Chapter 159: Winter Solstice, Summer Fall (Part 8)

Xia Guomin sat comfortably on the sofa, swirling the rich red wine in his glass and taking a slow, leisurely sip with an air of effortless grace. To any ordinary observer, this mayor of City C—the very core of power in the entire municipality—should have been completely at ease today. Yet, who could possibly know how much tension and terror actually churned within his heart?

Yes, terror. From the moment he learned that Su Guohui had secretly transmitted a top-secret dossier detailing his crimes directly to the Central State Council, the fear had set in, and not a trace of it had subsided even now.

"Xiao Qiang..." The name slipped slowly from his lips. Judging by his facial expression, this name brought him not a shred of happiness; on the contrary, his complexion grew increasingly dark and icy. It was precisely this person before him who had forced him to deploy his final chess piece in order to eliminate his most formidable and threatening adversary. He had learned from his informants within the prestigious Hua clan that only by killing me would the Chairman of the State have no time to manage a small place like City C, and only by killing me could Su Guohui's plan to usurp his mayoral seat be thoroughly shattered. Therefore, he had dispatched his most powerful underworld connection, Axe Gang leader De Guangqing, to destroy me. He had even gone so far as to expose his underground asset within the police department, illegally obtaining several Type 54 pistols! He had staked everything. De Guangqing had staked everything. The entire Xia family had staked everything. If this operation failed, it would become an eternal nightmare for the Xia family.

"Ring, ring, ring..." A shrill telephone ring interrupted his thoughts. Instinctively, he set down his wine glass, picked up the receiver, and said, "Hello?"

"Guomin, it's Fugui..." The voice on the other end belonged to Mr. Xia Fugui, the chairman of Xiawang Construction Engineering. His tone carried a palpable hint of despair, a despair that made Xia Guomin feel deeply unsettled.

"Brother, what's wrong with you?" He frowned into the phone and asked, "You sound a bit off."

"Guomin... We're, we're finished..." Xia Fugui spoke with a voice that was practically trembling. "Old De died at noon today in the abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city... The charge is kidnapping Chu Zhengsheng's daughter. It was Xiao Qiang who rescued that girl..."

"What!" Hearing this, Xia Guomin felt as though his heart had been struck by a heavy blow; he froze completely in place. Failed? How could it have failed? Wasn't that Xiao Qiang supposed to fall into De Guangqing's trap? How could he—how could he possibly have survived? Damn it, was that Xiao Qiang made of iron? So many guns couldn't finish him off?

"Guomin, what do we do? What do we do now? You..." Xia Fugui's voice was frantic, laden with regret. "Sigh, if I had known, I never would have provoked that Xiao Qiang. How can he be so powerful that he's not even afraid of guns? I really have to hand it to that kid; he is clearly the bane of our Xia family..."

Xia Guomin seemed to age decades in a single instant. He knew all too well that once this plan failed, it meant everything was over. He found it truly incomprehensible that a mere kid could defeat De Guangqing and all those men. How could a plan as seamless as this have failed?

"Guomin? Are you listening? What should we do next, what should we..." came Xia Fugui's urgent inquiries from the other end of the line. But here, with a face full of defeat and a bitter smile, Xia Guomin dropped the phone onto the desk, gazed out the window at the endless stream of traffic on the highway below, and muttered to himself in self-derision, "Could that fellow really be the bane of the Xia family? I never expected that we would be brought down by a high school student. I am so unreconciled..."

"Bang!" Just as he was lamenting, the office door was rudely kicked open. Under his gaze, several men in black uniforms rushed in from outside. The leader was a man of about thirty years old. He fixed his gaze on Xia Guomin, who was looking right at him, and suddenly let out a cold smile. "Mayor Xia, we are officers from the State Anti-Corruption Bureau. We have an official state warrant for your arrest. You have the right to defend yourself—of course, that will be in a courtroom."

Xia Guomin had not expected everything to arrive so quickly. He merely smiled bitterly, nodded, drained the red wine left on the desk in one gulp, and after a long silence, replied, "The cold winter has just arrived, yet summer is about to perish. Haha, Winter Solstice perishes Summer, Winter Solstice perishes Summer... To think the Xia family would end just like this, sigh..." With this desolate remark, his expression hardened. He walked slowly toward the investigators who had broken into the office, raised his wrists, and softly said, "I submit to all investigations by the organization..."

"Click!" The faint sound of handcuffs echoed through the spacious and bright office...

Meanwhile, Chu Qitong and I were seated in Li Dabiao's Audi A8, heading toward the city center. Just moments ago, I had called Chairman Hua, instructing him to issue a formal order for Xia Guomin's arrest. Faced with such a ruthless and vicious opponent, I would never show the slightest leniency. Xia Guomin's heinousness lay not merely in his towering crimes, but in the malicious fact that he had plotted to bring about the deaths of both Chu Qitong and myself. Leaving such a person alive posed the greatest threat to myself and my family. Come to think of it, I truly owed this fellow a note of thanks; had it not been for him, perhaps I wouldn't have realized the vital importance of protecting my family.

"Dabiao, starting today, I want you to assign your men to secretly protect Su Xin, Chu Qitong, and Zhang Jing. You must also reinforce the detail guarding my parents. If anything happens to any of them, I will hold you accountable!" I thought to myself: if De Guangqing had kidnapped my parents instead of Chu Qitong... the consequences would truly have been too ghastly to contemplate.

"Yes, Boss, rest assured! Everything is in my hands," Li Dabiao agreed readily. I nodded, then asked with curiosity, "By the way, Dabiao, where on earth did you get all those light and heavy weapons? You know China strictly prohibits firearms. You're quite something; even I didn't know you kept such an ace up your sleeve."

"Heh, Boss, I had no choice. The Sky Eagle Company keeps expanding and now covers the entire Z Province. Z Province is a major coastal economic province; while firearms might be rare for ordinary gangs, high-level syndicates can always acquire some through smuggling. I bought these weapons from coastal arms smugglers just in case, to prepare for any contingency. I kept them hidden and never dared to bring them out, fearing you would object."

"Hmm, your caution in this matter is well-founded. However, those firearms can all be discarded from now on." I nodded in thought and continued, "Those guns are second-rate junk. I give you one week to train a batch of the most elite operatives you can find, and I will supply you with unimaginable, high-tech equipment."

"Oh? High-tech equipment?" Li Dabiao looked at me in surprise. "Boss, what kind of high-tech are you referring to?"

"Heh heh, high-energy laser rifles with a range of three thousand meters, capable of piercing every armor currently existing in the world. High-energy focused-light explosives dozens of times more powerful than standard grenades. Of course, if you want something even more formidable, I can design it. Even if you want tanks, I can build them for you. All I ask is that you train me a special forces unit second to none in any nation on this planet, and this unit will become the trump-card elite of the Sky Eagle Company in the future!" I had already made up my mind: no matter what, only by possessing one's own military force could one control a situation like today's. What I wanted was a powerful, high-tech special forces unit equipped with gear decades ahead of this era—and naturally, this unit would answer to me alone!