“What the hell is the bureau thinking? The case has finally reached this stage, and now they’re kicking you out of it…”

Sui Jing had stayed behind in Yunshe that afternoon, mainly to continue gathering evidence for the false accusation case with Xiao Liang’s help. She only caught a ride back to the bureau at dusk, and that was when she learned that the bureau had already held a Party leadership meeting earlier in the day. They had decided to merge the cases of embezzlement of Nanting Village’s collective assets, fabrication of charges, and indecent assault on a minor into a single special investigation. The task force would be headed by Zhou Ruan, deputy captain of the Economic Investigation Unit.

Not only had Yuan Wenhai failed to secure a place on the task force—he had even been singled out and criticized during the meeting.

Standing in the office of Criminal Investigation Team Three, Sui Jing couldn’t help but speak up for him in front of the other officers.

“The case reaching this point has little to do with me anyway. You’re the one who handled most of it. And the bureau never said you’re barred from joining the task force,” Yuan Wenhai said casually from behind his desk. He lifted his plaster-cast arm and rested it across his chest again.

“Besides, the bureau’s just looking out for an injured man, giving me a few more days to recover. Don’t tell me you actually want this arm of mine ruined over this case?”

Shishan County was a major county with a population approaching nine hundred thousand. Counting township governments and county departments together, there were over five hundred cadres at the township and section level.

Yuan Wenhai had been on the police force for thirteen or fourteen years, and his father had worked in Shishan for half his life. He knew very well how tightly woven the network of those five to six hundred officials was with the twenty-odd county-level leaders above them.

Though Zhao Zhishan had no direct ties with Fan Chunjiang, as the deputy director of the county public security bureau in charge of criminal investigations, he was inevitably part of that web. Wang Xingmin, as the Party secretary of Yunshe Town, carried even more weight in that network than Zhao Zhishan.

That morning, they had still been advocating the use of the local police station to conduct rapid interrogations of Xiao Yujun, He Hong, and Lin Xuetong, hoping to seize more leads and evidence while still in Yunshe.

But around noon, a call came from the bureau.

A case of such importance, they said, shouldn’t be handled through ad-hoc interrogations in Yunshe. The suspects needed to be transferred back to the county bureau so more experienced investigators could participate in the investigation and questioning.

Zhao Zhishan immediately ordered the interrogations halted and had Xiao Yujun, He Hong, and Lin Xuetong escorted straight back to the county.

Sui Jing had remained in Yunshe, while Yuan Wenhai returned with the convoy. But once they arrived at the bureau, he was no longer allowed near the key suspect, Xiao Yujun.

From that moment, Yuan Wenhai understood.

Someone behind Fan Chunjiang had stepped in.

What worried him now was Xiao Liang—the one who had suffered the most. How would he feel once he learned what had happened?

…

…

The rapid interrogation of Xiao Yujun had never taken place.

He Hong, whose will had already collapsed, had confessed to a great deal before being transferred to the county, but her knowledge was limited.

She didn’t even know what kind of conspiracy Du Xuebing had secretly discussed with Xiao Yujun after that night—when Du had insisted Xiao Liang stay behind to drink in Nanting Village, helped get him thoroughly drunk, and then left.

Without direct evidence, He Hong’s testimony alone could not prove that Du Xuebing had participated in framing Xiao Liang.

For now, the town government had merely ordered Du Xuebing suspended pending investigation, while Liang Chaobin, director of the Party and Government Office, temporarily took over the Economic Management Station.

Although Wang Xingmin had told Xiao Liang to take two days off and rest, Xiao Liang didn’t hurry back to the city.

After finishing the initial evidence collection and written statements for the false accusation case with Sui Jing, he returned to his dormitory around four in the afternoon.

His father and older brother hadn’t rushed back to the city either. They stayed behind to help him clean up the dormitory, which had been left in complete disarray.

Gu Peijun, meanwhile, was swamped. Besides cooperating with the Economic Investigation Unit’s inquiry into the Nanting Lake Juice Factory, he had temporarily taken over as acting Party secretary of Nanting Village and was now responsible for supervising the factory on behalf of the village Party branch. Everything was chaos, and Xiao Liang hadn’t even had a chance to see him yet.

After the dormitory was tidied up, Xiao Liang planned to return to the city with his father and brother. But Ge Aixia, a clerk from the Party and Government Office, came looking for him, saying Yuan Wenhai had called the office asking for him.

Xiao Liang walked back into the town government compound.

It was just after work hours.

Most people who saw him wore awkward expressions.

After everything he had gone through, it would seem cold not to say a few comforting words to a colleague of two years. Yet at the same time, none of them seemed willing to appear too friendly in the open courtyard.

Xiao Liang had returned to 1994 from the future. His memories of most of the staff in the town compound were separated by two or three decades. Often he had to think for a moment before recalling someone’s name.

And because he clearly remembered how indifferent many of these people had been in his previous life—some even kicking him while he was down—he understood perfectly well what they were thinking now.

Even without direct evidence, most people in the compound likely already knew the bulk of the case details.

Fan Chunjiang, Ge Jianguo, Du Xuebing, Chen Shen—these men had long been drinking buddies with Xiao Yujun, practically sharing the same pair of pants. After Xiao Liang fled the accident scene, Fan Chunjiang had mobilized such massive efforts to hunt him down. Now that Xiao Yujun himself had fallen into prison, who would believe Fan Chunjiang was innocent?

Yet at the same time, who could say for certain that Fan Chunjiang would truly fall this time?

Besides, quite a few officials in town were closely tied to Xiao Yujun, people who followed his lead in everything. Who among them would want the case investigated to the very end?

At the grassroots level of the country’s political landscape, a township might be nothing more than a tiny capillary in the vast system—but anyone who had lived within it understood the rules all too well.

The situation was far from clear.

Who would rush to show warmth to someone like him—a man who had suffered greatly, yet ultimately remained a minor figure?

Fan Chunjiang himself was probably still sitting comfortably in his office at this very moment.

…

…

The main government building in the compound was a three-story structure arranged around an inner courtyard.

Besides the offices of Wang Xingmin, Fan Chunjiang, and several vice mayors and Party committee members, the Party and Government Office—which mainly served the leadership—was also located on the third floor.

As the office director, Liang Chaobin had a room to himself. Two deputy directors and several clerks shared the other two large offices.

Yuan Wenhai’s call had come directly to Liang Chaobin’s office.

When Xiao Liang and Ge Aixia entered, they found the room empty.

“Director Liang is probably reporting work to Secretary Wang right now,” Ge Aixia said. “He said you can just return Captain Yuan’s call directly. The number’s written on the desk.”

To avoid suspicion, Xiao Liang deliberately left the office door wide open as he picked up the phone and dialed the number.

Someone in the county had stepped in to interfere this quickly—so quickly that Yuan Wenhai couldn’t even participate in Xiao Yujun’s interrogation.

Xiao Liang felt neither surprise nor anger.

No.

Not anger at all.

In fact, this was exactly the outcome he had been hoping for.

If the county had truly decided to pursue the case relentlessly, wiping out Fan Chunjiang and the others along the way and clearing Xiao Liang’s name completely, then there would be no “injustice” left to speak of.

At that point, the county would simply transfer a new town mayor to Yunshe to partner with the cautious Wang Xingmin.

And why would they ever allow someone like him—barely two years into grassroots work, still inexperienced in every aspect, and lacking any powerful backing—to take over the Nanting Lake Juice Factory?

But if he truly wanted revenge—if he wanted Xiao Yujun to emerge from prison in three or five years unable to make a comeback, condemned to struggle in the mud for the rest of his life—then taking control of the Nanting Lake Juice Factory was the first step in a much larger plan.

It might even help his own family escape the lingering shadow of former municipal Party secretary Chen Fushan’s case.

Right now, he needed to carry this **“injustice”** on his back.

Everyone needed to know—without saying it outright—that he had been grievously wronged.

Only then would he have the standing to make demands.

Only then would Fan Chunjiang have to tuck away his swaggering “mountain tiger” pride whenever he saw him.

And only then would Wang Xingmin realize that Xiao Liang might hold far greater value in Yunshe than anyone had imagined.