Nominal: My senior brothers are all big shots

Lin Feng stood up and walked to the podium. The audience fell silent, hundreds of eyes fixed on him. Some were expectant, some scrutinizing, some curious, and some wary. Lin Feng paused for a moment, then spoke.

"Comrades, my name is Lin Feng. From today onwards, I will be working with you all." His voice was not loud, but very clear, echoing in the conference room.

"Before I came to Pingjiang, someone told me that Pingjiang was very complicated. I said, no matter how complicated a place is, it is still made by people. Some people do it well, some do it poorly, some do the right thing, and some do the wrong thing. But no matter what happened in the past, from today onwards, everything must get back on track."

The audience fell even quieter. Liu Zhi's smile froze slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

Lin Feng continued, "I came to Pingjiang with only one goal—to make Pingjiang better. To make Pingjiang's economy better, to make Pingjiang's society better, and to make the people of Pingjiang better. This may sound abstract, but it's very practical. It requires everyone's joint efforts."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the audience: "I'm not good at pleasantries. If there's anything I've done wrong in my future work, please feel free to point it out. But there's one condition—if anyone treats Pingjiang's affairs as their own, and the people's affairs as their own, I, Lin Feng, will treat them as a brother. If anyone treats public affairs as private matters, and uses power as a tool, I, Lin Feng, will not allow it."

The applause erupted, more enthusiastic than ever before. Lin Feng returned to his seat, Liu Zhi stood up again, gave a few concluding remarks, and the welcome party came to an end.

That evening, Lin Feng checked into the municipal party committee's residential compound.

The house was arranged in advance; it was a two-story building at the very back of the courtyard, quiet but a bit old.

The paint was peeling off in some places, and the furniture was old, but it was very clean.

Lin Feng didn't care about any of that. He washed his face, sat down at his desk, and began to look through the documents that had been laid out on the table for a long time.

There was a lot of material; if you stacked it up, it would be half a person high.

It contains an overview of Pingjiang City, economic data, rare earth industry development plan, government work reports over the years, a summary of petitions, and photocopies of some complaint letters.

Lin Feng started reading from the top page. It was an overview of Pingjiang City, a few thin pages, which he quickly flipped through.

Next are the economic data: GDP, fiscal revenue, fixed asset investment, and total import and export volume. The figures are all very impressive, showing growth every year.

However, he noticed that the rare earth industry's share was abnormally high. Furthermore, the tax contribution of the rare earth industry was severely mismatched with its output value; output value was high, but tax revenue was low. What does this indicate? It indicates that a large amount of rare earth is not being sold through formal channels.

After reading it, Lin Feng put the documents back in their place, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

The next morning, Lin Feng left the municipal party committee compound without informing anyone through his secretary. He was accompanied by his driver and his newly assigned secretary, Chen Yue.

Chen Yue was a young man in his early thirties, a local resident, who had worked in the municipal party committee office for seven or eight years. He possessed solid writing skills and was known for his integrity. Before Lin Feng arrived, Qian Shumo, the secretary-general of the municipal party committee, recommended three candidates for his secretary, and he chose Chen Yue. The reason was simple.

—Chen Yue was the only one who didn't say anything good about Liu Zhi during the interview.

"Chen Yue, we're skipping the county today, heading to the city first." Lin Feng, sitting in the back seat, flipped through a list of city departments. Chen Yue turned around from the passenger seat: "Secretary Lin, which department should we go to first?"

Lin Feng thought for a moment: "Natural Resources Bureau."

Rare earth elements are Pingjiang's greatest resource, but also its greatest source of chaos.

The Bureau of Natural Resources is responsible for approving mining rights, supervising mining operations, and overseeing ecological restoration; it is a crucial link in the rare earth industry chain.

Lin Feng wanted to find out first just how much shady stuff was going on in this department.

When the car stopped downstairs at the Natural Resources Bureau, Director Sun Decai was already waiting at the door.

He was in his fifties, overweight, with a smile on his face, but there was a hint of tension in his eyes.

Lin Feng got out of the car, and the man quickly stepped forward, shaking Lin Feng's hands with both: "Secretary Lin, welcome, welcome! It's an honor for our entire organization to have you here for inspection!"

Lin Feng glanced at the row of people standing at the entrance of the building—the deputy director, the chief engineer, and the heads of various departments, more than a dozen people, standing neatly in a row.

He nodded, said nothing more, and walked straight inside.

Sun Decai jogged behind him, explaining the situation at the bureau as they walked. Lin Feng listened, occasionally asking a question, but they were all trivial.

In the conference room, the projection screen was already set up, and bottled water, fruit, and notebooks with the bureau's name printed on them were placed on the table.

Sun Decai personally operated the PPT, flipping through page by page, his voice loud and clear, the data detailed and the presentation well-organized.

Lin Feng frowned slightly as he listened.

It's perfect. The data is perfect, the logic is perfect, and the presenter's performance is perfect.

A department that has been reported multiple times and found to have problems in audits cannot be so perfect.

When reporting on the management of rare earth mining rights, Sun Decai specifically emphasized: "Our bureau strictly follows national laws and regulations as well as provincial and municipal requirements, implementing the strictest management system for rare earth mining rights. All mining rights are transferred through open bidding and listing, and there are no issues of irregular approval."

Lin Feng asked, "Then why are there still so many illegal mining sites?"

There was a moment of silence in the conference room.

Sun Decai's smile froze for a moment, but he quickly recovered: "Secretary Lin, illegal mining is a long-standing problem, not just in Pingjiang, but all over the country. These people are active at night and highly mobile, making law enforcement very difficult. Our bureau's law enforcement and supervision team only has about thirty people, but we have to manage hundreds of mines throughout the city, so we are severely understaffed."

Lin Feng then asked, "How many cases of illegal mining have your bureau investigated and dealt with in the past few years? How many have been transferred to other departments?"

Sun Decai paused for a moment, flipped through a few pages of the PPT, and found the data: "In the past three years, a total of 37 cases of illegal mining have been investigated and dealt with, and 12 cases have been transferred to the public security organs."

Lin Feng said, "Thirty-seven cases, twelve of which were transferred. What about the remaining twenty-five?"

Sun Decai's forehead was slightly sweaty: "The rest... most of them are minor offenses, and they'll be dealt with by administrative penalties."

Lin Feng didn't press further, but jotted down a few words in his notebook.

Sun Decai's report continued, but Lin Feng was no longer listening.

He pondered in his mind—of the thirty-seven cases, only twelve were transferred. Were the remaining twenty-five cases truly minor offenses, or were they suppressed through intervention? He recalled the names on that list and the unsigned letter of complaint.

After the report, Lin Feng suggested visiting a few mining areas. Sun Decai quickly offered to arrange a car, but Lin Feng waved his hand, saying, "No need, I'll go myself. Just send someone familiar with the situation to accompany me."

Sun Decai hesitated for a moment, then selected a young section chief to follow.

Lin Feng noticed that the expressions of several deputy directors were somewhat subtle when he called out their names.