Institutional Reform!

Morning.

A little after nine.

In the Courtyard House.

Dong Xuebin bustled in and out twice, buying vegetables, meat, and Mahjong tiles. By the time he had everything sorted out, he was drenched in sweat. If it had only been the younger generation coming over, he would not have gone to such trouble—anything passable would have done, or he could have had them prepare it themselves. But his mother-in-law and his wife's First Aunt and Second Aunt were coming, so Dong Xuebin naturally did not dare neglect anything. He had to make sure everything was properly arranged. He had always been someone who cared about appearances and etiquette, especially when it came to elders. He could not give them anything to criticize him for.

He had bought everything.

He was nearly done with all the preparations.

Dong Xuebin checked the time and calculated how long it would take Hui Lan's family to get here from their villa. If there was no traffic, they should be arriving soon, so he went outside the courtyard gate and sat down.

"Hey, Little Dong." Big Sister Ci, his neighbor, happened to come out.

Dong Xuebin smiled and greeted her. "Big Sister Ci, heading out to buy groceries?"

Big Sister Ci nodded. "Yeah, while the morning market's still open. What about you?"

Dong Xuebin said, "My mother-in-law's coming over, so I'm waiting outside."

Big Sister Ci gave him a meaningful smile. "Your mother-in-law? Then you definitely should be waiting." Then she suddenly remembered something and pointed down the alley. "Oh, right. Is that Land Rover in the alley yours?"

Dong Xuebin looked over and nodded. "Yeah."

Big Sister Ci clicked her tongue in amazement. "I don't know much about cars, but I heard that's a good one. Costs several million, doesn't it? What happened to your Xiali? Why aren't you driving it?"

Dong Xuebin spread his hands. "It got wrecked, so I changed cars."

Big Sister Ci smiled. "Next time, let your big sister here take a ride in that Land Rover."

"No problem. I'm off these days. If you want to drive it, you can just take the keys." Dong Xuebin readily agreed. That was simply how he treated people.

Five minutes...

Ten minutes...

Twenty minutes...

An Audi A8 slowly drove into the alley.

Dong Xuebin had sharp eyes. The moment he saw the license plate, he immediately got up and went to greet them.

The car stopped. When the doors opened, Han Jing, Xia Yanzhen, and Ci Lifen got out one after another.

"Mom, First Aunt, Second Aunt, you're here?" Seeing that they were carrying things, Dong Xuebin hurried over to take them. "Oh, why did you bring gifts too? They're heavy as hell. Give them to me."

First Aunt Xia Yanzhen smiled. "You've moved into a new place, and this is our first visit. We had to bring something."

Dong Xuebin waved it off. "What housewarming? I just changed where I live. Look at you and Second Aunt being so formal with me. Besides, isn't my home our home? Whenever you want to stay here, just come over. I have other places to live—I can move my things out and leave. There's no such thing as your home or my home. It's all our home."

Xia Yanzhen smiled gently. "Listen to how well Xiao Bin talks. Then if First Aunt needs to use your Courtyard House to host some colleagues, you'll have to clear the place out for me."

Dong Xuebin said, "You're making fun of me. Do you even need to ask? Just say the word. Not only will I clear it out for you, I'll have the cigarettes, liquor, tea, and everything else ready."

Ci Lifen smiled too. "In our family, Xiao Bin's the only one who knows how to handle things. Hui Lan, Xiao Ran, and Xiao Hao aren't up to it."

"Exactly." Xia Yanzhen looked at the smiling Han Jing. "I'm so jealous of you, Sister-in-law. How great would it be if Xiao Bin were my son-in-law?"

Han Jing laughed and glanced at her. "Yanzhen, don't talk nonsense and make the children laugh at you. Sun Kai's not bad either. He's such a fine young man."

Xia Yanzhen smiled. "Xiao Kai's a good person, but he's a little lacking in ability."

Han Jing disagreed and pointed at Dong Xuebin. "Oh, please. What's the use of being capable? Look at this kid. His unit just ordered him to go home and reflect, and they even gave him a disciplinary punishment. He's been stuck at home for a whole week. He never lets me stop worrying and is always getting into trouble. That's what being capable gets you."

Dong Xuebin was embarrassed and quickly changed the subject. "Please, come in, come in. Have a look around the courtyard."

Han Jing smacked the back of his head, but did not scold him further. She entered the Courtyard House with Xia Yanzhen and Ci Lifen, turned the corner, and came into the courtyard.

"Oh, it's so big?"

"The courtyard is really spacious."

"The house is nicely laid out too. It's really good."

The three of them kept nodding as they looked around. They clearly liked the place.

While they looked around, Dong Xuebin went inside to make tea. He brought out cup after cup, then finally set the Mahjong tiles on the table and spread out a cloth.

"Please have some water," Dong Xuebin said.

Han Jing said, "No, I'm not thirsty."

Ci Lifen smiled. "How about we play cards?"

"Sure, we can chat while we play," Xia Yanzhen said.

All four sat down at the Stone Table, shuffled the tiles, drew their hands, and began playing Mahjong.

Dong Xuebin, meanwhile, was very concerned about what was happening at work. After playing a tile, he looked up and asked, "Mom, what exactly is going on at my unit? Are they really restructuring the departments?"

Han Jing gave a slight hum. She drew a tile and looked at it. It was no use, so she discarded it before saying, "It's confirmed. Your dad went to a meeting yesterday, and they finalized it."

Dong Xuebin blinked. "Which departments are being changed?"

Han Jing said, "The changes this time are fairly major. It's also the biggest organizational adjustment the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has made in recent years, and people from all sides are watching closely, so the higher-ups have been very cautious. For now, they've only finalized the proposal. Actual implementation will be at least a month from now; the timing has not been set yet. The main departments affected are your eight inspectorate offices. With this institutional reform, the discipline inspection and supervision offices specifically responsible for investigating cases will increase from eight to ten, strengthening the front-line anti-corruption force. At the same time, the Party Conduct and Government Conduct Supervision Office and the Law Enforcement and Efficiency Supervision Office will be established to strengthen oversight of improving work conduct and administrative efficiency."

Dong Xuebin said, "So there'll be several more offices?"

"Not really. There are mergers too." Han Jing said, "The Party Style and Clean Governance Construction Office and the Office for Rectifying Unhealthy Practices will merge into the Party Conduct and Government Conduct Supervision Office. The Law Enforcement Supervision Office and the Performance Management Supervision Office will merge and reorganize into the Law Enforcement and Efficiency Supervision Office. The additions and reductions balance out, so the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and Ministry of Supervision will still have twenty-seven internal departments."

Dong Xuebin thought about it. "So our eight inspectorate offices become ten. How will the two new offices divide up their responsibilities? Which provinces will they take over?"

Han Jing said, "It basically has nothing to do with your office. The Fifth Office, which was originally responsible for investigating cases in the Southwest and Northwest regions, will be split up. From now on, it will only handle the five provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the Southwest, while the newly established Ninth Office will handle the Northwest. Likewise, the Sixth Office will from now on only handle Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shanxi; the newly established Tenth Office will take over investigations in the three northeastern provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In other words, the Fifth Office and Sixth Office will each give up part of their responsibilities. Your Eighth Inspectorate Office will not see any changes, but a single change can affect the whole body. With two new inspectorate offices being established, some personnel will certainly have to be transferred, and people will need to fill the leadership positions as well. So it can't be said that it has absolutely nothing to do with you. I imagine every inspectorate office will lose some people."