Official Career Storm

Chapter 1712: Chapter 1712

Song Guanchao shook his head. "Let’s just talk here."

Chairman Qian thought to himself that this Director Song really was immune to both soft and hard tactics.

He glanced at Han Lan again and greeted her, "Secretary Han."

"Hello, Chairman Qian." Han Lan sat upright and proper, clearly not intending to get chummy with him.

Chairman Qian pulled out a chair and sat down, took the tea that Yao Linghua handed over, and waited until she closed the door. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly asked, "I don’t think I’ve ever offended you, Director Song, have I?"

Song Guanchao was puzzled. "Why would you say that, Chairman Qian?"

Chairman Qian tapped the table with his knuckles and answered the question with a question. "Director Song, do you know who built the park?"

Song Guanchao nodded. "I’ve heard a bit. They say it was the then mayor, Yang Gaolin."

"That’s right." Chairman Qian asked again, "Then does Director Song also know that Mayor Yang later went to the province to serve as Governor?"

"I heard he’s already retired."

"Retired?" Chairman Qian smiled and shook his head, as if laughing at his ignorance. "Governor Yang has indeed retired, but his residual power is still there."

Song Guanchao asked, "What is it you’re trying to say, Chairman Qian?"

Chairman Qian kept rhythmically tapping the table. "Don’t rush, Director Song. I’ve got a few more questions. Once I’ve asked them, you’ll naturally know what I’m getting at."

"Since you know the park was built by Governor Yang, you must also be aware that it’s been over ten years since it was completed."

"I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about why, in these ten-plus years, not a single mayor or party secretary has stepped in to deal with the park’s pollution."

By now, Song Guanchao understood where he was going with this. He smiled. "You’re trying to tell me everyone minds their own business and hangs high above it all—is that what you mean, Chairman Qian?"

Chairman Qian shook his head. "If Director Song thinks of it that way, that’s far too narrow."

Song Guanchao chuckled. "Then I really want to hear your enlightened view, Chairman Qian."

"I’m just a businessman. No enlightened views." Chairman Qian looked at him, then abruptly shifted the thrust of his words. "Director Song, why did you go into office?"

Song Guanchao did not respond.

Chairman Qian said, "Holding office boils down to two characters—power, money. At the end of the day it’s all business, all利益."

"There’s actually no difference between holding office and doing business. You make your first million, and that immediately breeds the ambition to make ten million. Once you’re in the ten-million bracket, you risk your neck and want to squeeze yourself through the threshold of becoming a billionaire."

"It’s the same with officials. Once you’re a deputy section head, you start scheming to climb up to Director. You become a township head and then you want to be a county head. Once you’re county head, how could you still be willing to be confined to a tiny county? Naturally you want to run toward the city, climb toward the province."

He saw that although Song Guanchao wore a smile, there was unmistakable disdain in his eyes.

He didn’t mind, just kept smiling as he went on. "Director Song, you’re young and hot-blooded, full of ideals. But ideals are still just ideals. The gravitational pull of reality is heavy. Ideals only exist in storybooks and novels."

"You can totally refute me, say that you, Song Guanchao, aren’t that kind of person. But you can’t deny that the majority of officials are exactly like this."

"Otherwise, how do you explain that the pollution problem in the park hasn’t been thoroughly resolved after more than ten years?"

Once that last sentence was out, the smile faded from Song Guanchao’s face.

Just as Chairman Qian said, he was different from the others.

But Chairman Qian wasn’t wrong either. The mere existence of the park, in a roundabout way, proved the truth of what he had said.

"Is the problem in the park really that serious?"

Chairman Qian said, "Is it really so serious that we absolutely have to shut down and restructure now?"

"Once we shut down and restructure, how do we place the workers? The sudden loss of tax revenue—who’s going to make up that hole?"

"And does Director Song really think this is a problem that can be solved just by shutting down and restructuring our twenty-two polluting enterprises?"

"There are far more than twenty-two chemical companies in the chemical park. And the polluters are definitely more than just our twenty-two."

"And once news of us shutting down and restructuring gets out today, what company will still dare to come invest in Jiangzhou?"

Listening to this, Han Lan only felt the pressure in her chest multiply.

Every word out of Chairman Qian’s mouth weighed heavily on her. Under the guidance of his narrative, her thoughts went to the chain reaction of crises that could follow.

Seeing the change in both Song Guanchao’s and Han Lan’s expressions, Chairman Qian knew his line of argument had hit home. He slowed his pace and said, "When Secretary Zhou was serving as Mayor, he didn’t intervene. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, it was that the problem really wasn’t this serious back then."

"Besides, what’s the point of meddling in this kind of thankless business?"

"This isn’t something you can solve by just installing discharge equipment. It’s like building a house—if the foundation was flawed from the very start, no matter how much you reinforce the concrete above, it’s useless."

"If the City Government steps in, we have no second option except shutting down and restructuring. Is this kind of zero-sum game really the scenario the City Government wants to see?"

"As I recall, Mayor Wu has only been in office for just over half a year, and Director Song, you haven’t been in this post for long either. You’re both still young, with a boundless future. In at most three years, you’ll be off to the province. Why not just leave the problem to the next lot?"

Chairman Qian’s words carried weight; he sounded especially sincere.

"Are you finished, Chairman Qian?" Song Guanchao looked at him.

Chairman Qian said, "That’s my suggestion."

Song Guanchao said, "It’s a very good suggestion. But I’m sorry, I’m not in a position to make the final call on this. Besides, with the way things are blowing up online now, the city can’t pretend it doesn’t see, and it absolutely can’t handle this quietly. We have to take a stand."

At the mention of the internet, Chairman Qian lost a bit of control over his emotions. He narrowed his eyes and sneered. "Yeah, it’s already spread online."

From the very beginning, he had been convinced this was Song Guanchao’s doing.

Song Guanchao couldn’t be bothered to explain. "Please head back, Chairman Qian. The companies need to suspend operations for now. There’ll be a decision on how to handle things within this period, and someone will inform you when the time comes."

Chairman Qian’s heart sank. After saying all this, he still hadn’t managed to change Song Guanchao’s attitude.

To be honest, he couldn’t make sense of it.

He hadn’t said it outright, but as long as they could get through this, he was willing to put up some benefits to smooth things over.

But he had conveyed that meaning. He was sure Song Guanchao had picked up on it.

Yet he was still dead set on his course, still unwilling to let them off the hook.

Chairman Qian couldn’t understand; it made no sense to him.

He even seriously suspected that maybe there was some grudge between Song Guanchao and these polluting enterprises.

Otherwise, why would he take on this kind of thankless job that only offends people?

You have to understand: not every form of power can be cashed out.

And right now, with just a nod from Song Guanchao, the power he held as director of the City Government Office could be turned into cash instantly.

But he refused to do it.

Even with Chairman Qian’s level of savvy, he still couldn’t figure it out; he couldn’t read this guy.

He did have a hypothesis, and one that fit the actual situation extremely well.

That was: Song Guanchao was simply doing his job.

Someone filed a complaint, so he accepted it, and then he went to resolve it.

That’s all there was to it.

It’s just that, having seen all the ways of the world and thoroughly grasped the logic of how politics and business operate, Chairman Qian found it hard to believe, even for a moment, that an official at deputy bureau level could still harbor such naïve ideas.

Calling it naïve would be flattering him. In Chairman Qian’s eyes, Song Guanchao was just a single-track dumbass.

Faced with such a stubborn idiot, Chairman Qian was, for once, at a loss for words. He forced a stiff smile, nodded, pushed back his chair, and got up to leave.

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