Chapter 74#

Chapter 74: Sharks Underwater#

Dinner was ready. The guide lifted the felt flap of the tent, intending to call Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou, only to run straight into the two of them as they were walking in.

At first glance, seeing He Hailou rubbing his cheek and Gu Chenzhou looking disheveled with grass clippings in his hair and on his collar, the guide was stunned for a moment. “What happened to you two?”

“Are there leopards here?” Gu Chenzhou countered concisely. Seeing protected animals like argali sheep or golden eagles was a matter of luck—if you saw them, great; if not, it didn’t matter. But coming out for a trip, not even wandering off on their own, and running into a large carnivore was a bit hard to swallow.

The guide was also taken aback. He quickly told them to stay calm, then turned back to speak with the old Kazakh man for a while. It wasn’t clear what they discussed, but the old Kazakh man stood up with a smile and led Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou towards the sheep pen behind the tent.

The two of them, along with the guide, followed the old man to the outside of the sheep pen. This time, no one needed to say or point at anything. Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou immediately saw a leopard leisurely lying in the pen. The enclosure, meant for sheep, seemed to have become its personal territory. Its long tail flicked up occasionally, sometimes even making a small circle in the air. Under its belly, a small head popped out, looking around. Seeing a group of people appear outside the pen, the cub seemed to want to run over, but before it could take two steps, the big leopard swatted it to the ground and pulled it back.

“Ata says he raised this leopard; it won’t bite,” the guide explained to Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou, using the respectful term for a Kazakh elder. However, it was obvious he didn’t believe it himself, as he stood even further away than Gu and He.

In this situation, Gu Chenzhou couldn’t really say much. After all, they were invited guests, and apart from being startled, nothing had actually happened to them. So he simply changed the subject and asked, “Is this a snow leopard?”

The guide conversed with the old Kazakh man again, then turned back to Gu Chenzhou and nodded. “That’s right, a national first-class protected animal. The old man found it; at first, he thought it was a steppe wildcat.”

“I also thought it was a steppe wildcat,” He Hailou chimed in calmly. A normal person, even on the grassland, wouldn’t assume they’d just casually stumbled upon a leopard. “Besides, every cat purrs when it’s happy.”

Gu Chenzhou, who had just been educated and thought cats only meowed: “…”

A rare opportunity! He Hailou immediately switched to mockery mode: “One look and I can tell you’ve never been around animals!”

At the same time, in the auditorium of the Sangzan City Government.

Inside the auditorium, the leadership team of Suilin Province, along with Gu Xinjun and He Nanshan who had come from the capital, were holding their second plenary meeting of the week regarding the recent severe social security issues in Suilin. At the meeting, the Suilin provincial leadership team made a serious self-criticism and careful analysis of the recent riots in Suilin. On the basis of mending the fold after the sheep were lost, striving to quell the riots, and stabilizing social order, they proposed a series of future security management measures. They expressed their attitude of placing social security issues as a top priority and presented a detailed prevention plan, expressing confidence and determination to nip any future riots in the bud…

All of the above was official jargon.

Not to mention the big shots in the capital, even the people in Suilin—even those without many connections, as long as they were old hands in officialdom who had been around for a while—knew clearly that the real focus of the two meetings they attended was not on how to thoroughly quell the riots, but on who was the leading figure in quelling this riot: Premier He, who arrived first, or Minister Gu, who arrived two days later.

This issue was actually easy to understand, and the phenomenon wasn’t unique to officialdom: if a matter had two top leaders specifically responsible for it, those two leaders inevitably had to distinguish primary from secondary and determine a winner and a loser. Otherwise, their ideas wouldn’t always be exactly the same, right? When a disagreement arose, should the subordinates listen to A or B? When the forces resolving the issue couldn’t be directed to one place, getting things done would inevitably require twice the effort for half the result and be unsatisfactory.

Everyone understood this principle, but putting it into practice wasn’t so easy. Fortunately, however, the two big shots who had arrived from the capital one after another seemed to have already determined the winner in secret. During the first meeting, the two were evenly matched, with Premier He perhaps having even more say. But by the second meeting, the speaking authority on the floor had clearly shifted in favor of Minister Gu.

It seemed that for this matter, Minister Gu’s instructions were more important!

As the meeting adjourned, officials large and small in Suilin Province pondered this in their hearts. The Governor and the Party Secretary surrounded Gu Xinjun and He Nanshan as they walked out of the conference room. They were actually quite willing and happy to play the role of accompanying the “crown princes” this time—although they were just accompanying, these guests of honor weren’t people you could invite just anytime!

Walking out of the auditorium, Gu Xinjun shook hands with He Nanshan with great grace and said, “Premier He, sorry to have troubled you with this matter!”

In official circles, usually only the victor would speak like this. The Governor and Party Secretary surrounding the two thought to themselves.

Sure enough, He Nanshan only gave a faint “Mmh,” his attitude not much different from the first meeting a few days ago. He simply said, “Let us encourage each other, Minister Gu,” and then turned and left with his people.

That bearing was truly extraordinary! The two lamented again. For several years, Premier He had been in charge of border affairs. Now, because of a riot, his power was being handed over in front of the entire leadership team of Suilin Province, yet he remained completely unmoved, showing no emotion on his face. His attitude now was the same as usual.

Once He Nanshan left, Gu Xinjun nodded to the few provincial and ministerial officials standing next to him, didn’t say much more, and quickly got into a car parked at the entrance of the auditorium to leave.

Inside the two cars driving out one after another, the secretaries of Gu Xinjun and He Nanshan simultaneously reported a matter to their respective leaders—a matter that wasn’t exactly big, but wasn’t small either: the incident where Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou were chased during a robbery in Sangzan yesterday.

Hearing this, Gu Xinjun frowned. “Did anything happen?”

“Nothing happened,” Yu Wenjun quickly and briefly recounted the event. “After the incident last night, they set off from the airport to the Ishvish Grassland. Those rioters took Young Master Gu’s gold card to the bank to check the balance; as soon as they entered the system, they were discovered, and the matter was reported up.”

“What about those people?” Gu Xinjun asked.

“They’ve already been caught on some pretext and are detained at the station,” Yu Wenjun replied.

Gu Xinjun nodded, approving of Yu Wenjun’s handling of the matter. However, he immediately frowned again because of what Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou had encountered: even if the two families didn’t get along, his own son and the He family kid were together, and with all the various things happening, it was getting to be a bit too much…

The same thought appeared in He Nanshan’s mind.

In He Nanshan’s car, the secretary surnamed Fang beside him also told He Nanshan the ending of the story.

He Nanshan leaned on his cane in silence for a long while, then said, “Since this has happened, don’t delay the handover any longer. This place needs to be properly straightened out.”

Secretary Fang breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, thinking that Premier He had finally relented! Three days ago, Chairman Yu had personally spoken, and besides reiterating his stance of protecting He Nanshan, he also made the decision to yield the border area to the Wang faction. The delay in handover until now was entirely He Nanshan’s own attitude—such not-very-useful stalling was rarely seen from Premier He, showing just how angry he was this time.

But the incident with the Young Master He happened quite coincidentally… This thought spun around in Secretary Fang’s mind before he discarded it: with He Hailou’s personality, was there anywhere he wouldn’t dare go, or anywhere he wouldn’t dare play? He Hailou running over there specifically was a bit strange, but not impossible. He probably heard someone mention something that piqued his interest. He just didn’t expect the Gu family’s young master to get dragged in as well. Gu, the Head of the Organization Department who happened to be taking over border affairs, would probably use this opportunity to make a big fuss.

The government never lacked efficiency, only depending on the timing.

Once the two “top leaders” handling the matter successively reached a tacit understanding, the complete quelling of the Suilin riots was immediately put on the schedule. Within a day, joint defense armed police took to the streets. Based on information collected days ago, they quickly detained a batch of separatists hiding in various locations. From these separatists, they extracted another shocking piece of news: some of them had long-term contact with certain overseas forces and had received material support from these overseas forces multiple times.

As soon as this news came out, it was like poking a hornet’s nest. The grassroots reported to the higher-ups, and the higher-ups attached great importance to it, immediately reporting to Gu Xinjun. As soon as Gu Xinjun got the information, he sent it directly back to Beijing.

Then, not even two or three hours later, a phone call came from Beijing to He Nanshan.

It was Yu Shuifeng calling personally.

He Nanshan’s phone was always with Secretary Fang. Anyone—whether it was He Hailou or other high officials—had to pass through Secretary Fang first. This time, when Secretary Fang picked up the phone and heard it was Yu Shuifeng, his hand trembled. He didn’t dare ask a single question and quickly walked into the room to hand the phone to He Nanshan.

“Chairman, you have something to discuss?” He Nanshan asked upon taking the phone.

“I know about the situation in Suilin.” On the phone, Yu Shuifeng’s voice was very peaceful, and his speaking speed was very slow. This was a characteristic of high officials at the level of He Nanshan and Gu Xinjun: because of their age and high position, their voices always had the slowness and peace peculiar to the elderly. Just listening to the voice, one could feel the speaker’s calm confidence. “That’s about enough. You come back first; I still have many things waiting for you here! The border area has never been stable; it’s within expectations that some things happen.”

He Nanshan replied respectfully, “I understand, Chairman. I’m already preparing to return.”

Yu Shuifeng chuckled. “Of the people around me, you’re the one I’m most at ease with, except your temper is a bit hot. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you this, but you just can’t change it. This stubborn temper of yours is comparable to those people in the military.”

He Nanshan said, “Chairman, I can change anything else, but this is the only thing I can’t change; it’s in my nature.”

Yu Shuifeng had just mentioned He Nanshan’s temper, and He Nanshan replied bluntly, immediately confirming the “stubborn temper” the other had mentioned.

Yu Shuifeng said helplessly, “Alright, every time I mention it, you give the same answer.” He said a few more words on the phone, then hung up.

He Nanshan waited until the disconnect tone came from the phone before handing the mobile back to Secretary Fang. At the same time, he stood up from behind the desk, stretched his body slightly, and walked towards the table with the fish tank on the side of the office.

Standing next to He Nanshan, Secretary Fang put away the phone and followed He Nanshan to the table with the goldfish. skillfully, he picked up the jar of fish food placed next to the tank first, opened the lid, and handed it to He Nanshan.

To be fair, He Nanshan didn’t necessarily like raising fish that much, but his habit of feeding fish when tired from reviewing official documents was known to quite a few people. This time, the leaders of Suilin Province had put in some effort, arranging a tank of fish in He Nanshan’s residence to suit his fancy. They also took special care not to get overly expensive fish—He Nanshan’s office fish tank never had expensive fish, only hardy ones—showing they had really put thought into it.

He Nanshan took a pinch from the jar in Secretary Fang’s hand and sprinkled it evenly on the water surface. The few goldfish in the glass tank immediately wiggled their bodies and swam to the surface, their mouths opening and closing to swallow the food.

Gu Xinjun had escalated the case. The Chairman receiving the news and calling personally was, on one hand, to comfort him and put his mind at ease, but on the other hand, it was also to express dissatisfaction with his insufficient control over the border.

“It’s within expectations that some things happen”—this sentence meant “things have happened”!

But this matter wasn’t exactly small, yet not big enough for Yu Shuifeng to dwell on. Plus, the timing was special; what’s done is done… The most crucial thing was whether he could use this incident to lose thoroughly once, to retreat once.

Everything so far was going according to plan.

Now that the Chairman had called specifically to express dissatisfaction and mentioned his temper, the meaning was already very clear: His attitude hadn’t changed; you must continue to bite onto the Wang faction and not let go.

It was time for some people from the Wang faction to come and shut the other side’s mouth.

On this point, the candidates Gu Xinjun had put forward…

He Nanshan pondered for a moment and asked Secretary Fang beside him, “How is it lately?”

Understanding the true meaning of a leader’s words is a secretary’s most basic skill. The most important reason Secretary Fang could stay by He Nanshan’s side was that he could keep up with He Nanshan’s train of thought. Hearing this sentence now, he immediately analyzed what the other was referring to and gave an answer right away: “Although the Chairman and Secretary Wang have reached a consensus, the people on the Wang faction’s side haven’t stopped.” These few people couldn’t be explained clearly in a moment, so he immediately turned back, took a document, and handed it to He Nanshan. “Premier, the list is all in here.”

He Nanshan opened the file. The first page contained the key figures circled by Secretary Fang: meaning these people were jumping around the most happily, and they all had some issues, more or less, allowing them to be taken down with lightning speed.

He Nanshan took the file and sat back at the desk, starting to look through the names one by one. If these were only collected by Secretary Fang, he might not have been so careful. But on this matter, he had given Gu Xinjun a little sweetness, and Gu Xinjun had given him a little return gift from over there—he was just afraid the sugar coating concealed a cannonball!

Secretary Fang stood respectfully to the side. He Nanshan’s serious demeanor made him a little apprehensive, afraid there might be some problem with this carefully collected list. With this worry, Secretary Fang involuntarily began to recall the information he had collected:

Sun Yuanqiu: The power backing him is Peng Rongming; no major achievements, but a heap of black material.

Wang Yiyi: Backed by Cao Hongsi; hands are too long and too greedy. Any project passing through his hands gets at least three layers scraped off.

Zhu Fangxuan: Playing with women to an extreme degree.

Jiang Chenshui: Jumps the highest but has the least backing.

He Yupeng: …

Wang Yang: …

After a long time, He Nanshan picked up a pen and crossed out a few people, all from the first page.

Secretary Fang’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing names like Sun Yuanqiu and Wang Yiyi covered by black lines, he quickly thought about how he should explain and what expression he should use to admit his mistake, when he heard He Nanshan say, “Alright, don’t touch the people I crossed out. You handle the rest.”

Secretary Fang was stunned, hurriedly took the file, and asked according to He Nanshan’s usual habit, “Take out the others directly?”

He Nanshan gave a “Mmh,” then continued, “Arrange the itinerary for returning to Beijing first, then immediately go handle this matter. Also, make a call and summon Hailou back. I want to see him at Zhende Garden tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yes, Premier.” After agreeing, Secretary Fang backed out of He Nanshan’s room and immediately set about handling these matters. Since He Hailou’s matter was the simplest, he called He Hailou while finalizing the Premier’s protection work with the accompanying security personnel.

At this moment, He Hailou was rolling up his sleeves and squatting down to milk a cow.

As usual, it took three or four calls to get through. When He Hailou answered, his voice was still lazy: “Secretary Fang?”

Secretary Fang was used to this young master’s grand style. He professionally conveyed He Nanshan’s meaning to He Hailou: “Young Master He, the Premier wants you to return to Zhende Garden tomorrow.”

“Even taking a plane won’t be fast enough,” He Hailou replied.

“If there are no flights, I will arrange a special plane to pick you up, Young Master He. Please give me an address,” Secretary Fang smiled into the phone, then quickly turned to whisper to the security personnel, “Premier He is leaving soon. You must ensure the safety of the airport and the route to the airport. This work must be done quickly and securely…”

He Hailou hung up directly.

Secretary Fang holding the phone: “…” He decided to call back in half an hour.

On the grassland, just as He Hailou turned off his phone, Gu Chenzhou, who had gone out for a horse ride, returned on horseback. He glanced at He Hailou and smiled faintly: “Secretary Fang called?”

He Hailou snapped his fingers: “Good guess. Did you plant a bug?”

Gu Chenzhou said, “For you, is that necessary?”

Ooh… sharp. He Hailou eyed him: “Minister Gu’s secretary just called too, right?”

Gu Chenzhou gave a “Mmh” as an answer. As soon as the matter was concluded, Gu Xinjun had instructed his secretary to call. That was why Gu Chenzhou had returned so promptly. Seeing He Hailou answer a call and then turn off his phone from a distance, he only had to guess in the most likely direction to figure it out.

“Young Master Gu should be heading back, right?” He Hailou felt no pressure hanging up on Secretary Fang himself, but since Gu Chenzhou had also received a call, he knew perfectly well he couldn’t keep him.

“The matter has been concluded satisfactorily,” Gu Chenzhou said leisurely, dismounting from the horse in one fluid motion.

“I feel the trip is only halfway done,” He Hailou stated his attitude.

Gu Chenzhou looked up at the blue sky and the grassland, and after a while, smiled. “If Young Master He wants to travel, you can find anyone. Why find me to come along… for a trip?”

He Hailou walked up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gu Chenzhou. “Don’t you think all this is beautiful, Young Master Gu?”

Gu Chenzhou glanced at He Hailou. The smile on his lips seemed to retract slightly, then deepened again. “No matter how beautiful, it’s not as beautiful as the capital. Young Master He shares my sentiment, right?”

He Hailou looked at the vast, boundless azure sky for a long time.

Then he said, “Young Master Gu, we simply have too many shared sentiments…”

So many that looking at you is like looking at another version of myself in the mirror.