Chapter 166: The Art of Public Relations
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“Chief, would it be possible for us to have some time alone with Wang Chen?” Qiao Jun asked.
The chief nodded repeatedly. He could not have been more eager to extricate himself from the mess.
“We’ll wait in the conference room next door. Just let us know if you need anything.”
Qiao Jun nodded with a smile.
Wang Chen observed the chief’s attitude toward Qiao Jun in silence and realized that this man’s standing in Luzhou’s political sphere was probably far from ordinary.
“And who are these two students?” Qiao Jun asked, turning his puzzled gaze toward Long Wushuang and Tang Ruotong, who showed no intention of leaving.
Wang Chen said to them, “Go wait next door with the chief. Don’t worry about me.”
As he spoke, he also gave Wu Jiajie a meaningful glance. Though a trace of concern showed in Wu Jiajie’s eyes, he nevertheless went to stand behind the chief.
Long Wushuang approached Wang Chen and said in a low voice, “If anything happens, just come charging out. Your brothers will be waiting to back you up.”
Wang Chen patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.
Long Wushuang headed toward the door. As he passed Qiao Jun, he suddenly lowered his head and said, “Since we’re meeting for the first time, let’s get acquainted. My name is Long Wushuang—the Long of the Long Group.”
At those words, Qiao Jun’s pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.
He quickly suppressed his reaction and said with a genial smile, “Very well. I hope I’ll have the chance to exchange a few more words with Young Master Long later.”
Long Wushuang gave him a cold sidelong glance before leaving with Tang Ruotong.
In the blink of an eye, only three people remained in the conference room.
The burly man named Jiang Sheng walked to the door, locked it, and then searched the conference room from top to bottom.
Wang Chen watched him without a word and did not try to stop him. A wooden door like this could never keep him from leaving if he truly wished to do so.
Then Qiao Jun spoke.
“Hello, Student Wang. I’m Qiao Jun, the public relations spokesman for the Public Security Bureau.” Qiao Jun was a fair-faced, middle-aged man, tall and slender, with slicked-back hair.
Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, he looked less like a peace officer than a lawyer.
After introducing himself, Qiao Jun proceeded to introduce the dark-faced man.
“This is Jiang Sheng, an officer of the Public Security Bureau. He is responsible for training probationary peace officers and has been appointed by the bureau as its technical adviser for this inquiry.”
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Qiao Jun smiled gently. “Don’t let Jiang Sheng’s fierce appearance fool you. He was once named the bureau’s finest peace officer.”
“So you came here to question me?” Wang Chen ignored Qiao Jun’s small talk and went straight for the essential point.
“That’s right.” Qiao Jun nodded, his smile unchanged.
“It seems Student Wang has some misunderstandings about our bureau, so we came to clear them up.”
Wang Chen appeared calm on the surface, but a flicker of surprise passed through his heart.
The Public Security Bureau had actually lowered its posture this much? They had not even mentioned taking him into custody.
Qian Xiaomin and the people from the Professionals’ Association had previously warned him that this was a possibility.
“No. It can’t be that simple.” Looking at the fair-faced Qiao Jun and the dark-faced Jiang Sheng, Wang Chen felt a sudden surge of vigilance.
If they merely wanted to placate public sentiment and smooth the matter over through public-relations tactics, there would have been no need to send both men.
Unless, in addition to peaceful methods, they had another coercive option at their disposal. Only then would they need this good-cop, bad-cop arrangement.
With that thought, Wang Chen decided to follow Qiao Jun’s lead for the moment and see what they were truly planning.
“Mr. Qiao came rushing over as soon as he heard the news. I assume you know what I did today, correct?” Wang Chen asked.
“Of course.” Qiao Jun smiled. “I admire your courage, Student Wang. When I was your age, my legs would shake whenever I had to speak in front of the entire class.”
“Let alone standing before tens of thousands of people and making your voice heard as you did.”
Wang Chen’s expression remained flat. Qiao Jun’s flattery did not send him floating. He continued, “Then you should also know that tomorrow I’ll be going to the Oversight Court to file a formal lawsuit against the Public Security Bureau.”
“At that point, there will naturally be an inquiry. So why come to me today and put on this useless performance?”
“Or does your bureau intend to silence me today?”
Qiao Jun had not expected Wang Chen to question the purpose of his visit so directly.
Yet faced with Wang Chen’s sharp gaze, he did not panic. Even the gentle smile at the corners of his mouth remained unchanged.
In the same humble and courteous tone, he said, “We are not here to cover up our mistakes, nor to silence you.”
“On the contrary, we wish to face the oversights and errors that have arisen in the bureau’s current operations.”
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“Student Wang may raise any questions he wishes regarding our work, and our bureau will answer them one by one.”
Wang Chen said coldly, “Then how does your bureau explain the fact that, among the households I visited, one hundred and twelve had been persecuted by the Public Security Bureau?”
Qiao Jun pushed up his glasses. “Please be mindful of your wording, Student Wang. The oversights and errors that occurred in the course of our work were merely the actions of individual peace officers. They cannot be taken as representing the bureau as a whole.”
Wang Chen frowned. “Peace officers are under the bureau’s authority, are they not? Why can’t their actions represent the bureau?”
“Seven years ago, our bureau launched the Temporary Peace Officer Recruitment Program. I suspect that the households you visited encountered temporary peace officers recruited during one of its expansion drives.”
Wang Chen stared at him in astonishment. “So you’re saying they were all temporary workers?”
Qiao Jun smiled and nodded. “I believe that is very likely.”
A surge of anger rose into Wang Chen’s chest. “You haven’t even compared the cases in my documents one by one, yet you already know that all the mistakes were made by temporary peace officers?”
Sensing the growing severity in Wang Chen’s tone, Qiao Jun reached over and opened a bottle of carbonated drink for him.
“Of course, we’ll compare everything against the materials you’ve collected. But I don’t expect there to be any surprises.”
Wang Chen now understood what Qiao Jun meant. Before he had gone knocking on their doors, those ordinary people had never dared even to consider reporting the Public Security Bureau.
Naturally, few of them had thought to record the officers’ identification numbers.
Thus, although Wang Chen had approximate times of attendance and details of the various cases, the bureau could alter its records whenever it wished.
In other words, every case Wang Chen had accused them of committing could be attributed to temporary peace officers, who would then be dismissed and made to take the fall.
Perhaps only the cases involving two officers could be proven conclusively against them.
Wang Chen stared at the bottle of fizzing drink before him and felt that it was far too dark. It must have contained a great deal of coloring.
Seeing his expression, Qiao Jun took a document from his briefcase.
“Thanks to the reminder you’ve given us, Student Wang, our bureau has not only recognized certain hidden dangers in our personnel structure, but also become aware of the importance of public oversight. We have therefore established several public-supervision posts.”
Qiao Jun opened the document for Wang Chen.
“We would like to invite you to serve as one of our student supervisors.”
“On holidays or whenever it is convenient for you, you may come and work as a peace officer for the day, accompany our on-duty personnel, and supervise their work procedures.”
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