0118 127 Clouds Surge (Part 1)
Hearing Zhou Xiye's words, Pei Zhiyu sighed softly, sat down next to her, put her hand on her shoulder, and stroked her shoulder with her fingers. "You're already trying your best, aren't you? Don't put so much pressure on yourself."
Zhou Xiye nodded without saying a word. After the two finished their meal and cleaned up the dishes, Zhou Xiye was still a little worried and prepared to go out for a while.
"I'm worried about Meng Qinggong, I'd better go and take a look."
Pei Zhiyu had originally intended to accompany Zhou Xiye, but after some thought, he decided to go with her. They were colleagues, and it wouldn't be appropriate for him to go alone. He watched Zhou Xiye disappear into the elevator, leaning against the door. After she was completely gone, Pei Zhiyu returned home, lost in thought with his phone in hand.
A few minutes later, he called Ding Xiangyang, a member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a good friend of his grandfather. "Hello, Mr. Ding, this is Pei Zhiyu. It's been a long time since I've seen you. I wonder how you are doing... My grandfather? He's in good health. I came to Kunming this time and thought I'd drop by to see you..."
Zhou Xiye got into the car, and the driver, Li Wei, asked, "Where to?" Receiving no answer, he glanced at her and saw that Secretary Zhou was leaning back in her seat with her eyes closed. Not wanting to disturb her, he turned to look ahead, waiting for her instructions.
A few minutes later, Zhou Xiye took out his phone and called Meng Qinggong, who was in a state of panic. "Secretary Zhou, what are your instructions?"
"Have you gone to arrest them?"
"They went to catch it."
"Okay, come to my office first, we'll have a meeting," Zhou Xiye said after hanging up the phone. He then called Qiao Senxi and said, "Inform Mayor Ling and District Chief Li that we're having a last-minute meeting at 2:30, right here in my office."
Qiao Senxi leaned against the headboard with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Hearing the seriousness in Zhou Xiye's tone, he knew that things had gotten serious. "Okay."
After hanging up the phone, the blanket next to him was pulled back, revealing Chen Xiaoyun, who sat naked beside him.
"Is it Zhou Xiye? She's the one who promoted you, right?"
Qiao Senxi glanced at her, said nothing, raised his hand, pinched the cigarette butt, took a deep drag, stubbed it out, reached under the sheets for his underwear, put it on, and got out of bed.
Chen Xiaoyun looked at Qiao Senxi and was furious. "She promoted you, but what do you have to exchange for her permanently? You can tell at a glance that Zhou Xiye is a parachuted-in person. He'll be gone after one round, just here to get some experience and then go back to the central government. Can she take you with her, or will you be able to start your own business later? Don't you get enough from marrying me? If you stay with her, can you guarantee that she won't abandon you?"
Upon hearing this, Qiao Senxi turned around and calmly looked at Chen Xiaoyun. "She can't give me anything. The only thing that makes me feel gratified is that she gave me what I deserved."
Chen Xiaoyun's eyes reddened. "Have you fallen for her? Do you know she's married?"
Qiao Senxi took a breath. "Chen Xiaoyun, you weren't like this before, and your parents didn't teach you like this either. Feelings and power are two different things; don't confuse them."
"That's why I asked my father to help you!" Tears streamed down Chen Xiaoyun's face. "Is it so hard to marry me? My father will help you. How could you get my father's help and then leave? You've hooked up with someone new and kicked the old one to the curb!"
These words made Qiao Senxi feel a little guilty. He walked to the bedside on Chen Xiaoyun's side. Qiao Senxi, wearing only underwear, looked very sexy—there were still teeth marks left by Chen Xiaoyun on his shoulder—outlining the shape of his penis.
Qiao Senxi squatted down, looked at Chen Xiaoyun, and said softly, "You won't be happy if you marry me. Even if I don't fall in love with Zhou Xiye, I will still cheat on you and sleep with other women. The only thing you can use to restrain me is your father's power. Have you ever thought about what will happen if one day your father loses power or dies, and the only thing that restrains me is gone? How will you protect yourself then?"
Chen Xiaoyun stopped crying and remained calm.
Qiao Senxi gently stroked her legs, then followed her waistline to her breasts, pinching them with a hint of eroticism. "You knew from the beginning that the person I liked wasn't you. Our relationship was an exchange—I wanted power, and you wanted to have me." He squeezed hard, and Chen Xiaoyun frowned.
"How could you be so stupid?" Qiao Senxi chuckled, releasing her breasts and standing up to look down at her. "I didn't sleep with you for nothing. This is the only advice I can give you. Don't come looking for me again. We've broken up."
After saying that, he turned and left, picking up his clothes from the ground and putting them on one by one. The sound of the door closing made Chen Xiaoyun shudder.
Not long after Zhou Xiye arrived at the office, Qiao Senxi also arrived. Zhou Xiye gave him a document to print out, and seeing the smug look on Qiao Senxi's face, he knew that he was still basking in the glow of happiness. "By the way, the Women's Federation asked me the other day if we had any single people here. I put your name down. It's time for you to get married."
Qiao Senxi glanced at Zhou Xiye behind the desk and said, "I won't marry someone I don't like."
“Then you won’t stay with me for long,” Zhou Xiye said bluntly. “You’re not the kind of person who has the right to choose not to get married.”
"But my marriage has nothing to do with my abilities."
Does this kind of question really need an explanation? Zhou Xiye rolled his eyes inwardly. "Since you've entered the game, you have to abide by the rules. I won't force you to get married, after all, marriage is a matter of personal choice, but I can decide who my secretary is."
Qiao Senxi nodded, accepting Zhou Xiye's advice. While printing the documents, the older woman in the Second Secretary's Office saw Qiao Senxi walk in with an impatient look on her face. She loosened her tie and asked with a smile, "Did you offend Secretary Zhou? Why did you provoke her? She's a very difficult person to talk to."
Documents kept popping out of the printer, and after tidying them up, Qiao Senxi didn't answer the old lady's question. Zhou Xiye's words reminded him that last weekend, he had overheard someone in the secretariat saying that Zhou Xiye was looking for a new secretary, and she would be interviewing several people who had been hired next week.
Qiao Senxi hadn't heard a word about this.
Was Zhou Xiye on guard against him? Not necessarily. There was no need for the secretary to be wary of a mere secretary like him. After their last conversation, Zhou Xiye's attitude towards him remained unchanged, and he assumed that Zhou Xiye was simply giving him a warning.
Now it seems that's not the case. There's only one reason she didn't tell him about the job posting—she didn't care about him, there were some things he didn't need to know, he wasn't entitled to know, and she didn't care about his feelings.
That's roughly the gist of it.
Qiao Senxi carried the documents and walked towards the conference room. He saw another side of power—not the arrogant and domineering kind of power that Chen Xiaoyun's father had, which meant "I have power, so you have to fawn over my daughter or I won't let you get away with it"—but indifferent, even uncaring.
You are nothing but a pawn of power, to be discarded when you are no longer useful. What do I care about your life or death?
The arrogance of power.
Upon entering, Zhou Xiye, Ling Xingzhi, Meng Qinggong, and District Chief Li from the location of the incident, Qiao Senxi distributed the materials and placed them in front of them.
"You can leave now."
Zhou Xiye didn't even raise his head. Qiao Senxi looked at Zhou Xiye, and for some reason, a cold sweat broke out on his back.
The meeting concluded quickly, with the consensus being the establishment of a special task force to handle the matter, while simultaneously controlling public opinion and providing timely updates on the case's progress. Most importantly, the task force was to protect the victims' information and launch a crackdown on organized crime.
The campaign against organized crime was personally overseen by Zhou Xiye and Meng Qinggong, while Ling Xingzhi was responsible for Kunming's economic development and construction during this period.
"We should still focus on economic development. You must report to me on all your projects and ideas before implementation," Zhou Xiye told Ling Xingzhi.
Upon hearing this, Ling Xingzhi nodded with a smile, but in his heart he realized that Zhou Xiye was too authoritarian and had too strong a desire for control.
He couldn't say whether it was good or bad; for a local government official, the effects of centralized power were relatively minor.
"On Monday afternoon, make time for me to visit a farmhouse. Don't bring Li Qingshan or any bodyguards."
Ling Xingzhi nodded in agreement again; Zhou Xiye was going to conduct an incognito visit.
And so, on Monday afternoon, Zhou Xiye, Ling Xingzhi, Meng Qinggong, the director of the Market Supervision Administration, and Li Wei, who was driving, set off for farmhouses and popular tourist spots.
Inspections generally have only one goal: to identify problems. However, there are tricks to conducting inspections. When Ling Xingzhi was the Party Secretary of Beijing, the political implications behind his inspections were usually related to investment in construction and development, or to rectifying disobedient people in the district.
However, Zhou Xiye's style of being an official was naturally different from that of the officials in the capital who had been exposed to the ways of officialdom since childhood: the officials followed the paths of others and left them with no way to go; Zhou Xiye, on the other hand, moved forward boldly and decisively, killing anyone who stood in his way, and even if there was no way, he would forge his own path.
This is why Zhou Xiye is more concerned with the distribution of power and prefers centralized authority. She is currently very popular, and her agritainment business is doing well. Problems are bound to arise, and Zhou Xiye is not unaware of this, but she is not afraid of problems.
Ling Xingzhi felt that she was being reckless, and that once the problem occurred, it would be very difficult to resolve.
It must be very tricky.
However, the results of the inspection were unexpected, and the people praised the newly arrived municipal party secretary.
“The government’s policies have improved and relaxed, which is why we small businesses can still operate… You’re from out of town, so you might not know, but our children all went to work in big cities, and social security and housing provident fund were problems for them. Our retirement is also a problem…”
"Maybe it's just a new broom sweeping clean, but I think it's a good thing, at least we're able to eat now..."
"This Party Secretary is different from previous officials; he has done practical things, and we have seen hope for an improved economy..."
There were quite a few tourists at the farmhouse, mostly families of three or couples, creating a very heartwarming scene.
Zhou Xiye, however, fell into deep thought as she watched these heartwarming scenes. She was happy, but something felt off. On the way back, Zhou Xiye asked Ling Xingzhi, "Don't you think there are many elderly people here? For them, running a farmhouse inn is just a seasonal option. Once the number of tourists decreases, they'll go back to their old ways..."
“It seems so,” Ling Xingzhi frowned. “Tourism is a pillar industry, and agritainment is just one part of it. You’ve mobilized rural residents to work in cities, but… this can’t be compared to the real economy. Tourism is at the mercy of the weather.”
Meng Qinggong couldn't see that far ahead; he was solely focused on how to tighten social order management. The director of the Market Supervision Administration and Meng Qinggong were engaged in a lively conversation, and Zhou Xiye didn't interfere much in the negotiations between their two departments.
"Want to go out for a drink after get off work?" Zhou Xiye turned to Ling Xingzhi and asked, "Does your wife agree?"
Ling Xingzhi glanced at her. "Wei Luochen's parents are gone. They've been taken back and placed under house arrest by Ye Lifeng. Didn't you know that?"
"Does it matter whether I know about this or not?" Zhou Xiye shrugged. "Want to grab some barbecue sometime?"
"good."
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