The former secretary of Yuelai Town, Wang Facai, was put under Double Rules by the Disciplinary Committee, causing a huge stir in Linghai.

When Shi Shengyong served as the police station chief at Four Factory, he had worked with Wang Facai, who was then the town mayor. Early this morning, like other officials who had crossed paths with Wang Facai, he was invited by the Disciplinary Committee for a two-hour conversation.

When Zhang Yidong was reassigned as Linghai Police Director, Shi Shengyong was already the Deputy Director and the Director of the Development Zone Branch, and he was not very familiar with Shi Shengyong’s past.

Seeing Shi Shengyong being called for a discussion by the Disciplinary Committee, he was worried that his deputy might be implicated and summoned the just-returned Shi Shengyong to the director’s office.

"Mayor Zhang, the Disciplinary Committee only sought information from me regarding Wang Facai’s time working at Four Factory, nothing else."

"It’s good that there’s nothing else."

Seeing that Shi Shengyong was not nervous, Zhang Yidong finally let out a sigh of relief.

Shi Shengyong could understand his superior’s feelings and sighed softly, "Even until now, I find it hard to believe that Wang Facai, who once worked very hard and was very capable, exploited his position during the reform of Four Factory Construction Station to collude with several key figures there and embezzled over five hundred thousand yuan that belonged to the town. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

At that time, although I was the police station chief at Four Factory, I did not interact with him much. The police station was so poor then that it could barely function, and the town was supposed to help solve some funding issues. I had approached him several times, and he always said there was no money. Later, when visiting Construction Station to seek funds, the manager also said there was no money; it turned out the money had gone into their pockets!"

All these days Zhang Yidong focused on studying and organizing studies on the Three Represents Theory, only knowing that Wang Facai was put under Double Rules by the Disciplinary Committee, but not aware of the reasons, so he asked curiously, "Does he have other problems?"

"Yes, a lot indeed."

"What problems?"

"In 1997, during the comprehensive renovation of the Yangtze River levee, Wang Facai even colluded with the water conservation station chief to embezzle flood control funds. At that time, the city’s finances were tight, and the levee repair funds mainly came from subsidized loans from the province and donations from the city’s officials and citizens. The fact that he dared to embezzle even these funds is simply audacious."

Shi Shengyong lit a cigarette and continued, "Back then, unlike now, buying houses in urban areas was not popular. Some bosses with two homes in rural areas and a few construction station project managers wanted to build houses in the town. He exploited his position again, receiving benefits from them and violating land use laws to solve residential land issues for those bosses.

He even took his whole family out on trips and shopping under the guise of visiting construction crews working outside, attracting investment, and engaging in studies, spending a lot of money. Some receipts were reimbursed under the guise of business trips by the financial office, while some were reimbursed by several enterprises in Four Factory Town."

Zhang Yidong couldn’t believe that Wang Facai had degraded to such an extent and asked puzzledly, "He was only the town mayor at that time; didn’t the secretary have control over him?"

"Secretary Tao... Secretary Tao seems to have been put under Double Rules too."

"Ah!"

"Both of them are detained in Linghai Reserve Camp."

Zhang Yidong asked in shock, "How do you know that?"

Shi Shengyong explained, "The Development Zone Branch busted a gambling den, and most participants were bosses from enterprises in the development zone. Liu Xihui was worried that someone would intercede for them, so he intended to use Linghai Reserve Camp to handle the case. Upon arriving there, he discovered that the camp had already been borrowed by the Disciplinary Committee."

For a cadre who "made mistakes", as long as the issue is not particularly severe, Linghai has always been relatively "humane".

As long as the attitude is right, and they cooperate with the investigation, positively returning received bribes or embezzled public funds, generally, they are removed from positions and transferred or retired to the second line. Only for severe issues will they be expelled from the Party and public office; anyways, over the past years, there have been no reports of a cadre who made mistakes being handed over to the judiciary.

This time, taking action against the former top leaders of Four Factory Town’s Party and government might be Secretary Qian and Mayor Shen using the opportunity of in-depth studies on the Three Represents Theory to set an example by punishing them. After all, Secretary Ye’s prestige in Linghai is exceedingly high; without making some noise, it’s challenging to truly establish their authority.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yidong gently patted Shi Shengyong’s arm and didn’t say anything further.

Shi Shengyong knew the Director was busy, got up, and excused himself.

Back in the Deputy Director’s office, he remained unsettled for a long time, pondering about getting too close to Niu Bin lately, when Niu Bin called unexpectedly.

"Director Shi, it’s me, Niu Bin. Are you busy? Is it convenient to talk?"

"Not busy, go ahead."

Niu Bin had heard about the Disciplinary Committee putting two officials under Double Rules and could even feel the tense atmosphere in Linghai’s officialdom.

After repeatedly weighing options in these couple of days, he finally decided to take a step back to advance.

He steadied his mind, tightly holding his phone, trying to sound relaxed, said, "Director Shi, plans can’t keep up with changes. This time I originally planned not to go out anymore, but a friend from Shenzhen insists on calling me back."

"You’re planning to return to the special economic zone?" Shi Shengyong asked softly.

"A friend just started a company there. He helped me before; now he can’t manage alone and thought of me, so I can’t refuse."

"If you leave, what about Chen Fang and the child?"

"They’ll come along."

"When are you leaving?"

"Tonight’s flight, we’ll drive to the airport soon. My friend there is in a hurry, and I don’t want him to wait."

"Who will be in charge of the mobile phone market?"

"Manager Jiang will manage. Director Shi, don’t worry, I’ve instructed her that she must comply with laws and regulations. Just yesterday afternoon, we invited leaders from the tax bureau to inspect our work. They decided to impose scheduled fixed tax collections on individual merchants in our big mobile phone market based on our market’s actual situation."

Having those small cellphone sellers pay taxes directly to the tax office, agreeing on paying fixed tax, not only addressed the biggest shortfall but also detached himself from it, making him a "third party" instead of a "sublandlord".