Early in the morning, an energetic Li Dawei arrived with a large suitcase. He set off with Wang Yan and the others, had breakfast, and headed to the station. By then, almost everyone at the station had arrived.
Wang Yan and Li Dawei followed a group of old smokers from the station to share a pack of Huazi cigarettes beside a flower bed in the backyard, where bougainvillea swayed in the breeze. Everyone chatted listlessly, mostly discussing the troublesome people they had encountered over the past two days.
By around seven thirty, everyone had arrived. Wang Shouyi, the family patriarch, called everyone inside for a meeting.
The instructor chaired the meeting, mainly discussing recent incidents at work and how to handle conflicts among the public. He criticized some people and commended others.
Wang Shouyi then went over yesterday's issue of the two incompatible villages in Sunshine Community, especially praising Xia Jie for going down the well to save someone. He continued by speaking about the Fengqiao Spirit—the Fengqiao Experience—a set of working methods developed in Fengqiao Town, under Zhejiang Province, in the 1960s. It meant mobilizing and relying on the people, keeping conflicts from being passed upward or escalating, resolving them locally, and making fewer arrests. The Chairman himself had issued instructions for other places to follow suit, and after pilot programs, it was promoted nationwide.
This was actually suited to China's national conditions. After all, there were too few police officers. Many disputes were minor, and a little mediation could resolve them. From that perspective, there was nothing particularly wrong with people thinking the police were just smoothing things over. The side that suffered a loss would refuse to accept it, while the side that gained an advantage would be even more aggressive and unwilling to yield. More often