Qin Shou knew Yang Song was going to report him, but he never expected Yang Song to treat Secretary Yang like a complete idiot.

Could Secretary Yang possibly believe the bullshit he was spouting?

If she did, her head must have been kicked by a donkey.

"Qin Shou, how do you explain these accusations from Yang Song?"

"Secretary Yang, I admit I hit Yang Song, but that's what he asked for! He told me to beat him up. If I didn't, wouldn't that be disrespectful?

"As for what happened, the County Committee Building has surveillance. We can just pull up the footage and see for ourselves, can't we? Why don't we take a walk to the security room, Secretary Yang?"

The security room was managed by the Security Department, and its director, Wan Hongbing, was Ruan Xiangyu's cousin.

A quick look at "pawread.com" will leave you more fulfilled.

Qin Shou suggested going to the security room because he was certain that on the way there, Yang Song would secretly tell Wan Hongbing to delete the surveillance footage.

This way, he could give Secretary Yang a firsthand look at just how lawless Ruan Xiangyu and her people were in Changle County, how they could hide the sky with one hand.

Yang Wenqing didn't agree immediately. She furrowed her delicate brows, pondering Qin Shou's motives.

Soon, her sharp mind figured it out. Qin Shou must want her to see something.

Yang Wenqing was curious to see how Qin Shou would play this out.

So, she nodded and agreed, "Fine. Let's go to the security room, pull up the footage, and uncover the truth."

Qin Shou led the way, and the three of them headed straight for the security room.

Yang Song, walking at the back, quietly sent a text to Wan Hongbing, explaining the situation and telling him to delete the footage immediately.

When the three of them arrived, the entire security room was pitch-black.

Wan Hongbing was there, pretending to direct his men anxiously, his forehead beaded with sweat.

The sweat was induced by the extra-spicy snack strips he had just eaten.

After all, when putting on a show for Secretary Yang, the acting had to be convincing and the props had to be on point. There could be no mistakes.

The rest of the County Committee Building had power, yet the security room was dark. Yang Wenqing could figure out with her toes that this had been staged.

The nerve of Yang Song!

He was completely disregarding her, the County Party Secretary.

Yang Wenqing didn't lose her temper. Instead, she turned to Yang Song and asked, "What's going on here?"

"I have no idea!"

Yang Song feigned ignorance before quickly calling Wan Hongbing over.

"Director Wan, this is Secretary Yang. She wants to check the surveillance footage. What's happened to our security room?"

"Secretary Yang, it's been too hot lately. There's too much equipment in the security room, and the load was too high, so it short-circuited. Please wait a moment. We'll have the power back on shortly, and then we can pull up the footage for you."

After explaining, Wan Hongbing quickly urged his men on.

"Hurry it up, you lot! Get the power back on now!"

The power outage in the security room wasn't a short circuit at all. Wan Hongbing had simply ordered someone to flip the breaker.

Before cutting the power, he had deleted all the footage of Qin Shou beating up Yang Song.

This way, with the footage gone, Wan Hongbing could claim the short circuit had fried the hard drive, making recovery impossible.

Although it was a hastily concocted plan, it was flawless. Secretary Yang wouldn't be able to find any fault with it.

Just then, the pitch-black security room was suddenly flooded with light.

Wan Hongbing wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a fake sigh of relief. "Secretary Yang, the power is back. I'll pull up the footage for you now."

"Alright."

Yang Wenqing had already guessed that the footage was definitely not going to be found, but she nodded anyway.

She wanted to see what kind of performance this Wan Hongbing would put on next.

It was her first official day at work, and a mere security director was already trying to have an acting showdown with her?

The waters in Changle County were truly murky.

How many big fish were hiding in these muddy waters?

Yang Wenqing swore a silent oath to catch every single one of these big fish that were muddying the waters and restore clarity to Changle County.

Wan Hongbing sat down at the main computer and went through the motions.

Finally, he turned to Yang Wenqing with a look of regret. "Secretary Yang, the short circuit fried the hard drive. The data can't be recovered. All the previous footage is gone. We can't see it."

Yang Song quickly chimed in, "Secretary Yang, even if we can't see the footage, my injuries are real!

"Whatever the cause, the fact is Qin Shou beat me to a pulp. He hit me, and he should be punished for it!"

Yang Wenqing didn't comment, turning to Qin Shou instead. "What do you have to say?"

"Secretary Yang, I didn't want to hit Yang Song. He asked me to. So, in essence, my act of hitting him was just me being helpful, assisting a colleague in relieving the pain of an itchy hide," Qin Shou explained.

*Pfft...*

Yang Wenqing couldn't help but let out a laugh.

This Qin Shou wasn't just a beast, he was a mischievous one too.

"Nonsense! When did I ever ask you to hit me?" Yang Song demanded.

"What if I can prove that you were the one who asked me to hit you? If I can, we'll just let this go, and Secretary Yang can't punish me for it, right?"

Qin Shou was now setting a trap for Yang Song.

*The footage has been deleted and can't be recovered. What proof could Qin Shou possibly have that I asked him to hit me? The key now is to keep up the act for Secretary Yang. I can't falter at the last moment and look guilty.*

After this quick analysis, Yang Song nodded in agreement. "Fine! As long as you can prove that I asked you to hit me, for whatever reason, even as a joke, I'll accept my loss and drop the matter!"

Yang Wenqing looked at Qin Shou with great interest, a smile playing on her lips. "'Beast,' please begin your demonstration."

Only Qin Shou could tell that she had called him "Beast" (Qínshòu), not "Qin Shou."

But Secretary Yang was smiling. Smiling at him.

*Does this mean what happened last night is forgiven? That she's not going to hold it against me anymore?*

Clearly, Qin Shou was overthinking it. Yang Wenqing still hated him, hated him enough to want him dismembered and sliced into a thousand pieces.

Qin Shou clapped Wan Hongbing on the shoulder, a wicked smile spreading across his face. "Director Wan, let me. The hard drive isn't fried. The data was just deleted, and it can be recovered."

Wan Hongbing had deleted the data himself. Though he had gotten the job through connections, he was technically competent. He refused to believe that Qin Shou could recover data that he himself had deleted.

So, Wan Hongbing stood up and said politely, "Alright! Then let's see what Section Chief Qin can do in the field of computer science!"

Back in his special forces days, Qin Shou had been a hacker, the kind of hacker who could break directly into America's Pentagon.

He could undo Wan Hongbing's petty little trick in less than three seconds.

Qin Shou's fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed a line of code in one second, then hit Enter.

Back in the military, the code would have been processed in a second at most. Another second, and the deleted video files would have been restored.

But the main computer in the county's security room was such a piece of junk that it took a full three minutes just to run the code. Another five minutes passed before the deleted videos were finally recovered.

If the military used computers like this, no matter how elite his team was, they'd be utterly crushed by those sons of bitches from America.

Wan Hongbing stared, dumbfounded, at the video files reappearing on the screen—the very ones he had just deleted.

How was this possible?

Wasn't Qin Shou just some stinking veteran?

A total brute!

How could he know anything about computers?

And be even better at it than him?

---

Proofreader: Peter Pan