Chapter 243: Ms. Shirley is attacked
While Deputy Chief Jimmy of the Public Security Department and his right-hand man and colleague, Agent Monk, were discussing the suspicious behavior of two people from Moses Port who entered the city yesterday in the investigation team's office, Ms. Shirley of the Civil Affairs Department downstairs was busy calculating how many tons of low-priced coal to apply for from the coal yard next month.
Citizens who have registered with the Civil Affairs Department can get a number plate to buy affordable coal, and the portion of the affordable coal that is lower than the market price is included in the Civil Affairs Department's planned expenditures - after all, coal can't fall from the sky, and coal mining, transportation, and storage all have costs; using coal for public welfare is part of municipal services, and the Civil Affairs Department does not need to pay for it, but it must ensure that the accounts are clear.
Originally, the deputy director of the Civil Affairs Department was supposed to be Ms. Mia, the housekeeper of the "Tarantan faction", but Ms. Mia was worried about Westham - ensuring the logistical supply of the two road construction teams (prisoners building railways and free people building roads) was a big project. Ms. Mia insisted on completing the task from beginning to end before moving. Mr. Charles Rex not only failed to convince her, but was convinced by her instead.
Shirley vaguely knew why Ms. Mia was unwilling to come to the city... The respectable lady thought that it was too easy to work in a beautiful city hall building in a big city. She always felt that she was "overly" respected by people without much contribution, and she hoped that she could better meet people's expectations of her.
Shirley felt a little ashamed of herself for seeing such a lady of noble character. She believed that she could not hold herself to the highest standards like Ms. Mia. She enjoyed the feeling of being respected after working hard.
Since she could not match Ms. Mia in terms of moral character, Ms. Shirley raised her own requirements in terms of professional ability. She could not allow herself to make any mistakes in her work at the Civil Affairs Department, and she put all her effort into taking every number in the Civil Affairs Department's accounts seriously.
"I've had enough—"
When everyone in the office was busy calculating, Fei Bi's voice came from the corridor. This girl with a strong personality, who was considered an outlier among all the clerks (civil servants), sounded like she was arguing even when she was talking to people early in the morning: "This family in the market area is obviously a family living in the same house. They claim that they have separated and then ask for three parts of low-priced coal. How can it be so ridiculous?"
"Okay, Fei Bi, the law doesn't stipulate that families who still live together can't split up. Their family does have three registered heads of household—" another operator's voice sounded helplessly.
"Their 19-year-old unmarried daughter applied to become the head of the household alone. Does this make sense? She's not married yet!" Fei Bi shouted, "I visited their neighbors myself. In fact, that family took advantage of the loopholes in the city hall's regulations and let their unmarried sons and daughters apply to be the heads of the household alone, get two more parcels of low-priced coal, and then sell the coal in town!"
"I know, I know, but since this practice is in compliance with Innader's laws and the city hall's civil affairs regulations, we have no reason to cause trouble for them, let alone unreasonably obstruct them when they apply for affordable coal. Otherwise, they won't be able to get past Mr. Charlie Rex, not to mention Ms. Zhao."
"If people can do anything that is not prohibited by law, the world would have been in chaos long ago! Just look at how many families have followed suit. This month alone, there have been hundreds of families claiming to split up and demand more coal!"
“But this is our job…”
Shirley looked up from the mountain of documents and looked at Fei Bi, who was still arguing with the operator after entering the room, with a headache: "Okay, Fei Bi, stop pestering the operator and go back to your seat."
Fei Bi glared at Shirley angrily and reluctantly let the operator go; the operator, who had been harassed early in the morning, looked at Shirley gratefully and hurried to the filing cabinet to classify and store the documents in his hands.
The operatives of the Civil Affairs Department are responsible for different things from the clerks. They do not spend much time in the City Hall building, and most of their daily work is field work, such as investigating and confirming the reported addresses and family situations of citizens, which is the operatives' job content.
Phoebe is a person who cannot stand others taking advantage of others by cheating, and she applied to be transferred to an operator several times, but was stopped by Shirley every time - she is too prone to trouble, and she is a beautiful young woman. Shirley is really worried that she will run outside and get hurt... Not everyone in Innadelli respects the City Hall now. When she was in Westram, the clerks' dormitories were often harassed.
The operative who came back to archive the documents finished the work at hand and came to Ms. Shirley again, reporting the situation in Dongcheng District in a low voice.
Dongcheng District is an area where workshops and handicrafts are concentrated. Its economic mobility is slightly higher than that of Nancheng District, and its public security is also worse. Even if the Public Security Bureau upstairs has strengthened daily patrols in Dongcheng District, it is difficult to prevent robbery and theft.
A while ago, some people monopolized the toilets and garbage collection stations built by contract workers in Dongcheng District, and forcibly collected "toilet fees" and "garbage fees" from citizens. Deputy Director of the Public Security Bureau Jimmy personally led a group of people to severely punish this kind of situation.
"Anyone catch up with us at the public mill and collect 'queue fees'?"
Upon hearing what the operator had reported , Shirley immediately raised her head.
She lowered her voice intentionally so that Fei Bi, who would explode at any time, wouldn't hear it.
"Yes, ma'am." The agent hanging in the Civil Affairs Department whispered, "The kid who shined shoes on the streets of Dongcheng District told us that there was a group of people who would drive away the people queuing on the street before our public mill opened. If you want to stay in the queue, you have to give them 10% of the grain you bring to be ground. When we go out to stake out, the group will avoid us, as if they know we are coming."
The so-called public mill is a citizen service point where the Civil Affairs Department rented two storefronts and installed a feed grinder brought from Westham... uh, grinding machine and a small vegetable oil generator. It charges the same fee as Operator Barton did in the slums outside the West City Gate, and grinds corn flour, wheat flour, and even bean flour for the citizens.
The existence of these two public mills is undoubtedly a dimensionality reduction blow to the private mills also located in Dongcheng District that are still using ancient water-conservancy stone mills... From the day the public mills opened for business, the number of customers of those private mills has plummeted.
"Did someone leak the transfer information of our internal personnel?" Ms. Shirley frowned.
"That should be it." The operator said with some annoyance.
In addition to the "contract workers" left by the previous mayor, those who can know the movements of the city hall staff include a large number of young and strong contract workers.
It is impossible to control the number of "smart people" among so many people who sell city hall information to make "extra money".
Ms. Shirley thought for a moment and said, "If we can't catch anyone by staking out, then let's try to investigate from the source. Those who hinder the operation of the public mill must be related to those private mills."
"That's what I thought, too. If you agree, I want to take those people who don't have important matters to investigate the private mill." The operator said, "But if that's the case, the matter of confirming the new household owner will have to be put on hold."
"It's okay. The mill is more important." Ms. Shirley said immediately.
It is the responsibility of the Civil Affairs Bureau to use the affordable coal supply to complete the census of urban residents as requested by Ms. Zhao. Privately, Ms. Zhao also talked to Shirley about this - if residents split up on their own because they are greedy for the affordable coal supply, the policy will not support it on the surface, but it should not hinder it either.
Ms. Shirley pondered over it for a long time in private but didn't understand Ms. Zhao's intention until Mr. Rex proposed tax reforms. Then she suddenly realized: Innadeli does not need large families with dozens or even hundreds of people, whether they are commoners or nobles.
Ms. Shirley, who grew up in a relatively well-off civilian family, does not have a strong attachment to large families with large populations. To some extent, she even hates such large families with many people and noisy conversations.
Living in such a family, people who are not strong enough will inevitably encounter malice from blood relatives, which is like a leech on the tarsal bone and cannot be easily escaped.
It is for this reason that Ms. Shirley, the deputy director of the Civil Affairs Department, takes a laissez-faire attitude towards those who "cheat and divide the coal".
"Take the people over there," Ms. Shirley said. "If you find any problems, don't rush out. Notify the Public Security Department upstairs first."
"Don't worry, ma'am." The operator smiled and nodded to Ms. Shirley, then strode away to do field work.
Ms. Shirley couldn't help but smile at how motivated he was.
This agent is also a "contract worker" left behind by the previous mayor. Like Agent Monk, he strongly agrees with the governance philosophy of the new City Hall and is one of the first people to actively move closer to the current Innadelli regime.
They did not look down on Ms. Shirley and her group of female officials because of their backgrounds. On the contrary, after confirming that Ms. Shirley and Ms. Sibel did have the business capabilities that convinced them, they were willing to give them full respect and trust.
Thinking about giving good scores to the staff in her department in the next assessment and striving to get them regularized, Ms. Shirley quickly threw herself into her work.
When Deputy Chief Jimmy and Agent Monk left the City Hall, the remaining Civil Affairs Department officers in the City Hall were also summoned and rushed to the East City District.
On the first floor of the main building of the City Hall, the only people left were the clerks still busy in their offices.
In the building opposite the City Hall, a group of people watched the operators go empty-handed. The leader immediately gave the order in a deep voice: "Move!"
This group of people dressed as ordinary citizens moved quickly, left from various exits, walked a few steps on the street, and then pretended to be ordinary citizens who went to the Civil Affairs Department to register, and rushed into the window hall of the Civil Affairs Department.
Within a few minutes, these people pretending to be ordinary citizens started fighting in the service window hall of the Civil Affairs Bureau using the lame excuse of "you stepped on my foot".
The office of the Civil Affairs Department is on the first floor, separated only by a corridor from the service window open to the public. Upon hearing the noise, Ms. Shirley looked outside and asked Fei Bi, who was prone to trouble, not to leave the office and to come out to mediate the situation herself.
Ms. Shirley has dealt with many similar cases... The illiteracy rate among citizens is as high as 90%, so their moral quality is not very high. The Civil Affairs Bureau has heard of many conflicts where a whole family would go out and fight with their neighbors over a piece of coal or a handful of straw. It is possible that any strange thing could happen at the service window that connects with ordinary citizens.
Ms. Shirley, who had extensive experience in civil mediation and had been in office for less than two months, had just appeared in the service window hall when those who were fighting each other rushed to her and made loud noises as if they were eager for her to judge who was right and who was wrong.
Ms. Shirley instinctively felt that something was wrong. If the conflict among the angry citizens escalated to the point of violence, even with a group of operators on the scene it would take a long time to break up the conflict. The way these people rushed towards her in unison to demand an explanation made her scalp tingle.
Before Ms. Shirley could react, someone among the people who surrounded her like a human wall stretched out his fist and swung it mercilessly at her jaw.
The people who crowded around Ms. Shirley were still shouting at each other angrily, waving their fists and feet in anger, knocking down the group of citizens who were coming to register.
In the chaos created by these people, Ms. Shirley had her mouth covered, her head and face covered with a smelly coat, and she was held in someone's arms and taken away from the city hall while she was dazed.
