Qin Zhengyang said, "Xiaoxu, do you have any ideas?"

Xu Chunliang replied, "My idea depends on Secretary Qin’s attitude."

Qin Zhengyang was taken aback for a moment; this young man was testing him again. However, the issues he mentioned indeed objectively existed. If they adopted a laissez-faire attitude on this matter, their public credibility would undoubtedly be affected.

Qin Zhengyang said, "Xiaoxu, this matter is entrusted to you to handle. Remember, you must protect the interests of the investors, but also comply with the relevant national laws and regulations, and try to avoid escalating conflicts."

"Rest assured."

Qin Zhengyang soon realized that Xu Chunliang’s counteraction was so high-profile and swift.

An hour after the meeting ended, the Hu Shan Town Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office arrived at the hot spring exploration site with a work suspension notice. This hot spring exploration was led by the Dongzhou City Natural Resources Administration Bureau, with the Ecological Environment Construction Investment Group as the execution unit.

The Natural Resources Administration Bureau had previously issued a work suspension notice to Dingli Construction, requiring that all ongoing projects within the brewery boundaries must stop, citing reasons of environmental pollution and geological damage.

Now, the Hu Shan Town Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office represented and issued a work suspension notice to the Ecological Environment Construction Investment Group, which could be described as tit for tat.

However, the reason given by Hu Shan Town was very simple and blunt — disrupting the people.

Yan Fangming was enraged upon seeing the work suspension notice. They were conducting surveys and explorations, not creating excessive noise, and there were so many sites on Weishan Island. Why specifically target them?

The answer from Li Fangliang, the Director of the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office, was that there were complaints from nearby residents, and they saw many non-compliant operation practices at the exploration site.

Yan Fangming presented the exploration consent from the Natural Resources Administration Bureau to him. Li Fangliang didn’t even lift an eyelid, telling Yan Fangming that to conduct exploration and surveys on Weishan Island, consent from the Hu Shan Town Government must first be obtained, and without the Town Government’s approval, such exploration is a violation, possibly even illegal.

Yan Fangming had a bad temper and, relying on his background, didn’t take the Hu Shan Town departmental unit seriously. He, in turn, warned Li Fangliang that if their obstruction affected the exploration progress, they would hold them accountable, labeling it as typical local protectionism.

Yan Fangming called He Xingjian, the president of the Ecological Environmental Investment Group, to report, and He Xingjian didn’t expect the local town government to be so troublesome. He instructed Yan Fangming to ignore this Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office and continue working, while he would immediately contact higher-level departments over Hu Shan Town to exert pressure on the Hu Shan Town side.

Following He Xingjian’s instructions, Yan Fangming felt even more emboldened and ordered his workers to continue with construction.

Li Fangliang had been placed there by Xu Chunliang, and seeing the other side so uncooperative, he couldn’t be too forceful considering that they all had backgrounds, so he immediately reported to Xu Chunliang.

Xu Chunliang told Li Fangliang not to worry about maintaining face; if the other side continued to resist enforcement, he should immediately seize the equipment and make arrests.

Li Fangliang thought he had misheard; while seizing equipment might be justifiable for the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office, making arrests seemed excessive. It seemed their department didn’t have such authority.

Soon, Xu Chunliang, along with the police station chief Li Chengbo, mobilized the entire Hu Shan Town Police Station.

Yan Fangming originally believed that such a small Hu Shan Town wouldn’t dare do anything to them. Secretary Lin of Weishan County was a student of He Xingjian’s father-in-law, so He Xingjian assured him that he could work boldly as he would be backed up for any issues.

The Hu Shan Town Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office, Hu Shan Town Police Station, along with Ding Si’s Dingli Construction workers, surrounded Yan Fangming and his group of eleven.

The workers and technicians on Yan Fangming’s side had never seen such a scene. Their first reaction was that they might get beaten up. The workers and technicians crouched down in fear one by one. Even a powerful outsider couldn’t overpower local influential figures. Anyone working on-site had experienced such situations, and the best way to handle it was to yield; no one should risk their lives for a bit of salary.

Yan Fangming angrily walked towards Xu Chunliang, who had personally led the team, and shouted, "What are you doing? You are obstructing the lawful exploration of a national department."

Xu Chunliang sneered, "Exploration or destruction? Your paperwork is incomplete, you’re severely disturbing the public, ignoring the comprehensive law enforcement office’s instructions, and conducting barbaric construction. Your activities led to the collapse of the brewery’s ancient cellar pool, which is a nationally protected cultural relic. Confiscate their tools and take them all to the police station for questioning."

Police station chief Li Chengbo was dumbfounded. When Xu Chunliang called him over, this wasn’t what he said. Xu Chunliang mentioned that the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office encountered some problems during their work execution and needed the police station’s presence to maintain order. How did it turn into a matter of destruction of cultural relics?

A nationally protected cultural relic? It seemed there was no such thing on Weishan Island. As far as he remembered, the highest-level relic on the entire Weishan Island was the Railway Heroes Monument, but that seemed only provincial level.

Li Chengbo realized he had been exploited by Vice Mayor Xu. If you want to falsely accuse someone, at least you need some evidence. He can say whatever he wants, but if I follow him to arrest people, doesn’t that make me a willing accomplice?

Yan Fangming pointed at Xu Chunliang’s nose and cursed, "Bastard, you really have guts, bringing so many people to mess with me. Xu Chunliang, fuck you..."

Cursing him in front of so many people was intolerable. Grandmaster Xu slapped him hard, causing Yan Fangming to stumble and fall to the ground.

Seeing Xu Chunliang make a move, Ding Si and Pu Jian rushed forward, eager to beat up this bunch of punks. They had been holding back because of Xu Chunliang’s instructions, but now that he started, they were afraid to fall behind.

Li Chengbo hurried to make his men separate the two sides. Just then, a loud boom was heard about three meters away from the fountain, as the ground suddenly collapsed, revealing a one-meter-wide hole.

Everyone was stunned. Xu Chunliang, Li Chengbo, and Li Fangliang walked over together, staring at the newly formed hole. Li Chengbo grabbed a flashlight to peer inside.

Ding Si and Pu Jian also moved closer. Pu Jian leaned over the edge and sniffed the air. In his current capacity as an expert in antiquities, his small eyes darted around as he loudly declared, "A tunnel for artifact theft! They weren’t conducting surveys; they were here to loot ancient relics!"

Pu Jian’s reaction was quick. Originally, they had intended to search for treasures under the ancient cellar, but many complications arose before they could dig up any treasures. Based on his experience, he deduced this was a tunnel for theft, implying that someone else had gotten there first. In the current situation, he needed to shift the blame immediately.

The exploration team from the Ecological Environmental Investment Group became Pu Jian’s scapegoats. It was just bad luck they showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Who else could they blame?

Yan Fangming and his group were completely bewildered. They came to explore and test the quality of the hot spring water, so how did they get involved with artifact theft? However, the big hole was indeed found at their inspection site. If there really were relics inside, they’d have a hard time explaining it away.

"Xu Chunliang, you are breaking the law knowingly, falsely accusing innocent people. There isn’t a single decent person from top to bottom in your group..."

Xu Chunliang rushed over and kicked Yan Fangming, "Damn you, coming to Hu Shan Town to rob tombs!" Pu Jian said it was artifact theft, but Xu Chunliang called it tomb robbery.

This time, Ding Si didn’t fall behind and also joined in with a kick. He had wanted to beat this punk for a long time. Now he had a legitimate reason—fighting crime. He took action, and a group of migrant workers eagerly followed suit, surrounding the exploration team and began to beat them fiercely.

The police from the Hu Shan Town Police Station quickly stepped in to separate them.

Li Chengbo stared blankly at Xu Chunliang, overwhelmed by the series of events. He knew this group wasn’t tomb robbers; the hole had clearly just formed.

Li Fangliang whispered, "What do we do?"

Xu Chunliang replied, "Do you even need to ask? Arrest the suspects first." He was actually well aware that Yan Fangming’s group had nothing to do with the hole. The ground decided to collapse now of all times. You, Ecological Environmental Investment Group, aren’t afraid of anyone, daring to snatch resources. I was worried I’d have no charge against you. Now let’s see what you say.

Li Chengbo had nothing to hesitate about now. The antiquities expert confirmed it was a tunnel for theft. Looting ancient relics was a serious crime. The Natural Resources Administration Bureau asked you to explore and inspect the hot spring, not to loot relics. The hot spring and relics both belong to the state, and the relics aren’t under the jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Administration Bureau, but rather the Cultural Relics Bureau.

Li Chengbo ordered the arrests, and all eleven people, including Yan Fangming, were scared to death by the earlier scuffle and surrendered without resistance. They wanted to go to the police station immediately, realizing it was too dangerous to stay. The people of Hu Shan Town were fierce, though, in reality, not one local was involved in the mobbing.

The Comprehensive Law Enforcement Office coordinated with the police to confiscate all their exploration equipment immediately.

Xu Chunliang approached Pu Jian, glanced around to ensure no one was listening, and asked quietly, "What’s going on?"

Pu Jian whispered, "A tunnel, definitely a tunnel. Someone beat us to it, and whatever was underground has probably been taken away long ago."

Xu Chunliang said, "You mean the ancient cellar..."

Pu Jian replied, "It’s probably been empty for a while. We need to go down to see what the actual situation is. Chen Qianfan really is something, getting ahead of us."

Xu Chunliang found it unlikely. The people sent by Chen Qianfan shouldn’t have had time to act. Could it be that someone discovered what was underground before Chen Qianfan targeted this place?

Pu Jian suggested, "Should I go down and take a look?"

Xu Chunliang nodded. With so many people having seen what happened, they couldn’t follow their original plan. According to protocol, they should report to the cultural relics department first and wait for archaeological experts to investigate, so time was of the essence.