Chapter 1791

Chapter 1791: Chapter 1791

Song Guanchao didn’t know much about Gaoshui County, and he didn’t know anyone there.

Besides, he couldn’t openly investigate this matter; he could only first look into it in secret, and he had to first confirm whether it was true.

Of course, the most important point was that he had learned about County Magistrate Cao Xiaolou privately withholding and misappropriating earmarked education funds from that teacher, Yang Ling.

Song Guanchao was long past the age of acting on impulse; he couldn’t possibly trust someone completely just because of a few casual words.

To put it bluntly, what if what Yang Ling said wasn’t true?

What if there was something else behind it?

Once you become a leader, the biggest taboo is listening to only one side and trusting blindly.

Especially when it involves accusations against other leaders.

Even if it takes more time and effort to investigate, you absolutely cannot easily believe a stranger’s report.

Even if it’s a real-name report.

After all, everything Yang Ling called a "report" was just her talking with nothing to back it up.

She hadn’t provided a shred of evidence.

But how to investigate it—that was another problem.

Song Guanchao rubbed his brow, thought for a few minutes, and gradually formed an idea in his mind.

He had to get to the bottom of this, but couldn’t startle the snake.

The simplest way, actually, was to hand it over to the Disciplinary Committee and let them investigate.

But Secretary Bao of the Disciplinary Committee and Zhou Zheng were wearing the same pair of pants; once the news reached Secretary Bao’s ears, it would immediately be passed on to Zhou Zheng.

Cao Xiaolou was promoted by Zhou Zheng; even if there really was a problem with Cao Xiaolou, would Zhou Zheng allow him to be investigated?

So handing it to the Disciplinary Committee would basically be the same as insiders investigating insiders—what’s the damn point of that.

Even so, Song Guanchao still decided that the Disciplinary Committee had to be the one to investigate.

He just wouldn’t tell Secretary Bao.

Besides Bao Qi, weren’t there Deputy Secretaries in the Disciplinary Committee as well?

Song Guanchao smiled faintly and dialed Tan Miao’s number.

Seeing the incoming call, Tan Miao sighed like a man resigned to his fate.

He was now completely tied to Song Guanchao; at the office, Bao Qi no longer showed him a pleasant face.

Among the Deputy Secretaries of the Disciplinary Committee, he was currently ranked the lowest.

Everyone at the office could tell that Secretary Bao was deliberately suppressing him, pushing him to the margins.

Given his current situation, his only option was to tie himself even more tightly to Song Guanchao.

Only by tying himself to Song Guanchao, tying himself to Wu Qiangwei, could he have a chance to break free from the cold bench he was on now.

As long as Wu Qiangwei could fully take control of the City Government and split Jiangzhou with Zhou Zheng, he’d have hope of replacing Bao Qi, or at least being transferred out of the Disciplinary Committee.

"Secretary Tan, do you have time?"

"I’ll come to you."

Tan Miao knew he never came knocking on the temple without a reason; if he was calling, he definitely needed a favor, so he didn’t bother beating around the bush.

This blocked the polite words Song Guanchao had prepared; he gave a dry laugh. "Fine, I’ll wait for you."

Half an hour later, Tan Miao arrived.

"Come, Secretary Tan, have some tea."

"What do you need from me?"

Tan Miao asked directly.

Song Guanchao said, "Here’s the situation: this morning someone came to me to report a matter. But I’m just an Office Director, this isn’t really my line of work, so I wanted to run it by you."

The moment he heard the word "report," Tan Miao bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "What kind of report?"

Song Guanchao said, "There’s a Sanwan Town under Gaoshui County. In that town there’s a female teacher named Yang Ling. She wants to report County Magistrate Cao Xiaolou for illegally withholding the earmarked subsidy from the Ministry of Education. Oh, right, she hasn’t received her salary for seventeen months."

Tan Miao let out a breath of relief; he’d thought it was something big.

A small county matter—fine, fine.

"Does she have any evidence?"

"Does non-payment of salary count?"

"It counts," Tan Miao said. "But that’s an issue with the school; you can’t pin that directly on the county magistrate. She’s saying the county magistrate withheld the education subsidy; there has to be evidence for that. You can’t treat every word she says as gospel."

Song Guanchao said, "She’s filing a real-name report. If there’s no evidence, you just don’t investigate?"

Tan Miao gave a bitter smile. "Director Song, County Magistrate Cao was promoted by Secretary Zhou. If I start investigating with no evidence, that’s a slap in Secretary Zhou’s face. And since it involves an official at county-department level, we’re supposed to report to the City Committee and Municipal Government before any investigation. We can’t just jump straight into it."

Song Guanchao said, "Here’s what I’m thinking: you first investigate quietly, just to confirm whether there’s anything to it."

"This..." Tan Miao’s face was full of reluctance.

Song Guanchao said, "She’s already come to me to report it. If we do absolutely nothing, and she keeps going up the ladder to the province, the higher-ups will blame us later."

"I know what you’re worried about—you’re afraid Secretary Zhou will be unhappy. But given the situation you’re in now, does offending or not offending Secretary Zhou make any difference?"

This hit the nail on the head.

After a few seconds’ silence, Tan Miao asked, "Just investigate this one matter?"

"Yes," Song Guanchao said. "Don’t worry, I only want to confirm whether it’s true. Once it’s confirmed, I’ll handle the rest myself; I won’t put you in a tough spot."

"Alright." Tan Miao stopped hesitating.

If he kept declining, he’d end up offending even Song Guanchao, and that would be a terrible deal.

"Since it involves earmarked subsidies, a quiet investigation won’t be quick; it’ll take time. I’d say at least half a month to a month." Tan Miao gave him a heads-up first, to avoid being rushed.

Song Guanchao nodded; he could afford to wait that long.

"I’ll get going now. I’ll contact you if there’s any progress."

"I’ll see you out."

...

When Yang Ling returned to Gaoshui County, Gao Qi personally picked her up. On the way back to the town, he asked, "Did you meet Director Song?"

"I did."

"What did Director Song say?"

"He said he would help me relay the situation to the Disciplinary Committee."

Yang Ling’s brows knitted slightly; she was a bit ill at ease.

She was afraid if things blew up too much, she’d be retaliated against.

Anyone in the system knew that Cao Xiaolou was basically the county magistrate of Gaoshui County in the old sense.

If not exactly covering the sky with one hand, it was close enough.

A small place isn’t like a big city; if Cao Xiaolou really wanted to go after someone, you could cry out to heaven and heaven wouldn’t respond, cry out to earth and earth would be deaf.

Don’t be fooled by Gaoshui County being under Jiangzhou City’s jurisdiction and located so close by; the closer you are to the Emperor’s feet, the more filth is hidden underneath.

Even at a Buddhist sacred site like Lingshan, there’s a den of demons called Shituo Ridge at the foot of the mountain.

If Cao Xiaolou found out she’d gone to the city to report him over the heads of her superiors, she definitely wouldn’t have any good days ahead.

Thinking of this made Yang Ling even more uneasy.

"Handing it to the Disciplinary Committee..." Gao Qi frowned; this wasn’t quite what he’d imagined.

The reason he’d asked Yang Ling to go find Song Guanchao was that he believed Song Guanchao was someone willing to speak up on this matter.

He’d specifically looked into it: Song Guanchao had risked offending Secretary Zhou for those residents suffering from the park’s pollution.

How could someone that reckless and fearless now dutifully follow procedures?

Was he scared?

But he hadn’t even feared Secretary Zhou; how could he be scared of a mere Cao Xiaolou?

As the car drove into Sanwan Town, Gao Qi’s brows suddenly relaxed, and his heart cleared.

He understood: it wasn’t that Song Guanchao was afraid, nor that he didn’t want to handle it.

He needed verification!

Yes, that had to be it!

The way he’d navigated the complex officialdom of Jiangzhou and smoothly resolved the industrial park pollution incident was proof that he had not only extraordinary guts but also strong capability.

How could someone like that easily believe a few words from some small-town teacher he’d never met before?

If his guess was right, Song Guanchao’s next step would be to find someone to investigate and verify whether Yang Ling’s report was true!