“You are the patriarch of Jiaxing. How can I, a retired old man, let you open the door?”
Secretary Zhou chuckled dryly, "Old leader, we're all public servants! Let's talk upstairs, let's talk upstairs!"
More than half an hour later, in the conference hall.
To everyone's surprise, Secretary Zhao readily agreed to take all the responsibility upon himself, speaking earnestly and resolutely.
Just when everyone thought the matter was about to be settled and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Secretary Zhao stood up, smiled and said, "Gentlemen, before we finish, allow me to have one last smoke."
He lit a cigarette, slowly walked to the window, gazed at Jiaxing shrouded in night, and sighed softly:
"After decades of ups and downs, winning and losing, in the end, I still couldn't escape the word 'power'..."
Before he could finish speaking...
To everyone's astonishment, Secretary Zhao suddenly tiptoed and flipped his entire body out of the window!
That's too fast!
So fast that no one could react!
With a leap, he tragically ended his own life and his son's future.
Once he dies, he will forever remain a suspect, not a criminal.
In Zhao Shijie's file, the section for his father will forever read: "Former Deputy Secretary of the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee."
Secretary Zhou was the first to rush to the window. Looking at the pool of blood spreading rapidly downstairs, his face turned ashen, and he finally managed a bitter laugh.
“Zhenghao,” he said to Mayor Gao, who had also come along, “get ready, we…we should go to the Party School for a while.”
...
Hospital, ward.
Zhang Cheng lay on the bed, his face as white as paper.
The effects of the anesthetic were wearing off, and a sharp, stabbing pain came from the wound under his ribs, which only made his mind clearer.
"Brother Zhao, what time is it?" His voice was weak.
"It's almost four o'clock," Zhao Daming said, looking at him with concern.
Zhang Cheng didn't say anything more, but just quietly gazed at the deep blackness outside the window.
It will be dawn soon.
The grand drama in Jiaxing should come to an end now.
The ward door was suddenly pushed open, and Gao Datong rushed in, looking utterly lost.
"Brother Gao?" Zhang Cheng looked at him.
Gao Datong's lips trembled, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence: "Zhang Jingtao... is dead."
Zhao Daming and Liu Zhongren's expressions both changed.
"He was shot dead by Chen Zhenguo in the interrogation room."
Before everyone could process this news, Gao Datong dropped an even more shocking bombshell.
"And... Secretary Zhao just committed suicide by jumping off the municipal building."
In an instant, the ward fell into a deathly silence.
Zhang Cheng's eye twitched violently.
He knew the Zhao family would sacrifice a pawn to save the king, but he never expected that this old secretary would choose to use his own life as the "sacrificial pawn".
That's a ruthless person.
“I…I don’t dare stay in the Public Security Bureau anymore,” Gao Datong said bitterly, slumping into a chair. “Once the provincial investigation team arrives, things will change drastically in Jiaxing. I’d better just go back to my road administration bureau.”
After that night, he no longer held Zhang Cheng in the slightest contempt; all that remained was a deep-seated awe.
Zhang Cheng looked at him and suddenly chuckled softly, which aggravated his wound, causing him to gasp in pain.
He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but it sent a chill down the spines of all three people present.
"No."
"The chaos in Jiaxing is not over yet."
"But... it's just the beginning."
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