Chapter Eighty-four: Cao Daifu's Thunderous Fury

  Cao Dafu walked calmly to the door of Zhuo Zishen's office, knocked on it, and was let in. As soon as he saw him, he still felt a little surprised in his heart. Although they had met once before, he hadn't taken it seriously afterwards. Now that he saw him again, he didn't expect it.

  He looked up at Cao Dafu, and Zhu Zichuan's face sank. Pretending not to know him, he pointed to the sofa beside him and said, "So you're Cao Dafu? Take a seat!"

  Originally wearing a smile, Cao Dafu suddenly felt his face turn icy when he heard Zhuozi's question, thinking to himself that the last time they met in town was all for nothing, and now it seemed like they still didn't recognize each other, what kind of thing is this!

  Cao Dafu felt as if he had been dealt a heavy blow. If Zhuo Zishen hadn't let him come because of their past acquaintance, it might not be a good thing to have him come now.

  Cao Dafu responded with a tremble, but instead of sitting down in the direction that Zhu Zi Chuan pointed, he stood there looking at him, eager to know what he wanted.

  Seeing that he didn't sit down, Zhu Zi Chuan also didn't ask him to sit again, but instead sat in front of the table himself, thought for a moment and said: "Do you know if there are villagers in your hometown who set up private tolls on the road to collect fees from passersby?"

  I didn't expect Zhuozi to ask about this, Cao Dafu felt unbelievable, this is the most concrete thing, how could Zhuozi, as the newly appointed county party secretary, possibly consider such a thing at the beginning? What does he mean by asking this?

  After a moment's thought, Cao Dafu couldn't think of any reason, but seeing the look on Zhuozi's face, he felt that this matter could neither be said to have nor not have, and had to use an ambiguous language to answer Zhuozi's words, in order to leave some leeway.

  "This is, Secretary Zhu, originally our village indeed had such a situation, but last time the county government cracked down on it for a while, now it's much better, ordinary people don't dare to do this again."

  "This remark is quite slippery. Zhu Zi's boat swept him a glance and asked, 'What does it mean that ordinary people don't dare to do this again? Are you implying that there are people who aren't ordinary?"

  Zhu Zi didn't give Cao Da Fu a chance to play dumb, and directly asked him in a straightforward manner. As soon as Cao saw that Zhu was being serious, the sweat on his forehead started to seep out. He was originally quite fat and prone to sweating, and now that he was nervous, the sweat started pouring out.

  "Secretary, what I mean is that the situation has improved a lot compared to before. No one dares to collect fees randomly anymore. Of course, we can't rule out some reckless individuals who might still do such things in private!" Cao Dafu said somewhat flusteredly.

  Zhu Zi Chuan looked at him and said: "You mean to say that this kind of phenomenon still exists among you in private?"

  Cao Dafu felt cornered, not admitting it would be a lie, while admitting it would be his responsibility. However, he thought it was better to admit it, and he had a premonition that Zhu Zishen must have known about the situation in the village, so he could no longer be ambiguous and hide it.

  "It's possible that such a situation exists privately, after I go back and conduct further investigation, I will form a report to the county committee at that time." Cao Dafu was eager to leave Zhu Zishen's office, thought for a moment, and proposed going back to investigate and then reporting to the county committee.

  Zhu Zi Chuan sneered and said, "Last time when the county government proposed to rectify the issue of privately set up toll stations and irregular fee collection, Donglin County was a key area for rectification. As the township party secretary, you bear responsibility for this region. Now I ask you if such situations still exist, and you say you need to go back and investigate and cannot give me a definite answer. Do you think you are qualified as a township party secretary?"

  Zhu Zi Chuan's words were spoken slowly and softly, but to Cao Da Fu, they sounded like thunder. He had thought that after Zhu Zi Chuan arrived, he would be given important tasks, but instead, Zhu Zi Chuan immediately raised the question of whether Cao Da Fu was qualified to be the township party secretary. If Zhu Zi Chuan were to mention this to the leaders of the county party committee's organization department, then Cao Da Fu would no longer need to serve as township party secretary.

  For a moment, Cao Dafu's face was covered in sweat, his head hung low, and he didn't dare to speak out. Although he was very powerful in the countryside, in front of the county party secretary, he still didn't dare to show off. Even though Zhang Mingshun supported him, if he were to argue with Zhu Zishen, Zhang Mingshun wouldn't be able to protect him either.

  Seeing his overbearing manner, Zhu Zi Chuan couldn't help but feel some disdain. After thinking for a moment, he felt that since he had just arrived, he shouldn't make things too difficult for the lower-level cadres. So he said: "The situation of privately setting up toll booths and collecting fees in your county is extremely severe. I'm giving you two days to rectify this problem. If I receive another complaint about such behavior, I'll immediately remove you from office!"

  Zhu Zi Chuan tried to suppress his tone, but eventually raised his voice due to emotional excitement. Today's encounter made him feel too indignant. If he wasn't afraid of being ridiculed, he would have directly pointed out the matter and let Cao Da Fu understand why he was criticizing him. Without this incident, based on their previous acquaintance, he shouldn't have been given such a cold reception. However, this matter made him too angry. If work is done like this, how can the county's work be accomplished? Wouldn't this county secretary betray Ping Yuan Chao's entrustment?

  Cao Dafu hastily and carefully responded, with sweat appearing on his face. After he finished responding, Zhu Zishen waved his hand to let him leave.

  After walking out, Cao Dafu only discovered that his body was somewhat drenched, although the weather was still quite cold, but the sweat on his face was dripping down, he didn't dare look at people while walking and hastily walked downstairs.

  After staying downstairs for a while, he called Driver Zhu to come and pick him up. He had originally wanted to show off in front of Zhao Yuangong and Zhao Jianye, but as it turned out, he ended up being scolded instead of receiving the courtesy of Zhou Zishen, and if Zhao Yuangong found out, his face would be lost.

  He got into Old Zhu's car and arrived at the restaurant where they were going to eat. His expression had returned to normal. As soon as Zhao Jianye and Zhao Yuangong saw him, their eyes lit up again. Zhao Jianye smiled and asked if it was because the new secretary wanted to put pressure on him, specially calling him over to talk?

  When he heard this, Cao Dafu hurriedly forced a smile and perfunctorily replied with a few words, then raised his cup to toast Zhao Jianye's wine. Zhao Jianye saw that he was unwilling to discuss this matter, smiled slightly on his face and didn't say much more.

  After dinner, Cao Dafu and Zhao Yuangong rushed back to the countryside together. Because he had something on his mind, he didn't drink much, only about half a catty of wine, while normally he would have a whole catty.

  All the way, he did not discuss with Zhao Yuangong what Zhu Zishen said. He was afraid that Zhao Yuangong would see something and did not want to discuss it with Zhao Yuangong. Besides, he usually liked to make decisions on his own and never asked for Zhao Yuangong's opinion.

  He started by calling Ye Pingyu from the county to the countryside, asking him to inform all members of the township's two committees and village branch secretaries to attend a meeting in the countryside. No one was allowed to be absent, and if there were any issues, they had to personally ask for leave.

  Ye Pingyu suddenly received this call, and of course, he was very curious. The meeting hadn't even returned yet, but they were already being asked to notify so many people to attend a meeting. What could be the matter that's so urgent? Cao Dafu didn't tell him what it was about either, just asking him to notify everyone, with no one allowed to be absent. This meeting must be more important than usual!

  Although he couldn't think of what meeting it was, Cao Dafu had arranged it, and he couldn't not go through with it. After hanging up the phone, he arranged for Wang Qiang, Chang Fang, and a few others to make several calls to notify everyone one by one, ensuring that each person would be notified. If they were notified but didn't come, that was their problem; but if they weren't notified, then it would be the Party's political affairs office's responsibility.

  It took an hour to notify so many people by phone, and after the call was connected, some said they had something on and couldn't come, while others asked what kind of meeting it was and if they didn't have to go. They were all rural cadres who had no sense of discipline, running around in the countryside for meetings, which was also a very troublesome thing.

  But Cao Dafu made such a request, explicitly telling them that they must come, otherwise they would have to ask for leave from Cao Dafu. As soon as they heard that they had to ask for leave from Cao Dafu, they felt that the meeting was very important, and if they were absent, it would be unfavorable to them, so many people rushed to the countryside after receiving the call.

  Cao Dafu returned to the countryside, several village branch secretaries had arrived in the countryside. Yang Leyi, secretary of Jinhu Village, came first and went to the Party and Government Office to rest and chat with Ye Pingyu.

  Yang Leyi's relationship with him is getting closer, and he takes care of Ye Pingyu's family more in the village, but Ye Pingyu has no time to accompany him now, so he can only let him sit alone in the office.

  Cao Dafu returned to the countryside and called Ye Pingyu, asking him to call all members of the two committees first, hold a small meeting, Ye Pingyu received this command and immediately notified the members of the two committees in the countryside. The members of the two committees in the countryside were basically all there, and they quickly gathered at Cao Dafu's office, with some people standing there holding a meeting.

  Cao Dafu was not in the mood to go to the conference room for this small meeting, he just wanted to scold people. After the other two committee members arrived, he glanced at them and his gaze fell on Zhang Wei and Zhao Yuncai. Suddenly, his face changed, and he said: "Zhang Wei, Zhao Yuncai, you two come forward!"

  Zhang Wei and Zhao Yuncai were standing behind someone, whispering to each other. They didn't know what kind of meeting it was going to be, and they thought there was nothing to do with them, so they were leaning on the sofa chatting idly. Suddenly, they heard Cao Dafu calling them, so they quickly stood up.

  Seeing the two of them walking ahead, Cao Dafu's face turned black with rage, and he suddenly slammed his hand on the table, almost bellowing as he scolded: "You two have done a great job! I'm asking you, has the issue of chaotic road tolls in the countryside been thoroughly rectified?"

  Cao Dafu suddenly flew into a rage, beyond everyone's expectations, including Zhao Yuangong and Ye Pingyu. They had never seen Cao Dafu lose his temper so badly before. What on earth had happened to provoke such a strong reaction from him?