Official Career Storm

Chapter 1629

Beads of sweat seeped from Director Chen’s forehead as his brain spun madly, trying to grasp the key point; he ignored the urging voice on the phone completely.

Only when a certain moment came did he jolt awake, and the sound in his ears grew clear again.

"Forget about that. Go catch the next one."

He dropped the phone. Before he could think it through, another call came in.

He grabbed the phone; as expected, an anxious voice rang in his ear again.

The third one...

He had guessed right.

Someone really was tipping these corrupt officials off.

Who could it possibly be?

At noon, when Mayor Fang and Director Chen were eating, they were taken away by Song Guanchao.

Secretary Xue was caught in the afternoon.

Director Hu was lured into a trap in the evening.

At first, he suspected it was one of those three, who, before being arrested, had told the people around them about this matter.

Their people, finding the three long overdue and unreachable, then turned to notify the other corrupt officials...

He felt his line of thought was correct, except there was one point he couldn’t explain.

If that were really the case, why had the earlier arrests gone so smoothly?

It didn’t make sense.

He kept answering calls, kept repeating himself; his train of thought was interrupted again and again, leaving him unable to calm down and think.

Director Chen was very agitated, yet had no choice but to keep picking up.

He didn’t know how many calls he had answered when some vehicles drove into the municipal bureau.

The cars stopped, and several figures walked toward the bureau.

Coming straight at him was a man in his forties—it was Director Hou from the provincial department.

He had arrived.

"Director Hou."

Director Chen went around the dispatch hall.

"They’ve left?" Director Hou was asking about Hall Director Qi, Wu Qiangwei and the others.

"They’ve left."

"Quite tactful of them."

Director Hou pulled out a chair and sat down, asking, "Tell me what’s going on."

"Yes..." Director Chen briefly described the progress of the arrests, then hesitated for a few seconds and said, "There’s been a problem."

"What problem?"

"Some corrupt officials seem to have found out about this and have run."

"Hm?" Director Hou’s eyebrows rose. "How did they find out?"

Director Chen laid out the situation in detail, then concluded, "My guess is that it was people under Secretary Xue, Mayor Fang, or Director Hu who tipped them off."

After listening, Director Hou’s expression suddenly changed, and he cursed, "Idiot!"

Director Chen’s face twitched. He was a bureau chief, after all, and to be cursed at directly in front of a bunch of police officers made it hard for him to save face.

"Director Hou, I..."

"The police from Nanjiang Province made their arrests smoothly. The minute they walked out the door, that bunch of corrupt officials suddenly ran, and you still think it was Secretary Xue and the others who tipped them off?"

Director Chen froze. The tangled ball of yarn in his head suddenly straightened out, his pupils tightening. "You mean... they were the ones who tipped them off?"

"Something that obvious and you’re still asking me?"

Face dark, Director Hou fell silent for a few seconds, then stood up. "Take me to see Secretary Xue."

Those who had fled were all small-time corrupt officials; that wasn’t a big deal. As long as Secretary Xue and the others were still here, it was fine.

But would they really leave Secretary Xue and the others behind?

If they could do something like tipping people off, Director Hou had to suspect they’d also taken those key figures away.

"This way." Director Chen walked in front, but halfway there he suddenly stopped, looking at Director Hou with a somewhat blank expression.

"What are you looking at me for? Lead the way!"

"Uh... I, I don’t know where they’re being held." Director Chen was very embarrassed.

"You don’t know?"

"When I got here, they were already in the middle of arrests. I didn’t ask them where they were putting people..."

Director Chen glanced toward the interrogation rooms, his voice lacking confidence. "There are only these few interrogation rooms. If they’re not here, they should be in the detention cells."

With Director Hou’s reminder, he had actually already guessed that Hall Director Qi and Wu Qiangwei and the others had very likely taken Secretary Xue and the others away.

Face black as coal, Director Hou said nothing and headed straight for the interrogation rooms.

Bang!

He shoved the door open.

The first interrogation room was empty.

He went to the second room and opened the door—still no one.

The third, the fourth...

Standing behind him, Director Chen looked at one empty interrogation room after another and could clearly feel the murderous rage on Director Hou’s face deepening bit by bit.

When the last interrogation room door was pushed open, Director Chen’s heart completely sank.

They really had taken them away.

"To the detention cells," said Director Hou.

Director Chen walked ahead in silence.

When they reached the detention cells, they too were utterly empty, not a single person in sight.

The atmosphere dropped to freezing; Director Hou’s face was frighteningly dark, and Director Chen didn’t even dare breathe loudly.

A few seconds later, Director Hou turned and headed back toward the dispatch hall.

Director Chen let out a hard breath and hurried to catch up.

Back in the dispatch hall, Director Hou took out his phone and pulled up Hall Director Qi’s number.

After thinking for a moment, he instead pulled up Governor Li’s number and dialed.

Beep, beep...

It was already past four in the morning; Governor Li was probably already asleep.

The phone rang for over ten seconds before it connected, and Governor Li’s tired voice came through.

"What is it?"

"Governor Li, we’ve already arrived in Pinghai City. There are some things I need to report to you."

"Go ahead."

Calling him this late, it was probably trouble.

Governor Li wasn’t particularly concerned; he had already done what he needed to do. If something really went wrong, it would be Secretary Zhuang taking the blame. It had nothing to do with him.

Director Hou quickly and succinctly outlined the situation.

Governor Li’s drowsiness vanished; he seized the key point and asked, "Why did they leave the municipal bureau?"

This should have been a perfect joint operation between two provinces, yet Nanjiang’s side had pulled out halfway.

With a straight face, Director Hou said, "Given that Director Chen had already arrived in Pinghai City and the situation was under control, and considering that our comrades from Nanjiang Province had been on the road all day and then worked through the night, they were exhausted. So we let them go back to rest."

Governor Li gave a cold snort. "If you want to steal the credit, just say it. You still want to play games with me?"

Director Hou’s tone didn’t change. "After all, this is a case in our own backyard, and it involves such serious corruption. I felt it should be handled by us ourselves. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough on the phone with Director Chen, and Director Chen miscommunicated things to Hall Director Qi and Mayor Wu, which led to a misunderstanding. Governor Li, could you perhaps communicate with them over there?"

"Now you remember to come to me?" Governor Li said. "When you took it upon yourself to have Director Chen send them away, why didn’t you think to report to me then?"

"Governor Li..."

"Go talk to Secretary Zhuang. Something this big is beyond me. I’ll wait for Secretary Zhuang’s notice—if there’s a meeting to be held, we’ll hold it; if there’s a vote to be taken, we’ll vote."

"Gov—beep, beep."

The call was cut off.

The corner of Director Hou’s mouth twitched.

He could hear Governor Li’s displeasure, but he didn’t feel he’d done anything wrong.

He might have been a bit overbearing, and communication hadn’t been flawless, but the matter was serious after all.

He felt Governor Li ought to understand him, not mock him with cold sarcasm.

Director Hou pulled up Secretary Zhuang’s number, sighed lightly, and dialed.

If it weren’t absolutely necessary, he really didn’t want to contact Secretary Zhuang.

Just as Governor Li had said, there was a good chance Secretary Zhuang would convene everyone for a discussion and then put it to a vote on how to handle it.

But that wasn’t certain either. Given how serious this matter was, Secretary Zhuang might be decisive enough to make a call on his own.