Chapter 226 Miss Yinyu, please wait

Wang Shengju explained that the announcement of this event was made so hastily because the leader in charge of agricultural poverty alleviation work at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was visiting a particularly impoverished county in Province Y. He found significant room for improvement in poverty alleviation efforts there. To broaden the minds of local officials and facilitate the exchange of experience, he made a last-minute decision to invite nearby village officials with successful poverty alleviation experience to share their experiences. Zhu Yingning's city happened to be located on the border of Provinces G and Y, nominally crossing provinces, but geographically not far from the leader's impoverished county. Therefore, she was also notified by the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee of Y.

"The leader who came this time is quite high-ranking..." Wang Shengju pointed to the sky and patted Zhu Yingning's shoulder. "Work hard, Yingning. You have a bright future ahead of you."

The expectations were great, but the pressure was immense. Time was running out, and she had to stay up all night again to finish her speech and PowerPoint presentation.

Fortunately, she had just participated in an experience sharing meeting in this city and neighboring cities some time ago, and had some drafts that could be used. As long as she polished them a little and added the latest developments, she would be almost there.

She wasn't in the habit of publicizing her whereabouts. Even if she did, she usually waited until the end of the event to share a brief update with trusted friends and family. However, on Wednesday night, Zhou Tianlan called to inquire about her situation, asking if she'd been busy at work, if she'd been getting enough rest, and if he'd like her to send her some nutritional supplements. She casually mentioned the matter, explaining that she was on a business trip to a particularly impoverished county in Y Province on Thursday and Friday and would be away, so she asked him not to send any fresh produce to prevent it from spoiling at the delivery station.

"Can't you ask your roommate to get it for you?"

“Yes, but…”

Neither Hao Yuechu nor Fang Yiliang can drive, so if they have to, they'll have to ride their bikes to town to get it for her. Qi Xiu can drive, but every weekend, he's like a peacock spreading its feathers, either video chatting with his girlfriend or on his way to video chat with her.

Zhou Tianlan heard her hesitation and smiled, "Okay, I'll send it to you when you come back from your business trip." She said that she had nothing to do in the next few days and planned to go to Shanghai to see Xu Sirui. She also checked the weather in the place where Zhu Yingning was on a business trip and heard that it had been raining for more than ten days there, and it was estimated that the rain would continue for several days. She reminded Zhu Yingning to remember to bring rain gear.

After hanging up the phone, Zhu Yingning began to pack her luggage for the next day. Remembering Zhou Tianlan's instructions, she stuffed an umbrella and a change of shoes and socks for rainy days into the suitcase.

"Captain, you're so awesome." Hao Yuechu, with his lower body covered with a quilt and his upper body lying on the edge of the bed, looked at her eagerly and muttered, "When can I go on a business trip too?"

"Are you looking forward to the business trip?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, I love running around, and you're meeting such a high-ranking leader this time." Hao Yuechu extended his arm towards her, wanting to shake her hand, and said to her seriously, "Captain, if you become rich and powerful, don't forget me."

"What are you thinking about?" She thought it was funny and reached out to gently touch Hao Yuechu's forehead. "Meeting the leader once doesn't mean anything. After the business trip, I will come back to work in the village."

"Don't you have any idea of ​​making a fortune? If you perform outstandingly this time, maybe you will be appreciated by the senior leaders and fly up to the sky on a helicopter." Hao Yuechu said while making a Superman flying gesture.

Zhu Yingning stuffed the last bit of clothing in: "Even if there is, it's not now."

"When was that?"

"I don't know..." She zipped up the suitcase and stood it up. "I just want to finish the work at hand. As for the results, I'll just wait for the flowers to bloom."

Hao Yuechu chuckled when she heard this: "Captain, have I ever told you that you sometimes talk like my grandma?"

"Who does he look like?" She widened her eyes.

"Like my grandma." Hao Yuechu repeated fearlessly, "I think I'll use lilies or lucky bamboo as my profile picture, and then choose WeChat nicknames like 'Flowers Blooming and Fortune Greeting' or 'Gentle Breeze Arriving'."

"Okay, be careful, I'm an old woman and I'm going to get carried away by youth."

Zhu Yingning laughed as he pounced onto her bed, tickling her through the quilt. Hao Yuechu immediately let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered, and spun around like a caterpillar in the quilt, unable to be held down.

The two of them laughed and played for a while before going back to bed with their cheeks red from laughing.

**

Although the impoverished county is in the neighboring province, it is only more than an hour's high-speed rail ride away from Zhu Yingning's village.

Since grassroots cadres from several provinces and cities had arrived around the same time, the impoverished county sent a van to pick them up. Zhu Yingning was one of the first to arrive, so he waited for a while near the exit before joining cadres from other regions to find the van outside.

Including Zhu Yingning herself, a total of seven grassroots cadres arrived this time. Zhuo Yuquan, the Party Secretary of the impoverished county, and his driver got out to greet them. After greeting each one and putting their luggage away, they boarded the car, fastened their seatbelts, and drove towards their destination.

As expected, a light drizzle was falling outside, and the sky was a hazy, dove-gray hue typical of a continuous, rainy day. The drizzle slammed against the van's windows, like countless silvery worms, scurrying diagonally to the rear and quickly disappearing over the edge of the window.

Zhuo Yuquan, sitting in the co-pilot seat, said to them, "We are affected by the subtropical high pressure in the western Pacific Ocean. There is always a period of endless rain in summer and autumn."

"Will there be floods?" Zhu Yingning asked in the back row.

"Yes," Zhuo Yuquan said, "basically, a major flood will come every two or three years. Even if there isn't, we are in a flood discharge area. If there is a flood upstream, we can't escape it."

"Flood discharge requires a plain, but I saw some natural landscape photography of your city at the high-speed rail station, and it seems there are quite a lot of mountains."

"Yes." Zhuo Yuquan glanced back at Zhu Yingning. "You've observed carefully. Our city spans a large area from east to west. The west is mountainous, and the east bordering the neighboring city is an alluvial plain. It's like the entire river runs through our city from west to east. Our county's geographical location is a bit awkward. It's not on the plain, but at the junction of the plain and the mountains. We don't enjoy the benefits of the plain, and we're often affected by flood discharges."

"How's the rain situation this year?"

"It's not bad this year. I was just transferred here not long ago. I heard that compared to previous years, although the rain this year has been endless, it's all light rain. As long as the upstream can hold up, I think there will be no problem this year."

Along the way, they chatted casually.

The vehicle entered the mountainous area. Not long after driving, the driver gradually slowed down and said to Zhuo Yuquan, "Secretary, there's a car blocking the road ahead."

"Stop." Zhuo Yuquan raised his hand and signaled the driver to park the car on the side of the road.

The continuous rain reduced visibility, and I could only vaguely see a car parked in the middle of the road about seven or eight meters ahead. Although the road was a two-way street, there was no fence in the middle. If the car stopped in the middle, all other vehicles would be blocked regardless of their direction.

The driver found an umbrella and helped Zhuo Yuquan get off the car. Zhu Yingning thought about it, took out his own umbrella and followed him. The other cadres in the car also got off one after another.

Upon approaching and asking, it turned out that the car owners were a young couple who were not from this county. The man's mother had recently remarried a man from this county. The couple took a leave of absence to come over for the wedding banquet, but halfway through the drive, their tire had a flat tire.

"Don't you have a spare tire in your car?" Zhuo Yuquan asked.

The young couple shook their heads.

"You're not allowed to block the road like this! It's dangerous, don't you know? Not only are you blocking traffic, you're also putting yourselves in danger." Zhuo Yuquan scolded them and directed the driver over, "Xiao Zhang, come over and help push their car aside."

The husband of the couple hurried to the back of his car and prepared to push the car. The driver Xiao Zhang and the male comrades among the fellow cadres also came forward to help.

With strength in numbers, the car was quickly pushed to the side and the road was soon cleared again.

Zhuo Yuquan invited the others to get in the car and instructed the young couple, "Turn on your hazard lights! Ah! It's ridiculous not to have your hazard lights on! Do you know your insurance company's phone number?" She shouted into the rain, "Call the insurance company! They usually have free roadside assistance."

Although the young couple didn't know who Zhuo Yuquan was, they were so intimidated by her agile aura that they dared not say anything. The two of them huddled together shoulder to shoulder and nodded like quails.

Seeing that the matter had been resolved, the other cadres got into their cars. Zhu Yingning was the last one in line. Seeing the couple clumsily walking to the windshield in the rain to check the compulsory traffic insurance sign, and then clumsily discussing it together, with the hazard lights dimmed by the rain, he became a little worried and said to Zhuo Yuquan, "Secretary Zhuo, do we have a warning triangle in our car? If so, could you give one to them? Otherwise, visibility is low, and relying on the hazard lights alone is very dangerous."

Zhuo Yuquan glanced at their flashing lights and thought it made sense, so he said to the driver, Xiao Zhang, "Is there a warning sign in the car? Go find it."

"Ai!"

Xiao Zhang quickly took out the warning sign. Zhu Yingning took it and trotted to the couple with an umbrella in hand, asking them to put the warning sign two hundred meters behind the car.

"Oh...thank you." The couple thanked him hurriedly.

"You're welcome."

Zhu Yingning was about to turn around and get in the car, but before she had taken a few steps, the woman in the couple called out to her, "Um... Miss, please wait a moment."

**

Zhou Tianlan walked out of the airport slowly, pushing his suitcase. Xu Sirui was almost dried up by the sun.

The sun was shining brightly in Shanghai. Even though he was sitting in the car with the air conditioner on, the sunlight shining through the windshield on his face was still scorching. After picking up the customer, he stepped on the accelerator and drove quickly towards the company, complaining as he drove, "Why didn't you buy a ticket at some other time? Why did you have to buy one in the middle of the day?"

"That's not right, Ruirui. What's wrong in the middle of the day?" Zhou Tianlan pushed up his sunglasses and said slowly, "Young people these days generally lack vitamin D. It won't hurt to get more sun."

Xu Sirui glanced at her fully equipped sun jacket, sun hat and sunglasses.

"Ahem." Zhou Tianlan argued, "I'm not like you young people. I'm already old. If I keep sunbathing, I'll get age spots and glaucoma."

“…”

Driving this troublemaker, who was just as troublesome as Zhou Tianqing, to the vicinity of the company, Xu Sirui parked the car and pointed to a nearby shopping mall: "Let's find a random restaurant for lunch."

Zhou Tianlan looked up at the dazzling array of chain store signs on the first and second floors of the mall and said, "Shouldn't you take Mom to the Bund to eat at a revolving restaurant that costs 5,000 yuan per person?"

"?"

Xu Sirui asked, "What made you have this misunderstanding?"

Zhou Tianlan sighed softly, "If Yingning comes over, will you also take her to a chain restaurant that costs hundreds of dollars per person?"

“…”

The drunkard's intention was not to drink, Xu Sirui finally understood why Zhou Tianlan had nothing to do and suddenly came to attack him.

The story began a long time ago. Ever since he took Zhou Tianlan to Zhu Yingning's hometown during the Spring Festival of 2019, she seemed to have realized something. She usually never urged him to fall in love, but now she would catch him and ask him every now and then, "Baby, have you been okay lately?"

If you get a negative answer, you will look worried.

Xu Sirui happened to overhear her talking on the phone with Zhou Tianqing, her words filled with hopeless lamentations: "Ruirui is clearly no worse than the others. He inherited my looks; even the gods wouldn't be able to call him ugly. He's 1.80 meters tall, so he's not short, is he? He also got into a top ten university, a 985 university, and his earning power is decent. We've even known each other longer than the other guys. So why does Yingning look down on him? I guess there's something wrong with this guy. Does he have something to hide?"

His aunt was also watching the fun on the other end of the phone, adding fuel to the fire: "Hmm... very likely!"

Zhou Tianlan wasn't the type to say to a girl he liked, "I hope you can come and be my aunt's daughter-in-law." She felt that this was offensive to the girl, as if she was using her elder status to suppress the other person and kidnapping the other person with family affection. In order to avoid offending Zhu Yingning, Zhou Tianlan thought about it and decided to offend Xu Sirui. So not only did he have to be busy with work, but he also had to deal with his mother's sudden offenses from time to time, such as now -

"You use this kind of restaurant to entertain her? No wonder your relationship has made no progress after so much time." Zhou Tianlan sighed with a frown.

“…”

The more she acted like this, the more anxious Xu Sirui became to get rid of his mother, this big Buddha, before Zhu Yingning came over on Saturday, lest she suddenly decide to be his emotional advisor and end up doing something bad with good intentions and scaring him away.

However, no matter how urgent the task of chasing people away had to be put off until after dinner. Xu Sirui led the woman behind him, who was constantly disseminating the secrets of courting girls, to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. Zhou Tianlan had recently been pursuing a greener diet, and the only meat he consumed was eggs and milk; everything else was vegetarian.

After ordering the dishes, there was still a gap of more than ten minutes before the dishes were served. Zhou Tianlan talked about the Bible of chasing girls for a while. Seeing that Xu Sirui was not listening at all, she was also thirsty from talking, so she simply took a sip of tea, spared herself and others, silently recited a few words about the blessings of her children and grandchildren, and lowered her head to play with her mobile phone.

Her WeChat official account occasionally sends her messages. Zhou Tianlan doesn't use Weibo, Xiaohongshu, or TikTok—she rarely uses anything young people use. WeChat official accounts are her only way to get information.

She clicked on the latest push notification with red text on a white background and started browsing.

**

With a clang.

The cup of water on her right was knocked over in her panic, and the tea instantly spilled all over the table, dripping along the edge of the table, soaking the bright red carpet into a deep red like blood.

Xu Sirui was originally helping a developer fix a bug on his phone. When he heard the noise, he looked up and saw Zhou Tianlan's face as pale as wall dust.

Her family has inherited fair skin, but even on the day she divorced Xu Zhengkang, she never showed such a horrifying expression.

His heart tightened, he quickly put down his phone, and leaned over to support her arm: "What's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

Zhou Tianlan shook his head and turned the phone screen towards him with trembling hands.

The above is the push notification that she just clicked to view the text.

The sun was shining brightly in Shanghai, but more than a thousand kilometers away in the central and western regions, it was cloudy, rainy and windy.