Chapter 314: This Official Position Is Too Terrifying!
When Zhang Wanhao arrived at the prosecutor's office building in confusion, he saw his direct superior, Wang Chunhui, the Chief Prosecutor of the Forest General Prosecutor's Office, standing at the entrance. Wang Chunhui looked anxious, like an ant on a hot pan.
Seeing Zhang Wanhao trudging through the heavy snow, Wang Chunhui immediately approached him. Before he even got close, he said in a low, urgent tone, "Deputy Prosecutor Zhang, Committee Member Zhang! What on earth are you up to!"
Realizing something must have gone wrong, Zhang Wanhao quickly stepped forward, "Chief Wang, what's the matter? It's so late, what happened?"
"What happened? You still don't know what happened?" Wang Chunhui stomped his foot in frustration. "Tell me, the case of Li Xian and Li You from the 89th Forest Farm—was it handled by you?"
"Yes, that's right," Zhang Wanhao answered readily, "Is there a problem with this case?"
"A big problem!"
Hearing his superior's roar, Zhang Wanhao's mind raced. The relationships between the chief officials and their assistants were just like that. They were always playing mind games.
He thought that Xu Chaoyang must have used his connections with Wang Chunhui. With a cold smile, he said, "Chief Wang, we only acted on a tip-off from the public, saying there were issues with the aid funds for the 89th Forest Farm. We gathered evidence according to proper procedures."
Seeing his subordinate stubbornly sticking to his story, Wang Chunhui was infuriated.
If it weren't for the fact that Wang Chunhui couldn't handle this alone, he wouldn't have come to wade through this mess in the middle of the night!
Every year, the forestry bureaus deal with disaster relief, poverty alleviation, and other subsidies, which amount to no less than five million. For years, there hadn't been a single tip-off or an investigation by the prosecutor's office. And now, just so coincidentally, they've arrested someone?
This is nonsense!
Not telling the truth, huh?
Fine!
Wang Chunhui gave Zhang Wanhao a piercing look and pointed upstairs. "Alright, let's go."
"Chief Wang, where are we going?"
"You'll find out when we get there."
Watching his superior's back, Zhang Wanhao was puzzled.
…
The Forest General System was a massive organization with over a million employees, so the prosecutor's office had considerable power.
However, even with its power, it was essentially a supervisory agency like the Railway Prosecutor's Office, focusing on internal system oversight. It mainly handled legal supervision within the Forest General System and reported to the Forest General Court, so its scale was actually not very large, and its administrative level was not high.
The prosecutor's office had two buildings: the front building for administrative work and the rear building for enforcement and review. The detention rooms were located in the rear building.
Following Wang Chunhui upstairs and into the rear building's duty room, Zhang Wanhao was taken aback when he saw Sun Weimin seated inside.
When Sun Weimin, a middle-aged man standing by the window, turned around and introduced himself, Zhang Wanhao felt a rush of blood to his head.
In the cold weather, the old office building's heating was inadequate. In the room with temperatures around ten degrees, Zhang Wanhao's head immediately steamed with visible white mist.
That was from the sudden sweat on his forehead!
Hearing Sun Weimin inquire about the Li Xian case, Zhang Wanhao felt disoriented. Reflecting on his conversation with Wang Chunhui downstairs, he almost wished he could strangle his superior!
It turned out that these two big shots were involved, and he wasn't informed beforehand!
His mind was racing, but Zhang Wanhao quickly realized the solution—he absolutely must not mention Huang Yingxiong.
If Huang Yingxiong wasn't involved, then the Li Xian case would be just another public tip-off investigated by the prosecutor's office.
If Huang Yingxiong was mentioned, Zhang Wanhao feared it would turn against him and Huang Yingxiong would hold a grudge.
He made a clear decision immediately.
He recounted how they received the public tip-off and how the case was filed.
When Sun Weimin asked about the evidence in the Li Xian case, Zhang Wanhao, knowing the current situation, directly responded that there was insufficient evidence to prove Li Xian and his son's corruption and that they planned to release them the next day.
Hearing this result, Xia Guangyuan sighed in relief.
The difficulty in Sun Weimin's question lay in the complexity of the situation. As a provincial state enterprise, interference was inevitable, but it should not involve specific details. It was about influencing the overall direction of the enterprise.
Now that Sun Weimin mixed up these concepts, if he rashly managed these trivial matters, even if he gained power, he would be burdened with minor issues by this old fox.
If he ignored it, he would fall into another trap, making it difficult to lead the work in Longjiang Province for a long time.
Given that it was merely a routine investigation, although there were subjective procedural flaws and suspicion of detention without proper investigation, the basic facts were clear.
In this era, local law enforcement's methods were quite rough. Procedural flaws aside, it was still understandable.
As he was about to give instructions to "close the case as soon as possible and avoid further entanglement," the office door was knocked.
When Wang Chunhui opened the door, a middle-aged man appeared.
The man seemed surprised to see so many people in the office at this hour and hesitated for a moment.
"Comrade, who are you…? Who are you looking for?" Wang Chunhui, feeling like this was the most eventful night at his unit ever, asked the newcomer.
"Hello, I'm Xu Chaoyang from the Bangye Forestry Bureau. I've come to deliver some items for Li Xian and Li You, who were detained by your unit this afternoon… Huh? Prosecutor Zhang! What are you doing here? Didn't your wife say you were out of town on a business trip?"
Seeing Xu Chaoyang at the door with two sets of luggage and a large pile of red sausages and rye bread, Zhang Wanhao's legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
…
Due to the poor lighting, Li Xian had not clearly seen the person who came with Sun Weimin. He guessed that the person must be an important figure.
However, seeing how the detention officers avoided the newcomer like the plague, he assumed his release was imminent and began thinking about how to address the situation.
Just then, he heard footsteps coming from upstairs.
Soon, an unfamiliar leader-like figure, accompanied by Xu Chaoyang, arrived at the detention room.
After giving some instructions, the leader left, and the iron bars in front of Li Xian were opened by the guards.
Stepping onto the floor that had lost its varnish and exposed the original wood color, Li Xian took a deep breath.
Although only separated by an iron bar, the feeling of freedom was… incredibly good!
"Director Xu, what brings you here?" After catching his breath, Li Xian asked Xu Chaoyang.
The latter, stifling a laugh, lifted the luggage. "I originally came to bring you a blanket, but it's no longer needed. Anyway, this isn't the place to talk. Let's hurry up. I saw Zhiye at the door earlier, saying that she wouldn't go home, and the two of them have been out in the cold for over two hours."
Hearing this, Li Xian's heart warmed.
He cursed the silly girl and immediately ran out. But after running a few steps, he realized something was wrong and returned to Xu Chaoyang.
Looking at the unfamiliar leader next to Xu Chaoyang, Li Xian's face darkened. "Director Xu, I'm afraid someone was secretly…"
Xu Chaoyang smiled and interrupted him, "Don't worry about this. Go back first, and we'll talk in detail later."
At that moment, another detention room door opened, and Li You, who looked extremely tired with drooping eyelids, was brought out. Clearly shocked, his mental state was not good.
Seeing Li Xian, he burst into tears.
"Son, this Forestry Bureau chief is too terrifying!"