677: Chapter 677 Lu Dongni's Complete Confession

These words became the key that crushed Lu Dongni's final shred of hesitation.

Without any delay, he nodded frantically as if grabbing a life-saving straw, his voice promising urgently.

"I'm willing! I'll say everything! Every single thing and every person I know, I'll tell you all! I only ask that you give me a chance to turn over a new leaf and receive a lighter sentence!"

Li Yang nodded slightly and said no more, raising his hand to signal two members of the Inspection Team who were already prepared by his side.

The two immediately stepped forward and turned on the recording equipment, preparing to start the formal deposition and questioning.

After finishing the instructions, Li Yang turned and walked out of the interrogation room.

The door closed gently, isolating the sounds of questioning inside.

Outside in the corridor, Sa Deli had been waiting for a long time. Seeing Li Yang walk out with a relaxed expression, he immediately stepped forward, his expression carrying a hint of expectation and urgency as he asked in a low voice.

"Team Leader Li, how is it? Did it go smoothly inside? Was there a Breakthrough with Lu Dongni?"

Li Yang couldn't help but chuckle, a confident expression appearing on his face as he replied in a relaxed tone.

"It was more than smooth; it was even more perfect than expected. Lu Dongni completely believes that Liam was the first to confess and pushed all the responsibility onto him. Now his psychological defenses have completely collapsed, and he's inside spilling all the facts, even naming Speaker Luo Wen personally."

Sa Deli's eyes lit up, and he was instantly overjoyed.

Li Yang continued.

"Once we have Lu Dongni's complete and truthful deposition, we can immediately use it against Liam. When the time comes and Liam knows Lu Dongni sold everything out, he definitely won't hold out anymore. Once these two core figures speak, we won't have to worry about the hundreds of mid-level officials we arrested earlier."

After all, since the superiors who had forced them to stay silent and given them promises had all confessed, who among them would be willing to continue taking the fall? They would surely scramble to report and expose others to strive for a reduced sentence.

A single step of sowing discord, and the entire board was set in motion.

A dark web of corruption that had shrouded the Xiapu Star Cluster for years was being completely torn open.

...

On the other side, Liam, who was locked alone in the interrogation room, finally began to calm his chaotic thoughts after his initial panic and despair gradually faded.

He leaned against the cold wall, brow furrowed, recalling everything that had just happened. The more he pondered, the more he felt that something was strange everywhere, and a strong sense of unease and doubt grew in his heart.

If the Inspection Team really had obtained a solid deposition from Lu Dongni and truly possessed all the evidence of their violations of law and discipline, then according to normal interrogation procedures...

They should have immediately brought that hard evidence to conduct a surprise interrogation, pressing him step by step to make him bow his head and admit guilt in the face of irrefutable facts.

After all, no matter how strong his psychological resilience was, in the face of solid witnesses and testimony, there was simply no room for sophistry; he could only accept his fate and confess everything.

But the reality was that Sa Deli, after dropping a cold sentence, had actually left without looking back.

He had been left alone in this sealed interrogation room, ignored, with no further questioning or any results regarding his case, completely left out to dry.

Abnormal, too abnormal.

Liam had been the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee for so many years, after all; he dealt with interrogations, investigations, and interviews year-round, and he knew all of the official interrogation methods and psychological tactics like the back of his hand.

A normal Breakthrough process was never like this; this deliberate cold treatment and shelving actually completely contradicted the logic of handling a case after obtaining solid evidence.

A terrifying yet only logical guess suddenly surfaced in his mind.

He suddenly stood up straight, his gaze instantly becoming sharp as he frantically deduced in his heart.

"Could it be... they were deliberately bluffing me from the start? There was never any deposition from Lu Dongni? Everything was made up to deceive me?"

But on second thought, he fell into deeper confusion.

If it really was a fraudulent interrogation, why didn't Sa Deli strike while the iron was hot, taking advantage of when he was most panicked, broken, and psychologically vulnerable to seize the opportunity to extract a confession? Why instead choose to leave directly, giving him a chance to calm down and think?

This made no sense at all.

Liam frowned deeply, pacing anxiously back and forth in the small interrogation room, his fingertips pressed tightly together. He wracked his brain but could not understand this series of seemingly contradictory and illogical actions by the Inspection Team.

Was it negligence? A deliberate setup? Or was there an even deeper calculation?

Countless thoughts intertwined and crashed in his mind, causing his newly calmed emotions to be completely enveloped once again by endless doubt and unease.

Just as Liam was thinking more and more that something was wrong in the small interrogation room, his mind in a constant tug-of-war, the door suddenly opened from the outside with a "click."

This time, it wasn't just Sa Deli entering alone, but a group of four.

Walking at the very front was the man who made the entire upper echelon of the Xiapu Star Cluster tremble with fear—the Team Leader of The 33rd Inspection Team, Li Yang.

He had a tall and straight posture and a steady aura; his gaze was calm yet carried a soul-piercing sharpness, commanding respect without being angry.

On his left and right followed a serious-looking member of the Inspection Team holding a recording board, while Sa Deli walked behind them to the side, maintaining silence throughout and matching Li Yang's pace.

Seeing the four of them enter together, Liam's eyes flickered slightly, but the panic and deathly pallor from not long ago had already faded from his face.

Although he hadn't completely figured out the true logic behind the Inspection Team's abnormal operations until just now, he had already relied on his years of alertness and experience as the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee to keenly capture the key.

What Sa Deli had said earlier about "Lu Dongni has already confessed everything" was nine times out of ten a fabricated trap, designed to force him to expose himself and confess voluntarily when he was at his most flustered.

Having thought through this layer, Liam instantly steadied his mind again, and his entire being recovered his former calm and confidence as a high-ranking official.

He slowly straightened his back and looked up at Li Yang, even curling the corners of his mouth into a slightly testing smile as he took the initiative to speak in a calm yet measured tone.

"This... must be the famous Team Leader Li, Li Yang. I have long heard your name, but I didn't expect that our first formal meeting would actually be in such a setting and environment."

Li Yang chuckled upon hearing this, his gaze sweeping lightly over Liam's face, immediately seeing the complete shift in the other's mindset.

He secretly felt lucky.

Fortunately, he had acted decisively and chosen to start with Lu Dongni, who was psychologically weaker and easier to provoke.

If he had attacked Liam first, with the other's shrewdness and alertness, this tactic of sowing discord would likely have been very difficult to pull off, and might even have been seen through on the spot, causing the entire plan to fail.

"comrade Liam..."