Afternoon.
Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
Deputy District Mayor Chu cannot escape Song Fei’s statement. Embezzling government funds, and receiving bribes, are enough to bring him in. Discipline Inspection has several forms of investigation. Questioning over the phone was the least severe form of investigation, and the questions were mild. Inviting a leader over for ‘tea’ was another form of investigation. Most of these cases were complaint letters or reports without evidence. It was to find out what happened. A more serious investigation is to visit the person’s office for questioning. It means there is evidence that Dong Xuebing had experienced it. His asset had exceeded his salary. The next level of investigation is to bring the person back to the Discipline Inspection from his workplace.
Dong Xuebing called Liu Hanqing over. “Old Liu, prepare the documents and bring Xi Ping District’s Deputy District Mayor Chu back.”
“Yes. I will do it now.” Liu Hanqing took Song Fei’s statement to get approval from Secretary Zhan.
Dong Xuebing thought for a while in his office and called Xie Huilan. “Huilan, it’s me. How is it?”
Xie Huilan calmly replied. “I am handling the aftermath of Third Middle School’s collapse. I just ended a meeting with the Education Ministry. I asked them to appease the students and their families first. How is your investigation? Never mind. The Discipline Inspection’s investigation is confidential. You don’t need to tell me.”
Dong Xuebing laughed. “You will make my life difficult at home if I don’t tell you.”
“Haha…. Am I that petty in your eyes?”
“You will not ask if you don’t want to know. This means I have to tell you everything.” Dong Xuebing replied. “It’s not confidential. We just finished interrogating Song Fei, and he revealed Xi Ping District’s Deputy District Mayor was involved. This is a breakthrough, and I had asked my men to bring him in.”
“Song Fei admitted so quickly?!”
“Yes. I tricked him, and he fell into my trap.”
“Oh…. Hahaha…. You are quite smart.”
Dong Xuebing laughed. “I am not smart. It is the way the Discipline Inspection work. They only know how to use hard questioning. It would take ages for them to get anything out of Song Fei. I finally understand why the Public Security Bureau’s investigation is much faster than the Discipline Inspection. Some of the Discipline Inspection’s investigations took months without progress. Maybe it was because the suspects were civil servants and had to abide by the investigation rules. Slowly, they got used to this way of interrogation. But I don’t care about it. I applied what I did at the Public Security Bureau in Song Fei. See, it is effective. I did not say anything, and he admitted everything.”
Xie Huilan narrowed her eyes. “Song Fei is a businessman and is easy to deal with. It won’t be easy to investigate Deputy District Mayor Chu. They have tight lips.”
“I know. But I have my ways of making them talk. Don’t worry. Let’s not talk about me. Do you have a chance to enter the Party Committee?”
“Haha…. Not sure.”
“Not sure? Weren’t Feng Jie got implicated in this case?”
“Deputy City Mayor Feng should not be involved or receive any bribes. He doesn’t have the guts to do that, and this case did not affect him much.”
“He refused to investigate the Third Middle school. Shouldn’t he bear the responsibility?”
“But he had gone to the school for an inspection, and no one was killed.”
“Hmph. That means he is still the top contender for the Party Committee seat.”
“You can say so. The higher-ups already confirmed this.”
“How can he…. Never mind. I will think of something.”
Dong Xuebing was frustrated after hanging up. When Huilan wanted to investigate Third Middle School’s building quality, Feng Jie refused and claimed there was no evidence. The building collapsed when I was there, and I saved you and many others. Because I saved everyone, and there are zero casualties, you get to enter the Party Committee?! What did you do other than run for your life?! You did nothing, don’t need to bear any responsibility, and even get to enter the Party Committee?!
F**k you!
How can there be such good deals!?
Dong Xuebing had achieved what he wanted in the Third Middle School collapse. He punished the evil businessman, Song Fei, arrested a corrupt government official, Deputy District Mayor Chu, and saved everyone’s life from the collapse. However, he could not help Huilan get the Party Committee seat. He had forgotten about the consequences of zero casualties.
“Xiao Zhu! Xiao Zhu!” Dong Xuebing shouted.
Zhuzhu quickly entered Dong Xuebing’s office. “Director.”
Dong Xuebing paused for a second and said. “Check Deputy District Mayor Chu’s mobile phone records. I want all his call records from yesterday. Go now.”
“Yes.” Zhuzhu left the office.
Zhuzhu returned around ten minutes later with a fax from the telecommunication department. “This is his call records.”
The Discipline Inspection worked closely with several departments, and they could get what they wanted quickly.
Dong Xuebing looked at the numbers and frowned. “Have you checked the numbers on the list? Where are these places?”
Zhuzhu replied. “The page on the back numbers’ information I gathered from official records. There are a few unknown numbers that are not registered. I did not have the time to check. I can check those numbers now if you want.”
“No need. It is enough.” Dong Xuebing pointed at a call record around 10 am. “Secretary Song. Who is he working for?”
Zhuzhu replied. “He is Deputy City Mayor Feng’s secretary.”
“Good.” Dong Xuebing flicked the call records. “Call Secretary Song and invite him here for tea.”
Zhuzhu hesitated. “Invite Secretary Song? Err…. Are you saying Deputy City, Mayor Feng…. What about the evidence?”
Dong Xuebing pointed at Secretary Song’s number in Deputy District Mayor Chu’s call records. “Do you remember that Deputy Mayor Feng and Deputy District Mayor Chu was there when we were conducting an undercover investigation? Also, all the substandard construction materials were replaced and moved away. I suspect someone had tipped them off. It seems like we found the rat.”
Zhuzhu hesitated.
Dong Xuebing looked at her. “What do you want to say?”
Zhuzhu replied. “Secretary Song might call Deputy District Mayor Chu for Deputy City Mayor Feng’s inspection. Deputy City Mayor Feng had also mentioned he would send someone to investigate the anonymous complaint during the Mayor’s meeting.”
Dong Xuebing smiled and pointed at the call duration. “Look at the call duration. 8 minutes. Do you think a Deputy City Mayor’s secretary needs to take so long to inform them about a leader’s visit? This is suspicious, and they might be talking about something else.”
Zhuzhu suddenly realized the call duration. “Oh….”
“Go and invite him now.”
“Yes.”
Dong Xuebing left his office and saw Luo Haiting. “Director Luo, Deputy City Mayor Feng’s secretary, is coming over. Please handle him.”
At the same time.
Deputy District Mayor Chu, who felt uneasy the whole day, received an unidentified call.
“Hello?” A middle-aged man said. “Someone asked me to pass a message. Song Fei had ratted on you, and the Discipline Commission people are coming for you. Secretary Song is also summoned to the Discipline Commission.”
Deputy District Mayor Chu knew this was coming but still inhaled deeply.
That man continued. “You will not keep your position, but you are still young. You can still make a comeback in the future. Even if you don’t think for yourself, you must consider others. You should know what to say at the Discipline Inspection, especially that phone call. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Good. You must know that the more you say, the heavier your punishment is. That’s all I have to say.”
Deputy District Mayor Chu was in a daze after hanging up.
Even without this call, Deputy District Mayor Chu will not talk much. He knew keeping quiet was his only survival. Even if he were jailed, someone would protect him and his family.
The door opened, and Liu Hanqing entered with his men. He flashed his work pass. “We are from the Commission for Discipline Inspection. You are Deputy District Mayor Chu, right? Please come with us.”
Afternoon, 2 pm.
Dong Xuebing showed Deputy District Mayor Chu a statement. “Look at this. Song Fei gave you a sum of money two months ago. The time and location are clearly stated. We also have the contracts and bank transaction records. What else do you have to say?”
Deputy District Mayor Chu kept quiet.
“Can I take it as you are admitting to everything by keeping quiet?” Dong Xuebing asked.
Deputy District Mayor Chu continued to look at his feet and not say anything.
Dong Xuebing nodded. “One more thing. You had received a call from Secretary Song in the morning before the school building collapsed. Did he hint you to do something?”
Deputy District Mayor Chu frowned. “Nothing.”
“What do you mean by nothing?”
“He just told me Deputy City Mayor Feng is coming for an inspection.”
“Haha…. Coming for an inspection? Does he need to take 8 minutes to tell you that?”
“Secretary Song told me about the Leader’s itinerary, which took slightly longer. What’s wrong with that? Is that a law that states phone calls cannot exceed 8 minutes?”
Dong Xuebing laughed. “Alright. That’s all I wanted to ask.”
Zhuzhu, Ning Shaoyang, and the rest were stunned. Why did Director Dong give up so easily?
