Chen Shu is reassigned from the Provincial Party Committee General Office to Pingyuan County, and the whole county is waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
What can a secretary who writes reports possibly accomplish?
He says nothing and spends three years going through the ledgers.
At a leadership meeting, he slaps the figures down on the table. "Construction materials cost thirty percent more than they do elsewhere, and the same three shell companies keep taking turns winning the contracts. This isn't business. It's feeding yourselves behind closed doors."
From Pingyuan to Dongzhou, from Jingnan to the provincial capital, he does the same thing everywhere he goes: opens the books and opens the doors.
When people offer him money, he returns it. When someone blocks an approval, he stands his ground. When someone frames him with a false accusation, he lays every account out in the sunlight.
An enamel mug has been patched for seventeen years and still hasn't broken. A copy of The Wanli Era has been read until its edges are frayed. One door is always left ajar: letting in a breeze without hurting anyone, and keeping the room from becoming stifling.
From old desks in the townships to the Provincial Party Committee office building, what he measures is not rank, but a standard he never lets go of.
"Where the rules cannot reach, I will go myself."
