Episode 7 recap: Yang Yunsheng came to Chen Zhiqiang to ask for money, and Luo Yuan brought everyone to the scene.
Luo Yuan and Geng Nian went to Guo Shuiqing's house and shouted loudly for him to open the door, but Guo Shuiqing refused to respond from inside the room. Later, he even threw a lot of garbage trying to stop them. Luo Yuan, who had a cleanliness obsession, was hit by a pile of garbage coming towards him and almost passed out. But when he saw the door open, Luo Yuan rushed in directly. He inspected the surroundings, and then the police helped clean up the garbage outside.
Luo Yuan saw a large freezer in the room and felt very strange. He opened the freezer and was stunned by what he saw. Luo Yuan shouted loudly for Geng Nian. Geng Nian came over and took a look, and was so scared that he quickly closed the freezer. Guo Shuiqing suddenly rushed over with a stick and hit Geng Nian with it.
Geng Nian was caught off guard and was knocked down on top of the garbage pile. Guo Shuiqing lost control of his emotions and shouted not to let them take away his wife, Ailian. It turned out that Guo Shuiqing's wife, Ailian, had passed away from illness more than two months ago, but Guo Shuiqing had kept her body in the freezer. The police station wanted to take Guo Shuiqing away for investigation. Luo Yuan and Geng Nian first talked to Guo Shuiqing. Guo Shuiqing was still in immense pain and couldn't bear to see his companion of forty years leave him like this. Geng Nian held back his headache and persuaded him to accept the reality. His wife was no longer with him, and it was time to let her rest in peace. He believed that his wife wouldn't want to see Guo Shuiqing living like this.
After the truth of the matter was revealed, the neighbors felt sympathetic towards Guo Shuiqing. Under the persuasion of the street office director, everyone agreed to withdraw the lawsuit. On the way back, Xiao Qi asked Luo Yuan if they would still investigate the case. Luo Yuan said that since the plaintiffs had withdrawn the lawsuit, there was no need to investigate further. This was a case where victory was imminent, but the plaintiff died first.
Their next step was to split up and search for cases related to the environment. Dai Chongguang instructed his subordinate, Lao Fan, to negotiate with the investors and the bottom line was to keep them in the industrial park. Lao Fan hesitantly said that the infrastructure in the park is not well-developed, and the provincial requirements for wastewater treatment are very strict. How can this contradiction be resolved?
Dai Chongguang thought for a moment and said that he would handle this issue himself. He asked Lao Fan to provide him with a list of companies in the park that require wastewater treatment.
Luo Yuan brought Xiao Qi to the Environmental Protection Bureau of Qixing County, ready to connect with them regarding their business. However, the director was busy, so only the office director, Zhang Wei, was assigned to receive them. Luo Yuan explained the importance of environmental protection and mentioned that their environmental protection court had just been established and needed the support of the bureau in terms of manpower and resources. Director Zhang Wei, however, stated that the county currently prioritized economic development, and everything had to serve that purpose.
As a result, there wasn't much work that the Environmental Protection Bureau could do. Some factories and industrial parks would be lucky to receive one or two inspections per year, and everything else was just empty talk. Yang Yunsheng stormed into the Fenghuang Xiangfa Group, directly seeking money from the chairman, Chen Zhiqiang. Chen Zhiqiang pretended not to understand and Yang Yunsheng explained that the Jiang Petrochemical Factory owed him money, and now that the factory was finished, he had no choice but to come to Chen Zhiqiang for help.
Chen Zhiqiang asked him to sit down and have a drink of water, then told him that he had no connection with the Jiang Petrochemical Factory. This made Yang Yunsheng anxious, questioning why the government was still looking for him if there was no connection. He mentioned that his son had leukemia and needed money, and if Chen Zhiqiang didn't help, he wouldn't let him off easily. Chen Zhiqiang immediately showed sympathy and offered to have the finance department give him some money. He also informed Yang Yunsheng that the industrial park urgently needed someone to invest in and build a factory to treat wastewater. If he was interested, Chen Zhiqiang was willing to help him secure a piece of land for the factory.
After sending Yang Yunsheng away, Chen Zhiqiang called Feng Xuewen and asked him to find a way to deal with Yang Yunsheng. Although the Environmental Protection Court didn't receive any environmental protection cases, they became the rescue team, with civil and criminal cases being sent their way. Luo Yuan went to negotiate with Director Liu but couldn't get a clear answer.
Finally, they received a real environmental protection case. Zhu Dade, a villager from Shuilang Town, sued the owner of a grinding wheel factory, claiming that the discharge of wastewater killed his trees. The factory owner vehemently denied the accusation, stating that Zhu Dade was trying to extort money from him. Luo Yuan prepared to go to the scene and specifically called Xia Modong to join him.
Indeed, the grinding wheel factory had a small wastewater ditch. Although it had been inactive for half a year, Xia Modong explained that the pollution could be categorized into three types: air pollution from dust, land pollution from wastewater, and noise pollution.
I've always thought that environmental issues were just empty slogans. It's only as I grow older that I realize how shallow my knowledge is. It's ironic to mock those who are actually making a difference in areas of knowledge that we don't understand, as if everything can be achieved instantly.
It takes time and confident accumulation to make progress gradually. May all those who watch this drama be inspired and develop an environmental consciousness together.