's because of the feeling.