Nominal: Hou Liangping blocking the door? He was slapped away!

"stop."

Zhou Weiguo's voice echoed in the empty corridor, carrying an undisguised, ruthless killing intent.

The figure paused, turned around, and instead of panicking as expected, pulled out a red-covered ID from the inside pocket of his firefighter's uniform and pointed it at Zhou Weiguo.

"I'm from the special office of a ministry, carrying out an emergency destruction mission. Which department are you from? Who gave you the authority to trespass into the archives? Get out of the way immediately, or you will be prosecuted for obstructing official business!"

The other party spoke in a tough tone, even with the arrogance of someone who has been in a high position for many years.

Zhou Weiguo ignored the certificate, his military boots thumping heavily on the cement floor.

The special forces soldiers behind him had already spread out, forming a semi-circular encirclement. The crisp sound of the safety being pulled was particularly jarring in the quiet basement.

"A special office of a ministry?"

Zhou Weiguo stopped three meters in front of the other person, his gaze sharp as a knife.

"In Handong, in front of Longya, no one's credentials are valid except for orders from the Central Military Commission."

Seeing that things were not going well, the suspect secretly tucked his right hand into his sleeve, his fingertips pinching a pale blue microcapsule.

That's a military-grade incinerator; if you crush it, the contents of the file box will turn into a thick liquid within three seconds.

"court death!"

Zhou Weiguo noticed the opponent's subtle movements, and like a tiger descending a mountain, he took a step forward and threw a punch, his movements so fast that they created a gust of wind.

Before the suspect could exert any force, Zhou Weiguo gripped his wrist tightly, followed by a tremendous force and the sound of bones cracking.

"what!"

The scream had barely left his mouth when Zhou Weiguo delivered a knee strike that sent the scream back down into his stomach.

The blue capsule fell to the ground and was crushed into powder by Zhou Weiguo's foot.

He snatched the file box and slammed the other person against the wall with a swift and decisive motion.

"Take him away and send him to the interrogation team. I need to know who opened the back door for him in the archives."

……

Half an hour later, at the interrogation center.

Shen Zhong sat in the control room, with the file box that had been forcibly pried open placed on the metal table in front of him.

Stacks of paper documents stamped with red official seals were neatly laid out.

The technical team leader was holding the silver key and accessing the verification system for these documents.

"Sir, data match successful."

"The anti-counterfeiting numbers on these paper authorization certificates match perfectly with the incomplete signatures we extracted from the Chung family's servers."

"Every date and every flow of funds on this corresponds to the Chung family's core strategy over the past ten years."

Shen Zhong picked up one of the documents, which was an approval form for outsourcing the parameters of a certain type of advanced radar.

In the margin of the document, there is a line of extremely small handwritten annotations. Although the handwriting is somewhat old, it is still clearly legible.

"If necessary, consultant Xu Wenshan will assume full responsibility."

Shen Zhong looked at the words and sneered.

"Old fox, you've certainly found a way out."

He turned his head and looked at Zhou Weiguo beside him.

"Go scan this annotation separately, magnify it tenfold, and send it to Old Master Zhong's interrogation room."

"Also, bring Xu Wenshan's personal file."

……

Inside the top-level interrogation room.

Grandpa Zhong remained in that posture, his eyes slightly closed, as if he were an old monk in deep meditation.

His withered hands rested on the crossbar of the specially made interrogation chair, his fingertips tapping rhythmically, as if he were counting the time.

He is waiting.

Wait for those former protégés and subordinates to exert their influence, and wait for those important figures to put pressure on Shen Zhong in order to protect themselves.

As long as he didn't have that fatal paper authorization, he was confident he could shift all the blame.

"Mr. Zhong, don't wait any longer."

The interrogator laid a huge photocopy flat in front of the old man.

Grandpa Zhong's eyelids twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the paper.

When he saw the annotation "Xu Wenshan bears full responsibility," his fingers, which were tapping the crossbeam, suddenly stopped.

A fleeting, unreadable emotion crossed those originally cloudy eyes.

"What is this? I don't understand what you mean."

The old man's voice remained calm, but there was a slight, barely perceptible hoarseness in his tone.

"This is something we retrieved from a suspect attempting arson, located on the third basement level of the archives."

A heavy voice came from the doorway.

He pushed open the interrogation room door and walked in with steady steps, the star on his shoulder shining brightly under the cold light.

Shen Zhong slammed a cancellation certificate with a red official seal on the table.

"Xu Wenshan died in a car accident three years ago in Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong Island."

"Mr. Zhong, you wrote down the list of scapegoats three years ago, and even 'dealed with' the person who would take the blame beforehand."

"How else do you intend to deny this deliberate murder to cover up the crime and the complete cycle of treason?"

Grandpa Zhong's breathing became somewhat rapid as he stared intently at the annotations.

That was his handwritten internal advice to Zhong Xiaoai, which should have disappeared from the confidential room three years ago along with Xu Wenshan's death.

He hadn't expected that Shen Zhong's men would be able to snatch the item from the fire.

"Shen Zhong, do you think you can condemn me with just these words?"

Grandpa Zhong raised his head, his eyes revealing a fierce glint in his eyes, like a dying ember.

"I shed my blood for this land before you were even born!"

"The approval of those military projects is for the purpose of introducing more advanced technologies; it's for the greater good!"

Shen Zhong pulled over a chair and sat opposite the old man, leaning forward slightly, exuding a heavy sense of oppression.

"For the sake of the bigger picture, you sold the radar's underlying parameters to foreign powers in exchange for that eight billion dollar personal trust from a Swiss bank?"

"For the sake of the bigger picture, you instructed Zhong Xiaoai to kidnap officials' families in Handong and use underworld methods to eliminate dissidents?"

Shen Zhong pulled an old medal from his pocket; it had been found in the Zhong family's safe.

He placed the medal on the table and pushed it in front of the old man.

"You want to take this medal to your grave so that future generations can pay their respects to you."

"Do you still want to take this traitorous document to the execution ground, bringing shame upon the Zhong family and their ancestors for eighteen generations?"

Grandpa Zhong's hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

He looked at the medal, then at the shocking financial statement next to it.

That was the glory he had fought for his entire life, and the shame of losing his integrity in his later years.

"I...I just wanted to leave Xiao Ai a way out."

The old man's voice finally collapsed, as if his spine had been removed.

"The Zhong family's foundation must not be broken; I never intended to harm the country..."

"It's too late."

Shen Zhong stood up, his tone cold and devoid of any warmth.

"The Chung family's business was cut off the moment you reached for military documents."

He turned and walked toward the interrogation room door. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, he heard the technical team leader's urgent report through his tactical headset.

"Sir, something's happened!"

"The internal draft materials for the military court that we just prepared have been copied in advance."

"A court summary of the Chung family case appeared on an overseas dark web trading platform ten minutes ago."

His heavy steps came to a halt, and his eyes narrowed instantly.

This military interrogation center is a top-level classified unit, and all its networks are physically isolated.

There's only one possibility for sending something out under these circumstances.

"Sir, there's a traitor among us..."

Zhou Weiguo stood in the corridor, his knuckles white from gripping the walkie-talkie tightly.

Shen Zhong stood at the door of the interrogation room and glanced back at Old Master Zhong, who was slumped in a chair.

Although the old fox has fallen, the vast web he wove over decades has clearly not been completely torn apart yet.

"Seal off the entire military interrogation center, and everyone stay put."

Shen Zhong gave instructions into the microphone, his voice so deep it was chilling.

"It seems the wind needs to blow even harder."