Chapter 1388: Accusation
Next day.
Early in the morning.
Provincial capital, airport lobby.
Dong Xuebing drove to pick up the people from Fen Zhuo City. After parking in the parking lot, HR carefully a.s.sisted his wife through the boarding procedures. Even though Huilan could walk without any problem, he protected her, staying close to her every moment.
"Mayor Dong."
"Yeah, what"s up?"
"Our plane tickets…"
"Oh, all first-cla.s.s."
"Uh, that"s not good, is it?"
"It"s fine. Everyone worked hard on this trip, so I ensured you all could return comfortably."
Dong Xuebing was not afraid to spend money. He had arranged first-cla.s.s tickets for everyone, thanks to it being a less crowded airport in the remote western province. Fen Zhou City officials, including Liao Yimin, only found out after getting their boarding pa.s.ses. Honestly, officials at Liao Yimin"s level had never flown first-cla.s.s before, let alone the subordinates. So they felt a bit embarra.s.sed.
Liao Yimin politely said, "We"ll reimburse you when we return. You don"t need to spend on this."
Dong Xuebing waved, "Our city only reimburses for economy cla.s.s. I know that. Don"t worry about it. It"s on me. It"s not a big deal."
Liao Yimin smiled bitterly, "Thank you, Mayor Dong, for your generosity. You"re spending again."
"It"s originally about my wife. What"s the fuss about the money?" Dong Xuebing supported Xie Huilan towards the security check, saying, "Take care on your journey."
"Got it." Liao Yimin said, "You should go back too. We"ll take care of ourselves."
One female staff member went up to help Xie Huilan. "Mayor Xie, let me a.s.sist you."
Xie Huilan smiled, "I said I"m fine, no need. Let"s go, Xiao Bin. You should go back now. We"ll manage from here, and you won"t get through security."
Dong Xuebing nodded reluctantly, "Take care on the road."
"Sure." Xie Huilan said, "I"ll call you when I arrive."
The other officials from Fen Zhou City bid farewell to Dong Xuebing one by one.
Dong Xuebing nodded, refraining from showing too much affection for his wife in front of them. After exchanging a glance with his wife, he didn"t say much. He watched Xie Huilan turn around and leave with the people from Fen Zhou City. Instead of leaving, Dong Xuebing stayed and watched them pa.s.s through security. Once they disappeared, he took a few glances and returned to the parking lot to drive back to Chenggang County. Originally, he thought he could spend a few more days with his wife this time, but things turned out differently. He only got to spend a day with Huilan, and he felt a bit depressed. All the blame rested on the people from Chenggang County. This account needed to be settled.
Morning.
Cheng Gang County.
Dong Xuebing didn"t contact the officials from Cheng Gang County. He didn"t stay at their county guesthouse either. Instead, he chose a hotel, used his ID to check in, and took a room on the top floor, a business suite.
After checking in, Dong Xuebing took a good shower and called to order food delivered to his room. After eating and drinking enough, he walked slowly to the window, opened the curtains, and looked at the opposite building, the almost completed new County Party Committee building compound. This hotel was on the same street as the new County Party Committee building compound, facing it at an angle, with a straight-line distance of only two hundred meters. Dong Xuebing leaned on the window sill, lit a cigarette, and smoked while watching. His eyes were contemplative, showing signs of indecision.
Should I do it or not?
Dong Xuebing hesitated slightly.
Having harmed them physically and verbally scolded their county leaders, Dong Xuebing"s anger dissipated greatly. Now, only Li Zhixin remained to be dealt with. Well, also the Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g. If he did it this way, wouldn"t it be too big of a move? But if he used a simpler method to punish them, wouldn"t it be too easy on them? Dong Xuebing felt a bit uncomfortable. After all, they had indeed gone too far.
What to do?
Should he do it or not?
Dong Xuebing squinted and pondered.
Meanwhile.
County People"s Hospital.
The second monitoring room was crowded inside and outside. Li Zhixin, Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g, and others were there. As it was getting chaotic, Li Zhixin asked some people to leave. They were there to visit because five out of eight people had already woken up in the morning and afternoon, including the County Mayor"s Secretary, Zhou Wei, and the General Manager of the construction company, Mr. Sun. All of them were in the second monitoring room, and it seemed they had already pa.s.sed the critical stage.
"Xiao Zhou," Li Zhixin"s face was a bit gloomy. "How is it going?"
Zhou Wei looked resentfully at the s.p.a.ce under the blanket where his legs used to be. He raised his head and looked at Li Zhixin, gritting his teeth, "Mayor Li, is there any hope for my legs?" This was the first thing Zhou Wei said to the doctor after waking up, but he didn"t answer.
Li Zhixin pondered for a moment and still told him, "Your severed limbs have been found, but the incision site has been severely damaged. The doctor said it"s impossible to reattach them."
Although Zhou Wei had antic.i.p.ated this, his face still turned pale.
"Xiao Zhou," Li Zhixin encouraged, "You have to hold on. Losing your legs is nothing. We can get prosthetics, and you"ll be able to stand again."
Zhou Wei remained silent.
On the other side, Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g also started talking to Mr. Sun from the construction company.
"Old Sun, is your hand still hurting?" Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g touched on a sensitive topic.
Sun Zong clenched his teeth, "Can my hand be reattached?" He had lost an entire arm, and his injuries were comparatively lighter among the eight.
Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g sighed and shook his head slightly.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Sun fell silent, obviously taking a significant blow.
The atmosphere in the monitoring room became somewhat tense, and everyone"s mood was not great.
Finally, Li Zhixin broke the deadlock. He looked at Zhou Wei and said, "Xiao Zhou, I know you just woke up and need time to recover. But now I need to know the specific circ.u.mstances and details of the incident. Tell me anything that comes to your mind. We will investigate this matter thoroughly."
"Investigate?" Zhou Wei said.
"Yes," Li Zhixin said, "Do you think this was an accident?" This question implied that they were trying to s.h.i.+ft the blame for the accident. Li Mayor"s words made everyone in the room fall silent, looking at them with furrowed brows and stunned expressions.
"I don"t know," Zhou Wei said.
Li Zhixin stared at him, saying, "Think about it carefully."
After a pause, Zhou Wei said, "When I was running, Dong Xuebing b.u.mped into me."
Li Zhixin"s eyes turned cold, "Are you sure? How did he b.u.mp into you, and when?"
"At the end," Zhou Wei said with difficulty, "If it weren"t for him blocking the steel plate beside me, it wouldn"t have hit me. He even stepped on my severed leg, crus.h.i.+ng it."
Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g pretended to be surprised, "Are you suggesting that the accident was not accidental but a deliberate act by Dong Xuebing? He took you there for revenge?"
One of the officials present at the scene coughed, "Mayor Li, Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g, at that time…"
"I didn"t ask you," Li Zhixin ruthlessly interrupted him. "Xiao Zhou, tell me the specific situation."
Zhou Wei seemed to have caught the implied message from the county leaders and spoke firmly, "Dong Xuebing should have arranged it. Otherwise, it"s too coincidental."
Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g looked at Mr. Sun, "Mr. Sun, did you notice anything unusual?"
There were also two police officers in the room, brought in by several leaders, listening and recording everything in their notebooks as written records and witnesses.
Li Zhixin and Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g were the overall commanders of this project. Still, Mr. Sun and others carried out the actual construction work. Faced with consecutive accidents, Mr. Sun naturally did not want to shoulder the responsibility. Otherwise, he would be charged with at least lax supervision. When he got excited talking about it, Mr. Sun accidentally touched his bed with his severed arm, causing him to wince in pain.
Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g, still bearing a grudge from yesterday"s verbal abuse by Dong Xuebing, suggested, "Mayor Li, I suggest we take control of Dong Xuebing first."
Li Zhixin glanced at him. Since the beginning, he had never harbored any illusions about Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g"s political ac.u.men. He was just someone who had risen through luck. While influential in dealing with ordinary people, he was utterly clueless about political struggles. Controlling Dong Xuebing, the executive Deputy Mayor of a neighboring county and a man whose wife was a Deputy City Mayor, wasn"t that simple. Even if Li Zhixin agreed, the County Party Secretary would not dare to approve.
This matter needed to be handled slowly, one step at a time.
Li Zhixin had a plan in mind. While the situation with Xie Huilan"s incident was relatively better, as she hadn"t suffered much harm, the second accident was far more serious. Eight people were disabled, and finding someone responsible for this was imperative.
Who should bear this responsibility?
Whom to use to divert attention?
Their people from Cheng Gang County were unsuitable, so Dong Xuebing became the only option.
After leaving the monitoring room, several police officers questioned the officials and staff at the scene during the incident, "What do you know about the situation?"
One official hesitated for a long time without saying a word.
A staff spoke up, "It might have been an accident. We saw things falling from upstairs, and Mayor Dong was downstairs. How could he tamper with them? Moreover, Mayor Dong pulled Secretary Zhou and Mr. Sun one by one out of danger at the end. Otherwise, there would have been a second injury, and Secretary Zhou and others wouldn"t have made it. And Director Li, who was paralyzed after being hit on the cervical spine, was because Secretary Zhou used him as a s.h.i.+eld to protect himself."
But Li Zhixin and Deputy Mayor w.a.n.g were walking ahead, seemingly oblivious.
Seeing this, the police officers stopped writing, and this part was not recorded.