Chapter 16: The Secretary Panics

“Ma Guoliang, what the hell have you done?” The man on the phone was impatient.

Ma was bewildered. What had he done wrong? Was his former superior that annoyed with him?

“Sir, I…” He was genuinely at a loss.

“Don’t you know what you’ve done? I spoke up for Gaoshan County last time, and now I’m caught in the middle. Do you know what Secretary Hua said to me today? What have you done to make everyone so angry? Do you know how furious he was? He berated all five of us standing committee members first thing this morning.”

Qi Fengqi was furious. In his three years on the Dongjiang provincial leadership team, Hua Yunfeng had hardly ever raised his voice at him. This morning he had come close to slapping Qi in the face. Without the other committee members present, he might have cursed him even more harshly. Qi didn’t know what had gone wrong.

“Ma Guoliang, what did you do? What happened in Gaoshan?”

Ma still didn’t understand. What had he done? Three county chiefs had died, but that wasn’t entirely his fault. They had refused to know their place, and he hadn’t personally laid a hand on them. It had nothing to do with him.

No. If it were about the three deaths, the reaction wouldn’t have come only now. It had to be something else.

Then he remembered how Gao Lan had died. Could it be that?

Uneasy, Ma heard Qi hang up. His face darkened. He still didn’t know where things had gone wrong, and the trouble was far from over.

Gaoshan departments received notice that funding for every provincial- and city-funded project was suspended. The highest audit authority ordered a full audit of the county, and the tax administration announced an investigation of its tax returns for recent years.

The county felt a storm approaching.

Ma received calls from the tax bureau chief and officials responsible for auditing and finance. Nearly all had been notified that provincial teams were coming to examine their accounts.

His heart pounded. Had Gaoshan stirred up a hornet’s nest? Why was the province suddenly moving against the county? It would damage both economic development and the political climate. Without provincial funding, local finances alone couldn’t complete the major projects.

He understood the seriousness, but still didn’t know the cause. Secretary Ma was beside himself, pulling his hair into a mess.

Could the higher-ups have learned what happened to Gao Lan, including the assault before her death? They shouldn’t have. Liu Yixiong had dealt with it, hadn’t he? The news shouldn’t have escaped.

Had something gone wrong with Liu?

Ma hurriedly called him, his voice strained. “Liu Yixiong, what happened to the woman who examined Gao Lan? Have you dealt with her?”

Liu’s heart sank. “Secretary Ma, don’t worry. It’ll be taken care of very soon.”

“What do you mean?” A bad feeling rose in Ma.

“Well… well…” Liu hesitated. Once Ma learned the examiner had escaped, he would curse him to death.

“Speak! What happened?” Ma’s voice hardened.

Liu finally told him. Ma’s head seemed to explode. The examiner had escaped!

The room spun. He had guessed right: Gao Lan’s case was about to leak, or perhaps already had. Had someone told the authorities she was raped before she died? Furious as he was, he couldn’t be certain that was the cause. He could only order Liu to deal with Lu Xiujuan immediately.

Liu repeatedly agreed, sweat covering his forehead.

More notices of provincial and city inspections and audits arrived. Overnight Gaoshan seemed to have become a target of special attention. Ma felt numb. His time as county Party secretary might be ending.

What was happening to Gaoshan?

At Friendship Hotel, Fatty Xu had decrypted the USB drive. Lin Ying opened its contents and was appalled by the figures. She had never imagined a small county could hide so much corruption, with public money openly diverted into private pockets.

The scum had enriched themselves with the people’s hard-earned money.

“These figures are terrifying,” Xu said. “Gaoshan has been a poor county all these years. Poor? The funding from above has all gone to the dogs.”

Lin nodded. Things were far more complicated than she had thought, and the burden on her shoulders grew heavier.

Had Gao Lan been killed because she obtained these records? Sun Ping had asked Lin to give them to Liu Yang at the city government office. Could Liu help Sun, or did he have some connection to Gao?

Gao’s death surely had something to do with the drive. The files said she had been found dead by suicide on her bed, after a robbery that night. Supposedly she had killed herself out of guilt over a million-yuan bribe. But where were the robbers?

To learn the truth, Lin needed to find the intruders. They might well be the killers. She also needed to visit the scene.

“Ready?” She looked at Xu, Duan Fei and Xie Zhijun. All three nodded.

“I checked the high vantage point at the county government office,” Xie said gravely. “Someone has been staying there.”

“So someone was watching the government office?”

Xie nodded slowly.

It was much as Lin had expected. Gao’s death was too suspicious to be simple. There had to be more behind it. She had died only three months after taking office; her enemies had moved quickly.

Lin narrowed her eyes. “Let’s go. Back to the police bureau.”