Chapter Nineteenth: Chen Yi's Appeal

  Qiu Shunming gradually calmed down after a moment of stunned silence, rubbing the tempered glass teacup with his hand, and asked Lin Nan in a low voice: "Director Lin, you came from the provincial bureau last year, so you should have heard something about Xia Chuchu's case. At that time, did anyone at the provincial bureau mention anything about Chuchu and Ye Ming?"

  Lin Nan shook his head and said, "No, I've never heard of it before. Just now, I was also wondering: if what Chu Chu said is true, Ye Ming has been in contact with her for a long time and has visited her home many times, someone should know about it! At least, Director Wang from the provincial bureau office should know, because he often runs to Director Xia's house and is familiar with Chu Chu. If she found a boyfriend among the system cadres, Director Wang should have known about it early on and would definitely spread it around the province."

  Qiu Shunming nodded thoughtfully and said, "Let's go in first and take it one step at a time!"

  Xia Chuchu saw them whispering outside and knew they were judging the relationship between her and Ye Ming, so she couldn't help but secretly laugh. When she saw them come in, she said with a teasing tone: "Director Qiu, looking at your attitude, if I want to visit Ye Ming, will you have to hold an emergency party meeting to discuss it before making a decision? Can you just give me a straight answer, don't make things difficult for yourselves."

  Qiu Shunming smiled a little awkwardly and said, "Chu Chu, to be honest, Ye Ming is currently under double regulation. Before his problems are cleared up, no one is allowed to visit him. However, for you, Chu Chu, we can make an exception this once. How about this: let's go eat first. After dinner, I and Director Lin will personally accompany you to the Baozhu County Bureau, where Ye Ming is currently under isolated investigation."

  Xia Chuchu shook her head and said, "I don't want to eat now, I just want to see Ye Ming as soon as possible. Director Qiu, you all go ahead with your work, just arrange for a cadre from the interrogation room to take me to where Ye Ming is being held."

  "How can that be? Chu Chu, you've finally come to K City, we should at least show some hospitality!"

  Qiu Shunming has been worried about gradually losing the trust of Provincial Bureau Director Xia - friends from the Provincial Bureau said that the Provincial Party Group, especially Director Xia, are very dissatisfied with the current ranking of K City Local Taxation Bureau in various provincial rankings, and have already had the intention to reorganize the municipal bureau leadership.

  So, when Qiu Shunming heard that Xia Chuchu had suddenly arrived at the K City Tax Bureau, he was overjoyed and felt that his chance to turn around the unfavorable situation had come: Xia Chuchu was Director Xia's only beloved daughter. As long as he treated her well and left a good impression on her mind, she would put in a few good words for him with her father, and perhaps Director Xia would change his opinion of him, allowing him to hold onto his position as the top leader for a few more years...

  So he would rather give up the opportunity to have lunch with the mayor and rush back to receive Xia Chuchu, but did not expect that she was originally here for Ye Ming's affairs...

  However, he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, wanting to further improve his relationship with Director Xia through getting closer to Xia Chuchu. So, he insisted on accompanying Xia Chuchu to dinner personally.

  Xia Chuchu, however, did not accept his feelings and pouted her pretty mouth, stubbornly saying: "Director Qiu, if you want to be a good host, then come with me to the Baozhu County Tax Bureau now. After I visit Ye Ming, we can eat!"

  Qiu Shunming and Lin Nan looked at each other, both of them could only smile wryly: running into such a stubborn and willful superior's daughter was really helpless, they had no choice but to follow her demands...

  Then, the scene appeared in front of K City Local Taxation Bureau office building: a beautiful girl wearing sunglasses walked ahead, while the head of the bureau and several other party members followed closely behind her, all with humble smiles on their faces. Many cadres and employees who were about to get off work were amazed: Who is this girl? How can she be so impressive? Even when leaders from the State Taxation Administration came for inspection and guidance, it didn't seem as grand as today...

  When Xia Chuchu and his party arrived at the first floor hall by elevator, a young woman who seemed to have been waiting in the hall suddenly came over, blocked the way of Qiu Director and others, and said calmly: "Director Qiu, hello! I am Chen Yi from the office of Xinleng County Bureau. Today, I came to the municipal bureau specifically to report to you about my colleague Ye Ming being wrongly double-regulated. Fortunately, Director Lin, Director Wang and other leaders are all here. I won't delay the leaders for too long, but just want to ask you to take a look at this material in my hand."

  As he spoke, he handed a printed copy of the material to Qiu Shunming, who was slightly caught off guard.

  Lin Nan looked at Xia Chuchu, who was walking in front of him with a worried expression, and suddenly shouted at Chen Yi: "Chen Yi, what do you want to do? You've been coming to the municipal office every day for several days to plead for Ye Ming. Don't you need to go to work? I told you yesterday that the organization will handle Ye Ming's case fairly. We won't wrong a good person, nor will we let off a bad one. What kind of behavior is this, repeatedly coming to the municipal office to make trouble?"

  Chen Yi looked straight at Lin Nan, her eyes showing no fear, and said in a calm and gentle voice: "Director Lin, I've been on leave for the past few days and don't need to go to work. I'm just reflecting the situation to the organization in a factual manner, without causing any trouble. My materials clearly state that Ye Ming beat up Li Li because he was angry on my behalf after Li Li kept harassing me. If you want to deal with Ye Ming, you should first investigate Li Li's behavior towards me and hold him accountable, which would be fair."

  When Chen Yi blocked Qiu Shunming and others, Xia Chuchu, who was walking in the front, didn't notice at first. Later, after listening to Lin Nan say that this woman had been pleading for Ye Ming every day, she was shocked and quickly turned around, looking Chen Yi up and down several times. Seeing her slender figure, fair skin, exceptionally beautiful appearance, and a charming and elegant temperament all over her body, a sour taste suddenly appeared in her heart for no reason...

  But when she heard Chen Yi's words, she was immediately attracted to the reason why Ye Ming beat him, so she walked a few steps closer, staring at Chen Yi with her eyes fixed, listening carefully to her conversation with Lin Nan and others.

  Qiu Shunming listened to the conversation between Chen Yi and Lin Nan while quickly scanning through the appeal materials, then stared at Chen Yi and suddenly asked: "Little Chen, your materials repeatedly mention that Director Li from your county bureau harassed you. Do you have evidence? Or is there anyone else in your county bureau who can confirm this claim?"

  As soon as Xia Chuchu heard Qiu Shunming's words, she immediately understood: he was biased towards Director Li - think about it: such a thing as a leader harassing a female subordinate would definitely happen behind people's backs and wouldn't leave any evidence. Qiu Shunming asked Chen Yi like this, obviously knowing that she couldn't produce any evidence, clearly trying to make her uncomfortable or give up...

  As expected, Chen Yi's face turned bright red as soon as Qiu Shunming asked her to produce evidence of Li Lixiao harassing her, and then tears of grievance rolled out of her eyes...

  Qiu Shunming saw that his goal had been achieved, and a self-satisfied smile appeared on his face. He said: "Little Chen, I think you should listen to Director Lin's advice and go back to work properly! The problem with Ye Ming is not just about beating people, the Municipal Bureau's Supervision and Inspection Department is fully investigating, and I hope you will not come again to interfere with our case handling."

  As he spoke, he stepped forward and prepared to walk towards the door.

  Just then, Xia Chuchu suddenly walked up to Chen Yi and said: "Sister, I'm also here for Ye Ming's matter. Let's go, you come with me to Baozhu County to visit Ye Ming, if there's anything else, you can tell me separately."

  As soon as these words came out, Qiu Shunming, Lin Nan and others were all shocked.