Chapter 118 - 100: Struggling to Move Forward

Yan Huaiyi realized he must confront this issue. After all, he was about to leave Changxing and no longer feared Zhao Feiyang as he once did. Originally, this salary was supposed to be distributed. If he could secure it for the employees during his time at the branch, it would count as an achievement before he left, and these staff members would be grateful to him.With this in mind, Yan Huaiyi called Zhao Feiyang to report the situation there.

Zhao Feiyang’s response was rather perfunctory. He told Yan Huaiyi that he was already aware of the relevant situation and would discuss it in a meeting soon. He assured Yan to focus on quality control work, implying that he didn’t need to worry about the salary issue and should just manage his responsibilities.

This time, Yan Huaiyi didn’t act as submissively as before, stating that there was significant discontent both up and down the branch. If the salary issue couldn’t be resolved promptly, not to mention quality inspections, even normal operations might be difficult to maintain.

Zhao Feiyang sensed an unprecedented tension in his tone, which seemed strange to him. He thought that perhaps Yan Huaiyi’s unusual behavior was due to being pushed by him; as the saying goes, ’a cornered rabbit will bite.’ His constant pressure seemed to have finally unsettled Yan Huaiyi.

Zhao Feiyang told Yan Huaiyi not to worry. He would immediately contact the hospital’s finance department to clarify the situation, striving to distribute the owed salaries as soon as possible. He emphasized that he had just arrived in Changxing and there were many historical issues that needed to be resolved one by one.

After ending the call with Yan Huaiyi, Zhao Feiyang called in Geng Wenxiu. She was in charge of Changxing’s finances, and she had visited the Weishan Island Branch previously, so she should be familiar with the situation there.

After hearing him recount Yan Huaiyi’s words, Geng Wenxiu immediately complained. The temporary suspension of salary distribution for the Weishan Island Branch had been decided by the former director, Gu Houyi, before he left. The situation behind this decision was extremely complex.

Since Changxing took over the Weishan Island Branch, the medical services there had seen no improvement. The local staff harbored hostility towards Changxing’s experts, and over the years, an unseen hand had been manipulating matters behind the scenes. Instead of cooperating with the headquarters, they constantly employed underhanded tactics.

The Weishan Island Branch had seemingly become an unfathomable abyss, into which Changxing poured copious amounts of manpower and resources every year, yet without hearing so much as an echo in return.

The most troublesome part was that when the county government initially facilitated the cooperation between the two sides, Changxing only obtained management authority over the hospital. The hospital’s land use rights were allocated as state-owned, and the construction funds were from fiscal appropriations, making the property belong to state assets. Such township hospitals are independently accounted units, receiving subsidies with deficits, and all buildings are counted as fixed assets with annual depreciation, paying national asset usage fees.

According to the contract, Changxing’s involvement with Weishan Island Hospital was on a lease basis, with a lease term tentatively set for five years. Of course, they didn’t have to pay any rent. The contract also stipulated that three years after Changxing started formal operations at Weishan Island Hospital, the local government would assist with the property transfer, including all buildings and facilities.

The branch’s deputy director, Zhang Haibin, had initially added many storefronts around the hospital, all illegal constructions without property rights, now leased out.

Normally, Changxing should receive these rental incomes after taking over, but in three years, they had not received a single cent. They approached Zhang Haibin about this, but his response was that the tenants were locals who had numerous reasons for defaulting on rents, making it impossible to collect. Currently, he wasn’t in charge of the branch. If they wanted to address this, they should find Jin Yonghao.

As the three-year operation period ended, Changxing sought help from the Weishan County Government for the hospital property transfer. The county government relegated this task to the local town government, which then played Tai Chi with them, providing no clear answers. Meanwhile, the Shiliang Town Government, which had initially signed the contract, coincidentally merged with Huahu Town to form the new Hu Shan Town Government, further complicating an already troublesome matter.

In frustration, Gu Houyi decided to suspend the branch’s salary payments as a bargaining ploy, hoping to push the local government into fulfilling the agreement’s commitments.

Many, including Geng Wenxiu, believed that taking over the Weishan Island Hospital was a blunder by Gu Houyi. The wise approach would have been to sever ties with the branch as soon as possible to stop further losses.

Since his appointment, Zhao Feiyang hadn’t had the opportunity to visit the Weishan Island Branch for an inspection. After understanding the situation from Geng Wenxiu, he was lost in lengthy contemplation. During the work handover with Gu Houyi, his attitude might have irritated Gu Houyi, which is why Gu Houyi didn’t further clarify the situation regarding the Weishan Island Branch.

Based on his understanding of Gu Houyi, he wasn’t someone who sought personal glory. The decision to take over the Weishan Island Branch probably wasn’t just for the sake of political achievement. Zhao Feiyang wanted to genuinely understand Gu Houyi’s true intentions, but he was reluctant to contact him directly, knowing that Geng Wenxiu had personal grievances against Gu, which could bias her view.

Zhao Feiyang ordered the original cooperation agreement with the Weishan Island Branch to be retrieved for detailed analysis, hoping to discern Gu Houyi’s intentions through these documents.

Nearly everyone opposed the takeover at the time, but Gu Houyi persisted contrary to consensus and finalized the decision, citing three reasons.