The straight-line distance between Shencheng and Jinling is about three hundred miles.
There are no mountains separating the two cities, but vast plains. Such distance and terrain will never cause extreme climate differences between the two cities.
In the past, the cold wind that blew from the north to Jinling would blow to Shencheng.
And the warm current from the ocean will warm Jinling after warming Shencheng.
But in February this year, Shanghai was very cold, and Jinling was warm alone.
Of course, it is not too strange to encounter a warm winter. Except for practitioners like Shu Guan who can feel some abnormalities in the vitality of heaven and earth, most ordinary people feel that this year's warm winter is God's response to this chaotic world. a gift.
It's just that for the warm winters that have occurred before, after a few days of warmth, the temperature will still drop to what it should be like in winter.
But in Jinling this year, after the weather suddenly warmed up one day in early February, it never got cold again. Therefore, after this kind of warmer than spring days lasted for nearly half a month, there were still some ordinary people. An abnormality was detected.
So some agriculture, forestry, and meteorological experts began to publish articles in newspapers and periodicals, pointing out that such abnormal weather is not a good thing. It will not only affect the harvest of farmers this year, but also cause various diseases. Moreover, the warm winter in Jinling is too abnormal, because As long as we leave the fifty miles range of Jinling City, the temperature is still very cold.
So this is likely to be a severe meteorological disaster.
However, the opinions of these experts did not attract public attention and even attracted a lot of ridicule.
For most people, they can't see so far, and they don't want to know so much, as long as the temperature is comfortable and brings them various conveniences.
By late February, the temperature in Jinling City was already approaching 30 degrees. This was no longer spring, but summer was about to begin.
And the negative consequences of this sharp rise in temperature have finally begun to appear. Many people in Jinling City have been suffering from various strange diseases. For a time, major hospitals in Jinling City or Dahua traditional medicine halls have Overcrowded.
In the Teng family, Teng Yanping also fell ill a few days ago. He suddenly developed a high fever and kept coughing. If it weren't for You Shu Guan's presence, I'm afraid Teng Yanping would have really fallen seriously ill this time.
Of course, Teng Yanping's illness this time was probably not just due to the epidemic. Shu Guan felt that Teng Yanping had been worried and stressed these days.
When you feel depressed, it is naturally easier for illness to enter your body.
So after using his spiritual power to help Teng Yanping get rid of the illness in his body, Shu Guan couldn't help but ask Teng Yanping.
"Uncle, have you encountered any difficulties during this time? Why don't you tell me and see if I can be of any help!"
After Teng Yanping hesitated for a moment, he sighed heavily and said:
"Recently I discovered something that Director Song of our Finance Department is doing secretly."
"Director Song? That Song Ziwen?"
Shu Guan raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, he is the brother-in-law of that Mr. President."
"He did something."
"Director Song, he should be involved in a serious corruption case. Although his reputation in this area has not been very good, this time his hand was too long, and the amount of corruption was too huge. Some."
Shu Guan sighed, it turned out to be this kind of thing, so he didn't pay too much attention to it, but still asked casually.
"How much did Mr. President's brother-in-law steal this time?"
"It's hard to estimate..."
Uncle Teng Yanping opened the conversation. He pondered for a while and said:
"Xingyun, do you know how much the charcoal fire fee in Jinling City last winter was? We have made statistics. With a population of one million, the charcoal fire fee used in Jinling City last winter was a total of 23 million silver dollars."
"What is the charcoal fee?"
Shu Guan asked confusedly.
"It's the cost of buying charcoal for heating in winter."
Shu Guan was a little speechless after hearing this.
I didn't expect that the seemingly inconspicuous little charcoal would have such a huge amount after adding the huge population.
He suddenly thought of Ji Quanshun, the leader of the Shuzhou Charcoal Gang. It seemed that the Charcoal Gang was still very profitable.
“As for the charcoal used in the winter in Jinling City, part of it is brought in from other places by some vendors, but the largest part is purchased by the government, and then wholesaled to various specialized stores at relatively low prices, and then distributed to the citizens through them. "
"Charcoal for heating in winter may seem inconspicuous, but it is actually a major matter related to people's livelihood. If the government does not control the pricing power of charcoal and allows vendors to drive up the price, once the price is too high, citizens will not be able to afford it. Charcoal, that is going to cause trouble, especially in a capital city like Jinling, naturally such a situation is not allowed to happen."
"This is something that any competent and responsible government must do. Once the prices of people's livelihood commodities such as rice, flour, salt, and charcoal lose control and are allowed to skyrocket, it often indicates that this government will It is already on the verge of collapse and is no longer able to implement effective rule."
"So every year before winter, the Jinling City Government purchases a large amount of charcoal for storage. This eliminates the possibility of private traders raising prices wantonly. Once such a sign occurs, the government can naturally raise the price as long as it releases the charcoal in its hands. Come down."
"As for the cost of purchasing charcoal from the Jinling Municipal Government, it is naturally allocated by the Finance Department..."
When he said this, Teng Yanping paused, looked at Shu Guan and said bitterly:
"... When I was checking the accounts a few days ago, I found that the money that should have been allocated to the Jinling Municipal Government before winter last year was not transferred at all... That amount of money was secretly withheld by Director Song, and I don't know if it was transferred to him. What's the use of it?"
"Is that a large amount of money?"
"Yes, there are fifteen million silver dollars, but this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that because this amount was not allocated to the Jinling Municipal Government, before the winter last year, the Jinling Municipal Government did not purchase and store enough Charcoal for the people of Jinling City to survive the winter."
"Fortunately, we have experienced a mild winter this year. Otherwise, if we encountered vendors who were raising prices and the Jinling city government could not provide enough charcoal to stabilize prices, there would have been big trouble in Jinling this winter."
Teng Yanping was lucky enough to say this.
"Yeah, luckily it's a warm winter this year..."
Shu Guan originally echoed this sentence casually, but when he just said this sentence, he suddenly paused for a moment, vaguely seeming to think of something in his heart, but for a while he could not accurately grasp the flash of light just now.
Teng Yanping continued:
"After discovering that the amount of money was withheld by Director Song, I checked other accounts during that period and found that the accounts that Director Song had tampered with were not limited to that amount."
"At the same time, Director Song also intercepted a sum of money that was intended to be used to provide relief to the victims of the Xuanwu Lake for the winter. I don't know where he transferred it."
"In addition, in order for Jinling City to survive the winter safely, it is not only necessary to reserve charcoal, but also many other materials."
"After discovering that Director Song intercepted and withdrew several sums of money, I secretly learned about it and found out something from other people. That is, last year, Director Song resold a lot of supplies, which were all related to It had something to do with winter protection, and even included a batch of cotton-padded clothes to be distributed to the army. All of them were sold by Director Song, and he sold them to warlords in some northern continents. Those places really needed these materials. , so the price Director Song sells will definitely not be cheap. I made a rough calculation, and Director Song’s money from reselling these materials is probably not less than 30 million silver dollars.”
"Everyone knows that Director Song is greedy for money. I just can't figure it out. How could Director Song be so bold and reach out so long this time? What he did was not just corruption. You must know that if we hadn't happened to have a warm winter this year, without those supplies, Jinling City would have been in big trouble, and it might even have caused a mutiny in the army."
"Even if the President indulged his brother-in-law in the past, if even the army is in turmoil due to lack of supplies, the President will never let him off lightly."
"Although this year due to the mild winter, many supplies are no longer needed, so even if he sells them secretly, it won't cause any big trouble. As long as he buys some more supplies when the time comes, it will be fine. For example, the current price of charcoal in Jinling , is really worse than cabbage. As long as Director Song purchases a batch of charcoal at this moment, gives it to the Jinling Municipal Government, and colludes to say that it was bought before winter, then the account can be settled, and the fifteen million silver dollars, Naturally, it fell into Director Song's own pocket, and I'm afraid no one will pursue it.
"Although Director Song is very lucky this time, he couldn't have known a few months ago that this year would be such a rare warm winter. I have never figured out how he could be so bold..."
Teng Yanping's words flashed through Shu Guan's mind like a bolt of lightning.
The vague inspiration just now suddenly became clear.
Yes, unless Song Ziwen is a fool, he would dare to reach out for those extremely important supplies when he has no idea that there will be such a rare warm winter this year.
Even if he is greedy for money, with his current wealth and status, there is no need to take such a big risk. Moreover, with the power in his hands and the protection of Mr. President, there are many ways to make money, so why do he need to make this kind of profit? The risks are obviously disproportionate.
So is Song Ziwen a fool?
Shu Guan had an encounter with Song Ziwen a few days ago. He was very sure that Song Ziwen was not a fool, but a very shrewd person.
And why would such a smart person do such a stupid thing?
Unless, he knew in advance that there would be such a rare warm winter this year...
But is it possible? How could an ordinary person predict the weather a few months later? Even Shu Guan didn't realize that the weather would suddenly become so warm the next day.
The next moment, Shu Guan thought of the old Taoist priest who got out of his car when he met Song Ziwen. He was probably a practitioner.
The light in Shu Guan's mind became clearer and clearer.
What if it was the old Taoist priest who told Songziwen.
That all makes sense.
It was precisely because he knew that there would be such a warm winter this year that Song Ziwen dared to take action on those materials without restraint.
"...I don't know whether I should report these things I discovered to Mr. President. After all, nothing big happened this time. Even if Mr. President knew about it, I'm afraid the most he would do is reprimand Director Song. But afterwards, I'm afraid I will be severely retaliated by Director Song."
"It's just that when I know these things, I want to hide them, but my conscience can't bear it!"
Teng Yanping sighed and continued talking.
Shu Guan laughed, stood up and said:
"Uncle, why don't you invite Director Dai to your home in two days, just say it was me who said it, and then you can talk to him about these things."
Then, under Teng Yanping's surprised gaze, Shu Guan walked out of the room.
It was late at night, because Teng Yanping came home very late just now. After returning home, he was tired and unwell, so he immediately started vomiting. If Shu Guanzai hadn't been there, he would have been sent to the hospital directly.
When Shu Guan walked out of the room, he felt a rush of heat rushing towards him. He even heard the sound of crickets coming from the grass of the villa.
It’s really no different from early summer!
Shu Guan frowned, the weather was indeed weird.
Even if it is a mild winter, the temperature is higher during the day and lower at night. This should be a normal temperature change.
But now the weather in Jinling is almost the same at night and during the day.
Shu Guan could even feel that the temperature in Jinling was rising in a straight upward trend without any fluctuations, so it would be hotter at night than during the day, and then the next day would be hotter than the night before. Some.
Where there is yin there must be yang, where there is up there must be down.
This is the ultimate principle of this world.
So if warm winter is considered a normal climate phenomenon, this warm winter in Jinling is definitely not normal.
It's not like a natural weather change.
It's more like human control.
Shu Guan slowly stopped.
These days, he has been observing and thinking about what is going on with the warm winter in Aurous Hill, and he increasingly feels that it is probably being manipulated.
Those who can control the changes in the climate of heaven and earth are naturally practitioners!
Shu Guan's heart skipped a beat again.
The conversation with Teng Yanping just now made Shu Guan think that the old Taoist priest had calculated that this year would be a warm winter, and then pointed out Song Ziwen, so Teng Yanping discovered that Song Ziwen was reselling supplies.
But at this moment, Shu Guan thought a little deeper.
What if the old Taoist priest didn't calculate it?
Shu Guan is quite confident in his own hexagram. If he can't figure out something, there probably won't be many immortals who can figure it out at this time.
So there is another possibility for this matter.
Originally, Shu Guan was not prepared to pay attention to Song Ziwen's corruption. If it was because the old Taoist priest pointed out that Song Ziwen was just corrupting some money, he was too lazy to take care of it.
It is also something that the Jinling Seven Immortals Alliance should take care of, if they can detect this matter.
But now after realizing that there was another possibility, Shu Guan suddenly became very curious.
Then he planned to go find Song Ziwen tonight.
