There Was No Problem with Ding Yizhen

Ding Yizhen had just hung up with Lin Yanzhou and had yet to think of a countermeasure when another phone on his desk, a white one, rang urgently.

He took a deep breath and picked up the receiver. "Hello, Ding Yizhen speaking."

The voice of Li Dakang's secretary, Wu Caixia, came over the line. "Hello, Mayor Ding. This is Caixia. The secretary asked me to tell you that he is paying very close attention to the funding for the Qingshui River cleanup. He requires the companies involved to act within five working days."

Ding Yizhen panicked. He had originally intended to borrow Li Dakang's tiger skin to buy himself some time. "Director Wu, the secretary knows the situation. The companies are having a very difficult time right now. The funds in question have all been invested in the Guangming Project. Could you see if I could report to the secretary in person?"

Wu Caixia answered directly, "Mayor Ding, the secretary said this is a political assignment. There is no room for bargaining. The funds must be transferred to the municipal treasury account as quickly as possible, without any reduction whatsoever."

Wu Caixia's refusal also shattered Ding Yizhen's idea of waving a tiger skin as his banner. With Li Dakang personally intervening and the two men taking the same position on this matter, he knew he could only make the chemical plant cough up real money.

"Please tell Secretary Dakang that I will carry it out! Without fail!" Ding Yizhen promised over the phone.

After putting down the receiver, Ding Yizhen felt that he was going to be in trouble; it was only a matter of time. He realized that ever since Lin Yanzhou had come to Jingzhou, he had increasingly felt that his strength fell short of his intentions. He could no longer keep the lid on things. The day his secrets came to light was close at hand.

Li Dakang's stance shattered his last shred of hope that he might get lucky. He dared not delay any longer and immediately found the private number of Zhao Guifa, the owner of the Guangming Chemical Plant, and called him.

The phone rang for a long time before it was answered, and Zhao Guifa's impatient voice came through. "Who is it? It's so late!"

"It's me, Ding Yizhen!" Ding Yizhen's tone was stern, carrying suppressed anger.

"Zhao Guifa, are you going to pay the money for the Qingshui River cleanup or not? I'm telling you, Secretary Li of the municipal Party committee has personally given the order. The money must be in place by the deadline! There is no room for negotiation!"

Zhao Guifa fell silent for a few seconds on the other end. His sleepiness seemed to have vanished completely, and his voice grew heavy. "Mayor Ding, it's not that I don't want to pay. I really can't come up with that much cash! It's not as if you don't know what shape the plant is in, how tight our cash flow is! You promised back then that you'd help us find a way to ease the pressure. How can you now..."

"That was then, this is now!" Ding Yizhen interrupted impatiently.

"Mayor Lin is watching now, and Secretary Li has given the order too. I can't protect you! Find a way, quickly. Even if you have to smash your pots and sell the iron, you have to scrape this money together!"

"That's easy for you to say, Mayor Ding!" Zhao Guifa's tone hardened too, carrying a trace of a threat that threw caution to the wind.

"If I could easily come up with tens of millions, would I have needed your 'help' back then? You can't just hound us to death now. You have to help us think of a way!"

"When an investigation comes, I'm afraid some of those accounts won't be easy for you to explain either, Mayor Ding."

Ding Yizhen's heart lurched. What he feared most had happened after all.

Zhao Guifa was threatening him with the dealings between them that could never see the light of day. He forcibly suppressed his panic and anger, softening his tone with a hint of coaxing deceit.

"Guifa! Calm down! We're in the same boat! As long as I, Ding Yizhen, am still in this position, I will never stand by and watch you die! This time, first do what the municipal Party committee and government require. Scrape the money together and get through the crisis in front of us. As long as I'm still in office, there will always be opportunities later to make it up to you through other projects! Take the long view!"

There was another stretch of silence on the other end. Only after a long while did Zhao Guifa reluctantly speak. "Mayor Ding, you'd better keep your word. I'll do my best to scrape it together."

"Not your best. You must!" Ding Yizhen emphasized again, then hung up.

Ding Yizhen slumped in his chair, feeling drained of all strength. He had temporarily placated Zhao Guifa with power and empty promises, but he knew that this hole and its hidden danger were already there, like a ticking time bomb.

A few days later, in the municipal Party secretary's office.

Two reports lay before Li Dakang on his desk. One was a preliminary investigation report on Ding Yizhen from the provincial and municipal commissions for discipline inspection; the other was a joint investigation report from the provincial and municipal anti-corruption bureaus.

Lin Yanzhou sat on the sofa opposite him, his expression calm.

"Yanzhou, the results of the investigation into Comrade Yizhen are in." Li Dakang pushed the reports toward Lin Yanzhou.

"The commissions for discipline inspection and the anti-corruption bureaus have all investigated carefully. So far, they have found no conclusive evidence that he personally accepted bribes. There were some allegations, but no substantiating evidence was found."

He paused and pointed to a passage in the report. "They did find that a company owned by a distant older male cousin of his supplied materials for some of Guangming Peak's early supporting projects."

"Procedurally, no obvious irregularities have been found so far in this company's qualification and bidding process. The prices of the materials it supplied were somewhat higher than the market average, but in a market economy, it's difficult to directly identify that as a problem. It could have resulted from the brand, quality, or other factors."

Li Dakang concluded, "Based on what we currently know, Comrade Ding Yizhen is clean. At the very least, no disciplinary or legal violations have been found. My view is that we should still trust our comrade and continue to employ him. The Guangming Peak Project is about to move forward. Changing generals on the eve of battle is a major taboo too."

Lin Yanzhou carefully read through the reports' main conclusions and understood. In an investigation like this, without conclusive evidence or forceful instructions from above, it was difficult to take action against an official holding a substantive deputy department-level post, especially a well-entrenched "local snake" like Ding Yizhen.

The materials supplied by that "distant older male cousin" were clearly a common way of dressing up the transfer of illicit benefits. But since the procedures had been made to look compliant, it was indeed difficult to probe further without a breakthrough.

He closed the reports and looked up at Li Dakang. "Secretary, since the organization and the commissions for discipline inspection have reached their conclusions, I respect the investigation results and agree with your view. At this stage, Comrade Ding Yizhen should continue to participate in the work."

A trace of satisfaction appeared on Li Dakang's face.

But Lin Yanzhou shifted tack. "However, Secretary, the municipal government has overall responsibility for coordinating the Guangming Peak Project. You explicitly supported that before."

"To ensure that the project can move forward efficiently along the established lines, and to avoid unnecessary internal friction and interference, I hope to have sufficient autonomy over the division of responsibilities within the municipal government and the project's specific operations. In particular, I need clear authorization and boundaries regarding personnel, allocation of funds, and specific decisions."

He was drawing boundaries, asking Li Dakang to honor his promise to "delegate power" and not interfere too much in how he managed the municipal government's leadership team and ran the project, particularly in how he employed and restrained Ding Yizhen.

Li Dakang watched Lin Yanzhou sharply for several seconds, seemingly weighing his options.

Finally, he nodded. "All right. Go ahead with the municipal government's work. The municipal Party committee will oversee the broad direction. You will have full responsibility for the specific operations and implementation. All I want is results-high-quality results!"

"Rest assured, Secretary. I will spare no effort and strive to deliver results that satisfy you and the municipal Party committee as soon as possible." Lin Yanzhou stood and solemnly stated his commitment.

Ding Yizhen's temporary escape was within Lin Yanzhou's expectations, but that did not mean the matter was over.

On the contrary, that report confirmed that Ding Yizhen had murky ties to the Guangming Peak Project. What he needed to do now was use the "autonomy" Li Dakang had granted him to tighten the rope step by step as the project advanced, while waiting for the right opportunity-or creating one-to kick Ding Yizhen out.

Meanwhile, Ding Yizhen had just breathed a sigh of relief after learning through his own channels that the provincial and municipal commissions for discipline inspection and anti-corruption bureaus had all declared him "safe."

But then he received another notice: Lin Yanzhou would visit the Guangming Peak Project the following Monday to conduct a fact-finding inspection and hear a report on the project.