Chapter 33: People's Congress Representatives (Part 2)

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  Liu Jinwen has a bad temper, and Cui Xiuhuo is not a good person either. Two hot-tempered people met, and it was another impossible thing to reconcile, the degree of harmony in the atmosphere can be imagined.

  Fortunately, Zhou Dasan immediately led Liu Jinwen to Zhang Mulins office in a hurry, and did not mention the matter of buying sugar. Otherwise, Liu Jun would really find no excuse to shirk. He didnt want to miss a good show because of a few pieces of sugar.

  Liu Jinwen held his head high and puffed out his chest, looking as if he were attending a grand banquet, and he was the main character of this grand banquet.

  The road was bad, and the jeep had been back and forth for over 40 minutes. Cui Xiuhuo's hair was standing on end, his whole body was stifling, and Zhang Mulan was trained by him to be dizzy and numb, constantly whispering self-criticism. When he saw Liu Jinwen come in, Zhang Mulan let out a long sigh of relief.

  "Director Cui, this is Liu Jinwen from Liujia Mountain."

  Chui Xiuhuo's thick eyebrows suddenly stood on end, his eyes full of malice, and his expression was as if he wanted to swallow Wu Bo whole in one gulp.

  Liu Jinwen saw this momentum and gave him a cold look, without even saying hello.

  Zhang Mulin took a deep breath. He had originally known that this matter was not easy to handle, but he hadn't expected Liu Jinwen to have such an attitude. Cui Xiuhuo was a bit rough, and as the fourth-ranked deputy director of the county revolutionary committee, he held high power and authority. This old fellow Liu Jinwen was putting on too much airs.

  "Old Liu, this is Vice Director Cui of the County Revolutionary Committee. He has come to the commune specifically to understand the situation with your brigade's people's congress representatives..."

  Liu Jinwen said coldly: "Our regiment electing people's congress representatives is our own business, why should the county leaders worry about it?"

  They have made up their minds to elect Liu Jincai as a people's congress representative, and Liu Jintian is determined to make trouble. Even if Wang Benqing comes in person, he may not be given a good face, let alone Cui Xiuhuo.

  Just as Zhang Mulan was about to say something, a loud "bang" was heard, and Cui Xiuhao slapped the table with one palm, followed by an angry roar.

  "Liú Jìn Wén, you have quite a nerve!"

  As soon as they met, Cui Xiuhuo immediately had a fit, scaring Zhang Mulin and the others.

  Liu Jun secretly rolled his eyes and sighed outside the door. This Cui Xiuhuo really didn't make progress, last time at Hongqi Commune he got scolded too, but still refused to change his ways, still using this old trick of slapping the table and intimidating others.

  It's really no good for officials of this level of rebellion to always occupy such important positions!

  Liu Jinwen gave a cold glance at Deputy Director Cui, who was furious, and sat down without saying a word. Liu Jinwen was not originally someone who could keep his temper in check, but this was the result of prior discussion with Liu Jincan. It wasn't that they knew for sure that it would be Cui Xihe who came, but rather they had discussed what to do if the leader from the county government lost their temper - Liu Jinwen would use this tactic of cold indifference to respond.

  This trick may not have an obvious effect on others, but it has an immediate impact on Cui Xiuhuo.

  Even if Liu Jinwen confronted him on the spot and slammed his fist on the table, Cui Xiuhuo felt a little better. Liu Jinwen's attitude was that he didn't take Cui Xiuhuo seriously at all. How could Deputy Director Cui not be furious?

  "You... you said, this time the people's congress representative election in your Liu family village, what's going on?"

  Choi Soo-young became more and more flustered, while Ryu Jin-won remained calm.

  "Director Choi, is there anything illegal about the election of the people's representative from the Ryujia Mountain Brigade?"

  Wu Bo emphasized the word "deputy" when mentioning Cui's title, Deputy Director. However, compared to the two words that followed, "according to law", the emphasis on "deputy" had a negligible impact on Cui Xiuhao.

  At that time, grassroots cadres mostly talked about "whether it is reasonable" and "whether it conforms to policy", with a very weak sense of legality. Cui Xiuhao never expected the word "legal" to come out of the mouth of a rural branch secretary in his fifties.

  "What is legal?"

  Cui Xiuhuo subconsciously asked a sentence. As soon as the words came out, he himself felt a bit embarrassed. The deputy director of the county revolutionary committee, asking such a question, is it reasonable?

  Zhang Mulin and Zhou Gan both involuntarily turned their heads away, not letting Cui Xiuhuo see the awkward expressions on their faces.

  "Article 44 of the Constitution of our country stipulates..."

  Liu Jinwen said calmly and unhurriedly.

  This "Constitution" was found by Mr. Zhou, the 1978 edition of the "Constitution", which was officially promulgated on March 5th. Liu Jun, who had traveled back in time, wasn't very clear about this either.

  Chui Xiuhuo didn't let Liu Jinwen finish speaking, and turned to Zhang Mulan: "I'm asking you, who did your commune appoint as the People's Congress representative candidate for Liujia Mountain Brigade?"

  Zhang Mulan didn't want to get involved between Cui Xiuhuo and Liu Jinwen at all, but was forced to reply: "It's Liu Jinwen himself."

  Cui Xiuhuo hummed and asked Liu Jinwen: "Liu Zhibo, how many years have you been in the party?"

  Liu Jun heard Cui Xiuhao ask this outside the door and knew he was going to bypass the Constitution and use organizational discipline to justify his actions. In fact, before this, Cui Xiuhao had never encountered anyone who used the Constitution to reason with him.

  Liu Jinwen puffed out his chest and said proudly, "It's been 25 years, I joined the party when I was 53." He then asked back, "Which year did Deputy Director Cui join the party?"

  Liu Jun almost burst out laughing.

  This army is going to be fierce. Cui Xiuhuo is only around 43 or 44 years old this year, no matter how you calculate it, his party age can't be longer than that of the Fifth Uncle's.

  As expected, as soon as the topic turned to seniority, Cui Xiuhuo's momentum was somewhat dampened, and he sneered: "Liu Zhishu, you are an old party member, and you should be more familiar with the party's organizational discipline than I am. The commune has designated you as a candidate for the People's Congress, which is the trust of the party and the organization in you. How can you change it arbitrarily? Isn't this making a mockery of the party's organizational discipline?"

  "Deputy Director Cui, how can I take the party's organizational discipline as a joke? Electing Liu Jincai as a people's congress representative is not just my personal matter, it was decided by all members of the Liujiashan Brigade. Article 44 of our country's Constitution stipulates that citizens have the right to vote and be elected..."

  "The Constitution" is the best weapon against Choi Soon-sil.

  "You..."

  It was clear that Liu Jinwen was playing tricks, but he couldn't find a reason to refute. Cui Xiuhuo was so angry that she walked back and forth in the room, constantly drinking water.

  It has become a stalemate, and Zhang Mulan is extremely reluctant to intervene, but he can't help but do some mediating work as the host, advising Cui Xiuhuo that he doesn't dare, so he can only advise Liu Jinwen, who is after all his own subordinate.

  "This, the decision of the Jinwen branch book, all members of the Liujiashan brigade, we must respect. But the opinions of our superiors, can't be ignored either? You have a high prestige in Liujiashan, and the members trust you, everyone knows this..."

  Zhang Mulan is much more cunning than Cui Xiuhuo, and she starts by pouring a bowl of confusing soup first.

  Liu Jinwen didn't have a grudge against Zhang Mulan. As the saying goes, "a county official is not as good as a current manager", Liu Jinwen could compete with Cui Xiuhuo, but he couldn't afford to offend Zhang Mulan's face. Moreover, Zhang Mulan had no conflict with Jincai, so it was unnecessary to offend him too.

  "Director Zhang is praising me. I'm just a rural old servant, what prestige do I have?"

  "Virtue is respected and admired, virtue is respected and admired, haha..."

  In order to persuade Liu Jinwen, Zhang Mulan was somewhat outspoken and piled up pleasant words on him.

  "Jin Wen, you see, in the entire Xiangyang County, there hasn't been a case where a commune-designated candidate lost an election. This precedent is not good to set. The higher-ups know about this matter and severely criticized me, Zhang Mulan. You know, being the director is tough... How about you go back and do some work with the masses or get elected as a people's congress representative instead? Consider it doing me a favor, okay?"

  "Director Zhang, this is not easy to handle. It's not that I don't want to help you. If I were to do this job myself, it wouldn't be good either. Think about it, if the commune had nominated someone else as a candidate, I would still have an easy time talking to them. But since it was me who was nominated, and nobody elected me, how can I go and do the work? Director Zhang, we need to trust the masses, don't we? The masses elected Comrade Liu Jincai, they must think he's better than me."

  Liu Jun secretly praised in his heart. Wu Bo's several decades of being a bookkeeper were not in vain, and he spoke reasonably and logically, without leaving out a single detail.

  Zhang Mulan thought for a moment and said: "Jin Wen Zhishu, work still depends on you to do..."

  "Is this Liu Jincai a cadre of the Red Flag Commune? The Liujiashan production brigade elected him as a people's congress representative, is it suitable or not?"

  Choi Soo-hee said suddenly.

  This is indeed a problem, unfortunately Liu Jun had already thought of it and asked Liu Jincai to consult with Mr. Zhou and Yan Yucheng, Yan Yucheng also consulted with acquaintances in the county, and the reply was that there was no problem, Liu Jincai was fully qualified to be elected as a people's representative of Liusanjia Village. Otherwise, after making a fuss for half a day, ending up being "illegal" would not be worth it.

  But Zhang Mulan obviously didn't think about it that way. He was an old qualified grassroots administrative cadre, with experience coming naturally, but he only knew how to follow the instructions of his superiors and do things, and he was basically ignorant of the law.

  "It's better to call in Comrade Zhao, the head of the commune, and ask him about this."

  "Hurry up and go."

  Cui Xiuhuo waved his hand impatiently. He came to the Red Flag Commune with a stern order from Wang Benqing, and he had to wipe out Liu Jincan's people's representative. Wang Benqing did not want to encounter any more embarrassing scenes at the county people's congress. The voting results of the previous cadre conference and the county revolutionary committee meeting had already made Wang Benqing lose face, almost shaking his foundation in Xiangyang County. Even if Liu Jincan didn't make a sound at the people's congress, just the fact that he, a grassroots cadre who was suspended from duty for reflection, was elected as a people's representative was a significant blow to Wang Benqing. The leaders of Baozhou region would undoubtedly question his ability to control Xiangyang County. Once a county leader is questioned by superiors about their leadership abilities, the days they can stay in that position are numbered. Others might not say anything, but Zheng Xingyun would definitely seize this great opportunity.

  This time, if things can't be done, Cui Xiuhuo doesn't know how to face his "benefactor". Moreover, his own career is closely tied to Wang Benqing's, they rise and fall together, with no room for maneuver or evasion.

  Hongqi Commune People's Congress Chairman Zhao is an old man in his fifties, probably retired from the position of commune director. His attitude towards Cui Xiuhao was still passable, showing a certain degree of respect. Presumably he himself had no hope of making further progress, but his children and relatives would still have to ask Cui Xiuhao for help sometimes. No one would be so idle as to provoke the deputy director of the county revolutionary committee just for fun.

  "Director Choi, hello..."

  Chairman Zhao grasped Cui Xiuhao's hand with both hands and shook it vigorously.

  Chairman Zhao's flattery made Cui Xiuhuo feel a little better, regaining some of the good feelings he had towards the county leaders. So he didn't hurry to pull his hand back, letting Chairman Zhao shake it vigorously for a while before saying: "Chairman Zhao, Comrade Mulan should have told you already, right? How was it?"

  Chairman Zhao looked embarrassed.

  "This, Director Cui, Comrade Liu Jinchai was elected as the People's Congress representative of Liujia Mountain Brigade, procedurally... no big problem..."

  Choi Soo-hee irritably pulled out her hand and glared at Zhang Mu-lin.

  Zhang Mulan's scalp felt a chill run down it, and she couldn't help but look at Liu Jinwen with pleading eyes.

  Liu Jinwen steeled himself to make a scene, and no one's face would be spared. Even if Wang Benqing came in person, he would still be made to lose face. As for Zhang Mulan's plea for help, it was naturally directly ignored.

  "Since there's no problem with the program, Director Zhang, I'm going back now. Spring plowing and production are very busy."

  Liu Jinwen stood up, patted his butt, and walked out with a swing of his leg.

  Hehe, Wu Bo's action of patting his butt is also extremely cool!

  Liu Jun's idol list now includes Liu Jinwen's name.

  "Hey, Jinwen Zhi Shu, wait a minute..."

  Zhang Mulin saw Liu Jinwen about to leave and suddenly became anxious. Cui Xiuhuo rushed over from the county, but nothing was accomplished, and instead he was scolded by Liu Jinwen, who then left, leaving Cui Xiuhuo wondering how to deal with him.

  "Haha, Director Zhang, you public servants have an iron rice bowl, no worries about food and drink. We peasants can't afford to delay the farming season... If Deputy Director Cui has no objection, I'd like to ask for a small package car (local dialect of Liujia Mountain, referring to a Jeep) to send me back too..."