Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

That smile contained self-deprecation, helplessness, and a hint of worldly wisdom from a seasoned veteran:

"Director Dong is a good man. He helped me out of a lot of trouble, and I haven't treated him badly."

But if you want to investigate him, you don't need to start with me—he never handles the money himself; it's always his son who deals with it.

I have kept a record of every penny I gave him, from 2016 to now, totaling over 900,000 yuan. Some of it was the down payment I helped his son make when he bought a house in the provincial capital.

He never paid me back, and I never asked for it back. He helped me for ten years, and I supported him for ten years. A fair trade.

"Fair trade".

Jiang Ruolan repeated the word, a hint of sneer in her voice, "You help him make money, he helps you break the law. What does Feng Wanqiu's life mean in this fair trade?"

Duan Pengfei did not answer the question.

He lowered his head and looked at his rough hands.

The investigation into the murder of Feng Wanqiu continues.

During his investigation by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, Dong Jianmin voluntarily confessed to the fact that during his tenure as director of the Urban Management Bureau of Chengxi District and deputy director of the Municipal Urban Management Bureau, he used his position to protect Duan Pengfei and others from illegal construction, street vending, and environmental pollution.

His confession largely matched Duan Pengfei's statement, including details of his son accepting bribes from Duan Pengfei on his behalf.

Based on this evidence, the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection placed Dong Jianmin under detention, and the case entered the judicial process.

Duan Pengfei and Hou Qiang were arrested with the approval of the procuratorate.

The task force found the remaining 10,000 yuan in cash under Hou Qiang's pillow in the parking lot warehouse. The serial number on the banknotes matched Duan Pengfei's bank withdrawal records perfectly.

The knife that killed Feng Wanqiu was thrown into a stinking ditch at the end of Cuizhu Road by Hou Qiang. The task force used two water pumps to pump the water for a whole day and finally found the knife in the silt at the bottom of the ditch. The bloodstains on the blade were confirmed to be Feng Wanqiu's after DNA comparison.

On the day the case was closed, Feng Wanqiu's husband, Cao Weimin, brought their daughter to the municipal bureau.

The girl was wearing a black down jacket, her hair was tied low, and her eyes were red and swollen.

She rushed back from the provincial capital after receiving the devastating news. The night she arrived home, she stood at the door of the bedroom where her mother had been murdered for a long, long time. Finally, she squatted down by the door frame, buried her face in her knees, and cried silently.

Cao Weimin was calmer than his daughter, but it was only a superficial calm.

He took his wife's belongings from the police officer—a cell phone with a cracked corner, a work manual turned to page 37, and a set of house keys with a cartoon bear keychain with worn-out paint hanging from the keychain.

He held the bunch of keys and looked at them for a long time, then said in a trembling voice that he was trying hard to suppress:

"She called me that night and said a man came to see her. She said he looked pretty fierce. I told her to forget about it and go home early. She said okay. That was the last word she ever said to me."

After the investigations into the cases of Feng Wanqiu and Dong Jianmin for dereliction of duty and bribery came to a close, Jiang Ruolan instructed the special task force to turn its attention to a deeper level.

Duan Pengfei's ability to remain entrenched in the western part of the city for ten years was not only due to Dong Jianmin's protection, but also because he cultivated a tightly knit network of relationships.

Centered on the Cuizhu Road parking lot, Duan Pengfei established a substantial monopoly over three industries within a five-kilometer radius: the supply of decoration materials, waste recycling, and the rental of illegal warehouses.

He used his criminal activities to protect his business—driving away all competitors with violence and threats, and used his business to support his criminal activities—using a portion of his monopoly profits to bribe grassroots law enforcement personnel.

This model was concealed by the behemoth that was Fengmao Group during Shen Wangshan's era, packaged by capital operations during Xu Yaozong's era, and in Duan Pengfei's time, it was the most naked, grassroots, and violent monopoly that was closest to the daily lives of ordinary people.

He used the parking lot as a base, using intimidation to maintain control over the renovation supply to all the shops on the street, and then used Tung Chien-ming's network of connections to mitigate risks.

His men were recruited from his fellow inmates and were specifically responsible for the threats and pressure that Duan Pengfei himself should not show.

Some of those he threatened have moved away, some have closed their businesses, and some still dare not speak out.

What makes this model so terrifying is its stealth and infiltration.

Duan Pengfei never committed crimes openly. He only used a low-profile version of the underworld model—one protector, five thugs, and a monopoly on one street—which was enough to cause trouble in the western part of the city.

Shen Wangshan is a dinosaur in the Yi'an underground world, huge but easy to spot; Duan Pengfei is a venomous snake hidden in the mud, small but deadly.

The task force launched a special operation throughout the city targeting organized crime and gang-related issues in the field of urban management law enforcement, focusing on investigating the interest chains behind illegal constructions, street vendors, and environmental sanitation problems that have long plagued the streets and alleys.

During the investigation, the task force received more than a dozen reports from vendors and residents in various streets in the western part of the city, reflecting the threats, extortion and violent harm that Duan Pengfei's gang had committed against them over the past few years.

These cases are being investigated one by one.

Feng Wanqiu's work manual was transferred along with the case as evidence, but Jiang Ruolan made a copy of the few lines she marked in red on page thirty-seven and put them in her office drawer.

Those few lines described the most basic duties of a grassroots urban management cadre, and she upheld these duties until the very last moment of her life.

After the case file of Feng Wanqiu was filed, Jiang Ruolan sat in her office for a long time.

Snow is falling again outside the window. Spring is slow to arrive in Yi'an. The branches of the sycamore trees are still bare, with only one or two buds peeking out from the snow.

She opened her notebook and wrote a line on the last page—

"Key tasks for March: Promote the establishment of a personal safety protection mechanism for grassroots law enforcement personnel; improve the mechanism for investigating and resolving conflicts and disputes in the field of urban management; and strengthen information sharing and joint law enforcement mechanisms with departments such as housing and construction, urban management, and market supervision."

After finishing writing, she paused, opened the notebook to the first page, where she found a sentence she had written half a year ago: "The sky over Yi'an has finally cleared."

She drew a line under that sentence with her pen, and then rewrote a few words next to it:

"The weather has cleared up, but the roots are still in the soil. We need to turn the soil over."

Two weeks after the Feng Wanqiu case was closed, Yi'an experienced a rare spring rain.

The rain started in the early morning and not only didn't stop by dawn, but it got even heavier, with raindrops hitting the windows of the municipal bureau building and making a dense, pattering sound.

A thin layer of water had accumulated in the courtyard downstairs. Several police officers rushing to work jogged across the courtyard with umbrellas in hand, their trouser legs mostly soaked.

..............