"Comrades, my advisor is indeed inside, but I'm getting married today! I'll set up a separate table for you. You can take your time eating, and whatever it is can wait until the banquet is over, all right?"
"No, no. It's an emergency of the utmost urgency! We must see Director Li immediately."
By the time Li Ye reached the entrance, Wang Jianqiang had already spoken with Section Chief Li and the others. From Section Chief Cao's tone, they really had come looking for his grandfather.
Li Ye stepped forward and said half-jokingly, "Section Chief Cao, what sort of earth-shattering emergency made you run all the way from Qingshui County to Beijing to arrest someone at a wedding?"
"Arrest someone? No, no, no."
After hearing Li Ye's words, Section Chief Cao's expression shifted between light and shadow. But then he slapped his thigh and raised his voice in a tearful wail. "Four hundred thousand! Four hundred thousand embezzled! Director Li has to give us an explanation!"
Li Ye's eyebrows immediately shot up.
Though he did not understand the procedures of handling a case, he knew that something was wrong with Section Chief Cao.
In 1987, an embezzlement case involving four hundred thousand was absolutely a major case in a small county. Under normal procedure, the suspect would be taken away without a second word, then subjected to every sort of interrogation to guide him into confessing every last detail.
Yet now, before the family of the "suspect," Li Zhongfa, Section Chief Cao, who knew the details, had bluntly disclosed the amount involved. Was he trying to tip Li Zhongfa off?
Suspicious, Li Ye turned to look at the investigators, only to find their gazes wandering. None of them stopped Section Chief Cao from howling to heaven and earth.
That wasn't