Chapter 55: Deadlock

  The office of the Yongping County Committee, all county standing committee members except Wu De who was absent due to illness were present. Zhang Qingyun continued to serve as the conference recorder, but this time he sat behind Huang Songshan.

  Huang Songshan's face turned iron-green at this time, his silver hair stood up root by root, and the fire on his body made people feel suffocated. He was really going to blow up now.

  "What are the government offices eating? Are they all wine bags and rice sacks? Such a big thing didn't report in the first time, he...he...Leng...Jia Zhentao is dereliction of duty!" Huang Songshan shouted loudly. He originally wanted to say Leng Xueyou (deputy county magistrate, concurrently director of the county government office), but everyone knew what was going on with Leng Xueyou, so he changed his mouth and said Jia Zhentao.

  "Besides, how are you guys handling things on the government side? A loose sand now turned into a huge mess, what do you think should be done about it?"

  Lijiang's face changed, Huang Songshan's words were directed at him, although he was angry in his heart, but he could only put the overall situation first and hurriedly said:

  "Secretary Huang, calm down. After all, the thing has already happened. What we need to do now is think of a way to make up for it. I'll go and urgently convene an office meeting to arrange personnel to deal with this matter."

  "How to make up for it? How can we make up for it? The flood season is coming soon, can this bridge continue to be repaired?" Huang Songshan said, his roar made Lei Gang very embarrassed. Fortunately, after Huang Songshan's outburst, he was still clear-headed and slowly controlled his emotions.

  He took a deep look at Lijiang, his emotions were complicated. At this moment, he secretly regretted not communicating well with Lijiang in the first place. Was it worth offending him? He had been in Yongping for so many years, even if he became a master, he still feared him three points, let alone Lijiang, an airborne soldier.

  However, on the other hand, Huang Songshan was also somewhat annoyed with Wu De. He knew that the suspension of the Gao Jianyu Bridge project was something that Wu De could not influence, but he must have known about it in advance. His purpose was simply to take advantage of the situation. First, he would make a phone call to the Highway Bureau, and then use the government's inaction to his advantage. He would then use his hospitalization as an excuse to shirk responsibility, leaving Huang Songshan and Lei Gang to deal with the thorny issues on their own. Once the matter was resolved, Wu De could write a big article after the accident, gloating over his success. If things didn't go well, it would be a dead end for both Huang Songshan and Lei Gang.

  Of course, the Gaizhu Bridge incident had the greatest impact on Li Gang. Firstly, the misappropriation of special funds for bridge repairs was the first blow. The second blow was that the county government office did nothing, and as the head of the government, Li Gang could not shirk his responsibility. The third blow was that when the incident occurred, Li Gang himself was not on duty, which made the problem even more serious. If one were to be strict, Li Gang might have to wear a hat of dereliction of duty.

  "Alright! This matter will be handled according to County Magistrate Li's intention. The government side will process it as soon as possible, and the county committee side will work together to cooperate. Director Liu, please make arrangements. I and County Magistrate Li will visit Chairman Duan of Tianhe Road Bridge Company tomorrow morning." Huang Songshan said after a long silence, stabilizing his thoughts.

  After the Standing Committee meeting, Zhang Qingyun immediately arranged an emergency county mayor's office meeting. The director of the Finance Bureau, Wu Xue Shu, the director of the Highway Bureau, Ou Xiao Hua, the director of the Construction Bureau, Wei Qiang, and all deputy county mayors, directors and deputy directors of the office were urgently summoned to attend the meeting.

  "Director Li, everyone has arrived!" After everyone had arrived, Zhang Qingyun came to Director Li's office and said respectfully.

  "En." Lijiang responded absent-mindedly, standing by the window with his back to Zhang Qingyun, a cigarette pinched between his right fingers, thick smoke swirling and rising above his head.

  "Xiao Zhang, you don't have to participate in this anymore. You can go home and rest first. Tomorrow morning, you go to Gao Jianyu and do a field survey." After a long time, Li Gang turned around and said, his face looked very bad, but he was still relatively calm, at least on the surface, there was no obvious panic.

  Zhang Qingyun was taken aback, but after a moment's thought, he understood Lei Gang's intention. Lei Gang didn't have much hope for this emergency meeting. The crux of the matter lay with the Road Bridge Company and Engineering Technology. He wanted to go and investigate the situation himself.

  "Lixian, has the funding issue been resolved properly? Director Wu mentioned earlier that the Road Bridge Company needs to pay hundreds of millions, but the finance side is out of money."

  Li Gang nodded and said, "Don't worry about this matter. We can apply for a loan from the Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bank Branch. The funds for returning farmland to forests in Wugang Mountain area and the remaining payment for the hardening of Yongyan Highway have been promised by the municipal finance department, and they will arrive within one or two days."

  Zhang Qingyun nodded to show that he understood, thinking to himself that Li Gang's trip to Wude hadn't been in vain, at least the funding issue had been settled. Now it was just a matter of whether or not the Road Bridge Company would play any tricks. Zhang Qingyun wasn't optimistic about the Road Bridge Company. The Gao Jianyu Bridge was a municipal-level project, and if the Road Bridge Company said they were stopping work, then they would stop work. Without some background, they wouldn't dare be so arrogant. They seemed to have the Yungping County Committee and Government in their pocket.

  When Zhang Qingyun walked out of the government gate, he raised his hand to look at his watch and found that it was already 8 o'clock in the evening. He took out his mobile phone and found that there were seven or eight unconnected calls on it. After flipping through them, they were basically all from Geng Shuang and his mother. As soon as he thought of Geng Shuang, Zhang Qingyun's mood improved a bit. He immediately hailed a taxi on the street and rushed home.

  Today Zhang's family is lively, Ai Fei and her family have all arrived, Geng Shuang is also here. As soon as Zhang Qingyun entered the door, Yin Su'e shouted loudly:

  "What's going on? Why didn't you answer your phone today?"

  Zhang Qingyun grunted and said "Uncle and Aunt are well", then didn't speak again. At this time, his mood was a mess, he didn't want to talk to anyone.

  "Qingyun is back, great! We've all been waiting for you. Our little Ai has a boyfriend now and they're going to 'visit the other family' on Saturday. As her brother-in-law, you can't lag behind!" Yin Suimei said with a happy face. (Note: 'visiting the other family' is a Tujia custom where the girl's relatives go to inspect the boy's family before confirming their relationship, to ensure that the two families are compatible.)

  Zhang Qingyun sighed and nodded, it was indeed a case of "when it rains, it pours", both public and private matters were piling up together, really making one's heart anxious.

  "What's wrong? Brother? You look like you're extremely unwilling. I'm your cousin, after all." Ai Jia said.

  Ai Jia suddenly flew into a rage, Zhang Qingyun's head immediately became big, and he hastily waved his hand and said: "Can't I go? However, my head is a bit dizzy today, I'll go back to my room to rest for a while, do you have any objections?"

  "You..." Ai Jia wanted to say something else, but Yin Su Mei hastily gave him a signal with her eyes. Everyone could see that Zhang Qing Yun might have something going on, otherwise he wouldn't be coming home so late.

  Ai Jia also felt that something was off, thinking that she had just lost her temper, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She quickly moved closer to Geng Shuang and said:

  "Sister-in-law, what's wrong with brother? Why don't you go take a look?"

  Geng Shuang also had some worries in her heart, but when she saw the anxious look on everyone's face, she could only force a calm smile and say:

  "It's nothing, I called and asked, your brother was just too tired from work today, he'll be fine tomorrow."

  Geng Shuang's words had the desired effect, and everyone's minds were put at ease. Especially Zhang Deyan and Yin Su'e, they were old-fashioned thinkers who believed that serving a superior was like serving a tiger. Zhang Qingyun was the county magistrate's secretary, and in Yongping, the county magistrate was also considered a "superior". If things didn't go well, it could easily become a big deal.

  [Seeking recommendation, seeking collection] The most painful thing about writing a book is being suppressed by others and ranked lower. The greatest tragedy in the world is not failure, but almost succeeding. "Bu Yi" is now stuck at 13th place again, while the previous one was on the front page. Brothers, please give me some votes!