163: Chapter 163 The County Discipline Inspection Commission Arrives

Police Chief Zhao Gang accepted the order and withdrew.

The sound of footsteps gradually faded away in the empty corridor.

Zhu Wenhao finished reading the last document and lifted his wrist to check his watch.

The hour hand had already passed nine o'clock.

He stood up and locked the files on his desk into the safe, categorized by type.

He grabbed the dark jacket from the coat rack and put it on, but his gaze stopped as he passed the corner of the room.

The silver suitcase was still standing there.

Director Xu Jie's luggage.

A new official taking office, her very first assignment.

This suitcase had been left there since the afternoon.

Was the handover work too tedious, causing her to forget it?

Or, being new here, did she see the door to Zhu Wenhao's office tightly shut and feel too embarrassed to rashly knock and come in to retrieve it?

The intricacies of human relationships in grassroots government compounds often breed estrangement through such deep, unspoken speculations.

Zhu Wenhao did not think much of it.

He walked over, grabbed the handle with one hand, and pushed the suitcase out of the Deputy Secretary's office.

Zhu Wenhao lived in the dormitory building; taking it along on his way was merely a small favor.

The Heishi Town Government building at night was so quiet that one could hear the sound of the cold wind whistling through the hall.

The doors to every office had long been locked.

Only when he reached the west side of the second floor did a sliver of incandescent light leak out from under the door of the Party and Government Office.

Zhu Wenhao paused in his tracks.

The schedule for township government agencies had always been to leave work on time, never lingering.

Today, however, was an exception.

He reached out and pushed open the wooden door.

Inside the large Party and Government Office, Director Xu Jie sat alone at the desk in the innermost corner.

Two tall stacks of old ledgers were piled in front of her, and she held a red and blue dual-color pen, making annotations on a photocopy.

Hearing the sound of the wheels rolling over the floor tiles, Director Xu Jie looked up.

"It is your first day reporting for duty; why haven't you gone back to rest yet?"

Zhu Wenhao's tone was flat.

Director Xu Jie put down her pen and straightened her posture.

"Although Director Zhou Mei handed over the archive directory this afternoon, the administrative records of Heishi Town for the past three years are too complex. I need to personally sort out some of the missing data."

She glanced at the suitcase in Zhu Wenhao's hand.

"Furthermore, grassroots affairs are tedious. Before you have a suitable liaison, my primary job is to ensure that Secretary Zhu's administrative work runs without interruption. It is better to do the homework beforehand than to sharpen the spear at the last minute."

This response was measured and appropriate. She claimed no credit, nor did she deliberately try to cozy up to him.

Zhu Wenhao did not take the bait.

For a superior, the most taboo thing is to speak deeply with a subordinate with whom one has a shallow acquaintance.

Whether Director Xu Jie, this whetstone, was useful or not depended on actual results, not words.

He pushed the silver suitcase forward half a meter and let go.

"Leave your luggage here. Rest early."

There was no unnecessary politeness, nor any trace of tender concern.

Zhu Wenhao turned around and strode out of the Party and Government Office, his back view crisp and decisive, without a moment of hesitation.

Watching the door that had been pulled shut behind him, Director Xu Jie reached out and held the handle of the suitcase.

She closed the ledgers on the desk, put them back, turned off the lights, and dragged the heavy suitcase down the stairs step by step.

The township family dormitory building was just behind the compound; the hallways were cramped, and there was no elevator.

She managed to carry the suitcase to the single dormitory on the third floor all by herself.

She used her key to turn the stiff lock and pushed the door open to enter.

The room was sparsely furnished: a wooden bed and a paint-peeling desk.

Director Xu Jie placed the suitcase against the wall, not yet reaching to press the switch on the wall.

From the shadows of the curtains, a man's voice came out.

"Young Miss, this Zhu Wenhao is truly rigid in his ways; he wouldn't even give you a graceful way out. Facing someone as beautiful as you, he is completely oblivious to romantic feelings."

Director Xu Jie did not turn on the light; borrowing the faint moonlight filtering in from outside the window, she swept a cold gaze toward that corner.

"Xu Qi."

She only softly called out a name.

The man in the shadows instantly retracted his relaxed standing posture, straightened his back, and brought his feet together.

In the team, who wasn't afraid of the Young Miss's methods?

"Have you forgotten the rules completely?"

Director Xu Jie took off her dark gray suit jacket and hung it on the back of the chair.

"If you cannot control that mouth of yours, I wouldn't mind telling Xu Yi to send someone more sensible to take over this assignment."

Xu Qi lowered his head: "This subordinate spoke too much; I accept the Young Miss's punishment."

Director Xu Jie walked to the table, poured half a glass of water, and drank it in one gulp.

"I gave up the leisurely life at the Provincial Government General Office to voluntarily come down to this impoverished backwater."

Director Xu Jie set the glass down, the porcelain bottom making a light sound against the wooden table.

"Firstly, it is to get a close look at this Zhu Wenhao. To see if he is worth the Xu family investing chips into."

"Secondly..." Her voice grew cold, "It is to have some peace and quiet, to avoid that man surnamed Liu."

Xu Qi stood where he was: "Young Miss. That Deputy Team Leader Liu Hao, relying on the marriage contract set by the elders of both families years ago, is acting with less and less restraint. I heard that after you came to the Jiangnan Provincial Government, he insisted on a lateral transfer from The Capital Discipline Inspection Commission system and parachuted directly into the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection. It is clear that he is coming for you."

"Marriage contract?" Director Xu Jie sneered.

"That was a deal my cheap father secretly agreed to in order to exchange for his own interests. He created his own mess; does he want to use me to fill the pit?"

She turned around and stared directly at Xu Qi in the darkness.

"Xu Qi, pass these words back exactly as they are. Tell that cheap father of mine, if they want to engage in a marriage alliance, tell him to go to that residence in Houhai and get that little daughter born to his mistress cleaned up and sent over."

"As far as I, Director Xu Jie, am concerned, I only have a grandfather, not a father. If he dares to reach his hand in here again, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Xu Qi replied repeatedly: "Understood. I will pass the words back without missing a single character."

"In addition, report that I am safe to the old master." Director Xu Jie rubbed her brow, "Just say that everything is fine here, and tell him to enjoy planting flowers and grass in The Capital."

Xu Qi accepted the order, his figure flashed, and he vaulted out of the half-open window, disappearing into the heavy night.

Director Xu Jie walked to the window and pulled it shut, sealing out the cold wind from outside.

The next morning.

The sky was just turning a fish-belly white, and gray mist shrouded the national highway in Qingjiang County.

A black Santana sedan was pressing over the potholed asphalt road, speeding toward Heishi Town.

The heater in the car was turned on full blast.

Deputy Secretary Tian Wenguang of the Qingjiang County Commission for Discipline Inspection sat in the back row, his eyes slightly closed.

In the passenger seat, Director Li Qiang of the First Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the County Commission for Discipline Inspection held the itinerary, "Secretary Tian, at this speed, we will be able to enter Heishi Town in another forty minutes. Should we call the Town Commission for Discipline Inspection ahead of time to notify them to prepare the handover procedures?"

Deputy Secretary Tian Wenguang opened his eyes.

"No need to notify them." Deputy Secretary Tian Wenguang flatly rejected the idea.

"A surprise attack, take the person directly. Giving them a heads-up will only give them time to hide materials."

Yesterday afternoon, Deputy Secretary Qin Yuanshan called him into the office and gave him instructions in person.

Village Secretary Zhang Dahai of Heishui Village was a ticking time bomb.

If this bomb were detonated by Secretary Chen Jianjun of the Town Commission for Discipline Inspection and the newly arrived Zhu Wenhao, the flames would inevitably spread to the county.

Deputy Secretary Qin Yuanshan's instructions were extremely clear: seize the case and keep it within the scope of the County Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The nature of the case could only be "personal economic misconduct by a village cadre" and must not be tainted by any trace of being a "protective umbrella for underworld forces."

"Zhang Dahai has been in Heishi Town for several days; who knows what methods that loose cannon Secretary Chen Jianjun used to break him." Deputy Secretary Tian Wenguang rubbed his sore, swollen eye corners.

"Today, when we arrive at the town, no matter what excuse Secretary Chen Jianjun finds, directly show him the decision of the County Commission for Discipline Inspection to escalate the investigation. Bring the person, the files, and all confiscated physical evidence, and load them onto the car to take back to the county."

Director Li Qiang looked troubled: "Secretary Tian. I heard that when they arrested the person that night, the Municipal Public Security Bureau also participated. If they use the Municipal Public Security Bureau to pressure us..."

"Even criminal cases must first pass the gate of Party discipline!" Deputy Secretary Tian Wenguang said, leaving no room for argument.

"When we get to the ground, be tough. Their Town Commission for Discipline Inspection still has to be under the vertical leadership of the County Commission for Discipline Inspection. I don't believe Secretary Chen Jianjun dares to openly defy his superiors!"

The Santana tore through the mist, its engine roaring, carrying a sense of oppression that boded ill for those it was coming to visit.

When two horses share the same trough, one is bound to be injured.

At the same time, at the exit of the Linjiang City Ring Expressway.

The toll barrier lifted, and a black SUV with a pass for the Linjiang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection drove out of the gate.

In the driver's seat, Su Qinghan was wearing a crisp, dark uniform of the Discipline Inspection Commission.

Her gaze was cast toward the morning mist outside the windshield.