Official Career Storm
Chapter 359

Chapter 359: Chapter 359

Song Guanchao picked a table outside and sat down, saying, "Ask your brother how much longer he’ll be."

"Oh."

Zeng Li made a call, "Bro, when are you coming? We’re already here. Brother Song said if you don’t come soon, he’ll go check into a hotel with me."

"..." Song Guanchao couldn’t be bothered to speak. This girl sometimes went crazy and acted all abnormal.

After ending the call, Zeng Li said with a grin, "He said one of the soldiers just took a dump in the bushes and got bit in the ass by a snake. He’s sending him to the hospital now. He’ll come over after handling that."

"Alright, let’s eat first then."

He and Zeng Yingrong were close friends, not strangers, so there wasn’t much fuss.

He grabbed the menu and started ticking off items quickly.

Meat skewers, kidneys, chicken wings—ten of each to start.

He’d eat his fill first, and then continue when Zeng Yingrong arrived.

When the skewers were served, Song Guanchao asked, "You have a driver’s license, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You’ll drive later tonight."

Song Guanchao then ordered a case of cold beer.

Skewers have to be paired with beer, white liquor just wouldn’t do.

The skewers at this place really tasted great—ample meat, fresh, and the seasoning was spot on.

No wonder this place did so well despite its remote location.

It wasn’t long after dark that the place was packed.

After they had nearly finished eating, Song Guanchao checked the time, "When is your brother coming?"

"I’ll ask."

Just as Zeng Li took out her phone, several SUVs suddenly drove over.

The vehicles climbed the curb and stopped right in front of the food stall.

The doors opened and a group of tattooed, buzz-cut men in floral T-shirts got out, took clubs from the trunk, and without a word started smashing the row of food stalls.

The stall’s doors were deformed from the smashing, and empty stands at the entrance were flipped over, glass from windows shattered all over the ground.

Seeing this, the eating customers hurriedly kept their distance, not daring to get close.

Zeng Li exclaimed with wide eyes, "What are they doing?"

Song Guanchao held her back and gently shook his head, then took out his phone to record the scene.

These people, disregarding the pleas of the shop owners, smashed their way through, got back in their cars, and drove off, all in one swift and very targeted operation.

Most of the food stalls were family-run; the male owners sighed and lamented as they cleaned up, while the female owners cried and wiped their tears, but no one called the police.

Witnessing this, Song Guanchao felt somewhat puzzled.

He picked up his phone to pay and took the opportunity to ask, "Boss, what’s going on? Are these thugs really that bold now?"

The male owner replied with a bitter smile, "Demolition."

Song Guanchao inquired, "Demolition in this area?"

"It’s not exactly demolition, more like land requisition."

"Land requisition?" Song Guanchao offered a cigarette, "What’s going on?"

The male owner had a lot of grievances, and once Song Guanchao asked, he opened up.

"I heard the city’s high-speed rail is supposed to pass through our county, and it seems they’ve planned it right through this area. These people come by every few days to cause trouble, forcing us to sell our houses."

Song Guanchao was stunned.

He knew about the high-speed rail project.

But Mr. He started from scratch with surveys, and the county’s five districts hadn’t even been surveyed completely; how could they have already started requisitioning land?

You see, surveying and identifying the area come first, followed by land requisition.

Dujiang County, on the other hand, hadn’t even settled on a location yet and had already skipped to the next step?

This was utterly nonsensical.

Song Guanchao asked, "I heard the high-speed rail route isn’t finalized yet. Why the land requisition already?"

The man sighed, "Finalized or not, isn’t it all just up to the county magistrate? Besides, our county is so small and there are only a few places it could possibly be built."

A realization dawned on Song Guanchao.

"Are these people official?"

"Who knows."

The man smoked his cigarette down to the filter, drew a couple of hard puffs before tossing it away, "Official or not doesn’t make a difference. It’s all forced buying and selling anyway. As long as the house isn’t sold, we can’t run our business."

"No police?"

"Why didn’t you report it? But it’s useless even if you did," said the man with a deep sigh. He looked towards the factory that had turned off its lights in the distance, "Our loss isn’t too big; worst case scenario, we sell the house, and lose some money. But those factories are really unlucky, I heard these people forced all the factories to shut down, and the workers can’t work now."

"There was a factory that just opened this month. They reportedly spent hundreds of millions just on equipment and hired quite a few people. All that money’s down the drain now because of this mess."

Song Guanchao furrowed his brows, "Reporting to the police did no good?"

"It’s fucking useless! They’re all colluding!"

Song Guanchao nodded silently and asked no further.

He returned to the table and said, "Let’s go."

"Where to?"

"Just around here."

He had only eaten a little, but this situation had killed his appetite.

He knew Secretary Tu was intentionally allowing Lu Xiaotian to create trouble to set up County Magistrate Hou.

But he thought that aside from Lu Xiaotian, Dujiang County didn’t have any major issues.

He realized he was greatly mistaken.

Secretary Tu wasn’t just indulging Lu Xiaotian; he was letting the whole of Dujiang County run wild!

Song Guanchao was unclear about what inextricable conflict he and County Magistrate Hou had.

But if you want to seek revenge, don’t drag the whole county’s people down with you!

In his eyes, such a person didn’t deserve to be an official!

Zeng Li could feel that Song Guanchao was in a terrible mood.

They walked along the curb towards the distant factories.

He had been wondering why these factories had shut off their lights so early.

Factories usually operate around the clock.

Now he understood.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to work; they were forced not to.

They arrived outside a food processing factory.

The large iron gate was dented and clearly had been smashed.

Several SUVs were parked in the factory yard, the same model as those driven by the hooligans they had seen before.

Lights were on in a nearby house, and people inside could be seen talking.

Probably discussing land acquisition matters.

No, not land acquisition.

The high-speed rail route hadn’t been confirmed yet; they were buying land now, in private names.

Once the land was purchased, the county would issue a land acquisition notice, and they would resell it for several times the difference in compensation.

They continued walking forward.

Suddenly, Song Guanchao saw a black sedan parked outside another factory.

A familiar figure got out of the car.

"Hey, looks like Wu Ming," Zeng Li murmured.

Song Guanchao recognized him too, it really was Wu Ming.

What was he doing here?

They quickly followed him.

When they reached the gate and looked in, several SUVs were parked in the yard.

Next to the cars, a folding table was set up with beer and marinated dishes, around which seven or eight local thugs were smoking, drinking, and having a good time.

Wu Ming walked over and said something to one of them, and that man led him into the factory.

Song Guanchao’s brows furrowed, what was going on here?

Was Wu Ming also trying to get a piece of the action?

With his family background, would he care about such small money?

While he was pondering this, suddenly there was a shout from inside the factory.

"Release them immediately, or I’m calling the police!"

Right after he spoke, Song Guanchao heard his scream.

He got beaten!

So, the kid wasn’t in cahoots with them; he was here to rescue someone.

"You stay in the car."

Dropping this line, Song Guanchao strode into the factory.

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