"Prime Minister! Mr. Ozawa!"

A half-hour after the press conference ended, Kunio Renping, wearing casual clothes, bowed respectfully to Zizi Hatanaka and Ichiro Ozawa in a private residence.

Ichiro Ozawa remained silent, his face somber.

"Hmm." Hatanaka Zizi grunted, his expression heavy, with fatigue around his brows. Forcing himself to sit up straight, he rasped, "Speak about the situation."

"Yes!" Kunio Renping responded, starting with his arrangements, "I have appointed my trusted aide, Miyagi Youcai, to establish the Special Investigation Headquarters in charge of Minister Tengji's case. To prevent Aoyama Xiu Xin from causing trouble, I assigned them a very difficult case to investigate..."

"What did Mr. Tengji say?" Hatanaka interrupted.

Kunio Renping paused for a moment before continuing, "Minister Tengji said he received a call from Councilman Tanben Yifu inviting him to a hot spring resort. During the call, Councilman Tanben indicated his intention to rally more than ten allied councilmen to support you, but seemed hesitant, so he first wanted to connect with Minister Tengji before arranging a meeting with you. In hopes of securing those votes for you, Minister Tengji immediately accepted the invitation."

"Sigh!" Hatanaka Zizi heaved a deep sigh, his frown deepening, his fists clenching tighter. Tengji Yu wanted to help him, but was unfortunately used by others.

"Upon entering the resort, Councilman Tengji was led by a young man into a room to bathe and change clothes. After he entered, the young man closed the door and left. As the door closed, he caught a faint whiff of a fishy odor. Following the scent, he discovered the body of Oda Hidehiko behind a screen."

"Before Councilman Tengji could react, Oda Hidehiko's secretary, Junichi Miyazaki, burst in, throwing himself beside the body and shouting loudly. As Councilman Tengji realized something was wrong and tried to leave, Miyazaki Junichi blocked him, and subsequently, Councilman Tanben arrived with others."

Renping paused here to give the two some time to think, then added, "The surveillance footage from the yard outside the room also shows this sequence of events. The resort manager claimed that there was a two-hour power outage last night due to a wiring fault, so the surveillance was incomplete and didn't capture Oda Hidehiko entering the room. The police who arrived last night were Aoyama Xiu Xin's people, so the scene has been tampered with, and the body was frozen that night. Therefore, the time of Oda Hidehiko's death and whether he was carried into the room post-mortem are unverifiable."

"Damn it!" Ichiro Ozawa cursed, slamming the table hard, gritting his teeth, "Is there no way to save Mr. Tengji?"

"Not quite," Kunio Renping quickly suggested based on his experience, "Freezing the body makes it challenging to determine the time of death, which cannot prove that Oda Hidehiko was not already dead before Minister Tengji entered. Conversely, it also cannot be proven that he died after Minister Tengji's entry; at present, only the testimonies of Miyazaki Junichi and Tanben Yifu indicate this, which is not concrete evidence. As long as Minister Tengji does not plead guilty, the case cannot be concluded without more direct evidence of his murder involvement."

All those involved in this case are members of parliament, not ordinary citizens. Their innocence is crucial; even one unreasonable detail warrants not closing the case.

"But the ignorant public won't care about that. They have always been predisposed to suspect every official; as soon as the current evidence suggests Mr. Tengji has a motive for murder, they'll believe he did it. If the case drags on unresolved, the public, provoked by those with ulterior motives, will surely feel we are deliberately protecting Mr. Tengji, intending to exonerate him, and Yanchuan Shilang can seize the opportunity to criticize us, gaining public favor."

Ichiro Ozawa's face was clouded with gloom; he practically spat out the words, Tengji Yu is his confidant, and now, with the loss of a beloved general, he was filled with a murderous rage.

Hatanaka Zizi was grappling with the same dilemma; the most logical choice now was to cut his losses and abandon Tengji Yu, but doing so would inevitably cause others to lose loyalty and trust.

He glanced at Ichiro Ozawa, took a deep breath, and declared thunderously, "Mr. Ozawa, Tengji Yu was only implicated because he wanted to help me, I will not stand by and do nothing! Even if it means losing this election, I must ensure justice for him! If push comes to shove, I'll concede and bow to Yanchuan Shilang to clear Mr. Tengji's name and secure his freedom!"

"Prime Minister, how noble!" Kunio Renping immediately expressed his admiration loudly, though internally he was already cursing. If you give up the race, what is the point of me defecting to you? Damn it!

You can't give up! You must rise up!

"That can't happen." Ichiro Ozawa slowly shook his head.

Hatanaka Zizi's heart, which had been hanging by a thread, suddenly settled.

Of course, he too did not want to give up the competition just because of one Tengji Yu, especially since this might be his closest chance in his lifetime to the prime minister's seat.

But he couldn't be the one to say something like giving up, especially since Tengji Yu was Ichiro Ozawa's trusted aide. Indicating such an intention would undoubtedly create a rift with Ichiro Ozawa and disappoint the other members of the new party.

Although, if this happened to other parliamentarians, they would mostly abandon the pawn for the king anyway.

But people are paradoxical and hypocritical like that. On one hand, they are selfish and only care about themselves, yet on the other hand, they expect others to be loyal and righteous towards them. They allow themselves to perform the same chilling acts, but will not tolerate it from others.

Having Ichiro Ozawa personally utter the words of abandoning Tengji Yu, he could console Tengji Yu into accepting his fate, while other new party members would only think Ichiro Ozawa was ruthless, rather than him being the main cause.

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