After passing the civil service exam, Shen Zhixing was assigned to the most troublesome department in the district: the Demolition Office.
On his first day, the beautiful section chief, visibly pregnant, handed over her work. “Keep a close eye on the case in Putao Village.”
That night, he opened the case files. The more he read, the more alarmed he became.
The land was collectively owned, yet the stated basis for its acquisition applied only to state-owned land. There was no land acquisition approval, no authorization paperwork.
This was a serious procedural violation. They were bound to lose in court.
And the unlawful expropriation order bore the name of the deputy director in charge.
What chilled him even more was that the hearing was only twenty days away.
Clutching the files, Shen Zhixing looked out at the brightly lit office building.
Was this just a mistake, or was someone covering something up?
He had no idea that the compound he had stepped into was calm on the surface, but full of undercurrents beneath.
And the first lesson of his career wasn’t writing reports or visiting sites.
It was exposing the hole no one else dared to touch.
