Chapter 42 Handling

In the afternoon, the air pressure inside the largest conference room of the school's administrative building was so low it felt almost suffocating.

Li Mingyuan had been sitting there ever since finishing lunch.

It was not yet two o'clock, but the heads of all the school's administrative departments and the leaders of every college had already arrived in full, including Dean Zhang, who concurrently served as the director of the logistics department.

The crowd filled both sides of the long conference table.

"President, except for the three deans who are attending meetings out of town, everyone else is here."

Li Mingyuan let out a low hum, his gaze sweeping across the room. "Good. Since everyone is present, let's begin. We are going to discuss a 'minor issue' that Vice Mayor Wang specifically brought up this morning while 'expressing concern' over our work."

His tone suddenly turned heavy, causing everyone's hearts to skip a beat. "Over two thousand yuan per dorm room! How are these fees being charged?! Huh?"

He turned his head to look at Vice President Fang, who was in charge of school logistics. "Explain the situation."

After Vice Mayor Wang had left, Li had ordered Vice President Fang to conduct a thorough investigation, with other departments cooperating in the supervision, and the finance department doing the same.

Vice President Fang's face was ashen, and the pressure on him was evidently immense. He could guarantee that although he knew there were fees charged for the air conditioning, he genuinely had no idea about the specific pricing standards.

His responsibility was managing the general direction of school logistics, and he only personally intervened in extremely important matters, such as the renovation of teaching and dormitory buildings. Minor affairs like air conditioning were left to the corresponding subordinates.

You would never know the truth until you investigated, but the findings were terrifying. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and picked up a thick folder from the table. "President, colleagues. Upon receiving the instructions, comrades from the logistics department, finance department, and audit office immediately formed a joint investigative team.

"They urgently verified and compared data on the usage and charges of air conditioning in all student dormitories across the campus. While it wasn't possible to check every single room, it is basically certain that the situation is real.

"The school's air conditioning system adopts a model of 'corporate investment, school supervision, and student-paid usage.' The company introduced through the initial bidding process was Hentong Service Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the investment, installation, maintenance, and fee collection of the equipment.

"However, judging from every link in the chain, all procedures were legal and compliant. To verify this, we retrieved the original bidding documents and bid evaluation records.

"The key clause regarding the 'pricing principles for usage fees' in the bidding document was extremely vague and lacked quantitative standards, mentioning only 'reference to market conditions and reasonable costs.'

"This document, drafted by the logistics department and formally reviewed by the bidding office, left enormous room for subsequent manipulation."

Even with the air conditioning running, beads of fine sweat stood out clearly on Vice President Fang's forehead under the conference room lights by the time he finished his report.

Having been completely unaware of this matter constituted a massive failure in his work. Given how egregious the circumstances were, he could not escape the charge of dereliction of duty no matter what.

What angered him even more, however, was the director of the logistics department—Zhang Tao!

Yet Zhang Tao's current reaction was no better. The moment Vice President Fang mentioned the bidding document, Zhang's body visibly stiffened. He slumped back into his chair, his face turning instantly pale.

Inside his mind, he was frantically trying to figure out how this matter had gone straight to the president.

Ever since Deng Yonghua had reported the incident to Dean Lin last time, he had been paying closer attention to the situation, and he had even placated Zhou Yun, the source of the trouble. Logically speaking, there should not have been any problems.

No matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not understand why this had happened.

Li Mingyuan's expression grew visibly gloomy. He turned and glanced at Zhang Tao, and that single look made everything clear to him—something was deeply wrong here. He slammed his hand heavily onto the table.

"By now, the matter is basically clear!

"Disgraceful! Truly disgraceful! Such a massive issue went unnoticed for so long—oh, wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!

"I announce that Zhang Tao is suspended from his duties starting today! He will face a comprehensive investigation by the relevant departments! Handle it strictly according to the law and established procedures!

"Furthermore, I refuse to believe that something of this scale could be pulled off by him alone. Everyone involved in this matter must be investigated!

"As for the fees, we will hire an independent third-party agency to re-verify a reasonable standard for air conditioning usage fees. Any excess charges collected from students must be refunded down to the very last penny!

"All relevant departments will undergo a complete overhaul! We must overhaul all rules and regulations involving outsourced services and business partnerships!

"An incident like this must never be allowed to happen a second time! As for the public relations department, draft a proposal. The students have the right to know. This was a mistake on the school's part, and we must make the students feel the sincerity of the school's admission of fault. Understood?"

"Understood!"

"Then get moving immediately. Tomorrow morning, I want to see the proposals from every department placed on my desk!"

Less than half an hour after the meeting ended, Zhang Tao was taken away. By the very next day, a few senior school leaders had quietly vanished from their posts.

The school's official website and official WeChat account published the "Preliminary Explanation and Disciplinary Decision Regarding the Student Dormitory Air Conditioning Fee Issue."

While many details were omitted, it made a compensation promise regarding the unreasonable charges. Although most students generally paid little attention to such news and not many people knew about it initially,

once the subsequent refunds arrived, it would inevitably become a topic of discussion. Still, the discussions would likely remain contained within the campus, which was precisely the outcome Li Mingyuan wanted to see.

In the dormitory.

"Did you guys see the news on the school website?" Zhou Yu asked, suddenly sitting straight up while scrolling through videos on his bed.

"What is it? What is it?"

"The school website? What happened? So excited—did our school suddenly get upgraded to a Project 985 university?" Zhou Zhenghao chuckled.

"What kind of daydream are you having? It's about our air conditioning fees! For some unknown reason, they've suddenly implemented a rectification. They said those who haven't paid don't need to pay for now, the fees paid by freshmen will be fully refunded, and for senior students, a portion of the fees will be refunded based on their grade level."

"Huh? Really?"

"Should be true, right? After all, it's posted on the official school website, and it seems like a pretty serious deal."

Zhou Yang picked up his phone to check. "Well, that's great then. At least we don't have to pay. I'm telling you, the original pricing was way too ruthless; this is how it should normally be!"

In the laboratory, Zhou Yun also saw the news. His mood smoothed out considerably—this matter finally had a conclusion.