Shanglian Pei asked, "I ask you, who holds the greatest power in Guyang City now?"

Chen Fang was stunned and said, "There is no one faction, haven't they all been dispersed?"

Shanglian Pei shook his head and said, "Wrong, it is your Chen Fang's faction that is the strongest!"

Just as Chen Fang was about to object that he had not formed any cliques, Shanglian Pei cut him off and said, "I know you didn't intend to form cliques, but the leaders don't think so. The mayor, Ren Yiweng, the deputy secretary of the City Organization Department, Ling Li, and I, the often-visiting chief of the public security bureau, make it hard for people not to suspect that Guyang City has already formed a faction dominated by you."

Chen Fang was at a loss for words.

Shanglian Pei continued, "You have had dealings with the mayor of Wulan City, Ji Yu, and not to mention your relationship with the deputy secretary Zhao Yiping, who personally appointed you. But you forgot, the top leader in Wulan City is Zhu Hanmin. Guyang City had the worst economy in the past, but with the Economic Development Zone, it might not be the same anymore. Do you think Zhu Hanmin would really allow others to control Guyang City?"

"I really didn't think that way."

Chen Fang said self-mockingly.

Shanglian Pei gave a slight smile and said, "A man without guilt fears not, but one with jade does. You should understand this principle. For Zhu Hanmin, he prefers a tripartite situation in Guyang City because no matter what, he can control it. Once one faction dominates, he loses control. To put it plainly, it's the same old saying: power must be checked and balanced. Only balanced power will not cause fear in him."

"So, Liu Mingkai having a conflict with me made him the best candidate?"

Chen Fang asked.

Shanglian Pei nodded.

He said, "You offended him unintentionally, which also gave him the potential to control a faction. To some extent, he should be thanking you."

"That might be true, but it is unlikely he will thank me. Instead, he'll probably suppress me. The harsher he suppresses me, the better he seems in the eyes of those above, right?"

Upon hearing this statement from Chen Fang,

Shanglian Pei laughed heartily and said, "Secretary Chen, it seems you have already adapted to the political environment of Guyang City."

Chen Fang waved his hand.

He said, "Alright, let's postpone discussing Liu Mingkai's issue. Let's talk about the main matter. Last night, I went through the information you gave me carefully and found two problems. The first one is about the debtor notes that were not accounted for in the case file. Hasn't this thread been investigated?"

"It has been investigated but to no avail."

Shanglian Pei continued, "Debts totaling over four hundred thousand were owed to a person named Zhou Ang. We later checked against all the names Zhou Ang in the registration files but ruled them all out, so we ended up without any trace of this person."

"That doesn't make sense. If the creditor wasn't found, then these debtor notes are very likely to have been forged."

"Indeed, I had that suspicion initially, but there's also another possibility — loansharking."

Shanglian Pei said.

Chen Fang was stunned and asked, "Loansharking?"

Shanglian Pei nodded and said, "In our locality, gambling is still quite rampant, which has spawned various loansharking syndicates. They fear being caught, so the names on these debtor notes are mostly made-up."

"With made-up names, how can they collect money?"

"You think loansharks really rely on those debtor notes to collect money? That's just a formality. After Song Yan was involved in an incident, those loansharks were afraid to show up, but that's also a possibility, especially since it's a fact that Song Yan committed armed robbery."

Shanglian Pei's words seemed reasonable to Chen Fang.

The authenticity of these debtor notes wasn't that important, considering that the robbery was a blatant fact.

"The second point is based on the testimony of the person withdrawing money; they had just taken the cash out when Song Yan burst in and targeted the robbery very specifically, which means he had been watching this person not just for a day or two. He knew the exact time and place this person would be taking out money and timed it just right."

"You overlooked one thing. Song Yan was a prosecutor, who had also served as a criminal case prosecutor. In a way, he should know that robbing a bank is quite risky. Since he was prepared, he could have chosen any place to commit the robbery, not necessarily a bank, right?"

After making this point,

Shanglian Pei was startled.

He immediately frowned and said, "Right, no one thought of that at the time."

He pondered for a while,

and muttered, "In that case, this robbery case really seems a bit illogical."

"Who was the person robbed?"

Chen Fang asked.

Shanglian Pei responded with a sound of realization, "His name is Chen Jinmin, the general manager of Di Chuang New Materials Co., Ltd."

"Di Chuang New Materials? Why does that sound familiar?"

Chen Fang muttered.

Pei Shanglian said, "Oh, it's a subsidiary of the Boiling Point Group, a company specializing in the R&D and application of new materials."

Boiling Point Group?

Upon hearing these four words,

Chen Fang felt a chill in his heart.

He stood up.

Walking around the office with his hands behind his back,

he said, "After Liu Mingkai's welcoming ceremony ends, accompany me to the prosecutor's office. I think I've sniffed out a trace of something unusual in this case."

"Okay."

Pei Shanglian nodded and responded.

At nine-thirty in the morning.

At the entrance of the City Organization Department building,

a Coaster bus appeared on time and slowly drove up to the crowd.

Seeing this,

Mayor Ren Yiweng approached immediately.

After the door opened, the first to step down was the Director of the City Organization Department, Zheng Jiaxian.

"Director Zheng, thank you for your hard work,"

said Ren Yiweng respectfully.

Zheng Jiaxian was quite amiable. After shaking hands with Ren Yiweng, Liu Mingkai also got off the bus.

What followed was a tedious scene of handshaking.

Zheng Jiaxian was in the front, followed by Liu Mingkai.

As the introducer, Ren Yiweng led the two to the faces of the leadership team members of the four departments.

Liu Mingkai was quite friendly to most people.

Especially when shaking hands with Deputy Mayor Lai Chengzong, he specifically reminded Lai to take good care of his health.

Next,

it was Secretary Chen's turn.

"Yo, Minister Chen... oh, my apologies, it should be Secretary Chen now, right?"

said Liu Mingkai with a smile.

Chen Fang smiled slightly and extended his hand, saying, "Secretary Liu, hello."

Liu Mingkai did not take his offered hand but instead said in a sarcastic tone, "Secretary Chen is truly no ordinary person. After coming to Guyang City not long ago, some died, some scattered; it looks like Secretary Chen needs to find some time to visit a temple to ward off the bad luck on him."

Once these words were spoken,

those with malicious intent began to laugh loudly.

Especially the likes of Cui Weiguo, who laughed particularly heartily.

The implication of the words was clear, labeling Chen Fang as a jinx, linking him to the recent turmoil in Guyang City.

Seeing that they had embarrassed Chen Fang,

Liu Mingkai felt extremely pleased with himself.

Just as he was about to move on to the next person,

Chen Fang said, "Secretary Liu, I think you would be very suitable to lead in our Yong'an Province."

"Oh? Why is that?"

Liu Mingkai asked curiously.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.