0100 109 A Busy Day for Secretary Zhou (Part 2)
Li Jun didn't understand Zhou Xiye's meaning. Looking at her expression, he thought his younger brother had offended her, so he quickly apologized, "Secretary Zhou, is it because Li Wei is ignorant and did something wrong?"
Zhou Xiye didn't say anything. The two went into the office. She made herself a cup of tea. Li Jun wanted to help, but Zhou Xiye refused.
The sound of running water filled the office, followed shortly by the aroma of tea. Zhou Xiye poured Li Jun a cup of tea and placed it in front of him. The two sat down on the sofa. "Secretary Li," Zhou Xiye said, "I'm new here and unfamiliar with the area. Are there any places to drink tea in Kunming?"
Li Jun had a smile on his face the whole time. “Secretary, you mean teahouses? Teahouses in Kunming…” He couldn’t think of any for a moment, and just said, “I’m not too familiar with places to drink tea, but I know Xuelong Mountain Villa, they have all kinds of good things.”
"Snow Dragon Manor? It has everything?" Zhou Xiye repeated with a smile, picked up his teacup and took a sip. "Who owns this manor?" The mention of manor immediately reminded Zhou Xiye of Wangyue Manor, a place where the powerful and wealthy play.
Li Jun shook his head, "I don't know either... By the way, I heard that Secretary Hu wanted to host a welcome banquet for you, so he booked the banquet at Xuelong Mountain Villa."
Zhou Xiye put down his teacup and leaned back on the sofa. "How come I didn't know about the welcome banquet?"
Li Jun was a little embarrassed. He had been trying so hard to get on Li Jun's good side. "We want to give you a surprise, so please don't let it slip..."
Zhou Xiye nodded. He had a social engagement with Li Zheming that evening, and even before it started, he was already planning what to do. Li Jun stood up awkwardly, watching Zhou Xiye deep in thought, "Secretary, I..."
Zhou Xiye turned to look at him, "I'm fine now, you can go."
Zhou Xiye had planned to go out in the afternoon to visit the petition offices in various districts. However, before he could even leave the municipal party committee building, a group of people holding banners were blocking the entrance, with Director Meng from the Public Security Bureau standing at the gate.
The car stopped, Zhou Xiye rolled down the window, and Meng Qinggong walked over.
What is this?
Meng Qinggong didn't want to bend down to talk to Zhou Xiye, so he turned to the side, and Zhou Xiye saw the words on the banner.
"Give me back my hard-earned money!"
Zhou Xiye narrowed his eyes, and after looking at the group's clothes, he roughly understood. They were either subway construction workers or building workers, a chaotic mess.
When someone saw Zhou Xiye's car coming out, they shouted, "Secretary Zhou, you have to stand up for us! We all came from the village to work in Kunming, but those people didn't pay us. They didn't pay us to build our houses!"
Suddenly, a group of people started shouting. Li Wei looked at Zhou Xiye in the rearview mirror, "Secretary, should we go or not?"
Zhou Xiye rolled up the car window. This group of people must have known about the new Party Secretary's appointment. Furthermore, the fact that they were demanding back wages and had come to her meant the project was related to the previous Party Secretary. Finally, they were making trouble because they knew she was a new leader and were ready to cause a ruckus.
However, catching centipedes is not currently in Zhou Xiye's plans, but she can't just ignore it.
Zhou Xiye's teammate Li Wei said, "Could you go get that loudspeaker for me?"
Li Wei got out of the car, and Zhou Xiye made a call to his secretary, Yan Zhu, who answered quickly. "Secretary Yan, could you help me find out why this group of people are at the door?"
Yan Zhu put down the phone and walked to the window, where she saw a group of people gathered around the door. She then took out her phone.
It was lively outside Zhou Xiye's car. She rolled down the window and called to Meng Qinggong, "Come on up."
Meng Qinggong glanced at her, then got into the car with a grim face. The shouts outside grew louder, "Secretary Zhou Xiye! Are you in cahoots with those corrupt officials?! Why aren't you getting out?!"
"What happened? When did they arrive? Who called the police?"
"It's the security guard at the gate. Even military personnel can't come here. I just happened to be here to report a message to you, so I ran into him and helped maintain the situation."
Zhou Xiye nodded. "They weren't hurt, were they?"
Meng Qinggong laughed, "If they had been hurt, they would have been rolling on the ground by now."
Zhou Xiye disapproved of Meng Qinggong's attitude, but she didn't say anything. She looked out through the glass at the noisy scene outside.
Li Wei returned quickly, carrying a megaphone. Zhou Xiye, having finished his tea, took the megaphone and walked to the front of the car. The people surrounding Zhou Xiye looked at him and took a few steps back. The police also came over, and Zhou Xiye jumped directly onto the front of the car and onto the roof.
"Quiet down, everyone!"
Zhou Xiye, holding a megaphone, shouted, "I know everyone has demands, but this is not a good way to solve problems." She spoke slowly and gently, "I have just taken office as the new Party Secretary of Kunming, and I will definitely solve problems for everyone. However, I am not clear about what happened. Is there any representative who can tell me what's going on?"
Zhou Xiye's attitude was good, but he still couldn't resist the common people who had been struggling for a long time to earn their wages.
"You make it sound so nice, but who knows what you'll actually do!"
"Yeah, anyone can say nice things. What if you're in cahoots with them?"
Chaos broke out again downstairs.
Zhou Xiye's gaze swept across the faces of the people who spoke, his expression unchanged. "Do you have a representative who can tell me what exactly happened?"
Her attitude was clear: she would only talk to the representatives and "find out what happened. I will definitely help you get justice and use legal means to protect your rights."
After saying this, the troublemaker looked at a woman in simple clothes, whose eyes were very determined.
"It's me! I'm the representative!"
Zhou Xiye smiled and looked at the woman, who seemed like a reasonable person.
"Would you like to talk to me alone?"
The woman followed Zhou Xiye to the municipal party secretary's office, where Zhou Xiye poured her a cup of tea.
The woman was hesitant to drink, so Zhou Xiye picked up the teacup and took a sip first. "It's alright, relax. If you have any requests, just tell me, and I'll definitely help you."
“We built the house, but they didn’t pay us. The contractor ran away, and the company went bankrupt because the municipal party secretary stepped down. All our efforts were wasted,” the woman said quickly, her fingers gripping the sofa tightly.
Zhou Xiye smiled and said, "Please don't rush me. How should I address you?"
The woman looked at her warily. "Liu Pan'er, I'm from Liu Family Village. We all came from Liu Family Village; we came with the village chief..."
Zhou Xiye was very patient and slowly guided Liu Pan'er to tell him what had happened, and she roughly understood what was going on. Liu Family Village is a village under Yanbian County, Panzhihua, Sichuan. The village has no pillar industry, so young men and women leave the village to work elsewhere.
Upon arriving here, they built houses, and the real estate development company bought new land, paying each person 200,000 yuan. Later, the real estate boss's political influence disappeared, and he absconded, leaving behind a mess.
Poverty is a vicious cycle. Zhou Xiye felt extremely disappointed after hearing this, but she had no way to help them solve the fundamental problem.
"Ms. Liu, I understand what you mean..."
Before Zhou Xiye could finish speaking, Liu Pan'er interrupted him, "You're the young lady here. How can you talk like that at such a young age?"
Miss? Zhou Xiye was taken aback, then smiled. “I’m sorry, Liu Pan’er, the government really didn’t settle you properly. As far as I know, the land where you work will be auctioned off again by the bank and the court, and a new developer will take over the land. I’ll help you from the government’s perspective to ensure that you don’t lose your jobs and that you get your wages. At the same time, I will give you some compensation on behalf of the municipal party committee.”
Upon hearing this, Liu Pan'er realized that Zhou Xiye was trying to shirk responsibility.
"What do you mean? Are you pushing us onto other real estate developers? They'll just take advantage of us. How can you, as the Party Secretary, do this?"
Zhou Xiye frowned, thought for a moment, and put down his teacup. "Here's the thing, I guarantee you'll have jobs and get paid. I'm the Party Secretary of the Municipal Committee, and I won't leave. You can contact me anytime if you need anything."
"What's the meaning?"
Zhou Xiye nodded. "I'll go make a phone call."
She called the court and the bank respectively. The land will be auctioned again next week. After Zhou Xiye found out the situation, he said to Liu Pan'er, "Okay, you two go back first. We'll have news in a couple of days."
"Don't lie to us."
Zhou Xiye laughed, "No way, I'm the municipal party secretary. If I lied to you, I'd be playing with my career."
After saying this, she let Yan Zhu in and explained the follow-up matters to her. First, the migrant workers needed to be properly settled; second, the cause and effect needed to be clarified—was the former municipal party secretary involved in the affair, leading to the collapse of the regime and the disintegration of its power? Third, the auction details needed to be confirmed with the bank and the court.
Zhou Xiye stood at the window, watching Liu Pan'er go downstairs, and the people in front of the door gradually dispersed. This all happened too coincidentally. Zhou Xiye pursed his lips, his eyes filled with coldness.
She didn't go to the petition office in the afternoon, but spent half the day in her office studying the situation of those unfinished buildings in Kunming. Later that evening, Zhou Xiye was going to attend Li Mingzhe's banquet.
Originally, Li Mingzhe had chosen the location, but Zhou Xiye, having learned his lesson from last time, changed the venue to Xuelong Mountain Villa, which Li Jun had suggested. What kind of municipal party secretary gets beaten up as soon as he arrives? Pei Zhiyu already knows, and the central government must know too, but Li Mingzhe is completely unscathed.
At first, the people at Xuelong Mountain Villa said there were no seats available. Zhou Xiye asked Yan Zhu to give her her name and also revealed her identity as the Party Secretary of the Municipal Committee.
Soon, a spot was available.
Zhou Xiye's status is that of a municipal party secretary, a member of the provincial party committee standing committee, and supported by the People's Congress and the military region. Anyone who dares to hit her must be someone high up in the government. Zhou Xiye must meet with Li Mingzhe and have a good talk with him.
Xuelong Mountain Villa is nestled in the mountains, a place of scenic beauty and seclusion. Zhou Xiye stood atop the mountain, gazing at the river below, and remained silent for a long while.
Li Wei followed behind without saying a word.
“This place is perfect for murder,” Zhou Xiye suddenly remarked with a laugh, then turned to Li Wei, “Are you a local?”
Li Wei nodded; he had beautiful eyes.
Zhou Xiye chuckled twice. "Let's go, this is a trap."
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