Hong Kong Film: Jimmy? Please call me Councillor Li

Chapter 264 Lu Zhilian (3000)
"talk"

"Okay, let's talk then."

Li Jiayuan's smile remained, but a glint of cunning glint flashed in his eyes, making him as sly as a fox.

—ICAC Headquarters Building, Kowloon, Hong Kong Island
"Ah Lian, Inspector Chan is looking for you."

My friend Fang Wenhui just came out of the office. Judging from her expression, the conversation inside probably wasn't very pleasant.

Fang Wenhui put her finger to her mouth, signaling him not to talk nonsense. The atmosphere in the entire group office was eerily quiet.

After tidying up the documents on his desk, Lu Zhilian quietly went to the office door, stood there, and hesitated to go in.

But Chen Liang, who was inside, had already spotted him through the reflection in the crack in the door below.

A roar came from inside the office.

"Get in."

Lu Zhilian's expression changed slightly, and he gritted his teeth as he pulled the doorknob.

Inside the office, a middle-aged man with a stern face and a meticulous expression picked up a folder from the desk and threw it at Lu Zhilian.

"Are you mute? Can't you even report before coming in?"

Even though he knew it was a deliberate attempt to make things difficult, Lu Zhilian still forced himself to shout it out.

"report"

Chen Liang sat down and crossed his legs. I didn't hear him, so I spoke louder.

Lu Zhilian called out several more times before Chen Liang finally stopped, though he still didn't have a good look on his face.

“Look at this, it’s all because of you. Our group received so many complaints. You’ve caused so much trouble since you joined our group.”

"Next time, please use your brain before you do anything. Think about what you should do and what you shouldn't do."

Chen Liang stood up and forcefully poked Lu Zhilian's head with his finger.

At this moment, Lu Zhilian wished he could pick up the phone on the table and smash Chen Liang to death right there, that would be revenge.

His clenched fist was trembling with anger, and his expression gradually became uncontrollable, revealing intense resentment.

This was seen by Chen Liang across the room, who was secretly pleased. He bypassed the office and walked up to Chen Liang.

His expression was disdainful.

"What? You want to hit me!"

"Come, come, come out here."

Chen Liang grabbed Lu Zhilian by the collar of his suit, dragged him out to the hall, and shouted at him.

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Now, in front of so many people, I'm giving you a chance to hit me. Go ahead and do it. Why aren't you doing it? Weren't you very tough inside? Weren't you going to hit me?"

Lu Zhilian's eyes turned red with humiliation. The last shred of reason he had left told him that he couldn't do that. If he really hit Chen Liang, facing a complaint would be the least of his worries, given Chen Liang's tendency to stir up trouble.

If this is reported, I will definitely be dismissed from my post.

He needed this job; he had a family to support and couldn't afford to leave a stain on his record, even though he really wanted to beat Chen Liang up.

"I'm sorry, Inspector Chan."

Lu Zhilian's colleagues all looked at him with pity in their eyes. Everyone knew what was going on, but they couldn't help him. They had all seen that Chen Liang had been targeting Lu Zhilian.

When they went on a mission, Lu Zhilian could only stay in the office and do odd jobs. Even so, Lu Zhilian was helping them investigate the case. I didn't get any credit, but now they're even trying to pin a blame on Chen Liang.

Seeing that the troublemaker Lu Zhilian finally bowed his head and admitted his mistake, Chen Liang smiled smugly, a sense of satisfaction of power materializing within him, his eyes seeming to say something.

What do you have to play with me?

"Go back and report it to the complaints department yourself. Copy the complaint letter ten times and hand it to me."

After leaving those words behind, Chen Liang retreated back into his Lingxiao Palace.

A colleague who was on good terms with Lu Zhilian came over, patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him.

“You can’t keep going like this. He’s been targeting you. Staying here will only make you suffer. Why don’t you try to find out if you have any connections and get transferred out? That would be better than staying here.”

"yes."

Lu Zhilian didn't speak, but gave a bitter laugh.

Lu Zhilian

"I understand. Don't worry."

After saying that, he picked up the complaint letter from the ground and went out to report to the complaints department.

His feud with Chen Liang has a long history. He had worked with Chen Liang several years ago, but at that time Chen Liang was the director of the ICAC's evidence department. At that time, an incident of a gun being stolen occurred at the ICAC.

What was lost was a policeman's service weapon, which was being kept as evidence. The incident caused a great stir at the time because the gun was evidence, and important evidence at that.

The missing gun could very well affect the entire course of the case, and the only person capable of removing the evidence from within is likely an insider.

Therefore, the Evidence Department, which was responsible for the safekeeping of the evidence, launched a major investigation. After all, such an embarrassing thing had happened right under their noses, especially since the ICAC itself was responsible for investigating corruption.

It turns out that someone within the organization accepted bribes and stole evidence in an attempt to obstruct judicial fairness—how ironic!

That incident affected many people, including Chen Liang, since their group was in charge of keeping the evidence. At the time, Lu Zhilian, a newcomer, happened to be Chen Liang's subordinate.

On the night the evidence was lost, Lu Zhilian happened to see Chen Liang return and visit the place where the evidence was kept. That night, Chen Liang actually went to put something away. Among the evidence was a batch of stock registers, which contained pre-selected stocks that would guarantee a profit if bought accordingly.

Chen Liang had a penchant for gambling and was short of money, so he became greedy and secretly swapped out the roster to look at it before planning to put it back.

As luck would have it, on the same day, the evidence was lost, and Lu Zhilian saw him go in again, so he became a suspect.

At the time, Chen Liang was worried about his career, so he told Lu Zhilian the whole story and asked him to testify that he had made a mistake that day.

However, Lu Zhilian did not agree, and as a result of this incident, Chen Liang was demoted from his position as director to a junior supervisor.

Chen Liang also came to hate Lu Zhilian because of this, and the two became enemies.

In fact, Lu Zhilian also helped Chen Liang back then. He did not tell the investigation team the real reason why Chen Liang went to the evidence room, and he vouched for Chen Liang during the hearing.

It was because of Lu Zhilian's testimony that Chen Liang was able to be transferred to the position of supervisor; otherwise, he would have suffered an even more severe fall.

Finally, a year later, a clue was found about the missing gun, and the person who threw the gun was caught. However, Chen Liang was still unable to return to his original position due to his negligence in guarding the gun.

Then, about six months ago, Lu Zhilian was transferred to Chen Liang's group, and that began a six-month period of being harassed.

The daily harassment was nothing to Lu Zhilian; what angered him most was that Chen Liang had actually made him take the blame.

Some time ago, their team brought back a key witness who is connected to a major case. That person is being held in an ICAC cell because this witness is very important.

The higher-ups specifically assigned their group to send someone over to keep an eye on things every day. Chen Liang naturally left this kind of hard work to Lu Zhilian.

After several days of observation without incident, four days ago, Lu Zhilian submitted a report requesting leave due to some business. Chen Liang, in a moment of negligence, forgot to send someone to keep an eye on the witness again.

As a result, that person committed suicide by cutting his wrists with a razor blade hidden in his mouth inside the cell.

The situation had become serious. The death of the key witness had affected the entire case, and Chen Liang could no longer bear the responsibility. So he pushed Lu Zhilian out and blamed Chen Liang for his dereliction of duty.

Finally, Chen Liang threw away his leave application, lying that he hadn't received it at all. When Lu Zhilian went to submit the application, there were only two people in the office, and both of them had gone downstairs to pick up their takeout.

No one could prove that Lu Zhilian had actually taken leave, so the incident became a case of him neglecting his duties and causing the witness to commit suicide.

Now we must take responsibility.

Disheartened, Lu Zhilian went to the complaints department alone. After handling everything, he returned home at around 7 p.m.

Lu Zhilian and his wife have moved out and are living in Wan Chai. The rent is the cheapest they could find. However, the cheap rent has its downsides, namely that the security here is not very good.

Moreover, the elevator is always malfunctioning; last time, his wife was even trapped inside.

As he entered, the aroma of the food temporarily dispelled all of Lu Zhilian's bitterness and grievances. He put on a mask called "smile" and stepped into the house.

"Meiling, what delicious food are you making?"

"You're back!"

Liao Meiling, wearing an apron, poked her head out of the kitchen.

Only at this time can Lu Zhilian feel truly relaxed.

At the dinner table, Liao Meiling, who knew her husband well, noticed that something was wrong with him. While helping Lu Zhilian serve soup, she asked him what was wrong.

"Is your boss targeting you again? If it's not working out, you should transfer. I'll ask Dad to pull some strings for you. Your current job has long hours and doesn't pay much."

Seeing his wife's strong resentment, Lu Zhilian didn't know how to bring up the matter he had gotten himself into.

They vaguely brushed it off.

——Kungfu Private Kitchen

Lin Liangshui got out of the car from the side and quickly opened the car door for Li Jiayuan.

"Come here, Brother Yuan."

After getting off the bus, Li Jiayuan said to Lin Liangshui:
"Don't open the door for me next time, I'm not used to it."

He's always wanted to complain about rich people since he was little, watching TV. They can open the car door themselves with a simple touch, but they insist on having someone else get out and open it for them. It's just outrageous.

Because he disliked it, he didn't have the habit of asking someone to open the door for him.

As for Lin Liangshui, since the company was short of talent, he was thinking of promoting two people from below, and that's when he thought of Lin Liangshui.

His primary criterion for selecting people is loyalty. Senior management and other important positions in the company can only be filled by people with high loyalty, and ability is the next consideration.

Therefore, he chose Lin Liangshui because firstly, his loyalty was high, a 79% threshold; secondly, he was a highly educated lawyer, so his abilities were not a concern.

After learning that he was going to study at Zhida Tianting (as an assistant), Lin Liangshui was so excited that he couldn't sleep for several nights, thinking about what he would do as an assistant.

That's why this sycophantic scene happened. Seeing that good intentions had backfired, Lin Liangshui felt somewhat embarrassed.

Li Jiayuan glanced at the time, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"That's about enough. We've already made them wait for half an hour. Be polite in the future, so they don't think that people from our Jiayuan Group are rude."

five minutes later
Room 306 on the third floor
"boom"

With a loud bang, the Zheng father and son were startled and looked towards the door. Li Jiayuan, still in the position of kicking the door, stood arrogantly at the door.

Lin Liangshui, standing next to him, kept his chin agape, his mind completely blank.

Ah, is that right?
Didn't we say we should be polite?

(End of this chapter)