The Official Ladder: I ascend to the pinnacle of power, wielding the power of life and death.

Yang Zheng woke up and looked in the direction Xiao Gao was looking. It was pitch black outside, and he couldn't see anything.

"what's the situation?"

Yang Zheng asked in a low voice.

"Just now, a faint light flashed by Rui Rui's grave, and I even saw a figure, but it only flashed by and then went out."

Xiao Gao said, "If I'm not mistaken, it should be just as you said, someone is digging up the grave and destroying the body there."

"Chief, let's quickly notify someone to come and catch them in the act."

Yang Zheng pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "It seems that there is indeed evidence on Rui Rui's body, so we must not alert her."

"Notify Xiao Li and the others to head to the scene immediately. Isn't that near the reservoir? Have them find a way to get some electrofishing equipment and pretend to be fish thieves at night. They should loiter around there and force them to leave."

"Chief, why don't you just arrest him?"

Xiao Gao asked, puzzled.

"It's easy to arrest people, but Huachuan County will know about it immediately. When they take action, it's uncertain whether we can take the body away. Don't underestimate local power."

Yang Zheng patiently gave him guidance.

Xiao Gao had only been with the police force for a short time and did not yet fully understand the complexities of handling cases at the grassroots level; many things could have far-reaching consequences if one thing was done.

"I understand."

Following Yang Zheng's instructions, Xiao Gao immediately dialed Xiao Li's number and whispered the key points of the operation.

Twenty minutes later, a private car arrived from a distance.

The group of people who were digging the grave were startled when they saw a car approaching.

"Big brother, have we been discovered?"

"Impossible. Who the hell would stay up all night guarding a grave? Besides, we were given this task on short notice, and no one can know we're here to dig up graves. They couldn't have found us; they must be up to something else. Be quiet, let's lie here and see what they're up to."

Several people lay on the ground, not daring to breathe.

Xiao Li and his companion, both wearing waterproof pants and carrying batteries and electric fences, pretended to inspect the equipment. They deliberately swept their headlights towards the cemetery while muttering, "It's so cold, I doubt anyone will be guarding it anymore. Let's use more electricity."

Afterwards, they parked the car not far from the grave and went to the water's edge to fish with their equipment. They fished in that area, not far from the grave.

"They were cursing at the fish thieves."

The younger brother asked, "Brother, what do we do now?"

"Wait, they can't keep fighting here forever. They'll leave when they're done fighting. We have to get rid of the body today, no matter what."

"it is good."

The other henchmen could only lie on the ground and continue waiting.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and Xiao Li and his companion were shivering from the cold. They pretended to be fishing while cursing, "Why aren't these bastards leaving? Do they want us to freeze to death here?"

"Well, what can we do? The director won't let us alert them, so we can only wait here and wait it out."

The two police officers had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue to stand guard in the cold wind.

The thugs lying on the ground were also freezing.

"Big brother, it's so damn cold! When are those two fish thieves leaving? If they don't leave soon, we won't be able to hold on any longer."

The leader was shivering from the cold. Although they were dressed warmly, they were thinking about digging a grave, and wearing too many layers would hinder their work, so they didn't take proper precautions to keep warm.

In addition, lying on the icy ground prevented me from making any big movements, so my teeth started chattering from the cold.

"Let's wait a little longer, another half hour. If they don't leave, we'll retreat first, simply cover the soil a bit, and come back tomorrow night. Anyway, the instructions from above are to get it done in the next few days."

Both sides were testing their willpower. The cold wind was like a knife, cutting into everyone's faces, making both sides want to retreat as soon as possible.

In the end, the thugs couldn't take it anymore. Before half an hour had passed, they simply covered the grave with soil, hurriedly packed up their tools, and left the scene. Their figures quickly disappeared into the night, and they got into a car and left the place in the distance.

Xiao Li breathed a long sigh of relief after they left, quickly returned to the car, and then met up with Yang Zheng and the others.

"Director Yang, they've left."

"You have worked hard."

Yang Zheng said, "You should go back and rest quickly. Come back early tomorrow and we'll try to persuade her again. We'll bring the old lady to the grave and let her see it. I believe she'll understand what's going on."

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Yang Zheng, along with Rui Rui's grandmother and several police officers, returned to the cemetery.

The cold wind still blows, the withered grass sways in the wind, and the newly turned mounds of earth still bear the marks of last night's hasty burial.

The old woman staggered to the grave, her trembling hand stroking the cold mound, and she began to sob softly: "Rui Rui, are you really wronged? Grandma knows she shouldn't bother you, but Grandma doesn't want you to die without knowing why. Please forgive Grandma."

After crying for a while, the old lady said to Yang Zheng, "Director Yang, I agree to exhume the body for an autopsy, but you must find out the truth and give my granddaughter justice."

"Auntie, don't worry, we will definitely find out the truth. You saw it yourself, those people tried to destroy the evidence, which means that Rui Rui does have a secret. As long as we can find relevant clues, we will definitely be able to uncover the truth and give Rui Rui an explanation."

Yang Zheng said earnestly.

"I believe you."

Subsequently, Yang Zheng arranged for the relevant procedures to be followed and assigned tasks, and instructed that when Shi Yong and others went to the city for a meeting in the afternoon, personnel would be organized to open the coffin for inspection.

Soon, at 3 p.m., Yang Zheng arranged for people to dig up the grave and retrieve the body. In order not to upset the old lady, he arranged for two policewomen to help her into the police car to rest.

After an hour of digging, the coffin was finally unearthed. The forensic team quickly began their work, conducting a thorough examination of the body inside. Due to the cold weather and the seal within the coffin, although the body was highly decomposed, its basic form remained intact. Trace amounts of skin tissue were extracted from under the fingernails. An unidentified liquid sample was also collected from the mouth.

After all this was done, the forensic doctor immediately sealed the sample and sent it to the Municipal Bureau's Forensic Science Center for testing.

The body was not put back, but placed in an ice coffin and transported back. Further autopsy will be needed to find more clues.

Watching her granddaughter's body being taken away, the old woman cried even more heartbrokenly, her body trembling uncontrollably. Yang Zheng asked the villagers to help take care of the old woman, and then quickly left Huachuan County with his men to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.

Upon learning the news, Shi Yong's men immediately called him, but no one answered. They wanted to intercept him, but the other party was from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and they dared not act rashly. As for other methods, they couldn't think of any at the moment.

After Shi Yong finished his meeting, he learned that the little girl's body had been taken away by the city bureau, and he immediately felt a sense of foreboding.

But the person had already been taken away, and there was nothing he could do. He could only hope that these people wouldn't find any useful clues.

At the same time, the provincial party committee is also holding a meeting of its standing committee.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was heavy. Ren Yunsheng slowly began to speak: "The collapse of the 1.5-meter section in Linjiang City caused significant casualties and exposed serious loopholes in our management. The Ministry of Emergency Management has established an accident investigation team, which is currently conducting an investigation in Dongjiang Province. Dongjiang Province must actively cooperate with the investigation team and will not allow anyone to interfere or obstruct it."

"At the same time, we must also conduct a self-examination and self-correction, reflecting on the lack of responsibility and supervision exposed in this incident. In particular, when Linjiang City proposed a plan to clean up and rectify the food street, our provincial party committee and government did not pay enough attention to it and failed to give timely approval and supervision, which led to the long-term existence of hidden dangers and ultimately caused a tragedy. In this matter, our provincial party committee and government also bear an unshirkable leadership responsibility. As the provincial party secretary, I feel deeply pained and remorseful for this, and am willing to accept all the organizational decisions."

"Everyone must truthfully state what they know when questioned by the investigation team, and must not conceal or shirk responsibility. Whoever is responsible will be held accountable."

“Secretary, I think the Linjiang Municipal Party Committee and Government should bear the main responsibility for this incident. The accident directly exposed the serious dereliction of duty in local safety supervision. Although we at the provincial level have responsibility for inadequate supervision, the specific implementation and daily supervision are within the scope of local authority, and we cannot weaken the accountability of the directly responsible parties because of this.”

Lei Liang said, "As for why the rectification plan for the food street was not approved at the time, the core reason was that Linjiang City had many procedural violations in the process of promoting the rectification, which led to a mass incident. We discussed in our meeting that we would let Linjiang City come up with a feasible plan before we would agree to let them promote the relevant work. However, we did not expect that an accident would occur during this period."

"Yes, Secretary, this accident is indeed heartbreaking. No one wants such a tragedy to happen. But as Secretary Lei said, if Linjiang City had strictly followed the procedures and properly resolved the conflicts instead of exacerbating them when promoting rectification, the rectification work would not have stalled and the hidden dangers would not have been eliminated for so long. At the provincial level, we have indeed not been strong enough in supervising implementation, but the root cause is still the deviation of local implementation and inappropriate response."

Shen Yuan said, "Therefore, I believe the main responsibility lies with Linjiang City."

Lei Liang and Shen Yuan spoke up one after another to defend themselves.

After all, such a major safety accident has occurred, and no one wants to take responsibility as a leader.

Moreover, as provincial leaders, they tend to shift responsibility downwards whenever possible, and they have no intention of taking any responsibility themselves.

"Jiang Yiming made it very clear at the time that this conflict was likely due to human intervention, with someone deliberately escalating the situation to obstruct the rectification process. Therefore, he proposed, on the one hand, to intensify the investigation and uncover the truth behind the incident, and on the other hand, to continue to advance the rectification work, emphasizing that we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Ren Yunsheng said, "But all of these were rejected in the meeting, and now the responsibility is being pushed onto the grassroots level. Do you all think that's appropriate?"

“Secretary Yun Sheng, Jiang Yiming said at the time that there might be human interference behind the scenes, but it was just speculation and nothing has been found so far. So I think that was just an excuse he made for his decision-making mistakes.”

Lei Liang took a sip of tea and said, “Secretary, we all know that you greatly admire Jiang Yiming, but in this matter, we cannot let personal feelings blur the boundaries of responsibility. As the Party Secretary of Linjiang City, Jiang Yiming is in charge of the area and bears direct leadership responsibility for the safety of the region. The shelving of the rectification plan, the lack of supervision, and the accumulation of risks are not things that can be excused by speculation.”

Everyone present was shocked to hear Lei Liang so boldly point out the relationship between Ren Yunsheng and Jiang Yiming.

The conference room fell silent. Everyone's gaze lingered on Ren Yunsheng's face for a moment before quietly shifting away.

Ren Yunsheng's expression remained unchanged, his gaze calmly sweeping across the room, his tone even yet carrying undeniable weight: "Responsibility is never about who is superior or inferior, but about the facts. Whether Jiang Yiming should bear responsibility does not depend on who admires whom, but on the system and the evidence."