Zhou Yi's anger was not entirely feigned, because he had never done any of the things involving Zhao Qiushui and Wen Wan!
This was nothing but blatant slander.
Besides, he had always been the one receiving reports about other people. Now someone was actually using such underhanded tactics against him. This was intolerable. Even if he could swallow it, his father-in-law and uncle would not.
So Tao Beifang had guessed correctly. Zhou Yi had indeed seized this opportunity to issue a declaration of war.
As the saying went, whoever started trouble was in the wrong. He needed to make those people understand just how steep a price they would pay for provoking him!
"Please don't misunderstand, Comrade Zhou Yi! Director Cheng was only confirming whether the allegations in the report were true. He meant nothing else." Tao Beifang hurried to smooth things over and calm Zhou Yi down, while casting a dark glance at the "rash" Cheng Mingju.
This was only a preliminary inquiry, and they had yet to obtain any firm factual evidence. Under these circumstances, no one would dare declare Zhou Yi guilty. The best approach was to proceed gradually, using skillful questions to find holes in his answers and uncover leads pointing to violations of the law or Party discipline.
Instead, Cheng Mingju had displayed a presumption of guilt right from the start, provoking Zhou Yi's resistance and completely disrupting Tao Beifang's questioning strategy.
Worse still, he had been forced to step forward and clean up Cheng Mingju's mess.
"As I said earlier, I trust that the Investigation Team will approach this fairly and impartially, adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, and establish what really happened. So, Director Tao, Director Cheng, you will certainly do that, won't you?" Zhou Yi asked coldly.
"Of course!"