Power and Wealth

Chapter 1851

"Ah."

"What is this?"

"What's going on?"

"Why is the courtyard gone?"

"What the hell, the wall is gone too?"

Everyone was shocked, standing outside the new county committee courtyard, all dumbfounded, peering inside, looking around, wide-eyed and speechless. There was no way to explain it. This was a scene no one had expected. They never imagined they would see something like this.

It was gone.

The new county committee courtyard was gone.

How could this be? It was still here yesterday.

Many people knew about this, especially since many leaders had been here the morning before to arrange things. After all, they were moving the next day and had to set everything up in advance, assign departments to different offices, etc. Some department leaders had even fought over who would get the better offices with better light, and after much arguing, they finally reached a preliminary agreement. This was all from yesterday—how could anyone forget? Some departments had even put up their signs with labels like "Disciplinary Inspection Commission" and "Propaganda Department." But now, today, everything was gone—gone without a trace. No doors, no walls, no houses, no gardens.

In the blink of an eye, it had disappeared.

How could this be?

Now, the new county committee courtyard was empty. The little garden that had been there was even cleared, leaving only a patch of bumpy, uneven ground with scattered stones and dust. There wasn’t even a large stone left.

Had they encountered ghosts?

What was going on?@@@@

How could a magnificent courtyard disappear overnight?

"Director Cheng, I don’t understand what you’re talking about," Dong Xuebing responded.

"You're stalling for time, aren’t you? You took advantage of us not being here to tear down the new county committee courtyard, didn’t you, Secretary Dong?" Cheng Wei was furious.

Hearing this, Zhang Dongfang and Meng Hanmei didn’t say a word. Maybe they had already thought of the same possibility.

But Dong Xuebing just scoffed, even laughing out loud. He looked at Cheng Wei with great interest and said, "Director Cheng, I understand you've been working in the Disciplinary Committee, so I won’t blame you for not knowing the situation. But as a citizen, at the very least, I think you should have some basic common sense, right? The investigation team has only been here for a few hours, maybe just one hour. Fine, let’s not talk about when everyone arrived—let's start from when the provincial TV station news reported it. It's only been two hours, maybe a bit more. Let’s take a step back. Even if we consider when the information was posted online, it’s only been a little over three hours. Director Cheng, I'll give you three hours. If you can tear down the county committee courtyard in that time and remove the rubble, I’ll bow to you.”

Dong Xuebing was trying to embarrass them.

The others weren’t completely clear about the situation, so they weren’t sure what to believe.

However, a professional was among the provincial investigation team. That person stepped forward and said, "Director Cheng, let me take a look."

Cheng Wei nodded, "Go ahead, take a look."

The young man, who appeared to be from the construction department, crouched down to inspect the traces of the demolished walls and then looked at the remaining bits of the buildings inside. After a moment, he concluded and said to Cheng Wei, "Director Cheng, although I can't be too precise, based on the buildings in the photos, to completely demolish these walls, gardens, and houses, and also transport the waste away, even with all the equipment and manpower available, it would be impossible to complete in just three or four hours. Not to mention three or four hours—at the very least, demolition would have to start last night and continue through the night without stopping. Only then would there be a slight chance of finishing. Otherwise, there’s no way the time would be enough."

Cheng Wei was stunned. "Are you sure?"

The young man was certain. "I’m sure. This is what I do. There's no mistake. Although this kind of demolition doesn’t require blasting like a multi-story building, it is still quite complicated. It’s not just about using bulldozers to push everything down. It requires a lot of time. I can’t be sure it will take over ten hours, but I can tell you that it will be impossible to finish in three or four hours. Even a professional construction team from the province couldn’t do it. At the very least, the demolition would have had to start last night and continue nonstop."

His conclusion was naturally trustworthy since he was a professional from the province and had no bias towards Jiaolin County.

Everyone who heard this was left stunned.

If that’s the case, demolishing the new county committee courtyard must have started last night.

How could that be? Last night, there hadn’t been any reports on the website yet. There was no news from the provincial TV station either, and no one from the investigation team had arrived to conduct any investigations. Did Secretary Dong give the order to demolish it? But how could he have known that such a big deal would happen the next day? How could he have anticipated this situation and ordered the demolition in advance? The post on the website—was it him who posted it? That’s even more impossible. Did Secretary Dong have nothing better to do and stir things up for no reason, creating trouble for himself and even leaking information about it?