Siheyuan, my new life

No. 7 Fangjia Hutong, Andingmen Street, Dongcheng District, is a private house with three main rooms and two side rooms. It is the home of Wu Hongjun, deputy director of the Security Department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill.

After returning from Lou Zhenhua's home, which is known as Loubancheng, Wu Hongjun casually dealt with his wife's nagging, using the excuse that he had work to deal with overnight, and then locked himself in the study, frowning and smoking non-stop.

Wu Hongjun's heart was filled with anger, regret and unwillingness. He was angry at Song Jiefang's ruthlessness and Lin Yu's cold and decisiveness. He regretted his reckless behavior at the Security Department meeting this afternoon. He was unwilling that he had finally become the deputy director, but suddenly found himself in danger.

Wu Hongjun is now a little confused. He has also experienced the test of war and has so many years of work experience. Why would he openly sing a different tune at the first work meeting held by the new director, and even dare to threaten the other party by saying that his sixty or seventy people were gathering to cause trouble?

Perhaps he was overwhelmed by the promise of an official position Song Jiefang had given him and by the constant calls of "director" from his subordinates. He was also subconsciously dissatisfied with a young man like Lin Yu becoming his immediate superior. More importantly, during the period when there was no director in the Security Department, he had developed the habit of having the final say in his own little territory. When facing the new director, he was actually blinded by his greed.

After leaving Song Jiefang's office disappointed this afternoon, Wu Hongjun racked his brains to think of ways to save himself. Others might not know whether he was clean or not, but he knew very well that if the higher authorities really intervened in the investigation, he would probably have to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Wu Hongjun was only in his early forties and was absolutely unwilling to sit back and wait. When he saw the former Lou's Steel Rolling Mill security guards gathered in groups of three or four and whispering, an idea suddenly occurred to his mind. Yes, he should go find him. If he dared to refuse to help, he would hand over some evidence in his hands, and perhaps he could get lenient treatment.

Of course, Wu Hongjun would never choose to do this unless he was left with no other options, because he knew very well that even if he was treated leniently, dismissal from his post was inevitable. He really didn't want to lose everything he had now. He was a child from a rural village and had finally become a deputy director. Although he did not live a life of luxury, the life of having wine and meat every day was a good life that he had never dared to dream of before.

So Wu Hongjun left the Red Star Steel Mill and went directly to No. 58 Dongjiaomin Lane, the home of Lou Zhenhua, the former owner of Lou’s Steel Mill and now the director of the Red Star Steel Mill.

Lou Zhenhua was obviously very surprised by Wu Hongjun's sudden visit. Although Lou Zhenhua is still a director of the Red Star Steel Mill, he has rarely appeared in the steel mill. Even if the factory invites him to attend some important meetings, Lou Zhenhua will find various reasons to refuse.

This was true not only for the Red Star Steel Mill, but also for several other state-private joint ventures where he was a nominal director. After the government suddenly cracked down on illegal traders and capitalists in 1952, Lou Zhenhua began to stay at home and was rarely seen in public. He did this in the hope of gradually fading from people's sight, so that everyone would forget the existence of Lou Bancheng.

Lou Zhenhua also hated those guys who tampered with the materials that the country supported the North Korean front. It was not that he was so patriotic, but he hated those bastards who only cared about immediate interests. It was these guys' bad behavior that completely angered the country's top leaders, and even some people who were doing business law-abidingly were affected. According to a friend of his who worked in a government department, there were already voices from above to ban all private owners, which meant that private individuals would most likely not be allowed to engage in commercial activities in the future. After hearing the news, Lou Zhenhua almost stayed awake all night.

Lou Zhenhua had had contact with Wu Hongjun who came to visit suddenly today, but the person he dealt directly with was the butler Lou Cheng.

With Lou Zhenhua's identity, the people he could directly contact were all the main leaders of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. If it weren't for the fact that most of his capable personnel worked in the Security Department and Wu Hongjun was the deputy director of the Security Department in charge of the Security Department, Lou Zhenhua would never have noticed this person.

Lou Cheng went out for something today, so Lou Zhenhua had to receive Wu Hongjun in person.

Today, when Wu Hongjun visited Lou Zhenhua, he had no mood for nonsense. After the servant brought tea and left the living room, he told the other party directly the purpose of his visit. He also deliberately expressed that since he became the deputy director of the Security Department in charge of the Security Section, Lou Cheng would send him a generous gift every year on his birthday. He mentioned special steel and his care for the security guards of the former Lou's Steel Rolling Mill.

Obviously, with Lou Zhenhua's brain, he could definitely hear the hidden meaning of Wu Hongjun's words. Wu Hongjun almost told the other party openly that he already knew about the collusion between internal and external parties to steal special steel, and that he turned a blind eye to it and did not pursue the matter because of the six large yellow croakers you gave him every year.

After hesitating for a while, Lou Zhenhua agreed to Wu Hongjun's request. In front of Wu Hongjun, he called Yang Weimin, deputy director of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. After a few pleasantries, Lou Zhenhua asked Yang Weimin to plead for Wu Hongjun in front of the newly appointed Director Lin. After all, Wu Hongjun had also worked in the Security Department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill for many years. Even if he had no merits, he had worked hard. Wu Hongjun himself also realized his wrong remarks at the Security Department's office meeting today. He was willing to sincerely apologize to Director Lin and would fully support Director Lin's work in the future. Lou Zhenhua hinted on the phone that he would definitely reward him handsomely.

After thinking for a moment, Yang Weimin agreed and asked Lou Zhenhua and Wu Hongjun to come to his office early tomorrow morning, and he would accompany them to find Lin Yu.

After Lou Zhenhua finished his call with Yang Weimin, he asked the chef at home to prepare a table of sumptuous dishes and warmly entertained Wu Hongjun.

Wu Hongjun sat alone in the study, smoking one cigarette after another. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he was a little desperate to go to Lou Zhenhua today. He originally thought that the famous Lou Bancheng must be a big shot with connections everywhere, and the person he found must be at least a leading cadre at the ministry level. However, he never expected that it was just Deputy Director Yang of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill.

Although Yang Weimin agreed to go to Director Lin Yu to plead for mercy, Wu Hongjun did not hold much hope for this. Based on the short half-day contact with Lin Yu today, Wu Hongjun believed that this was a man of strong character and decisiveness. Judging from his behavior of openly not giving face to dozens of leaders of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill and leading his subordinates in the Security Department to leave the welcome banquet directly, how could he possibly give face to Yang Weimin, the deputy director? It seems that Yang Weimin, like other factory leaders, is a little blindly confident. He will most likely face a setback tomorrow.

If this is true, Yang Weimin would only lose face, but his own situation would be bad. No, he could not just sit there and wait for death.

Thinking of this, Wu Hongjun immediately stood up and opened the bookcase behind him, took out a few books that were randomly stacked on the bottom layer, then used a little force to remove the wooden board at the bottom of the bookcase, revealing a hidden compartment.

Wu Hongjun took a suitcase and quickly put dozens of yellow croakers of all sizes in the secret compartment into the suitcase. He then took out all the money and bills in the secret compartment, counted them roughly, put two thousand yuan into a bag separately, and put the rest of the money and bills into the suitcase. Finally, he took out two Browning pistols and all the bullets from the secret compartment, loaded one of the pistols with bullets and inserted it into his waist, and put the other pistol and bullets into the suitcase.

Wu Hongjun walked into the bedroom carefully again, glanced at his sleeping wife, and felt a little regretful. His daughter lived in the school dormitory, and he didn't get to see her before leaving. He quietly opened the closet, took a few clothes, walked out of the bedroom quietly and returned to the study. After putting the clothes into the box, he sat at the desk again and picked up the pen to write.

Wu Hongjun planned to flee far away. He had no confidence that he could escape the scrutiny of his superiors. He would be sent to prison for any of the charges of accepting bribes, reselling materials and job positions, and sheltering his subordinates. Rather than being arrested and imprisoned tomorrow, he might as well escape tonight.

Fortunately, since the director of the Security Department has not yet taken office, the official seal of the Security Department has been placed in the drawer of the director's office. The three deputy directors each have a key to the door of the director's office. Anyone who needs to stamp the official seal has to open the director's office and do it themselves.

Once, when Wu Hongjun was writing letters of introduction to his men, he somehow got a brand new letter of introduction, stamped all of them with official seals and secretly took them back home. At this time, Wu Hongjun couldn't help but feel lucky. With these one hundred blank letters of introduction, he could completely stay away from the circle of right and wrong in Beijing. As for where to go, he had also thought about it, which was to take the 4:30 a.m. train to Guangzhou first and then try to smuggle into Hong Kong.