The day before, Xiao Changhua and Xiao Xiao had already learned a fair bit about the situation in Yunshe. They had thought the whole affair was already complicated enough.

They never expected today to bring yet another shocking twist.

The two of them stood there in silence, watching the backs of Xiao Yujun, Lin Xuetong, and He Hong as they were escorted toward the police station. For a moment, neither of them knew what to say.

Just then, Sui Jing came out and said to Xiao Liang,

“Captain Zhou from Economic Crimes and Captain Yuan both think it’s necessary to immediately secure the residences of Xiao Yujun and He Hong. Director Zhao has already decided to transfer additional officers from the bureau to Yunshe to assist with the investigation.”

She paused before continuing,

“You were responsible for auditing the finances of the Nanting Village Committee and the juice factory, and you’re also the direct victim in the false accusation case. We’ll still need your cooperation moving forward. Don’t you have materials related to Xiao Yujun’s suspected embezzlement of Nanting’s collective assets?”

“I do have a financial audit report on Nanting Lake Juice Factory in my dormitory,” Xiao Liang replied.

He already knew the lock on his dorm room had been pried open, but in order to preserve evidence, neither he nor Gu Peijun had gone back inside.

Now he simply pretended to know nothing and returned to the township with Sui Jing.

Back in town, the pry marks on Xiao Liang’s dormitory door were impossible to miss.

Sui Jing immediately reported the situation to Yuan Wenhai. They patiently waited for reinforcements from the criminal investigation team to arrive. After technicians conducted a preliminary examination of the damaged lock, they finally pushed the door open.

Inside, the dormitory was a complete mess.

As expected, the audit documents Xiao Liang had left behind were gone.

Before the forensic technicians even finished collecting biological evidence from the room, news arrived from Yuan Wenhai.

During a search of Xiao Yujun’s house, they had discovered Xiao Liang’s work notebook—along with a large number of audit materials related to the Nanting Village Committee and the Nanting Lake Juice Factory that had been stolen from Xiao Liang’s dormitory.

With that discovery, the situation changed entirely.

This was no longer simply a case where the attempted rape charge against Xiao Liang would be dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Once the fingerprints and other biological traces collected from the dormitory were matched, it would conclusively prove that Xiao Yujun had instructed He Hong to fabricate charges and falsely accuse Xiao Liang.

—

At the northern end of Jiefang Road, inside the county party committee compound—adjacent to the Shishan Guesthouse and Shishan Senior High School—stood a modest four-story square building clad in white ceramic tiles.

Unassuming in appearance, half-hidden among pine and cypress trees, it seemed quiet and solemn.

Yet this building was the very heart of Shishan County, home to nearly nine hundred thousand people.

At dusk, Secretary Zhou Xiaotian walked to the door of County Party Secretary Tang Jihua’s office.

He knocked lightly twice and only pushed the door open after hearing a response from inside.

Seeing that Tang Jihua was not occupied with other work, Zhou Xiaotian stepped forward and reported:

“Secretary Tang, it turns out the little township of Yunshe has much deeper waters than anyone expected. Xiao Yujun—the man who was selected as one of the county’s Outstanding Township Entrepreneurs for three consecutive years from 1991 to 1993—has been something of a celebrity in the county. But preliminary evidence now confirms that while serving as Party branch secretary of Nanting Village and director of the Nanting Juice Factory, he embezzled and misappropriated a massive amount of collective village funds. The amount involved may reach several million yuan.”

“To cover up his crimes, Xiao Yujun instructed He Hong—the village women’s director and the juice factory’s accountant—to lure and seduce Xiao Liang, the township management station clerk responsible for auditing village finances. When that failed, they got him drunk, dragged him to her house, and framed him for rape.”

“At the moment, He Hong has already confessed to the scheme. The criminal investigation team also recovered fingerprints and clothing fibers from Xiao Liang’s dormitory that prove Xiao Yujun and his associates broke in. On top of that, Xiao Liang’s work notebook and the stolen audit materials were found in Xiao Yujun’s home. The Public Security Bureau now preliminarily concludes the false accusation case is established.”

“But the matter doesn’t end there. Xiao Yujun also committed acts of molestation against He Hong’s twelve-year-old daughter. After learning about it this morning, her husband Lin Xuetong kidnapped Xiao Yujun and intended to die together with him.”

“The police were sweating bullets over the situation. Luckily, an even more serious crime didn’t occur, or the impact would have been enormous. At first we thought it was simply a suspect fleeing an attempted rape charge. No one expected so many layers to emerge within just a few days…”

Tang Jihua’s brows furrowed deeply.

“Why would He Hong obey Xiao Yujun like that?” he asked. “As a mother, how could she stand by and watch him make advances toward her own daughter?”

Zhou Xiaotian replied,

“According to He Hong’s confession, late last year her daughter accidentally blinded a classmate in one eye during a fight. Xiao Yujun stepped in and secretly withdrew more than thirty thousand yuan from the juice factory’s accounts to compensate the other family. Because of that, she was forced to submit to his coercion and take part in framing the victim.”

“She had already noticed Xiao Yujun making inappropriate moves toward her daughter. For the past few months she had been sending the girl to stay at her mother’s house after school so Xiao Yujun wouldn’t have a chance to approach her.”

“According to He Hong, she agreed to frame Xiao Liang this time because Xiao Yujun promised he would stay away from her daughter afterward.”

Hearing this, Tang Jihua’s expression softened slightly.

Human nature, it seemed, had not sunk to quite the depths he had imagined.

He stood and walked to the window, gazing out at the fiery red clouds glowing above the treetops.

Behind him, Zhou Xiaotian spoke again, unable to hide his excitement.

“While Xiao Liang was on the run, the Yunshe township government mobilized people with unusual enthusiasm to hunt him down. When Sui Jing went there to investigate the case, she ran into heavy obstruction as well. All this suggests that Xiao Yujun wielded enormous influence in Yunshe—and that certain township officials were backing him.”

“This case is absolutely worth digging into thoroughly.”

Since Tang Jihua had transferred to Shishan County, Zhou Xiaotian had been working as his secretary.

Over the past three or four months, he had come to understand that Tang Jihua wanted to accomplish something significant in Shishan. The people who had arranged Tang’s transfer here were also hoping he could break the stagnation that had settled over the economic development of Shishan—and even the wider Dongzhou region.

Zhou Xiaotian had already spent four or five years working inside the county party committee apparatus.

Naturally, he hoped Tang Jihua would open up the political landscape in Shishan as soon as possible, complete the tasks entrusted to him, and then move on to a more important position—taking Zhou Xiaotian along with him.

Over the past few days, Zhou Xiaotian had quietly looked into the leadership of Yunshe Township.

He knew quite well that many of the township officials were tied to certain figures at the county level.

If the Yunshe case were dug into deeply enough, it could easily become the perfect opportunity for Secretary Tang to throw a punch that would set off a hundred more.

“Should I call Elder Sui now and report the progress of the case?” Zhou Xiaotian asked. “He might not be at the guesthouse at this hour—if necessary, I can go there myself to find him.”

He believed pushing the case forward within the county might still encounter resistance.

But if Elder Sui applied pressure from a higher level, the process would become much easier.

Tang Jihua turned from the window.

“Do we have any direct leads pointing to a specific township official in Yunshe?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Zhou Xiaotian admitted. “But many of the facts are already nailed down. What we need most right now is to apply more pressure on the county Public Security Bureau’s investigation.”

“I see.”

Tang Jihua waved a hand.

“I’ll make the call to Elder Sui myself. You go take care of your other work.”

Seeing none of the excitement or eagerness he had expected from Tang Jihua, Zhou Xiaotian felt puzzled.

He also worried that his suggestion had sounded too impatient.

With a mixture of disappointment and unease, he quietly left the county party secretary’s office.