Chapter Eighty-Five Help Out

  Hei Zi took his brothers to play around the village and town every day, while he and Zhuo Xiao Fei drove to their own mine and ore dressing plant. When they arrived, they found that everything was in order under the management of Da Kui. As soon as Da Kui saw Hei Zi arrive, he handed over all the accounts and bills to him. Hei Zi didn't even look at them before throwing them to Zhuo Xiao Fei and saying: "Xiao Fei, calculate it and see how much money we can get back."

  Xiao Fei finally got the result after an hour of calculation, the steel company in the county town owed over 30 million, following the usual practice, these debts could be settled for around 23-24 million. Two private ore processing plants owed over 10 million, all of which were debts that Hei Zi had not collected during his absence.

  It's rare for private mines to be pressed for money, and Heizi asked Da Kui strangely: "Da Kui, why didn't you tell me that they were pressing so much money?"

  Da Gui smiled and said, "Hei Ge, they've been dealing with us for over a year and have never owed us money. This time, their funds are tight, so I took the initiative to let them owe it first, and we agreed to settle in two months."

  Hei Zi was a bit worried, but he knew that if he trusted Da Gui to watch the mine entrance, then everything here would depend on him.

  After settling the account, Heizi made a few more rounds in several nearby villages and visited some hoodlum friends to get an idea of what had been going on recently in the open-pit mining area.

  A dozen or so of Hei Zi and Zhuo Xiao Fei were startled, in the several months they withdrew, several big things happened in the open-pit mine area, a few people died from fighting over mines, the steel company was robbed by these thugs to the point of being unbearable and reported to the police, the police took action several times with no results, the city deployed riot police, several big thugs ran away, now those who steal and rob mines are just ordinary villagers and small-time hooligans.

  The chaos in the mining area is most evident, where not only are mixed children fighting for mines, but also villagers from more than a dozen nearby villages are stealing and robbing. A village director who knew Hei Zi once told him that he was elected as the village director because he dared to lead the villagers to rob the mine. He even said with a straight face: "Relying on the mountain to eat, brothers bringing everyone to do some sideline business, what's wrong with that? The country has policies biased towards rural areas, and the mine should support us in doing sideline business."

  These days, many people hire workers to dig tunnels from the outside of the open-pit mine along the ore vein, directly excavating the tunnel under the open-pit mine for mining. It seems that no one is in charge of this, and the rascals all advise Hei Zi to also hire someone to dig a few tunnels. This kind of tunnel has low costs, 100% output, and no risk.

  Xiao Fei was moved by what he had been told. He advised Heizi to take action immediately, and by the time the open-pit mine realized the danger of this matter, they would have already made a profit.

  Hei Zi thought for a moment, shook his head and said: "Xiao Fei, this matter is too dangerous, we can't do it. However, if we could get the mining map near the open-pit mine area, digging a vertical well to mine on the side of the mining area would be a good idea."

  Hei Zi returned to the small town and told Zhuo Xiao Fei about his thoughts in detail. With the New Year's Day just passing, Zhao Bin would be back soon, so it was a good opportunity to visit Zhao Wei Guo more often. The geological map of the open-pit mine should be in the technical department of the iron ore mine.

  It's almost Chinese New Year, the busiest time for people in the country. The number of people visiting relatives and friends is increasing, and so are those who visit their leaders' homes. Ouyang Shou sat on the sofa in the hotel, lost in thought. He had been under double rules for 20 days, a period that was usually the busiest time of the year.

  These days, Ouyang Shou thought a lot. He recalled the year he graduated from school and returned to his hometown, remembered being appreciated by the leader and becoming the secretary of the Youth League Committee, and remembered when the district changed to a town, he became the mayor.

  His struggles in the official circles made him realize the power of money, and he tried every means to get it. On the road paved with gold, he moved forward all the way, becoming vice mayor and then mayor one after another. Recently, there was news that personnel changes were taking place at the municipal level, and he would enter a functional department in the city government. The path to becoming vice mayor had already been laid out before him.

  What puzzled Ouyang Shou was how the thief had discovered his safe, without money he couldn't get promoted, but this money was a noose around his neck that could tighten at any time.

  Ouyang Shou has always been low-key, he can't figure out why thieves would steal from his home, is this the so-called fate?

  Feng Hongfu pushed the door open and came in when Ouyang Shou was deep in thought. Feng Hongfu put the notebook on the tea table and said, "Ouyang Shou, you've also explained a lot over the past few days. Can you tell me about what happened in the small town?"

  Ouyang Shou looked at Feng Hong and forced a smile, saying: "Alright."

  Ouyang Shou lived a very ordinary and smooth life in the small town, except for the time when he was promoted to deputy head of the district, he had always been diligent and conscientious, never doing anything that would harm the townspeople.

  When mentioning Cheng Heizi, Ouyang Shou was taken aback. He wondered how the Discipline Inspection Commission knew about Cheng Heizi. Feng Hongfu looked at the astonished Ouyang Shou and said: "It's nothing much, Cheng Heizi is involved in another case. I want to understand him. If your confession is helpful to us, it can also be considered as a meritorious performance for you."

  Ouyang Shou didn't think much of Feng Hongfu's words, he just said everything he knew. Feng Hongfu listened and smiled: "I heard that he runs a public transportation company?"

  Ouyang Shou nodded and said: "Yes, but it's been sealed off for the past few days."

  "Is this bus company operating illegally?" Feng Hongfu asked.

  Ouyang Shou shook his head and said: "I don't know, I heard it was sealed by the criminal police team. They are highway bandits, and I don't know the specific situation either."

  After leaving Ouyang Shou's house, Feng Hongfu realized that the closure of Hei Zi's bus company must be related to Ouyang Shou. Otherwise, a district head would not care about a bus company with only a dozen or so vehicles.

  There are still more than ten days before the Spring Festival, Feng Hongfu and Zhao Zhongcheng came to the small town. They arrived at the public transportation company in the company of the mayor and asked questions to all the staff members. Then they conducted an investigation among the residents of the small town.

  The investigation results made them suspicious, the criminal police team had evidence that Heizi and others were indeed highway robbers, but the employees of the bus company and the townspeople had never heard of the bus company having any behavior of cheating, robbing, smashing cars and beating people.

  The townspeople are very resentful of the bus company being shut down. Since the bus company's buses stopped running, private cars have no fixed schedule, and there have been cases of overcharging passengers and fighting for customers. The private buses even had a few fights over competing for passengers. The townspeople are all wondering why the bus company's buses just won't run.

  Yue Jin, the town head, had been following Feng Hongfu and Zhao Zhongcheng during their investigation. The results of the past few days' investigation made him very uncomfortable.

  Feng Hongfu and Zhao Zhongcheng only mentioned that this matter might be related to Ouyang Shou when they left, without saying anything else.

  Yue Jin couldn't figure out why two people from the Discipline Inspection Commission would suddenly come to investigate this matter. Logically speaking, this matter had nothing to do with Ou Yang Shou. The only explanation was that Cheng Heizi had someone backing him up, and these two people were using the case as an excuse to help him.

  Yue Jin found out that things were not as simple as he thought after making some inquiries through his connections in the district. Several police officers at the district bureau had also been taken away for investigation, reportedly in connection with Ouyang Shou's case. If what those two people said was true, then Peng Fei would be in trouble soon.