Official Career Storm

Chapter 1550 1550

After Wen Ru finished relaying what Song Guanchao had asked her to tell him, she left.

Fan Jie lay on the bed cursing for several minutes, and only stopped when he was gasping for breath.

He stared at the white ceiling, breathing in the smell of disinfectant in the hospital, and suddenly laughed at himself.

He'd thought he could outplay Song Guanchao, but in the end he'd been treated like a toy by Song Guanchao.

The two of them weren't even in the same league.

This guy had started laying out the trap against him a long time ago.

Even without what happened today, his company would still have been ruthlessly plundered.

If Song Guanchao's scheming made him furious and unwilling to accept it, then Zhang Yan's actions chilled him to the bone.

He'd thought he was using Zhang Yan; in reality, he was also being played by Zhang Yan in the palm of her hand.

Zhang Yan treated him like a gigolo, wanting him and then demanding wildly, not caring whether his body could take it.

On the surface, she'd fought for an opportunity for him by luring Wu Qiangwei out.

In fact, it was a sellout.

Zhang Yan had transferred her assets and left Jiangzhou in advance.

As for asking Wu Qiangwei out, that was just something she did in passing.

She had long guessed that it was impossible for him to succeed.

Even if he did succeed, it would be useless.

She understood Wu Qiangwei; even if he succeeded, Wu Qiangwei would never compromise.

Everything had been within her calculations.

He had become the sacrificial lamb.

Fan Jie knew he was finished, completely finished.

"I want to report them!"

Fan Jie suddenly shouted toward the door.

The only thing he could do now was cooperate with the police, confess everything he knew, and fight for leniency.

...

"Mayor Zhang ran?"

When Yang Jian heard the news, he was utterly stunned.

This happened way too suddenly.

There hadn't been the slightest sign beforehand.

She just suddenly ran…

Thinking about the cafeteria poisoning case, how Song Guanchao had initially wanted to take him down but then handled him with a light touch… a chill suddenly ran through him.

He more or less guessed why Song Guanchao had spared him.

Because Zhang Yan had run.

This matter already had huge impact and was extremely vile in nature.

If he, the district chief, were also arrested, the impact would only be greater.

So he'd been spared—for the time being.

Yes, for the time being!

Once the matter with Zhang Yan wrapped up, he would definitely come looking for trouble again, until he pulled him off the district chief's chair.

With that in mind, he immediately rushed out of his office and headed for the City Government.

He had to think of a way to lick Song Guanchao's boots, had to show his loyalty.

Although doing this was despicable, compared to suddenly getting nabbed one day, being a bootlicker had much better cost performance.

...

The other district chiefs, as well as the leaders of all the city-level departments, were all stunned first and then terrified when they heard the news that Zhang Yan had fled with the money.

They knew the power structure of the City Government was about to change.

Zhang Yan was completely done for.

And they, as members of Zhang Yan's faction, were highly likely to face a purge by Wu Qiangwei.

They had no intention of becoming Zhang Yan's sacrifices.

So, they called Wu Qiangwei at once…

But just after dialing, they stopped.

Going directly to Wu Qiangwei didn't necessarily mean they'd get to see her.

They thought of Song Guanchao, who had once been Wu Qiangwei's secretary and had followed her from Lingjiang to Jiangzhou.

In all of Jiangzhou, the only people who could truly influence Wu Qiangwei and win her complete trust were Song Guanchao and Liang Jianfeng.

Liang Jianfeng was upright and unbending, and very hard to deal with.

It was better to sound out the wind with Song Guanchao first.

...

"Tonight? Sure, Mr. Cao, you pick the place, I'll definitely show up."

Song Guanchao took one call after another; in the short time before the end of the workday, he'd taken nearly twenty calls.

The people calling at this time were almost all leaders who had a good relationship with Zhang Yan.

The fall of a Deputy Mayor tugged on who knew how many people's hearts.

They were sure that Wu Qiangwei definitely wouldn't purge Zhang Yan's faction at this exact sensitive moment.

But once this wave passed, there was no guarantee she wouldn't make a move.

So, they had to save themselves, had to take a stand, had to make Wu Qiangwei believe in them.

Over the next few days in a row, Song Guanchao was busy dealing with this.

People came to see him in the morning, someone treated him to lunch, and his evening dinner invitations were booked out a week in advance.

On the third day, Song Guanchao suddenly received a call from Lu Zhizhong, asking him to come to the Provincial Government.

So Song Guanchao temporarily pushed off a visit from a certain city-department head scheduled for noon, and headed to the Provincial Government.

"Director Song, have some tea." Secretary Meng put down the teacup and quietly left the office.

Song Guanchao asked, "You found her?"

Zhang Yan's outbound flight was easy enough to check, but finding out exactly where she had gone was not so easy.

What if she was only using some country as a transit point and actually went to another country?

Trying to track someone down inside the country was like looking for a needle in a haystack, let alone overseas.

Even with Song Guanchao's connections, he couldn't claim he would definitely find her.

"We got the flight information. She transited in Hong Kong Island and flew to London. But we can't be sure she's really there."

"London…" Song Guanchao pondered for a moment and was just about to speak when Lu Zhizhong said, "This case is no longer my responsibility."

"What do you mean?"

"A Vice Mayor in Xuzhou volunteered, said he could resolve this matter."

Song Guanchao's expression turned odd. "And then?"

"Secretary Gao handed the matter over to him. If he handles it well, he'll be transferred to Jiangzhou to serve as Deputy Mayor."

"Secretary Gao agreed?"

"He agreed."

"Tsk~" Song Guanchao asked, "What's the background of this Vice Mayor?"

"Not very clear."

"What's his name?"

"Sun Jiajun."

Song Guanchao had no impression of this person in his memory.

But the whole thing sounded bizarre.

A Vice Mayor stepped up and said he could fix it, and Secretary Gao just handed it to him—no matter how you heard it, it sounded absurd.

Although he didn't know this person, the fact that Secretary Gao could agree meant the man definitely had some backing.

Second, he must be very confident.

After all, having backing alone wasn't enough; you still had to accumulate seniority.

This Mayor Sun clearly planned to use Zhang Yan as a stepping stone, to leap from Xuzhou straight up to Jiangzhou.

Xuzhou was just an ordinary little three- or four-county-level city in Nanjiang Province, upgraded from a county-level city to a Prefecture-level City less than two years ago.

A place like that had a Vice Mayor whose real power didn't even match that of the head of a single city department in Jiangzhou.

For him, going from Vice Mayor of Xuzhou to Deputy Mayor of Jiangzhou would truly be a meteoric rise.

Of course, that was on the premise that he could resolve the matter perfectly.

Rubbing his teacup, Song Guanchao finally smiled and nodded. "Fortune favors the bold. If someone wants to take on this mess, that's not a bad thing."

If he had continued to handle it himself, he was confident he could find Zhang Yan, but it would take time—time measured in years.

With someone stepping out at a moment like this, Song Guanchao was actually quite happy to see it.

The only thing he cared about was the Deputy Mayor position.

He had long anticipated that Wu Qiangwei might ultimately not be able to get that seat.

But now that it was confirmed, he still couldn't help feeling a bit of regret.

"Does Mayor Wu know about this?"

"I haven't told her yet."

"Tell her later then."

Song Guanchao stood up. "I'll get going."