Fourth promoted update, please subscribe~~~

...

The Li Family holds considerable power and influence in Ninghai, especially with Li Rui's support, making their empire astonishingly vast.

Visible and hidden, combined they're definitely a terrifyingly huge conglomerate...

The larger the conglomerate, especially one that operates in such a scattered manner, the greater the capital depletion. Its cash flow is likewise subject to stringent restrictions.

Li Rui does spend a lot of money; the Bihai Pavilion alone is a cash cow, one of Li Rui's essential money-gathering tools. Many of the Li Family's other industries are sustained by profits from there, yet their own ability to generate capital is quite mediocre.

Should an issue arise with the Bihai Pavilion, the consequences would be dire, potentially a catastrophic blow.

To Li Rui, a capital shortfall of six billion is not a large amount; the safe during its prime held far more than this sum...

But the problem is, to expect Li Rui to come up with six billion all at once to plug this hole, particularly the one at Bihai Pavilion, is quite challenging.

If the other assets of the Li Family were truly powerful, the Bihai Pavilion wouldn't need to continuously subsidize these family enterprises.

Of course, this is not something Qin Fang needs to worry about. How to handle it is Li Rui's headache... However, Qin Fang suspects that Li Rui's concerns aren't just limited to this issue, but the accounts now in Qin Fang's hands.

These items are the truly lethal threats. As long as Li Rui cannot retrieve them, he will certainly not find peace of mind...

At this moment, Qin Fang could understand why Li Rui was frantically sending people everywhere to look for clues. Qin Fang's actions were originally very clean and swift, plus the mysterious and strange nature of the event, Li Rui had no leads and could only resort to this clumsy method of searching for a needle in a haystack.

Unfortunately—

"Li Rui, you're still one step behind..."

A smug smile appeared on Qin Fang's face.

In fact, Qin Fang had to thank Li Rui for his clumsy method; although he knew it was born out of desperation. But when he acted like this, Qin Fang immediately sensed something was off with the contents of the safe.

That's why he had Chen Da buy so many locks, spending an entire night feverishly grinding his Lockpicking Skill proficiency, reaching the level where he could open the safe and take out these items.

In the hands of others, Li Rui may have a chance to snatch these items back, but in Qin Fang's possession, it's simply impossible to reclaim them.

Even if Li Rui had people search Qin Fang numerous times, it would be futile because Qin Fang's Props Box is an utterly private space, impenetrable to anyone but Qin Fang himself.

As long as Qin Fang places these items inside the Props Box, they will always be secure!

Unless Li Rui becomes insanely desperate, to the point of ordering a hit to kill Qin Fang and thus permanently eradicating these items, maybe then Li Rui can feel at ease.

But to this day, Li Rui still has no idea that his adversary is Qin Fang, or that Qin Fang has already returned to Ninghai.

"Brother Da, handle this money for me; I have some matters to attend to..."

Although these items are absolutely safe in Qin Fang's hands, it's clear he wouldn't simply sit on them and do nothing.

After giving Chen Da a brief explanation, Qin Fang immediately left the base and headed straight to the provincial party compound, notifying Tang Feifei to meet him there.

Although he is now the son-in-law-to-be of Governor Tang, and the Tang Family has already recognized this union, the provincial party compound isn't a place one can just enter. He still needs Tang Feifei to lead the way.

The political climate in Jiangnan Province is not very stable. Qin Fang's father-in-law-to-be just got promoted from the top position in Ninghai to the second-in-command of Jiangnan. This was a step up.

However, the top leader of Jiangnan Province is getting old, and his health isn't great, likely to retire or take sick leave within a couple of years, probably moving to the Political Consultative Conference to spend his old age.

As to who will take over the top position, there's a bit of a power struggle...

Qin Fang's father-in-law-to-be has only just become Governor, and the chances for him moving up further are slim, but Li Rui's backer, Secretary Li— the third top official of Jiangnan— has been eyeing the position for a long time, and might well rise to the top...

Although Qin Fang doesn't know much about the workings of the officialdom, it's obvious that the Tang and Li are not in the same camp; the relationship between Tang Cheng and Li Rui makes that much clear.

If Secretary Li takes over, Li Rui's position will become even stronger, which obviously isn't good news for Qin Fang.

If that's the case, Qin Fang might as well take decisive action to undercut the Li Family. Regardless of who takes the top position, taking down the Li Family is what he has to do.

As long as Li Rui remains, Qin Fang will feel like there's a fishbone stuck in his throat, unable to settle down...

Before, Qin Fang had his hesitations and didn't have reliable means at hand, so he had no trustable way to deal with Li Rui.

If killing Li Rui was indeed useful, Tang Cheng would have hired someone to do it long ago, or Li Rui would have already found someone to do the same. There are certain rules that must be followed.

Arbitrarily breaking the rules would certainly incur extreme dissatisfaction from certain people.

But now, things are different. With this thing in Qin Fang's hands, the situation has completely changed, and it's enough to doom the Li Family to a point of no return.

Together with Tang Feifei, he entered the Provincial Party Committee Family Courtyard and went to Building No. 2. For Qin Fang, it wasn't his first time visiting here, but he used to come as the future son-in-law.

This time, however, was different, as he was acting more like a whistle-blower — although when it came to actually dealing with the issue, he could basically say it had nothing to do with him anymore.

How this thing came into his possession need not be known by anyone, and Governor Tang certainly wouldn't care about that, as long as he saw this thing, that was enough.

During the normal working hours, Qin Fang's father-in-law-to-be would naturally not be at home, but his mother-in-law was. Qin Fang and Tang Feifei spent a good time chatting with the mother-in-law.

At noon, Qin Fang naturally showcased his cooking skills to give his future wife and mother-in-law a satisfying meal.

By one o'clock in the evening, when his father-in-law-to-be returned, Qin Fang handed over that thing.

"Just leave this thing here, you should go back to school and focus on your studies, try to stay out of other matters as much as possible..."

After carefully reading through the documents, Secretary Tang didn't say a word to Qin Fang about the matter. Instead, he scolded Qin Fang with an official tone.

Of course, Qin Fang could sense that Secretary Tang's mood was complex as well. It wasn't that he had any dissatisfaction with him, but the current situation had gotten a bit too significant, and Qin Fang's involvement was not fitting.

"And take good care of Feifei... otherwise I won't let you off the hook!"

As Qin Fang was leaving the study, his father-in-law added another stern warning.

"Understood, understood..."

Regarding his father-in-law's words, all Qin Fang could do was nod in agreement, having nothing else to say.

...

The rest of the matter was basically out of Qin Fang's hands.

It was said that the fight at the top was fierce. According to Tang Feifei, for many nights Governor Tang came home with a gloomy face, and probably the only one who could make him look so would be the jumping Secretary Li.

Li Rui had lost something so important that it was impossible to cover it up forever. It seemed that Secretary Li had also learned about the loss of those items and was furious over it.

Unexpectedly, before he had time to clean up the mess, the Commission for Discipline Inspection had already come down and directly placed him under investigation.

A case at this level was not something Qin Fang could interfere with; at best, he could only watch from the side and secretly rejoice.

The Li Family, which had been entrenched in Ninghai for many years, came to this generation with only two main pillars: Secretary Li, who shielded the Li Family on the official front, and Li Rui, the dominant figure in the Ninghai Underground. And these two were mutually supportive and indispensable!

But with Secretary Li toppled, one of the main pillars instantly fell, and the other obviously could not hold up alone. It was said that recently the Ninghai City Bureau and the Jiangnan Province Department mobilized a massive police force to crack down on the entire underworld in Ninghai.

This was a crackdown of considerable scale, comparable to that of more than a decade ago, and in just a few days, at least hundreds of people were cuffed and taken away... Including some of Li Rui's closest subordinates.

The small-time thugs on the streets suddenly reduced by 99 percent, and no one dared to make trouble casually. If they were caught by the police, they would be detained first and ask questions later. As for the final charges and disposition, that would be decided based on the situation at the time...

Of course, there were still those who dared to come out, at least Tiger's people were still fairly comfortable. Figures like Black Bear, Li Dong, and Iron Hand were pretty relaxed.

With Li Rui's people stepping back, they immediately moved forward, rapidly taking over the territory that once belonged to Li Rui... Even the previously unknown Mouse has recently risen to prominence, leading his subordinates to take over a large district's turf!

The underworld forces in Ninghai were also undergoing a major reshuffle...

But Li Rui seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth all of a sudden; nobody knew where he went or what he was planning...

At least when Tiger was taking over territories in the city center, Li Rui did not organize even a single counter-attack of any consequence!

The Li Family had fallen!

In just half a month, as the Spring Festival was approaching, such a major event occurred, catching many people off guard.

Perhaps it was to make a quick and decisive move, and since all the evidence was solid and indisputable, the case from filing to sentencing took only half a month.

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and support, as your support is my greatest motivation.)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.