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

The first three need no further explanation. As for why the half-person is Tian Guofu instead of Gao Yuliang, why is that?

Because his threats are not within the political and legal system, and currently, the investigations of Liu Xinjian, Liang Jia, and others are not being conducted by the procuratorate, but by the discipline inspection commission.

As the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, Tian Guofu could naturally influence the direction and progress of the investigation.

However, he can only be considered half a person, because the Discipline Inspection Commission does not have complete autonomy over cases of this level, so he can only influence, not decide.

But he couldn't connect with any of these people. Sha Ruijin and Tian Guofu were in cahoots; they were the ones who initiated the investigation into Liu Xinjian, the front man for the Zhao family. Qi Tongwei had a grudge against the Liang family, and his position was somewhat extraordinary. When he absorbed the power of the Han University gang, he didn't want anyone from the political and legal system, so why would he look down on someone like him who had a dirty past?

Liu Changsheng? He only cares about landing safely now, he doesn't care about any of this.

No, Liu Changsheng is probably involved as well, otherwise the Qingshan gas field wouldn't have reacted so strongly. It's likely there was some exchange of political resources with the Zhao family.

Moreover, it was unconventional; otherwise, a gas field, which seems less important than the Luzhou Food City, wouldn't require such drastic action.

Unless there is a bigger secret behind it, Liu Changsheng will cut off other people's attention, even if it means letting others see through his scheme.

If he finds this secret, he might be able to get Liu Changsheng to help him out.

Thinking of this, Xiao Gangyu regained some of his fighting spirit. He composed himself, stood up, and prepared to return to the hall to contact his trusted confidants to investigate.

Seeing that he suddenly stood up to leave, Liang Lu quickly followed and grabbed his arm.

"Don't go!" her voice shrill, filled with the fear of abandonment. "Explain yourself. Is there anything else going on?"

Xiao Gangyu looked down at her hands. They were very well-maintained, with neatly manicured nails painted a light pink. He suddenly felt nauseous.

“No,” he said, shaking off her hand.

"Then tell me, why did your emotions change so drastically just now?" Liang Lu persisted. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"Don't you know how you and your second brother treated Qi Tongwei back then?" he said coldly.

Liang Lu's expression changed slightly.

“What else can he do?” she said, forcing herself to speak, her voice carrying a bluffing confidence. “At worst, I’ll give up my job at Handong University. Anyway, I’m retiring soon. I’ve checked the laws myself; my situation isn’t a big deal.”

Xiao Gangyu looked at her, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved up.

"Now you're starting to talk about the law," he said. "When you were forcing me and Qi Tongwei back then, why didn't you talk about the law?"

Liang Lu's face flushed red.

It wasn't shyness, but anger.

"When did I force you?" she shrieked. "You were the one who pursued me back then!"

Xiao Gangyu didn't reply. He stood there, looking at her, his eyes as calm as a stagnant pool.

"So much time has passed, and you've told so many lies that you might even believe them yourself." His voice was calm, as if he were talking about something unrelated to himself. "Your second brother approached me, using Qi Tongwei as an example to scare the monkeys. I was young then, from a farming family, and didn't have Governor Qi's guts, so I had no choice but to give in."

Liang Lu's face turned bright red.

"How has our Liang family ever wronged you?" Her voice was shrill and grating. "You, a peasant, were able to become the Director of the Public Security Bureau, wasn't it all thanks to our family's support?"

Xiao Gangyu's expression finally changed. It wasn't anger, but a cold, mocking tone that came from being hit where it hurt.

“When your dad retired, I had just been promoted to deputy section chief.” He said, word by word, “The years that followed weren’t thanks to him. And if your dad was really that powerful, why were your two older brothers only deputy division chiefs when they were both about to retire?”

Liang Lu was speechless.

"That's because of my friendship with Sister Huifen, which is why Secretary Yuliang promoted you," she said, forcing herself to remain calm. "Otherwise, with so many students, why would Secretary Yuliang choose you?"

Xiao Gangyu smiled.

"There aren't many talented people from the Department of Political Science and Law at Handong University who are pursuing political careers in Handong. Qi Tongwei and Hou Liangping have both gone to Beijing. Who will be promoted? Chen Hai?" He looked at Liang Lu. "Even without you, Secretary Yuliang will definitely still rely on me. At most, I'll just be half a step behind."

"Stop beautifying yourself." He continued to smile, a very light and faint smile, yet like a blunt knife, slowly, slowly cutting away. "Like the thick layer of powder on your face, only by wiping it off will you see how ugly your true self is."

He turned around, opened the door, and went out.

The door slammed shut behind him.

With a "bang," it sounded like a slap in the face.

Liang Lu stood in the entryway, staring blankly at the closed door for a long time.

Then she turned and walked back to the living room. She stood in front of the coffee table, looking at the cup, fruit plate, and remote control that Xiao Gangyu had placed there. She reached out and swept them away sharply—everything on the coffee table crashed to the floor.

She grabbed a cushion on the sofa and hit it hard, once, twice, three times. In the end, she didn't know what she was hitting—Xiao Gangyu's face, the mahogany furniture, or this house she had lived in for years and never liked.

She continued hitting until she got tired.

She slowly stood up and walked to the bathroom mirror.

The woman in the mirror had slightly disheveled hair, her makeup was still intact, but there were fine lines around her eyes, nasolabial folds at the corners of her mouth, and her jawline was no longer firm. She looked only forty-five or forty-six, but she knew in her heart that she was fifty-seven.

She is twelve years older than Xiao Gangyu, and age is her biggest weakness. She spends more money on skincare than on real estate.

She reached out, her hand trembling, and touched her face. When her fingertips touched her cheek, she felt that beneath the powder, her skin was loose, soft, and sagging.

She used the best skincare products and the most expensive treatments, but time still catches up with her.

She never removes her makeup whenever she sleeps in the same bed with Xiao Gangyu at night.

She turned around, walked back to the living room, and sat down on the sofa. The mahogany sofa was hard and uncomfortable. She didn't move, just sat there, looking at the broken pieces scattered on the floor.

After a long time, she took her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number.

The phone rang for a long time before someone answered.

"Hello?" A gentle, slightly tired female voice came from the other end.

“Sister Huifen,” Liang Lu’s voice was hoarse, “it’s me.”

Chapter 180 Best Friend

The friendship between Liang Lu and Wu Huifen dates back more than 30 years.

That was in 1976. Liang Lu was seventeen years old and was recommended to Handong University as one of the last batch of "worker-peasant-soldier college students". She studied Chinese literature. Her grades were not good, but she was beautiful and came from a good family. She was the center of attention in her class.

At that time, the college entrance examination had not yet been reinstated in universities, and students were all recommended for admission. The backgrounds of these students were diverse, and their ages varied. Liang Lu was the most outstanding among them.

A year later, the college entrance examination was reinstated.

In the winter of 1977, 5.7 million people entered the examination halls, and 270,000 were admitted. Wu Huifen was one of them. She was a year older than Liang Lu, but entered the university a year later, making her Liang Lu's junior. Wu Huifen was from Hangzhou. Her father was a middle school teacher, and her mother worked in a library. While not exactly a scholarly family, they were still respectable intellectual families. She was admitted to the History Department of Handong University, where she excelled academically and was known for her gentle personality, quickly becoming famous among the freshmen.

The two met on campus and, over time, became best friends who could talk about anything.

In 1981, Wu Huifen graduated with a bachelor's degree and was admitted to the graduate program at the same university. In the same year, she married Gao Yuliang, a graduate student in the Department of Political Science and Law at Handong University.

Gao Yuliang was three years older than Wu Huifen and was also among the first batch of undergraduates admitted to Handong University. After graduation, both of them stayed on to teach at the university.

This man was a renowned scholar at Han University, a skilled writer and lecturer, handsome and elegant, and highly regarded by the senior professors in the department. Liang Lu first met Gao Yuliang in Wu Huifen's dormitory. Gao Yuliang came to pick up Wu Huifen for dinner, wearing a faded blue Zhongshan suit, his hair neatly combed, and he stood at the door, nodding slightly.

He wasn't the kind of handsome that immediately captivates you, but rather possessed a gentle, refined quality that emanated from within. He spoke calmly and deliberately, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, every word perfectly chosen.

After Wu Huifen married Gao Yuliang, their relationship underwent a subtle change.

Liang Lu believed she far surpassed Wu Huifen in both looks and family background. She was the daughter of a high-ranking official, while Wu Huifen's father was merely a middle school teacher. She was the most beautiful girl at Handong University, while Wu Huifen was at best considered pretty. She felt she should marry better than Wu Huifen, if not someone better than Gao Yuliang, at least someone of similar caliber.

But even this "almost" was something she searched for for ten years without finding.

Liang Qunfeng had tried to find suitable partners for his daughter. In those years, although his position was not as prominent as it would later become, it wasn't difficult for him to introduce her to a few promising young men.

There were writers from the provincial propaganda department, a young section chief from the provincial planning commission, a battalion-level officer from the military region's political department, and several young professors from universities. Liang Lu met with them one after another, finding fault with each one. This one was too short, that one spoke too rustically, this one didn't know how to socialize, that one was too adept at it. After several rounds, Liang Qunfeng also got annoyed.

"What kind of product do you want?" he asked.

Liang Lu couldn't say it.

Liang Qunfeng stopped interfering and let her make her own decision.

Liang Lu stayed at Handong University to work as a counselor in the Chinese Department. She was only twenty-four or twenty-five at the time, in the prime of her youth. Although the title of "worker-peasant-soldier student" didn't sound prestigious, she was Liang Qunfeng's daughter, and that identity was more valuable than any diploma. The college entrance examination had only been reinstated for a few years, and there were many older candidates at the university, including many who were only two or three years younger than her.

Moreover, Liang Lu's appearance would turn heads on campus.

It is no exaggeration to say that Liang Lu's charisma at the time overshadowed the female students of Han University in the fourth and fifth years.

Given her qualifications at the time, among so many outstanding students at Handong University, was it really impossible for her to find a suitable partner? Even considering Gao Yuliang's excellence in his youth, he couldn't be considered unique.

Professor Gao is like Moutai liquor, the kind that gets better with age. In his youth, Gao Yuliang was just an ordinary lecturer at Handong University, with limited prospects, and his appearance couldn't compare to later figures like Qi Tongwei and Hou Liangping. While there were many, if not countless, people more talented than him throughout history.

Why has Liang Lu remained single?

This is all thanks to her best friend.

After Wu Huifen got married, Gao Yuliang became the epitome of a model husband in Liang Lu's eyes. She wasn't deliberately showing off, but every word she said was like a thorn piercing Liang Lu's heart.

“Yuliang gave me all his salary yesterday, and kept ten yuan for himself to buy books.” Wu Huifen said this with a faint, satisfied smile on her face.

“Yuliang said he would take me out for Western food for our wedding anniversary, but I said it was too expensive. He insisted on going,” she said.

“Yuliang washed my feet yesterday, saying that it’s cold and soaking your feet is good for your health,” she said.

They were talking about private matters that Liang Lu couldn't verify, and of course, Liang Lu had no intention of verifying them.

Every word she uttered was like a ruler, measuring the merits and demerits of every man around Liang Lu.

Whenever Liang Lu finds a suitable partner, Wu Huifen would inadvertently mention one of Gao Yuliang's strengths, a strength that the other person lacked.

Whenever Liang Lu was feeling down, Wu Huifen would comfort her, saying, "With your qualities, you deserve better."

Liang Lu believed it. She also felt that she did deserve better.

And so it went, year after year. Liang Lu waited from her mid-twenties to her early thirties. From a counselor in the Chinese Department, she became a lecturer in the same department. From the most beautiful girl at Handong University, she became a well-known "old maid" at the university.

Ten years have passed.

By 1993, Liang Lu was thirty-four years old.

That year, a young teacher was transferred to Handong University to teach English. His surname was Sun, and his given name, Liang Lu, was someone she later preferred not to mention. He was about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, extremely handsome, 1.8 meters tall, with striking eyebrows and bright eyes, and a bright white smile. He spoke gently and considerately, and was meticulous and thoughtful in his actions. He possessed all the traditional Chinese ideals of wealth and status, lacking only the "Deng" – money. But Liang Lu wasn't short of money; what she lacked was a man worthy of her.

This Teacher Sun is that man.

He was good to Liang Lu. So good it seemed unreal. Every morning he'd leave a cup of hot milk on her desk, bring her an umbrella on rainy days, and put a coat on her when it was cold. He remembered her favorite color, her favorite snacks, and every casual remark she'd made. In her thirty-four years of life, Liang Lu had never been treated like this by a man. She felt she'd finally found love.

She's hooked.

Liang Qunfeng was already the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee at that time, and had long since given up hope for his daughter's marriage. Hearing that his daughter had finally found someone she liked, he had someone investigate Mr. Sun's background—he came from a rural area in Anhui, his parents were farmers, he was the youngest of five siblings, and his entire family supported him through university. Liang Qunfeng frowned, but didn't object. His daughter was already thirty-four; what could she possibly be picky about?

Liang Lu didn't care. She felt that Teacher Sun was the one she was looking for. He had Gao Yuliang's talent, his gentleness, and his thoughtfulness, and he was younger and more handsome than Gao Yuliang. She had finally married someone better than Wu Huifen.

However, regardless of a woman's social class, if a man who perfectly matches all her expectations appears in front of her, he is 100% a liar.

This is not contingent on class. Because women of higher classes tend to have higher expectations.