Me! A high-ranking official!

"As for the company's sincerity and the issue of risk..." he proactively revealed, "I'll immediately send a complete set of documents to the town government, including copies of the company's business license, bank verification report, and the legal representative's credit record, and ask them to review the company's qualifications first! If there are any problems with their qualifications, then forget about it, I, Zhao Jianguo, will kick them out immediately! If their qualifications are fine, and we've investigated the details, then we can calmly move forward. How does that sound?"

Wang Yongchun looked at Zhao Jianguo for a while. Seeing that the young man hadn't been intimidated by his words and could even use a delaying tactic to advance in this stalemate, he couldn't help but curse him inwardly as cunning. However, since he had already said so much, he couldn't push him too hard. So he nodded indifferently: "Alright, the town isn't an unreasonable place. We'll do as you said, review the qualifications first, then discuss the plan. Go back and prepare the materials and submit them to the management station."

He thanked them repeatedly and left the secretary's office.

After Zhao Jianguo's footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor, Deputy Director Wang, who had been standing by observing his expression, cautiously asked, "Secretary, what do you think of this young Zhao... should we continue to hold him accountable?"

Wang Yongchun slowly unscrewed the lid of the thermos and said expressionlessly, "The materials have been delivered. Review them according to the normal procedure. If there are no problems, then file them for him."

Deputy Director Wang was taken aback and was about to speak when Wang Yongchun gave him a cold glance: "But let me make this clear first, those 500 mu of land in Luojia Village are there for the taking. When Zhao Jianguo's term of office ends or he is transferred, the town will be the one to take over that mess! He can handle the investment now, which is commendable, but in my territory, the rules still have to be followed by the town."

This statement seemed to be a way to save face in today's confrontation, which had not yielded any advantage. It was also a warning to his subordinates that although the dispute had been temporarily set aside and relations had not broken down, Wang Yongchun had already completely blacklisted Zhao Jianguo as a disobedient troublemaker in his mind.

As he stepped out of the town government compound, the sun overhead was blazing, but his heart was ice-cold, and his face was so gloomy it looked like it was about to drip water.

He originally came to the town just to complete the land transfer procedures and file them as usual. After all, it was his first time handling such a large-scale transfer, and he was not very familiar with the process. He had hoped that Deputy Director Wang could handle it for him. Who would have thought that Deputy Director Wang would take a different turn and bring him directly to Wang Yongchun, the town party secretary.

At first, he didn't think much of it. After all, the agreement clearly stipulated the direction of the funds. He had brought real investment projects to the town, which would only benefit the town's annual economic indicators. Logically, the leaders wouldn't make things difficult for him.

But he never expected that the town had such a big appetite, directly eyeing the five million!

As soon as Wang Yongchun uttered the words "overall coordination and supervision," he understood everything. If the five million yuan were really handed over to the town's joint management account as they said, it would be like throwing meat buns to a dog—gone and never to be returned. Not only would the investors never agree to such an absurd condition, but Zhao Jianguo himself would never budge on it!

This money is the foundation for Luojia Village's future turnaround and for the villagers to become wealthy!

"Now that we've had a falling out with Wang Yongchun, the registration process probably won't be so easy to get approved." He stood by the roadside, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

In the end, he was just a village secretary sent down to the countryside. In name and in terms of organizational relationship, he was directly under the jurisdiction of the township. Judging from Wang Yongchun's attitude of having him cornered today, if the township didn't skim off a layer of skin for him, the land transfer approval would definitely not pass.

"A head-on confrontation won't work. A local official has more power than a distant one. We need to find someone who can keep things under control and smooth things over." He secretly calculated, "Even if it means spending some money in the end, as long as Wang Yongchun saves face in other ways, we must keep this project intact!"

Having thought this through, he no longer hesitated and hailed a taxi on the roadside heading straight to the county town and the county's Culture and Tourism Bureau.

When he arrived at the county bureau building, he had just entered the lobby when he saw Director Zhang Baocheng striding towards him with a dark expression.

Although the two had fallen out privately over the issue of the assigned quotas, this was, after all, their workplace, and the other party was his direct superior. He had to maintain appearances, so he stopped and politely greeted him, "Director Zhang."

Zhang Baocheng was already feeling irritated when he looked up and saw Zhao Jianguo. His face immediately darkened even more. He gave him a cold glance, didn't even utter a sound, snorted heavily, and strode away, brushing past Zhao Jianguo's shoulder.

He was left standing there, completely bewildered. He had just returned from the village and hadn't provoked him at all. What had gotten into him? He wouldn't even give him a perfunctory reply.

However, he couldn't be bothered to argue with Zhang Baocheng. He hadn't come to see him in the first place. He went straight upstairs and knocked on the door of Guo Nanguo's office, the executive deputy director.

Pushing open the door, Guo Nanguo was standing behind his desk answering a phone call. When he saw Zhao Jianguo come in, his eyes lit up, and he smiled and pointed to the sofa opposite him, indicating that he should sit down first.

Guo Nanguo spoke respectfully into the phone, "Yes, yes, County Chief Lian, rest assured, our bureau will resolutely implement the county's instructions regarding this matter... Yes, yes, I understand!"

He sat quietly on the sofa and waited for more than two minutes before Guo Nanguo carefully hung up the phone.

"Why did you suddenly come back?" Guo Nanguo put down his phone, walked around the desk, and looked at him with a chuckle.

He stood up and said with a smile, "I encountered some difficulties, so I quickly ran back to report to Director Guo and ask for his advice."

While pouring water, Guo Nanguo joked, "If you hadn't spoken up, I would have thought you were so well-informed that you knew some inside information about the bureau!"

He was taken aback and asked in surprise, "A message? Director Guo, does the bureau need to speak with me?"

"Let's not talk about that now, you'll find out in a bit." Guo Nanguo waved his hand, handed the water glass to Zhao Jianguo, and said seriously, "Tell me about your business first. What's wrong? Did you run into some obstacles in your work in the village?"

He gave a wry smile and didn't hide anything, recounting in detail how he brought the five million yuan planting base project to the village, and how he was held back by Wang Yongchun in the town today under the pretext of "supervision."

"Director Guo, you're a veteran at the grassroots level, you know that what investors fear most these days is the uncontrollable factors of local governments, especially unreasonable interference from the town government." He rubbed his water glass with both hands and said bitterly, "If investors knew that the funds would be managed by the town government, they would definitely consider many more risks. This project, which we finally managed to secure, could very well fall through because of this! I'm in a lowly position and have no influence in the town, so I had no choice but to swallow my pride and go back to my hometown to ask the leaders for help."