Chapter 192: The maximum sentence is seven years? "What a huge loss to the country! ...
Chapter 192: Maximum sentence of seven years?
"Comrade Jiuru, don't you need to rest for two more days?" Minister Huang was also stunned when he saw Yan Jiuru.
He didn't expect that in just seven days, Director Yan, who was always known for his handsome and cool appearance, would change so much!
Yan Jiuru's original hair was black and lustrous, with a handsome 3:7 hairstyle, which made him look steady and youthful.
But now his hair and eyebrows were shaved very short, his lips were a little dry, not to mention his skin color, and there were still burns on the back of his hands that had not healed completely.
But there was a certain firmness and depth in his eyes, which gave people a certain... indescribable and inexplicable connotation.
The two deputy directors looked at Yan Jiuru in shock and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Seeing this, Yan Jiuru smoothed his new hairstyle and said to himself, "How is it? Not bad, right? It's a little short, but the weather is getting hotter, so it's nice to cool down!"
Minister Huang pointed to the blisters on the back of his hand and asked, "Is this okay?"
"It's okay. I used the best burn ointment. My body will be fine in a few days. It won't cause any problems."
In the previous world, Yan Jiuru’s injuries could not even be healed with elixirs. He could just circulate his spiritual energy or demonic energy and it would be healed in less than an hour. But that is not the case in this world. Even if there are elixirs, they are not suitable for use in this way.
He touched his face and said, "It's a pity that this complexion won't recover so easily. I just ran into Director Geng from the Foreign Trade Promotion Department downstairs and he said I looked like I had just returned from Africa."
Yan Jiuru never thought there was anything wrong with a grown man making a complaint. He even understood the essence of making a complaint as early as possible and without paying attention.
Sure enough, this made Minister Huang frown.
Even the two deputy directors thought that Old Geng was too inappropriate.
There is no need for a heavy hammer to make a loud drum, Yan Jiuru can just tap it.
None of these people are rookie clerks, and they all know that too much is as bad as too little.
***
Yan Jiuru invited several people to his office for a "discussion".
He took the initiative to change the topic away from himself, first asking the two deputy directors about the major events in the department during this period, and then took the opportunity to thank the two colleagues and Minister Huang for their help during this period, otherwise he would not be able to concentrate on participating in disaster relief.
This inevitably brings us to the issue of firefighting.
Regarding the fire, in addition to public news reports, cadres at their level also received "internal reference" briefings.
The information above is more real and detailed than the news released to the public.
But none of them were as shocking as what Yan Jiuru had personally participated in.
There was no need for Yan Jiuru to exaggerate. He just mentioned his own firefighting experience in a realistic way, focusing on the tens of thousands of forest firefighters, militiamen, the masses and soldiers who participated in the firefighting.
"When I left, the registered number of people who died in the firefighting was 103..." Yan Jiuru felt heavy-hearted when talking about the comrades who died.
Deputy Director Cheng said softly, "The internal report we received last night mentioned a team of more than 50 people who were trying to stop a fire when the situation suddenly changed..."
He shook his head and said nothing more.
Yan Jiuru closed his eyes. He could only think that he must have met with misfortune.
Reality is always more cruel than a few lines of words on paper or a string of beautified numbers, and it is hard for people to face it.
"...the fire situation is very complicated."
Yan Jiuru licked his cracked lips and said, "The heat cyclone caused by the intense combustion is unpredictable. I have been very careful, but look at you..."
He pointed at his eyebrows and said, "I am considered lucky. Many firefighters had blisters on their hands that popped and then broke. They didn't feel the pain and didn't care about their injuries. The broken skin stuck to their gloves and the branches they used to light the fire.
He is telling the truth.
Not only were he, Lao Bai and Taoist Li, three special personnel from Institute 107, all injured, but Lao Wu called him yesterday and said that Taoist Li's injury caused his cultivation level to drop from the fourth level of Qi training to the second level.
You know, in this world with scarce spiritual energy and cultivation resources, people who can reach the fourth level of Qi training are rare. On the surface, it seems that they have fallen two levels, but in fact, it can be said that they have fallen a small realm.
After all, the fourth level of Qi training is considered an intermediate level in the Qi training period, and the third level and below are the primary levels.
It would be difficult to practice again without sufficient resources.
***
This morning, most of the time before ten o'clock was used to receive condolences and exchange information from various departments of the unit. Fortunately, after everyone entered the normal office hours, the number of visitors finally stopped.
Only then did Yan Jiuru slowly deal with the backlog of official business.
Because he has his deputy and Minister Huang to support him, there are not many businesses that really need to wait for his return to be handled. Most of them are documents that need his signature and materials that need final review or doubts.
Yan Jiuru paused when he signed in the office expenses for the next quarter.
In the past, he would never object to office expenses such as manuscript paper, printing and copying paper, pens and ink. After all, these expenses were contracted by the department, and there was only so much money in total. If he used more, his department could save money elsewhere, and if he used less, there would be no chance of success.
But when he saw the amount, Yan Jiuru saw flashes of the firefighters’ faces with skin peeling off and even their ears scorched and shrunken. . . .
When you think about a fire of that size, it would take thirty to fifty years, let alone three to five years, to recover.
He shook his head secretly, called Secretary Li, changed the amount on the application form to two-thirds of the original amount, and handed it to him.
"I'm telling everyone: for the next few quarters, we need to be as frugal as possible with office expenses. We should lower the standard for entertaining clients and avoid entertaining them if possible.
Also, I'll reduce tea and coffee consumption in my office by one-third. I'll just bring what I drink from home. The money saved will be donated to the disaster relief headquarters in the name of the department."
Their department targets foreign capital, so in order to maintain face, the costs in all aspects are relatively high.
After Yan Jiuru became the director, he secured twice as much funding as before, and the office had more money to spend.
Secretary Li took the application form signed by the heads of various departments and the deputy director, and then looked at the amount approved by the director, and couldn't help but hesitate.
After all, in government agencies, there will be some complaints if office expenses have not increased for many years, but if they increase and then are reduced, there will inevitably be gossip.
Yan Jiuru noticed his hesitation and tapped his pen on the desk. "Go ahead and send the notice. If anyone has any objections, please let him (her) come to me and talk to him (her)."
"yes!"
***
It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.
It would have been fine if the funding was not so loose to begin with, but after several months of loose days, it suddenly returned to the way it was, and it was even tighter than before. Many people couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable.
At lunch time, the directors of the administrative department and the printing room came and sat opposite Yan Jiuru with their meals.
"Boss, you look so exhausted, why don't you take a couple of days off?"
Director Qu of the administration department is not tall and a little fat, which is a rare body shape in this era except for chefs.
Feeling the concern of his subordinates, Yan Jiuru smiled and said, "Alas, I'm still young, and there's nothing wrong with my health. It's just that the disaster is worrying me..."
Directors Qu and Wang exchanged glances with each other and tactfully held back what they wanted to say.
Yan Jiuru didn't let them off so easily and asked directly, "Are you two here to ask about funding?"
"Uh, well, no, hehe."
"Yes, it's inconvenient for us during working hours, so I'll take this opportunity to see you."
"Thank you both."
Yan Jiuru ate a big steamed bun with potato and cabbage soup, then said seriously: "This fire is very serious, more than ten times more serious than what you see in the newspapers.
Donations of money and materials are definitely inevitable.
Should we save some money from our budget and donate it to the disaster-stricken areas, or should we donate it from our salaries? Think about it for yourselves."
The tradition of Xuan State is that when one side is hit by a disaster, all other sides will provide support. It is impossible not to organize donations of money and materials for such a large disaster.
The whole society is still in a state of confusion now, and relevant information has only begun to be released slowly. Assistance work at the social level has not yet begun, but many companies and organizations, including Yan Jiuru's own company, have already started supporting disaster relief early on.
Human, material and financial resources are just different forms of support.
It's just a matter of time.
After all, he was a government official, so Yan Jiuru only said a few words and the two of them understood.
"That's right, that's right."
"You are so thoughtful, leader."
Anyone with a brain would know the choice between paying out of one's own pocket and saving money from the budget.
Soon, after work in the afternoon, the chirping sounds disappeared.
Everyone responded consciously to the call for frugality.
Most people today are sincere and have little objection to donating to disaster areas.
Whenever there is a disaster reported in the newspaper, not only will the government or organizations call for donations, even those who are soft-hearted will take the initiative to donate some money or property.
But for a major disaster like this, most units will organize donations.
After the unit union donates, you also have to participate in donations organized by the street.
If both spouses are working, the family will have to live frugally for the next month or even several months after receiving donations from both employers to survive.
Therefore, there is no need to say much about some things, as long as everyone understands it.
***
Sure enough, as the coverage of the fire deepened, the devastating disaster brought about by this major fire became increasingly clear to the public.
The Xuan government has mobilized the country's largest fire-fighting and rescue force, but the fire has not been completely extinguished. Although the open flames have gone out in some areas, the hidden fires are easy to rekindle and often require repeated firefighting.
All the troops from the Northern Military Region that could be deployed were sent out, and many people who had escaped death took the initiative to join in extinguishing the fire without any organization.
Because there is no organization, they just join whichever team they come across. If they don’t meet any other team, they have to take care of their own food and drink.
Preliminary statistics on the disaster losses have far exceeded Xuan Country’s current disaster relief reserve capacity.
In this situation, the Xuanguo Red Cross asked for assistance from the international community for the first time.
In response to requests for assistance, many countries and international organizations in the world have extended a friendly hand and actively responded to the assistance in various forms, including but not limited to donations of funds, medicines, food, equipment, and daily necessities.
The United Nations World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, as well as the Red Cross Societies of more than a dozen countries and embassies of various countries in Xuanguo have all provided assistance, including support from our compatriots in Hong Kong.
Of course, while accepting international aid, Xuan State itself has always had the fine tradition of "support from all sides when one side is in trouble."
For a time, all sectors of society actively responded to disaster relief efforts.
From time to time, the news media reports that some children smashed their piggy banks to donate their change, some children took out their saved New Year's money, some old comrades donated their retirement wages, and so on.
It is truly a unity of purpose and determination!
***
That day, when Yan Jiuxia returned home from work, he could hear the hustle and bustle in the alley from a distance.
You don't need to ask, just see the banners hanging on the streets and you will know that they are fundraising.
This is the second time in half a month that Kuihua Street has raised funds for this major fire.
Yes, the state has assessed this fire and classified the accident as a 'major forest fire'!
This is the most serious forest fire since the founding of Xuan State, no doubt about it!
Before I even entered the house, I saw two little kids rushing out holding something.
"Where are you going?"
"dad!"
The two kids came over and told him seriously, "The street office said the disaster area is in urgent need of shoes, so we'd like to donate a few pairs."
"Yeah, okay, go ahead."
Yan Jiuru returned home, walked around inside and outside, and found Chen Yin in the backyard.
"What are you busy with?" He saw Chen Yin squatting on the ground picking something, and hurried over to help her up. "What kind of work can't wait for me to come back? You are getting older now, so you have to take care of yourself."
Chen Yin smiled and said, "I'm not that squeamish. I see the radish is growing better than the vegetables. I just happen to have a piece of meat at home, so I picked some and made dumplings with it."
"Oh, the freshness is comparable to shepherd's purse in spring. I even think the one stuffed with kudzu vine tastes better."
Yan Jiuru took the basket as he spoke, rolled up his sleeves and continued picking.
Qumacai is a common wild vegetable in spring and early summer. It can be washed and eaten raw with sauce. Of course, it tastes especially good for clearing away heat!
But if you blanch it, chop it up and make dumplings with pork, it's so delicious that it's jaw-dropping.
This kind of plant is very common in vegetable gardens. If you eat it, it is a wild vegetable; if you don’t eat it, it is a weed.
In short, it grows every year and cannot be completely removed.
Everyone in the Yan family loves to eat this. Every year when they weed, they specially leave some of it and can make dumplings with it.
***
Several people in the family are big eaters. Yan Jiuru picked everything he could in the garden, otherwise there would definitely not be enough to eat, and even this might not be enough.
"Go change your clothes, I'll pick them up, and then I'll blanch them, mix the dough and chop the stuffing. You can do it."
Chen Yin pushed Yan Jiuru to change out of her office clothes, and she sat on the stone table and stone bench outside to pick vegetables.
At this time, Nanny Yan came back from outside with a basket of vegetables. "Oh, you picked this?"
The old lady came closer to take a look and said, "Tsk, tsk, I didn't see it this big two days ago, but it grew this high yesterday after the rain."
"My mother and I wanted to go together. I saw that our chives were less than a pound tall, so I bought two bundles of fresh chives at the grocery store. I also wanted to make some chive dumplings."
"Grandma, let's make dumplings with leeks and meat."
Zhuangzhuang came out with a few pairs of shoes and neatly folded clothes in his arms. When he heard the old lady and his mother discussing dinner, he immediately felt hungry.
The old lady knew at a glance that this child was also donating clothes, and couldn't help but sighed: "During this disaster, don't donate your own clothes. At least keep a few pairs to change into."
"I know, it's too milky."
Zhuangzhuang is not very old, but he skipped a grade and went to high school, so he donated more than his younger brothers and sisters who were in junior high school.
It can be said that there are only a few sets of clothes left in the room that were worn recently.
The old lady sat down to pick leeks and muttered to Chen Yin, "When one person commits evil, the whole society suffers. I heard on the radio that this is the first time the country has asked for aid from outside countries."
Alas, our country has such strong leaders. If this weren't so difficult, they wouldn't even open their mouths to the outside world."
"You and Grandpa have donated a lot, right? If you don't have enough, don't keep quiet."
There are enough people at home, so we made dumplings with three kinds of fillings: pork with mulberry, pork with leek, and vermicelli with leek and egg.
The topic of conversation during dinner inevitably revolved around the fire.
Zhuangzhuang is a big boy now, and his focus is different from that of his younger siblings.
He asked his father, "Nearly one million hectares of forest have been burned, and hundreds of people have been killed or injured. With such consequences, how will the perpetrators be punished?"
Yan Jiuru glanced at his son and said, "According to current laws, the maximum sentence is seven years, and it might be less than seven years."
"How can this be possible!" The old man threw his chopsticks down with a bang.
"Which idiot made such a blind judgment?"
"What a loss to the country! I heard on the radio that the fire damage will take at least 50 years to recover. A seven-year sentence?!"
The old lady was also angry: "He deserves to be shot!"
The old man snorted, "In the past, they would all be executed immediately, and all nine generations of their clan would be exterminated!"
Zhuangzhuang also frowned, very confused.
The two little ones were more direct: "Then we donated all the money we saved for several years, and also gave away the clothes and shoes we bought for the New Year..."
"Ahem," Chen Yin said, "This has to be judged according to the law. Preliminary investigations show that the perpetrator didn't intentionally set the fire, it was negligence..."
"What kind of fault is that? Such huge losses, the case has even gone international, and yet they only get a few years in prison? We ordinary people are not satisfied!"
"That's outrageous."
. . . . . .
Yan Jiuru and Chen Yin looked at each other helplessly and smiled.
It can be said that most people in the country want to chop off the perpetrator's head with their own hands.
Hundreds of millions of people are watching this.
When legal workers announced the possible penalty, the public was agitated and many protested.
For a time, major newspapers received countless calls, telegrams, and letters.
So much so that the Supreme People's Procuratorate had to come forward to clarify: sentences of less than seven years only apply to general circumstances, and cases with extremely serious consequences like the current one must be dealt with severely and strictly!
Only in this way can the emotions of the general public be stabilized.
The relevant departments worked overtime overnight to provide additional explanations on relevant laws and regulations, and at the same time proposed amendments based on the current social development situation where the laws are seriously lagging behind.
***
However, before the National People's Congress could vote, Yan Jiuru finished his current tasks and applied to lead a team on an overseas inspection before May Day.
Of course, this is official business.
In fact, he also had a more important mission at Institute 107 that required him to go abroad.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
