In name only: I will break the chess game in Handong

At the same time, in the office of the Secretary of the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Tian Guofu rushed over. As soon as he entered, he grabbed the cup on Chen Luo's table and drank it down without caring who had drunk from it.

He was panting heavily and sweating profusely.

Seeing this, Chen Luo simply handed Tian Guofu a new cup with fresh water.

"Secretary Chen! Something's not right!"

"What's wrong?"

Chen Luo pretended to be stupid and tried to evade the issue.

Tian Guofu, meanwhile, rested his hands on the table and scrutinized Chen Luo, as if to say, "Stop pretending..."

Their eyes met, and Chen Luo was the first to succumb to the pressure, mainly because what he did was somewhat unethical.

"Alright, I forgot to remind you, Secretary Guofu. Did you get criticized for reporting to Secretary Sha so abruptly?"

Tian Guofu rolled his eyes.

“It’s fine if Secretary Sha criticizes me, it won’t hurt me. What I’m worried about is if the higher-ups find out about this. What kind of talk is that? Is the function of our provincial discipline inspection commission in supervising cadres paralyzed or just for show?”

A provincial-level official was brazenly trying to fly out of the country with a fake passport, and our provincial discipline inspection commission wasn't even the first to notice; it was only thanks to a comrade who hadn't even taken office yet…”

Chapter 329 The Cricket Behind the Scenes Gets Caught Red-Handed

If this matter were truly investigated, Tian Guofu, the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, would really be looked down upon by his superiors.

However, Chen Luo had already come up with a solution to this problem.

"Secretary Guofu, I need to correct you on something!"

"??? What's going on?"

Tian Guofu looked completely bewildered.

"What do you mean by 'a discipline inspection cadre who hasn't been officially hired'? It was clearly Comrade Jia Renli, the already hired deputy secretary of the Handong Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, who encountered Li Shangli attempting to illegally leave the country at the airport. After Comrade Jia Renli reported to the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission coordinated with the Provincial Public Security Department to successfully intercept him at the airport!"

"Holy crap! You can do that?"

Tian Guofu was dumbfounded, while Chen Luo nodded and said, "Logically speaking, it is somewhat against the rules, but the rules were broken by the Guizhou Province first. How can they hold a standing committee meeting overnight and send people to our Handong the next morning?"

We in Handong can't let the cadres who come here feel neglected, can we? We can announce Comrade Jia Renli's temporary appointment overnight, can't we?

"But we didn't discuss it in the meeting..."

Chen Luo blinked. "We've already discussed it. Didn't we agree on Comrade Jia Renli's appointment?"

From the moment we applied to transfer Comrade Jia Renli from Handong to the moment Guizhou Province approved Handong's transfer application, Secretary Guofu, you could have easily given Comrade Jia Renli a temporary instruction to make bold guesses and carefully verify them.

Comrade Jia Renli's ability to recognize Li Shangli so accurately was precisely due to this instruction.

Upon hearing this, Tian Guofu rolled his eyes. "Comrade Jia Renli might not cooperate. What if he says I didn't say that? You know his personality."

"Why not give it a try? What if it works?"

Chen Luo spread his hands, his meaning clear: if you don't want to try, then give up. It's no big deal anyway; at most, you'll get a few scoldings. Li Shangli hasn't run away.

"Wait! Something's not right!"

After thinking for a moment, Tian Guofu stared intently at Chen Luo, "Do you have other motives?"

Chen Luo smiled awkwardly upon hearing this.

"Oh, what purpose could I possibly have? It's just that Old Jia said Comrade Renli is willing to follow my orders regarding matters related to his work in Handong. You and I both know Comrade Renli's personality; I'm afraid that if something really happens, I won't be able to command him..."

"So you're going to use this to test the waters first?"

Tian Guofu's gaze turned resentful.

"Secretary Chen, you didn't plan this all along, did you? Including the coincidence that Comrade Jia Renli discovered Li Shangli's attempt to leave the country?"

"Pah, I'm not a god, how could I arrange such a coincidence?"

"It's hard to say..."

The two stopped arguing; they were both parched from talking. Chen Luo got some tea leaves, and Tian Guofu got some water from the kettle.

The two had a clear division of labor, and ten minutes later they were both sitting on the sofa, sipping their fragrant tea.

However, I had only been sitting for a short while when the office door was suddenly pushed open.

The person who arrived was none other than Li Dakang, the Party Secretary of Jingzhou City. He was breathing rapidly and had beads of sweat on his forehead, but he clearly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Tian Guofu and Chen Luo.

“Secretary Guofu, I’ve been looking for you for ages… How’s the situation with Li Shangli? Secretary Sha just called me and asked how a municipal party secretary manages people, since he didn’t even know that a district party secretary under him was about to run away abroad.”

"So? Did you catch it?"

Li Dakang forcefully squeezed between Chen Luo and Tian Guofu, asking questions while pouring himself a cup of tea without any politeness.

Upon hearing this, Tian Guofu replied quietly, "They've caught them, but there are still some minor issues..."

However, Li Dakang clearly didn't care about any issues.

"Hey, it's good that they caught him. Secretary Sha is really something, he scared me even though he caught him. He didn't get away."

Li Dakang didn't care. He wasn't going to get promoted anyway, so he could easily ignore minor mistakes. He preferred the fragrant aroma of tea in his cup. He closed his eyes and sipped the tea—it was so refreshing!

"Cough...cough..."

However, at this moment, Tian Guofu suddenly coughed, and Chen Luo, seeing Sha Ruijin suddenly appear at the door, laughed and turned his head away.

"Comrade Dakang, what did you just say? Were you trying to scare me?"

Upon suddenly hearing Sha Ruijin's voice, Li Dakang, who was sipping tea with his eyes half-closed, turned pale instantly. He slowly opened his eyes and, upon seeing that it was indeed Sha Ruijin, spat out all the fragrant and tempting tea.

"Pfft! Secretary Sha! What brings you here too?"

Li Dakang tried to change the subject, but Sha Ruijin didn't give him a chance.

"If I hadn't come, I wouldn't have heard Comrade Dakang talking about me like that behind my back..."

At this moment, Chen Luo also stood up and smiled as he tried to smooth things over.

"Secretary Sha, please come and sit down!"

Tian Guofu, who was standing next to them, also got up and moved the sofa next to them to the opposite side of the three of them.

Sha Ruijin wasn't a petty person, nor did he really intend to pursue the matter with Li Dakang, so he simply sat down opposite the three of them.

Li Dakang bent down, took out a new cup, poured the tea, and pushed it in front of Sha Ruijin.

"Secretary Sha, please have some tea to calm down..."

Getting back to the main point, Sha Ruijin came here on business.

"Comrade Chen Luo, Comrade Guo Fu, Comrade Da Kang, I'm here to mention something. Li Shangli's illegal departure from the country is not simply a matter of disloyalty to the organization!"

A colleague from the National Security Bureau just called me and told me that the three former Qing dynasty officials and their descendants whom they captured while arresting Li Shangli are likely members of some overseas organization that's clamoring for the restoration of the Qing dynasty!

In an instant, the smiles on Chen Luo and the other two's faces vanished; this was no joke.

"Secretary Sha, are you implying that Li Shangli might be a traitor?"

"Yes! That's why I came to inform you that we'll be holding an emergency Standing Committee meeting later to discuss this!"

"Um...you have a good relationship with Zhao Dagong, tell him not to keep targeting Governor Jianjun. I know Governor Jianjun; he wouldn't be so stingy as to act as a traitor's protector for Li Shangli."

Chen Luo and the other two nodded upon hearing this.

The most urgent task is to clarify Li Shangli's situation first, and then we can deal with the rest later.

Of course, Sha Ruijin also had his considerations.

He knew that Zhou Jianjun would not provide any support for Li Shangli's treason. Although the two were fighting, it was a fight within the rules. If Sha Ruijin were to smear Zhou Jianjun as a traitorous protector, he would be pushing him to his death!

This will not benefit anyone. When two tigers fight, one will surely be injured. Sha Ruijin can accept that he will suffer a minor injury.

Unable to accept his serious injury, he still wanted to stay in Handong for a few years to see if there was any chance to reap the rewards.

Just as the group was discussing, there was a knock on the door, which was then pushed open by someone with minor injuries.

"Secretary Chen, Secretary Renli has arrived!"

The speaker was Liu Mingyu.

The four people who were discussing stopped, only because the door was too soundproof, preventing Liu Mingyu from hearing the conversation inside.

Upon seeing those four familiar faces, Liu Mingyu was completely petrified.

Chapter 330 Jia Renli with an Upright Crew Cut

"Mingyu, what are you standing there for?"

Chen Luo waved his hand, and Liu Mingyu immediately came back to his senses.

"Secretary Chen, I've brought Secretary Renli back."

"Okay, just let Comrade Renli come in directly."

"Yes, Secretary Sha!"

Liu Mingyu tried his best to remain calm, and only after leaving the room did he gasp for breath, and the feeling of panic subsided somewhat.

"That was terrifying! How did Secretary Sha and the others get here so quickly...?"

Shaking his head, Liu Mingyu didn't delve into the matter. He went to the room where Jia Renli was waiting, and upon opening the door, he found that Jia Renli hadn't sat down but was standing by the window, looking at the green plants below.

"Secretary Renli, Secretary Chen wants you to go directly there."

Upon hearing this, Jia Renli withdrew his gaze, nodded, and said, "Alright, then I'll head over."

Seeing Jia Renli about to leave, Liu Mingyu hurriedly called out, "Wait! Secretary Renli, Secretary Sha of the Provincial Party Committee, Secretary Tian of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, and Secretary Dakang of the Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee are all currently in Secretary Chen's office..."

Jia Renli showed no reaction after hearing this, but calmly turned to look at Liu Mingyu and asked, "Secretary Liu, is there something you want to say about the leaders being here? But didn't Secretary Chen tell me to go directly over there?"

Liu Mingyu's Adam's apple bobbed, and he ultimately shook his head awkwardly.

"No, it's nothing. Secretary Renli, please take care."

Jia Renli's reaction made Liu Mingyu realize that his reminder was unnecessary; the other party wasn't nervous at all.

Two minutes later, Jia Renli knocked on Chen Luo's office door.

"Secretary Chen, this is Jia Renli!"