Chapter 67: Fighting Without Breaking

Leaving An Ning's home, Ning Weidong pondered the past few hours while riding his bicycle.

An Ning was a woman who was beautiful and educated, and it was very comfortable to spend time and talk with her.

One might even unknowingly forget that she was, in fact, a rather complicated woman.

Occasionally, she would offer inadvertent verbal teases, yet she strictly guarded her bottom line and wouldn't give anything away for free.

It left you feeling itchy, yet unable to get a taste.

As the old saying goes, a wife is not as good as a concubine, a concubine is not as good as a secret lover, and a secret lover is not as good as one you cannot get.

Yet she was right there, making you feel that if you just put in a little more effort, you could reach her.

Ning Weidong made a "tsk" sound, tilted his handlebars to turn at a crossroads, and the Police Station was right ahead.

It was his second time here, so he was familiar with the route.

He went straight to the west wing of the second courtyard, where Sun Mu, who had gone out to handle business with Qian Qiang in the morning, was already sitting at the doorway.

Seeing this, Ning Weidong smiled and nodded, but he did not see Qian Qiang.

Sun Mu also nodded, not saying much.

He and Qian Qiang had just handed the investigation results to Zhang Dajun; how to tell Ning Weidong was Zhang Dajun's business, and there was no need for him to overstep his bounds.

"Brother Ning, I've been waiting for you." Zhang Dajun saw Ning Weidong from the inner room and waved with a smile.

Seeing his expression, Ning Weidong knew the matter was settled, so he quickened his pace: "Brother Zhang, what's the situation?"

Zhang Dajun gestured for him to sit down and began to rattle on.

Listening, Ning Weidong thought to himself, just as expected.

Earlier, Qian Qiang and Sun Mu had followed the trail of Wang Jingsheng's financial sources and easily found the connections.

Wang Jingsheng had originally hung around the Pigeon Market; at that time, Qi Jiazui had just died and the group around him had scattered, so for the sake of his livelihood, Wang Jingsheng had engaged in some buying and selling at the Pigeon Market.

He couldn't earn much money, just enough for food and drink.

But after '77, Wang Jingsheng suddenly became wealthy; although he still went to the Pigeon Market, he was only doing it half-heartedly, and his main business was clearly no longer there.

It was also at this juncture that Wang Jingsheng met An Ning, and in less than a year, the two were married...

Ning Weidong listened carefully, and when Zhang Dajun finished, he said in a low voice: "In other words, starting from the year before last, Wang Jingsheng found some way to start selling scrap steel to Xingtai."

Zhang Dajun nodded, and both tacitly avoided going deeper into the subject.

What kind of path had he found? Wasn't it as obvious as a louse on a monk's head? Where was Liu Hong'e from? Why did Ning Weidong want to investigate Wang Jingsheng?

Zhang Dajun preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble; in any case, this was enough to report back.

As for Wang Jingsheng's speculation and profiteering, if this had been a few years ago, it certainly would have been a big deal.

But now... no one could say for sure.

For one thing, there were too many people doing this, and if they wanted to make arrests, they would never finish.

For another, the policies from above had changed, and everyone was talking about opening up; if they acted rashly, would there be any consequences? This was also the reason why Wang Jingsheng had been able to quietly make a fortune unscathed over the past two years.

"Brother Zhang, thank you so much!" Ning Weidong gripped Zhang Dajun's hands: "You really helped me a lot. Once this busy period is over, I'll host at Donglaishun, and you can't refuse to come then."

Zhang Dajun laughed, patted Ning Weidong on the shoulder, and agreed, but in his heart, whether or not to have a deeper association with Ning Weidong was not something he could decide.

He had to ask Chu Zhongxin about this first.

Primarily, he was unclear about Ning Weidong's background and what his relationship with Chu Zhongxin was.

Ning Weidong left the Police Station and pedaled his bicycle straight back to the Manager.

On the way, he thought about Wang Jingsheng's affair.

Based on the information currently in hand, the line involving Wang Jingsheng was becoming increasingly clear.

From within the Red Star Factory, Liu Xinwen, Liu Hong'e, and possibly others, found ways to get scrap steel out of the factory, then transported it out through Xu Jinshan's West Gate.

Wang Jingsheng, acting as the middleman, moved the scrap steel to Xingtai, forming a secret line.

It was just that Ning Weidong was not sure if this line overlapped with the one involving Li Peihang.

If it did, the situation would be even more complicated.

And as Ning Weidong had seen before, Liu Xinwen had come to find Xu Jinshan aggressively twice at night; it must have been a conflict over an uneven split of the spoils. Ning Weidong still remembered that Xu Jinshan had been vicious at the time, telling Liu Xinwen not to push people too far.

In this way, Liu Xinwen's death seemed even more abrupt.

"Could it be Xu Jinshan?" Ning Weidong thought to himself, but he felt something was not quite right.

The cause of Liu Xinwen's death was a malfunction in the workshop equipment, and the person most likely to tamper with it was Wang Hong, who originally operated the machine.

"Would Xu Jinshan have a connection with Wang Hong?" Ning Weidong pondered, not realizing he had already reached the South Gate of the factory.

"Oh, Officer Ning!" A man in his forties sat by the window of the guard room, his face beaming with smiles as soon as he saw Ning Weidong.

There were no secrets in the factory; it was one thing for Ning Weidong to be seconded from the West Gate to the Investigation Team, but the nature of things changed once his personnel file was transferred.

Previously, those in the Security Division with official status didn't look highly upon someone like Ning Weidong, who had entered under the name of the Factory Protection Team as a Big Collective employee.

Ning Weidong smiled and said: "Brother Wang, don't talk nonsense, when did I become an 'officer'?"

The original owner had almost no impression of this person, only remembering that his surname seemed to be Wang.

The man surnamed Wang didn't mind and said: "Heh~ that's just a matter of time. Don't forget about us once you get to the Office Building."

Ning Weidong gave a sincere-looking perfunctory reply and entered the main gate.

The man surnamed Wang watched Ning Weidong walk away, then turned back into the room: "Hey, Old Wu, weren't you and Ning Weidong on good terms before? Why are you shrinking back now?"

Wu Bingzhong's mouth twitched, and he wanted to blurt out something bad about Ning Weidong, but he swallowed the words back when they reached his lips.

Although he loved to take small advantages, he wasn't stupid.

Now that Ning Weidong's momentum was rising, saying those things would be useless and would only offend people.

Behind his back, people would still call him an idiot.

On the other side, Ning Weidong rushed back to the Office of the Investigation Team.

Everyone was quite gathered; except for the two from the Technical Section, the other three were all there.

"Team Leader!" Ning Weidong called out, half-deliberately roughening his breathing, as if it were a matter of extreme urgency.

Being calm and composed, unruffled by changes, with a heart like thunder and a face like a calm lake—those are things reserved for the leaders.

As for everyone else, at a time like this, if you are slow and leisurely, fantasizing about being a scholar with a feather fan and silk kerchief, and pretending to be cool when you aren't, it only proves one thing: you, you bastard, didn't give your all in handling the matter.

Chu Zhongxin said with a chuckle, "Weidong, it looks like you had a harvest?"

Ning Weidong panted and wheezed, nodding repeatedly.

Chu Zhongxin said, "Don't rush, have a drink of water and tell me slowly."

Ning Weidong caught his breath and said, "Team Leader, your prediction was spot on; Wang Jingsheng really does have a problem!" As he spoke, he glanced at Lu Zhou: "Thanks to Officer Lu, I mainly investigated the relationship between Wang Jingsheng and Liu Hong'e today..."

Hearing Ning Weidong rattle on, Lu Zhou was somewhat surprised that Ning Weidong had even brought him into it.

He had originally thought that Ning Weidong, being a petty person who had achieved success, would surely swallow all the credit, but now he had actually left him a sip of soup.

And this was the proper sense of proportion.

What is meant by "struggle without breaking," and how does one struggle without breaking? To put it plainly, it means if someone eats the meat, the remaining people must also have a sip of soup to drink.

If you eat the meat and then drink the soup too, leaving not even a scrap of grease, people will definitely flip the table and curse your mother.

Even Chu Zhongxin nodded secretly; understanding the rules and having a sense of proportion, he mentally labeled Ning Weidong as "Ning Weiguo's younger brother is someone who can be used."

As for the ability to get things done, having some is better, but it doesn't matter if there isn't any.

In reality, it is very easy to compensate for; just like this time with Zhang Dajun, it only took one phone call to get the matter handled.

What is to be feared is someone who doesn't understand the rules, has no sense of proportion, and yet stubbornly occupies a position.

By this time, Ning Weidong had already explained the situation and finally looked toward Chu Zhongxin.

Chu Zhongxin, who had been relaxed from the start, gradually became serious.

He had not expected that the illicit affair between Wang Jingsheng and Liu Hong'e would actually pull out a shady, under-the-table chain of interests.

This was going to be a bit difficult to handle.

(End of this chapter)