The office was filled with smoke, and the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts. Jiang Chenghao extinguished the last cigarette in his hand, the red glow from the screen reflecting on his face, which was so somber it looked as though it could drip water.
The long wait had turned into a concrete premonition of ill omen.
Yin Xinyu and Shi Wu had both completely lost contact at almost the same time. This was no coincidence.
His fingers unconsciously tapped the desktop, making a dull thudding sound that was exceptionally clear in the silent night.
Two carefully placed chess pieces, especially Yin Xinyu, who was the key contact person, had vanished without a trace.
The only one capable of this, and with the motive to do so, was Goldmoon, was Ding Qing.
Soon, he received news from Meizhen: Li Zicheng had returned home safe and sound!
This made his heart even colder. Of the three, only Li Zicheng, whom he had increasingly found difficult to control and whose loyalty he had increasingly doubted, was safe and sound.
There was no news from Ding Qing's side about Li Zicheng being in danger or any other information; he was just safe and sound... "Heh..."
Jiang Chenghao let out a cold, almost self-mocking chuckle.
The answer was almost right before his eyes.
It wasn't that Li Zicheng was lucky; it was that he had already colluded with Ding Qing, completely siding with the darkness.
So, when Ding Qing raised his butcher's knife to clean house, Li Zicheng was not only safe and sound but might have even... participated in it?
This thought made Jiang Chenghao feel a surge of disgust and anger.
He had invested countless efforts and resources, only to cultivate a traitor?
Or was Ding Qing's methods truly so brilliant that he could corrupt a person so thoroughly?
He should have thought of it earlier.
Money, power, status—these sugar-coated bullets were fatally attractive to those who struggled in the dark for a long time.
Li Zicheng was no longer the young police officer who needed his protection.
"Ding Qing... truly formidable."
Jiang Chenghao muttered to himself in a hoarse voice. This cleanup not only removed his embedded agents and severed his intelligence line, but it was also like a resounding slap, hitting him hard in the face.
This was a show of force, telling him that the police's methods were vulnerable in the face of Goldmoon's iron-fisted might.
After a long silence, the despondency and anger in Jiang Chenghao's eyes gradually gave way to a deeper, colder resolve.
To deal with ordinary villains, one could use police dogs.
But to deal with a cunning, cruel, and unscrupulous "Mad Dog" like Ding Qing, perhaps one could only unleash a more ferocious, more unscrupulous "hyena."
He needed a knife that could completely tear apart Goldmoon, even if it meant tearing apart his own people as well.
An existence that could make both Ding Qing and Li Zicheng feel fear.
Just as he began to outline the contours of a new, more dangerous plan in his mind, the internal phone on his desk suddenly rang, interrupting his thoughts.
He took a deep breath and answered the phone: "Speak."
His subordinate's urgent voice came from the other end: "Chief Jiang! We just received news! Goldmoon Group's Ding Qing suddenly announced that an extraordinary board meeting will be held tomorrow morning, ahead of schedule! The agenda is... the election of a new chairman!"
Jiang Chenghao's pupils suddenly constricted.
Lee Joong-ku was still in the detention center, and the Di Ri Faction and Tiger Faction were leaderless. Holding an early election at this time meant Ding Qing would almost certainly be elected!
"He's striking while the iron is hot, to settle everything in one fell swoop..."
Jiang Chenghao instantly understood Ding Qing's entire calculation.
Cleaning out internal spies to deter the police, absorbing Lee Joong-ku's forces, completely binding Li Zicheng, and the final step: legitimately ascending to the chairman's throne!
Such swift action, such ruthless methods, such a meticulous plan!
He absolutely could not let him succeed so easily!
Jiang Chenghao slammed down the phone. Without any hesitation, he immediately picked up his mobile phone and dialed a number.
The call connected, and he spoke into the phone in an undeniable, cold tone: "Arrange it. I need to see Lee Joong-ku immediately."
He wanted to personally deliver this news to the former chairman competitor, who was currently in the detention center and completely unaware of it.
Ding Qing wanted to sit on the chairman's seat peacefully? Not so easy!
In the detention center's meeting room, the lights were stark white, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and a sense of oppression.
Lee Joong-ku wore an orange prison uniform, his beard scraggly, but the ferocity and suspicion in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest despite being imprisoned.
He looked at Jiang Chenghao, who had arrived late at night, and a sarcastic curve appeared on his lips.
"Chief Jiang, coming to see me so late? Have you found evidence to prosecute me, or has your conscience awakened, and you're here to let me go?"
His tone was full of provocation.
Jiang Chenghao did not sit down. He merely stood with his hands in his trench coat pockets, looking down at him with no expression on his face, and directly dropped the bombshell: "Ding Qing is holding an extraordinary board meeting tomorrow morning to elect a new chairman."
One sentence, like a heavy hammer, struck Lee Joong-ku's chest.
The sarcasm on his face instantly froze, replaced by disbelief and the dead calm before a furious outburst.
His fingers clenched abruptly, knuckles turning white.
Although he had guessed that Ding Qing would make a move in his absence, he hadn't expected it to be so fast, so impatient!
"Damn it...!"
Lee Joong-ku squeezed out a low growl through gritted teeth, his eyes instantly bloodshot, "He dares?!"
"Why wouldn't he dare?"
Jiang Chenghao's voice was as cold as ice, "Your people are leaderless, and the police can't help you for now. He's cleaned up internal troubles, and now is the time when his power is at its peak. By the time you get out, Goldmoon will already belong to Ding."
"Internal troubles?"
Lee Joong-ku suddenly looked up, staring intently at Jiang Chenghao, "What troubles? Is it you...?"
He immediately connected it to the "top-secret information" Jiang Chenghao had mentioned earlier.
Jiang Chenghao did not answer directly but looked at him meaningfully: "Who do you think, within Goldmoon, could access the core information that could put you in jail? Who would most wish for you to never get out, or to have nothing even if you did?"
He cleverly linked the "cleaning up internal troubles" with the "leaking of top-secret information" in Lee Joong-ku's mind, and once again directed the blame towards Ding Qing.
Although the disappearance of Yin Xinyu and Shi Wu was a pain in his heart, at this moment, they were the best sparks to ignite the dynamite barrel that was Lee Joong-ku.
Lee Joong-ku's breathing became heavy, his chest rising and falling violently.
Jiang Chenghao's words were like venomous snakes, precisely biting into his deepest suspicions and anger.
It was Ding Qing! It must have been Ding Qing who colluded with the police using that information to bring him down, and now he was taking advantage of his weakness to take his life and seize everything he had!
"This despicable bastard!"
Lee Joong-ku slammed his fist on the metal table, making a loud clanging sound. The guards outside immediately looked over vigilantly.
Jiang Chenghao watched him vent, expressionless.
"I can't let him succeed!"
Lee Joong-ku looked up, his eyes filled with a mad desire for destruction, "Help me get out! Chief Jiang, you must help me get out! Otherwise, I'm finished, and you police won't have it easy either! I know too many things!"
He began to threaten; this was the cornered beast's last resort.
This was exactly what Jiang Chenghao wanted him to say.
He needed Lee Joong-ku out; he needed this enraged Mad Dog to tear at Ding Qing, to disrupt Ding Qing's perfect plan, and to stir up the waters of Goldmoon even further.
"Get out?"
Jiang Chenghao leaned slightly, his voice extremely low, with a cold allure, "I can find a way to let you out temporarily to attend the board meeting. But after that... what can you do to stop him? Do your Di Ri Faction and Tiger Faction still listen to you?"
A glimmer of extreme ruthlessness flashed in Lee Joong-ku's eyes: "As long as I can appear at the board meeting, I'll find a way! Those fence-sitters... I'll let them know who the real boss is!"
Although he had no concrete plan, years of accumulated prestige and ruthlessness gave him confidence that he could intimidate some people.
"I can arrange for someone to come in and see you."
Jiang Chenghao straightened up. He no longer looked at Lee Joong-ku and turned to leave.
Every step was steady and calm, but the predatory gaze behind him, like that of a beast, let him know that the chess piece had been placed, and the Mad Dog was about to be unleashed.
Tomorrow's Goldmoon Group board meeting was destined to be anything but peaceful.
Ding Qing thought victory was assured, but he would never have imagined that his opponent, who should have been in a cage, would return to the battlefield in such a way.
And all of this stemmed from a dangerous move calmly laid out by this police chief in the dark of night.
When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits.
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