Wang Xiaoliang had just stepped out of the conference room, walking at a furious pace.
His mind was filled with Sun Wenbin's smug, petty face.
Go to the Discipline Inspection Commission. Blow this wide open.
The phone in his pocket suddenly began vibrating wildly.
It wasn't a call, but a string of WeChat notifications.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Four in a row, vibrating against his upper thigh until it tingled.
Wang Xiaoliang stopped and pulled out his phone.
Huang Xueli's name popped up on the screen.
He opened the chat.
"Don't go."
"Twenty minutes."
"I'll call you."
"Don't go."
A single message had been deliberately broken into four separate texts.
They had been typed extremely quickly.
Wang Xiaoliang understood that Huang Xueli was afraid he wouldn't see them, and even more afraid he would actually charge straight into the Discipline Inspection Commission's office.
He stared at the words on the screen.
He didn't take another step forward.
The anger in his head was still burning, but those messages forcibly dragged his reason back.
He turned and headed down the stairs.
His heartbeat gradually slowed.
But that frustrated anger remained bottled up in his chest, with nowhere to go.
After leaving the Administration Building, Wang Xiaoliang walked to a corner of the stands beside the Sports Field.
The wind was strong, making the leaves of the nearby poplars rustle loudly.
He lowered his head to check the time on his phone.
Twenty minutes.
Not a minute off.
The screen lit up with an incoming call from Huang Xueli.
Wang Xiaoliang answered and held the phone to his ear.
"Brother."
The word slipped out.
Utterly naturally.
Countless times before, he had wanted to call Zhou Qiang that, warmly and naturally, the way Liu Xinyu did, but every time the word reached his