Chapter Two

The municipal building was completed a few months ago, and the municipal party committee and government offices moved from the old city district just a week ago, with a very grand relocation ceremony at that time.

Li Quan is a city in the westernmost part of Longyuan Province. Although it has a population of only over one million, it occupies one-third of the total area of the province. The vast land is mostly desert and Gobi, with the towering Qilian Mountains covered with snow all year round in the south. The thick snow on the mountaintops melts into water in the spring, flowing through the canyons to the dry land. These white snow-capped mountains serve as solid reservoirs, providing a continuous water source for agricultural irrigation. Dotted between the Gobi Desert, these oases are fertile and resistant to droughts and floods, enough to ensure food and clothing security for millions of people. The Li Spring region has been a relatively prosperous area in Longyuan Province with well-developed agriculture. In addition, with vast territory, abundant mineral resources, and favorable conditions for industrial development, there is a certain industrial foundation. In recent years, with the accelerated development of new energy, the city of Liquan, which has the "world's wind farm," "world's wind corridor," and a thousand-mile Gobi desert, has turned waste into treasure, transforming disadvantages into advantages. The development of wind energy and solar energy is uniquely advantageous. After several years of concentrated efforts, the country's first tens of millions of kilowatt-level wind power base has been built. This was followed by the strong rise of the new energy equipment manufacturing industry, the continuous improvement of the industrial system, and the continuous increase in economic strength, with GDP once ranking second in the province, second only to the provincial capital, Baizhou City.

With rapid and good economic development, the status of the province naturally becomes higher, and there are more opportunities for the promotion of cadres. Zhang Zhengqi has been working in the Municipal Party Committee Office for sixteen years. During this period, Li Quan experienced the transition from a county to a city, and the Party Committee changed its name from the County Committee to the Municipal Committee. The unit where he works also changed its name from the County Committee Secretariat to the Municipal Committee Office. A total of six secretaries have been replaced, except for one who was transferred to a provincial department due to his wife's involvement in bribery, implicating his career. The others were all promoted when they stepped down, with two becoming deputy governors, one becoming vice chairman of the provincial CPPCC, and two being directly elected as members of the provincial party committee during the leadership transition. This situation is extremely rare in other cities and prefectures, so the saying "Liquan is a feng shui treasure in the political arena" is circulating in Longyuan Province. Although it is seven hundred kilometers away from the provincial capital, officials from provincial departments are generally willing to come to Li Quan to become local officials, as coming to Li Quan means having greater hope for career advancement. Li Fengshu was appointed as the Secretary of the Lixuan City Committee from the position of Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and Director of the Research Office. Not long after Li Fengshu took office, a classmate named Huang, who was obsessed with the Book of Changes during his university studies, loved the Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, and Feng Shui. He called himself "Huang Laoxie" (probably also a fan of Jin Yong, admiring Huang Yaoshi) visited Li Fengshu. After inspecting the location of the municipal party committee and the office building, Huang Laoxie quietly said to Li Fengshu, "Good Feng Shui, good Feng Shui. No wonder Li Quan produces cadres. Although there are no mountains around the main building of the municipal party committee, the main building is located on higher ground, and the surrounding buildings form a dragon cave shape when matched together. There is a vague aura of dragon veins, and the root dragon, stem dragon, branch dragon, and leaf dragon can all be examined. It is a gathering place of spiritual energy, a rare Feng Shui treasure land. "

Although Li Fengshu is not very interested in the art of feng shui, he was quite happy to hear his old classmate mention it.

But before long, the municipal party committee and government offices will face relocation issues.

At that time, the urbanization process accelerated, and cities across the country were undergoing large-scale renovation of old areas and development of new districts. The original urban area of Li Quan City was very small, centered around the drum tower, with four so-called "main streets" extending east, south, west, and north. Most buildings were no more than five stories high, and it took less than ten minutes to walk along each main street. Although the population of the city was small, the narrow streets made it appear very congested. The construction of Li Quan City is far inferior to Xiongguan City and Qibei City in the surrounding area, and is also extremely disproportionate to the local economic and social development. The renovation of the old city and the expansion of the new area are topics of heated discussion among the elderly residents, and have finally been put on the important agenda of the party committee and government. Li Fengshu's two previous party and government administrations had planned this grand project that concerns the future development of Li Quan. The slogan proposed at that time was "Jump out of the old city and build a new city, build a new city to bring the old city." "and started to be implemented successively, with the relocation of municipal government agencies in the first phase of the planned construction."

After Li Fengshu took office, the new district began to take shape. Among all the buildings in the new city area, the most eye-catching one is the iconic building, the Municipal Hall, standing on the north side of the Civic Square. The Municipal Building, serving as the office space for the four major leadership teams and various municipal departments, consists of two main buildings and two annex buildings. The two main buildings have 17 floors above ground and are arranged in a diamond shape. At the top, there is a huge solar panel connecting the two main buildings together. From a distance, the two main buildings resemble two bottles (perhaps because of the name Li Quan), and local residents also see the solar panel spanning the two main buildings as a smoke, hence the nickname "two bottles of wine and a smoke" for the Municipal Building. Later, some attentive individuals corrected this statement, saying that the two auxiliary buildings are the two cigarettes, and the solar panels connecting them are envelopes for money. The entire municipal building complex is a combination of "two cigarettes, two bottles of wine, one envelope," implying that when dealing with government agencies, one must bring cigarettes, wine, and money. Many leaders have heard of these playful remarks in the public, but they cannot explain them seriously for fear of making things worse and triggering new public opinion, so they can only let it go. The exterior of the municipal building is unique and impressive, with a distinctive design that looks grand and majestic. However, there are serious flaws in the interior design, with improper orientation and poor lighting and ventilation. Many people have reported that upon entering the building, they have a hard time finding their way around and distinguishing the directions, making it difficult to locate rooms quickly.

Before the relocation of the municipal party committee office, Li Fengshu once took his old classmate 'Huang Laoxie' to visit the municipal government building. 'Huang Laoxie' carefully inspected the surroundings of the municipal government building, including the square in front, the fountain water system, and the exhibition center in the back. After watching for half a day without saying a word, it wasn't until dinner that he solemnly said to Li Fengshu, "Today I checked the feng shui of the city hall, and found hidden ominous energy. The feng shui is not good, not good at all!" "

Li Fengshu asked, "What's wrong with it?" "

Huang Laoxie shook his head and said, 'The orientation is not correct, with the south high and the north low. Although the front view is open, it is blocked by the two buildings of the oil field. There is a water system but it is not connected. There is no Xuanwu in the north for support. The architectural layout is stronger on the right and weaker on the left, resembling the posture of a fierce tiger suppressing the Azure Dragon. It is inauspicious, very inauspicious.' "

Li Fengshu smiled after listening: "Does the master have a solution to crack it?" "

The plan has been finalized and major changes are not feasible. As a temporary measure, a rockery can be built on the north side of the city hall to enhance the Black Tortoise energy and ward off negative influences. "

When 'Huang Laoxie' said these words to Li Fengshu, Zhang Zhengqi was also present. Zhang Zhengqi thought that 'Huang Laoxie' was talking nonsense and engaging in mystification, believing that the so-called Feng Shui and evil spirits were all groundless talk. However, the city government did remove two artificial banyan trees on the north side of the city hall later on, and built a fairly large artificial mountain at the end of Century Avenue. It is said that each banyan tree cost over three million, so the total cost for the two trees was six to seven million, and the artificial mountain had a total investment of nine million.

It's strange to say that just the second day after the relocation of the municipal government agencies, a young cadre from the Development and Reform Commission suddenly had a heart attack and died in the office of the municipal government building. The Development and Reform Commission is located on the twelfth floor of the West Main Building. The young man who died suddenly was strong and rarely had any health problems. There were no signs before the onset of the illness. He said he was going to work overtime in the office at noon that day, and when his colleagues arrived for work in the afternoon, they found him lying on the table lifeless. Another suicide incident occurred on the ninth floor of the East Building today, with two lives lost in a week. Could it be that 'Yellow Old Evil' was right? Omen of Feng Shui Violating Taboos? These things inevitably lead to some associations.