My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 478 The Solution
"Brother Shanyong, do you mean that the reason this trouble happened is because I unfortunately became a prop used by Quan Longcan to attract public attention and enhance his personal image?" After listening to Liu Shanyong recount the whole story, An Rusong took a sip of tea and asked.

“You could say that,” Liu Shanyong said, holding an empty teacup in his hand and gently stroking the rim of the cup with his index finger.

"Now that we know the cause and effect, the next question is, how do we solve this problem?" An Rusong put the teacup back on the table and then asked.

Seeing him put down his teacup, Konishi Ichika immediately refilled it for him.

Liu Shanyong did not answer directly. After hesitating for a moment, he said while thinking, "The parliamentary election is in the next two weeks. Judging from the current situation, although Jeon Yong-chan and the Democratic Party are jumping around and making a lot of noise, it will not be easy for them to defeat Lee Hae-heon."

Lee Hae-heon is a standard conservative who belongs to the Grand National Party. He has a strong base in the Enping District, A constituency, where he won the 15 and 16 National Assembly elections. Therefore, it is currently predicted that he is very likely to win again.

An Rusong picked up the teacup in front of him again. The tea in the cup had just been poured and was a little hot. He didn't like drinking such hot water, so after testing the temperature, he put the teacup back.

Liu Shanyong's meaning was quite clear: since the parliamentary election was just around the corner, and considering that Quan Longcan's chances of winning were slim, they could simply ignore him regarding this conflict. Once the parliamentary election was over and he lost, the Western District Prosecutor's Office would naturally put the case on hold.

Even if this guy wins the election and becomes a member of Congress as he wishes, he probably won't hold onto this matter anymore. That's how politicians are, isn't it? No matter how noble and righteous their stance is during the campaign, or how approachable their promises are, it's just a statement. After winning the election, do they really have to fulfill all the promises they made?
Just as Jeon Yong-chan promised, if he wins the National Assembly election, he will take action to promote social justice. So, how will he do it? Can he accomplish this alone?

As for the relationship between Quan Longcan and An Rusong, there is no direct grudge between them. Even if An Rusong is a supporter of the conservatives in terms of political stance, Quan Longcan would not bother to provoke him for no reason.

Ultimately, in a country like South Korea, the so-called political opposition between progressives and conservatives is merely a division created by politicians to advance their own political positions. It would be naive to judge who truly governs for the people based solely on one side's political stance. In reality, whether progressive or conservative, their perspectives and motivations are not truly about social fairness and justice.

For example, Jeon Yong-chan is a progressive politician, while Ahn Yeo-song is a supporter of the conservatives. But if Ahn Yeo-song throws out tens or hundreds of millions of won in cash at Jeon Yong-chan after he wins the election for a member of the National Assembly, do you think Jeon Yong-chan, who is determined to promote social justice, will still care about that old man who died?

“I’ve already made an appointment with Prosecutor Quan Chengjian of the Western District Prosecutor’s Office,” Liu Shanyong continued when An Rusong remained silent. “We’ll have a small get-together tomorrow night, and I’ll ask him to make some arrangements to postpone the relevant investigation procedures by half a month. That shouldn’t be a problem. Prosecutor Quan is not only the head of the Western District Prosecutor’s Office, but he also has a very close relationship with that Prosecutor Cui Shenyong. They are senior and junior colleagues from the same school.”

Jeon Yong-chan pressured the Western District Prosecutors' Office to intervene in the investigation of a construction site assault case in Eunpyeong District. Choi Shin-yong, as a prosecutor in Criminal Division 2, unfortunately got the job and had to start the investigation, but his attitude was clearly to delay as much as possible.

Liu Shanyong's idea was to contact the head of the Western District Procuratorate again. With the head of the local procuratorate's endorsement and support, Cui Shenyong would have even more reason to delay.

An Rusong didn't give a direct answer; instead, he asked, "What about Shen Xiangji?"

“Xiangji has already made the guy who caused the trouble turn himself in,” Liu Shanyong replied, understanding his meaning. “In addition, he has also hired a lawyer to actively negotiate with the deceased’s family and try to reach a settlement with them as soon as possible.”

The person who caused the trouble was clearly the scapegoat, and the so-called "negotiation" with the deceased's family by hiring a lawyer probably wasn't a genuine attempt to reach a settlement. However, these matters were none of An Rusong's concern, and he wouldn't bother with them.

“I feel that doing these things is not enough,” An Rusong said after another moment of silence. “There are two more things we should try to do.”

"Oh?" A questioning expression appeared on Liu Shanyong's face.

“First, we can’t just passively watch those guys who oppose the land expropriation continue to make trouble,” An Rusong said, picking up a pack of cigarettes from the tea table. People close to him knew he was a heavy smoker, so they would always prepare cigarettes for him whenever they invited him to a gathering or meeting.

“Don’t those socialists say we should look at problems dialectically? I think that makes a lot of sense,” he said, lighting a cigarette. “Since there are people in your Enping District who oppose land expropriation, there must also be people who support it. The reason those who oppose land expropriation are making a fuss is because their demands haven’t been met, while the reason those who support land expropriation are remaining silent is because their demands haven’t been threatened.” “You mean…” Liu Shanyong’s eyes flashed as he tentatively asked.

“Let’s think of a way to make those who support the land expropriation feel threatened by the loss of their interests,” An Rusong said. “Break their silence and get them to speak out. Quan Longcan wants to promote social fairness and justice, right? Then the demands raised by those who oppose the land expropriation are his concern. Does that mean he can ignore the demands raised by those who support the land expropriation?”

“Haha, you’re right,” Liu Shanyong laughed, patting the tea table as he said, “If we leave this to Xiangji, he’ll definitely be able to handle it well.”

Shin Sang-gil is indeed the best person to do this kind of thing. With this guy in charge, even if those who support the land acquisition refuse to speak out, he can find people who are willing to speak out.

However, An Rusong was not concerned about that. What he was concerned about was the relationship between Liu Shanyong and Shen Xiangji. It was obvious that Liu Shanyong had been speaking up for Shen Xiangji all along, as if he was afraid that An Rusong would cause trouble for the latter.

"Brother Shanyong, did Shen Xiangji find something on you?" An Rusong was no longer afraid of Liu Shanyong. He saw through the situation and asked without any hesitation.

“Haha, how could that be?” Liu Shanyong laughed again. He glanced at Xiao Xi Yihua across from him, then coughed lightly and said, “The reason I take care of Xiangji is entirely because of Yihua.”

An Rusong turned his head in surprise and took a serious look at Xiao Xi Yihua, who was acting as the tea master, for the first time. When Xiao Xi Yihua saw his gaze turn to him, he put down the tea set in his hand and bowed to him.

"She and Shen Xiangji are..." An Rusong turned his gaze back to Liu Shanyong and asked curiously.

"Ahem," Liu Shanyong coughed again and said, "Yihua and Xiangji are a married couple."

An Rusong rolled his eyes, looking speechless.

"You just said there were two things to do," Liu Shanyong said, pretending not to see An Rusong's expression. He changed the subject and asked, "What's the other one?"

“Just as you have been emphasizing before, attracting investment and bringing major enterprises and conglomerates to invest here is a district and department policy that Enping District will actively promote in the next few years,” An Rusong was too lazy to pay attention to the other party’s “little hobby”, and besides, he himself was not a good person either. Therefore, following the other party’s topic, he said directly, “And the current land acquisition policies in various places are also finalized and promoted by the district and department.”

He flicked his cigarette ash, picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, and continued, "Now, those who don't support the land acquisition are causing so much trouble, clearly going against the district government's policy. Shouldn't the Enping District Government step forward and make a statement on this?"

Upon hearing his words, Liu Shanyong unconsciously frowned.

An Rusong was right. The policy of attracting investment was promoted by the district government, and even the land acquisition work was implemented by the district government. Otherwise, Liu Shanyong would not have had the opportunity to bring so many benefits to Shen Xiangji.

From this perspective, An Rusong's current predicament is actually quite unjust, because those who oppose the land expropriation should not have bothered him at all; they should have gone to the Enping District Government to cause trouble.

However, the reality now is that with Lee Min-bok taking office at the Blue House, and especially with the full implementation of his anti-corruption policies for civil servants, Seoul, as the capital of South Korea, has naturally become the focus of attention from all sides. Under these circumstances, Eunpyeong District Office, as a district in Seoul, can naturally feel the pressure from above. Therefore, they will adopt the attitude of "it's better to do less than more" when dealing with any matter.

For this reason, the Enping District Office actually chose to "go into hiding" in a series of trivial matters related to land acquisition. Don't think that NGN was the only one entangled in such troublesome matters as land acquisition. The reason why things got so big here was simply because someone died.

(End of this chapter)