Chapter 158 Finding a Scapegoat

"Hmph, investigate you? Do you really think you're worthy of being investigated?" Looking at Secretary Zhu’s cold expression, Fang Tianyou said with utter disdain, staring at him as if he were a piece of garbage by the roadside, completely ignoring his presence.

Secretary Zhu’s heart gave a violent twitch. It was not hard to see the deep anger he felt toward Fang Tianyou’s contempt, his grim expression hovering on the verge of eruption at any moment.

"Not worth investigating? And yet every single move I make is known to the other side down to the finest detail. How do you explain that?" Secretary Zhu pondered inwardly. The people who knew about his transfer were few to begin with, and moreover, the transfer had been meticulously planned to leave no trace whatsoever.

Just as most people saw it on the surface, he had indeed been sent away from the capital, but it was not a demotion; rather, he had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility and a crucial mission. Yet very few people knew about this, and from Fang Tianyou’s words, it was obvious the other party knew precisely why he had come to Jinhai.

His probing words just now had also confirmed one thing: the other party had not carried out any deliberate investigation. If, as Fang Tianyou claimed, he was truly insignificant compared to the Fang family, then the only logical explanation was a mole—yes, a mole. Without a doubt, someone within the higher echelons of leadership had betrayed him.

Thinking about why he had failed to unearth any valuable evidence in the nearly two years he had spent in Jinhai, Secretary Zhu finally began to understand.

"Who is it? Who bought you off?" Even though he knew the other man was unlikely to tell him, Secretary Zhu asked tentatively, purely to verify his own hypothesis.

"Hmph, do you really think I'd tell you?" Fang Tianyou sneered disdainfully, looking at Secretary Zhu as if he were an absolute fool.

Truthfully, through Fang Tianyou’s words, Secretary Zhu had confirmed his suspicion: someone had been bought off to betray him. Of that, there was no longer any doubt.

Watching the two men arguing and glaring at each other, looking ready to come to blows at the slightest provocation, Lin Yang—the master of the house who had been completely ignored—advised them with a helpless sigh, "Gentlemen, working yourselves up like this is bad for your health. If you have anything to discuss, why don't you sit down and talk it over properly?"

From Lin Yang’s perspective, Fang Tianyou, being in the passive position, would naturally be easier to persuade, while Secretary Zhu could best be handled by his own daughter, Zhu Yunyun. That would be much easier than doing it himself.

Fang Tianyou turned out to be even more reasonable than Lin Yang had imagined. Before Lin Yang had even finished his sentence, Fang Tianyou smiled with great self-awareness and said, "There's no need for you to persuade me, Lin Yang. I'll sit down quietly."

"Much obliged," Lin Yang echoed. With that, he turned his gaze to Secretary Zhu, whose temper was noticeably much more volatile and stubborn.

Zhu Yunyun was no fool either. Although she hadn't fully understood the conversation between her father and Fang Tianyou, she had caught the main gist: her father had been betrayed by his superiors or colleagues. While it wouldn't cost her father his life, it was holding back his career advancement and preventing him from achieving his goals.

"Dad, sit down first and hear what Xiao Yang has to say!" Reaching out, she pulled her furious father toward the sofa, pressed him down into it, and urged him patiently.

To Zhu Yunyun's surprise, seeing that Fang Tianyou had shown enough sense to give Lin Yang face and sit down obediently, her father also restrained himself and took a seat. However, the glare he fixed on Fang Tianyou remained razor-sharp, as if he intended to kill the scoundrel across from him with a mere look.

Seeing that the two men had finally sat down and stopped bickering endlessly, Lin Yang stood between them and smiled. "Now everyone can discuss things in a calm and rational manner!"

***

"Now, let me ask you both a question, and I'd appreciate honest answers, alright?" Lin Yang asked seriously, looking at the now-calm pair.

"Go ahead," Fang Tianyou smiled politely.

"Ask!" Secretary Zhu’s attitude was far from pleasant, cold as ice, as if everyone in the world owed him two million yuan.

"Let's start with you, Secretary Zhu." Turning his head toward the icy-faced official, Lin Yang smiled.

"Ask away, kid, and cut the crap." Secretary Zhu didn't give Lin Yang a pleasant look this time either, clearly displeased that Lin Yang seemed to be colluding with the Fang family in shady dealings. When it came to detesting evil, this fellow certainly never took a backseat.

Lin Yang didn't mind. There was nothing he could do about it; even if the man was unhappy, he couldn't just disrespect the Municipal Committee Secretary! Besides, since he was in the wrong first, his own attitude naturally had to be humble.

"If the Fang family were to offer Secretary Zhu a graceful way out, I wonder how Secretary Zhu would feel about it?" Lin Yang’s phrasing was somewhat vague, but the sharp-witted Secretary Zhu could read between the lines.

"A graceful way out? Are you kidding me, kid? Do you seriously think the Fang family would listen to you?" Secretary Zhu sneered at Lin Yang, intentionally casting a sideways glance at Fang Tianyou, who was sitting leisurely nearby and smoking a cigarette.

Zhonghua. It seemed Fang Tianyou’s standard of living was truly not bad. He puffed leisurely on his cigarette rings, showing not the slightest curiosity about what Lin Yang had just said.

"This kid has his own ways," Lin Yang replied with a mysterious smile, turning back to look at Fang Tianyou, who was playing deaf and dumb while enjoying his smoke. "Stop pretending you can't hear. You must have heard what I said just now. It's time to share your thoughts!"

Exhaling a ring of smoke, Fang Tianyou wore a thoroughly satisfied expression. He turned to look at Lin Yang, deliberately feigning a puzzled look and playing dumb. "Thoughts? Thoughts? Did you say something to me just now?"

"If you keep playing dumb with me, I won't mind handing you right over to Secretary Zhu," Lin Yang said, his face darkening with a cold snort as he looked at Fang Tianyou’s punchable face.

"Wait, wait, wait, I was just joking." Fang Tianyou straightened up in a flash, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table, and stopped him with a cheeky grin. Pretending to straighten his clothes, he said with a straight face, "Go ahead and speak! Just don't throw out any more harsh conditions. Let me warn you, if you start making exorbitant demands again, there's nothing I can do."

Lin Yang held all the cards, negotiating with both Secretary Zhu and Fang Tianyou. This made things tough for the others in the room, who hadn't understood a single word. They had listened in a daze for half the day without figuring out what Lin Yang was up to—even the calm and steady Meng Hu was completely lost in the clouds.

As Fang Tianyou and Secretary Zhu looked at him, Lin Yang slowly spat out a few words: "Find a scapegoat."

Find a scapegoat? Damn it, the people present felt an almost overwhelming urge to curse. What the hell kind of operation was this? Finding a scapegoat—what on earth did that have to do with a deal?

"A scapegoat?" Secretary Zhu was the first to show a look of interest, as if he finally understood Lin Yang’s intention.

"Find one? Besides, do you really think I'll just listen to you?" The previously grinning Fang Tianyou’s expression darkened somewhat. He truly disliked this phrasing, as if it implied his Fang family habitually engaged in shady business. The tone indeed sounded rather grating.

"Hmph, doesn't your Fang family do this all the time? Finding a scapegoat must be child's play for you!" It was Secretary Zhu who spoke. After a brief moment of thought, he understood what Lin Yang intended to do. His mind flashed back to the scene at the scrapyard, where Fang Muren had ruthlessly and mercilessly slaughtered his own kinsmen just to escape punishment and keep the Fang family out of it. Wasn't that the exact time they had used that poor wretch Fang Tianming as a scapegoat? And it was precisely that incident that had left him somewhat dissatisfied with Lin Yang.

Indeed, had it not been for that event—with Fang Tianming dead—he might have long since gathered enough evidence to deal the Fang family a crippling blow.

Fang Tianyou seemed unwilling to dwell on that matter any further. With a cold snort, he ignored Secretary Zhu, who never failed to lock horns with him whenever they spoke, and instead turned his gaze back to Lin Yang, who had proposed the idea. His voice dropped low. "Speak! In detail. I don't particularly like being led by the nose. Besides, it's getting very late. Don't you all want to sleep? If not, I certainly don't mind staying up and chatting until dawn with everyone."

"Find someone from your Fang family whose status isn't too high, but who still holds a certain degree of influence, and pin everything on this scapegoat. That way, your Fang family can extricate yourselves from this passive situation, and Secretary Zhu gets what he wants. It's a win-win scenario—you wouldn't refuse that, would you?" Lin Yang spoke eloquently and with absolute confidence. Even Secretary Zhu, whose expression had been rather grim, managed to display a rare hint of understanding and appreciation.

For two years, his career performance had stagnated without the slightest progress, and he had failed to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors. To be honest, if things went badly, forget about being transferred back to the provincial committee; whether he could even keep his current position was questionable. He might even be demoted, especially since there was a mole in the provincial committee working against him at any moment. Because of this, even the upright Secretary Zhu showed a hint of hesitation facing Lin Yang’s proposal.

Between professional ethics and his future career development, Secretary Zhu hesitated. After all, who wouldn't want a smooth political career? Amid the subtle struggles of officialdom, that sliver of so-called professional ethics had gradually become tarnished.

"What do you think, Secretary Zhu?" This was a matter that required an agreement from both sides, so Lin Yang turned to look at the one who was more likely to accept the proposal. After all, the situation currently favored Secretary Zhu. If even the other party refused to accept this, then between Bai Jing and Secretary Zhu, Lin Yang would simply have to choose Bai Jing. Even though he might later face the obstacle of Secretary Zhu giving him a hard time behind the scenes, Bai Jing had treated him well, not to mention that he now held a substantial share in Baifu Pharmaceuticals.

"As long as the Fang family is willing to make a sacrifice, why shouldn't I be happy to go along with it?" Secretary Zhu wasn't as stubborn as Lin Yang had imagined, which came as a relief. He had originally expected the man to stubbornly refuse with a cold rebuke, but now things were looking up—as long as he could clear the hurdle with Fang Tianyou, everything would be OK.

With Secretary Zhu pacified, the rest would be easy to handle, provided Fang Tianyou nodded in agreement.

To make a family member a scapegoat, and someone of considerable status at that, was no longer something he could decide alone. After all, taking action against a high-ranking member required a vote and resolution from the Council of Elders. If he acted arbitrarily, he doubted he would meet a good end.

Between the fate of a single individual and the safety of the entire family, Fang Tianyou couldn't afford excessive hesitation. Raising his head to look at Lin Yang, he said in a deep voice, "I can't make this decision alone. I'll need to contact the old fogies in the family first."

Lin Yang wasn't stupid; he naturally understood what the other man meant. After all, great families had their own rules. If someone were executed on a whim just to act as a scapegoat, who in the future would dare to work and exert effort for the family? Take the incident with Fang Tianming, for example—Fang Tianyou had negotiated extensively with the family elders over that. That was also the reason he had come to Jinhai for negotiations this time; he wanted to uncover the true cause of his older brother's death. As for the assassination of Fang Muren, he couldn't care less.

"Very well. But if you reveal anything you shouldn't, I guarantee you won't walk out of this room tonight." Fearing that someone might carelessly risk everyone's lives, Lin Yang issued a stern warning in a deep voice.