CHAPTER 482: CHAPTER 199: SU ZICENG’S DOMINANCE

The mayor also chuckled and put on a look of impartiality: "Miss Su, Chairman Fei is absolutely right. This resolution was passed after public opinion surveys and parliamentary voting. There is significant public disapproval of the Su Family, and the production halt is for giving the Su Family a breather."

Looking at the mayor and Mr. Fei who were repeating the same rhetoric, Su Ziceng felt truly disgusted. She thought she couldn’t continue speaking in a negotiating tone, "What the outside world thinks is not important. I would assume someone as senior as the mayor would know how to consider the bigger picture."

Su Ziceng’s tone was somewhat aggressive, and even the relatively polite mayor was starting to feel unhappy. He chuckled bitterly, "Miss Su, the bigger picture is that the whole of Mo City believes that the Su Family must be held accountable for this incident." A girl who wasn’t even weaned yet, daring to instruct him on how to govern and be fair.

"Very well," Su Ziceng slowed down her tone a bit, she turned around, facing the air conditioning blowing cold air, "Then I’d like to ask if the mayor is aware that, aside from Zone 1 and Zone 2, the rest of the areas, including the office buildings in Zone 3, commercial facilities in Zones 4 and 5, I won’t even mention Sixth District, since you wouldn’t care about the lives there anyway, are facing power restrictions during the day, five days a week, and once we enter June, it will be every month."

The mayor, of course, was aware of this; this was precisely what was troubling him. After entering July and August, the gap in electricity demand would grow even more significant, and the losses due to power outages would severely constrain the city’s economic development.

"Mo City is an economically strong city but also a city poor in resources. Every year it relies on electricity from other provinces and cities, and even so, the gap in electricity demand is increasing every year," Su Ziceng’s face turned somewhat pale from the cold wind, but her eyes became brighter and even slightly red.

"That’s an old cliché; there’s no need to waste the mayor’s precious time," Mr. Fei stood up, ready to temporarily act as a secretary and to usher Su Ziceng out.

"On the contrary, this is not an old cliché, I’ve just gotten to the main point. If the mayor is not willing to listen to me, then I can guarantee your tenure as mayor won’t last much longer," Su Ziceng threw the documents in her hand onto the mayor’s desk, the pent-up frustration in her chest immediately swept away.

"You actually dare to threaten the mayor," Mr. Fei jabbed his finger at Su Ziceng, looking altogether ready to scold someone like a shrew.

"This is not a threat, but a request for the mayor to look at the data I’ve compiled," Su Ziceng pushed the document closer to the mayor’s face.

The file, eighteen pages thick, wasn’t something the mayor took seriously. His desk was piled every day with dozens of such documents, but none of them constituted a threat to his official career.

In the end, the mayor gave in under Su Ziceng’s intense gaze. Even if he truly wanted to expel her, it wouldn’t be too late after reading the document.

The document was meticulously organized, from the distribution of the Su Family mining areas to production management, with very clear data for each year. This document wasn’t something a novice like Su Ziceng could have prepared; each page was carefully composed by Chang Mei and the administrative secretary’s office.

Spanning the twenty-five years from the establishment of the Su Family mines to their suspension, the document was even older than Su Ziceng’s age. As the mayor flipped through, his expression gradually turned grave.

The well-off young lady in her early twenties wasn’t boasting; this indeed was a document worthy of submission to the Ministry of Mining of the State Council.

The Su Family, with coal production bases spread across thirteen coal-producing provinces in the country, controlling twenty percent of the national coal resources, is the largest coal mining giant in Z nation, second only to the national enterprises. The suspension of the Su Family’s operations is not just about the restructuring of a private enterprise but a significant restructuring within the national coal mining industry.

"Suspending operations in July, August, and September means a shortage of fuel for thermal power enterprises along the Southeast Coast, which will in turn collapse the power grid of resource-poor cities like Mo City," Su Ziceng added from the side.

By the time the mayor had flipped to the last page, his expression had become very serious, and even Mr. Fei beside him could sense his noticeable change.

However, the mayor had no intention of revealing his hand immediately. As the policymaker of Mo City, he is undoubtedly a weathervane. Just a few days ago, the resolution for suspension was passed, and now to backtrack and say the suspension should be delayed—politics is certainly not a card game where you can reshuffle whenever you wish.

Misinterpreting the mayor’s silent contemplation as a denial of Su Ziceng’s report, Mr. Fei hastily said, "We’ve already said that the resolution has been passed. Don’t entertain any more vain hopes of overturning the decision with some impractical information. You’re a woman; it’s better to marry off earlier while the Su Family isn’t bankrupt yet..."