Chapter Eight: The Trump Card (Part Two)

Teng Deming suddenly stopped his teasing, rubbing his cheeks and ears briskly with both hands, then interlaced his fingers to swiftly smooth back his jet-black hair.

Faced with Teng Deming’s bizarre, almost circus-like antics, Zhang Maolin was puzzled and could only stare silently at him.

Teng Deming chuckled softly and continued his “lecture”:

“Coming and going in secret—that’s the worst situation encountered in disciplinary inspection and supervision. And no matter what, you can’t avoid it; you can only face it. But precisely at this moment, it’s the best opportunity to showcase the artistry of your work and your personal charm!

If it really comes to this, you must first magnify the nature of the problem immensely in front of the person involved. You must elevate the severity of the issue without any upper limit! Only by emphasizing it this way can the other party completely abandon their subjective illusions, fully understand you, and plead with you. Even if you report the case truthfully without any compromise, the person involved will not resent your actions because you’ve already laid sufficient emotional groundwork and made them realize your good intentions. At this point, what you should pay even more attention to is that by exaggerating the severity of the violation beforehand, you actually create greater room for maneuvering in the next step…”

“W-what kind of room for maneuver?!” Zhang Maolin was on pins and needles! He instinctively bent forward, staring in horror at Teng Deming, whose lips were frothing.

At that moment, Zhang Maolin’s mind felt as if it had been flooded with a potent ‘bewitching drug,’ rendering him instantly dull-witted! Every word of Teng Deming’s grand discourse was like a spinning blade, slicing deep into Zhang Maolin’s heart, leaving it torn and bleeding! He couldn’t believe that the person speaking these words to him was the very department-level leader he sometimes admired, sometimes despised, sometimes found inscrutable, and sometimes felt powerless against! He coldly stared into the eyes behind Teng Deming’s glasses—what kind of gaze was that? Deep, stern, arrogant, merciless, haughty, sinister to the extreme…

Having just stood up, Zhang Maolin hesitated for a moment, then instinctively sat back down.

“What room for maneuver? Hmph, and you’ve been in disciplinary inspection for over ten years. If it weren’t for you today, I wouldn’t bother wasting breath on this with anyone else!”

Teng Deming slightly raised his eyelids, revealing a look of not-so-hidden contempt. He twisted his neck left and right and then said:

“When you come quietly and leave quietly, and slightly exaggerate the severity of the problem to the person involved, you’ve already created enough room for your next move. Because you’ve made the other party understand and accept that you really can’t help them, but you’ve done your best. So no matter how far the situation deteriorates later, they won’t blame you. Meanwhile, if there’s a chance for a turnaround, you must cleverly seize it and do your best to help the person without risking yourself. This way, the outcome often turns out much better than expected. Just think about it—won’t the person be especially grateful to you?!…”

“Oh, I didn’t expect such complexity behind this. Compared to this, even though I’ve been a disciplinary secretary for years, my approach was really simple and naive to the extreme…”

Zhang Maolin’s words were somewhat incoherent.

“Brother, there are a few more things I must say—”

As Teng Deming muttered this, he leaned back slightly, his corpulent body once again slumping into the corner of the sofa. Lazily, he said:

“As a qualified municipal disciplinary secretary, there’s one thing you must always remember—that is to constantly maintain close alignment with your superiors. If the professional departments make minor deviations in enforcing policies, those can be corrected at any time. But if the disciplinary inspection work shows signs of ‘going astray,’ the consequences can be very serious or even irreparable!

On this issue, you especially need to grasp the mindset of the provincial bank’s ‘top leader.’ Of course, such understanding must not be limited to reading, memorizing, and simply analyzing a few speeches by President Tan. You must approach it from a higher and broader perspective to uncover the substantive truths. To reach this level, regular work contact is far from enough—you need to exert effort outside of office hours. President Tan, as a southern cadre transferred from another region, eagerly hopes that you secondary branch leaders will ‘get close’ to him!

Take the Songyang City Bank, for example. As the disciplinary secretary, you must know among the deputy section chief level and above personnel which faction or ‘line’ each belongs to. In other words, you must clearly understand each person’s subtle relationship with the provincial bank leadership. Only then can you accurately grasp who can be moved, who should not be lightly touched, and who absolutely must not be touched if the management ever runs into trouble! This is no mere word game.

Therefore, when making decisions on handling matters, never underestimate these middle managers. Especially be extremely cautious with certain ‘voluptuous,’ heavily made-up, alluring female cadres! These ‘fault lines’ are often like a single thread that can unravel the whole body politic! Don’t dismiss the existence of such intrigues!”

“You should seriously reflect! Over the years, precisely because you haven’t understood or faced these issues, what’s the result? You’ve suffered more losses than anyone else!”

Teng Deming gave Zhang Maolin a deeply frustrated look and continued:

“Looking across the whole provincial bank system, those municipal disciplinary secretaries promoted in the early 1990s have either been ‘confirmed’ as heads of secondary branches or have become full directors at the provincial bank. Only you, only you, Zhang Maolin, have remained stuck in the same place! Your foundation and ability are not lacking—so what is the reason you’ve been stuck in the passenger seat for so many years? Don’t you think you should reflect on this? I dare say, in the entire provincial XingShang Bank system, you might be the only one who doesn’t even know which direction President Tan’s front door faces! How incredible is that!”

Teng Deming clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“President Tan? Isn’t he an external transfer? Does he really have a home in our provincial capital?” Zhang Maolin asked, puzzled.

“Hmph, such an extremely naive and absurd question probably only you, Zhang Maolin, could come up with!” Teng Deming’s round face flushed with a trace of anger.