Super Soldier in the City

Chapter 2500 - 2564: What a Ripoff

"You don’t need to be afraid, District Chief Yue. Your analysis isn’t bad, but, well, there are always accidents. Even if I can’t take you down, someone else will!" Li Yifei shrugged carelessly and said, "I’ve heard that in the nearly ten years you’ve been district chief, you’ve embezzled quite a lot of money, harmed a lot of people, done plenty of illegal things. I figure those victims will be more than happy to see you fall. Who knows how many people will be popping champagne when that happens!"Thump—District Chief Yue’s heart exploded in his chest like a sledgehammer had smashed into it, making his teeth tremble. For a long moment he didn’t know how to respond. Since Li Yifei had said it out loud, he knew the man was serious. No wonder all these cops had flipped, no wonder they dared to pull something like this.

Yue Liang and the others weren’t stupid. Hearing the exchange between Li Yifei and District Chief Yue, Wang Gang knew the district chief was finished—and he was probably finished too. Su Meng’s face went dead white; he plopped down on the floor, unable to believe what he was seeing. As for Yue Liang and his friends, same thing. They weren’t that old, but they understood human speech. Seeing the other side this arrogant, to the point of blowing up District Chief Yue over this, who among them still dared to make a sound.

Yue Liang’s lips trembled, his eyes went blank, and he kept muttering, "It’s over, it’s over."

Of course it was over. As Li Yifei was speaking his phone vibrated. He took it out and saw an unfamiliar number, but local. He picked up, and a respectful voice came through, saying, "Hello, is this Mr. Li?"

"Yeah, this is him."

"Hello, Mr. Li, I’m Hu Guangsheng. I’ve arrived at the hospital with people from the Discipline Inspection Commission. Is it convenient on your side? I’ll bring them up."

Hu Guangsheng was the local mayor. As soon as Li Yifei heard the name, he remembered. The man had personally come leading the team—looked like this guy was tied to the Provincial Governor. In order not to let Li Yifei blow things up, the Provincial Governor had rushed to send his own man to calm him down.

Since the other side was here, Li Yifei didn’t want to waste more time. He said, "Okay, come on up. The people have already been secured."

"Good, good, we’re coming up right now. Mr. Li, please wait a moment." The other side hung up. With that tone and attitude, he could practically be called deferential to Li Yifei. Once he hung up, Hu Guangsheng immediately led his people upstairs. A mayor personally leading Discipline Inspection Commission officers to make an arrest—this was extremely rare, which showed just how formidable Li Yifei was.

District Chief Yue jolted, lifted his head, his eyes full of venom. He snarled, "Li Yifei, what the fuck do you think you are, you think being the richest man makes you hot shit? Let me tell you, this is the ***’s country. No matter how much money you’ve got, you can’t call the shots in officialdom!"

"Is that so?" Li Yifei nodded. "You’re still well within my reach."

"Impossible. A straight body fears no crooked shadow. You can’t touch me. At most I’m in the wrong on this incident, but it wasn’t on my orders. Even if they investigate, it won’t trace back to me." District Chief Yue’s mouth was still hard.

"So clean and upright, huh? Then where did your son’s eight-million-plus sports car come from? And the villa? As far as I know, your wife doesn’t work and doesn’t do business. Your son is just some Second-Generation Heir. That villa and that sports car money—did a gust of wind blow it in?" Li Yifei said with open contempt.

District Chief Yue’s tone hitched. He drew a breath, his voice dropping significantly. "So what? I’m not allowed to have relatives and friends? I’m not allowed to accept gifts?"

"Sure, tell that to the Discipline Inspection Commission. Yue Buqun, I’d say your good days are over." Li Yifei laughed loudly.

Yue Buqun still wanted to hit back, but his gaze slid toward the stairs. A group of people were pounding up. He immediately didn’t know what to say, because he recognized the man at the front—not just recognized, they were very familiar. It was none other than Hu Guangsheng.

Hu Guangsheng had already heard the two men’s conversation just now, and his expression was extremely ugly. To provoke Li Yifei over something like this was simply a scandal, and it had gone straight up to the Provincial Governor. The Governor had already chewed him out over the phone earlier: under his watch there were actually officials like this, and he’d been in office for over a decade. If that wasn’t his negligence, what was?

Hu Guangsheng’s face looked awful. He couldn’t blame Li Yifei; given the man’s status... he didn’t dare mess around. He could only vent at District Chief Yue. This bastard had entrenched himself in the new development zone for years, not because Hu Guangsheng didn’t want to move him, but because the man had someone above him. Hu Guangsheng wasn’t in a position to move him—and couldn’t. He couldn’t just recklessly offend big shots at the provincial level over a measly district chief’s seat in a development zone; that went against his whole way of doing things.

Fuck, what the hell is all this. But fine, serves you right for not knowing when to rein it in. Now you’ve pissed off someone you never should’ve touched!

That was what was going through Hu Guangsheng’s head. In front of Li Yifei, his attitude was of course another story. As soon as he arrived, he strode quickly up to Li Yifei, hand extended early, his face apologetic as he said, "Mr. Li, I’m very sorry we’re late."

Li Yifei didn’t mind. He shook Hu Guangsheng’s hand and smiled. "Not late—just in time. I’ll have to trouble Mayor Hu with what comes next."

"It’s what we should do. We should be thanking you, Mr. Li, for taking action and helping our city remove a tumor." Hu Guangsheng also smiled. The guy’s nickname was "Smiling Tiger"—looked friendly, but a knife was hidden behind the smile; nobody knew whether he’d draw the blade the next second. Of course, to Li Yifei, whether he was a smiling tiger or not didn’t matter, as long as he handled this properly.

The cops on the side were all stirred up, not only eye-opened, but it felt damned satisfying. See that? This was someone truly badass—could treat a district chief like nothing, could make one phone call and have the Provincial Governor send the mayor over to clean up a district chief... Bit of a mouthful, but it was badass as hell. In a whole lifetime, never mind getting to that level, just reaching one-tenth of it would be enough.

As for District Chief Yue, his expression was a little vacant, like he’d been traumatized. He clearly hadn’t expected things to turn out like this. He’d had zero psychological prep. When he saw how Hu Guangsheng was acting after he came in, it was like a thunderclap inside Yue’s skull. It’s over. I’m done. This time I really fucked myself.

He’d usually shown respect to Hu Guangsheng, but not quite to the level of genuine regard—just because of rank. During standing committee meetings and such, District Chief Yue was in the free-floating camp, not clearly under either the Municipal Committee or the Municipal Government. Now that Hu Guangsheng had come in and directly labeled him a tumor, it was truly over.

Tumor... Heh, I’ve become a tumor. Those two words kept exploding in District Chief Yue’s mind, and he only felt it was full of irony.

Wang Gang knew he was done as well. Mayor Hu Guangsheng hadn’t just come himself, he’d brought Discipline Inspection Commission staff, and the Discipline Inspection Commission secretary himself was leading the team. And he, a Sub-bureau Chief, still thought he’d walk away? What kind of international joke was that...

Yue Liang’s mouth worked; he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He wasn’t stupid. Seeing this scene, he knew his old man was finished, and once District Chief Yue went down, he’d go down with him.

As for Su Meng... The official career that had been smooth sailing just a moment ago suddenly turned into a cliff. With District Chief Yue toppled, what chance did a mere secretary have of making a comeback? No, comeback my ass. These past two years, a lot of what District Chief Yue did had been carried out by Su Meng as his representative. Now that the boss had fallen, the secretary was going to get off scot-free?

Thinking of this, Su Meng’s body swayed and he toppled over with a thud. Of course, nobody went to help him. Everyone in the room had their own worries, and those cops clearly didn’t have that kind of kindness.

"Then I’ll trouble you, Mayor Hu," Li Yifei said.

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all. Mr. Li, I’ll handle the situation here first. Tomorrow night, if you’re free, I’d like to find a good place to host you."

Li Yifei nodded. "Sure, I’ll definitely impose on Mayor Hu then."

"Not imposing at all. A distinguished guest like you—I’d welcome you every day," said Hu Guangsheng.

The two of them practically didn’t even look at District Chief Yue, or rather, in their eyes he wasn’t even a person anymore. It wasn’t like Hu Guangsheng didn’t know what he’d been up to; even if he didn’t know every single deed, there was more than enough there to give him a hell of a headache. And even if he knew nothing, once the Discipline Inspection Commission dug in, all of it would be laid bare.

There’s nothing truly hidden under the sun; shine light on it and everything reveals itself. Besides, taking this opportunity to remove District Chief Yue would let Hu Guangsheng reclaim the new development zone, at least in terms of the appointment power he was very likely to get it back. So it wasn’t all bad, even if he had been scolded by the Provincial Governor once.

Making mistakes isn’t what’s frightening; what matters is correcting them afterward. What really displeases the leaders is making mistakes and then refusing to change.

Li Yifei didn’t stand on ceremony with Hu Guangsheng. He had Zhao Tiezhu go with him to handle things, gave a few instructions, and then prepared to head back to Xu Zhenguo’s side.

"Boss Golden Eagle, doing things for you is a rush!" The cops all came to see him off. Li Yifei chuckled and said, "Don’t go anywhere later. Stick with Brother Tiezhu. I’ve got something to take care of. When I’m done, we’ll go drink."

Li Yifei wasn’t about to forget these new friends he’d just made. **************, these guys were no butchers of dogs, but they weren’t so viciously evil either. They were basically just ordinary people. Maybe they did some things regular folks couldn’t accept, but... sometimes it was precisely because they’d seen too much of society’s dark side that they’d sunk into the muck and couldn’t pull themselves out.

Right now Li Yifei didn’t want to look at that side of them. Just for what they’d done today, he still wanted to thank them—from the bottom of his heart.

As for the consequences they might face, maybe what they’d done would leave some officials displeased. But Li Yifei would absolutely get everything arranged properly tomorrow; he couldn’t let people like Hu Guangsheng come after them afterward.

In such a rigid system, what they’d done did indeed count as breaking the rules, which rubbed people the wrong way. Once word of this got out, it was bound to stir up controversy.

Hearing what Li Yifei said, the cops were all nodding and cheering over one another, responding enthusiastically.

Hu Guangsheng heard this as well, and he nodded slightly, who knew what he was thinking. As for District Chief Yue, he stood there like a wooden chicken, feeling as if his whole body had gone numb. His head was fuzzy, his thoughts grinding to a halt.

He was a tumor, a piece of rat shit, and so he had to be cut out.