My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 477 The whole story
As night fell, a southwest wind blew, and thick, dark clouds swept in from the sea, once again obscuring the entire sky above Seoul. However, despite the heavy overcast skies, the weather forecast predicted no rain that night.

In Yingyandong, Enping District, not far from Hongik University, at a Japanese-style hot spring restaurant, An Rusong, dressed in a bathrobe, was led by a girl in a kimono through a wooden-floored corridor and finally into a room with a screen.

This bathhouse is truly authentically Japanese; even the sign at the entrance is in Japanese, which An Rusong couldn't understand. However, he did see the two characters "贷切" (dai-kiri). In his memory, during his travels in his previous life, he seemed to have seen a sign for "贷切風纥" (dai-kiri fūro) in a Japanese-style hot spring inn. He remembered a friend mentioning it to him, saying that "贷切" (dai-kiri) meant to book the entire place, and fūro meant to soak in a hot bath.

Well, since it's been a long time, he doesn't remember very clearly, but that doesn't matter anyway, since he didn't come here tonight to soak in the hot springs.

The girl leading the way stopped in front of the screen. She turned to the side and gestured for An Rusong to come in, clearly indicating that he should go in by himself.

The girl was young and beautiful, and her kimono was very elaborately designed, with a low neckline that revealed a large expanse of white skin underneath as she bowed.

However, An Rusong didn't even glance at the other party. He had already exhausted his last bit of energy with the Yuan He and Yuan Ya sisters today and was still in cooldown period.

He walked straight past the girl, around the screen, and entered the room.

Behind the screen was a room with tatami mats. In the center was a small, square table. Liu Shanyong, also wrapped in a bathrobe, was sitting next to the table, leisurely drinking tea.

Opposite Liu Shanyong, a woman dressed entirely in Japanese attire was kneeling, performing a so-called tea ceremony with graceful rhythm and movements.

Hearing footsteps beside him, Liu Shanyong turned his head and saw An Rusong coming out from behind the screen. He quickly put down his teacup, sat up straight, and said with a smile, "Rusong is here. Come and sit down, and try the tea here. It's authentic Uji Gyokuro."

An Rusong didn't stand on ceremony. He walked straight over and sat down cross-legged on the other person's left.

“Come, let me introduce you,” Liu Shanyong said after he sat down. “This is Miss Konishi Ichika, the best tea master here.”

Konishi Ichika? That's such a common name. Although An Rusong doesn't understand Japanese, he still knows some basic common sense. For example, the name "Ichika" means "a flower" when translated.

He glanced at the woman casually and nodded to her as a greeting, then turned to Liu Shanyong and said, "Brother Shanyong, tell me, what exactly happened?"

He was asking about the prosecutor's visit during the day. When he received Liu Shanyong's call earlier, the prosecutor said it was hard to explain over the phone, so he specifically asked to meet him here that evening. An Rusong was a little unhappy, so after taking his seat, he didn't care that there were other people present and asked the question directly.

The relationship between Liu Shanyong and "A Flower" is definitely not simple. He obviously did not care that the woman was present, and took the opportunity of An Rusong's question to explain the origin of this trouble to him.

The issue remains the same: the National Assembly elections are fast approaching, and this election is crucial for both the progressive and conservative factions. For the conservatives, only a victory in the National Assembly elections can guarantee the smooth implementation of conservative-leaning policies introduced by the Blue House over the next five years.

For the progressives, only by winning the parliamentary elections can they restrain the Blue House's policies and create the most favorable conditions for the next general election five years later.

This is why the struggle between the progressives and conservatives in this National Assembly election has been exceptionally fierce, with both sides constantly making moves. The election campaign in Seoul began long ago, and in Eunpyeong District, which involves two constituencies, A and B, the situation in Eunpyeong District B is very clear. This is one of the conservatives' strongholds, and Lee Jae-moo, a National Assembly member from the Grand National Party with an academic background, has deep-rooted influence in constituency B. He is not only a professor at Chung-Ang University but also a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States; such a person is naturally trusted by ordinary Koreans.

Therefore, not only is Enping District B not a progressive or democratic stronghold, but even if it were, it would be very difficult for them to compete with an opponent like Li Zaiwu.

Unlike the situation in Enping District B, the election in Enping District A was relatively favorable for the progressives. This was because Enping District A had a large number of secondary and higher education institutions. Those members of the so-called middle class, who had received some education and held a certain social status, but whose social status was not very high, tended to be more inclined to support the progressives.

For this reason, during this parliamentary election, the Democratic Party invested a lot of resources and energy in the Eunpyeong District, Jia constituency, in order to send its candidate, Jeon Yong-chan, to the National Assembly and secure a seat.

In the conflict two days ago, someone did die, but not on the spot. Instead, someone suffered a heart attack after being frightened and died due to a lack of timely medical attention.

Guys like Shin Sang-gil have an abundance of experience in handling these kinds of things: push an insignificant person to take the blame, intimidate the deceased's relatives, give them a small amount of money as compensation, and that's how the matter ends.

In such conflicts, ordinary people are never a match for someone like Shin Sang-gil, whether in terms of financial resources, energy, control over public opinion, or the richness of social connections. Ordinary people are always at a disadvantage, and talking about avenging the dead and upholding justice is just empty talk.

Most importantly, for the relatives of the deceased, the dead are dead. Family ties are important, but when faced with the threat of a vicious person and a large sum of compensation in front of them, how many people can really grit their teeth and fight for the sake of their loved ones' misfortune?
The truth is, such people are rare, and that's precisely why people like Shin Sang-gil can thrive and build ever-growing businesses. If justice could truly be served, why would there be any reason for people like Shin Sang-gil to exist in this world?

From this perspective, An Rusong's statement that Shen Xiangji was incompetent was actually unfair, since that's how Shen always handled things, and this time was no exception.

The real problem lies with Quan Longcan, who is determined to win the seat of the councilor for Enping District, Jia. His campaign slogan focuses on the "people's livelihood" area, including improving employment, promoting policies that are conducive to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting social equity.

Coincidentally, Enping District has been actively promoting investment attraction in the past period. In order to attract large companies and groups to settle in Enping District, the Enping District government has not only offered many favorable policies, but also done a lot of work in land acquisition.

As mentioned before, any matter involving land acquisition will inevitably encounter some problems. After all, the most unpredictable thing in the world is human nature. For the same square meter of land, some people may think that 10,000 yuan is enough, while others may think that 100,000 yuan is too little. This is the essence of the saying that it is impossible to please everyone.

As for people like Shen Xiangji and Liu Shanyong, they didn't have much time to waste, and they couldn't make too many concessions to the party whose land was being expropriated. Therefore, in order to ensure the progress of construction, they had to resort to some means and methods that were not known to outsiders. As a result, disputes and conflicts naturally arose.

At this very moment, Jeon Yong-chan, who is running for a seat in the National Assembly, is still talking about people's livelihood and proclaiming that if he wins the election, he will focus on promoting social fairness. So, in the face of the dispute caused by land acquisition in Enping District, should he stand up and make a statement?
That's right, of course he had to stand up and make a statement. Even if there hadn't been that conflict a couple of days ago, and no one had died, Jeon Yong-chan, who was eager to win public support for himself, wouldn't have let this issue go. The incident at the NGN new headquarters construction site was just a coincidence.

Therefore, the whole matter was not because Shin Sang-gil had handled it poorly, nor because the prosecutors at the Western District Prosecutors' Office were willing to deal with such a trivial matter, nor because justice and righteousness had suddenly descended upon the Republic of Korea. Rather, it was simply because candidate Jeon Yong-chan seized this opportunity. He directly and publicly exerted pressure on the Western District Prosecutors' Office in his capacity as a candidate for National Assembly, demanding that the office investigate the incident.

That's why, when the prosecutor named Cui Shenyong summoned An Rusong, he didn't come to his door with his men, but simply made a phone call. Clearly, Prosecutor Cui didn't want to deal with this coercion. The reason he gave An Rusong a deadline was actually to give him time to devise a plan. If An Rusong could resolve the matter, Prosecutor Cui would naturally save himself some trouble.

In fact, An Rusong also sensed this from Cui Shenyong's words after meeting him this afternoon.

(End of this chapter)