Ding Yizhen Strikes Back
After Chen Mo left, Sun Liancheng did not immediately return to his desk. Instead, he went to the window and looked at the sky through his astronomical telescope. This was one of his ways of relaxing.
His mind kept turning over the young executive deputy district head's careful calculations: two senior city officials had personally escorted him to his new post, and as soon as the assembly ended, he had bypassed the district Party secretary to come straight to the district head to "report for duty." His words had been earnest, yet every sentence pointed toward "unity within the government" and "implementing Mayor Lin's instructions."
He declared his intentions right off the bat and forced me to show my cards. He hasn't come in peace. Sun Liancheng sighed inwardly. It was not that he failed to understand Chen Mo's offer of an alliance, nor was he entirely untroubled by Ding Yizhen's ability to blot out the sky with one hand in the district.
But he knew even better that, caught between a domineering district Party secretary and an executive deputy district head parachuted in with an imperial sword of authority, he was a district head whose position was already sensitive. A single false step could make him the first to fall.
Behind Ding Yizhen stood Li Secretary Dakang, who had spent years building his influence in Handong Province and was deeply entrenched. As for his methods... Thinking of certain rumors, Sun Liancheng felt a chill rise in his heart.
Mayor Lin Yanzhou, meanwhile, had an unfathomable background, but he had only recently arrived. Whether he could truly gain a firm foothold and contend with Secretary Li remained an open question.
To Sun Liancheng, Chen Mo's eagerness seemed somewhat like the recklessness of a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger.
Besides, Chen Mo himself had come to take over. How much longer can I remain district head? If I get too close to Chen Mo now, won't I only hasten my own departure? But if I reject him outright, I'll inevitably offend Mayor Lin...
Just as Sun Liancheng sank into thought over this dilemma, the internal telephone on his desk suddenly rang, interrupting his thoughts. He walked back to the desk and picked up the receiver.
"Hello, Comrade Liancheng," came Yizhen's hearty yet unquestionable voice from the other end. "The assembly was a great success! Comrade Chen Mo is in place now. I think we need to move quickly and clarify the division of responsibilities within the government leadership as soon as possible, so our new comrade can familiarize himself with the situation and get to work. How about a brief meeting at three this afternoon to discuss it first? In my office."
Sun Liancheng's fingers unconsciously tightened around the receiver. Ding Yizhen moves fast! This is no consultation. It's plainly an order.
The district government operated under the district head responsibility system, and assigning responsibilities to his deputies was the district head's statutory authority. Yet Ding Yizhen wanted to bring it to a secretaries' meeting for "discussion." His purpose could not have been clearer-to package his personal intentions as unquestionable "collective decisions and the district Party committee's intentions." Once a so-called "consensus" was reached at the meeting, any attempt by Sun Liancheng to insist on his own views would amount to openly defying the organization. The labels of "lacking political awareness" and "disregarding the bigger picture" could be slapped on him in an instant.
But if he went along with Ding Yizhen's intentions, he would be binding Chen Mo's hands and feet himself, thoroughly offending the new executive deputy district head and Mayor Lin Yanzhou behind him.
Whether Mayor Lin was a mighty dragon capable of subduing the local snake remained unknown, but to bring a district head as isolated and weak as him to heel, a single glance would probably suffice.
There was simply no advancing or retreating. Either way lay death.
At that thought, a profound sense of helplessness welled up. I really wish I could just throw down the load and quit! But at his rank, how could he act on a whim? Life still had to go on. An absurd yet helpless thought even flashed through his mind: if only the municipal Party committee would show him some mercy and transfer him to a quiet department like the Association for Science and Technology or the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, it would truly be a release he could only dream of.
Ding Yizhen's eagerness to settle the division of responsibilities before Chen Mo had found his footing probably also indicated that his own seat was indeed not so clean. It likewise proved that Chen Mo's arrival was by no means a simple personnel arrangement; he must have come with some special mission.
That was why Ding Yizhen wanted to seize the initiative, first firmly hemming in Chen Mo's hands and feet and denying him any chance to shake up the existing order.
"All right, Secretary Yizhen. I'll be there on time," Sun Liancheng agreed.
After putting down the phone, he realized that if Ding Yizhen really did have a problem, it would be far more than a risk for him. It could be an enormous opportunity, perhaps even his only chance to turn the tables and break the current deadlock.
The downfall of a domineering secretary would inevitably open up a vast space for power and adjustments. By the time an entire pack of cigarettes on his desk had turned into an ashtray full of butts, Sun Liancheng finally picked up the telephone and called the executive deputy mayor who was similarly frustrated in the Jingzhou City government.
"Sir, are you busy? There's something I'd like to report to you." Sun Liancheng's voice carried weariness.
"Liancheng, go ahead. I'm not like you. What could I possibly be busy with?" The voice on the other end carried habitual self-mockery. Hearing it, Sun Liancheng understood. His former superior's current position was probably even more awkward than his own—Li Secretary Dakang's dominance had placed many of the city government's departments with real power under Ding Yizhen and others, while former mayor Wu Xiongfei had personally kept the few remaining departments firmly in his own hands.
Although the newly arrived Mayor Lin Yanzhou was a man of action, he was even more diligent than Wu Xiongfei, who had been keen on putting on a show, and had also placed Wen Zhiyuan in an important role. As a result, the executive deputy mayor's scope of authority and responsibilities had seen no substantive improvement. He had actually become one of the most "idle" people in the city government.
Sun Liancheng recounted the contents of his conversation during Chen Mo's visit, along with Ding Yizhen's call and his conjectures about it, to his former superior in full, hoping for a little guidance.
"Liancheng," the other man said after a moment of silence, "there isn't much advice I can give you, but I can tell you one thing for certain. Yesterday, Mayor Lin asked the Organization Department to compile your records from the past three years and send them to his office. I haven't managed to find out whether that's good or bad."
"You know Governor Liu will be retiring soon. You and I are still young, with long political careers ahead of us, and right now we both face the choice of picking a side again. I can't see who will have the last laugh in this game either, so I don't dare make any rash moves. My instincts tell me Lin Yanzhou is no ordinary man. Until I've made my final decision, I can't take this risk for you. We both know the consequences of choosing the wrong side. So that's all I can say. In the end, you have to follow your own judgment."
After hanging up, his former superior's remark that Mayor Lin had already reviewed his records from the past three years plunged Sun Liancheng into an even longer silence. Smoke swirled once more. Far from putting him at ease, his former superior's words had pressed the weight of the choice even more squarely back onto his shoulders.
His former superior's predicament was exactly like his own. All that prolonged waiting and watching would bring his former superior was continued marginalization.
After all, even if he wanted to throw in his lot with Li Dakang, the man thought nothing of him and had repeatedly singled him out for criticism at meetings large and small. With Ding Yizhen blocking his way, he had no chance at all. Nor could anyone shelter him under Jingzhou's existing power structure. That made the new path offered by Lin Yanzhou the only choice that might break the deadlock.
The Qingshui River project, in particular, had shone like a lamp on Lin Yanzhou's true colors as an official. Who in Handong did not know it was a hard bone to gnaw? Who could fail to see the riverside residents' bitter complaints filling the roads? Yet for years, no one had truly touched it, because the web of interests involved was far too tangled, the investment enormous, and immediate "political achievements" difficult to obtain. It could even leave a person mired in trouble.
Only Lin Yanzhou had gone ahead regardless-and succeeded. That willingness to "head into the tiger's mountain knowing full well a tiger is there," that drive to gnaw hard bones and genuinely work for the people, was all too rare in Handong's officialdom. It was worth placing a bet on him.
At last, he stubbed out his cigarette, and his gaze grew clear.
He made his decision: he would choose Lin Yanzhou. His resolve was set, but his strategy had to be precise. He could not wait until after the afternoon secretaries' meeting and be left entirely on the defensive. Before then, he had to establish an unspoken understanding with Chen Mo.
When his liaison came in again to empty the ashtray, Sun Liancheng's tone had already changed. "Go ask Executive Deputy District Head Chen Mo to come over again. Tell him there are some things I'd like to give him a heads-up about."
This time, he was no longer the district head passively receiving a probing overture. Instead, he would take the initiative to send Chen Mo, and Lin Yanzhou behind him, a crucial signal: he understood the chessboard, and he had already made his choice.
He would also tell Chen Mo face-to-face about the deeper implications of Ding Yizhen's call, giving him enough mental preparation and hinting that he should immediately report to "the man behind him."