“Coal mine safety isn’t just about numbers—it’s lives, real people and families behind every statistic. Making snap decisions without digging deep? That’s straight-up irresponsible.”

“I, Ezekiel Johnson, do not accept this vote outcome!”

In Ludong Province, Ningtai City, Licheng County—

Inside the county committee’s meeting room, the vote on coal mine safety finally wrapped up.

That’s when Ezekiel Johnson, newly appointed Deputy Party Secretary and Acting County Head, slammed the table and stood up, eyes blazing with anger.

The sudden move startled everyone in the room.

Even Edwin Adams, the County Party Secretary, froze for a second, his face turning beet red.

But he quickly snapped back.

“Ezekiel! Are you seriously questioning the committee’s decision? Do you still remember what party discipline means?”

Adams pointed at him furiously.

Ezekiel stood tall, sharp eyes locking on his opponent. He looked young, but there was a cold edge in his gaze that made people instinctively tense up.

Facing the top leader’s outburst, Ezekiel didn’t flinch.

“Party discipline isn’t a reason to ignore the truth. I’ll report the details of this meeting and my stance to the Municipal Party Committee. If this flawed decision isn’t corrected, I’ll step down as acting county head.”

Just a month ago, Ezekiel had left the army and joined the local government.

He was just under twenty-eight, already a regimental commander. His surprise appointment as acting county head caused a stir—no demotion, straight to the top.

But Ezekiel never let it get to his head, for one simple reason: Licheng County’s economy was in bad shape.

In his first month, he spotted problem after problem—leaders doing the bare minimum, no urgency, lacking any sense of service.

Then there was the county’s pride and joy: its coal industry.

Turns out, it was riddled with issues.

Unlicensed, illegal mines popped up everywhere.

Even more damning? The safety inspectors were clearly slacking on enforcement.

Last week, Ezekiel personally visited Zhongjing Town, the area with the most active coal operations.

What he saw? Straight-up hair-raising.

Every mine he visited, even those with proper licensing, had glaring safety issues.

Back from the visit, Ezekiel wasted no time and went straight to talk to Edwin Adams, pushing for today’s leadership meeting.

Once the meeting began, Ezekiel didn’t hold back. He dove into the seriousness of coal mine safety in Licheng County.

He laid out his proposal: Every mine needed dedicated, accountable safety personnel.

Every single coal operation would be shut down and overhauled—no exceptions—until they met the county’s safety standards.

Adams dismissed the whole thing.

To him, Licheng was a resource hub for Ningtai, and its economy had ridden on coal for years.Keeping the coal industry running basically meant keeping the county alive.

Without it, they'd be staring straight down the barrel of those grim days from twenty years ago, when the local government couldn't even afford to pay its staff.

So it’s no wonder that every county leadership team over the years took coal mining super seriously. Every time a new mine opened up, it was a political win in their books.

As for safety? Well, as long as it ticked the boxes, that was enough.

Especially with those smaller private mines — the owners barely had enough capital to stay afloat. If they were hit with hefty safety requirements, they'd bail in a heartbeat. Once they took off to other counties to set up shop, it’d be too late for regrets.

So when Ezekiel Johnson called for a standing committee meeting today, Edwin Adams honestly didn’t think it was necessary. But since Johnson was the acting county head and held enough authority, Adams let it go. In his mind, just agreeing to the meeting already gave Johnson enough face.

He figured Johnson would eventually back down a bit, make some compromises, and everyone could walk away happy.

But nope. The guy didn’t play along at all.

Instead, Johnson dropped a bomb — he wanted to shut down the county’s entire coal industry for a full safety overhaul. That was like shooting the local economy in the foot. There’s no way Adams could take that lying down.

Let’s be real, the coal industry has always carried some risk. A year with zero accidents? That’s a fairy tale.

Come on—what mining area doesn’t deal with safety accidents every year? Which company doesn’t lose people?

In Adams’s eyes, during his six or seven years as party secretary, the county’s coal safety record had been pretty solid. Compared to other resource-rich counties in the province that reported major incidents claiming over ten lives — even one nearby that saw more than thirty die — Licheng’s worst incident had less than three casualties. That didn't even qualify as a major accident.

Economic growth stayed on track, and the coal sector hadn’t seen any huge scandals. From his point of view, he’d done a decent job keeping things under control.

So when someone questioned coal safety, it felt like they were throwing shade at how he ran the place.

...

Flashback to an hour ago.

Right at the top of the meeting, Vice County Head Ezekiel Johnson tossed a grenade on the table: shut down every coal company in the county for a sweeping inspection.

He backed it up with first-hand observations — last week, he'd visited several mines and found multiple safety risks that couldn’t be ignored. So in his mind, a full shutdown was absolutely necessary.

The moment he finished talking, the meeting room went dead silent.

After a long pause, Edwin Adams frowned and lit a cigarette, clearly ticked off. Then he called someone out by name.

"Mr. Chantal, you’re both Deputy Party Secretary and the executive vice county head. What’s your take?"

David Chantal didn’t hesitate. “I don’t agree with Mr. Johnson’s proposal,” he said flatly. “There are indeed some procedural lapses in smaller operations around Zhongjing Town, but that’s nothing new. The local government’s been pushing to correct them.”“But shutting down all coal mining operations in the county for a complete overhaul? That feels like overkill to me...”

David Chantal’s words had barely left his mouth when a subtle smile tugged at the corners of Edwin Adams’ lips.

Standing beside him, Ezekiel Johnson’s brow furrowed slightly.

He had invited Chantal to join him on a recent field inspection of the local mines, but the man had claimed he was too busy to make it. At the time, Ezekiel hadn’t thought much of it. After all, David held two key positions — both Party and government — and being swamped with work was understandable.

But now, after Ezekiel had laid out detailed evidence of serious safety issues in the mines, Chantal still came out with that response?

As the executive deputy county head, David was supposed to be his right-hand man in the government. Him being the first to object didn’t bode well for Ezekiel’s proposal.

Ezekiel silently watched Chantal for a moment, starting to connect the dots — it was likely that Chantal had a close working relationship with Adams. It wasn't surprising. Before Ezekiel was brought in, David had been the most likely candidate to take over as county head. There was every chance Edwin Adams had even endorsed him when the provincial leadership sought his input on the matter.

Now that Ezekiel had been parachuted in to take the spot, it was only natural David wasn’t thrilled.

Following Chantal’s remarks, Adams didn’t seem fully satisfied either.

He turned to a couple other deputy secretaries and members of the standing committee for their thoughts. Most echoed opposition to the shutdown.

With each supportive comment, the lines around Adams’ eyes relaxed a little more.

“County Head Johnson, you’ve heard everyone’s views, right?” Adams said, turning to him with a calm smile. “I agree with you — safety in the mining sector is crucial. No argument there. But whether we should shut down every single mine for corrections... That might need more discussion.”

With that, Adams had made his position clear: mine safety, yes; blanket shutdown, not necessarily.

New guy or not, Ezekiel’s hardline proposal rubbed him the wrong way. Did this young former army man think he could just issue orders like he did in the military?

This wasn’t the barracks. This was local governance. Different game entirely.

Adams had been in charge here for eight years — cycling through three different deputies during that time — and held onto his post like a rock.

He wasn’t about to be rattled by someone who hadn’t even hit thirty.

Even though the flicker of disdain in Adams’ eyes vanished fast, Ezekiel caught it.

To be honest, he’d been expecting this reaction from the start. He knew Adams wouldn’t go along with the all-out shutdown, and he’d already weighed the fallout of pushing this plan.

But as someone with a military background, Ezekiel held firm to one belief — there are principles worth standing for, no matter what.

The mine safety situation was dire. If he backed down now, just to keep a sense of unity in leadership, he’d be betraying everything he once stood for in uniform.

Just as he was getting ready to respond, a soft voice interrupted.

“Secretary Adams, if I may...”