Right path to power

As the group reached the top floor, the room quickly descended into chaos.

"Police officer, put your hands on your head and squat down."

"Don't move. You only realize how embarrassing it is now? Why didn't you do this earlier?"

"Show me your ID card."

"Get up and get dressed."

It didn't take long for the plainclothes officers to take control of the situation.

"Don't touch me! I'm warning you, I'm an investor invited by your county, and I need to see your bureau chief..."

Wan Yingyong's voice echoed throughout the room, while the young woman beside him panicked.

"No matter who you are, you must abide by the law; it's no use going to anyone else."

"Name, ID number..."

Actually, Wan Yingyong wasn't too worried about himself; he figured he could just pay more money to solve the problem.

He was worried about Zhang Zhengguo and others.

If a relationship that has been built up with great difficulty is affected by such romantic affairs, it's one thing to be punished, but if you're reassigned, it would be a huge loss.

"I'm going to call your Director Liang and turn off the recording. You know who I am... *bang* *smack*..."

A commotion came from the next room.

"What are you doing? Trying to seize the body camera? Cuff him!"

"Let me go!"

Zhang Zhengguo's roar rang out.

In fact, this was not the first time he had been caught red-handed in such a place.

However, on the previous occasion, when he asked to know the leaders of the Public Security Bureau and requested to make a phone call, the police officers at the scene all allowed him to make the call.

After making the call, things became much simpler.

Afterwards, treat everyone to a meal and bring a small gift; there are absolutely no aftereffects.

However, he hadn't come out since the county public security bureau changed leadership. He was probably too happy or had been suppressing his emotions for too long, which is why he came back today. Who knew he would be caught red-handed again.

The key point is that the police who came today didn't listen to what he said at all. They used their body cameras to film him and the young woman, and both of them were naked.

Even more fatally, he didn't recognize either of the two policemen.

If this gets out and people laugh at us, it's one thing if there's a conflict at home, but it would be troublesome if the disciplinary committee got involved.

In a fit of anger, he impulsively rushed forward to try and snatch the recording device. Despite repeated warnings from the police, he refused to listen, leaving them with no choice but to resort to force.

"Are you from the public security brigade or...?"

"We don't need to explain where we're from. Just come back with us and cooperate with the investigation."

"You...you'll never get promoted like this, you..."

He tried to persuade the police officers at the scene by using some "unspoken rules of officialdom," but the officers' cold words "take them away" shattered all his hopes.

When he was led out of the room, he discovered that Wan Yingyong, Ji Kaichen, and Liu Xiaojie had also been arrested.

Seeing their disheveled appearances, they were momentarily speechless.

When they tried to exchange a few words, they found that they had no chance; they were taken away in different police cars.

There were already quite a few onlookers around, some taking photos and others recording videos.

Upon arriving at the county public security bureau, they were taken to different detention cells.

That evening, photos of the raid on prostitution by the Fuchuan County Public Security Bureau appeared on the Fuchuan Forum.

Subsequently, some sharp-eyed people recognized Ji Kaichen, director of the bidding and tendering center, Zhang Zhengguo, director of the housing and construction bureau, and Liu Xiaojie, deputy director.

The following morning, the county discipline inspection commission received a letter of complaint, which mainly reflected two issues: First, the county bidding center was involved in favoritism and malpractice, tailoring bidding documents to suit individual interests and helping businessmen rig bids in the road upgrade and renovation project bidding process. The letter also included copies of the bidding documents and business registration information of several bidding companies. Second, public officials such as Zhang Zhengguo were involved in prostitution.

The county propaganda department acted quickly this time, and soon coordinated with the Fuchuan Forum to delete all the relevant posts.

However, after spreading overnight, it had already exceeded the boundaries of the county.

At the same time, the county public security bureau imposed administrative penalties on several individuals involved in prostitution in accordance with the public security administration regulations:

Zhang Zhengguo was detained for fifteen days and transferred to the county discipline inspection commission;

Ji Kaichen and Liu Xiaojie were each detained for ten days and transferred to the county discipline inspection commission.

Wan Yingyong was detained for five days.

Upon receiving the transferred clues and the contents of the whistleblower letter, Yang Xueting, the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, immediately reported to Zhu Lishu.

Zhu Lishu instructed: This matter must be investigated and dealt with seriously, without any leniency. Any issues involving bidding and tendering must be thoroughly investigated.

Just as Lin Xiao was feeling relieved that these people seemed to have "walked right into the trap," a phone call came from the city.

"County Chief Lin, what happened? I heard that Mr. Wan, the manager of Hengtong Road Construction, was arrested for involvement in prostitution?"

On the phone, Wei Anshun sounded hurried and angry.

What's the point of news spreading in Fuchuan County that the CEO of the winning company was detained for involvement in prostitution?

Lin Xiao feigned surprise: "Is that so? I didn't know that. I'll verify it right away."

Wei Anshun said bluntly, "County Chief Lin, you need to take this matter very seriously. If investors are arrested, who will dare to invest in Fuchuan in the future? This kind of thing must not be allowed to happen again. The mayor is also very concerned about President Wan's matter. Please find out the situation as soon as possible and give me a reply."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiao couldn't help but laugh.

Does Director Wei think he's Mayor Wei?

Or perhaps he genuinely believed he could represent Mayor Ma?

However, he did not receive a phone call from Ma Guanghua personally.

Of course, it's possible that Ma Guanghua really did have Wei Anshun step in.

But since Ma Guanghua didn't call personally, Lin Xiao assumed he didn't intend to give anyone special treatment.

As for Wei Anshun's words and actions, they were nothing more than his own actions under the guise of being the mayor.

Meanwhile, staff from the county discipline inspection commission had arrived at the detention center to investigate and verify the information of Zhang Zhengguo and others.

Ji Kaichen was the first to give up.

He knew in his heart that the involvement in prostitution and the bidding process together would be enough to get him into serious trouble. Rather than waiting for the disciplinary committee to investigate step by step, he decided to take the initiative to confess and try to get lenient treatment.

"I confess, I confess everything." Ji Kaichen sat in the interrogation chair, his face pale. "The bidding process for this road upgrade and renovation project was predetermined from the very beginning..."

According to his account, the entire operation consisted of three steps:

The first step was to tailor-make the bidding documents, which were personally approved by the Director of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Chang Cheng-kuo. The bidding documents set exclusive qualification thresholds, and only Hengtong Road Construction in the city met the requirements.

The second step was bid rigging. Wan Yingyong found five related companies to submit bids as accomplices, and the bid documents were all prepared by the same group of people.

The third step involved manipulating the bidding process. Ji Kaichen guided the experts in scoring the bids and leaked the competitors' bids in advance, ultimately allowing Hengtong Road Construction to win three bids by a narrow margin.

"What about Tang Meiyun? Was she involved?" the disciplinary committee staff member pressed.

The handover materials included a photo of Tang Meiyun receiving the bag, so the disciplinary committee naturally had to ask about it.

Ji Kaichen hesitated for a moment: "I... I think County Chief Tang should know, right? But I don't know the specifics. It's mainly Director Zhang and Director Liu who are handling it. I'm just running errands."

It was clear that Ji Kaichen was only guessing.

How much can that photo prove?

At the same time, Liu Yun's investigation results were also delivered to Lin Xiao.

Several key clues were found: First, Wan Yingyong had frequent contact with Zhang Zhengguo and others during the bidding process; second, five of the eight companies that participated in the bidding had family ties; and third, the bidding qualification requirements were significantly higher than the standard requirements for county-level projects, raising suspicions of exclusivity.

After reading it, Lin Xiao said calmly, "Transfer these materials to the Discipline Inspection Commission as well."

"Okay, I'll personally deliver it to Old Yang."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work."

"Don't mention it, we're all family."

Lin Xiao smiled slightly, but also felt a sense of fatigue.

Sometimes he couldn't understand why he had to resort to crooked means when he could have fought for it honestly and fairly.

It is said that businessmen value profit, but if that "profit" is disguised as illegal, how can it be put into their pockets?

Therefore, the essence of doing business is to acquire wealth in a proper way!

After summarizing all the information, Yang Xueting was about to get up to report to Zhu Lishu when there was a knock on the door.

Tang Meiyun stood at the door, still holding the bag in her hand.

Yang Xueting was taken aback, not only by her sudden visit, but also by the bag she was carrying.

Tang Meiyun walked straight to the desk, put her bag down, and said helplessly, "Secretary Xueting, this was a gift from a businessman. I didn't want it, but he insisted on giving it to me... And this shopping card, at first I thought he just gave me a business card, but actually he put it in the files when I wasn't looking. I only found it this morning when I was looking through them..."

She explained in detail, but the core idea was that she reluctantly accepted the bag because she didn't want to ruin her business relationship with the merchant; the shopping card was something she had just found.

All of this seems perfectly reasonable.

Especially that bag, which I received last night and handed over voluntarily today, so the timeliness is not a problem.

Yang Xueting couldn't help but sigh inwardly—this woman is no ordinary person!

"Okay, thank you for your help, County Chief Tang. We will keep a record of it. Thank you for supporting the work of the Discipline Inspection Commission, County Chief Tang."

He affirmed Tang Meiyun's self-discipline, then arranged for staff to inspect and register the items, and issued a receipt.

Tang Meiyun breathed a sigh of relief, chatted for a few more minutes, and then returned to her office.

Subsequently, Yang Xueting went to Zhu Lishu's office, reported the relevant situation, suggested measures to be taken against Zhang Zhengguo and others, and also mentioned Tang Meiyun's matter.

Zhu Lishu instructed: Everything should proceed according to procedure, the Discipline Inspection Commission should conduct a thorough investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable.

That afternoon, Fuchuan County announced that the bidding results for the road maintenance project were invalidated and a new bidding process would be initiated.

At the same time, the county discipline inspection commission announced that it would take double-regulation measures against Zhang Zhengguo and others.