Chapter 77: Cooperation is Temporary, Struggle is Eternal

Ning Weidong thought of An Ning again from the account book.

As the old saying goes, dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and the son of a mouse will know how to dig holes.

An Ning, this daughter of a capitalist, understood the essence of interests more deeply than the average person.

When facing difficulties, she could utilize every bargaining chip she had on hand.

Ning Weidong did not actually feel antipathy toward such a woman; he had seen plenty of them before he transmigrated.

Do not be superstitious about good being rewarded with good and evil with evil.

Generally speaking, most women like this live quite well in real life.

An Ning was also quite beautiful, and more importantly, she had...

It was not far, so Ning Weidong returned home, parked his bicycle, glanced at the Upper Room, but did not go over.

Returning to the earthquake shelter, Ning Lei was not there.

With school about to start in a few days, the kid was currently cramming his homework.

It was not cold in the room; the stove had already been lit, likely by Ning Weiguo just a moment ago, keeping the fire low and burning slowly.

Ning Weidong kicked off his cotton shoes, sat cross-legged on the bed, and opened the account book he had just obtained from An Ning.

I have to say, Wang Jingsheng's bookkeeping was actually quite professional.

Item by item, it was very detailed.

How the money came in, how it was distributed afterward, who received the money, and how much each person got.

This included, but was not limited to, people from the Factory Office and the Technical Section.

Ning Weidong looked at the names, searched the original owner's memories, and after thinking for a long time, he only recognized four or five people.

The original owner had been muddled, and his knowledge of the factory's departments and units was a blank slate.

He could only judge who the key figures were and who were the minor players based on the amounts of money.

Just then, Ning Wei returned, knocked on the door from outside, entered the room, rubbed his hands, and called out, "Third Brother."

Ning Weidong sat up straight on the bed and said, "Hurry and warm yourself by the fire; you must be frozen stiff outside~"

"It's nothing~" Ning Wei chuckled, his cheeks flushed red.

Ning Weidong asked, "What's the situation over there?"

Ning Wei perked up and said, "Third Brother, I just rode my bike following that big guy all the way to the vicinity of the South City Railway Station..."

Ning Weidong listened carefully, comparing it to the information he had just received from An Ning, and it was not hard to guess that it must be Zhang Minghui's lair.

This Zhang Minghui was nominally a worker in the transport fleet, but by relying on a group of men under him, he secretly controlled over a dozen trucks.

These trucks were nominally part of the State-owned fleet, with all maintenance and upkeep covered by the public, yet outside of completing transport tasks, they also took on private jobs for Zhang Minghui.

The cargo truck that previously helped Wang Jingsheng transport 'waste' from the Red Star Factory to Xingtai was under Zhang Minghui's charge.

However, Ning Weidong had not expected Ning Wei to find out anything on this trip; after all, he was just following Bata'er, and he couldn't get too close once they arrived, so he wouldn't be able to hear what the other party was saying.

Yet, he did not expect that Ning Wei was bold because of his high skill.

He followed them to the place, actually climbed over a wall onto the roof, and squatted on the slope of the roof to watch for a long time.

Ning Wei said, "Third Brother, just as I was leaving, someone happened to come out of that courtyard, and one of them should be Zhang Minghui. I didn't see the other person very clearly, but when he was leaving, Zhang Minghui called out, it sounded like... Lu Ganzhi, this person's name is quite strange."

"Lu Ganzhi..." Ning Weidong blinked his eyes: "What the hell Lu Ganzhi, it's Officer Lu!"

You couldn't blame Ning Wei; he was young and had never worked in a proper unit, so he didn't know that 'Officer' was a job title.

Ning Weidong said, "What else did you hear?"

Ning Wei said, "That Officer Lu came out and was still instructing Zhang Minghui on something, because they weren't speaking very loudly, I didn't hear it too clearly..." Ning Weidong could not help but feel disappointed.

Unexpectedly, Ning Wei paused for dramatic effect: "I only heard them seem to mention a person, called something Shan."

Ning Weidong's heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out: "Xu Jinshan! Is it?"

Ning Wei slapped his thigh: "That's the one, Third Brother, how did you know!"

Ning Weidong did not respond, his brain spinning rapidly: "Xu Jinshan! It's actually Xu Jinshan!"

That Officer Lu must be Lu Zhou, otherwise, how could there be such a coincidence.

But what was the relationship between Lu Zhou and Zhang Minghui? And what was the meaning of Bata'er coming to find An Ning this time? Ning Weidong thought to himself: "If we go by An Ning's account, her relationship with Xu Jinshan is very secretive, because Xu Jinshan's father worked as a steward in the An Family and had long since changed his surname to An; he didn't even have the surname Xu. Unless one was very familiar with her family's situation, it would be very difficult to link Xu Jinshan to the An Family."

In that case, Lu Zhou should not know that Xu Jinshan had already been in contact with An Ning.

Ning Weidong pondered for a while and roughly sorted out some clues.

Vice Factory Director Wang had not yet given up on Xu Jinshan; after a brief tacit cooperation, struggle remained the main theme.

Finding Xu Jinshan, using Xu Jinshan to drag Li Peihang into the water, and subsequently using that as a breakthrough to attack Li Weibing.

At this moment, Ning Weidong did not know that the person directing this from behind the scenes was Wang Kaifeng, and the goal was to suppress Li Peihang and completely take down the Security Division.

By then, the territory of Li Weibing's faction in the Red Star Factory would be further compressed.

He also did not know that Wang Kaifeng intended to use him as a pretext to attract Li Peihang's attention.

But these things were not important; once Ning Weidong learned the situation, even without knowing the schemes of Wang Kaifeng's side, it did not affect his next decision at all.

It still comes back to that saying: your position determines your perspective.

Within the scope of the Red Star Factory, Ning Weidong was Li Peihang's man.

If Li Peihang fell, Ning Weidong would definitely not have a good outcome. Even with Ning Weiguo and the connections of the Wang Family, it would require additional costs to integrate into a new system.

And within an established system, the resources allocated to everyone are fixed; needing to consume extra resources meant being incompetent, being a burden, and being a source of trouble.

Ning Weidong did not want to drag Ning Weiguo down because of this little matter, and even less could he afford to leave an impression of incompetence with the Wang Family.

"Xiao Wei, come with me." Ning Weidong slipped on his cotton shoes and headed straight for the Upper Room.

Once in the room, he had Ning Wei recount the situation from earlier, only saying it was discovered inadvertently, without mentioning An Ning.

Ning Weiguo immediately became serious; he was very clear about the struggle between 'Li' and 'Wang' within the Red Star Factory.

It's just that I didn't expect Li Peihang to make such a huge blunder this time.

Wang Yuzhen also understood the stakes involved, but Ning Wei's account clearly had loopholes.

Ning Weiguo certainly knew this, but he didn't dwell on the details, pondering slightly: "Weidong, what do you intend to do?"

Ning Weidong said: "Brother, sister-in-law, Li Peihang is my foundation at the Manager, at least for now, he cannot fall. If I didn't know, that would be one thing, but since we do know, we certainly cannot just leave him be."

Ning Weiguo said in a deep voice: "Be specific."

Ning Weidong said: "Brother, if you have a need on your end, it would be best if you stepped in for this matter..."

Before he could finish, Ning Weiguo waved his hand: "No need."

Ning Weidong smiled; this eldest brother was quite domineering. Although they were classmates and their relationship was good, deep down, he didn't place Li Peihang on an equal footing.

But then again, it wasn't that Ning Weiguo was arrogant; after interacting with him, Li Peihang's performance was indeed not very outstanding.

A mere Xu Jinshan had him running around in a panic.

(End of chapter)