Zhao Zhishan and Fan Chunjiang were on friendly terms, but even he had begun to sense how complicated the situation had become.

He had no intention of interfering too deeply and leaving evidence that might come back to haunt him later. The safest solution, in his mind, was to push Yuan Wenhai forward—let him take charge of the case with Sui Jing assisting, and make sure nothing unexpected happened again.

Seeing Yuan Wenhai trying to wriggle out of it by citing his injury, Zhao Zhishan snapped impatiently.

“Cut the nonsense. The Criminal Investigation Brigade only has twenty-odd people. Every department is swamped as it is. And who knows when Zhou Jun will get out of the hospital? With things like this happening in Yunshe, where exactly am I supposed to find someone else to assign to this case?”

Yuan Wenhai, unconcerned about speaking plainly in front of Fan Chunjiang, shrugged.

“Given the suspect’s situation, he’s probably already fled Dongzhou. Even if I don’t care about this arm being crippled, how am I supposed to catch him? Besides, it’s just an attempted rape case. Is it really worth this much effort? If you ask me, we should just report it up the chain and be done with it.”

“He escaped from your custody. Don’t you want to bring him back?” Zhao Zhishan asked sharply, assuming Yuan Wenhai was simply being slippery.

“You think I don’t?” Yuan Wenhai raised his plaster-wrapped arm again.

At that moment, Fan Chunjiang stepped in with a show of support.

“Captain Yuan, don’t be discouraged. As long as the county bureau is pursuing the suspect, Yunshe will fully cooperate. Our town’s joint defense squad and the Nanting Village patrol team together have more than thirty members. They’re ready to follow your command at any time.”

He continued firmly.

“Xiao Liang is a cadre from Yunshe—one of our promising university-trained officials. For him to commit such an act is a disgrace to the entire town. Until we catch him and give the victim justice, Yunshe will not stand down.”

“If the man’s already fled Dongzhou, what good does it do for Yunshe to throw manpower at it?” Yuan Wenhai replied smoothly, deflecting like a tai chi master. “And I can’t exactly drag Yunshe’s patrol members around to work a criminal case outside their jurisdiction. That wouldn’t follow procedure.”

Fan Chunjiang laughed lightly.

“Whether it works or not, Yunshe still needs to strengthen its screening efforts. If we do nothing, we can’t answer to the victim either. Of course, the final decision rests with the county bureau—we’re only cooperating.”

“If everyone agrees the suspect wasn’t framed, then the only possibility is that he fled,” Sui Jing suddenly cut in, unable to hold back. “So why are we deploying so many resources inside Yunshe?”

“Sui Jing!” Yuan Wenhai barked, his tone suddenly stern. “Whether he was framed or not, we need to catch the suspect first. Why are you being so stubborn? If you don’t want this assignment, go back to the county with Director Zhao!”

After reprimanding her harshly—though it had been him earlier who hinted that Yunshe might be overzealous—Yuan Wenhai turned to Fan Chunjiang again.

“Mayor Fan, Yunshe Town Clinic has inpatient rooms, right? I’ll transfer here and stay at the clinic. That way I can at least give my wife an explanation. Otherwise she really might storm Director Zhao’s house. As for catching the suspect… we’ll have to rely on the town’s support.”

“Fine. Yuan Wenhai, you stay here and keep an eye on things,” Zhao Zhishan said. Not wanting to linger in Yunshe any longer, he wrapped things up quickly and left with a brief farewell to Fan Chunjiang.

Once outside the town government building, Yuan Wenhai watched thoughtfully as Zhao Zhishan hurried into the police car and drove off. After exchanging a few polite words with Fan Chunjiang, he asked the town to contact the clinic so he could complete the transfer procedures.

Sui Jing accompanied him to the town clinic to handle the paperwork. When she saw Yuan Wenhai lying leisurely in the hospital bed afterward, she still refused to give up her investigation into the case’s inconsistencies.

“I accept the criticism you and Director Zhao gave me today,” she said stubbornly. “It’s not that I never considered the suspect might not actually be in Yunshe. But the doubts surrounding the attempted rape case are right there in front of us.

“When Xiao Liang got drunk that night, Du Xuebing didn’t take him back to the town government dormitory. Xiao Yujun didn’t bring him home either. Instead, they openly arranged for him to stay at He Hong’s house—when her husband was working away from home. That’s already strange.

“And then there’s the timing. It wasn’t summer break, it wasn’t a weekend, yet that night He Hong deliberately sent her daughter—who had school the next day—to stay with her grandmother in the neighboring town before the drinking even started.

“Doesn’t that raise questions? And now the moment I try to investigate these points, someone rushes to call Director Zhao down here. Isn’t that basically admitting guilt?”

Yuan Wenhai glanced at her, unable to help thinking: she clearly understood she’d been used as a pawn, yet she still clung stubbornly to the inconsistencies in the case. Was that simply youthful passion?

But he merely lifted his plastered arm again and groaned in pain to cut her off.

“Ah… my arm’s hurting. Maybe I bumped it in the car on the way here. Go borrow the phone at the station and call your sister-in-law. Tell her I’ve been admitted to Yunshe Clinic so she won’t worry.”

—

Not long after Sui Jing left, Yuan Wenhai—still lying on the bed in his clothes—heard the ward door open.

He assumed Sui Jing had come back.

Turning his head, however, he froze.

Xiao Liang stood in the doorway, wearing a mask.

Yuan Wenhai felt his head throb instantly as he sat upright.

“You’ve got some nerve, kid. Half the town is waiting for you to walk into their net, and you still dare to show up here?”

Xiao Liang smiled faintly and pulled over a chair, sitting in the corner where he could keep an eye on the courtyard outside the window.

“I didn’t expect you, Captain Yuan, to come back to Yunshe and wade into this mess with your arm still in a cast.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Yuan Wenhai cut him off immediately. “You lured Sui Jing to Yunshe and stirred up a hornet’s nest with the town authorities. They even dragged our deputy director down here. As her mentor, I didn’t have much choice but to come back from the county hospital. That’s all.”

Xiao Liang nodded calmly.

“So it really was Fan Chunjiang who brought Zhao Zhishan down here.”

Then he asked evenly,

“Fan Chunjiang is so desperate to catch me in Yunshe that he even called in your deputy director to suppress Sui Jing. By now you must be certain I was framed, right?”

Yuan Wenhai stared at him, surprised that someone under active manhunt could still keep himself so well informed.

“I told you before,” he said flatly. “Guessing means nothing. If you want to clear your name, you need evidence. What proof do you have that you were framed?”

The chaos Sui Jing had stirred up in Yunshe over the past few days had already convinced Yuan Wenhai that Fan Chunjiang was likely involved in something shady.

But he was no longer a hot-headed rookie running purely on righteousness. Without solid evidence, he had no intention of entangling himself in a mess that could destroy his career.

“I’ve found some documents,” Xiao Liang replied calmly, “that prove Xiao Yujun embezzled and diverted massive assets from the Nanting Lake Juice Factory during his time as party secretary of Nanting Village and factory director.”

Yuan Wenhai frowned.

“That might show he had a motive to frame you. But the problem right now is that He Hong is the one accusing you of attempted rape—not Xiao Yujun. Do you have evidence that she acted under Xiao Yujun’s orders or coercion?”

“As long as an investigation into Xiao Yujun begins,” Xiao Liang said quietly, “the truth will come out.”

Yuan Wenhai shook his head.

“Even if you do have evidence, deciding whether to investigate Xiao Yujun—or the issues at the Nanting Lake Juice Factory—isn’t my call. You understand these are two separate cases, right?”

“I know,” Xiao Liang replied calmly. “But don’t you find it strange that while Fan Chunjiang is mobilizing the entire town to hunt me down—even dragging your deputy director here—the Party Secretary of Yunshe, Wang Xingmin, hasn’t shown his face even once?”

“What are you planning?” Yuan Wenhai studied him carefully, unable to read the expression behind the mask.

Deep down, his sense of justice had not been entirely worn away by reality—but he was far from being as impulsive as Sui Jing, willing to clash head-on with someone like Fan Chunjiang, who had deep connections in the county and could summon Zhao Zhishan with a single phone call.

Still, Yuan Wenhai couldn’t deny his curiosity about Xiao Liang.

Five days earlier, Xiao Liang had called home twice after returning to Dongzhou, and both times Sui Jing had answered. Back then, Yuan Wenhai had already guessed Xiao Liang was using those calls to gather information through her.

But the man’s file clearly stated he was only twenty-two, barely two years into his career.

After being framed, he had neither fled in panic nor rushed back to Yunshe to walk straight into the trap laid by Fan Chunjiang and the others.

How had someone so young remained so calm?

How had he deduced from two simple phone calls that Sui Jing was hot-blooded and easily provoked—and then deliberately drawn her into the situation to disrupt Fan Chunjiang’s plans?

With only Qian Haiyun left as the sole official officer at the Yunshe police station, Sui Jing—arriving the next day—had stubbornly focused on investigating the inconsistencies in the attempted rape case. Her actions had severely disrupted Yunshe’s search operation, while also forcing Fan Chunjiang to worry about what she might uncover. That was why he had urgently summoned Zhao Zhishan.

At this point, Fan Chunjiang was already on the defensive.

Yunshe still appeared calm on the surface. Xiao Yujun and the others had not panicked yet—likely because they still believed Fan Chunjiang could control the situation.

But if Sui Jing kept stirring things up… or if new players entered the scene… how would things unfold then?

As this thought crossed his mind, Yuan Wenhai suddenly realized why Xiao Liang had mentioned Wang Xingmin.

“I heard Wang Xingmin has only been in Yunshe for about a year,” Yuan Wenhai said slowly. “He isn’t deeply tied to Xiao Yujun, but he’s had serious conflicts with Fan Chunjiang and Zhou Jianqi. Are you planning to use him to overturn your case?

“But Wang Xingmin is clearly avoiding involvement right now. I doubt he’ll let you use him that easily.”

“Use him?” Xiao Liang laughed softly.

“When I was transferred to the Economic Management Station to audit Nanting Village and its factories, that was Wang Xingmin’s decision. He wanted to dig up problems in Nanting Village—to make an example of it and regain control of Yunshe.

“And now that trouble has surfaced, the Party Secretary can’t just hide like a turtle with its head tucked in.”

After years had passed and he found himself reborn in 1994, Xiao Liang understood the tangled relationships at the grassroots level far more clearly than he had in his previous life.

Without deeper interests at stake, Xiao Yujun—backed by Fan Chunjiang and Zhou Jianqi, with connections reaching into the county—would never have feared a minor figure like him: a young cadre with no rank and barely any experience.

What they feared was Wang Xingmin.

Gu Peijun’s whistleblower report had originally been sent anonymously to Wang Xingmin.

And it was Wang Xingmin who had insisted on transferring Xiao Liang from the Party and Government Office to the Economic Management Station despite opposition.

Wang Xingmin believed he had concealed his intentions well.

But he had not fooled Fan Chunjiang and Xiao Yujun.

Their scheme—first using He Hong to seduce Xiao Liang, then forcing her to accuse him when that failed—was meant not only to destroy Xiao Liang but also to warn Wang Xingmin.

In Xiao Liang’s previous life, even after he was declared innocent and returned to Yunshe, they continued smearing him relentlessly. The real reason was still Wang Xingmin.

Otherwise, why would they expend so much effort on someone as insignificant as him?

Back then, Wang Xingmin had indeed been frightened. He failed to intervene when the case first broke, allowed Fan Chunjiang and the others to dominate the situation, and soon afterward was quietly transferred out of Yunshe.

For the next twenty years, Wang Xingmin drifted between township posts and county offices, never rising above minor positions before retirement.

From an outsider’s perspective, it was understandable: Wang Xingmin might not have fully grasped the corruption at Nanting Lake Juice Factory or realized how deeply Xiao Liang had been framed. Choosing caution at the beginning was human nature.

But as the man who had suffered through it, how could Xiao Liang feel no resentment?

Now, reborn in 1994, Wang Xingmin had once again failed to step forward when the case erupted. When Fan Chunjiang mobilized the town to hunt Xiao Liang down, he—the Party Secretary—had simply withdrawn from sight.

Still, after escaping from the crash site, everything Xiao Liang had done—drawing Sui Jing into Yunshe to disrupt the situation, and painstakingly obtaining direct evidence—had one purpose:

To force Wang Xingmin to step forward and push for an investigation into Xiao Yujun’s embezzlement of Nanting Lake Juice Factory’s assets.

And now, Xiao Liang believed, the moment had finally arrived.