Title: Reborn Qi Tongwei, who defies fate by half a move and refuses to kneel

Chapter 84 The Final Interrogation, A Funeral Song for Master and Disciple

Jingzhou Public Security Bureau, second basement level.

This is a special interrogation area prepared specifically for serious offenders. The walls are covered with thick soundproofing foam, and even the low-frequency hum of the air circulation system can be heard clearly. There are no windows, no clocks; the passage of time is a luxury here.

The iron door to interrogation room number three is ten centimeters thick, and when it closes, it makes a dull "thud," like a coffin lid being completely nailed shut.

In the center of the room, a cold, metallic interrogation chair was fixed to the floor. Gao Yuliang sat there, his wrists and ankles locked in stainless steel shackles. His once meticulously crafted wool sweater had a torn collar, and his slicked-back hair was now disheveled, hanging down his forehead and obscuring half of one eye, making him look extremely disheveled.

But he still tried his best to straighten his back, attempting to maintain the last vestige of dignity as the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee and secretary of the political and legal affairs commission.

"Click".

The iron gate opened and closed again.

Qi Tongwei walked in. He wasn't wearing a police uniform, just a simple black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing several gruesome old scars on his forearms. He wasn't carrying any case files, only a voice recorder and a pack of cigarettes.

He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Gao Yuliang, his movements as relaxed as if he were visiting an old friend.

"There are no surveillance cameras, no recorders, and I even had the curtains drawn over the one-way windows outside." Qi Tongwei threw the voice recorder onto the metal table, making a crisp clanging sound. "Professor Gao, this is the last bit of dignity your student is leaving you."

Gao Yuliang raised his head, his eyes behind his glasses bloodshot, yet still exuding the imposing aura typical of those in power. He stared at Qi Tongwei, his lips twitching slightly as he forced out a dry, cold laugh.

"Dignity? Qi Tongwei, you led your men into the provincial party committee compound, pointed a gun at your teacher, and dragged me out like a dog in front of all the cadres in the province. Now you're talking to me about dignity?"

Gao Yuliang's voice was hoarse, filled with suppressed rage. "This is a violation of regulations! This is an abuse of power! I am a member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee. Even if there are problems, it's not your place, the Jingzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, to interrogate me! Where are the people from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection? Where are the people from the Supreme People's Procuratorate? I want to see Sha Ruijin!"

Qi Tongwei didn't speak, but just watched him perform quietly. He took out a cigarette from the pack, lit it, took a deep drag, and then slowly exhaled the smoke toward Gao Yuliang's distorted face.

"Professor Gao, your political lectures are still as good as ever." Qi Tongwei flicked his cigarette ash, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather. "It's a pity we're not in a lecture hall at Handong University, nor in the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee meeting. This is my territory."

"Your territory?" Gao Yuliang sneered. "Qi Tongwei, don't forget who pulled you out of that remote mountain village! Without my guidance, you'd still be a workhorse in that judicial office on Yantai Mountain for the rest of your life! You're betraying your master and ancestors; aren't you afraid of divine retribution?"

"Cultivation?"

These two words seemed to touch a sensitive nerve in Qi Tongwei. He chuckled softly, a laugh devoid of warmth, filled only with endless chill.

"Gao Yuliang, don't make business sound so refined and sophisticated."

Qi Tongwei leaned forward, his sharp, eagle-like eyes fixed on Gao Yuliang. "For the past twenty years, I've fought for you, eliminated your rivals, and taken the blame for you countless times. Half of the Han University gang's territory was won by me, Qi Tongwei, with every single bullet! Haven't I paid enough tuition for this?"

"You..." Gao Yuliang shrank back slightly, intimidated by his imposing manner, then roared, his voice trembling with fear, "Nonsense! I was doing that to train you! To help you mature politically!"

"Mature?" Qi Tongwei stood up, walked around the table, and stood behind Gao Yuliang. His footsteps were light, but they struck Gao Yuliang's heart like drumbeats.

"Is it like you, spouting Marxism-Leninism on the surface, but secretly keeping a mistress in Hong Kong?" Qi Tongwei leaned down and whispered in Gao Yuliang's ear, "A trust fund of HK$200 million, twin sons, Gao Xiaofeng... Teacher, your retirement life is planned quite perfectly."

Gao Yuliang shuddered, his face turning deathly pale. Although Ye Cunxin had already exposed him once at the banquet, bringing it up again in this confined interrogation room amplified his fear to an extreme degree.

"That's...that's a frame-up! Zhao Ruilong framed me!" Gao Yuliang gasped for breath, cold sweat beading on his forehead. "Tongwei, listen to me, it was a trap set by the Zhao family! I was forced! If you let me go this time, I promise, from now on, the entire Handong Political Science and Law Department will listen to you! I can help you deal with Sha Ruijin, and help you get promoted to vice-provincial level!"

Looking at the man who had instantly transformed from a "strict teacher" into a "beggar," a trace of sorrow flashed in Qi Tongwei's eyes, but more so, disgust.

"It's too late."

Qi Tongwei walked back to the table, took out a stack of neatly folded A4 papers from his pocket, and slammed them heavily on the table.

"You personally signed the approval document for the Crescent Lake project. Every single bad debt on it corresponds to dirty money transferred by the Zhao family to your overseas account. The chain of evidence is complete and closed, and the evidence is irrefutable."

Gao Yuliang stared intently at the stack of papers, his hands trembling, his lips quivering as he couldn't utter a word.

But that's not the most exciting part.

Qi Tongwei's voice suddenly lowered, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression. He pulled out a yellowed old sheet of paper from the bottom of the stack of documents.

That was a top-secret briefing on border drug interdiction operations from twenty years ago.

The moment Gao Yuliang saw the paper, his pupils contracted to the size of pinpoints, and he froze as if struck by lightning, like a stone sculpture.

"Does he look familiar, Professor Gao?"

Qi Tongwei's fingers gently traced the bright red "Top Secret" stamp on the paper, his eyes becoming incredibly deep, as if he had traveled through time back to that tropical rainforest filled with gunpowder and blood.

"In 1998, I led a team on a drug enforcement mission codenamed 'Falcon' on the southwestern border. That was my battle that made me famous, and also my life-or-death ordeal."

Qi Tongwei's voice was soft, but every word was like a knife. "We lay in wait in the jungle for three days and three nights and finally located the lair of the drug lord 'Long Snake.' It was supposed to be a perfect raid plan. As long as the support from the rear was in place, we could have taken it down with zero casualties."

"but!"

Qi Tongwei slammed his hand on the table, the specially made metal tabletop making a loud noise that made Gao Yuliang tremble.

"Just ten minutes before the final assault, the drug dealers suddenly found out our ambush location! Hundreds of bullets rained down on us! My three brothers were riddled with bullets on the spot! I was also shot three times and crawled through piles of dead bodies for two days before I survived!"

Qi Tongwei ripped open his shirt collar, revealing a gruesome bullet wound scar below his collarbone.

"This bullet was only two centimeters from my heart. I always thought it was a leak from an insider or an intelligence failure. Until yesterday, I found a copy of this original file in Zhao Ruilong's safe."

Qi Tongwei held up the yellowed paper in front of Gao Yuliang.

In the bottom right corner of the paper, there was a line of handwritten notes: **[Suspend the rendezvous; postpone the operation. Prioritize the overall situation; this is also a test for young cadres. —Gao Yuliang]**

Those familiar handwritings, like a poisoned dagger, plunged fiercely into the air.

"test?"

Qi Tongwei laughed, a laugh so hard that tears almost streamed down his face. The laughter was shrill and desolate, echoing in the empty interrogation room, sending chills down one's spine.

"So, in your eyes, my brother's life, and my life, are just a 'test'?"

"No... Tongwei, let me explain..." Gao Yuliang waved his hands frantically, his eyes darting away, not daring to look Qi Tongwei in the eye. "Back then... back then Li Dakang was on the rise, Zhao Lichun wanted to protect him, he needed a scapegoat to divert attention from the poor border security... I... I had no choice! It was Zhao Lichun's idea! I was trying to preserve the Han University gang's legacy!"

"For the sake of the Han University clique? Or for your own official position?"

Qi Tongwei grabbed Gao Yuliang by the collar and lifted him off the chair, their faces pressed together, their breaths mingling.

"Do you know how many people died that night? Old Zhang's daughter was only a month old! Little Liu hadn't even held his girlfriend's hand! They were also someone's sons and fathers! Just to make room for Li Dakang, just to curry favor with Zhao Lichun, you sold us off like trash?"

"Gao Yuliang, is your heart completely black?"

Qi Tongwei abruptly released his grip, and Gao Yuliang slumped back into his chair, panting heavily like a dying fish.

At that moment, the aura of the so-called evergreen in the political arena of Handong was completely shattered. Sitting there was just a despicable, cowardly, dying old man who would sell his soul for power.

"I...I was wrong...Tongwei, for your sake, for the sake of your teacher's wife, for the sake of our twenty years of teacher-student relationship..." Gao Yuliang pleaded, tears streaming down his face, gripping the corner of the table with both hands, utterly devoid of dignity, "Give me a way out...even if it's life imprisonment...don't sentence me to death...I don't want to die..."

Looking at the old man weeping bitterly before him, the anger in Qi Tongwei's eyes gradually subsided, replaced by an extreme coldness and emptiness.

This was the mentor he once revered as a god and swore to follow to the death.

This is what the officials in Handong called "political wisdom".

How ridiculous. How disgusting.

"Tell me all of Zhao Lichun's secrets." Qi Tongwei turned away, no longer looking at him, his voice as cold as if it came from hell. "This is the only atonement you can offer."

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Gao Yuliang shouted incoherently, as if grasping at the last straw. "Zhao Lichun's account password in Switzerland, his network of connections in Beijing, and... and evidence of his collusion with foreign forces to smuggle rare earths! I've written it all down in a notebook! Hidden... hidden under the osmanthus tree at the old house in Luzhou!"

Qi Tongwei didn't turn around; he simply reached out and pressed the stop button on the recorder.

"Teacher Gao, may you rest in peace."

The iron gate opened, then slammed shut again.

He completely shut out that space filled with decay and evil from behind.