As the parliament adjourned, the demonstrators gathered outside the parliament building had not dispersed.

Mo Xin didn’t arrange for anyone to evacuate them, only pulled up a police cordon line, temporarily keeping the crowd outside the cordon.

The Minister of Justice and the spokesperson for the news came out one after another. The reporters on-site, sensing the opportunity, rushed forward, passing their microphones one after another.

“Now there are protests erupting in various states of the Federation, and conflicts are escalating in some areas. Are you aware of this? How do you plan to respond? Will you resort to armed suppression?”

“The government of Danga State has warned that if the federal government does not respond in a timely manner, evidence will continue to be exposed, leading to the current chaos, which is the responsibility of the federal government’s inaction. Do you agree with this view?”

“Has President Reinis’s condition changed? How does the parliament plan to handle the accusations against the president from the public?”

…

These past two days had accumulated too many questions. Everyone threw out their doubts one after another, like stones hitting one’s head, causing a splitting headache.

The spokesperson passed a few microphones to her secretary, and the noisy scene gradually quieted down.

She briefly summarized the voting results of the parliament into a text message and disclosed it to the media, then declined all interviews, quickly got into the car with other officials and members of parliament, and left the parliament building.

In less than five minutes, the news of the Federal Parliament’s decision to conduct an inquiry into the president exploded on the internet.

Reinis’s supporters were dissatisfied, while his opponents cheered. The celebrations on the streets of San Lorenzo continued into the late night.

Several protest groups eventually converged at the gates of the Central Military Hospital of San Lorenzo.

The leaders in the front row signaled for everyone to be quiet. Shushing sounds gradually spread to the back, taking two minutes to completely quiet down. Not knowing what had happened in the front, those in the back climbed up to get a better view, only to see people sitting in silent protest in the open space in front of the hospital gate.

They were all dressed in black clothes and pants, wearing black veils on their left arms. The men wore black headbands, while the women wore black mesh hats, presenting a solemn appearance as if attending a funeral.

The representative sitting in the front row held memorial photos in their hands.

The people in the photos varied in appearance, but they were all young, wearing uniforms of the same military style, indicating that they belonged to the Special Operations Unit of the Army.

Someone counted, and there were exactly twenty-four representatives, neither more nor less.

They were the close relatives of the twenty-four officers who had sacrificed themselves in the infamous hostage incident to save Roy Reinis.

Wu Yahui was dressed in plain clothes and sat among them.

In her arms, her brother had thick eyebrows and bright eyes, exuding the fearless and heroic spirit typical of new recruits. This was the only photo of her brother she could find.

Over the years, she had never dared to look at this photo, nor did she try to recall anything about her brother.

Once the memories resurfaced, the hatred and resentment in her heart would uncontrollably boil up, burning away her rationality.

Night gathered other victims’ families to sit in protest together. 

Seeing more and more people gathering behind her, Xiang Bei’s older brother, Xiang Nan, handed a fully charged loudspeaker to Wu Yahui.

Before turning on the switch, he asked in a deep voice, “Are you okay? If not, I can speak.”

Wu Yahui took a deep breath and said, “I’ll do it.”

She took the loudspeaker and smiled slightly at Xiang Nan. “We’ve been preparing for so many years, how can we drop the ball at the last moment?”

Xiang Nan smiled back, lowered his eyelids, and looked at Xiang Bei, forever frozen at the age of twenty, in his arms, sighing softly.

Wu Yahui stood up, turned to face the solemn crowd, and held her brother’s portrait in her arms.

When the loudspeaker was turned on, it emitted a piercing screech, followed by amplifying her calm voice several times over to every corner.

“Eight years ago, does anyone still remember the Lugo hostage incident? My brother, along with his 23 comrades, bravely rushed to the front line to rescue hostages. Some of them had their limbs blown off and died from excessive bleeding, some were turned into sieves by the enemy’s Gatling guns. My brother fought to the end, using a grenade to take two enemies down with him…”

She choked up, and the picture frame in her arms was a little unstable.

“Soldiers are always proud to sacrifice their lives to protect the lives of civilians, but my brother and his 23 comrades… their deaths were worthless!”

“They died in a ridiculous farce. The ones who fired at them were not Lugo, but the hostages they were determined to rescue. It was Reinis, who colluded with Lugo, sold intelligence, smuggled weapons, and profited from the war!”

She recounted the causes and consequences of the hostage incident truthfully to everyone.

How she followed Liang Qiuchi to submit reports repeatedly but hit a wall each time, how Liang Qiuchi’s father was suddenly slandered and inexplicably “suicided” overnight, and how the families of the victims standing beside her were constantly harassed and threatened by Reinis after the incident, forced into desperate situations.

Every detail was explained clearly and plainly.

As she spoke, it was as if she had relived the dark and uncertain days of the past.

The more she spoke, the more indignant she became, and her emotions infected everyone present through the loudspeaker.

Roaring, crying, demanding that Reinis must pay the price for his numerous crimes in order to let the souls of the unjustly dead rest.

Since Mo Qi exposed the first wave of evidence through television speeches, protests and demonstrations against Reinis in various parts of the federation have been continuous, and the increasing public opinion pressure forced the parliament to compromise and accelerate the process of questioning and investigating President Reinis.

And the sit-in demonstration in front of the hospital grew larger and larger. In less than two days, social traffic in the nearby five blocks was completely paralyzed.

And it didn’t stop there.

Early on the fourth day, as if predetermined, roadside shops and shopping malls all closed their doors, and nearby schools also saw strikes and class boycotts.

Seeing that if left unchecked, it might escalate into a city-wide silent protest, the parliament had to convene another emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with this overwhelming situation.

As expected, Chellensee’s words were followed by action. He strongly recommended the establishment of a special task force to reopen the investigation into the hostage incident of that year and to give the families of the twenty-four sacrificed officers an explanation.

Naturally, he also mentioned reopening the case of Liang Qiuchi’s father, Liang Yi, for treason.

After all, the evidence was already there, and there was no need to spend much effort on the investigation. Anyone with eyes could see who the real perpetrators of those serious crimes were.

However, with Reinis stepping down as president becoming inevitable, the inquiry into him had not yet concluded.

Reinis had been claiming illness, making all sorts of excuses, and refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

Most crucially, the transactions between him and the Lugo side had always been conducted through intermediaries, not directly by him. Even if there were financial transaction records, it would be impossible to pin the guilt on him alone.

Reinis could simply feign ignorance and shift the blame onto his wife, son, and subordinates.

Unless—

Those intermediaries could step forward and testify, just like Ernest did, to complete the evidence loop.

How hard could that be? Mo Qi couldn’t help but wonder.

Once again, he couldn’t help but marvel at Liang Qiuchi’s meticulous planning over the past eight years finally put to use.

Wu Yahui personally came to San Lorenzo for two purposes: to participate in the silent protest and to fulfill the task entrusted to her by Liang Qiuchi before his arrest.

• Ensure that the witnesses who were willing to testify against Reinis, whom she had contacted earlier, would not back down halfway.

These people had cooperated with Reinis in the past years, either in a cooperative or subordinate relationship. Without exception, later on, due to the rapid expansion of the Reinis family’s power, arbitrariness, constant marginalization, and suppression of them, especially in recent years, the relationship became increasingly tense, and even the basic surface harmony could hardly be maintained.

Moreover, like Ernest, most of them were hindered by their families being monitored and tracked by Reinis for a long time, so they dared not truly break ties.

After years of probing and persuasion by Liang Qiuchi, a few people began to waver.

Liang Qiuchi promised that if things didn’t go well, Lugo’s side would surely guarantee the safety of their families and provide sufficient protection.

It was precisely this point that dispelled many people’s concerns.

After secretly waiting and planning for so long, now, it was finally time to settle all scores.