The Tempting Road to Becoming an Official

Yuan Zhongping nodded his head.

He stood at the very center of the steps of the health clinic.

He took a deep breath.

He spoke loudly, "My name is Yuan Zhongping. I am from Songlin Village, Fuguang Town. The elders and fellow villagers present here should all recognize me. Four years ago, I was the planner and participant of the melee between the two villages…"

As Yuan Zhongping recounted his story,

the truth about the melee that had taken place four years earlier finally came to light.

The whole story began with an allocation of funds for rural revitalization that year.

Four years ago, the province had made significant adjustments to its strategy for rural revitalization.

At that time, Changming County received an allocation of 6.5 million yuan.

After discussion, the county decided to disburse this money to Fuguang Town for use, to improve the town's infrastructure, including the road from the county seat to Fuguang Town.

After the funds were received,

Yuan Zhenting, however, did not want to use them for road repair.

He wanted to pocket the money for himself.

Normally, this kind of thing was not too strange in Fuguang Town.

After all, such situations had occurred before.

The common people didn't know about this money, and even if they did, they couldn't possibly know how exactly it was to be spent; it was still up to the town government to decide.

But who could have expected that someone would stand up and mess things up?

This person was the deputy town mayor at the time, Xu Lianhai.

Xu Lianhai believed that this money had to be used for Chagang Village.

First, all the money that had come down from above in recent years had without exception gone to Songlin Village. If the tea industry in Chagang Village was to develop, it definitely needed this money.

Second, it was about the road out of the village, which also needed proper renovation. If you want to get rich, build the road first—that's an obvious truth to everyone.

Xu Lianhai was a very stubborn person.

He even prepared a funding usage plan, which he brought up at the town party committee meeting.

He even accused some people, in front of all party committee members, of wanting to embezzle this money for their personal gain, stating that such behavior was absolutely unacceptable.

Who was Yuan Zhenting?

How could he possibly take a small fry like Xu Lianhai seriously?

Of the 6.5 million yuan, a portion was distributed by him, to whom, no one knew.

The remaining portion, after being laundered through multiple layers, eventually ended up in the pockets of Yuan Zhenting and his son.

After Xu Lianhai heard about this, he barged into Yuan Zhenting's office, slammed the table, and demanded that he spit out the money. If he refused, Xu would report his embezzlement to the county or even the city.

Yuan Zhenting was completely infuriated by this action.

He convened a group of people.

Among this group was Yuan Zhongping.

These individuals were all direct descendants of the Yuan Family.

Yuan Zhenting told them that they needed to come up with a way to eliminate Xu Lianhai, and to do it in a way that no one would notice.

Under such a plan, friction arose between the two villages over a plot of land, which, with deliberate instigation by certain parties, escalated into armed conflict between them.

That day, it "just happened" to be Xu Lianhai's turn to be on duty.

Xu Lianhai arrived at the scene.

In the chaos, he was unable to suppress the melee.

Taking advantage of the confusion, a flurry of clubs struck him, and thus Xu Lianhai met his untimely death.

It was because of the outbreak of this conflict

that many people from both villages ended up in jail.

At this time,

Yuan Zhenting deliberately had people spread rumors in Chagang Village that Songlin Village needed to raise funds for road construction due to developmental needs, and under the encouragement of vested interests, the citizens of Chagang Village, filled with righteous indignation, obstructed the construction of the road from Fuguang Town to the county seat.

In this way,

the 6.5 million in funds smoothly ended up in Yuan Zhenting's personal coffer.

To outsiders,

the inability to build the road was entirely due to Chagang Village's obstruction.

In fact,

Yuan Zhenting had never intended to build the road.

Even the vigorous development of the bamboo product industry in Songlin Village was, bluntly put, a means of embezzlement. On paper, the funding was for Songlin Village, but in reality, a large portion of the money was quietly withheld by Yuan Zhenting and his son.

Over the years, the money embezzled by Yuan Zhenting had accumulated to more than ten million yuan.

Of course.

Yuan Zhongping and others wouldn't do it for free.

After it was done,

some people went to prison to serve sentences, including Yuan Zhongping. However, since his involvement wasn't as severe, he was only sentenced to a little over two years.

After he got out, he received a sum of hush money from Yuan Zhenting's hand.

With that money, he opened a bamboo craft studio.

In Yuan Zhenting's view,

these people would never reveal the truth about what happened back then.

After all, the crime they were charged with then was merely a group fight. If the truth were revealed, it would turn into intentional homicide, and no one would be foolish enough to dig their own grave.

But he didn't anticipate

that this time, the attempt to ambush Chen Fang at the warehouse

almost cost Yuan Kaishan, Yuan Zhongping's father, his life.

After returning home, Yuan Kaishan, having thought it over, felt he owed Chen Fang an apology and decided to come forward with his son to turn themselves in.

Ah Ping finished speaking,

and all those present sighed with emotion.

Who could have imagined

that the melee from those years, with many villagers contributing effort, in the end, turned out they were all Yuan Zhenting's pawns, fighting to protect his "personal interests."

The so-called defense of the village's collective interests

was nothing more than a cover for Yuan Zhenting's murder and silencing.

Amidst everyone's whispering,

Chen Fang walked up to Yuan Zhenting.

He paused and then said, "Former Town Chief, you surely can't claim you're being framed now, can you? After all, there are still some buddies who haven't been released from prison, a surprise interrogation by the police might still yield evidence. Furthermore, as long as the Disciplinary Committee investigates your finances, there should still be some clues to be found, right?"

By this time, Yuan Zhenting could barely stand.

All his hopes rested on Sun Shenru.

"County Mayor Sun, County Mayor Sun, save me, save me, I don't want to go to jail, I don't want to go to jail..."

He tried to reach for Sun Shenru.

But Sun Shenru knew that Yuan Zhenting was now like a plague, and any contact with him might spell doom for himself.

He stepped back and shouted angrily,

"Yuan Zhenting, Yuan Zhenting, to think I trusted you so much, only to find out you are nothing but a parasite, a murderer. I can't handle this matter."

Having said that,

he turned and left in a huff.

With Sun Shenru gone,

Yuan Zhenting's last hope vanished.

If it weren't for two police officers supporting him, he would probably have collapsed on the ground by now.

"Chen Fang, Chief Chen, pretend you don't know about this. I'll give you all my money. I also have four adopted daughters, each of them beautiful. I'll give them all to you; you can do whatever you want with them. Is that okay? Spare me!"

In the struggle for survival,

one truly can abandon anything.

At this moment, Yuan Zhenting must have realized as well,

compared to freedom,

everything he held in his hands didn't seem that important anymore.

"Former Town Chief, I, Chen Fang, am an ordinary man. I have my vices, like greed and lust, but there's one thing I do know: never touch money that shouldn't be touched, and never touch women that shouldn't be touched. So, your kindness is appreciated, but I will have to decline."

After saying this,

Chen Fang suddenly recalled something.

He said, "Oh right, there's another thing that I must make clear to you. Former Town Chief, do you know why I forcibly took Cui Xianghui from the fire scene?"

"Why?"

"Because both you and I know that under your arrangements, Cui Xianghui was meant to be killed there and then. If he didn't die, it would be a disaster for you and your son. So, as long as I have him, you would definitely try to harm him."

"Since I knew from the beginning that Cui Xianghui was in danger, how could I let him lie alone quietly in a hospital bed? Isn't that right?"

These words

stunned Yuan Zhenting.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "Then... then... Cui Xianghui wasn't in the hospital room from the start? Where... where was he hiding?"