noveltune Chapter 688 - 658: Department Demotion
Chapter 688 - 658: Department Demotion
Lu Ming said, "I remember that."Fan Lidada glared at him, "Remember my ass, how do you know what we talk about in private?"
Lu Ming said, "You’ve forgotten the pain now that you’re healed. I drank with you every day during that time. My transaminase levels even went up just to accompany you."
Fan Lidada laughed, "Yeah, who else could I find but you? Who asked us to be such buddies? I insisted on keeping the child. It wasn’t easy to conceive, three years, you guys have no idea what I went through in those three years."
Lu Ming said, "Let’s not bring up your couple’s sordid issues; everyone gets it."
Xu Chunliang and Lu Qi both laughed.
Fan Lidada said, "Honestly, I was scared too at the time. I drank so much; what if the kid came out with a defect? I’d ruin their life. Luckily, heaven took care of us, and the baby was a big, healthy boy, weighing eight pounds two ounces, white and chubby, and most importantly, he looks like me."
Lu Ming said, "Nonsense, if your wife hears that, you’ll be kneeling on a washboard as punishment."
They drank until half-past nine that evening, and a still unsatisfied Fan Lidada suggested going for more barbecue. It’s become a habit at Dongzhou No. 2 barbecue place.
Lu Ming and Fan Lidada have been working in the system for more than ten years, only removing their masks and expressing their true selves in front of their own people.
Fan Lidada recommended a place he frequented—Old Yangtou Barbecue.
When they arrived, they found business wasn’t doing well today. Fan Lidada asked the owner to cut a pound of meat and ordered specialties like grilled lamb head, lamb testicles, lamb eyes, and lamb tendons.
Lu Ming wanted to drink beer, but Fan Lidada said at their age, it’s not suitable to mix drinks anymore, especially for him as it easily leads to blackouts.
Lu Ming sighed, "Getting old. In our younger days, having four to five meals in a day was nothing, beer with spirits couldn’t beat us."
Fan Lidada said, "You can’t refuse to grow old; this era belongs to the young."
As they were talking, someone came over and greeted, "Mayor Xu, what a coincidence."
Xu Chunliang saw it was Yan Fangming, who used to be with the Ecological Environment Construction Investment Group. They had crossed paths on Weishan Island, where he ended up defeated, but he quickly switched sides to support Xu Chunliang. Xu Chunliang let bygones be bygones and even recommended he collaborate with Ding Si, now involved in the development of the brewery hot springs project.
Among those present, Yan Fangming knew Fan Lidada but had not interacted with the Lu Brothers before. He lit up a cigarette, had a beer, and left shortly after, demonstrating a businessman’s insight. Without greeting, it would seem discourteous, but if the greeting overshadowed the guest, it would be impolite. The best is a quick appearance, show some presence, and the crucial step is settling the bill. Yan Fangming left five hundred yuan with the store owner to settle Xu Chunliang’s bill.
After Yan Fangming left, Fan Lidada curiously asked, "Chunliang, since when did you get along so well?"
Xu Chunliang smiled, "In this world, there are no permanent enemies. He was used by others in the past. I’m just doing my job. There are no irreconcilable conflicts between us."
Lu Ming then understood that Yan Fangming was the brother-in-law of former Natural Resources Administration Bureau director Xie Zhongxin. The Weishan Island hot spring incident affected Xie Zhongxin the most; he was removed as director and reassigned in the city to serve as deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee in the High-Tech Zone.
Speaking of this issue, Lu Ming couldn’t help but mention Geng Wenjun. According to reliable sources, Geng Wenjun was due for a promotion within the year, whether it would be a local promotion or to another city was uncertain. But one thing was clear to everyone: with Geng Wenjun’s departure, the top spot in the High-Tech Zone would be vacant, and whether Mei Ru Xue would take over or someone else would step in remained unclear, but it surely wouldn’t be Xie Zhongxin.
Everyone knew about Xu Chunliang and Mei Ru Xue’s relationship, and Lu Ming said, "Xiaoxu, you need to work hard. Mei Ru Xue is progressing fast."
Xu Chunliang smiled, "I’m the kind of person who can put myself in the right place, not bothered by any imbalances."
Lu Qi said, "That’s impressive, considering it’s only been a short while, and you’ve already reached deputy section level. I still need to trek around the Western Border before I can secure a promotion."
Fan Lidada said, "That’s called gilding the resume." He then steered the conversation back to the brewery hot springs, which had jolted some officials to shift, notably affecting Xie Zhongxin and Qin Xinli.
Qin Xinli was Fan Lidada’s old superior, who had always taken care of him. Fan Lidada felt some regret for Qin Xinli. It was Qin Xinli who prepared the formation of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, but as soon as Dongzhou Culture and Tourism Bureau was established, he was ousted by the leaders.
Xu Chunliang harbored no goodwill towards Qin Xinli and didn’t mention the unpleasantness in the Capital City. He was pondering to himself that being idle was pointless; he might as well go to work tomorrow.
The next morning, Xu Chunliang returned to Hu Shan Town and first reported to Qin Zhengyang.
Qin Zhengyang was surprised and said, "Why are you back to work today?"
Xu Chunliang said, "Since I’m free, why not sacrifice my personal time to contribute more to the people of Hu Shan Town."
Qin Zhengyang laughed, "Your awareness is getting higher and higher. By the way, your personnel procedures have been completed. Now, you officially belong to the Dongzhou City Culture and Tourism Bureau, but it’s still a secondment. Due to the change in your workplace, your secondment will continue for two months, which means... it ends at the end of June."
Xu Chunliang said, "Are you in a hurry to send me off already?"
Qin Zhengyang said, "I didn’t mean that. A couple of days ago, Director Fu from the Culture and Tourism Bureau came over to inspect the work. He conducted an on-site inspection of the national tourism resort construction and deployed new tasks. He asked me to lighten your load, hoping you can shift your work focus to the construction of the tourism resort area."
Xu Chunliang said, "I just had a drink with Fan Lidada yesterday. He’s transferred back to Dongzhou and said he wants to leave the command center in my charge."
Qin Zhengyang said, "I wasn’t aware of that. However, since you’re in charge, you should still take a look. The rain from a few days ago really flooded your office quite badly."
Xu Chunliang already knew there was a problem with the location of the command center. The current office location used to be the Weishan Island Visitor Center. Because it’s in a low-lying area, it turns into a fish pond whenever it rains. When they were renovating, Xu Chunliang specifically arranged for Ding Si’s engineering team to help out.
Although the surrounding drainage system has been cleared, it still doesn’t drain smoothly when it rains heavily.
Xu Chunliang arrived at the site and saw that the accumulated water had not yet receded. Several staff members were standing on higher ground waiting for the water to drain. They had moved the important documents out in advance and temporarily stored them in a room in a nearby elementary school.
The staff all knew Xu Chunliang, and one of them was the office director, Liu Deshun, who came up and said, "Town Mayor Xu is here."
Xu Chunliang nodded, looking at the command center soaked in water, and asked, "What’s the situation?"
Liu Deshun sighed and said, "After two days of rain, it turned out like this."
Xu Chunliang asked about the damage. Since the command center had not been established for very long, and had not formally started work, there wasn’t any major loss. But under the current conditions, they could only wait for the water to recede naturally.
The morale among the command center staff was somewhat low. Since the command center’s formation, various issues had cropped up continually. At first, they thought the city was going to make a big push with this command center to take charge of the Weishan Lake Resort’s planning and construction. However, after the Culture and Tourism Bureau was founded, they realized that this department had been marginalized.
For a while, they were unsure if they actually belonged to the newly established Culture and Tourism Bureau. Later, the city finally clarified that they were under the Bureau’s jurisdiction, but the Bureau hadn’t given them specific work assignments. Now, even their director, Fan Lidada, had been transferred back to the city to serve as the deputy director. It left this group of staff in a tough spot.
Many of these people had come because of Fan Lidada, thinking that following him would lead to success. They never expected such an outcome. Seeing the situation becoming unfavorable, Fan Lidada left first. The remaining staff were now left without a clear direction and felt somewhat at a loss.
Xu Chunliang made a phone call to Zhang Haitao, asking him to send over two pumps to help drain the water.
Before coming here, Xu Chunliang had discussed this matter with Qin Zhengyang, who proactively offered to allocate three offices at the town government for them.
Xu Chunliang instructed them to relocate. The rainy season was about to begin, and the situation would only worsen in the future. Without a thorough renovation here, the flooding issue could not be alleviated.
Liu Deshun had actually heard from Fan Lidada that Xu Chunliang would be responsible for the command center’s work in the future. However, since the Bureau hadn’t officially announced it, he wasn’t in a hurry to make it public. Seeing that Xu Chunliang solved the office location problem upon his arrival, he guessed the matter had been settled. Otherwise, Xu Chunliang wouldn’t have come here for no reason to manage their affairs.
Zhang Haitao temporarily transferred two pumps from the health and elderly care project site. Soon, the water had drained away, but the road surface was still muddy. Under the sun’s rays, a stench of silt filled the air.
Zhang Haitao said, "Town Mayor Xu, where’s Director Fan?"
Xu Chunliang said, "He’s been transferred back to Dongzhou. I’ve been asked to temporarily manage the command center."
Everyone present heard his words clearly. For the staff at the command center, this wasn’t something to be happy about. In the past, Fan Lidada was in charge here, and he held a sub-department level position. Now Xu Chunliang was in charge, but he was only a deputy section level officer, indicating that the command center had been downgraded.
The command center’s six staff members included one section chief, two deputy section chiefs, and three section members, and now they all had to be led by a deputy section chief. Who could they argue with about this?
No matter whether they were convinced or not, Xu Chunliang was famous on Weishan Island, and they all knew his reputation. None of them dared to express their dissatisfaction openly.
After the water receded, Xu Chunliang walked around the command center office—it was basically uninhabitable.
Zhang Haitao, still unaware of Xu Chunliang’s job change, walked around the command center with him and couldn’t help but ask, "Town Mayor Xu, are you also in charge of the command center now?"
Xu Chunliang nodded, "I’ve been transferred to work at the Culture and Tourism Bureau."
My son is about to take his college entrance exams. I will take a one-week leave and try to update as much as possible during this period. Thank you all for your understanding.