Nominal: Starting with an entrance exam for a PhD in Economics at Peking University

Wang Dalu kept his head down and didn't say anything.

"Furthermore," Zhong Xiaoai continued, "Li Jiajia said that you never mentioned repaying the money to her, and you didn't even discuss a repayment plan. Five million one hundred thousand US dollars, you lent it to a girl in her twenties without asking for repayment, without asking for interest, without signing an agreement. Mr. Wang, this is not a loan. What exactly are you trying to do?"

Wang Dalu raised his head, his face full of affection: "I don't have a daughter, but I've always treated Jiajia like my own daughter. You could say I'm her godfather. Since I have the ability, what's wrong with spending some money on my goddaughter?"

Zhong Xiaoai sensed the awkwardness and pressed further, "If that's the case, why not tell Li Jiajia's parents?"

Wang Dalu sighed: "I know Dakang's personality. If I tell him, he will definitely disagree. America is different from China. I really don't want to see Jiajia suffer."

Zhong Xiaoai laughed in anger and said, "Wang Dalu, don't try to deny it. We are the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. We've seen it all. You just want to use this to drag Li Dakang down with you."

Wang Dalu showed no surprise, but calmly asked, "Director Zhong, you've misunderstood. I really..."

Zhong Xiaoai interrupted him mercilessly: "At first, it may have been a loan to help Li Jiajia with her tuition, but later your intentions were definitely not pure - you kept lending her money, letting her slowly get used to that high-consumption lifestyle. Once she was completely used to it and couldn't live without it, the debt would accumulate more and more."

She paused for a moment, then continued, "You know very well Li Dakang's income and Ouyang Jing's spending habits. They can't repay this money, especially more than five million US dollars—and there might be even more that we don't know about—at their salary level, even if they didn't eat or drink, it would take them decades to pay it off. When the time is right, this debt will be an intractable problem that Li Dakang will have to face. At that time, he will have no choice but to come to you, begging for leniency and for a reduction, and then you can make your demands."

"This is a standard case of targeting high-ranking officials!"

"The money you spent on Li Jiajia will definitely be earned back five or ten times by Li Dakang!"

Wang Dalu calmly looked at Zhong Xiaoai: "Director Zhong's reasoning is truly brilliant, but you have no evidence, and none of this has happened. I have never asked Li Dakang for any projects or favors. But I also know that simply giving gifts without asking for anything in return does not constitute bribery."

"Is this worth over 3500 million RMB, or just a simple gift?"

Wang Dalu laughed: "Maybe it's because I've been rich for too long and I've lost my original simple view of money."

He shrugged: "I'm worth billions, I really don't think 3500 million is anything. To give you an inappropriate example, Director Zhong, you must be worth at least several hundred thousand, right?"

Zhong Xiaoai frowned: "Stop grinning like that. We're talking about your problem now."

Wang Dalu didn't take it seriously: "If you, Director Zhong, are worth hundreds of thousands, and if your goddaughter goes to university, it would be normal for you to sponsor her with 3500 yuan, right?"

“3500 million means the same thing to me as 3500 yuan means the same thing to you.”

Zhong Xiaoai: "You've served as a deputy county head and done business in China, so you must know what it means to give an official's daughter 3500 million yuan in subsidies, right?"

Wang Dalu: "Each time it's hundreds of thousands. If Director Zhong hadn't pointed it out, I really wouldn't have realized that it had accumulated to so much."

Zhong Xiaoai: "Do you think I believe that?"

Wang Dalu: "If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. But after hearing what you said, I realize that this amount is inappropriate. How about this, you just have Li Jiajia return the money to me, that will be fine."

Can she afford it?

Wang Dalu: "Then let's enforce it and make Li Jiajia a defaulter."

The interrogation room was quiet for a moment, then she stood up, picked up a folder, and said to the staff member at the door, "Take him down to rest."

In another interrogation room, Li Jiajia's defenses crumbled even faster than Wang Dalu's.

She initially insisted that it was a "loan" and a personal matter, taking a firm stance.

“Uncle Wang lent me money to help with my tuition and living expenses. I will pay him back after I graduate and start working,” she said. “This is a private matter and has nothing to do with my father.”

"A loan?" The staff member opposite her looked at her. "Did you sign a loan agreement? Was a repayment period agreed upon?"

"No, friends don't need to be so formal."

“Five million one hundred thousand US dollars is not a small amount of money. It is illogical to not sign an agreement or specify a time limit.”

Li Jiajia's expression changed slightly, but she still forced herself to stay composed: "Uncle Wang, believe me, I will pay you back in the future."

"How do you plan to pay it back?" the staff member continued. "What is your expected income after graduation? At that income level, how many years would it take you to pay off five million one hundred thousand US dollars?"

Li Jiajia fell silent.

"Moreover," the staff member placed a spending record on the table, "your spending over the past five years has far exceeded the normal range for an international student. Designer bags, jewelry, travel, Michelin-starred restaurants—was all this money lent to you by Wang Dalu?"

As Li Jiajia looked at the record, her face gradually turned pale.

“If it’s a loan, you should be frugal and try to reduce your expenses so that you can pay it off as soon as possible in the future,” the staff member said. “But your spending records show that you not only have no restraint, but you’re spending more and more. This is not the attitude that someone who has borrowed money should have.”

Li Jiajia's lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she said nothing.

“Ms. Li,” the staff member said in a serious tone, “your current statement and evidence do not match at all. I suggest you reconsider and tell the truth. What exactly happened with this money? Did your father know about it? What role did your mother play in it?”

Li Jiajia lowered her head, her fingers gripping the edge of the table, and remained silent for a long time.

Finally, she raised her head, her eyes reddening, and her voice lowered: "Uncle Wang never said I had to pay him back, and my mom said not to worry, that it was an elder taking care of a younger generation, so I... I just used it like that."

"Five million one hundred thousand dollars, you really think that's a favor?"

Li Jiajia didn't say anything, but tears finally fell.

Does your father know about this?

“I don’t know,” Li Jiajia shook her head. “My mom told me not to tell him, saying he’s busy with work and I shouldn’t distract him. She’ll handle the money.”

"Does your mother know the exact amount?"

"...I don't know, she never asked me how much I spent."

The staff member wrote down what was said and then said, "Ms. Li, the amount of money involved is very large. This is not a small sum. You must cooperate with us and explain all the details clearly. This will be beneficial for you and your father."

Li Jiajia nodded, her head down, no longer displaying the same initial fierceness.

Zhong Xiaoai came out of Li Jiajia's interrogation room, looked through Li Jiajia's interrogation materials, and stood in the corridor for a while.

Wang Dalu is cunning and shrewd. He disguised everything as a "loan" and a "god-daughter," a line of defense that is difficult to breach legally.

Li Jiajia is more like a character who was dragged into this situation. From beginning to end, she lived in a carefully constructed comfort zone, spending money that wasn't hers and living a life that wasn't hers, until one day, the bill came.

Li Dakang was unaware of the situation subjectively, and objectively did not benefit from it.

But the figure of $5.1 million is too sensitive, so sensitive that it is hard for anyone to believe that a father would be completely unaware that his daughter owes such a large debt.

Tian Guofu continued: "But Wang Dalu acted very skillfully during the interrogation, using the term 'adopted daughter' to build a defense for himself. From the chain of evidence, it points to Wang Dalu and Ouyang Jing. Li Dakang is on this line, but for the time being, he is not directly involved."

Sha Ruijin went over those words in his mind, then spoke in a flat tone: "What do you think?"

Tian Guofu paused for a moment, then said, "Based on the evidence, Li Dakang is innocent, but from a common sense perspective, five million one hundred thousand US dollars is not a small amount. It is equivalent to more than thirty-five million RMB. As a father, it is unreasonable that he was completely unaware that his daughter's standard of living abroad was far beyond his and his wife's income."

“But just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean you’re guilty,” Sha Ruijin said.

“Yes,” Tian Guofu nodded. “So the current situation is that the inspection team can close the case on the level of Wang Dalu and Ouyang Jing. On the other hand, there are no problems with the evidence for Li Dakang, but there may be pressure from the public opinion.”

Sha Ruijin was silent for a moment, then stood up, walked to the window, turned his back to Tian Guofu, looked out at the provincial party committee compound, and said, "Comrade Guofu, do you think we can continue to use Li Dakang?"

The moment that question was asked, the atmosphere in the office changed.

Tian Guofu did not answer immediately. He knew that the weight of this question did not lie in whether Li Dakang had any problems, but in how Sha Ruijin wanted to use him.

"In terms of work ability, Li Dakang is one of the most capable cadres in Handong," Tian Guofu said carefully. "He handled the Dafeng Factory matter very well, and the Guangmingfeng project is progressing very steadily. The GDP figures of Jingzhou in the past two years are obvious to all."

"but?"

“But his problems are also obvious,” Tian Guofu continued, his tone carrying a hint of objective assessment. “He is too assertive, not gentle enough, and his management of those around him is inadequate. Whether it was the deputy mayor during his time in Lincheng, or Ding Yizhen in Jingzhou, or even his own wife and daughter, all of them had problems. This shows that he has obvious shortcomings in personnel management and family management.”

Sha Ruijin turned around, looked at Tian Guofu, and asked calmly, "So what's your opinion?"

Tian Guofu was silent for a moment, then gave his opinion: "I think the problem with Li Dakang is that even if he was unaware of this matter, he still has to pay back the money Wang Dalu spent on his daughter, right? Otherwise, the handling of this case will set a very bad precedent."

He paused for a moment, then laid out his logic: "If all you have to do is spend money on the children of officials and pretend you don't know anything when something goes wrong, then you can get away with it without any problems. The cost of crime would be too low, and there would be no need for our Discipline Inspection Commission to exist."

"Moreover, how do we determine whether it's a simple gift or taking money without doing anything? Even if Li Dakang was unaware, the nature of this money must be explained."

"You mean, make him return the stolen goods?" Sha Ruijin asked.

“Yes,” Tian Guofu nodded. “No matter how this money is legally classified, from a disciplinary standpoint, Li Dakang, as a leading Party cadre, has to give an explanation to the organization for his immediate family members accepting such a large sum of money. At the very least, he should return the embezzled funds.”

"Where would he get so much money to refund?"

"Yes, that's the problem."

Chapter 146 New Discoveries by the Inspection Team

Li Dakang received the call at 10:20 a.m.

It wasn't a call to his secretary, Xiao Jin; his cell phone rang directly, and the screen displayed "Director Bai Jingwen."

He answered the phone, and the voice on the other end was brief: "Secretary Dakang, Secretary Sha wants you to come over immediately. There's an emergency to discuss."

"Okay, I'll set off right away."

After hanging up the phone, Li Dakang sat in his chair for a few seconds, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, then stood up and picked up his coat.

Xiao Jin peeked in from the doorway: "Secretary, is there anything we need to prepare?"

“No need,” Li Dakang said, his tone flat, but there was something in his eyes. “I’ll go to the provincial party committee alone. I’ll have the office arrange a car. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Could you help me postpone the meeting this morning?”

"Ok."

Li Dakang walked out of the office, his steps a little faster than usual.

He was the only one in the elevator. He leaned against the elevator wall, closed his eyes briefly, and took a deep breath.

I'll be right there.

Emergency situation.

He understood the weight of those words very well.

There must be new developments in Wang Dalu's case, and these developments are so important that Sha Ruijin must see him immediately.

Is it good or bad?

he does not know.

However, judging from recent developments, the chances of things improving are slim.

The car drove out of the municipal party committee compound and headed towards the provincial party committee. There weren't many cars on the road, but Li Dakang felt that every second was very long.

He mentally went over all the possible scenarios.

What is the worst-case scenario?

Did they discover that he and Wang Dalu had a direct exchange of benefits?

Impossible, he never gave Wang Dalu any projects.

Did they find out he knew Li Jiajia had accepted money from Wang Dalu?

That's impossible; he really didn't know.

What else could it be?