Please, mature women, have some self-respect. I just want a raise and a promotion.

Voting has ended; vote counting has begun.

Yang Wanshan and the supervisors monitored the voting together, while Wang Jianguo watched from the side.

A dozen minutes later, the results came out.

Yang Wanshan stood up, holding the results sheet, his face revealing neither joy nor anger.

"The voting results show that Comrade Liu Shanhai received 28 votes and Comrade Deng Hong received 32 votes."

"I hereby announce that Comrade Deng Hong is the new village committee secretary of Zhuangdong Village."

A round of enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience, and Deng Hong's supporters stood up and cheered.

Liu Shanhai's face turned ashen, and he abruptly stood up.

"impossible!"

"That's impossible!"

"There must be a problem with the vote counting!"

He strode onto the stage, eager to grab the results sheet.

Yang Wanshan, with a cold face, handed the result sheet to the supervisor.

"Comrade Liu Shanhai, please calm down. The vote counting process was open and transparent, and there were no problems whatsoever."

"No problem? How could there be no problem!"

Liu Shanhai's face turned red and his neck thickened. "I've worked in the village for twelve years, how could I possibly lose to a woman?"

"This is cheating; someone is sabotaging us."

Wang Jianguo also stood up, his face grim.

He knew that if Liu Shanhai lost, his influence in the village would crumble.

"Mayor Yang, this result is indeed somewhat unexpected. Should we recount the votes?"

Yang Wanshan gave him a cold look: "Deputy Mayor Wang, you were present during the vote counting process. Is there a problem?"

Wang Jianguo opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Liu Shanhai was about to cause trouble when Lin Zheng came out from behind.

"Secretary Liu, if you think there's a problem, we can take out the ballots and recheck them."

"But before that, I'd like to invite someone up here to say a few words."

Liu Shanhai's expression changed: "What do you want to do?"

"It's nothing, I just wanted everyone to hear what you've been doing in the village all these years."

Lin Zheng waved to the door, and Li Qiuping walked in.

Her face was pale, and her body trembled slightly.

"Li Qiuping?"

Liu Shanhai raised an eyebrow and said coldly, "What are you doing up here?"

Li Qiuping ignored him, walked onto the stage, and stood in front of the microphone.

"Distinguished leaders and representatives, my name is Li Qiuping, and I am the village's women's director."

"I'm here today to expose Liu Shanhai's crimes over the years."

The audience erupted in uproar.

All eyes were on Li Qiuping.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Get down here!"

Liu Shanhai's face turned ashen, and he rushed over to pull Li Qiuping down.

Yang Wanshan slammed his hand on the table: "Liu Shanhai, sit down."

Liu Shanhai froze, too afraid to move.

Li Qiuping took a deep breath and began to recount Liu Shanhai's actions over the years.

He embezzled land requisition funds, misappropriated poverty alleviation funds, forced village-run enterprises to distribute profits to him, abused his power to oppress villagers, and had improper relationships with multiple women...

Each and every incident left the audience speechless.

Liu Shanhai's face turned pale, his legs went weak, and he almost couldn't stand up.

"These are all filth, filth!"

He shouted, but no one believed him anymore.

After Li Qiuping finished speaking, she took out a stack of documents from her bag and handed them to Yang Wanshan.

"Mayor Yang, these are all pieces of evidence. Please take a look."

Yang Wanshan took the materials and flipped through them page by page, his expression growing increasingly serious.

"Liu Shanhai, what else do you have to say?"

Liu Shanhai opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Wang Jianguo's face also turned grim; he knew Liu Shanhai was finished.

Yang Wanshan stood up and announced: "Liu Shanhai is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and will be suspended from his duties for investigation effective immediately."

"Zhang Zhicheng's candidacy was also revoked because he was also suspected of embezzlement and bribery."

"Comrade Deng Hong will serve as the new village committee secretary."

The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause once again.

Liu Shanhai slumped in his chair, his face ashen.

He knew that this time he was truly finished.

Deng Hong walked onto the stage, took the microphone, and her eyes reddened.

"Thank you everyone, thank you for your trust."

"I will certainly live up to everyone's expectations and make Zhuangdong Village even better."

Lin Cheng breathed a sigh of relief as he stood below the stage; this election had finally passed without major incident.

After the meeting, Liu Shanhai was taken away by the Discipline Inspection Commission.

Zhang Zhicheng was also taken away for investigation.

Wang Jianguo's face was gloomy, and he left without saying a word.

Yang Wanshan walked up to Lin Zheng and patted him on the shoulder.

"Well done."

"Mayor Yang, you flatter me. I am very grateful for your help."

Yang Wanshan smiled and said, "It's up to you now. The project needs to get started as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, I won't let you down."

After Yang Wanshan left, Deng Hong came over and hugged Lin Zheng tightly.

"Lin Zheng, thank you, thank you so much."

Lin Zheng patted her on the back: "No need to thank me, just treat me to dinner tonight."

Deng Hong burst into laughter through her tears: "I'll definitely treat you."

As the two were talking, Li Qiuping walked over.

"Manager Lin, I...I've told you everything, what do we do now?"

Lin Zheng said, "Don't worry, I'll arrange it."

"Go back and pack your things first. I'll have someone take you and the child to the city in a couple of days."

Li Qiuping nodded and turned to leave.

Deng Hong watched her retreating figure and sighed.

"This Li Qiuping is also pitiful, she has been bullied by Liu Shanhai for so many years."

Lin Zheng lit a cigarette: "So we have to help her."

Although Liu Shanhai has fallen from grace, the project is not over yet.

We still need to talk to Tianlong Engineering Company.

Lin Zheng did not rush to advance the project; instead, he took Deng Hong and Chen Li to the town government to complete the formalities.

Yang Wanshan personally greeted his subordinates, and the whole process was extremely efficient, completing all the necessary procedures in half a day.

In the office, Yang Wanshan handed Lin Zhenggen a cigarette.

"Manager Lin, what are your plans for the next step?"

Lin Zheng took the cigarette and said, "Let's go find Tianlong Engineering Company first and get back the money Zhang Wenshan pawned at the village committee."

"Without money, the project can't move forward."

Yang Wanshan frowned: "Li Ting is not a good person to deal with. He has been operating in Dianhai Town for so many years, and his connections are very complex."

"And he is a representative of the People's Congress in the district."

"Don't worry, Mayor Yang, I have a solution."

Lin Zheng didn't say much and left the town government with Deng Hong and Chen Li.

Tianlong Engineering Company occupies dozens of acres in the Dianhai Town Industrial Zone, and its office building is very impressive.

When Lin Zheng and his two companions arrived, the receptionist stopped them.

"Who are you looking for?"

"We're looking for Mr. Li. We're from Tenghua Group, here to discuss the Nanshan project."

The receptionist called to ask for instructions and then led them to the reception room on the second floor.

"Mr. Li is currently busy, please wait a moment."

After waiting for half an hour, a woman in a business suit walked in.

The woman was in her early thirties, tall, with long, flowing hair and exquisite makeup.

He wore a white shirt under a black suit jacket, with the collar slightly open, revealing a patch of snow-white skin.

"Hello, I am Wang Lin, Mr. Li's secretary."

"President Li has an important meeting today and cannot meet with you in person, so he asked me to speak with you."

Lin Zheng frowned; Li Ting was clearly avoiding him.

"Secretary Wang, our purpose in coming here is very simple. Tianlong Engineering Company embezzled 14 million yuan of project funds from Zhuangdong Village Committee three years ago, and this money should be returned."

Secretary Wang smiled and said, "Manager Lin, that money wasn't misappropriated; it was legitimate project funding."

"Zhang Wenshan signed a contract with us back then. We completed the project, so naturally we were entitled to payment."

"Is the project complete?"

Deng Hong sneered, "You abandoned your project halfway through, the roads weren't even built, the foundation wasn't laid, and you call that a completion?"

Secretary Wang's expression remained unchanged: "That was Zhang Wenshan's unilateral breach of contract; it has nothing to do with us."

"If you have any objections, you can take legal action."

Lin Zheng knew he couldn't reason with this woman, so he said directly, "Secretary Wang, we're not here to argue with you today."

"We just want to ask one question: are you going to return this money or not?"

Secretary Wang shook his head: "The company's cash flow is very tight, and we can't come up with that much money at the moment."

"If you're willing, you can wait until the company's cash flow improves before we pay you back."

"How long do we have to wait?" Chen Li asked.

"It's hard to say, maybe a year, maybe two."

Lin Zheng's face darkened.

"Secretary Wang, since you have no money, we have no choice but to take legal action."

"Manager Lin, then go ahead and sue."

Wang Lin stood up and walked to Lin Zheng's side, lowering her voice.

"Manager Lin, actually I have a way to help you solve this problem."

"What method?" Lin Zheng asked.

Secretary Wang glanced at Deng Hong and Chen Li.

"Could you ask her to leave first? I'd like to talk to you alone."

Lin Zheng hesitated for a moment, then gestured for Deng Hong and Chen Li to go out first.

After the two left, Secretary Wang closed the door to the reception room and walked up to Lin Zheng.

"Manager Lin, do you know why General Manager Li refuses to repay this money?"

Why?

"Because this money wasn't just taken by Mr. Li alone."

As Wang Lin spoke, she sat down on the sofa, crossed her legs, and her short skirt rode up a bit, revealing her fair thighs.

"Who else took it?"

"The town leaders, the district leaders, and the senior executives of your Tenghua Group."

"So many people have taken the money, do you think they can just give it back?"

"What are you trying to tell me by saying all this?" Lin Zheng asked, lighting a cigarette.

Wang Lin walked up to Lin Zheng and gently stroked his chest.

"Manager Lin, I want to tell you that you have no chance of getting this money back."

Instead of wasting time on this, why not work with me?

Lin Zheng grabbed her hand: "How do we cooperate?"

Wang Lin did not pull her hand away; instead, she moved even closer.

"Mr. Li said that as long as you give up chasing this money, he can give you a kickback."

"How many?"

One million.

Lin Zheng released her hand: "You think you can get rid of me with just one million?"

Secretary Wang smiled and reached out to unbutton his suit jacket.

"Manager Lin, don't be in such a hurry to refuse."

"Mr. Li also said that as long as you agree, he can give you a lot of convenience in the project."

"For example, your Tenghua Group can be given priority in contracting future projects."

"For example, he can speak on your behalf in town, helping you gain a foothold in Dianhai Town."

As Wang Lin spoke, she took off her coat, revealing a white shirt underneath.

The shirt was very thin, and you could vaguely see the black underwear underneath.

"Manager Lin, what do you think?"