Chapter 8: On Stage, Who is the Protagonist?

  Hao Baishan looked at Lu Zhong again.

  Liu Pingnan, the secretary, is a man of Yu Gong, the director. Wang Baogang and Liu Pingnan are very close, and it can be said that he is also an official in Director Yu's circle. It is heard that this new county magistrate was once a big red man in front of Director Yu.

  Now that Yu Gong Director and Ping Nan Secretary have fallen, these ties no longer exist.

  However, it is heard that the new county magistrate Lu Zhong's style of doing things is quite unconventional. Wei Guo Secretary even judged that this new county magistrate would mostly speak out to defend Wang Baogang. Lu Zhong has a nickname "杠头" (literally "rod head"), never playing cards according to common sense. In the words of Wei Guo Secretary, "When he came to Qinglong, he must have made some noise."

  The Secretary of the National Defense Commission seems to attach great importance to Lu Zhong, and has already given many cadres a hint, implying that they are preparing to give Lu Zhong a warning at this Standing Committee meeting.

  Today's Standing Committee meeting appears to be a criticism of Wang Baogang, but in reality it is a struggle against the newly appointed county magistrate that has been building up.

  Lu Zhong, will you really dare to challenge the authority of the Secretary of Defense?

  Hao Baishan was pondering, when he suddenly saw Lu Zhong extinguishing the cigarette butt in his hand. Hao Baishan's heart tightened involuntarily, is it coming now?

  Out of the corner of his eye, Hao Baishan caught a glimpse of it, and Secretary Wei's eyelids seemed to jump, and the movement of rotating that large white ceramic teapot also suddenly slowed down.

  Hao Baishan tensely stared at Lu Zhong's every move, softly sighing in his heart. This new county head was after all too young, probably far from being a match for Secretary Wei Guo.

  But then Lu Zhong pulled out a notebook from his upper shirt pocket, and Hao Baishan was stunned, had he also come prepared?

  Then, Lu Zhēng opened his notebook and placed it on the table, picked up a pen and slowly wrote something in it.

  Hao Baishan was stunned, and then, until Secretary Ma Weiguo stopped a cadre who was getting more and more agitated in his speech, Lu Zhong just sat there quietly, as if today's meeting had nothing to do with him at all.

  Ma Weiguo put down his teacup and said solemnly, "As for responsibility, we all have a responsibility. It's unfair to single out a certain comrade or department as responsible. Comrades, we summarize the past, but also look towards the future. Today's meeting, everyone has spoken well, very thoroughly, but don't wear hats, that's the bad atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution, it's not good..."

  Hao Baishan let out a long sigh of relief. The Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee finally began to ease the tension in the meeting, and it seemed that the criticism session against Wang Baogang was about to come to an end.

  He looked at Lu Zhong in surprise again, how could this be? Didn't he completely contradict Secretary Wei's judgment? Wasn't he the one who had pounded his fist on the table and told the Discipline Inspection Secretary to get out during a meeting of the Guangning County Committee? How did he suddenly become so quiet and unobtrusive?

  "Alright, let's move on to the next topic. Let's talk about the project of our Qinglong Golf Course." A faint smile appeared on Ma Weiguo's face.

  "This golf course, comrades should all be very clear, is related to the future of Qinglong. We Qinglong have always been lagging behind in infrastructure construction, with imperfect transportation conditions, and development has been greatly restricted. These situations will be greatly improved with the settlement of the fourth national golf course in Qinglong."

  "Comrades, this project from application to completion, from the start of road construction to the completion of the golf course, may take one or two years, or even three or four years. Perhaps by the time it is completed, I will no longer be in Qinglong, and I won't see the day when it blooms and bears fruit. But I believe that with the introduction of the first foreign investment, and with the clear positioning of leisure tourism development, our Qinglong will inevitably gradually shed its poor appearance, take advantage of the spring breeze of reform, and embark on the path of prosperity and self-strengthening, making contributions to achieving the great goal of four modernizations!"

  "As a well-digger, I hope to lay a good foundation for those who come after us. Our cadres should have a long-term vision. If they only focus on the present and just see a small piece of sky in front of them, only seeking achievements for themselves, it's easy to fall into the strange circle of 'officials leave, policies change'."

  "I hope that the development of Qinglong will be sustainable and continuous! I also hope that in ten or twenty years, when we come back to Qinglong, we can see a prosperous and modernized town!"

  "Wow", in the conference room, a warm applause erupted.

  Ma Weiguo slightly raised his hand to signal, and when the applause gradually subsided, he continued: "Some comrades do not understand our project of building a golf course and think it is too advanced!"

  In the venue, there was suddenly a dead silence, and many cadres knew who Secretary Wei Guo was referring to.

  "But can we just sleep and let the Qinglong develop on its own? That's impossible! This is too advanced, that is too advanced, I'd like to ask, what isn't advanced? From the central government to the provincial and municipal committees, they all require us to emancipate our minds, so why are some cadres still holding onto outdated ideas? To put it bluntly, they're stubborn and unenlightened! That's why I always say that times have changed, our cadres need to learn more cultural knowledge, broaden their horizons, or else they'll be eliminated by this era!"

  Some cadres looked over at Lu Zhong, who closed his notebook, slowly picked up his teacup and took a sip of water.

  Ma Weiguo waved his arm, just about to continue speaking, when the office door was lightly knocked on, and a young cadre hastily ran in, came to Ma Weiguo's side, and whispered a few words in his ear.

  Ma Weiguo smiled slightly, stood up, "Comrades, Secretary Zhongyuan's phone call, everyone take a rest first, we'll continue later." After finishing speaking, he walked out with his usual steady and calm pace, apparently, the city secretary's personal phone call didn't make him feel any sense of urgency.

  Then everyone began their long wait, five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour, but there was no sign of Ma Weiguo returning.

  In the venue, the buzzing sound gradually grew louder, and some familiar and relatively close cadres whispered to each other, discussing something.

  Two rows of rectangular conference tables, Lu Zhong sat opposite, was the Deputy Secretary and Chairman of the CPPCC Qu Xuanxu, below Qu Xuanxu, diagonally opposite Lu Zhong sat Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission Wang Baogang, below Lu Zhong, sat County Committee Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Politics and Law Committee Qin Jiahao.

  Lu Zhong pulled out a cigarette from the pack and suddenly threw it at Wang Baogang who was sitting diagonally across from him.

  The cadres in the venue all saw clearly, and the murmurs suddenly subsided.

  It was unclear whether it was due to the crowded venue or the overheated air conditioning, but Wang Baogang was drenched in sweat from head to toe. His hair was stuck together in strands as he used a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat on his face and neck. Seeing the cigarette that Lu Zheng had tossed onto the table in front of him, he looked up at Lu Zheng, nodded slightly, picked up the cigarette, and lit it slowly.

  At this time, the little secretary who had just informed Ma Weiguo to answer the phone hurried in again. This time, he came to the side of CPPCC Chairman Qu Xianggui and whispered a few words in his ear.

  The secretary's face showed a look of surprise, and then he cleared his throat and said: "Comrades, Secretary Wei Guo has an urgent matter to report to the city and province, so today's Standing Committee meeting is adjourned."

  The meeting room suddenly burst into a murmur, but Qu Xuan had already stood up and hastily left.

  Many cadres are confused, especially the party and government leaders of several towns (communes) involved in the stadium land acquisition, who are discussing it. Some people asked familiar standing committee members such as Qin Jia Hao, Hao Bai Shan, and Wang Zhen Sheng what was going on. Isn't this supposed to be a mobilization meeting for the discussion of the stadium project? Why did the meeting end without any discussion? What's more important than the Standing Committee meeting?

  In this noisy scene, Lu Zhong stood up and slowly left the meeting room.

  ……

  Half an hour later, a green jeep and a van drove out of the county party committee compound. By this time, the news had spread like wildfire. Secretary Zhongyuan of the municipal party committee personally called to stop the Qinglong Golf Course project. Secretary Zhongyuan also disagreed with the requisition of a large amount of civilian land in Qinglong, a poor county, to build what was touted as the country's fourth golf club. He demanded that the Qinglong County Party Committee carefully consider this project.

  Just as the two cars that had just driven out of the county party committee compound, were Wei Guo Secretary, Deputy County Magistrate Tan Wusi, Propaganda Department Head Wang Zhen Sheng and some heads of relevant departments. They will go to the city and provincial capital to lobby, hoping to get support from the provincial and municipal leaders at both levels, only then will the stadium project have a chance to be listed in the national planning commission.

  It's no wonder that Secretary Wei Guo didn't show up, he was in the middle of a big talk about the importance of building a golf course in Qinglong County, talking about his selfless and grand governance ideals, even hinting that the new county magistrate who held different opinions on the construction of the golf course should read more books and improve their cultural cultivation. Then, Secretary Duan Zhongyuan from the municipal party committee personally called to stop the project's preparation work. How could Secretary Wei Guo enter the meeting room and announce that the project might be aborted due to lack of support from the main leaders in the city? How could he suddenly turn around and announce that the topic was being put on hold?

  This is simply being slapped in the face for no reason at all.

  Because many non-voting delegates attended this Standing Committee meeting, news spread quickly.

  In the county magistrate's office on the west side of the five-story county committee, Lu Zhong slowly and carefully watered the green tiger skin banana, sighing: "What a pity, it can only bloom once a year. Old Wang, you don't have good luck, this little thing blooms, it's really beautiful."

  On the sofa sat Wang Nihang, a member of the county government party group and deputy county head who had just attended this standing committee meeting, and chairman of the county general trade union.

  Wang Nihong is nearly fifty years old, all the way from the grassroots, has been a commune secretary for thirteen years, with a strong rural earthy smell, wearing a white Lenin suit with black velvet patches on his elbows, looking extremely eye-catching.

  Wang Nihong smiled and asked with concern, "Do you think that building a golf course can really be stopped? Secretary Wei has high hopes for it and has invested a lot of effort. I don't think he will give up easily. Besides, I heard that some leaders in the province are quite supportive of this project. Secretary Zhongyuan just asked him to consider carefully."

  Lu Zhong slowly put down the spray bottle in his hand, turned around and looked at Wang Nihang, saying: "Things are hard to predict, but they are also up to people. Whether he repairs or not, we don't need to pay attention to it. What's important is that your work on repairing the road shouldn't stop, and the assessment report should come out as soon as possible. I want to see a specific plan."

  Wang Ni-han nodded: "Good."