Chapter 50: Power

A quick note: some minor changes were made to the plot at the beginning; if any plot points don't match up, you can re-read Chapter 1.

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Bai Fengyu felt awkward inside, but she could not show it on her face.

Bai Fengqin, however, opened the floodgates: "Sister, you don't know how amazing the new teacher, Mr. Liu, at our school is!"

Bai Fengqin was beaming with excitement: "He can speak four foreign languages and can even write poetry..."

Listening to her younger sister chatter on and on, Bai Fengyu listened with intent.

Bai Fengqin had never praised any teacher like this before.

She asked casually: "A male teacher?"

Bai Fengqin was not stupid; she reacted immediately, her face flushed, and she chided: "Sister, what are you saying~ Mr. Liu is already thirty."

Ning Weidong returned to the earthquake shelter, lit the stove, and reclined on the bed.

In the few days since he transmigrated here, a weight had been pressing on his heart.

An unfamiliar environment and financial hardship.

Although he didn't give that two hundred yuan to Bai Fengyu at the very beginning, that was all money from the Black Signature Society, and as for his own hands, the original owner had saved some money, all of which had been filled in; he only had one jiao and two fen in his pocket, not even enough to buy the cheapest pack of economy cigarettes.

Now that the financial problem was solved, he finally felt much more at ease.

People are just like this; no matter where they go or what situation they encounter, if they have grain in their hands, they don't panic in their hearts.

Otherwise, Ning Weidong would not have been in the mood to flirt with Bai Fengyu.

The next step is to change his life step by step.

Although Ning Weiguo and his wife had planned things out for him—Ning Weiguo would become a Section Chief, the unit would soon allocate housing, and when their family of three moved out, the two rooms here plus an earthquake shelter would all be given to Ning Weidong.

For an average person, these conditions were quite good, but to Ning Weidong, it was just so-so.

Not to mention anything else, just thinking about the public toilet outside the alley gave him a headache.

It didn't smell much in winter, but come summer, that environment... it could only be described as unspeakable.

However, based on the current situation, there was no other way in the short term.

Right now, the control over housing hasn't been relaxed yet; it's not that if you have money, you can just buy it.

And as for the specific policies, Ning Weidong only knew the general idea.

He secretly calculated in his heart that he would have to find someone in the know to ask later.

He then thought about his unit; he had already made contact with Li Peihang, so he must take the initiative to manage that relationship.

As for how to manage it, there was a lot of nuance.

First of all, the relationship between Ning Weidong and Li Peihang was not a simple superior-subordinate one; he was a classmate of Ning Weiguo and Wang Yuzhen, and Ning Weiguo was not a nobody.

This meant Ning Weidong himself carried a bit of nepotism; although this nepotistic relationship was not solid, it was still a step ahead of others.

This kind of relationship could at most make Li Peihang a bit more polite, sharing a laugh when they met, handing over a cigarette, or having a cup of tea—none of that was a problem.

But to make Li Peihang—let alone reuse him—even just utilize Ning Weidong, this bit of relationship was far from enough.

Where does power come from? It is not from any position, nor is it from any rank, but from the qualification to get things done.

Only by doing things can one mobilize resources: manpower, material resources, financial resources...

Holding resources in one's hands means having power.

Even if this person is a nobody without any title, as long as they control resources, they possess power.

How can one obtain the use of them?

The original owner also had Ning Weiguo's connection, so why was he still muddled after working for more than a year?

Let alone Li Peihang's side, he hadn't even been able to integrate into the small work group at the West Gate.

Don't look at how they were in the same room, working together, and bullshitting together; in fact, they were not the same kind of people at all. And now, someone was secretly dealing with Li Peihang, which was just an opportunity...

Ning Weidong's thoughts drifted, and before he knew it, it was dark outside.

He raised his hand to look at his newly bought watch; it was almost five o'clock.

Ning Weidong got up and stretched, took off his watch, placed it under his pillow, and got up to go outside, preparing to cook.

He was off work today and had been home all day; it really wouldn't be right to wait for Wang Yuzhen to get off work and cook.

Ning Weidong calculated: steam some Two-Rice Meal of rice and millet, go to the Cellar to get some potatoes and onions, make a stir-fried potato slices with onions, and then make some vinegar-braised cabbage slices.

Just then, a scream suddenly came from the direction of the front yard: "Fuck, Zhou Kun, you grandson, I'll fuck your ancestors!"

Ning Weidong was stunned, and immediately after, he heard someone shouting: "Hey! Hey! Don't fight, you two..."

He knew immediately that a fight had broken out.

Plus the name Zhou Kun, Ning Weidong guessed the general situation; it seemed Zhou Kun had found the real culprit.

Ning Weidong was no longer in a hurry to cook and immediately went to watch the excitement.

Without a mobile phone or the internet, this kind of excitement was still worth watching.

Sure enough, hearing the commotion, the doors of several households opened, including those of the Bai Fengyu sisters.

Their eyes met, and Bai Fengyu was unnatural for a moment. Bai Fengqin glanced at him, curled her lips, and didn't make a sound.

A group of people arrived at the front yard.

The people here were not slow either; quite a few people had gathered in this short time.

In the middle of the scene, Zhou Kun and a sturdy young man were tangled in a fight, hitting and cursing as they went: "Wang Zipeng, you asshole, I'll let you spread rumors, I'll let you spread rumors..."

The two's battle was mainly wrestling and grappling; they didn't directly use their fists to strike at each other's faces.

Zhou Kun clearly had the upper hand, probably because he had ambushed him at the start; there was a large footprint on the back of the young man he was grappling with.

Zhou Kun still had energy to spare, shouting: "Wang Zipeng, I'll let you have a loose mouth; if I can't marry a wife, I'll go live at your house..."

Wang Zipeng originally had a neat side-part hairstyle, but now it was covered in dirt, yet he didn't forget to retort: "You're talking nonsense, Zhou Kun, you big idiot, let go of me..."

Ning Weidong looked at these two eyesores; if they were sixteen or seventeen, just a couple of half-grown boys, it would be one thing for them to be scuffling like this.

These two fellows are twenty-seven and twenty-eight, over fifty combined, yet they are still pulling this stunt.

After watching for a while, Lu Daye and Xue Daye from the backyard finally managed to pull and drag the two of them apart.

Ning Weidong didn't watch the aftermath and went back to busy himself with dinner.

It would just end with each of them saying a few words and letting the matter drop.

Ten-odd minutes later, Ning Weiguo and Wang Yuzhen got off work and caught sight of the bicycle placed under their window.

Ning Weiguo found it strange and shouted into the house: "Weidong, whose bicycle is this?"

Ning Weidong came out and said with a smile: "Brother, Sister-in-law, I bought it."

Ning Weiguo and Wang Yuzhen were both a bit surprised; they hadn't expected Ning Weidong to actually buy a bike, and it didn't look like a piece of junk either—it was neat and tidy, eighty or ninety percent new.

Once inside, Ning Weidong didn't wait for them to ask and took the initiative to explain: "I ran into Ning Wei from Liushen's family a couple of days ago, and he said he had a classmate who deals in bicycles. Since I'd saved up some money, I thought I'd get one to ride to and from work."

"Xiao Wei, huh~" Ning Weiguo knew Ning Wei; although they were distant, they were still considered relatives.

Wang Yuzhen said worriedly: "Weidong, the bike looks nice enough, but I hope there isn't any trouble attached to it." Buying a second-hand bike, that was the fear.

Ning Weidong said with a chuckle: "Don't you worry, Ning Wei's classmate's brother-in-law is at the Police Station."

Once Ning Weiguo and Wang Yuzhen heard this, they understood the ins and outs of it.

They didn't know that the money the original owner had saved had long since gone to pay off Bai Fengyu's debts, so they weren't too surprised that Ning Weidong had bought a second-hand bicycle.

(End of chapter)