20: Chapter 20 Zhao Desheng's Choice

Monday morning.

The Municipal Party Committee Organization Department building.

Division Chief Zhao Desheng, sporting dark circles under his eyes and clutching a briefcase under his arm, walked into the Cadre Division 2 office area.

Along the way,

the colleagues who greeted him received only a grunt in response.

He walked over to that blue folder.

After a moment of hesitation, he stuffed it into his bag.

He couldn't suppress it.

This was the conclusion he had reached after two nights of deep deliberation.

Surviving in the system,

the biggest taboo was holding a bomb without even realizing it.

That written record from Political Commissar Wang Haitao, in black and white,

was ironclad proof of the internal rift within the Development and Reform Commission.

If he covered up this material now,

it would be no different from throwing himself into the fire to take the fall for others.

Division Chief Zhao Desheng did not linger in his office.

He went straight up to the eighth floor.

The door to the office of Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan, who was in charge of cadre affairs, was open.

Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan was wearing glasses and reading a newspaper.

"Minister."

Division Chief Zhao Desheng walked in.

He presented the folder with both hands.

"This is the initial draft of the mid-term leadership evaluation for the Development and Reform Commission. Please take a look."

Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan took off his glasses and opened the file.

The first page was unremarkable.

When he turned to the second page,

his movements froze.

"'Replacing collective study with administrative orders...'"

Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan read the words aloud.

"These words are too heavy."

"Xiao Zhao, the Development and Reform Commission is crucial to the city's overall situation. Is there raw material to support drawing such a conclusion about their leadership?"

Division Chief Zhao Desheng was well-prepared.

He pulled out a photocopy from the back of the folder and handed it over.

"On Friday afternoon,"

"Comrade Political Commissar Wang Haitao, Executive Deputy Director of the Development and Reform Commission, took the initiative during an individual talk to report irregularities in the approval process for Phase III of the Chengnan High-tech Industrial Park project."

"This is the transcript of the conversation, signed and fingerprinted by him personally."

Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan looked at the bright red fingerprint.

He fell silent for a minute.

The winds of officialdom.

At their level, they could perceive the depths of the situation with a single glance.

The personnel arrangements of the Provincial Party Committee had just been finalized.

Secretary Zhu Tianhe was about to take over as Deputy Secretary, overseeing organization.

And over here,

Secretary Zhu Tianhe's son was actually acting as a mere recorder at the grassroots level.

Meanwhile, the Executive Deputy of the Development and Reform Commission had completely sold out the number one leader.

This was a beautiful combination of moves.

The conflict had been brought directly to the table.

"Seeking truth from facts is the fundamental principle of our Organization Department when evaluating cadres."

Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan slipped the photocopy back into the folder.

"Since grassroots comrades have raised concerns, the leadership profile must reflect them objectively."

"Leave this material with me for now. I will report it to Minister Zhao this afternoon."

A thin layer of sweat broke out on Division Chief Zhao Desheng's back.

The burden had been passed off.

He had finally cleared this hurdle.

Coming out of the Executive Deputy Minister's office,

Division Chief Zhao Desheng passed by the large office area of Division Two.

Through the glass,

he saw Zhu Wenhao sitting at his workstation.

Zhu Wenhao was using a paper cutter to align a stack of cadre resumes.

His movements were calm and orderly.

Who would have thought

that his seemingly casual stroke of a pen could stir up such a massive storm in the city.

Wu Dehai leaned over to Zhu Yuntong's workstation.

Holding two bottles of mineral water, he handed one over.

"Zhu Wenhao."

"Has that initial draft for the Development and Reform Commission been submitted?"

Previously it was "Xiao Zhu," but now it was "Zhu Wenhao."

In the system, people's scent for power

was sharper than that of police dogs.

That scene in the conference room of the Development and Reform Commission,

Wu Dehai had witnessed it all and pondered over it all night after returning home.

The next day,

he replayed everything he had ever said to Zhu Yuntong in his mind,

terrified that some word of his might have offended this low-profile, true deity.

"It's been submitted."

Zhu Yuntong unscrewed the cap and took a sip.

"Is something on your mind, Brother Wu?"

"Nothing, just asking."

"Director Wang's transcript is a powder keg. Division Chief Zhao didn't make you change it, did he?"

"The raw transcript represents the voice of the grassroots."

"How could the Organization Department arbitrarily alter the heartfelt words of a cadre?"

Wu Dehai gave a couple of dry laughs.

He retreated to his seat.

He had finally figured it out.

This gentleman had a background that reached the heavens; he wasn't here to learn the ropes of the trade at all.

On the other end,

Treasury Division of the Municipal Finance Bureau.

The clatter of keyboards filled the quiet office.

The old Section Chief Ma Jiancheng sat near the window.

He was focusing on dealing with the stubborn dried tangerine peel in his health-care kettle.

For someone close to retirement,

his only wish was to stay out of everything; making it to retirement to collect his pension would be a victory in itself.

Su Qinghan sat in front of her computer.

Her eyes were glued to the screen of the internal audit system.

Zhu Yuntong wanted to investigate that shell company owner.

She had spent two days over the weekend

digging up all the industrial and commercial registration information of the twelve construction and trading companies under Wang Jianguo's name.

She had compiled them into a complex equity penetration chart.

Now,

within the vast ocean of financial transaction records,

she needed to find the pipeline belonging to Wang Jianguo.

"Xiao Su, don't push yourself too hard."

Section Chief Ma blew on the rising steam from his teacup.

"As long as the totals match for the accounts from previous years, that's enough."

"I happen to be learning the new accounting system, so looking through them more will help me get familiar."

Su Qinghan replied.

Her fingers clicked open the disbursement details for Phase III of the Chengnan High-tech Industrial Park project.

Her background as a Master of Political Economy from Renmin University

showed a crushing advantage at this moment.

Ordinary accounting fraud

might pass muster in the eyes of an old accountant.

But to Su Qinghan, who had received systematic financial analysis training,

it was full of loopholes.

An advance payment of eighty million yuan caught her attention.

This money had gone through the special channel for "emergency infrastructure."

For a normal large-scale earthworks project,

the down payment would be at most thirty percent,

and it had to be disbursed in batches according to the progress of the project.

This eighty million,

before even a single dirt pit had been dug for the project,

went directly into the account of a company named "Shengda Construction" under Wang Jianguo's name.

What was even more absurd

was that Shengda Construction's registered capital was only three million yuan.

A shell company with only three million yuan

had taken on a two-hundred-million-yuan project

and received an eighty-million-yuan advance payment.

The remaining issues regarding the flow of funds

were no longer within her scope of investigation.

Without the help of the police, the Procuratorate, or bank insiders,

she couldn't uncover any more clues.

Su Qinghan took a piece of paper.

She wrote down the clues and put them into her inner pocket.

During the lunch break,

the Linjiang Municipal Government compound appeared exceptionally quiet.

Mayor Su Changming sat in his office.

An untouched boxed lunch sat in front of him.

Secretary Li Changgeng stood before the desk.

He reported the news he had just caught wind of.

"Boss."

"The Organization Department has set the tone. The initial draft of the Development and Reform Commission's leadership profile wasn't sent back."

"Executive Deputy Minister Zhou Mingyuan signed off on it directly and reported it to Minister Zhao."

Mayor Su Changming wiped his hands with a tissue.

He crumpled the tissue into a ball and threw it into the wastebasket.

"That fence-sitter, Political Commissar Wang Haitao."

"Before the wind even blew in that direction, he was the first to lean over."

"Director Zheng called three times just now, wanting to see you."

Secretary Li Changgeng asked for instructions.

"I made up an excuse to put him off. There's a slot open this afternoon; do you want to see him?"

See him?

Seeing Zheng Jianguo now would be no different from playing with fire.

Mayor Su Changming knew very well

that the tone of "smooth transition" personally set by Deputy Secretary Yang

meant that at this critical juncture of taking over as mayor,

he could not afford any trouble.

Zheng Jianguo, in order to reap benefits from the Chengnan project,

had shown incredibly ugly greed.

Now,

that kid from the Zhu family had pierced through the paper window within the Organization Department.

No one could cover it up.

Secretary Zhu Tianhe would soon be the Deputy Secretary in charge of personnel.

Once the profile materials of the Development and Reform Commission

reached the Organization Department's ministerial committee and the relevant clues were reported to the Discipline Inspection Commission,

Zheng Jianguo's reassignment would be set in stone.

As long as the Discipline Inspection Commission followed the money trail,

they would wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

"Tell Zheng Jianguo."

"Regarding the incomplete preliminary procedures for the Chengnan project, have him write a detailed explanation of the situation himself and submit it to the Municipal Government Office."

"In addition, find the signature and instructions I wrote on the Chengnan project planning proposal at the end of last year."

"Draft a supplementary document emphasizing that project implementation must strictly comply with bidding procedures and fund supervision regulations, and date it today."

Secretary Li Changgeng's heart shuddered.

This was cutting off one's own hand to save the arm.

Once the supplementary document was issued,

it would mean a complete procedural severance from Zheng Jianguo's non-compliant operations.

Zheng Jianguo had become an abandoned pawn.

"Understood, I'll get on it right away."

"Changgeng."

Mayor Su Changming called back his secretary, who had reached the door.

"Does the Boss have any other instructions?"

Mayor Su Changming stared at the unopened lunchbox on the desk.

"Go investigate."

"Just who in the Organization Department is teaching Secretary Zhu Tianhe's son how to do things?"

"A guy who hangs out in bars all day couldn't suddenly understand these decisive and ruthless methods."

He absolutely refused to believe

that a playboy could possess such shrewdness to summon the clouds and rain at will.

He suspected that Secretary Zhu Tianhe was pulling the strings from behind,

or perhaps even some master at the provincial level was guiding him.

Secretary Li Changgeng took his orders and withdrew.