Chapter 830 - 798: Misfortunes Never Come Alone
With Xu Chunliang making move after move, the Dongzhou Culture and Tourism Bureau gradually shifted from passive defense to counterattack. As it regained its footing, the rapid decline in Dongzhou Barbecue’s reputation finally came to a halt.
Fu Guomin, who had been driven to distraction, could finally breathe a little easier. He sighed from the bottom of his heart that Xu Chunliang was not only a bringer of good fortune, but this guy’s ability was also exceptionally outstanding. This round of crisis public relations was proof. Thinking back to Xu Chunliang’s friendly reminder not long ago, he realized that at the time he had only seen the political achievements that were within easy reach, but had ignored the potential crisis, which was why they were now in such a passive situation. Fortunately, there was still room to maneuver.
Just as Fu Guomin thought the most serious crisis of his career was about to be resolved, another major incident broke out in Dongzhou.
At 10:16 a.m. on May 17, a ground collapse occurred at the intersection of Nanjiang Road and Beixi Road. The affected section was the construction area for Jinshan Station on Dongzhou Metro Line 4. Two cars and an electric tricycle plunged into a deep pit.
As of now, five people are trapped in the collapse zone. There have been no deaths or missing persons, and the identities of all individuals have been confirmed.
After this collapse incident occurred, the Dongzhou leadership team immediately convened an emergency meeting. All parties threw themselves into organizing rescue efforts. The Municipal Emergency Management Bureau, the Bell Tower District Government, the Municipal Transportation Bureau, as well as the traffic police, fire department, the metro company and other relevant units all rushed to the scene to carry out emergency operations. The specific cause is under investigation.
The collapse area is relatively far from the gas pipeline, which has already been shut down. No gas leaks have been detected. Emergency personnel from the gas company are on standby at the scene at all times. Because the collapse area has been covered by water and soil has continued to fall, rescue work faces enormous difficulties. To prevent further expansion of the collapse zone, partial backfilling has already been carried out.
After the incident, an emergency rescue command center was immediately established at the scene, with rescue set as the top priority. Every possible means is being used to search for missing persons, every possible means is being used to ensure that no secondary disasters occur, and surrounding residents are being evacuated in a timely manner.
At 3 p.m. the next afternoon, a victim was found twelve meters below the collapse area. The person showed no signs of life, and rescue efforts for the remaining missing persons are still ongoing.
After the emergency working meeting, Secretary Zhou kept his partner Wang Heyi behind. Both of them were in a very heavy mood. Good fortune never comes twice, misfortune never comes alone. The Dongzhou Barbecue storm had yet to subside, and now there was a metro collapse.
Compared to the former, the nature of the latter was far more serious, and it already constituted a work safety accident. According to the classification of accident nature, this incident at least constituted a major accident.
At the meeting just now, a consensus had already been reached: while going all out to rescue the missing persons, several construction managers involved in the accident were also to be taken under control.
Wang Heyi said, "Secretary Zhou, the key now is to control the economic loss as much as possible, strive to reduce it, and keep it within fifty million."
Fifty million was a hard threshold. According to relevant state regulations: accidents that cause the deaths of 3 to 10 people, or serious injuries to 10 to 50 people, or direct economic losses of between 10 million and 50 million yuan are classified as major accidents.
Judging from the current situation, the chances of survival for these five missing persons are extremely slim. Right now the main task is to control the economic loss. This is also the consensus reached within the leadership team: they must keep the nature of the accident under control.
Secretary Zhou sighed and said, "There’s no such thing as a small matter when it comes to construction safety. I’ve reiterated this again and again, reminded them again and again, and yet something still happened—and it just had to happen on Phase II of the metro project."
The metro Phase II project was his pride, and also his most dazzling political achievement in Dongzhou. If everything went smoothly, he was very likely to take up a post at the provincial level within the year. Given Secretary Zhou’s age, his career within the system had basically reached its end; he had hoped to put a perfect full stop to his time in Nanjiang. Now that full stop had turned into a question mark.
Compared to Secretary Zhou, Wang Heyi’s headache was even worse. Once Secretary Zhou’s term ended, he was supposed to naturally take over Dongzhou. But this metro construction collapse incident had left his own future hanging in the balance.
Wang Heyi had received information from the Meteorological Bureau that there would be a heavy rain tonight. If secondary disasters occurred, the chances of survival for the four missing persons would be bleak.
Wang Heyi said, "Secretary Zhou, quite a few reporters have already arrived in Dongzhou, and the rescue could go on for many days. I’m worried public opinion will be very unfavorable to us."
Secretary Zhou frowned, displeased. "They really are everywhere." The Dongzhou Barbecue storm had fully demonstrated the importance of public opinion: a great many ordinary people were more willing to believe the media’s fabricated nonsense than official statements.
Speaking in a low voice, Wang Heyi said, "Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it. We must fight this battle well and make public opinion work for us."
Secretary Zhou said, "This must be handled properly. You take charge personally."
Wang Heyi nodded, pressed his lips together and said, "Secretary Zhou, I have an idea."
Secretary Zhou glanced at him. "Speak. No need to beat around the bush."
Wang Heyi said, "The Dongzhou Barbecue storm isn’t over yet. The public opinion turmoil triggered by that incident is far from settled."
Secretary Zhou said nothing, thinking to himself that in the current situation, there was no room left to bother with the Dongzhou Barbecue matter.
In a low voice, Wang Heyi said, "Between two evils, choose the lesser."
Of course Secretary Zhou understood what he meant: this was about shifting the hotspot. Such a tactic is most commonly used in the entertainment industry. When a certain celebrity’s scandal breaks and remains at a fever pitch, the usual response is not to whitewash the scandal but to shift the hotspot—for example, by exposing another piece of dirt and diverting everyone’s attention elsewhere. This approach may not eradicate the problem at its root, but it is definitely the quickest and most effective method.
What Wang Heyi wanted was to divert this group of news media’s attention back onto Dongzhou Barbecue, thereby easing the pressure and focus generated by the collapse accident.
Secretary Zhou fell into a long silence.
When Xu Chunliang passed by the collapse site, the area had already been completely covered by fencing, and he saw quite a few police officers maintaining order.
Xu Chunliang saw Li Zhong, who was providing support at the scene. Li Zhong also spotted him and walked over to say hello.
Xu Chunliang said, "How’s the situation?"
Li Zhong said, "Five fell down. We’ve found one so far—dead. The chances of the others surviving don’t look good either." The opening formed by the collapse was so deep you couldn’t see the bottom; under normal circumstances, anyone falling down there had very little chance of survival.
Xu Chunliang sighed to himself. Dongzhou really had been hit by one trouble after another lately. He’d thought the Dongzhou Barbecue scandal was bad enough, but he hadn’t expected an even bigger blast from the metro construction.
The two of them hadn’t chatted for more than a couple of sentences when they heard an argument not far away. It was several police officers on duty at the scene clashing with a few reporters. Xu Chunliang hadn’t planned on getting involved and was just about to leave when he heard a familiar voice call out to him: "Xu Chunliang!"
He followed the voice and saw that Su Qing was actually there. After a moment’s thought he guessed what was going on—this Dongzhou metro collapse had even alerted the Provincial Satellite TV.
Li Zhong frowned. He knew Su Qing too, but friendship was one thing—on the job, there was no room for personal feelings. Their superiors had given them a hard order: before the rescue was complete, no one was allowed to disclose any information about the scene on their own. Updates on the rescue progress and other issues would be released publicly by a spokesperson designated by the emergency rescue command center.
Su Qing ran over toward Xu Chunliang. She had barely gone a few steps before a police officer stopped her, snapping, "Who told you to rush into the restricted area? If you interfere with the rescue, can you afford to take responsibility for that?"
Su Qing said, "I’m a reporter from Provincial Satellite TV."
"Even if you were a CCTV reporter, it wouldn’t matter. Without approval from our superiors, no one is allowed to interfere with our rescue work."
Su Qing pointed at Xu Chunliang and Li Zhong. "I know them."
When Li Zhong saw Su Qing pointing at him, he immediately felt a headache coming on. He urged Xu Chunliang in a low voice to hurry up and get Su Qing out of there. If the leaders saw this, he’d definitely get chewed out.
Xu Chunliang called Su Qing over to the side and said quietly, "When did you get here? You didn’t even tell me."
Su Qing said, "I’m here for work, not to visit relatives and friends. Chunliang, talk to them for me, see if we can get in to shoot some footage of the rescue on site."
Xu Chunliang said, "Don’t get me in trouble. The city has rules in place right now. If you really want to do interviews, you have to go through the proper procedure. You know Li Zhong too—we’re all friends. If you’re looking for a breakthrough, you should pick someone else. You can’t throw your own people under the bus, don’t you think?"
Su Qing rolled her eyes at him and muttered under her breath, "Even you won’t help me."
Xu Chunliang said, "I’ve already got enough stink on me."
Su Qing couldn’t help saying, "At least you’re self-aware."
Xu Chunliang said, "Come on, you can’t start attacking me personally just because you didn’t get what you wanted. How about this—as an apology, I’ll treat you to a meal."
Su Qing said, "I’m not in the mood to eat."
Xu Chunliang said, "I’m being completely sincere here. Once you miss this village, there’s no such shop down the road. Think it over carefully."
Just then Su Qing’s phone rang. She told Xu Chunliang to wait a moment and stepped aside to take the call. When she came back, she looked a bit dejected and said, "Our station leaders really make decisions on a whim. They want us to go shoot Dongzhou Barbecue City first."
Xu Chunliang said, "Dongzhou Barbecue City?"
Su Qing nodded. "I’m heading out. We’ll reschedule the meal for another day."
Xu Chunliang said, "You still haven’t told me what you’re going to shoot at Dongzhou Barbecue City."
Su Qing waved her hand. "I don’t know either. I’ll contact you after I figure it out."
When Xu Chunliang got home, his grandpa was making hand-pulled noodles. Even though Chunliang had been back for a few days already, the grandfather and grandson still hadn’t sat down for a meal together.
Xu Changshan said, "I thought you were going to eat out again tonight."
Xu Chunliang felt secretly ashamed. He’d been busy with work these past two days and had neglected his grandpa. He hurriedly invited his grandpa to sit down and briefly went over what he’d been busy with these days.
After listening, Xu Changshan sighed and said, "As the saying goes, blessings don’t come in pairs, misfortunes never come singly. Dongzhou really has been full of trouble lately. I know I shouldn’t meddle in your work, but I still have to say this: you should steer clear of right and wrong. As much as possible, don’t get involved in things that aren’t yours to handle."
Xu Chunliang laughed and said, "Grandpa, you’re overthinking it. With my rank, I’m not even qualified to get involved in those things."