Chapter 1797:

Chapter 1797: Chapter 1797:

What Song Guanchao wanted to say, Wu Qiangwei already knew; he was just deliberately looking for an excuse, trying to cling on and not leave.

But Wu Qiangwei was worried that if he stayed in her room too long, someone would notice; no matter how he acted spoiled, it wouldn’t do.

Song Guanchao could only return to his own room with a helpless look.

At two in the afternoon, after their lunch break, the group gathered in the guesthouse lobby.

Cao Xiaolou had arranged the vehicles early and was waiting there.

Besides him, Office Director Zhao Kang from the county government and Director Wang from the county education bureau had also been called over.

"Mayor Wu, this is the list of all the primary and secondary schools in the county seat. Please take a look." Cao Xiaolou handed over a list.

Wu Qiangwei knew perfectly well that he must have done his homework; even if she went there herself, she wouldn’t be able to find anything.

She nodded and casually pointed at a school; Cao Xiaolou immediately instructed the driver to head there.

Gaoshui County wasn’t large; they reached the school within half an hour.

The principal had received notice in advance and was waiting at the school.

Seeing the car arrive, he trotted over eagerly.

"County Magistrate Cao, Director Bai." The principal was about fifty, his brows and eyes full of humble obsequiousness.

County Magistrate Cao nodded with a grunt and stood to the side without speaking.

Director Bai introduced, "Mayor Wu, let me introduce you. This is Principal Yang of the Experimental School. Principal Yang, this is Mayor Wu of Jiangzhou City."

"Hello, Mayor Wu." Principal Yang bent his back slightly, wanting to reach out and shake hands with this lady mayor whose beauty made him hardly dare to look straight at her, yet feeling it might be inappropriate; he shrank back timidly, suddenly not knowing how to handle it.

Wu Qiangwei took the initiative to extend her hand: "Principal Yang, are your teachers busy right now?"

Principal Yang, flattered, drew his hand back and said, "Aside from those teaching, there are a dozen or so preparing lessons in the office."

Wu Qiangwei said, "Please ask them to come over. I have a few questions for them."

"All right, Mayor Wu, this way please. Let’s go to the office first; I’ll have them come over."

Principal Yang had received a call in advance and knew why Mayor Wu was coming to the school.

To be honest, the city leadership taking the initiative to pay attention to the issue of wage arrears surprised him.

It was a very rare opportunity to report the situation.

But he didn’t dare.

After entering the office, he first served tea to the leaders, then called the teachers who weren’t in class and asked them to come over.

These teachers had also been notified.

Calling it a notice was actually a warning.

If Mayor Wu asked about the wage arrears, they were absolutely not allowed to talk nonsense.

A dozen teachers came into the office one after another.

Principal Yang introduced them one by one, and Wu Qiangwei immediately noticed how nervous they were; their gaze would now and then dart toward County Magistrate Cao and Director Bai, obviously wary of something.

Wu Qiangwei asked in a procedural tone, "Principal Yang, I’ve heard the school has been in arrears on teachers’ wages for several months. Is that true?"

As soon as she asked, the teachers reflexively looked toward Director Bai, then hurriedly retracted their gaze.

Principal Yang gave a slight laugh and said, "That was in the past, and it wasn’t wage arrears, it was transfer payments. Later, once the county’s finances eased up, it stopped being an issue."

Sitting in the back, Song Guanchao kept his eyes on the teachers; when Principal Yang said this, he clearly saw some of them lightly bite their lips, and a faint sneer flicker in their eyes.

It was obvious they did not agree with what Principal Yang had just said.

Wu Qiangwei gave an "Oh," and said, "If there are no arrears, that’s good."

They chatted a bit more about this and that, and only then did Wu Qiangwei get up to leave.

In the course of one afternoon, they visited five primary and middle schools. On the matter of wage arrears for teachers, which was Wu Qiangwei’s particular concern, the answers they received were all that the problem had already been resolved.

Coming out of the last middle school at dusk, Cao Xiaolou said, "Mayor, shall we end today’s inspection here and continue tomorrow?"

Wu Qiangwei checked the time and said, "Let’s stop here. Tomorrow you can make arrangements for me to take a look at the county’s industrial zone."

"Okay." Cao Xiaolou secretly let out a breath.

But he then heard Wu Qiangwei say, "Wage arrears must not happen again in future. This time I won’t hold you accountable, but if there’s a next time, you’re out of class."

Cao Xiaolou’s heart jolted; he hurriedly promised, "Rest assured, Mayor, there absolutely won’t be a next time!"

Then he shifted the topic: "Mayor, let’s go have dinner."

"Mm." From her attitude, he felt as if the matter had been put to bed, that the city leadership had only come down to go through the motions.

For dinner that night, Cao Xiaolou slightly raised the standards, but didn’t dare make it too extravagant.

At the banquet, Cao Xiaolou had wanted to drink a little, but since Wu Qiangwei didn’t drink, he used tea instead of wine.

After dinner, it was just past eight.

Back at the guesthouse and washed up, Song Guanchao called Mayor Zhu and the others, asking them to come to Wu Qiangwei’s room for a meeting.

"Knock knock."

The few of them came knocking one after another; Song Guanchao had arrived first and opened the door.

"Mayor Zhu." Song Guanchao ushered her in.

She could now barely be counted as one of Wu Qiangwei’s people, and on this trip to Gaoshui County, Song Guanchao had decided to pull her completely into Wu Qiangwei’s camp.

If you want to pull someone into your camp, the simplest way is to plot something together.

For example, take down Cao Xiaolou.

Cao Xiaolou was one of Zhou Zheng’s people. Bringing him down would mean offending Zhou Zheng.

Once she offended Zhou Zheng, Zhu Shixian could kiss neutrality goodbye; she would have to, and could only, stand by Wu Qiangwei’s side.

Once everyone had arrived, Song Guanchao suddenly switched off the light in the room.

Under the puzzled looks of Zhu Shixian and the others, he carefully surveyed everything in the room, checking the walls, checking the set-top box...

More than ten minutes later, he finally turned the light back on.

Facing their curious gazes, Song Guanchao said, "There’s no surveillance in the room, Mayor, we can start the meeting."

Surveillance?

Han Lan and Zhu Shixian were both taken aback.

Why would he suspect there might be surveillance in the guesthouse?

Zhu Shixian had originally thought that when Wu Qiangwei asked her to come for a meeting, it was to sum up the day’s work and make arrangements for the next day’s inspection.

But from the looks of it now, that didn’t seem to be the case.

She keenly realized that what Wu Qiangwei was about to discuss would be extremely sensitive.

Wu Qiangwei said, "Some time ago, Director Song received a whistleblower report. Director Song, you tell it."

"Okay." Picking up the thread, Song Guanchao recounted to them Yang Ling’s report to him.

Zhou Xingjian had long known about it, but this was the first time Han Lan and Zhu Shixian were hearing it.

After he finished, the two of them suddenly realized that the issue of wage arrears in Gaoshui County was completely at odds with what they had seen during the day’s inspection.

Zhu Shixian’s brows twitched slightly; looking at Song Guanchao, her gaze sank a fraction.

She knew she’d been dragged onto a pirate ship.

But it was too late to realize that now.

What could she do? She couldn’t very well stand up at this moment and say she didn’t want to be involved.

Sensing her inner turmoil, Wu Qiangwei turned her eyes to her and asked, "Mayor Zhu, do you have any suggestions?"

There was a trace of irritation in Zhu Shixian’s heart; she had never wanted to be part of the leaders’ power struggle, not from the very beginning.

But she also understood that this was just her own wishful thinking.

If she were an ordinary person, of course she could stay out of it.

But she was a vice mayor.

In that position, it was inevitable.

Her chest rose and fell lightly, but her expression remained calm as she said, "If the report is true, then County Magistrate Cao has deceived his superiors and concealed the truth; he must be dealt with sternly."

"However..." She shifted her tone. "If County Magistrate Cao’s original intent was to pay civil servants’ salaries, if his actions were for the sake of stability, then the punishment should probably not be too heavy."

The implied meaning was that wage arrears alone would not greatly affect Cao Xiaolou’s position.

Song Guanchao gave a slight smile. "This isn’t called transfer payments; this is called misappropriation of state assets. And what he misappropriated was a special subsidy fund allocated by the Ministry of Education."