Dark clouds blanketed the sky outside, and the lights were on indoors.
The video conference jointly convened by the Great District High-Energy Center and the Intelligence Management Center was of a scale and importance rarely seen in a decade. Even though it had begun and ended in haste, the main people in charge at this district branch venue still had to say a few words while the iron was hot.
Once the video connection was cut off, Tang Li knowingly cleared his throat. "All right, let's have an internal discussion within our district center..."
Everyone in the conference room turned to look at him.
Tang Li closed the notebook that did not contain a single record, then swept his gaze around the room, across the faces of the deputy directors and department heads of the district center. He had grown much thinner than before, his eye sockets sunken. He truly looked somewhat like someone recovering from a serious illness—listless and weak, his voice equally feeble.
"No one wanted to run into something like this, but what could we do when it came knocking? Take Fang Weixian, that 'Old Buddha.' He was still tripping me up the month before last, yet this time he died so cleanly..."
Everyone in the room exchanged looks.
Tang Li did not care what the others thought. After a couple of sighs, he got to the point. "Just now, the Great District Center mentioned two matters. That 'Core Equipment Maintenance' is our responsibility. No matter how the situation develops, we have no grounds to refuse it. We just need to guard against it with everything we have. But the other matter... I arrived here too late, so I didn't quite understand it. Mei Zong."
Mei Zhu looked even more exhausted than Tang Li. After a second's