Chapter 1851
Chapter 1851
"Ah."
"What is this?"
"What's going on?"
"Why is the courtyard gone?"
"What the hell, the wall is gone too?"
Everyone was shocked, standing outside the new county committee courtyard, all dumbfounded, peering inside, looking around, wide-eyed and speechless. There was no way to explain it. This was a scene no one had expected. They never imagined they would see something like this.
It was gone.
The new county committee courtyard was gone.
How could this be? It was still here yesterday.
Many people knew about this, especially since many leaders had been here the morning before to arrange things. After all, they were moving the next day and had to set everything up in advance, assign departments to different offices, etc. Some department leaders had even fought over who would get the better offices with better light, and after much arguing, they finally reached a preliminary agreement. This was all from yesterday—how could anyone forget? Some departments had even put up their signs with labels like "Disciplinary Inspection Commission" and "Propaganda Department." But now, today, everything was gone—gone without a trace. No doors, no walls, no houses, no gardens.
In the blink of an eye, it had disappeared.
How could this be?
Now, the new county committee courtyard was empty. The little garden that had been there was even cleared, leaving only a patch of bumpy, uneven ground with scattered stones and dust. There wasn’t even a large stone left.
Had they encountered ghosts?
What was going on?
How could a magnificent courtyard disappear overnight?
At this moment, everyone was in a state of shock or disbelief. The atmosphere turned eerily quiet as a pin could drop, and you would hear it.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Dong Xuebing glanced at them, then turned to the provincial investigation team as if to add insult to injury and said, “Director Cheng, colleagues from the investigation team, this is the place you wanted to investigate, right? Well, now you’ve seen it. If you want to investigate, go ahead. I’ll take you in and show you around. Don’t worry. Our county will cooperate fully."
Cooperate?
What the hell are we supposed to investigate?
Everything’s gone!
Cheng Wei was furious, immediately taking out several photos provided by online sources and handing them to the investigation team members. "Take a look. Is this the place?" He was worried that Dong Xuebing might pull a fast one and take them to a different location.
The investigation team members took the photos and carefully compared them.
They compared the details of the interior and surrounding environment.
The final confirmation was that the place in the photos was this very location.
"Director Cheng, there's no mistake. This is the place," a female investigator inhaled sharply and said, "The surrounding buildings are the same. But why is the courtyard—" ʀＡꞐộВƐȿ
Cheng Wei immediately thought of a possible explanation and locked eyes with Dong Xuebing. "So this is how you’re doing it, Jiaolin County. Great job."
Dong Xuebing was surprised. "What do you mean by that?"
Cheng Wei said, "I wondered why you led us around in circles."
"Director Cheng, I don’t understand what you’re talking about," Dong Xuebing responded.
"You're stalling for time, aren’t you? You took advantage of us not being here to tear down the new county committee courtyard, didn’t you, Secretary Dong?" Cheng Wei was furious.
Hearing this, Zhang Dongfang and Meng Hanmei didn’t say a word. Maybe they had already thought of the same possibility.
But Dong Xuebing just scoffed, even laughing out loud. He looked at Cheng Wei with great interest and said, "Director Cheng, I understand you've been working in the Disciplinary Committee, so I won’t blame you for not knowing the situation. But as a citizen, at the very least, I think you should have some basic common sense, right? The investigation team has only been here for a few hours, maybe just one hour. Fine, let’s not talk about when everyone arrived—let's start from when the provincial TV station news reported it. It's only been two hours, maybe a bit more. Let’s take a step back. Even if we consider when the information was posted online, it’s only been a little over three hours. Director Cheng, I'll give you three hours. If you can tear down the county committee courtyard in that time and remove the rubble, I’ll bow to you.”
Dong Xuebing was trying to embarrass them.
The others weren’t completely clear about the situation, so they weren’t sure what to believe.
However, a professional was among the provincial investigation team. That person stepped forward and said, "Director Cheng, let me take a look."
Cheng Wei nodded, "Go ahead, take a look."
The young man, who appeared to be from the construction department, crouched down to inspect the traces of the demolished walls and then looked at the remaining bits of the buildings inside. After a moment, he concluded and said to Cheng Wei, "Director Cheng, although I can't be too precise, based on the buildings in the photos, to completely demolish these walls, gardens, and houses, and also transport the waste away, even with all the equipment and manpower available, it would be impossible to complete in just three or four hours. Not to mention three or four hours—at the very least, demolition would have to start last night and continue through the night without stopping. Only then would there be a slight chance of finishing. Otherwise, there’s no way the time would be enough."
Cheng Wei was stunned. "Are you sure?"
The young man was certain. "I’m sure. This is what I do. There's no mistake. Although this kind of demolition doesn’t require blasting like a multi-story building, it is still quite complicated. It’s not just about using bulldozers to push everything down. It requires a lot of time. I can’t be sure it will take over ten hours, but I can tell you that it will be impossible to finish in three or four hours. Even a professional construction team from the province couldn’t do it. At the very least, the demolition would have had to start last night and continue nonstop."
His conclusion was naturally trustworthy since he was a professional from the province and had no bias towards Jiaolin County.
Everyone who heard this was left stunned.
If that’s the case, demolishing the new county committee courtyard must have started last night.
How could that be? Last night, there hadn’t been any reports on the website yet. There was no news from the provincial TV station either, and no one from the investigation team had arrived to conduct any investigations. Did Secretary Dong give the order to demolish it? But how could he have known that such a big deal would happen the next day? How could he have anticipated this situation and ordered the demolition in advance? The post on the website—was it him who posted it? That’s even more impossible. Did Secretary Dong have nothing better to do and stir things up for no reason, creating trouble for himself and even leaking information about it?