Chapter 15

Part One: Turbulent Waters of Officialdom. Chapter Fifteen: Another Funeral

It was already noon when they left the expressway. Inside the car, they could not feel the heat outside. They found a hotel downtown and checked in. As a precaution, they made another photocopy of the notebook and gave it to his younger uncle for safekeeping, along with the photographic film. They had him check into the neighboring hotel before giving Zhou Fumin the telephone number of their hotel room.

Intercity roaming for mobile phones would not become available until 1996. At this time, a mobile phone was useless outside its home city.

In 1994, Xu Xueping was the deputy provincial Party secretary and secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission. He would retire at the end of his term in 2000. After Ding Xiangshan's case came to light in 1999, it was Xu Xueping who had demanded that the procuratorial authorities conduct a thorough investigation. Although they did not know how much Zhou Fuming had contributed to that, Xu Xueping should have been reliable.

The call took forever to come. Although no one suddenly kicked down the door and led a swarm of plainclothes officers into the room, waiting idly in the hotel left them anxious and uneasy.

Zhang Zhixing remained worried about his wife, but did not dare call her workplace himself. It was not until six that evening that Liang Gezhen called. Zhou Fuming had given her their hotel room's telephone number.

At noon, Liang Gezhen had been summoned straight from the Bureau of Letters and Visits to the West City Hotel for questioning by the Provincial Inspection Team, then taken to the Municipal Public Security Bureau for further questioning. Their home had already been searched. Liang Gezhen had not gone home; she had been notified of the search while at the bureau. Only after Zhou Fuming called to inquire had the bureau refrained from insisting on holding her for the full twenty-four hours. She was now staying with a colleague.

Zhang Ke watched his father put down the phone. Tang Xueqian's home must have been searched by now too. He and his wife are probably at the West City Hotel explaining their 370,000 in family savings. He wondered how Tang Jing was doing. Her lovely face rose in his mind, and he worried terribly. I should have just let Dad and Uncle come to the provincial capital. If I'd stayed in Haizhou, at least I could have looked after Tang Jing. I really don't know how she's doing now.

It was not until seven that Zhou Fuming called. "Something has happened in Secretary Xu's family recently. I only just managed to reach him. Secretary Xu may not have a very good impression of Haizhou's officials. Just go straight to his house and explain the situation clearly..."

Zhang Ke did not know what else lay behind Zhou Fuming's words. He thought Xu Xueping might be rather strict with Haizhou's officials. As he remembered it, Xu Xueping had rarely visited Haizhou, and he did not give it much thought.

Zhang Ke and his father left the hotel, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for New Plum Garden in the south of the city. It was the height of summer, and the plum trees were not much to look at, though their branches swayed gracefully in the moonlight with a certain charm. New Plum Garden was the residential compound for senior provincial Party committee and government officials. Zhang Ke and his father waited at the gatehouse for a while before a young man who looked like a secretary came out to escort them inside.

A white thread flower was pinned to the sleeve of the man's short-sleeved shirt. Zhang Ke wondered, Who in Xu Xueping's family has died? Seeing the cold, forbidding expression on the man's face, he decided he had better not ask unnecessary questions.

In the hazy darkness, they could not tell how far New Plum Garden extended. They passed several villas, all exceedingly quiet. Lush shrubs of the rose family filled both sides of the wrought-iron fences, blocking any further view inside.

Following the young man who looked like a secretary into Xu Xueping's home, they crossed a courtyard filled with flowers and plants and went straight to the living room to wait. Xu Xueping was very tall and about sixty, with a few age spots on his face, thick lips, high cheekbones, and deep-set eyes. His expression was stern, and he exerted considerable pressure on others.

Zhang Ke noticed small patches of sackcloth sewn onto Xu Xueping's cloth shoes. Have we come to bother him just when someone in his family has died?

"Secretary Xu..." Zhang Zhixing half rose.

"Zhou Fuming called me and said you had materials concerning Tang Xueqian's case." Xu Xueping's voice was deep and sounded cold. "The province selected outstanding personnel from the procuratorate, the courts, the Public Security Department, and other agencies to form an inspection team and send it to Haizhou precisely to get to the bottom of this. Whatever materials you have, why couldn't you give them directly to the inspection team?"

"The materials we have don't just concern Mayor Tang. They also involve Haizhou's municipal Party secretary, Ding Xiangshan..."

"What materials..." Xu Xueping's expression softened a little. He sat back on the sofa and gestured toward the sofa beside him, inviting Zhang Zhixing and his son to sit.

Zhang Zhixing handed Xu Xueping the photographs Zhang Ke had taken in front of the Red-Brick Villa, along with Zeng Jianhua's notebook.

Xu Xueping flipped through the photographs, then leafed through Zeng Jianhua's notebook without examining it closely. Leaning back against the sofa, he thought for a while before saying, "There may be some problems with the Xinfeng Group. Hasn't your city noticed them too? Haven't several inspection teams already been sent? It takes time to investigate a problem thoroughly. Don't casually cast suspicion on the city's top official. What do these photographs prove? Even if you have questions, you can report them to the relevant departments. Don't bring things straight to higher authorities at the drop of a hat. All work has to follow procedure..." Xu Xueping's tone made their hearts sink, yet he turned to the young man who looked like a secretary and said, "Xiao Li, make a call and see whether anyone at the Provincial Procuratorate is on duty tonight. Hand these people and the materials over to the procuratorate to deal with."

"Secretary Xu," Zhang Zhixing said, alarmed and anxious at Xu Xueping's dismissive response, "I've worked with Mayor Tang for over ten years. I know what sort of man he is..."

Xu Xueping had no patience to hear him out. With a forceful, decisive wave of his hand, he cut him off. "Whether Tang Xueqian has committed any wrongdoing isn't for you to decide. The Provincial Inspection Team is still investigating and has reached no conclusion. If he has done wrong, the law will not tolerate it. If he hasn't, he will be treated fairly. Whether the province needs to intervene directly in the Xinfeng Group's problems takes time to discuss. We don't intervene just because you say so... Besides, before Tang Xueqian took charge of the Xinfeng Group's restructuring, things there were relatively peaceful. Once he took charge, trouble started coming one incident after another. Should I believe you, or what the public can see?" If Xu Xueping's earlier, entirely formulaic bureaucratic remarks had been disappointing, the words that followed showed that he had a very poor impression of Tang Xueqian, sending their hearts sinking all the way to the bottom.

Having said his piece, Xu Xueping got up and left. The man who looked like a secretary finished his call and sat back down, watching Zhang Zhixing and his son to keep them from slipping away.

Without a powerful figure pushing the investigation forward, how long would it take to get to the bottom of the case with this evidence if they had to rely on bureaucratic procedures?

Since Xu Xueping had said he would hand them and their materials over to the Provincial Procuratorate, they could not get away to seek out another provincial leader. Zhang Ke did not know where things had gone wrong, leaving them unable either to advance or retreat.

"Uncle Xiao Li, who in Secretary Xu's family passed away?" Remembering that Xu Xueping had called the young man Xiao Li, Zhang Ke relied on his sweet tongue to ask.

Li Yijiang regarded Zhang Zhixing and Zhang Ke merely as ordinary officials who had come up to the provincial authorities to report a problem. Since Haizhou's mayor, Zhou Fuming, had also called ahead, he was not particularly hostile. When Zhang Ke asked, he answered, "Secretary Xu's son died in a traffic accident a few days ago. The accident happened right in your Haizhou City. What are Haizhou's officials doing about traffic management!"

No wonder Xu Xueping was in such a foul mood: his son had died in a traffic accident in Haizhou. Now Zhang Ke felt that his bad temper was not hard to understand. Given enough power, he would probably have sent every last damned Haizhou government official packing. His father had heard nothing of this at the Municipal Government. Either very few people in the city knew about it, or his father had been completely isolated by his colleagues there.

Faced with this situation, even Zhang Ke was somewhat at a loss. All he could do was sit there and wait for someone from the Provincial Procuratorate to arrive, hoping that the normal investigative procedures could still uncover the truth quickly.

Zhang Ke sat listlessly beside his father on the sofa. The housekeeper brought in three cups of tea. She had only just set them down when a child's frightened crying sounded upstairs, coming in long and short bursts, followed by what sounded like someone rolling off a bed onto the floor.

Xu Xueping sprang out of the study with flying strides. Seeing the housekeeper setting the teacups on the table, he said sternly, "Didn't I tell you not to leave Zhitong alone in her room?"

The housekeeper looked embarrassed, at a loss under Xu Xueping's scolding. With a cold snort, Xu Xueping swung his arm and made for the stairs.

"When guests come to our home, whether they're from Haizhou or anywhere else, we ought to serve them tea. I told Xiao Zhou to make tea for our guests." A woman of about fifty came down the stairs carrying a little girl, whose head rested on her shoulder. The woman said to the housekeeper, "Xiao Zhou, your Uncle Xu has been in a bad mood these past few days. Don't take it to heart."

The little girl sobbed with her face against the woman's shoulder, her body trembling faintly with fright. Xu Xueping did not argue. He reached out and took the little girl from the woman's arms, his icy voice immediately turning gentle and affectionate. "Zhitong, come, let Grandpa hold you..."

As the little girl left the woman's arms, her face turned toward Zhang Ke.