Chapter 83

Zeng Xianglin returned to his seat and checked off the numbers with a pen. Being very familiar with the numbers he often dialed, he quickly marked all the calls he had made and calculated that he was responsible for thirty-two yuan and fifty cents in phone charges.

He took out his wallet, counted out that amount of money, placed it on the stack of call records, and sat there with a straight face.

Zeng Xianglin’s move put Peng Kehong in a difficult position. Wei Bingyi said, "Alright then, I will go and report this matter to the leadership."

Peng Kehong’s face turned somewhat pale. He had never expected the matter to blow up this big. In the end, he was just a young man in his early twenties; although he had some petty cleverness, he could not consider problems very comprehensively.

However, the matter was now out of his control, and he could only watch helplessly as Wei Bingyi got up and went out.

Not to mention how Peng Kehong felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, about ten minutes later, everyone from the township government arrived at the Party and Government Office, which was immediately packed to the brim.

The faces of township leaders like Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu were not very pleasant. Seeing this scene, cold sweat broke out on Peng Kehong’s forehead.

Wei Bingyi had Chen Hongfu sit down. After looking around the room, Chen Hongfu said, "Comrade Bingyi just told me that Peng Kehong proposed an opinion, which is that many people are making private calls on the Party and Government Office phone. He even went to the Post and Telecommunications Bureau to print out the call records to investigate. After hearing this, I think this is a good suggestion, so let’s investigate. What are everyone’s opinions?"

What opinions could everyone have? Things had reached this point; wouldn't anyone who raised an objection be admitting guilt? Thus, everyone agreed to the investigation, but at least a dozen angry glares were cast at Peng Kehong, many of them from leaders like deputy township heads and deputy secretaries.

Damn you, Peng Kehong, are you full and have nothing better to do? Why investigate phone charges? Did I ask you to pay for it?

Chen Hongfu said, "Since everyone agrees, I will be the first to self-examine."

Chen Hongfu walked over, picked up the stack of call records, and flipped through them. He had his own phone, so naturally, he wouldn't make calls on the Party and Government Office phone. After flipping through the whole thing and finding nothing, he handed the records to Dong Jianshu.

However, Chen Hongfu still said to Peng Kehong, "Peng Kehong, go to the Post and Telecommunications Bureau later and print out the call records for my office as well. I want to check how many private calls I’ve made too."

Peng Kehong hurriedly apologized with a smile, "There’s no need to check your phone; the charges aren't much, just a little over a hundred."

Chen Hongfu said with a straight face, "How can that be? We must treat everyone equally. I told you to go print them, so go print them!"

Peng Kehong dared not say anything more and could only nod.

Dong Jianshu checked off over fifty yuan in phone charges and took out the money according to the figure.

Next, Hu Chengli, Jin Taihe, Yang Xinrong, Li Maofa... one by one, they checked off the private calls they had made. The phone charges varied, with Jin Taihe having the most, over a hundred yuan.

Su Xinghui checked off the phone numbers he had dialed, which totaled only twenty-three yuan and eighty cents. He also took out that amount of money and placed it on the desk.

Peng Kehong shouted, "Impossible, it’s impossible for him to have only this little. There must be more he didn't check off. I saw him make several calls one night a few days ago."

Once everyone heard this, they all knew who Peng Kehong was targeting with this stunt today.

Chen Hongfu said, "That doesn't matter. After everyone has finished checking, we can see which phone numbers remain unchecked and investigate those."

Soon, everyone had finished checking. Even Huang Sao had checked off a few phone numbers, but there were still quite a few numbers left unchecked.

Wei Bingyi began to verify: "County government office phone, county committee office phone, County Magistrate Zhang’s office phone, Secretary Ji’s office phone, Agriculture Bureau phone, Forestry Bureau phone..."

Wei Bingyi had worked in the Party and Government Office for many years and knew the phone numbers of all the county government leaders and various county departments like the back of his hand. The phone numbers for each department also had similar prefixes, so he checked them off very quickly, finishing in a dozen minutes. Once this was done, there weren't many phone numbers left.

Wei Bingyi counted, and there were seven call records left unclaimed. This number was very small, which was because, under the watchful eyes of everyone, no one dared to omit the phone numbers they had dialed; otherwise, it would be quite embarrassing if exposed.

These seven call records were all for the same phone number, a phone number in the county seat. Added together, the phone charges weren't much, less than ten yuan, so even if Su Xinghui had made them, it wouldn't be a big deal.

As soon as Wei Bingyi announced this phone number, Yang Xinrong slapped his thigh and said, "I made these calls. This is the number for a classmate’s house; I remembered it wrong."

That was that; all the call records had owners, and everyone had paid their money. Wei Bingyi counted the money, which totaled over nine hundred yuan. The leaders’ payments made up the bulk of it; after all, they had wider social connections, and it was understandable that they made more calls.

Looking at the angry gazes of the leaders, Peng Kehong’s face turned ashen. He knew that, at least in Menghuling Township, he would never have a chance to get ahead.

He didn't understand; he had originally been targeting Su Xinghui today, so how did things evolve to this point?

Chen Hongfu didn't forget to add one more sentence: "Peng Kehong, remember to print out the call records for my phone this afternoon."

Peng Kehong didn't say a word. Wei Bingyi said, "Secretary Chen, Township Head Dong, how should the issue of making private calls be resolved in the future?"

Chen Hongfu also had a headache. In fact, in a government agency, staff making private calls was something everyone tacitly understood. This couldn't be blamed too harshly; in this era, making calls was very inconvenient, and phone charges were expensive, so making calls at the unit was considered a benefit. Every unit was like this.

The problem was that this was just an unwritten rule. The reason an unwritten rule is called an unwritten rule is that it cannot be made public. Now that Peng Kehong had made it public, the township government could no longer play dumb and had to introduce a measure to solve this problem.

After thinking for a while, Chen Hongfu said to Peng Kehong, "Peng Kehong, you pointed out this problem, so why don't you come up with an idea on how to solve it."