As soon as Wang Fengqi finished speaking, Xu Yi, who had been lowering his head to drink tea, felt three pairs of eyes turn toward him.
He was direct. "Steward Wang, please tell me exactly what's going on."
Seeing him take the bait, Wang Fengqi breathed a sigh of relief and went straight to the cause.
As it turned out, the First Section's funding was allocated independently by the Discipline Department. But the Treasury Division, which controlled the allocations, had refused to give the First Section its funding for next month. Zhang Meng, the Division Chief, hadn't refused outright; he'd simply said funds were tight and told the First Section to wait.
Wang Fengqi wasn't a fool. The Treasury Division belonged to the Fourth Section, but the Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth Sections had all received their funds. How had it suddenly become too tight to fund the First Section?
Wang Fengqi was an old hand at officialdom, so naturally he didn't ask outright. He'd laughed and joked with Zhang Meng, who hadn't exactly kept his lips sealed. Sure enough, the problem lay with the Household Registration Department.
Although the Discipline Department had its own section responsible for finances, all its funding ultimately came through the Household Registration Department.
The Household Registration Department had only to give the Fourth Section, which handled the Discipline Department's finances, a word, and the Fourth Section would naturally have to comply. In this way, the pressure had been passed down the line.
Tracing the cause back, as long as Wang Fengqi's brain still worked, he could guess that it all stemmed from Xu Yi—and from the grudge Xu Yi had made with Deputy Director Zhao.
Now, as Xu Yi asked for the reason, Wang Fengqi was far too experienced not to know how to