Wang Linming in March 2023. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
*He described it as “accompanying the leader fishing” when he went fishing with the deputy secretary of the town party committee.
“He was too eager to ‘advance’.” A friend described Wang Linming this way.
Because of lumbar disc herniation, Wang Linming asked if someone else could take meeting minutes, but the leader did not reply. He could only take painkillers to endure.
*
The day Wang Linming was buried, his family did not hold a banquet to entertain relatives and friends who came to pay their respects, nor did they accept gifts. “He left too early,” said his sister Wang Lingheng, adding that according to local customs, only the death of an elderly person warrants a banquet for a happy funeral.
The funeral was held on May 27, 2026, nearly a year after Wang Linming’s death.
Died at the age of 27. He was formerly a comprehensive governance specialist, political consultative specialist, and first-level staff member at the Hengtang Town Government in Dong’an County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. The day of the accident was June 30, 2025. Hengtang Town had just experienced a rain, the river water was muddy and flowing rapidly. A deputy secretary of the Hengtang Town Party Committee called him to go fishing.
From May 2025, Wang Linming and this deputy secretary often went fishing together. The latter specifically created a group for this purpose and initiated several fishing activities.
In his chat logs with his college friends, Wang Linming described this activity as “accompanying the leader fishing.” As the deputy secretary planned to return to work in Changsha later, Wang Linming said, “I hope he remembers me when he returns to Changsha in three years.”
The day before the incident, they had been fishing together. That day, Wang Linming sent a video to his friend Zhang Hao: he was wearing rain boots, smoking, and fishing on a dam in the water. Zhang Hao had never seen this before because Wang Linming couldn’t swim and had never fished in the water before.
Wang Lingheng learned that her brother waded across the dam. Around 6:40 PM, when a colleague who was with him looked back, Wang Linming had already disappeared. The next afternoon, his body was found in the river channel 5 kilometers downstream.
The accidental death of this grassroots civil servant in the township did not cause any ripples at the time. The family did not pursue the cause of death too deeply, only delaying the burial due to a disagreement over compensation.
However, in January 2026, Wang Lingheng received an anonymous email stating that during his tenure, Wang Linming undertook the work of several people, was under great pressure, and his mental state became negative.
Another colleague of her brother secretly contacted Wang Lingheng, providing举报 materials about the violations and indiscretions of Hengtang Town cadres, saying, “This is not just Wang Linming’s matter; what if it’s us tomorrow?”
Wang Lingheng unlocked her brother’s phone. A chat log showed that half a month before his drowning, Wang Linming had just been investigated for false expense reporting. The phone also contained various traces of colleagues and leaders engaging in illegal dining and gambling. The family exposed these to the news.
“If I hadn’t opened his phone, I wouldn’t have known he went through so much,” said Wang Lingheng. On May 8, 2026, the Dong’an County Joint Investigation Team issued a notice stating that Wang Linming’s death was an accidental drowning, ruling out the possibility of a criminal case; regarding the family’s举报 of violations and indiscretions by Hengtang Town cadres, a joint investigation was fully underway.
1 The Third Generation “Only Son” of the Old Wang Family
In mid-May 2026, a Southern Weekend reporter visited the rented apartment where Wang Linming’s parents lived in Lingling District, Yongzhou City. When Wang Linming was in his third year of high school, the couple moved from their rural home to the city to accompany him in his studies and have lived there ever since, paying 200 yuan in rent per month. Now, his parents still keep the furnishings in his room, with a stack of thick civil service exam preparation books on the bookshelf by the bed.
Being able to raise his son to become a civil servant made Wang Xiaoshun, the father, feel proud and able to hold his head high when meeting people. In the eyes of his generation, being a civil servant was the best job because the “iron rice bowl” was stable, and “even if he earned 2,000 yuan a month, we would still have face.”
Wang Xiaoshun is 62 years old. Over the past years, he has worked hard to support his two children’s education. He ran a small restaurant and a convenience store in his hometown, dealt in beans and fertilizers, and worked on various construction sites and buildings, smashing walls and laying bricks with renovation companies. He often waited for work vehicles at the intersection before dawn.
Wang Xiaoshun had three brothers. The eldest and second eldest had 5 children, all daughters. When Wang Xiaoshun had his first child, it was also a daughter. The inability to have a son made the Wang family look down upon in the village, and Wang Xiaoshun, unable to bear it, even got into fights with others over it.
“In the countryside, it’s not acceptable for a family to have no son,” said Wang Xiaoshun. After his wife’s second pregnancy, the couple went to several hospitals and had 7 ultrasounds in total. Because the ultrasounds were unclear, the doctor said it was a girl for the first 5 times. When they were preparing for an abortion, the 6th ultrasound showed it was a boy.
Counting from Wang Xiaoshun’s parents’ generation, Wang Linming was the third generation “only son” of the old Wang family. Wang Lingheng also doted on her younger brother, “like her own child.”
When Wang Linming was in college, Wang Lingheng used her business earnings to support his studies. After her brother started working, if he needed money, he would habitually ask his sister for a red envelope of three to five hundred yuan. Even when Wang Linming bought a house in 2024, Wang Lingheng proactively lent him 120,000 yuan for the down payment.
In Wang Lingheng’s opinion, the relationship between the siblings had always been good. Her brother liked to stick to her, hugging her shoulder and teasing her about her short height every time they met. When she got married, her brother borrowed over 2,000 yuan from relatives to buy a necklace as a gift. At all times, Wang Linming’s emergency contact was Wang Lingheng.
In her brother’s WeChat notes, she was “Sister.” When Wang Lingheng unlocked her brother’s phone, the startup password was easily guessed – it was the short number of their old home landline when they were children, a number they had both used for many years.
Wang Linming attended the best middle school in the area, Yongzhou No. 1 Middle School, for high school, but failed the college entrance examination and only got into a vocational college. After graduation, he worked his way up from a store clerk to a store manager at a convenience store in Changsha.
Wang Linming’s ex-girlfriend was from Changsha. His friend Zhang Hao said that when Wang was not yet a civil servant, he visited his ex-girlfriend’s home, and her father was dissatisfied with Wang Linming’s lack of a respectable job.
The civil service exam took two years. During this time, Wang Linming rented a room in Changsha and made a living by delivering food. On August 6, 2022, Wang Linming sent a WeChat message to his sister to congratulate her. He ranked 8th in the written test and squeezed into the top 7 in the interview. The position he applied for only recruited 7 people, so he narrowly passed. He said, “These two years, I haven’t been like a human or a ghost, and it’s finally over.”
August 28, 2022, was the day Wang Linming reported to the Hengtang Town Government. Wang Lingheng drove him there, helped him buy daily necessities, made his bed, and even posted a celebratory message on WeChat.
On May 13, 2026, the river where Wang Linming drowned was calm. (Photo by Southern Weekend reporter Zheng Dan)
2 “Leaders are tricky”
“Strive to be a qualified and outstanding civil servant.” At the beginning of his employment, Wang Linming wrote this wish in his civil service training notes.
When he first started working, he often intentionally or unintentionally showed off to his family that as the duty secretary of the Party and Government Office, he was highly appreciated by his leaders and was responsible for handling important matters, including taking meeting minutes, organizing reimbursement materials, and arranging reception matters on behalf of his leaders.
Chat logs show that he was responsible for everything from the renovation of township toilets to changing toilet paper in the government compound. He also had to participate in fighting fires in the mountains and visiting villages. This effort was initially rewarded: in 2023, Wang Linming received the honorary title of “Excellent Town Cadre” from the Hengtang Town Government.
On July 22, 2023, Wang Xiaoshun’s family went to a photo studio to take a family portrait. This photo shoot was originally intended to compensate for the mother Tang Shunying’s regret of not wearing a wedding dress at her wedding, but it faithfully recorded Wang Linming’s state nearly a year after becoming a civil servant – his fair skin, round face, and slightly protruding belly. In the photo, compared to the smiling and naturally affectionate expressions of his family members, Wang Linming stood with his hands in his pockets, expressionless. Wang Lingheng said her brother always took photos like this, liking to act cool.
In this year, Wang Linming’s weight increased from 140 jin to 180 jin, and he developed a beer belly. In the impression of relatives and friends, Wang Linming had a poor tolerance for alcohol, getting “knocked out” after just two drinks. However, in Hengtang Town, he participated in various social events every other day, his eyes often bloodshot. Wang Linming told a friend on WeChat that he had “drunk more alcohol in one month at the unit than in the previous twenty-odd years.”
“The secretary wasn’t drunk at all tonight, he was well protected.” On August 8, 2023, Wang Linming took credit in a WeChat message to a colleague, who replied with flattery: “One from the office is enough, one is worth three.”
The secretary referred to was Yi Nian, the Party Secretary of Hengtang Town. In Wang Linming’s view, Yi Nian, who had been promoted to the rank of section chief at just over 30 years old, had a boundless future, and he wanted to maintain a good relationship, but he felt that the other party was a “difficult tree to climb.”
“There are social obligations, and dealing with colleagues and leaders is tricky. I’d rather stay in the dorm and read.” Wang Linming complained to a friend on WeChat.
However, his WeChat chat logs with colleagues showed a different side of him: he tried to improve relationships with colleagues and leaders by actively participating in social events and initiating drinking parties. For example, in August 2023, when his monthly salary was less than 4,000 yuan, he spent nearly 3,000 yuan to treat colleagues and leaders to a drink. He was accustomed to such banquets: “Money doesn’t matter to me.”
According to Wang Linming’s chat logs, he often vomited and had diarrhea after drinking and went to the hospital for IV drips the next day. His phone’s photo album contained several blurry photos taken at night, showing several men drunk and staggering, some lying on the ground, some slumped on stone piers, with their bare bellies exposed.
One late night, after getting drunk, Wang Linming called his father and said he had something behind him, then hung up. The elderly couple worried about an accident and asked Wang Linming’s friend Zhang Hao to drive them to Hengtang Town. They arrived after 11 PM and found Wang Linming was just a drunken mess, so they went home relieved. Zhang Hao said, “I was speechless, Wang Linming didn’t even know we had been there the next day.”
Work was not limited to accompanying meals and drinks; arranging guest meals was also Wang Linming’s responsibility. WeChat chat logs show that starting from February 2023, a colleague named Liu conveyed to Wang Linming the leaders’ arrangements for guest meals. Wang Linming would book tables in advance according to the number of people, arrange dishes, and prepare baijiu for the table.
It was common to arrange three or four meals a day, with varying levels of formality. Some were held in the town government canteen, while others were in restaurants in the town or its subordinate villages. Consumption data reported by Wang Linming in WeChat for four restaurants showed that the total cost of guest meals arranged by the Hengtang Town Government at these four establishments was over 70,000 yuan in 2022, and it surged to nearly 200,000 yuan in 2023.
The town government had a designated place to get cigarettes. After taking cigarettes each time, they would sign, and the final settlement would be done later. On June 9, 2023, Liu reminded Wang Linming that all cigarettes taken by Party and government leaders required the approval of the secretary and the mayor. “Our expenses in the first half of the year have been very high.”
Those records of meals and chat logs later became direct evidence of Wang Linming’s false expense reporting – as the person in charge, he repeatedly made up office supply expenses to cover the town government’s entertainment costs.
From April 4 to June 30, 2023, the Second Inspection Team of the Dong’an County Party Committee conducted an inspection of the Hengtang Town Party Committee. The relevant notice mentioned that the Hengtang Town Party Committee lacked primary responsibility, had blind spots in supervising village finances, and engaged in violations such as drinking at work meals.
At that time, to rectify the issue of illegal drinking, all cadres in the town signed a commitment letter not to drink.
On January 3, 2024, Liu sent a notice stating that the provincial authorities were conducting unannounced investigations into violations of the eight-point regulations and work style construction by villages and towns. Wang Linming replied “Received” and then they continued to discuss information about banquets that needed to be arranged.
The rented apartment where Wang Linming lived. (Photo by Southern Weekend reporter Zheng Dan)
3 “It’s boring not to be allowed to play cards”
After Wang Linming’s death, Wang Xiaoshun and his wife received a summons from the court – Wang Linming owed Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. nearly 370,000 yuan.
Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank stated that from February 2025 to June 2025, Wang Linming repeatedly submitted loan applications to the bank. Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank disbursed 365,000 yuan to Wang Linming in 12 installments. After Wang Linming drowned, his family was required to repay the amount, plus interest, totaling nearly 370,000 yuan. The court ultimately ruled in favor of Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank.
To this day, Wang Linming’s family is unsure of the whereabouts of the 370,000 yuan. On Wang Linming’s WeChat on his phone, there are over thirty chat records with the president of the Hengtang Branch of Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank, but the conversations are brief and do not reveal anything suspicious.
Zhang Hao recalled that Wang Linming once mentioned that he had lost money in stock trading, “I don’t know how much he lost, and I didn’t want to ask.” Southern Weekend reporters could not verify this.
However, Wang Lingheng discovered that Wang Linming’s phone contained a large number of transfer records. The time of signing loan contracts with the bank coincided with the most frequent period of his card transfers.
Most of those transfer records occurred at night, with one transfer every few minutes. By the end of November 2023, each transfer from Wang Linming exceeded 1,000 yuan, with the largest single transfer being 10,000 yuan.
The card game was usually “Dou Niu” (Bullfighting), and it was mostly played with leaders and colleagues. The chats contained words like “town mayor,” “chairman,” and “director.” Once a colleague asked him if he was going to play cards, and Wang Linming replied, “If I don’t come, the secretary and mayor will skin me alive.”
The location of the card games varied, sometimes in restaurants, sometimes in the government compound, and even at the police station. On January 10, 2024, Wang Linming advised his colleague He Mou to be careful of surprise inspections from above, saying, “Don’t hold activities in the government; it’s safer to go to the police station.” Chat records show that staff from the Hengtang Town Police Station had participated in card games multiple times.
Some pictures show stacks of hundred-yuan bills and cards on the table. Internally, it was called “holding activities,” which happened frequently, sometimes all night, and then they would go to work and clock in directly afterward.
One record of an all-night session shows that starting at 3:33 PM on January 3, 2024, Wang Linming frequently transferred money to several people, making 26 transfers until 9:02 AM the next day, totaling over 70,000 yuan. During this period, he withdrew 17,000 yuan from the Rural Commercial Bank.
On January 10, 2024, Wang Linming and He Mou exchanged messages: “You guys have been playing so big lately, with a turnover of 100,000 in one night, this isn’t how the game is played, right?” During the conversation, He Mou asked Wang for money to gamble several times.
Wang Lingheng speculated that there might be an element of “deliberation” in the money Wang Linming lost.
From Wang Linming’s WeChat chat records, he did not reject playing cards and even actively organized games. On the evening of February 20, 2024, when there were no activities, he said to a friend, “It’s boring not to be allowed to play cards at night.”
According to local interviewees, Yongzhou is full of mahjong parlors, and playing cards is a major daily pastime for many people, especially around the end of the year, when there are large-scale outdoor card-playing activities.
Southern Weekend reporters saw in the city center of Yongzhou that on a street about a hundred meters long, there were 4 mahjong parlors disguised as restaurants or clothing stores, but inside they were all equipped with green mahjong tables, with people crowded around and fans constantly spinning on the walls. Not far away, at the entrance of a school, elderly people sat around playing cards, with several rows of tables waiting to be unfolded nearby.
In July 2023, Yongzhou launched a comprehensive campaign called “Two Leading, Five Rectifications,” and card gambling was one of the targets. Two months later, the “Yongzhou Release” of the Yongzhou Media Center reported on 4 cases of card gambling by party members and public officials in 2022.
4 “Too eager to ‘advance’”
Raised by his sister, Wang Linming had a gentle personality, could easily strike up conversations with strangers, and regularly donated blood. When Wang Lingheng glanced at a tissue while eating, her brother would immediately hand her one, “He was very thoughtful and caring.”
His childhood friend Zhang Hao felt that Wang Linming had a pure youthful spirit. Among the four close friends, Wang was the youngest and least experienced, having not suffered much hardship. “He often spoke without thinking, and we treated him like a child and indulged him.”
However, after becoming a civil servant, Wang Linming seemed eager to shed his former youthful demeanor. In his WeChat collection, there was a mind map called “Interpersonal Relationships,” which recorded social skills for various situations. Yi Nian praised him for “speaking well and having emotional intelligence,” and colleague Liu said he was “good at socializing.”
“He was too eager to ‘advance’.” Zhang Hao described Wang Linming this way. Another friend, Song Ying, also teased him, “He’s learned the ways of workplace culture very well.”
“No matter which leader comes, they need someone who can drink and someone who can work. I have lost my original intention; I am taking a shortcut.” In August 2023, he said to a colleague, and then added, “Deep down, I still want to do things.”
The shortcut Wang Linming mentioned was drinking and socializing with leaders. “What should I do if I don’t join the clique?” he asked a colleague on WeChat. In his understanding, this was no longer just a survival rule in Hengtang Town, but “it can’t be changed anywhere; everywhere needs people like this.”
Zhang Hao could see that Wang Linming had become much more confident, even a bit arrogant, after becoming a civil servant. Previously, Wang Linming never initiated dinner parties; “we used to invite him out to eat. After starting work, he organized every dinner party.”
One evening after dinner, while Zhang Hao was waiting at a red light, Wang Linming, sitting in the passenger seat, stared blankly at the people on the crosswalk and suddenly said, “Now when we go to the countryside, even the village party secretary has to curry favor with me.”
In the past two years, Wang Linming’s communication with his sister had significantly decreased. The last time they went out together was in March 2023, when Wang Lingheng brought her two children, and her brother walked his dog, and they basked in the sun in the park.
Wang Lingheng felt that her brother’s words had become harsh. He occasionally complained that his family was “incompetent.” When Wang Lingheng wanted to ask something, Wang Linming would become impatient, “You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”
When his family urged him to get married, Wang Linming also became annoyed. Wang Lingheng recalled, “He said that his family had no money or background, and couldn’t give him anything. How could he get married and harm a girl?”
When he got angry, he retorted to Wang Lingheng, “What right do you have to say that to me? Look at how you’ve turned out!” She was so angry she couldn’t speak and didn’t visit her parents’ home for a while.
His parents were already disappointed with Wang Lingheng’s business endeavors, thinking she didn’t have a stable job like her brother. When her closest brother also seemed to look down on her, she found it difficult to accept.
Song Ying had discussed with Wang on WeChat that this path had too many temptations, and one wrong step could lead to disaster, “In the end, you forget why you took the civil service exam.” Wang Linming replied, “I have already lost my original intention. As long as it doesn’t cross the bottom line, I will do it.”
On May 13, 2026, the electronic display board at the Hengtang Town Government showed anti-drowning slogans. (Photo by Southern Weekend reporter Zheng Dan)
5 “The leader asked me to sign some papers”
“I’m taking a relatively easy path, at least it seems easy to you,” Wang Linming once said to a colleague.
In reality, this path was not easy. Wang Linming felt wronged that he was not “seen.” In the early morning of September 23, 2023, Wang Linming confided in a colleague, asking why the leaders always thought he wasn’t doing anything. “If they tell me not to go home on Friday, I won’t go home. I’ll do whatever they ask. The phone calls don’t stop all day, I’m practically wiping their butts for them.”
Wang Linming applied for Party membership, but the town’s quota was not allocated to him. Meetings followed one after another, all requiring him to take handwritten notes, and he often had to work overtime. “A meeting record is ten to twenty pages long. In 2023, there were 43 Party and government leader meetings.”
During the 2024 Spring Festival, Wang Linming did not go home; he had to “accompany the secretary and mayor for the reunion dinner.” Wang Lingheng sent a photo of the reunion dinner prepared by their parents. Wang Linming replied, “Thank you for your hard work. I can’t help it due to my job.”
As if to comfort his sister, he added that among the same generation in the Wang family, he was already considered “bringing glory to the ancestors and jumping out of a social class.”
On April 22, 2024, Wang Linming sent his medical record for lumbar disc herniation to Yi Nian, asking if someone else could take over the meeting minutes because “sitting is really painful, and the hospital does not recommend prolonged sitting.” Yi Nian did not reply. Wang Linming could only take painkillers to endure.
At another meeting, he was simultaneously assigned to manage the equipment for the meeting, take photos, and take meeting minutes. Wang Linming was overwhelmed and confided in a colleague, “I’m human, I can’t be in two places at once.”
During that period, he took an emotional assessment on his phone, which showed depression, characterized by persistent low mood and being occupied by negative emotions such as sadness, disappointment, distress, and self-blame.
Wang Lingheng recalled that the last time she noticed her brother’s mood was off was during the Dragon Boat Festival before the incident. The family was having a reunion dinner, and Wang Linming went to the balcony alone with his bowl of rice. His aunt called him, and Wang Linming, squatting on the ground, turned his head, revealing a gloomy look, very fierce, as if he had become a different person.
In the past, Wang Linming would sit at the same table with everyone and occasionally drink a little with his brother-in-law. Wang Lingheng later learned that during that period, Wang Linming had been summoned for talks several times, but he did not mention it to any relatives, friends, or colleagues. Instead, he chose to confide in a netizen on the “Momo” app, saying, “In the past few months, I’ve been feeling down and don’t know who to talk to.”
“Earlier, in the office, the leader asked me to sign some papers, and then the audit found out,” Wang Linming told the netizen. Wang Lingheng later verified that the first time Wang Linming was summoned for talks was on April 16, 2025.
Finally, Wang Linming’s punishment was a cautionary talk, and he was not allowed to be transferred or promoted for six months.
On June 11, 2025, Wang Linming took another emotional assessment, which showed a score of 37, falling within the “23-63” depression range, which is considered severe. In his chat with the netizen, Wang Linming stated that this was the first time he had been investigated and that his biggest concern was the impact on his civil service selection in two years.
Originally, according to Wang Linming’s plan, he intended to perform well in Hengtang Town for five years, strive for a Party membership quota, obtain a bachelor’s degree through “specialized college to bachelor’s degree” (专升本), and then pass a public selection exam to transfer to Changsha at the age of 31.
He had an obsession: to return to Changsha during the civil service selection and let his ex-girlfriend’s father see that he was doing well, thus proving himself. Zhang Hao remembered Wang Linming saying, “I’m doing better now. When she gets married, we’ll drive to her wedding.” Zhang Hao laughed at him for being naive.
Later, Wang Linming developed a new crush but never confessed. He told colleagues that he planned to propose after passing the selection. A few months after his death, his phone alarm suddenly went off. Wang Lingheng looked at it and saw that it was noted with the girl’s birthday.
Wang Lingheng also felt that her younger brother took the selection very seriously, always mentioning it. To make the selection smoother, he spent more than 10,000 yuan, planning to buy a bachelor’s degree through private channels, but the other party failed to do it and returned the money. When the person sent a WeChat message again asking about his willingness to improve his education, Wang Linming had already passed away for more than half a year.
Now Wang Xiaoshun sometimes blames himself, thinking that his obsession with wanting his son to be a civil servant harmed him. He couldn’t explain why this obsession was so deep, and even after his son’s death, Wang Xiaoshun dreamed that Wang Linming, who had gone to another world, was unemployed and still urging his son to take the civil service exam.
He wrote down his dream: “My son and his grandmother were sitting in a tiled house. I asked, if you retake the civil service exam now, only civil servants are guaranteed. He said he hadn’t decided yet. I said, if you don’t hurry up, you’ll be thirty soon.”
On May 14, 2026, Wang Lingheng sent a message to a Southern Weekend reporter, stating that she had reached a written agreement with the government and received “relatively satisfactory compensation.”
It is also understood that Yi Nian was transferred to work in the General Office of the Dong’an County People’s Government in April 2026, but the official website has no relevant appointment and removal documents. On June 15, 2026, a Southern Weekend reporter called the Dong’an County People’s Government. A staff member on duty at the phone said, “He is still in the position of deputy director for now.” On the same day, a deputy town mayor of Hengtang Town told a Southern Weekend reporter over the phone that Yi Nian had been suspended: “I’m not very clear about the specifics.” Regarding the time for the announcement of the investigation results of the Wang Linming incident, the other party also said, “I don’t know.” Southern Weekend reporters called Yi Nian’s phone multiple times, but no one answered.
Wang Linming had thought that if the selection failed, he would climb up step by step, “deputy section level, then promoted to full section level, then promoted to deputy division level, otherwise how could it be considered a “iron rice bowl” (stable job).” But when he unexpectedly passed away, he was still only a staff member at the first level.
(Zhang Hao and Song Ying in the text are pseudonyms)
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