STAPLER: If you really want to understand politics, there are six books you must read.

STAPLES: What are they?

STAPLER: Dramatically. Aristotle's Politics, Machiavelli's The Prince, Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Rousseau's The Social Contract, and Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

STAPLES: Mockingly. Ha, I can tell right away you don't understand politics. Those books are all out of date. The key to politics is actually very simple: follow your leader.

STAPLER: Earnestly. I know what you mean, and it certainly sounds simple, but actually it's the most difficult thing for a civil servant to do.

STAPLES: How is that?

STAPLER: You may only be a thin bit of wire, but actually you're a perfect symbol of the civil servant. Your clean silver colour is just like an official's uniform, you all look exactly alike, and when you're put together with me, your leader, you all fall into line. No matter how I bend and squash you, you don't complain; you're made to be shaped and used.

STAPLES: So you're saying civil servants don't have the courage to say 'no'? But didn't Number Two Department say 'no' as a group under Xu Zhitai?

STAPLER: You're wrong. They didn't say 'no'; they were actually currying favour. Xu Zhitai calculated that Xiao Furen was unhappy with Zhao Zhong, but he was unable to do anything about it because of Liu Yihe. Once Liu Yihe was gone, Xu seized his opportunity and gave Xiao Furen a chance to strike at Zhao Zhong.

STAPLES: That's not right. If that were true Xu Zhitai would have gotten into Xiao Furen's good graces. So why wasn't he promoted to department head?

STAPLER: Simply a matter of precedence. If Peng Guoliang hadn't personally chosen Yang Hengda, Xiao Furen would have promoted Xu Zhitai for sure. Actually, civil servants have the ability to say 'no', they just lack the courage when faced with the bureaucratic establishment. Who would be so careless about their official career? It's like Milan Kundera wrote: 'In the bureaucratic world of the functionary, first, there is no initiative, no invention, no freedom of action; there are only orders and rules: it is the world of obedience. Second, the functionary performs a small part of a large administrative activity whose aim and horizons he cannot see. It is the world where actions have become mechanical and people do not know the meaning of what they do. Third, the functionary deals only with unknown persons and with files. It is the world of the abstract.'

'In this world of obedience, of the mechanical, and of the abstract' the world of the civil servant 'where the only human adventure is to move from one office to another.'

STAPLES: I can hardly agree with Kundera here. w.a.n.g Xiaobo wrote of a 'maverick pig' that won its freedom after escaping from the pig pen, and even grew new tusks. There are staples too, who resist your pressure. Their legs bend outwards instead of in. There must be civil servants like that as well.

STAPLER: Derisively. You are too naive, my boy. They drove that pig out of the village and left it wandering in the wild, and staples that resist my pressure come to an even worse end: the trash can. A successful civil servant sticks to his leader like a staple and paper; he thinks his leader's thoughts, concerns himself with his leader's concerns and takes pleasure in what pleases his leader.

STAPLES: Nietzsche wrote: 'Few are made for independence. It is a privilege of the strong. And he who attempts it, having the completest right to it but without being compelled to, thereby proves that he is probably not only strong but also daring to the point of recklessness.' I am convinced that politicians must be this sort of person. I'll admit that even I would like to let myself go, to live in freedom and ease, doing as I please even if it means I am cast away. I believe the best a staple can do is to be flexible and extensible like an elephant's trunk. Those who can be flexible and extensible in the pursuit of their careers are by no means weak. Precisely the contrary; they are strongest of all.

STAPLER: So if you're an elephant's trunk, what am I?

STAPLES: Ingratiatingly. Well, your ideal is to be like an open-minded person. A successful civil servant must be able to contain thoughts the way you do staples, within his broad mind and expansive heart. We two are one, as a matter of fact. We're a team, and that's why we work together seamlessly.

STAPLER: You're convincing me now. Without staples a stapler would be an empty sh.e.l.l, useless, like a general with no soldiers. But without the stapler, staples would likewise be a heap of sc.r.a.p wire. Truly we cannot do without the other, the way Number Two Department is a team.

That reminds me of something that happened once. Xiao Furen had just graduated and arrived at Number Two, still full of vigour, and idealism and literary dreams. He never antic.i.p.ated the dullness of his daily grind.

One day he was given an a.s.signment. The head of the reception and hosting committee needed some materials printed and bound for a meeting the next day. He repeatedly reminded Xiao Furen to prepare for the binding, but Xiao blew the warnings off. Later that night, of course, when Xiao was printing and binding the materials, he ran out of staples after only a dozen copies. He sauntered to the staple supply only to find the box was empty. He was thunderstruck. Everyone ransacked the office but there wasn't a single staple to be found.

It was already midnight. Xiao Furen had to take a taxi to a five-star hotel with a business centre. It was dawn before he finished. When the hospitality department head turned up in the morning and found Xiao Furen looking like a ghost, he patted him on the shoulder and sighed, 'Furen, the great war horse stumbles not on the craggy mountain pa.s.s, but while he's crossing the smallest stream. Remember this lesson of the staples. They may seem insignificant, but they have the power to determine success or failure. Great success is an acc.u.mulation of insignificant detail.'

STAPLES: Why are two tiny staple points able to penetrate a thick stack of paper? It's because their force is concentrated on a tiny area. If every civil servant could be like a staple identifying the goal, concentrating force, never wavering, hesitating or flagging I'm sure each one would find success.

STAPLER: Your reputation is even more glorious than mine, you know. You once defined an era!

STAPLES: How's that?

STAPLER: On the thirty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the new China, a group of college students wrote 'h.e.l.lo, Xiaoping!' on a big banner and hung it where Deng Xiaoping would pa.s.s by. In fact, they made it by stapling big pieces paper to a bed sheet. So you see, you fixed an entire era in place!

STAPLES: It's a good thing they didn't have glue back then or we would never have had our chance. China went from 'Long Live the Emperor' to 'h.e.l.lo, Xiaoping', instantly bringing our leaders back into the mortal realm. What does this tell us?

STAPLER: It tells us that society is progressing and the people are maturing. But reforms still have a long way to go, and the 'officials come first' att.i.tude is still holding us back . . .

Chief of the Munic.i.p.al Finance Bureau, Chen Shi.

WHEN I CLOSE my eyes these days I feel darkness pressing in on me from all sides, and my head fills with thoughts of ambush and deceit. I've always felt that the vault of my soul was full of rats, packed in tight and struggling, gnawing at the cellar door with their front teeth in an effort to get out. But those rats could not stand the light, so I fought to keep them from breaking through the door. It exhausted me, this effort, it drained my spirits. They reproduced like cancer cells and my ears were filled with their squeaking and rustling and gnawing. The sound surrounded me, enveloped me and deepened my fear of ambush.

Over time the pack of rats grew so large that I could not contain them. They were going to burst out, wander the streets like human beings.When rats emerge, everyone's first instinct is to kill them.When the time comes, I thought, it won't be rats on the street that people are trying to kill. It'll be my tattered, rat-gnawed soul.

When the rats finally did burst out, however, they didn't go wandering the streets. They went straight to the vaults of the Finance Bureau. No one saw them enter, and once they were in, they didn't forget that my soul was their true home. Like ants moving house, they transferred the gold from the vaults of the Bureau to the vaults of my soul, which transformed from a dark and dismal corner to a golden, glittering palace. For the first time in my life I felt the riches of the soul. I took my place on the palace throne.

Still, I felt uneasy. Particularly after Liu Yihe had returned to Dongzhou to become mayor. He doesn't like me. But for the fact that Vice-Mayor Peng is responsible for the Finance Bureau, I think Liu would have had me transferred long ago. The reason he dislikes me is something that happened on the first National Day after he took office.

I'd heard he liked fireworks so, wanting to get in his good favour, I proposed to him that the Finance Bureau fund a National Day fireworks display in the name of the Munic.i.p.al Government and hold it in the government square. Liu always jumped at anything that might make the people happy and agreed immediately.

I co-ordinated with Xiao Furen, Director of the Munic.i.p.al Government, to set up a viewing platform in the broad s.p.a.ce by the main gate of the government compound. We set out tables bearing fruit platters, sunflower seeds and tea. Mayors, vice-mayors and some head secretaries sat at the tables and waited for the fireworks. Mayor Liu was in high spirits and spoke and laughed with animation. But as the first firework climbed into the sky and the crowd was beginning to 'ooh' and 'aah', a sc.r.a.p of burning cinder drifted straight down into the rest of the fireworks and the compound was abruptly transformed into a sea of fire. One of the largest sh.e.l.ls exploded right on the platform. My office director called the fire department, but by the time the fire engines arrived, all the fireworks were ruined. It's lucky no one was hurt. I ran up to the viewing platform, hanging my head, to make my report. When I was done, Mayor Liu said nothing, just stood up and stalked off in a huff. From that time forth, he never once gave me a smile.

You try to kiss the horse's a.r.s.e and your lips land on its leg. At least I hadn't gotten a fart in the face or a kick in the head, and that was only thanks to Vice-Mayor Peng standing up for me.

In Dongzhou politics, even the Munic.i.p.al Party Secretary had to tip his hat to Mayor Liu, but Mayor Liu had to tip his hat to Vice-Mayor Peng, for a very simple reason: Liu depended on Peng for his political success.

Mayor Liu made the development of foreign trade and investment one of the priorities of his tenure, and Peng was the vice-mayor in charge of that area. Also, in order to display his magnanimity, as well as his democratic leanings, Mayor Liu gave Peng the job of delegating mayoral duties. Peng took over everything related to finances and human resources, clearly intending to sideline Liu altogether. But then Mayor Liu leveraged the other vice-mayors' discontent with Peng Guoliang's power grab and put him on his back foot again.

Liu still relied on his underlings to get things done, however. This was particularly the case with Peng, who was his equal in terms of abilities and achievements. Mayor Liu was perfectly aware of this: he'd witnessed it when the two of them had been in compet.i.tion for the position of standing vice-mayor. But in politics, a single misstep can lose the race. Liu was Peng's superior when it came to winning hearts and minds, and in the end he won on reputation. From the point of view of practical ability, however, I believe Peng is far the greater mayor.

Take foreign investment for example. Peng Guoliang took the first steps in this direction when he was still Bureau Chief of the Munic.i.p.al Bureau of Commerce. He set up a representative office in Hong Kong and sent his own office director, Niu Yuexian, to head it up. This Niu Yuexian not only has near-mystical social skills, but she is also possessed of an otherworldly beauty. Peng's eye had lighted upon this gorgeous typist the moment he'd arrived at the Bureau. In no time, she'd been promoted to deputy director of the office, and six months later she was director.

Once he'd established the Dongzhou Representative Office in Hong Kong, he tasked Niu Yuexian with turning it into a base from which to make friends and connections throughout South-East Asia. Along with the advantages of beauty and personality, Niu Yuexian had a first-cla.s.s brain. She soon earned a reputation as the social toast of Hong Kong. Through her, Peng established links with many South-East Asian entrepreneurs and tyc.o.o.ns. Many of them called him 'brother', something Liu Yihe could only envy.

Peng was soon setting new records for foreign investment in Dongzhou. Several large shopping complexes that had been on the verge of collapse were resuscitated and returned to profitability. He was consequently promoted to the position of mayoral a.s.sistant, and soon after that became a vice-mayor. It is no exaggeration that Peng won the position thanks to his skill at attracting foreign investment. Liu might have made foreign investment one of his priorities, but when it came down to the painstaking work of making it happen, he relied entirely on Peng.

This was doubly unfortunate for Liu Yihe because he hated the sight of Peng, and now he had to give him face. That's also the reason Liu couldn't remove me from my position or discipline me after the fireworks disaster. I had Peng Guoliang's protection. In politics, tugging a single thread will often unravel the whole sweater, and no one in charge can afford to ignore the power of the clique. A clique is a political force. On your own, no one above will look out for you, and no one will follow you.

As top dog of Dongzhou, Liu had to balance the interests of many different cliques, and he was deeply cognisant of the fact that Peng did not operate alone. Not only was Peng at the heart of his own powerful clique, but he was also a key member of other, much greater cliques cliques it would be very dangerous to rile up. All Liu could do was cultivate secondary power centres to balance out Peng's power.

To be honest, since throwing in my lot with Peng, I've not only reaped considerable benefits, but I've also learned a lot. He once said to me, 'For thousands of years, Chinese culture has emphasised loyalty versus betrayal, never truth versus falsehood. Loyalty means loyalty to the imperial power, and the imperial person. Most people think loyalty is one of the traditional Chinese moral virtues, that it means filial piety to your parents, but I'm telling you filial piety is just a mask. Who are your real parents? Government officials, of course. Why do we call it the "paternal state"? After thousands of years of the paternal state, how can we suddenly transform ourselves into a "civilian state" run by public servants? Even the people themselves would rebel thousands of years of worshipping power has dealt a mortal wound to Chinese culture. That's hypocrisy and falsehood. The habit of falsehood is fatal to a culture. But to us, falsehood is the essence, and we can employ this essence to fabricate our own weights and measures. Doesn't the measure of justice exist within each of us? The Qin Emperor unified the standard weights and measures. Is it within our power to change them? So long as we can keep a thumb on the scales of justice, we can resolve all difficulties. Those who worship power must worship falsehood, and for that reason each and every profession has developed its own highly developed unwritten rules. know this: preserving the unwritten rules means preserving yourself.'

I was struck by the last thing he said, and the cloud of fear and dread that had long accompanied me abruptly lifted. From then on, I railed publicly against corruption at every opportunity, and all cadres at the bureau level or higher received regular training in integrity and self-discipline. Actually, what Peng Guoliang had said about 'preserving unwritten rules' didn't go far enough. People often speak of 'fishing in troubled waters'. But as I preferred to say, 'In politics, the best way of protecting yourself is to yell "stop thief!" whilst picking your neighbour's pocket!'

Secretary of the Provincial Disciplinary Committee, Qi Xiuying.

RECENTLY I'VE BEEN receiving some unusual letters. They're not mailed to me at the Provincial Disciplinary Committee but to my home. The contents are two or three pages of notebook paper, apparently torn from a full notebook. What's shocking is the notes seem to be written by Mayor Liu, and the moment he's finished them he's torn out the pages and sent them to me.

But that's impossible.

My guess is someone has stolen his notebook and is tearing out a few pages at a time and mailing them to me.

When I read these letters, my jaw drops open. Not only are the contents nigh unbelievable, but they would have earthshaking results if published. They appear to be a record of Liu Yihe's deepest secrets, and the notebook thief appears to be mailing them to me out of a sense of moral outrage. The only marks he leaves are a few typewritten words on a piece of photocopier paper attached to each batch of the notes as if they are a t.i.tle: The Civil Servant's Notebook.

It's obvious the notebook thief is not only familiar with Mayor Liu. He must also be familiar with me. He seems afraid that I'll work out his ident.i.ty. Each letter bears no return address and the postmarks show that each has been mailed from a different location. The earliest came from different districts within Dongzhou City, later ones from a county town under Dongzhou's jurisdiction and the most recent from other provinces. The most distant was mailed from Shenzhen.

Liu Yihe has made such important notes in this book that if he were to discover their loss he'd be jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. So why has nothing come of it? The whole business is strange.

Proper procedure would be to report the letters to the Provincial Party Committee, but such a report might alert the perpetrator. The first order of business is clearly to find the notebook thief. But how? My years of experience tell me that whoever it is must be close to Liu Yihe, likely someone in the Dongzhou Munic.i.p.al Government.

After thinking it over, I decided the best course of action was to send someone to get close to Liu Yihe and see what they could uncover. But who? They'd have to keep a low profile and get close to Liu without attracting his attention. I pondered the question for a while and settled on Shang Xiaoqiong from the Sixth Office of the Provincial Disciplinary Committee.

Shang studied criminal investigation at the Public Security University. She's bright. In the three short years she's worked in the Disciplinary Committee, she's partic.i.p.ated in many major anti-corruption cases. I'd been planning to send my secretary, whom I'd brought along from K Province (she'd worked with me five or six years), down to county level for some on-the-ground experience and replace her with Shang Xiaoqiong pro tem. I'd have to put that off for now. We needed to get to the bottom of the The Civil Servant's Notebook.

The next question was what position near Liu Yihe would be most convenient for her work. I thought about it for a whole week and couldn't find an answer.

At the end of the week the Provincial Disciplinary Committee held a standing meeting. I arrived at my office at dawn, much earlier than usual, to organise my work reports. I found a girl from the Janitorial Brigade cleaning my office. My eyes lit up. If I sent Shang Xiaoqiong to the Dongzhou Munic.i.p.al Janitorial Brigade to clean Liu Yihe's office, she'd come into close contact with him without attracting suspicion. Given her motivated work habits, we might not only learn about Liu Yihe, but we might also find the notebook thief.

After the meeting I told the Director of the Sixth Office, Deng Hongchang, to come and see me. I explained the case and told him to send Shang Xiaoqiong to work undercover in the Dongzhou Munic.i.p.al Janitorial Brigade. Deng is a senior inspector, loyal to the Party and deeply experienced. Before I'd finished, he'd caught my meaning as well as the fact that this might be an anti-corruption case of enormous proportions. He called Shang Xiaoqiong into my office and explained the mission to her in front of me. I emphasised the severity of the case and reiterated the importance of secrecy to both of them.

That's how Shang Xiaoqiong was sent to the Janitorial Brigade of the Dongzhou Munic.i.p.al Government in the guise of an etiquette graduate from the local vocational school.

After a month undercover, Shang Xiaoqiong had discovered nothing. During that time I received another three chapters of the mysterious The Civil Servant's Notebook, each more shocking than the last. The most recent had me bolt upright in my chair. Its contents read: 'I had not realised that desires could be measured with cash. I've always thought of myself as someone with no greed for money. As Mayor I need many things: reputation, status, trust, appreciation, support, veneration, authority, power, love, flowers, applause . . . but I do not need money. I thought I was made of iron, because I did not doubt my ability to cleave to my one dream: to make the people of Dongzhou proud of me, and proud of themselves. But money was all around me like a damp breeze, impossible to ward off, like a pestilence imperceptibly encroaching on the body. Though I may be made of iron, I may yet rust . . . What is rust? It is convention, thousands of years of traditional reciprocity, and who could withstand that? If you were to equate reciprocity with corruption, wouldn't all of society be entirely corrupt? I've gone from vice-mayor to standing vice-mayor, then to vice-governor, and now to my position as Mayor of Dongzhou. An entire decade! And in that time, I've accepted as much as eight figures worth of gifts. As a vice-mayor, I could never have dreamed it. I'm a mayor, what do I need all that money for? The people choose me as Mayor, and as Mayor I act on behalf of the people: that was my original intent. That intent has grown weaker, but no matter how strong it was, it could never have resisted this exterior strength; the desires of society are far, far stronger than the desires of the individual. It's similar to the way we are terrified of death, yet none of us can escape death's clutches the more I longed to be clean, the more I was driven to corruption. The harder I struggled to avoid my fate, the more surely I was ensnared in its net. What is it that caused loftiness to become base, uprightness to become corruption? I cannot fathom the answer. Last night Zhao Zhong came to see me expressly to give me a Juvenia wrist.w.a.tch on the occasion of my daughter's birthday. My relationship with Zhao Zhong is one of father and son; I was obliged to accept. As we chatted I asked him, what was it that people needed most these days? He replied immediately that they needed the salvation of their souls. I asked him why, and he said that people's greatest unhappiness was their inability to break free. This sounded right to me. With such a firm grasp of human needs, human emptiness, it's no wonder he is able to make so much money running his temple. I asked him how people might break free, and he said: by believing in something. When I heard this casual remark I suddenly understood why the harder I strove for uprightness, the deeper I fell into corruption. After Zhao Zhong left I conducted a thorough self-examination and could come up with no single thing that I believed in.'

If these two pages of notes had really come from Liu Yihe's pen then he was one of the most corrupt officials in Qingjiang Province. If we could verify this, I would do everything in my power to make an ironclad case out of it. But could someone be setting Liu Yihe up? I often conducted surveys among my subordinates, and I had asked for news of Liu Yihe's political reputation while he was vice-governor. Everyone said that not only was he a diligent leader, but he was also kind. Could someone like that be corrupt?

While I was secretary of the K Province Provincial Disciplinary Committee, I suffered all manner of misunderstanding, slander, rumour and abuse because of my anti-corruption cases. My son was even framed for using my power and status to make an illegal fortune. At that time reform was fully underway and all manner of conflicts were emerging at all levels. Could a diligent, kind leader such as Liu Yihe be framed for corruption?

While Liu Yihe was working in the provincial government, we attended a few meetings together, and though I didn't know much about him, I could tell from the tone of his speeches that he was someone who believed he had a mission and didn't hesitate in pursuing it, and also that he was someone who stood by his word. After he came to the Dongzhou Munic.i.p.al Government, I heard that while working with secretaries or mayors he would often disregard their lead and express his own opinions. Someone like that is p.r.o.ne to a 'my way or the highway' mentality. They say absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the greatest flaw in the current system is the lack of effective checks or oversight against the depredations of 'Number One'. Power is a double-edged sword. Might the kind and diligent Mayor have two faces?

The notes said that desire could be measured in cash. You have to admit that in a market economy the value of the individual can be measured in his ownership of capital. This has shaken the idealism and changed the world view of some civil servants. From the notes, it was obvious that Liu Yihe was suffering spiritual torment. But were those his true feelings?

Former Head of the Real Estate Bureau of the Munic.i.p.al Committee Office, Zhu Wenwu.

ZHAO ZHONG AND I often get together to play mahjong, but he's never invited me out for a drink.

Until now.

When he was head of the Number Two Department and my son Dawei was under him, more than a few times I invited Zhao to go drinking. Not only a drink; we'd often move on to a sauna or ma.s.sage parlour. I did this in the hope that he'd look after Dawei, give him an opportunity.

Back then, Zhao used to go around with his nose in the air because of his special connection with Liu Yihe. During the Cultural Revolution, Liu Yihe's father had been struggled against, and Zhao Zhong's father had brought him food. With such solid backing, it's no wonder Zhao Zhong was a tyrant inside the department. He behaved so badly his whole department was nearly up in arms. He never dreamt they would rise up against him.

We all learn from our mistakes, and although he was driven out of government with his tail between his legs, Zhao turned disaster into opportunity and has since made a mint from running temples. I've always wondered how he does so well.

In vino veritas. Once he'd had a few he told me.

'My friend, let me tell you why I failed as department head. It's very simple: I didn't understand the nature of control. Why did everyone say I was an autocratic department head? Because I controlled their sensibilities without controlling their thoughts. Control of sensibility is merely a restriction of one's physical body, but without controlling thoughts, people will start to feel discontent, and it was that discontent that defeated me. Reflecting on my failure, I see that the key to successful control is to make the controlled feel happy about it, to make them appreciate it, even worship it. You must create a deep connection between controller and controlled, to turn control into something irresistibly seductive, as though it were a drug, until even those who are beyond control still feel the desire to be controlled, and regret the lack of control.

'How is this done? By controlling not only thoughts but also souls. Those who tend towards discontent, in particular, are most vulnerable to control of their souls. That is, those who think most feel the most pain. We cannot fulfil everyone's desires, but we can employ control to bring solace to the desiring soul. How do we bring that solace? To give illusions to those who are full of desires, and to make them see hope. Hope is controlled by the soul. Submission to the soul leads to understanding, and thence to freedom. When people submit to the soul they acknowledge, trust and even worship control. And who does not wish for the solace of the soul?

'Thus, the highest form of control is control of the soul, and only religion is capable of that. In China today it is Buddhism that goes deepest into the human heart. My dear friend, running temples not only leads to good works and the salvation of souls, it can also earn income from incense money! Why wouldn't I do it?'

Incense money! I thought to myself, with grudging admiration. He's getting rich off souls!

But he hadn't asked me out drinking just to tell me about his business methods. He asked me about Robert Luo, the representative from Wantong Property from Hong Kong, and I became wary. Robert and his project were close to Peng. Was Zhao Zhong gathering information for Liu Yihe?

Peng and Liu had been at loggerheads during their fight for the position of standing vice-mayor, and though Peng was now a lower grade than Liu, he wasn't one to accept defeat. It was only a matter of time before he counterattacked.

My son Dawei had told me that Peng's secretary, Hu Zhanfa, had an idea that Dawei should succeed him when he moved on, as he was due to soon. But Dawei seemed to think that Peng was more interested in Huang Xiaoming, who did have the advantage over my son in terms of ability. That's not to say that my son was inferior. I know better than anyone what he's capable of. But he lacked opportunities to test himself and grow.

A mayor's secretary is in an unusual position. He wields a hidden power, an extension of the mayor's authority that often has more force and room for play for him than it does for his boss. Becoming secretary to a mayor was a shortcut in one's political career, but if you followed the wrong man it could also lead to a fatal dead end.

Doing business in China, particularly real estate, meant cultivating contacts, and contacts meant politics. A real estate mogul like myself often had requests to make of Hu Zhanfa, and he had profited plenty in the course of helping me.

Hu Zhanfa had long ago become Peng Guoliang's crutch, and to a certain extent it was the servant who was in control. A secretary that powerful, who behaved so wilfully, had to have something dirty on his boss. He must have had his own reasoning behind wanting my son to take over his position, and probably thought he would be able to use Dawei to control Peng Guoliang even after he himself had moved on, whereas if Huang Xiaoming took the position he wouldn't be so easily manipulated.

In fact, Hu Zhanfa was wrong. He had forgotten that my son was a distinguished student of politics and, furthermore, if he became the mayor's secretary, he would be responsible to the mayor, not to the mayor's former secretary. He would know all too well that his future was in the hands of his leader.

For these reasons, I pressed Zhao Zhong to recommend my son to Liu Yihe. At the same time, I provided him with some information about the relationship between Peng Guoliang and Robert, including some rumours I had heard about 'under the table' handouts connected with the Hegang Gardens project, which I had been working on with Robert's Wantong Group.

There was one thing I didn't tell him, however. The Hegang Gardens project included a luxury villa development called Pear Blossom Garden. There were twenty villas, and they were the most expensive properties in Dongzhou. When they were still in the blueprint stage, Robert asked me to reserve one villa for him. I thought he was going to move his wife over from Hong Kong to live there and thought nothing of it. But after construction was completed and the villas were sold, I discovered that he'd sold that one to a woman named Miao Guizhen. I'd met Robert's wife before and that certainly wasn't her name, so I joked with him, 'Have you got yourself a mistress to ease the loneliness?'

Robert made no bones about it. 'My tastes aren't that low! To tell you the truth, the woman who bought the villa is the sister-in-law of Chen Shi, the head of the Munic.i.p.al Finance Bureau.' I almost gasped out loud when I heard that.

I remained doubtful of what Robert told me, however, and meant to find out whether Chen Shi really had a sister-in-law. As it turned out, he only had a brother-in-law. I didn't know why Robert was lying to me. All I knew was that those villas cost ten million, but this Miao Guizhen had bought hers for only one. Even if she was Chen Shi's sister-in-law, Robert wouldn't give her such an enormous discount. This deepened my curiosity and I kept an eye out for exactly who this fairy woman was, but no one ever moved into the villa. The other nineteen were bought by some of the richest business owners in Dongzhou.

I was one of them, of course.

One evening I was out at a dinner and came home late. As I drove past that villa, I noticed an Audi parked out front, which immediately piqued my interest. I pulled over into a dark spot to watch what might happen. After waiting more than an hour, I saw two people emerge from the villa, a man and a woman, and by the streetlights I could see that the man was Peng Guoliang and the woman Ou Beibei. My heart leaped to my throat. A man got out of the driver's seat of the car and opened the door for Peng Guoliang. Ou Beibei got in first. The driver was Hu Zhanfa.

It wasn't until long after they had driven away that my heartbeat returned to normal. There was only one thought in my head: stop Dawei from becoming Peng Guoliang's secretary. I'd heard that Peng Guoliang was a womaniser, but you wouldn't expect him to choose his prey from his own office. The beast couldn't even pa.s.s up Ou Beibei. That was bad news for w.a.n.g Chaoquan. I'd heard Dawei say that Ou Beibei was very vain and looked down on her own husband, but w.a.n.g Chaoquan's feelings for Ou Beibei ran deep. If he knew he was being cuckolded by the standing vice-mayor, he'd be devastated.

I'd kept this whole business to myself.

There was one person I couldn't help mentioning it to, however, and that was my future daughter-in-law, Shang Xiaoqiong. My son's nickname for her was 'Cat', and I thought it very suitable, because her job was catching mice. She worked in the Provincial Disciplinary Committee under the notorious Secretary Qi Xiuying. I asked her if she could help me ascertain the ident.i.ty of this mysterious Miao Guizhen. Not ten days later, Xiaoqiong told me that Miao Guizhen was an alias for Peng Guoliang's wife, Zhang Peifen, but the ID card of this 'Miao Guizhen' was genuine. It gave me a shock to hear that!

Dongzhou Representative of Wantong Property Group, Hong Kong, Robert Luo.

GIFTING A VILLA worth ten million to Mayor Peng was a sweet deal because Wantong Group hadn't paid a penny of land usage fees for the hundred mu Hegang Gardens development on the Wujiazhuang section of the Blackwater River. A word from Peng Guoliang and it was all waived. Even our local partner, Zhu Wenwu, was surprised. When the previous mayor had taken a team to Hong Kong to look for investors, the incentive he'd allowed for that particular development project was a land usage fee reduction of twenty per cent. After Zhu Wenwu went to work on him, he'd agreed to a forty per cent, which the Wantong Group was already very happy with. But the board felt we could still do better, and asked me to continue working on Mayor Peng, who was the vice-mayor responsible for the project. I treated him to several dinners and even visited him at home, but Peng wouldn't budge.

One evening his secretary Hu Zhanfa invited me out to dinner. Hu Zhanfa was Peng's most trusted man and had a good deal of influence over him. I thought this would be a good opportunity to drum up support. I readily accepted the invitation.

Hu Zhanfa reserved the most luxurious private room at Golden Splendour, an entertainment venue that combined restaurant, karaoke and spa. By rights, I ought to have been the one treating Hu Zhanfa, but he made the reservation of his own accord. I was curious to see what he had up his sleeve since, as the saying goes, 'he who comes bearing gifts wants something in return'. We'd been acquainted for a while, and my impression of him was not so much that he was a hypocrite, but an 'honest crook', conniving to the point of frankness. You never had to guess what he was up to.

Sure enough, after three drinks, he cut to the chase. 'In fact, Manager Luo, there would be nothing difficult about a total waiver of the land usage fees. But there's just one condition.' He made a point of stopping there and taking a deep drink.