Anti-gang campaign: Female bureau chief

Seeing the people in uniform enter, he placed the pruning shears on the stone table next to the bonsai, wiped his hands with his apron, and moved very slowly and carefully. Then he said something that surprised everyone present: "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

He said this in an unusually calm tone, and even slightly curved the corners of his mouth.

Chu Weiqing was taken away from his office at the Yi'an City Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning.

He was much younger than Cao Weimin, in his early forties, at the peak of his career. When he was escorted out of the office, he was pale, his forehead was covered in sweat, his tie was askew, and he couldn't say a word.

After being detained, Cao Weimin did not try to circumvent the rules like Xu Houde, nor did he attempt to defend his actions by citing procedural compliance like Tang Weidong.

He sat in the detention room, relaxed and speaking in a calm tone, like an observer telling someone else's story.

He began his story by recounting how Shen Wangshan, through layers of connections, found him after being transferred to the position of deputy director of the Provincial Department of Land and Resources in 2006. He talked about how Shen Wangshan had illegally approved numerous mining rights for Fengmao Group in Shiqiao County, Yi'an City, and three surrounding counties and cities during his tenure, and how Shen Wangshan had placed the cadres he had personally cultivated into key positions in the provincial, municipal, and county-level mining management departments before his retirement.

When he spoke of these things, there was even a hint of pride in his tone—not boasting, but the professional satisfaction of an old engineer looking back on the system he had meticulously designed and perfectly implemented.

"Shen Wangshan is a rough man, but he has one advantage—he respects professionalism. He knows that mining rights approval cannot be obtained by force alone; it requires professional application materials, compliant reserve reports, and rigorous environmental and safety assessments. He didn't understand these things, so he needed me. I helped him get the mine he wanted, and he gave me the reward I deserved. There was no exploitation between us; it was a fair transaction."

Cao Weimin paused here, took a sip of water to moisten his lips, and then continued in a softer tone:

"After he died, I thought this system could continue to operate. Tang Weidong, Chu Weiqing, and others were all people I personally arranged to be in key positions during my tenure. They each developed their own downlines, forming a self-operating system that did not rely on any individual. As long as the mine still exists, this system can continue to operate forever."

How many people are in this system?

Cao Weimin remained silent for a moment, then announced a number that shocked everyone in the detention room—he estimated that no fewer than forty people within the provincial, municipal, and county-level mining management systems were entangled in this network of interests, distributed across various stages such as approval, supervision, enforcement, and testing. Some were merely passively accepting benefits, while others actively participated in profit sharing.

He said he could write down the names of these people and their corresponding roles, but he made one condition—his grandson had just started elementary school this year, and he didn't want his child to be pointed at and gossiped about at school as "your grandfather is a corrupt official."

Jiang Ruolan did not agree to any of his conditions, but only said one sentence:

"Whether you write down the list or not, your grandchildren will know you are a criminal. But if you write down the list and dig out those parasites who are still harming people in the system, at least you will have something to leave to your grandchildren—an explanation."

Cao Weimin remained silent for a long time, then picked up a pen and began to write down names one by one on the A4 paper in front of him.

His handwriting was neat and powerful, just like the calm and restrained signature on Pei Zongren's notebook—they were among the smartest, most talented, and most trusted people in the system, and they had used their life's learning to build a seemingly indestructible fortress of interests for themselves.

The individuals on Cao Weimin's list were verified one by one over the next month.

The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, together with the Provincial Public Security Department and the Provincial Department of Natural Resources, established a special working group for the rectification of the mining management system, and conducted a comprehensive retrospective investigation of the mining rights transfer records of the entire province's mining management system over the past fifteen years.

Cao Weimin and Chu Weiqing were transferred to judicial authorities, Xu Houde and Xu Honglei were arrested according to law, and Tang Weidong confessed to several mid-level cadres who had not yet been included in the list during supplementary interrogation.

Before being transferred to the detention center, Tang Weidong asked, "When can I see my family?" and was then escorted out of the interrogation room.

The police officer in charge of escorting him wrote a sentence in his duty log afterwards, which was later seen by Lu Zheng by chance: "When the criminal Tang left the interrogation room, he walked steadily. When he reached the end of the corridor, he suddenly stopped and looked back. His lips moved for a moment, but he did not say a word. He then lowered his head and entered the detention room."

After the onset of winter, Shiqiao County experienced its first snowfall of the season.

Jiang Ruolan went to Xiahe Town to tell Fan Zhixing about the progress of the mine management system rectification.

His new pig farm has three pigsties, and the number of pigs has recovered to nearly two hundred. The newly arrived piglets are rooting around in the pens lined with thick straw and are growing very well.

He pasted a brand-new "福" (Fu, meaning good fortune) character at the entrance of the pig farm. The character was elegant, with black ink on red paper, and it stood out prominently in the sunlight after the snow.

Fan Zhixing grinned, his missing front tooth still missing, but his wife said she would take him to get it fixed after this batch of pigs was ready for market.

Jiang Ruolan asked him how much it cost to rebuild the pig farm. He said that the task force helped him recover more than 160,000 yuan in losses, and with the government's industrial support loan, he invested a total of more than 200,000 yuan.

She said the money should have been his in the first place.

After leaving the pig farm, Jiang Ruolan went to the farmers' market.

Liu Cuifang's vegetable stall business is much better than before. Her new tricycle is parked next to the stall, with the words "May good people live in peace" sprayed on the body in red paint. The paint is bright and bright, obviously recently applied, with a few paint streaks running down the edges.

She said she sprayed the words herself, and asked Old Wang, the fishmonger next door, to write them for her.

Her son was admitted to the county's top high school this year, and she tells everyone she meets that she will treat the entire street to a feast once her son gets into university.

Grandma Jiang was sitting in the yard sunbathing, with a speckled hen lying at her feet.

The speckled hen has already hatched a brood of chicks. The fluffy little chicks burrow in and out under its wings, chirping incessantly.

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