Chapter 170
Yan Zhao was rewinding a video tape, while Director Qi of the Supervision Departnt wore an inscrutable expression. Yan Peiheng, with his silver hair, stared at the television.
What appeared on the screen was none other than the bloated face of Wang Lin, the head of the Quality Supervision Station.
Judging from the footage, she had been summoned by the disciplinary inspection team.
In common parlance, it was called "having tea."
Wang Lin's face was particularly stiff and swollen, her speech unusually slow, and her expression completely frozen.
Whatever the interrogators asked, her responses were either "no" or shaking her head.
It seed that she was extraordinarily calm.
At least, her face showed no signs of guilt or fear.
Director Qi explained, "Yan Wangqi, I'll be upfront with you. Wang Lin is a distant cousin from my maternal uncle's side. Her father is currently the captain of the Capital City Urban Managent Brigade. If she has any backing, it's and her father. The disciplinary inspection team has received nurous reports accusing her of embezzlent and bribery amounting to at least tens of millions. But I know her family well; she lives very frugally in her daily life, and I've never seen her buying houses or cars or engaging in high-end consumption. During the interrogation and searches by the disciplinary inspection team, we haven't found any hidden illicit funds. Your grandfather and father ntioned that you have a unique eye for investigation. Now, take a good look at this video, and tomorrow, go to the Quality Supervision Station as an undercover agent. Help us keep a close eye on Wang Lin and investigate where she might be hiding the money if she has indeed embezzled or accepted bribes. Okay? If she has, it proves that everyone in the Quality Supervision Station is corrupt. Currently, she's protecting her subordinates. She's the breakthrough point. We need to use her to crack open the entire station. Do you understand?"
The Quality Supervision Station, being such a lucrative place, where just visiting a construction site could earn soone a bribe.
It was impossible for anyone not to be corrupt.
Since the founding of Hua Country, the state has been fighting corruption with particularly severe penalties for convictions.
However, most bribery and embezzlent cases involve mutual complicity, and cash transactions make them extrely difficult to trace.
Money, once hidden, is almost impossible to find if the culprit refuses to confess. In cases where everyone has backing, and with interference from powerful figures, the authorities often end up downplaying the severity of the cri.
With the rapid economic developnt in recent years, there have been too many corrupt officials embezzling tens of millions, even billions, and once they feel the heat, they simply flee the country on a plane.
This has given rise to the saying, "Don't investigate Jiao Yulu, investigate Lei Zhengfu."
Director Qi's willingness to target his own relative demonstrates the state's determination to fight corruption.
However, these old-tirs bringing a video tape to ask little Wangqi for help shows that even at the highest levels, there are monts of helplessness in the fight against corruption.
Take Wang Lin, for example. She's a woman, doesn't wear luxury watches, doesn't engage in high-end consumption, and her appearance seems normal. Moreover, she was so calm during the disciplinary inspection team's summoning. What if the team has indeed wronged her? Not to ntion her backing, the disciplinary inspection team mbers are also human and fear future retaliation. With so many corruption cases, they don't have the ti to waste on just one person.
This is why Yan Zhao specifically arranged for Wangqi to work at the Quality Supervision Station.
It was Director Qi's plan to have him infiltrate the inner circle and uncover the details of the entire station's embezzlent and bribery.
Wangqi was anxious; he wanted to kiss Yuanyuan, to kiss her thoroughly.
He wanted to get rid of these three stern figures as quickly as possible.
Having seen Wang Lin twice today and then on television, he imdiately realized where the problem lay.
"Dad, do you know BOTOX? The Chinese na is botulinum toxin, a kind of costic drug, very expensive. I've seen so won abroad who overdid the injections, and their faces would beco stiff. Wang Lin has had her eye bags removed and a facelift. In her office, there's a handbag with the words 'Huajiao Beauty Salon.' I suspect she goes there for dical beauty treatnts. Why don't you check that place out?" After saying this, Wangqi turned and was about to leave.
"What's dical beauty? What's it for? And what are eye bags, what's a facelift?" Yan Peiheng asked, looking puzzled.
Yan Zhao glanced at Director Qi and said, "So dical beauty salons can cost individuals tens or even hundreds of thousands. It's just about facial reconstruction, doing so beauty treatnts."
"Wang Lin is almost fifty, what's there to beautify? Her face has been getting uglier and stranger lately..." Director Qi trailed off, suddenly realizing sothing.
Maybe Wang Lin really was going for dical beauty treatnts.
Her husband died in a car accident a couple of years ago, and at the scene of the accident, they found a woman in her thirties, very beautiful. So, her husband was having an affair when the accident happened.
Because of that incident, Wang Lin was deeply affected.
A man's infidelity is not the woman's fault, but so won cannot handle it, becoming insecure and self-conscious, seeking change through dical beauty to make themselves more attractive.
So, when Wang Lin was questioned, she showed no fear, no panic, and remained calm.
It wasn't because her heart was truly calm, but because her dical beauty treatnts had ruined her face, making it impossible for her to express emotions?
The disciplinary inspection team had thought she was genuinely unafraid, which was why she was so composed.
Director Qi stood up dejectedly, shaking Yan Peiheng's hand and saying, "Old Leader, you're right. New tis bring new challenges. As the saying goes, 'The Chinese nation is at its most critical mont. We must unite as one, advance under the enemy's fire,' but this ti, the enemy might just be ourselves. This ti, we must fire at ourselves. Tomorrow, I'll notify the disciplinary inspection team to summon Wang Lin for strict investigation and interrogation, to find evidence of her embezzlent from all angles, and bring her to justice!"
Wangqi stood politely in place, his hands clasped, silently waiting.
After the two elders left, Yan Zhao was still seeing them off. Wangqi darted up the stairs in a single leap.
Yuanyuan was waiting for him on the steps, one step apart to balance their height difference. Wangqi reached out and turned Yuanyuan's face towards him, hesitating for a mont, feeling a bit too impulsive and reckless, so he stepped back. But Yuanyuan's lips had already pressed against his, so soft, so tender, and so fragrant. He had been so foolish, never even imagining what it would feel like to kiss Yuanyuan.
But this feeling was simply too wonderful. His mind was blank, his heart pounding.
So close, he could even hear Yuanyuan's heartbeat, like a little drum beating away.
Had his stern father closed the door? Would he co over? Wangqi wasn't afraid, nor did he care. He just wanted to kiss her once, no, a thousand tis.
"Hurry up and go upstairs," Yuanyuan said, hitting him. Wangqi simply picked up his sister horizontally, and as they turned the corner, her forehead bumped into the wall with a thud. As the two of them went upstairs, a huge light bulb, Xiong Zhuang, was actually standing at the stairwell, staring in astonishnt. He was wide-eyed with surprise.
Yuanyuan was startled, went back to her room, and slamd the door shut with a bang.
Yan Wangqi, after delivering a hard punch to Xiong Zhuang, returned to his room and began pacing back and forth like a caged beast.
Marry, he wants to get married tomorrow.
He is moving out to live with Yuanyuan!
He wants to kiss the round little mouth every day, no, a hundred thousand tis!
......
Yan Zhao returned to the bedroom, where Chen ilan was still reviewing her accounts for her upcoming IPO.
She was different from others. If going public in Hua Country was difficult, they would go abroad or to Hong Kong. But if they went public dostically, they wouldn't earn as much in terms of financing and channels as they would abroad. However, from internal managent to policies, the country would support them. While the company might not make a lot of money in the short term, its longevity would be greater, and its existence would last longer.
These days, Chen ilan had been so busy that her eyesight was gradually deteriorating, and she had to wear glasses to read docunts.
Seeing Yan Zhao looking unhappy, she took off her glasses and asked, "What's wrong?"
Yan Zhao noticed his wife's dark circles and turned to look at the makeup table. Her eye cream was still in the sa spot where he had arranged it in the morning, clearly, she had forgotten to apply it again.
He was a man, so his appearance didn't matter much, but Chen ilan was very particular about her beauty. Normally, she never forgot to apply eye cream, but now she had forgotten, which showed just how busy she had been recently.
Taking the eye cream, he applied it for Chen ilan and said, "Yan Wangqi grew up at his grandmother's house, and his living environnt was extrely complex, which cultivated a habit of observing life at all tis. When ordinary people look at soone, they see just a person, but he's different. From a young age, he was surrounded by all sorts of people—gangsters, hooligans—and almost everyone was against him. So, he has a kind of instinctive reaction. Whenever he sees soone, he classifies them as an enemy and tries to grasp everything about them from head to toe. He's naturally gifted for reconnaissance work, but he has no ideals or ambitions, only a desire to make money. It's such a pity."
From a young age, Yan Zhao had hoped that his eldest son would follow in his footsteps and join the public security force. But his son had no ambitions, only a single-minded focus on money.
Now, several of the companies he had invested in had gone public, and he owned shares, which ant money that was constantly growing.
He already had money.
From now on, if he was willing, with a graduate degree, he could take the recruitnt exam for the public security system. As long as he qualified in all aspects, except for being a criminal police officer, he could do anything else.
Moreover, the country was currently facing its most severe problem: corruption. After more than 20 years of rapid economic developnt, the country was at a critical juncture where, if anti-corruption efforts weren't intensified, it could lead to national collapse.
Yuanyuan had a natural acun in reconnaissance and was handso, with a friendly and amiable personality. To be more realistic, with Yan Peiheng and Yan Zhao backing him, even if soone wanted to bring him down, no one could. So, at a ti when the country was facing severe difficulties in anti-corruption work, if Yuanyuan was willing to take a position sowhere and work on anti-corruption efforts, it would be very suitable.
But he had no awareness of this and even resisted public office. He was the kind of person who just wanted to focus on himself.
But was the current national situation one where you could just focus on yourself?
Yan Zhao was very frustrated but didn't know what to do.
Chen ilan closed her eyes and, after Yan Zhao finished applying the eye cream, said, "Yuanyuan's hukou has already been transferred out. Why not let the kids get married? People's mindset changes after they get married. Don't you think so?"
When people are single, they only think about living well for themselves.
But after marriage, they begin to realize their family responsibilities.
And many people only realize their social responsibilities after having children.
Human growth happens step by step.
Yan Zhao turned his head to look at his wife, slowly lay down beside her, and placed her head on his arm. Half-believing, he asked, "Really?"
"Let's try it and see if it works," Chen ilan said with a smile, closing her eyes.
Regarding Yuanyuan's household registration issue, here's what happened: Ever since Yan Xishan recognized his biological father, he had been acting as the elder brother, coaxing his younger brothers while secretly developing the jade mine. His intention was, of course, not to inform anyone about the jade mine and to monopolize the wealth.
But Chen ilan had experienced many things in her previous life and had so vague understanding of Ka Nan. She advised Yan Xishan to make the jade mine public and transparent, suggesting that the whole family work together on it. She pointed out that his brothers and nephews were all good people and that keeping the jade mine a secret could lead to family conflicts and even ethnic tensions.
In the end, Chen ilan made Yan Xishan publicize the jade mine as a condition for transferring Yuanyuan's household registration.
For Yan Xishan, a wealthy man, having a daughter who had been a child star and had graduated from Tsinghua University before working at the Life Science Research Institute was more valuable than money. Therefore, he chose to make the jade mine public and collaborate with his brothers in its developnt.
Of course, he didn't make as much money as he would have alone, but recently, the Ka Nan governnt awarded Yan Xishan an honorary dal for promoting ethnic harmony and progress. That dal could help him a lot in his bid to beco a national people's congress representative. So now, Yuanyuan's household registration was with Yan Xishan's family, and because of Yan Xishan's identity, this even made it into the ethnic newspaper in Ka Nan.
In Chen ilan's opinion, the timing for the two kids to get married was right.
But there was one thing: even she, Yuanyuan's closest relative, didn't know if Yuanyuan truly loved Yuanyuan.
Was it sibling love?
Or had it developed into a romantic relationship?
Yan Zhao: I'll do everything I can to steer him onto the right path, wu~~
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