Chapter 774

At seven in the evening, in the largest private room "Peony Hall" of Wuzhou Hotel, crystal lights glittered, cold dishes were exquisite, and the seat of honor remained empty.

Wang Qigang stood in the hallway outside the private room, his complexion gloomy under the lights.

He had just hung up the phone, and the voice coming from the receiver was most unpleasant—Lin Dongfan's polite yet firm refusal seemed still to echo in his ears.

The original words were as follows:

"Secretary Wang, let's skip the welcome banquet; the city's finances aren't exactly abundant, so we won't bother with these formalities. I appreciate your kind intentions, and I'll report on my work another day."

He spoke beautifully, flawlessly, which amounted to a soft slap in the face to Wang Qigang himself.

The welcome banquet that Wang Qigang himself had arranged, with the main officials of the Municipal Party Committee Office and the Municipal Government Office accompanying him, was of sufficiently high rank—but this newly arrived Mayor Lin didn't even show his face.

"Secretary, Mayor Lin..."

Li Bin, the director of the Municipal Party Committee Office standing beside him, asked cautiously.

Li Bin was the same Li section chief who had probed Lin Dongfan three years earlier. Over these three years, Li Bin had risen rapidly alongside Wang Qigang, transferring from the Municipal Government Office to the Municipal Party Committee Office.

Those who knew him well knew that Li Bin was Wang Qigang's right-hand man.

"This Lin, relying on his family's backing, refuses to give face." Wang Qigang said, smiling angrily: "He claims he just wants to familiarize himself with the situation, which is fine—young people having their own ideas is perfectly normal."

He turned and walked back into the private room.

He then smiled at those waiting inside and said, "Mayor Lin is weary from his journey; let him rest today. We'll eat ourselves, treating it as a warm‑up for him."

The private room filled with agreeing laughter, yet everyone felt a tension in their hearts.

On his first day in office, the new mayor gave the secretary a soft nail—Wuzhou might be about to change! Everyone present secretly sighed.

At the same time.

Two streets away from Wuzhou Hotel, inside the greasy‑smeared, dimly lit "Old Zhou Homestyle Restaurant," the scene was quite different.

The innermost small private room had its door closed.

On the table lay several home‑style dishes: braised pork, sour cabbage fish, stir‑fried seasonal vegetables, and peanuts. Two bottles of locally produced "Wuzhou Hua Diao" had already been emptied one.

Yang Qing tore off a chicken leg and bit into it hard.

He muttered indistinctly: "Damn, pretending to be an amnesia patient for three years, I'm about to lose the taste of bird eggs in my mouth! The hospital food—even dogs wouldn't eat it!"

Yang Qing looked a bit thinner than three years ago, but his eyes were sharp as a thief's, bearing no resemblance to a "seriously injured amnesia" patient.

To keep up the act.

As early as three years ago he had already "temporarily suspended" his post, a voluntary leave he applied for, citing "unsuitable health condition for continued work, needing treatment," which was reasonable.

But in fact, he hadn't been idle these three years; he had been secretly investigating the major case at hand.

Unfortunately, the opponent was too cunning.

He still couldn't close the net.

Lin Dongfan poured him a cup of wine and said with a smile, "Deputy Director Yang, mind your image. You're still a 'patient with deficient memory needing long‑term rehabilitation.'"

"Damn deputy director, suspended for three years."

Yang Qing gulped down a drink, exhaled contentedly, and said, "Actually, it's not bad—being suspended makes things easier. I'm now an unemployed drifter; I can go wherever I want to investigate, and no one can stop me."

He leaned in, lowered his voice: "Guess how much I've uncovered while 'lying low' these three years? The Zhao Group in Wuzhou isn't just about that petty forced demolition—there's gang involvement, money laundering, bid rigging, and…" He dipped his chopsticks in wine, wrote a "Wang" character on the table, and drew a circle around it.

Lin Dongfan's eyes narrowed slightly.

Yang Qing wiped away the marks, then kept gnawing the chicken leg: "But you've really made a big splash today. As soon as you arrived you lifted the lid on the demolition issue, and in front of so many people you made Mayor Wang lose face. Old Wang may smile on the surface, but his heart is smaller than a needle's eye. What you've done is like kicking over his family's incense burner the moment you walked in the door."

"Only by kicking over the incense burner can you see what deity is being enshrined inside." Lin Dongfan said lightly: "If I didn't give that kick, they'd think the new mayor is easy to push around and would only press harder later. Today's uproar will at least make some people restrain themselves, and it gives ordinary folks like Liu Guizhi a bit of hope."

"Hope?"

Yang Qing gave a wry smile: "The waters of Wuzhou run deep. You protected Liu Guizhi today, but what about tomorrow? That bastard Zhao Tianyu uses dirty tactics. I suspect Liu Jianjun's asthma attack wasn't that simple…"

The two exchanged a glance, each seeing gravity in the other's eyes.

"Right…"

Yang Qing changed the subject.

He winked and joked: "How's your sweet‑and‑simple wife? Didn't she come with you? To be honest, I really miss my sister‑in‑law! Back then she helped you act out a ruse to fool Xu Lili—her performance deserved full marks."

"Lingxi is tidying up the house; she'll see you in a couple of days once she's settled."

Lin Dongfan also smiled: "She's become quite impressive—she's been specially appointed as a dance instructor by the College of Arts at Jianglan Daxue, starting work next month. She's now an independent woman who doesn't rely on me for support."

"Awesome!"

Yang Qing gave a thumbs‑up: "But you'd better watch out—Zhao Tianyu that brat bears you a deep grudge and might yet try something crooked through your sister‑in‑law."

"I know." Lin Dongfan's eyes turned cold for a moment: "Xie Xiaofeng has arranged a dedicated bodyguard, and Lingxi herself has grown sharper—she's not as easy to fool as before."

"Then that's good."

Yang Qing raised his wine glass: "Come, let's have one! Celebrate your arrival as Mayor Lin parachuting into Wuzhou, and also celebrate my honorary suspension as Detective Yang! We two—one in the light, one in the dark—damn it all!"

"Clink."

The glasses clinked, and the two middle‑aged men drained them in one gulp, their eyes shining.

It was the long‑absent light of idealists.

Meanwhile.

The banquet at Wuzhou Hotel eventually broke up in a hurry.

Wang Qigang returned to the Municipal Party Committee Office, his face finally sinking.

Li Bin followed him in and gently closed the door.

"What do you think?" Wang Qigang asked abruptly.

Li Bin knew the secretary was asking about Lin Dongfan.

He chose his words carefully: "Mayor Lin…… might genuinely want to go deep into the grassroots to understand the situation. After all, being new here, a bit of caution is only natural."

"Cautious?"

Wang Qigang gave a cold snort, walked to the window, and looked down at the flowing traffic.

Again, a smile tinged with anger:

"He simply doesn't put this secretary of mine in his eyes! He didn't come to the welcoming banquet, went off to do a covert investigation, and caused such a big commotion."

An on-site office meeting? Hmph!

Saying it with righteous words on the surface— isn't it just wanting to seize the opportunity to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, establish authority? They're playing the old trick of a new official's three blazing fires upon taking office.

The Liu Guizhi family— no trouble early or late, but just as Lin Dongfan arrived on his first day, they ran into each other, and it just happened to let him play the hero saving the beauty?

How could there be such a coincidence in the world!

This complaint made Li Bin's heart strings tighten; he simply dared not respond. The new Mayor doesn't heed the secretary's orders, the secretary is fuming inside— this is the rhythm of 'one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers' ah!

"He actually puts on an aloof and upright attitude, refusing the banquet!"

In a light chuckle, Wang Qigang turned around, his gaze also turning a bit gloomier: "He's using my face to put gold on his own! Now the whole city up and down is probably spreading that the newly arrived Lin Mayor is pragmatic and clean, opposing extravagance and waste! So what have I, Wang Qigang, become? A bureaucrat obsessed with formalities?! "