At this moment, Wang Peng understood.
Zhou Ming's refusal to let Li Mingzhu join the association was definitely not his original intention.
Because Zhou Ming and Li Mingzhu were complete strangers, a young female painter from the provincial capital not only appeared on CCTV but also won the national championship on CCTV.
More importantly, the female painter had no teacher.
As long as Zhou Ming accepts her into the association, a teacher-student relationship will naturally be established. The higher the student's achievements, the more the teacher will benefit.
Therefore, Wang Zhenhua could not understand the normal reason why Zhou Ming rejected Li Mingzhu.
There are many reasons why this might be abnormal, such as accepting money from Hu Qing or being entrusted by his cousin Zhou Shun.
Hu Qing's actions were self-defeating and harmful to others, while Zhou Shun's actions were also self-serving and harmful to others; both of them had motives.
Wang Peng was too lazy to investigate the truth. Since both sides had a motive, he decided to accept the innocence and deal with them together later.
He chuckled softly, "Please think it over carefully. My partner is qualified to join, isn't she?"
Zhou Ming nodded hurriedly, "Comrade Li Mingzhu is indeed qualified, after all, she has provincial and national championships, but the association is a big melting pot."
He added, "Only purity can produce good works, like her winning piece 'Hope.' Mr. Wang, do you understand what I mean?"
Zhou Ming meant that the painters' association was a mixed bag, focused on personal relationships rather than art.
Only when Li Mingzhu has enough social experience will she be able to handle interpersonal relationships.
It may sound like I'm doing this for your own good, but I'm actually politely declining.
Wang Peng smiled slightly and said, "Don't even mention the Artists Association; the whole society is a big melting pot."
Li Mingzhu said, "President Zhou, I will never delve into interpersonal relationships in my life. My husband will handle interpersonal relationships for me."
"I just want to stay under his wing and paint properly. I really want to join the association. Please reconsider."
After finishing her speech in one breath, Li Mingzhu looked at Zhou Ming and quietly took her husband's hand.
Wang Peng said, "Chairman Zhou, I've been in business for many years and I've only learned one thing: A gentleman loves money, but he acquires it in a proper way."
He warned Zhou Ming to stop taking ill-gotten gains, and that if he remained stubborn and refused to listen to advice, he would be blacklisted.
Being blacklisted by a small business owner who is energetic, has spare cash, and has a good reputation in society is not a good thing.
Li Keyong said, "Chairman Zhou, please conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Comrade Li Mingzhu's application for membership. Don't let talent be buried for other reasons."
The air suddenly became quiet, and Zhou Ming felt somewhat uneasy under the pressure from Wang Peng and Li Keyong.
After a long silence, he gritted his teeth and said, "I'm sorry, the result I just mentioned is the one our association assessed..."
The phone on my desk suddenly rang.
"Excuse me, I need to take this call." Zhou Ming picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. "Hello, this is Zhou Ming."
"..."
"Hey, Brother Sun, you seem to have a lot of free time today. What made you suddenly think of calling me?"
"..."
"Brother Sun, I heard about it a long time ago. The moment the champion was announced, someone from the association called to inform me."
"..."
The person who called Zhou Ming was Sun Zhansheng, the former president of the provincial artists' association, a retired senior cadre, and the maternal grandfather of his senior classmate Ji Miaomiao.
Wang Peng saved Ji Miaomiao from being exploited by the school. Ji Miaomiao was grateful to Wang Peng and told her grandfather about Li Mingzhu.
Sun Zhansheng was also grateful to Wang Peng for not letting his granddaughter suffer.
More importantly, he felt that Wang Peng's willingness to offend the school rather than cooperate with the school's exploitation of students was a noble and commendable act.
So he felt he needed to help Li Mingzhu, which is why he called Zhou Ming.
Retired cadres wield considerable influence. If the top official in the provincial capital took office yesterday, he would visit the retired cadres' activity center today.
If you want to advance in your career, it's difficult for veteran cadres to offer much help.
However, they have the ability to sabotage your career; who knows what cloud might bring rain?
Even the top official in the provincial capital didn't want to offend the veteran cadres, and Zhou Ming was even less willing to do so, so he hung up the phone with a smile.
"Comrade Li Mingzhu, the vice president of the association just called me."
"They just had another meeting and re-evaluated your application. They have finally agreed to accept it. Welcome to the Provincial Capital Artists Association."
After finishing his speech in one breath, Zhou Ming smiled gently, like a kind old grandfather.
"Really?" Li Mingzhu hurriedly stood up and bowed, excitedly saying, "Thank you, Chairman Zhou, for making this possible, thank you..."
She bowed twice.
Zhou Ming quickly stopped her from bowing three times and said with a smile, "Comrade Mingzhu, let's go through the membership procedures."
"President Zhou, thank you." Wang Peng stood up and shook hands with him, but he didn't believe his nonsense.
The vice president organized a meeting and decided to let his wife join the association, but only told the president the results of the meeting. Isn't that ridiculous?
The person who made the phone call earlier put pressure on Zhou Ming, which is why he changed his mind at the last minute.
At this point, his blacklist already included three names: Zhou Ming, Zhou Shun, and Hu Qing.
About an hour later, Li Mingzhu finally joined the provincial capital artists association and received her membership certificate.
The association is a non-profit organization, and its members do not receive salaries, but Li Mingzhu is still very happy.
Back in the car, Li Mingzhu yelled and hugged her husband's neck, asking for a kiss. The two kissed right there in the car.
"These two unlucky kids." Li Keyong hurriedly got out of the car, turned his back to the car, and looked up at the sky.
After a moment, Li Mingzhu chuckled softly and said gently, "Honey, my uncle is already thirty-three. Let's feed him more dog food (a Chinese slang term for public displays of affection), and when he can't eat it anymore, we'll introduce him to a girlfriend."
Wang Peng scratched his head. "I know you want to introduce him to a girlfriend, but is it necessary for us to show off our love in front of him?"
“It’s very necessary,” Li Mingzhu said with a smile. “I plan to let him have a relationship with a younger woman and introduce one of our classmates to him as a wife.”
"Stop messing around." Wang Peng had a headache.
The average age of students at the provincial university is 22, while Li Keyong is already 33. Do young women like older men these days?
Just then, his phone rang. Wang Peng answered the call, "Hello, this is Wang Peng."
"Hello, Brother Peng, this is Ji Miaomiao. Has Sister Mingzhu joined the Artists Association?" Ji Miaomiao asked.
"You just joined, how did you know?" Wang Peng asked with a smile.
“My grandfather was the previous president. I just asked him to call President Zhou and ask him to put in a good word for Sister Mingzhu.”
Ji Miaomiao chuckled, "Dear Brother Peng, how do you plan to repay me?"
Wang Peng never expected that the person who helped him would be his intern, Ji Miaomiao.
Thinking back on her face carefully, she wasn't ugly. If looks were a perfect score, she would score over 80.
She has a great figure, no less than Li Mingzhu and Li Mengjiao, absolutely a devilish figure.
"Are you trying to renege on your debt? Humph!" Ji Miaomiao said, "Tell me quickly, how do you plan to repay my great kindness? Don't try to go back on your word!"
Wang Peng scratched his head and said with a smile, "I'm planning to introduce you to a 33-year-old man to be your husband, to repay your great kindness."
"Pah! You're so annoying, only a fool would like an old man." Ji Miaomiao said anxiously on the phone.
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