12: Chapter 12 Targeted Interviews

Early morning, Provincial Organization Department confidentiality room.

The clock's second hand swept precisely past seven o'clock.

According to the ironclad rules, deputy examiners for all provincial test sites would be randomly drawn from the examiner pool two hours before the exam.

All communication devices were sealed on the spot.

Unified transport by bus.

This was the rule, designed to be completely impartial.

But in this world, rules are only ever meant to bind the majority.

The heavy iron door of the confidentiality room was pushed open.

A middle-aged man in an old-fashioned dark blue jacket walked in.

He was lean with graying hair, steadily holding a chipped military-green thermos.

The head of the First Division of the Provincial Organization Department was about to step forward.

The young man following the middle-aged man had already pulled a dark red ID from his coat and flashed it before his eyes.

Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The visitor was Team Leader Qiu Rui.

A member of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection Standing Committee, Director of the First Inspection and Supervision Office, deputy-department level, and deputy leader of the Provincial Party Committee's First Inspection Team.

His mission this time was to be secretly stationed in Linjiang, to inspect and collect clues regarding disciplinary violations.

Last night, an old friend recommended an essay to him.

An article taken as a model essay by the provincial exam review board.

It didn't contain a single empty word, and every word hit the mark.

It incisively analyzed the deep-seated ills of Linjiang City's local debt and its connection to the Urban Construction Bureau's investment companies.

The iron-fisted strategies provided in the text were enough to be written directly into the Provincial Party Committee's internal reference materials.

Team Leader Qiu Rui applauded.

He had assumed it was written by some old veteran who had exhausted his heart and blood.

After pulling up the file, the author's name was actually Zhu Yuntong.

That notorious playboy in Linjiang City.

What was more interesting was that the second-place candidate for the position he applied for was the daughter of Division Chief Liu Haiping of the Provincial Government Office.

Matters instantly became intriguing.

"Director Qiu, this is..." The head of the recruitment section's tongue was tied.

His finger pointed at the list.

"The Third Middle School test site, that spot for Division Two of the Municipal Party Committee Office."

"Cross out the name of the fourth deputy examiner."

"Today, I will take his place."

Nine-thirty, Third Middle School, lecture hall.

The door hinges made a dull creaking sound as Zhu Yuntong walked in.

In the huge lecture hall, only one cold chair sat in the center.

Three meters ahead, seven examiners lined up with murderous expressions.

Four high-definition cameras locked onto this space from different angles; the room was so quiet one could hear their own heartbeat.

Zhu Yuntong walked to the chair and sat down.

There was no nervousness typical of candidates.

And certainly no fawning attempt to curry favor.

For sixty years in the Ming Dynasty, the morning court in the Fengtian Hall was far more dangerous than this.

To him, this small space was just another chair in the Imperial Study.

The chief examiner, Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming of the Provincial Party School, flipped through the candidate's information card, which made him feel even more disgusted with the Zhu Yuntong in front of him.

The thing he hated most in his life was a bureaucratic scion who was unlearned and relied on his father's status.

Today, he would personally tear off this second-generation rich kid's mask.

"Candidate, twenty minutes, four questions." Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming tapped the table, his voice cold.

"Begin now."

"First question. You have just joined the Municipal Party Committee Office, and the leadership has asked you to lead the coordination of an inter-departmental investment promotion meeting. At the meeting, the Development and Reform Commission, the Finance Bureau, and the Urban Construction Bureau are pushing responsibilities onto each other over the budget, and the situation is out of control. As a newcomer, how do you handle this?"

In the corner, Team Leader Qiu Rui, wearing an old-fashioned jacket, frowned.

This wasn't testing a newcomer; a situation like this would require at least a Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee to preside over.

Letting a rookie suppress a group of old foxes holding real power?

Old Zhou was really trying to kill him.

The other examiners couldn't even be bothered to pick up their pens; they were clearly here to watch a show.

Yet, Zhu Yuntong didn't even pause to think.

"First, shut up and observe."

"The three parties are bickering over money, power, and responsibility. As a newcomer, I have no authority to judge. I am only responsible for truthfully recording the differences; I will not mediate, and I will not take sides."

"Second, light a fire to burn them."

"The meeting is deadlocked only because the leaders who can make the final decision are not present. I will not suppress anyone; I will only throw out one question—'Distinguished leaders, if we cannot decide on the reception plan for the foreign investors today, who will go to explain it to the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government tomorrow?'"

"Transfer the pressure of accountability from myself to each of them."

"Third, seek common ground while reserving differences."

"Shelve the budget dispute and first finalize the 'face projects' that don't involve core interests, such as reception standards and accompanying personnel. Formulate meeting minutes and have all parties sign them. With this 'pledge' in black and white, it can then be submitted to superiors to adjudicate the distribution of interests."

Every word and sentence was the purest, coldest imperial statecraft.

Indulge first, then apply pressure, and finally divide and conquer.

This tactic was exactly the same as the method he used to balance the Six Ministries in the imperial court back then.

Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming could hear it.

This wasn't reciting from a question bank.

This was an instinct for political intrigue that had soaked into his marrow.

Team Leader Qiu Rui held his thermos, and in the corner where no one noticed, his mouth curled slightly upward.

Dark enough.

Ruthless enough.

He was natural material for doing dirty work.

For the next two questions, Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming's questions became increasingly tricky, all about deadlocks regarding mass incidents and sudden stability maintenance.

Zhu Yuntong's answers remained airtight.

Although he was slightly unfamiliar with some modern terminology, his approach to breaking the deadlock was always a top-down, dimensionality-reducing strike.

To capture the bandits, first capture the king.

Link after link, logically rigorous, so cold it didn't seem like a twenty-four-year-old young man.

Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming, for the first time ever, nodded slowly.

The red pen in his hand was already prepared to give a high score on the evaluation sheet that surprised even himself.

Just at this moment.

The second deputy examiner sitting on the far left ignored the exam rules and forcibly interrupted the process.

"Candidate, your answer is clever, but it is all talk on paper."

"Fourth question, I want to ask it differently."

Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming frowned, but did not stop him.

"As far as I know, your father is Secretary Zhu Tianhe. If you go to the countryside for training and a demolition household demands to see you by name because of compensation money and threatens to petition. He also publicly accuses you of using connections to enter the system, attracting a large number of people to watch and film. What do you do?"

A killer move!

Team Leader Qiu Rui put down his thermos, his eyes turning cold.

This wasn't an exam.

This was a public trial.

It was forcibly putting Zhu Yuntong's identity on the table, creating class opposition, and forcing him to prove his own innocence.

No matter how he answered, as long as he admitted his identity, the starting score for this question would be nailed to the pillar of shame of a failing grade.

Inside the exam room, even the sound of breathing disappeared.

The other three examiners immediately sat up straight, their pens aimed uniformly at Zhu Yuntong.

The trap set by Liu Family had been sprung.

Zhu Yuntong sat in the chair, not even lifting his eyelids.

"First, I will ask the crowd to film clearly, film carefully."

"There is nothing that cannot be said to others."

"Secondly, I will admit in public that I am indeed the son of Secretary Zhu Tianhe."

"But precisely because of this, I cannot, and I dare not, violate existing policies to give him any green light."

"My power comes from the people."

"Not from bloodline."

The answer was resounding and powerful.

But in the gray areas of grassroots governance, these words seemed too idealistic.

Even, somewhat childish.

The second examiner was waiting for this flaw; he shook his head repeatedly without hiding it, and the red pen in his hand drew an eye-catching cross on the evaluation sheet.

"The answer is stiff, lacks empathy for the masses, and is extremely likely to intensify contradictions!"

He delivered the judgment directly.

The three people beside him immediately followed.

"Detached from the masses, bureaucratic!"

"Adaptability, unqualified!"

Four pens, in unison, wrote down a super-low score on the evaluation sheet that was enough to ruin any candidate's future.

Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming was so angry his face turned livid; he knew this answer had flaws, but it definitely didn't deserve this!

He indignantly filled in the highest score of the session on his own sheet.

Team Leader Qiu Rui in the corner saw it clearly.

This was a strangulation.

Remove one highest score, remove one lowest score. When the recorder calculated the average, their hand shook like a sieve.

This score was absurdly low.

"The interview is over, the candidate may leave." Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming's voice was suppressed with monstrous anger.

Zhu Yuntong stood up, didn't even look at the four examiners, and gently pushed the chair back to its original position.

He turned and left.

Pushing open the door, Liu Xiaolei was waiting in the hallway, her face full of the winner's mockery.

She stepped closer in her high heels, smiling contemptuously in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"Young Master Zhu, is this rice bowl of the Municipal Party Committee Office hard to eat?"

Zhu Yuntong stopped and turned his head.

There was no anger in his eyes, only the indifference of looking down at ants.

"Very hard."

"But, it can also choke those with ulterior motives to death."

As the words fell, he strode away, his back resolute.

Inside the classroom.

Liu Xiaolei entered with a charming smile and began to recite the template answers she had long since memorized.

The four harsh examiners from just a moment ago were now acting as if bathed in a spring breeze, nodding frequently.

Executive Vice President Zhou Zhengming was so angry he almost left the seat on the spot.

Team Leader Qiu Rui, sitting in the fourth seat, took out an old-fashioned mobile phone from his jacket pocket while listening.

Under the table, his thumbs flew, quickly editing a text message.

"Investigate all deputy examiners at the Third Middle School test site, Division Two of the Municipal Party Committee Office, for all their call records and financial transactions in the last month. Immediately."

The moment the message was sent, Team Leader Qiu Rui raised his head.

He gave a gentle smile to Liu Xiaolei, who was talking eloquently on the stage.