Official Career Storm

Chapter 1607: Arresting People

"Arrest them?"

Wu Qiangwei didn’t quite get what he meant.

Song Guanchao said, "Our investigation plan’s been leaked, but we don’t know from which link it leaked."

This was what puzzled Song Guanchao the most.

Wu Qiangwei hummed in reply; she was puzzled by this as well.

"When we get there in a bit, I’ll ask Mayor Fang."

Song Guanchao temporarily dropped this topic and went on, "Right now, Secretary Xue already knows we’re onto them. At noon today, Mayor Fang intercepted you and made you sign the contract because he doesn’t want the problems in Pinghai City exposed."

"But paper can’t wrap fire forever."

"Once Secretary Xue confirms the problem can’t be solved peacefully, Mayor, what do you think he’ll choose to do?"

Wu Qiangwei’s face sank. "Run."

"Right, run." Song Guanchao nodded. "But besides running, they might also look for a go-between to contact you and try to talk it out."

"After all, the entire Pinghai City is under their control. Such a big piece of cake—unless it’s absolutely desperate, they’re not going to just give it up."

Wu Qiangwei pondered. "We can’t let them go look for people."

Song Guanchao nodded approvingly. "Exactly, Mayor, you and I are thinking the same thing."

Jiang Yiren was listening in a daze, not really understanding. "Why? Wouldn’t it be good to let them find a middleman? That way we’d know, besides the leaders in Pinghai City, who else is involved."

Song Guanchao explained, "If the Pinghai City issue doesn’t expand, we only need to deal with the officials and cadres of Pinghai City. Once it expands, who can guarantee that behind them it isn’t someone at the Provincial Ministerial Level, or even higher? Officials at that level aren’t that easy to drag down."

"Besides, there’s no need to offend people for no reason."

Jiang Yiren suddenly understood; it clicked for her.

Song Guanchao said, "So we need to arrest people before they find someone to negotiate."

"Of course, it’s possible they won’t go looking for anyone and just run straight away."

"But before they run, they’ll think of ways to transfer their assets out of the country."

"So the time window in between is actually very tight."

Wu Qiangwei asked, "How are you planning to arrest them?"

Song Guanchao said, "I contacted Governor Lu, and Governor Lu contacted Governor Li of Wu Province. When we get there, I’ll call Governor Lu again and ask."

He glanced at Jiang Yiren, then at the vehicles behind, and sighed inwardly.

He had actually wanted the women to head back first.

Women, after all, are more or less a burden.

But he couldn’t just say something like that out loud; it would be too hurtful.

"I think we should go back first." Sitting in the front passenger seat, Geng District Chief, who hadn’t said a word since getting in the car, suddenly spoke.

The three of them all turned to look at him. Geng District Chief said, "A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. There’s no need for us to stay in Pinghai City."

"And Director Song, you’ve already reported to Governor Lu. Whether it’s arrests next or negotiations, those aren’t things we should, or can, get involved in."

He gave his own view.

Song Guanchao frowned. To be honest, his impression of Geng District Chief was not very good.

For this trip to Pinghai City, the main reason he took Geng District Chief along was that the guy’s record was clean.

That’s why Song Guanchao had thought of pulling him into Wu Qiangwei’s camp.

Before, he’d always felt that the reason Geng District Chief had stayed a district chief all these years was that he’d been promoted back then by the old Party Secretary—factional reasons—so Zhou Zheng didn’t want to use him.

But after these few days of contact, he realized that Geng District Chief staying in place for so many years wasn’t exactly someone else’s fault.

His guts were small, no sense of adventure; even when he knew an opportunity was right in front of him, he would always hover back and forth until the opportunity vanished.

Opportunity and risk are inevitably positively correlated.

If you’re not willing to bear risk, don’t ever think about seizing opportunity.

You couldn’t say this personality was wrong—some people just like to play it safe.

But when the risk is clearly controllable and he still keeps backing off, then in Song Guanchao’s view, such a person is a bit hopeless.

The current situation was exactly like that.

The risks were all controllable; besides, he had specially snatched Mayor Fang as a hostage. With someone in his hands, was there still any need to worry about risk?

In this situation, Geng District Chief’s first reaction was not "fuck it, let’s do it," but to leave Pinghai City and pull out of the game.

Normally, a district chief like him wouldn’t even have a chance to sit at a table at this level.

Now he’d finally gotten to sit, the opportunity was right at hand, and what’s more, he didn’t need to do anything—he could lie down and win.

Yet he was scared.

Song Guanchao really didn’t know what to say.

Wu Qiangwei was likewise silent.

After a long while, Song Guanchao said, "If Geng District Chief doesn’t want to take part, in a bit I’ll have someone escort you out of Pinghai City. You can drive yourself back to Jiangzhou."

A flash of struggle crossed Geng District Chief’s face. He could of course see the opportunity, but just as Song Guanchao thought, his worry about risk outweighed his determination to seize it.

He was the kind of personality that was easily shaken; if the risk got a little higher, or if there was a small accident in the process, his stance would swing wildly.

It was the same now. The fact that Song Guanchao and Wu Qiangwei were determined to take part in the arrests meant they were very confident.

If he walked away at a time like this, and later Wu Qiangwei scored a massive victory, he’d probably regret it so much he’d want to bash his head against a wall.

Song Guanchao ignored his inner struggle, grabbed his phone, and called Lu Feng. "Madman, when we get there, arrange for two people to take someone out of Pinghai for me."

After hanging up, Song Guanchao closed his eyes and stopped talking.

"Director Song." Jiang Yiren suddenly called out softly.

"Hm?" Song Guanchao opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. "What is it?"

Jiang Yiren pointed at his overcoat. "Where did you get those detonators?"

This sentence made Wu Qiangwei and Geng District Chief in the passenger seat snap back to their senses at once.

They’d been talking serious business just now and had actually forgotten about this.

Geng District Chief sat up straight at once, stammering, "Director Song, you... you might want to take the explosives off first?"

"These?" Song Guanchao flipped open his overcoat and, right in front of the three of them, yanked them off in one go.

"Director Song, be careful!" Seeing his movement, Geng District Chief’s heart nearly stopped, terrified he’d accidentally set off the detonators.

"They’re fake." Song Guanchao said casually, "Stuff like this, you might not get even if you have money. I’m not a god—where am I supposed to find the real deal in such a short time?"

"Fake?" The three of them were stunned, suddenly feeling an urge to curse "fuck your mother."

But on second thought, it made sense that this crap was fake.

Thinking of Mayor Fang and Director Chen being scared into getting in the car by a bunch of fake junk, they were all speechless.

They’d just been too nervous at the time. If they’d calmed down even a little, they could have guessed it couldn’t possibly be real.

Of course, this was also the result of deliberate psychological steering by Song Guanchao.

He’d gone up and slapped first thing; that brazen attitude made people instinctively feel that the strings of detonators on him were what gave him his confidence.