Chapter 48: Differences
Chen Xuan was half asleep and half awake on the plane. When he woke up again, the plane had landed in Bincheng, next to Shangcheng. From then on, everyone drove to Shangcheng.
While driving, Chen Xuan looked out the window. The scene outside the window seemed to record the evolution of the Taoist immortal incident.
From the peaceful and calm suburbs to the panic-stricken Bincheng urban area, pedestrians hurried and nervous. Heading towards the upper city, Chen Xuan saw jars placed on the ground and people on the roadside in mourning, some sobbing, some numb.
"Is that a Taoist follower?!"
Chen Xuan looked in the direction of Zheng Guofu. At the end of the forked road, there was a "monster" that had lost its ears and eyes. It was desperately sniffing with its nose. Its third hand held a flesh-and-blood sword, which was placed on the ground, making a "sizzling" sound.
"Puff!"
Suddenly, his nose paused, and then his shadow flashed and rushed into a room at an extremely fast speed. Then a man's scream and a woman's wailing were heard in the room, and then they quickly stopped.
“This way, this way!”
The soldiers followed into the room, gunshots were heard, and sounds of fighting were heard from inside. Then, the scene disappeared from sight as the car drove away.
Chen Xuan frowned, wanting to do something, but after a long time he could only sigh.
Chen Xuan hugged the file bag tightly against his chest and kept stroking it.
The vehicle continued to drive, and as it entered the city center, the past prosperity of the upper city finally came into his sight. The number of Taoist believers around was obviously reduced, and they were replaced by more patrolling and guarding troops, and many people in distress temporarily settled here.
Driving towards the modern office building with glass curtain walls, the vehicle passed through layers of checkpoints and finally arrived at the meeting destination - the Shangcheng Government Building.
Not only Kong Zheng and his group, but many city lords also received the notice and came to the upper city’s ruling body to participate in the meeting during this special period.
Everyone looked worried. The scenes along the way shocked everyone. Many city lords saw the bloody and weird scenes of Taoist immortals for the first time and realized the horror of the situation.
After finding a place to sit down, Chen Xuan looked up and saw a familiar face.
The man in front of him was Zhang Huaiyi. It was he who completely exposed the Taoist's scam through experiments with his close friend Qiao Yuan.
Zhang Huaiyi also raised his head and met Chen Xuan's eyes, but quickly looked away and looked at Kong Zheng with admiration and solemnity in his eyes.
In his eyes, it was this city mayor who made the Pen Fairy incident public and completely confirmed the existence of the "ghost".
After understanding the logic of the Pen Fairy's actions, Zhang Huaiyi was shocked. Tang City was able to control the death toll within three digits, which showed Kong Zheng's courage and decisiveness as the city mayor. He accepted the existence of ghosts and took action in a short period of time. Such advanced awareness was enough to show that he was not as old-fashioned and traditional as rumored.
The other city mayors still seemed to be detached from the matter, and it was obvious that they had not yet fully realized how serious the situation was.
Zhang Huaiyi sighed and finally looked at the city chief Zhao Cheng in front of him. His own city chief looked much more haggard at this moment. After being sidelined, he was seriously injured . Fortunately, the Taoist's lies were finally exposed, and he was able to regain real power and save the country and the people.
The meeting room was silent for a moment, with only the whispers of some acquaintances.
Chen Xuan lowered his head, familiarizing himself with the content of his report. Not long after, a burst of hurried footsteps was heard. Chen Xuan looked up and saw an old man with white hair, leaning on a cane, walking into the meeting room step by step.
The surroundings instantly became quiet.
The person in front of him was none other than the current head of Xia State—Wu Chi.
Wu Chi walked step by step to the main seat. He coughed, pulled out the chair, sat down slowly, opened his eyes slightly, and leaned against the chair with his eyes half open and half closed.
In Chen Xuan's impression, many of Wu Chi's decisions made the north take off and were praised by the people. However, compared to whether he could make the right decisions, Chen Xuan believed that the choices would be different depending on each person's position.
Wu Chi’s predecessor was the party and government leader of Shangdang.
Wu Chi opened his mouth, his voice slow, each word sounding somewhat gloomy:
"Everyone, long time no see."
"I originally thought that the next time we met would be when I was about to change my term, and that I would be stepping down from my important responsibilities and enjoying my retirement. But I never expected that we would meet again at this time, in this place, and under such circumstances."
Wu Chi sighed, and then his tone became much more serious, his eyes wavered, and he exhaled deeply.
The atmosphere suddenly became much more solemn.
"I believe everyone has witnessed the harm of the 'Daoxian' on the way to the upper city. I have to criticize Zhao Cheng for this. He is in charge of a city, but he made such a mistake and caused so many casualties."
"Fortunately, the follow-up was handled promptly. Once Upper City is completely pacified, we can discuss your punishment. You should realize that your position is not ordinary."
Zhao Cheng stood up, nodded slightly, and said:
"The Minister is right."
"On the other hand, we want to praise Tang Cheng!"
Wu Chi raised his tone and smiled. He leaned on his crutches and looked at Kong Zheng with a smile on his face.
"We deal with the incidents of evil spirits as soon as they occur, and when the incidents of Taoist immortals occur, we act first and report later, and announce the patterns of Tangcheng's collection in advance."
"Zhao Cheng, you need to learn more from Tang Cheng. I'm about to step down, and this position has to be inherited by someone, and it can only be filled by the most capable."
Chen Xuan felt a little dissatisfied when listening to the words of the president.
He finally realized Wu Chi's bias. As a former member of the Shangdang Party, he naturally had to cover up Zhao Cheng's behavior. He kept Zhao Cheng on the grounds that it was a time of crisis and people were needed. At the same time, he implied that Tang Cheng acted first and reported later, which led to a lack of smooth communication.
Chen Xuan was somewhat helpless. The situation was annoying. After all, this was someone else's territory.
But Kong Zheng is not the type to tolerate.
"Hahaha, this is also because I, Kong Zheng, am impatient. With the documents going back and forth, it's always difficult to reach a conclusion without three to five days. Whether it's the Pen Fairy or the Taoist Fairy, one more day is enough to cause the situation to collapse ."
"I also thank the Minister for his tolerance. If there is a next time, I will definitely notify you directly to come to Tang City so that we can solve the problem on the spot."
Kong Zheng had a smile on his face, but his words were straightforward.
"It's okay. Tang City has Mayor Kong. I'm very relieved."
"Actually, this is everyone's first time dealing with a ghost incident. They've already done their best to handle the situation in Shangcheng. A large number of troops are now clearing out Taoist believers. Although there are some results, it's still too slow, and a large number of people are still dying every day."
"This should attract the attention of the entire nation! Let's all save the city together!"
"We came here this time to seek your opinions on ghost-related incidents and how Taoist believers should deal with them."
The chief's wrinkled face was filled with only a smile. He poked the ground with his cane and continued:
"Let's not talk about other cities for now. Shangcheng has experienced the Daoxian incident for so long, it should have come up with a better solution."
"City Chief Kong has been working for the country and the people. The situation in Shangcheng is critical, and there are still a large number of Taoist believers who have not been dealt with. I want to know what would happen if so many Taoist believers broke out in Tangcheng."
"What should you do?"
