Chapter 157: The Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission's Working Group Enters Xiashui Town!

"Comrade Yanqing, take our working group members and head directly to Xiashui Town right now!"

Sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, Yang Dong made a direct phone call to Lv Yanqing.

At the Kaiyang County Discipline Inspection Commission guesthouse, Lv Yanqing was not surprised to receive the call from Yang Dong.

Yang Dong had already instructed him yesterday that the Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission investigation team should be prepared to go to Xiashui Town at any moment.

He had also expressed unconditional obedience, waiting solely for Yang Dong's command.

Now the call had arrived.

"Understood, Comrade Yang Dong. I will lead a few people to Xiashui Town right now."

Lv Yanqing nodded and agreed.

"When you arrive in Xiashui Town, go straight to the town's secretary for discipline inspection and order him to unconditionally cooperate with our municipal discipline inspection work."

"If he dares to defy this, do not show him any courtesy; our discipline inspection team will take direct control of the operations."

Yang Dong's temper was fiery, and his attitude even more aggressive.

Yet, reaching such a decision was not solely because of the incident involving his mother, Du Yuxiang.

No one understood the situation in Xiashui Town better than he did.

What problems plagued the officials of Xiashui Town?

Which officials were corrupt? Which officials were colluding with Zhao Pengcheng's case?

In truth, Yang Dong knew better than anyone.

Originally, Yang Dong had no wish to push matters to the extreme, hoping to leave a shred of dignity and restraint for the local officials of his hometown.

Yet now, it seemed maintaining superficial decency was no longer an option.

And this was not merely because his mother, Du Yuxiang, had been physically struck.

It was because the law enforcement environment in Xiashui Town was utterly atrocious.

His mother falling victim to such an incident was merely a microcosm of the town's toxic atmosphere.

Last month, when he came to Xiashui Town because of his younger brother Yang Nan's fractured leg, the Xiashui Town police station had already plumbed new depths of depravity.

The work ethics and attitudes of those frontline police officers had left a profound and indelible "impression" on him.

And today, the Xiashui Town Administration for Industry and Commerce law enforcement office had once again made him witness their overbearing enforcement attitude and wretched working environment.

Even if it was irregular for street vendors to peddle goods from door to door without a business license, the proper course of action was simply to drive them away.

After all, common folk struggled to earn a meager living to support their families; it was never easy.

Was there any necessity to both confiscate their goods and physically assault them?

This had reached the absolute peak of depravity!

No, this had crossed the line into criminality!

Had the five grand characters of "Serving the People" completely faded away in Xiashui Town?

Yang Dong was thinking of far more than just the grievance suffered by his mother alone.

He believed that all the ordinary citizens of Xiashui Town must have encountered even greater injustices.

Such a noxious and corrupt trend could never be allowed to spread any further in Xiashui Town.

As it happened, Mayor Hou Yong was visiting Kaiyang County for an inspection today.

The municipal discipline inspection working group could take this opportunity to enter Xiashui Town without having a direct confrontation with Mayor Hou Yong.

Let the mayor conduct his inspection while he pursued his own investigations.

While this decision of his could hardly be called brilliant, it was at the very least a strategy serving both ends.

It allowed him to avoid the mayor while simultaneously fulfilling the task assigned by Guan Mushan.

After hanging up the phone, Yang Dong turned his head to look at his mother sitting in the back seat, asking with a face full of tender concern, "Mom, is any part of your body feeling uncomfortable? Would you like to go to the township health center for a check-up?"

"My eldest son, Mom is fine. It's just such a pity about the bicycle and the fish."

"And the money I made from selling the fish was also confiscated by the industry and commerce law enforcement office."

Mentioning this, Du Yuxiang was filled with burning anger.

She had previously argued with the law enforcement office precisely over this money, feeling that they had gone too far—not only confiscating her fish and her bicycle, but even seizing the money she had earned from her sales.

At one yuan per catty of fish, she had sold over twenty yuan worth.

This was by no means a trivial sum; at least in the countryside, twenty-odd yuan could sustain a family for several days.

Yet the personnel from the law enforcement office were not only overbearing but completely unreasonable.

Especially their deputy director, that middle-aged woman, who had acted with utter arrogance, looking down from her high horse to curse her as rural trash.

Those were deeply humiliating and hurtful words.

Unable to swallow her anger, she had argued back a few words.

Naturally, her own words could hardly have sounded pleasant either.

Consequently, the opposing deputy director—that middle-aged woman—walked straight up and delivered a vicious slap across her face.

Before she could dodge in time, she was struck.

The deputy director of the industry and commerce office still wanted to continue beating her, and it was only because two other enforcement officers stepped in, persuading and holding her back, that the furious female deputy director was finally stopped.

Yet Du Yuxiang remained boiling with rage; she had never been hit in her entire life.

She ended up dropping her son's name.

However, she did not reveal what her son did or what rank he held; she still possessed that basic level of discretion.

She merely stated that her son was a university graduate who had walked out of this very town, had once been the county's top scorer in the college entrance examination, and now worked within the official system.

Even the town leaders knew her son.

She warned them that she would tell her son all about their enforcement attitude today.

The female deputy director had worn a look of utter indifference, mocking her by saying, "What the hell does your son count for? He knows the town leaders? What a magnificent braggart."

"I am a town leader myself. Go ahead and have your son come over! Let me take a look at which bastard he is!"

Wasn't that speech utterly outrageous?

Yet those were the exact words spoken by the deputy director of the industry and commerce law enforcement office.

A low-ranking grassroots official who wasn't even at the deputy section chief level.

"Don't worry, Mom. Whatever they swallowed down, they will have to spit right back out for me!"

Hearing his mother's account, Yang Dong comforted her.

This matter would certainly not end here.

Anyone audacious enough to strike his mother had simply grown tired of living.

Even an ordinary man possesses a flash of fury, let alone Yang Dong.

If not for constraints regarding his current identity, he would have made that middle-aged woman regret her actions on the spot!

From childhood to adulthood, no one had ever laid a finger on his mother; who did that woman think she was?

Even if his mother selling fish violated town government regulations, was it a crime?

Which law stipulated that selling fish from door to door in the town was forbidden? Whose interests had she harmed?

And resorting to violence? Was that not the crime of intentional assault?

Yang Dong secretly resolved that if he failed to resolve this matter properly, he would not be worthy of being called a man.

"Um..."

At that moment, village party secretary Yang Haomin, who had remained silent the entire time, finally attempted to interrupt the conversation between mother and son.

"Uncle Yang, please speak."

Du Yuxiang looked at village secretary Yang Haomin with a smile on her face.

She treated Yang Haomin with great courtesy.

For no matter what happened in the village, whether major or minor affairs, one inevitably had to beg Yang Haomin for assistance.

After all, he was the smallest grassroots leader in the country—a village cadre!

Yet a village cadre was still a leader holding authority in his hands.

Since ancient times, commoners felt a head shorter when facing officials; this was something inherited deep within their genes, impossible to alter.

Everyone detested officials, yet everyone yearned to become one.

"Sister-in-law of the Yang family, what kind of official is your son anyway?"

"My great-nephew, you certainly carry quite an imposing aura! Just now, our town party secretary and town mayor personally came over to offer their apologies to you."

"I didn't even dare get out of the car; I stayed cowering inside the vehicle, terrified that those two leaders might spot me."

"My great-nephew, what on earth is your job? Weren't you working in the municipal government office?"

Yang Haomin was not only consumed by curiosity, but he desperately wanted to know the truth.

As a village secretary, his mind was far from dull; in fact, he was exceptionally shrewd.

His intuition told him that Yang Dong was no ordinary person.

There was actually no harm in Yang Dong revealing his identity now; his No. 10 Special Investigation Team had already concluded its case, and as long as confidentiality did not breach the case itself, it mattered little.

"Uncle Yang, I currently work at the Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission, and I am the head of the municipal discipline inspection working group stationed here in Kaiyang County to handle official business!"