Rebirth of Corrupt Officials

“What’s General Yue doing here?”

Jiang Xiaochuan could not have imagined that there would be someone waiting for him outside the hospital as soon as he left.

Yue Huasheng was sitting in the car, hale and hearty, his eyes reflecting the unique sharpness of old age. “Get in the car.”

There were people in the hospital who would take care of things.

Jiang Xiaochuan also guessed that the old man knew everything.

A gloomy expression finally appeared on his face.

He sat in the back seat, side by side with Yue Huasheng.

The car returned to the villa, but the villa looked very different from before.

“General Yue, did you know that all this would happen?”

“I did not know, because I did not know my children well enough. What you are thinking is a mystery to me.” Yue Huasheng’s cane rested across his lap, and like a samurai, he looked reverently at his sword.

“After all those years of fighting, I had learned nothing, and the only thing the battlefield had taught me as an old man was acceptance. Your comrades would leave, danger would come, territory would be lost, and all you could do was accept it. All you could do was accept it. Accept what was happening, what was set in stone, and accept it before you could change. Just like you had to accept the current status quo in Chengzhou, because Chengzhou was the provincial capital, so the chaos of a prefecture-level city had now jeopardized the work of a province, and what you were going to face, did you know?”

Jiang Xiaochuan knew better than anyone else.

But he wanted to know even more, “Were you aware of the things behind Yue Qingci that had been linked to those dark deals in the underground of Chengzhou?”

“I was aware of that, but I was also aware that he had since completely disassociated himself from those things.” Yue Huasheng’s eyes were still filled with the vicissitudes of life; he was a half-body buried in the earth, but now he had to see his favourite child, with white hair sending off black hair, say goodbye to the world at such a young age. Though accustomed to seeing life and death, he still could not shed tears. “It’s done, no matter how big the change before and after, done is done, nothing can be covered up. Just like everything would be dug up.”

He paused for a moment, then continued: “Like you knew Zhang Qing, Qu Zhendong, one of those people… in a high position, holding heavy power, but when the day came for them to fall, they would also collapse as soon as the dike gave way.”

Zhang Qing had also gone astray at some point; as far as possible, he was still that iron-faced Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, but his body had been stained, and party discipline and state law would not consider human feelings. As for Qu Zhendong, he was full of evil.

“What did you want to do with the gun?” Yue Huasheng asked for the first time.

When Jiang Xiaochuan had come out, he had already unloaded the gun and put it into the inner compartment. He looked at Yue Huasheng and asked, “What do you think I can do?”

The gun, as a thing, was born to kill and existed for that purpose.

Only the people to kill were different.

“The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s person, Lian Cheng, had gone back. I, an old man, my words might not be as powerful as others. The situation in Chengzhou now could not be controlled, and the higher-ups were likely to give Qu Zhendong absolute power. I advised you not to act rashly.” This was Yue Huasheng’s advice.

Lian Cheng had left after leaving him to Yue Qingcheng, and he was about to go back to the CCDI to deal with some matters. Jiang Xiaochuan was well aware of Lian Cheng as a person; he seemed to like foolproof plans.

Chengzhou was too chaotic, with Yue Qingci protecting Jiang Xiaochuan, this corrupt official and tainted witness, and he could rest assured from Chengzhou’s murky waters, focusing on dealing with the aftermath for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xue Yan and Jiang Xiaochuan’s safety had to be absolutely guaranteed; if he allowed the danger behind to persist, then everything before would have been in vain.

The first and last of all, he had calculated everything rationally, but he had left out the possibility of accidents.

If Lian Cheng had known that Yue Qingci was hiding so many complicated secrets behind him, he would have preferred to bring Jiang Xiaochuan to Beijing rather than leave him in Chengzhou.

“Chengzhou had so much darkness—drugs, power and money transactions, false unity—but behind it was a dead pinch. Even the entire economic construction was like a drug; sooner or later, side effects would emerge. Hemlock to quench the thirst of the economy—what use was that?” He laughed lightly.

However, Yue Huasheng used a sharp glance to directly see through his hidden thoughts. “There is no need to speak in such grandiose terms. You wanted to avenge the unjust brother Encheng, right?”

“I did not like that word.” He never felt he was being grandiose. No matter what name he used, what he was about to do was no different from what Zhang Qing had done initially.

When Zhang Qing’s family had died, there was no evidence to punish the murderer, a person who knew the law and discipline had chosen that extreme approach—in fact, fundamentally, he was also a leftist.

If he had been a rightist, he would have been stuck in his position due to the lack of evidence and suffered that dumb loss. The death of his relative would have been wiped out by the cold letter of the law.

But Chengzhou’s circle was too dark. Xue Yan had said that the party, government, army, and evil people involved in the deal were all over the place. Now Rong Shaobai and Yue Qingci were all there, so how could Qu Zhendong survive alone?

Jiang Xiaochuan had laughed a little at his own idea, but it was infinitely cold.

“Even if Lian Cheng could truly resolve Zhang Qing’s problem, it would be a long time coming. The Disciplinary Committee was a place that placed a lot of importance on procedural propriety, and with a series of things going down, this gap that had just opened in Chengzhou would be immediately patched up again by Qu Zhendong, who had absolute power, becoming an iron barrel once more.”

In the last few days, a series of major events had unfolded. Although it was disturbing the people, many thought that sweeping away the black forces was a good thing. So, although the period of chaos was unsettling, they could endure it; however, the officials could not hold back. They were all afraid of their lives and also of losing their money. With Lian Cheng’s arrest, others had always thought Jiang Xiaochuan was part of Qu Zhendong’s inner circle, wondering if he would reveal anything.

In fact, from the beginning to the end, Qu Zhendong had been wary of Jiang Xiaochuan. He was using Jiang Xiaochuan, borrowing his hand to achieve some transactions. But he might have thought Jiang Xiaochuan still believed he was the old leader of the right. Thus, the defence was coupled with a hint of contempt, and this contempt could become the most fatal flaw.