Chapter 1110: When Have I Ever Lied to You

"How is it?" Su Qing stood up and asked Zhao Desan excitedly.

At this moment, Zhao Desan began to exercise his talent for flowery speech again. He looked up and down at Sister Su, who was wearing the crystal necklace he had bought himself, and said with extreme sweet talk, "Sister Su, it's very beautiful. It's truly diamonds matching a beauty—bright and brilliant, noble and generous, with extraordinary temperament. Look, Sister Su, your skin is already fair, and with such a crystal-clear and shimmering necklace as an embellishment on your neck, your whole body suddenly radiates a brilliant luster. It's too beautiful, too lovely."

Su Qing was extremely pleased by his flowery sweet talk. She glanced at him coquettishly and walked into the bedroom with great interest, standing in front of the full-length mirror to examine the crystal necklace carefully. Perhaps because of the light, or perhaps set off by the brilliant luster of this crystal necklace, Su Qing's skin appeared even fairer and clearer, like a freshly peeled egg—white, tender, and flawless, spotless. It was too beautiful and charming; even she couldn't believe that her skin and figure at fifty were still as tender as a young woman's.

Zhao Desan followed up and saw Sister Su admiring herself happily in the mirror. He walked up silently, gently hugged her slender waist from behind, and asked, "Sister Su, do you like it?"

"Hmm." Su Qing nodded at Zhao Desan, who was looking proud in the mirror. "You kid still has a conscience, knowing to bring a gift back for Sister after going so far away."

"It's about empathy," Zhao Desan said.

Su Qing smiled gently, but suddenly there was a slightly panicked look on her face. Zhao Desan immediately thought something was wrong and asked quickly, "Sister Su, what's wrong?"

Su Qing took his hand away and said while looking down, "Oh no, it's flowing out. I forgot to wash." As she spoke, she looked down and saw white liquid flowing from the petal hole down to the inside of her thigh.

*I thought something had happened, you scared me. * Zhao Desan let out a sigh of relief, the nervous look on his face fading, and he said with a devilish smile, "Sister Su, hurry up and wash. I'll wait for you on the bed."

Su Qing covered the petal hole with her hand, turned her head, gave him a white look, and complained, "It's all your fault, you didn't pull out when you ejaculated."

Zhao Desan chuckled and said, "That was to make Sister Su feel good."

Su Qing gave him a look and walked quickly out of the bedroom, heading straight for the bathroom. Zhao Desan went to the bed, leaned against the headboard, half-lying down, lit a cigarette, and smoked it leisurely. The sound of rushing water in the bathroom entered his ears, pulling his thoughts back to a day ago, recalling the days of unbridled pleasure with Division Chief Lan in Sanya, which he truly missed.

After Su Qing finished her bath, the time that followed was the same as usual—a shallow chat in bed before sleep. Su Qing asked him, "What did you learn from the inspection in Sanya?"

Zhao Desan said, "Actually, it was just tourism under the banner of inspection. What else could I learn? I didn't learn anything."

Su Qing smiled lightly and said, "Your Director Zheng really knows how to maintain relationships with people below him."

Zhao Desan said, "For a leader like him, if he doesn't find a way to bribe the people below, I'm afraid everyone would have risen in rebellion long ago." Speaking of this, he remembered the conflict between Zheng Tulu and Ma Debang that night and continued with interest, "By the way, Sister Su, Zheng Tulu and Ma Debang had a big argument after getting drunk at dinner that night."

Su Qing was quite interested in this and turned her face to ask, "Why did they argue?"

Zhao Desan said, "I don't need to say it, Sister Su, you should understand. Zheng Tulu is the head of the Construction Committee, and Ma Debang is a deputy. One definitely doesn't submit to the other. As the saying goes, truth comes out after drinking. The two of them got into a fight as soon as they drank too much. Everyone couldn't pull them apart, but they made up the next day."

Once Zhao Desan said this, Su Qing knew why. Take herself, for example; Deputy Minister of the Organization Department Li Changping had always had opinions about her and was always looking for opportunities to get her down so he could go up. But based on Li Changping's current ability, he couldn't move Su Qing for the time being.

"It's right that they made up. They are both people of status and face. Making too much noise isn't good for anyone, and they're afraid of being transferred if it gets reported up," Su Qing said. In officialdom, there is a chain of interest in interpersonal relationships. No one wants to do something that hurts both sides, let alone two old guys like Zheng Tulu and Ma Debang who have been mixing in government agencies for so many years.

"By the way, Sister Su, is there any latest news about assigning a Deputy Division Chief to our Construction Committee?" After the seven-day holiday, Zhao Desan had gradually settled his mind. The top priority he cared about most after the New Year was whether he could be successfully promoted to Deputy Division Chief of the Planning Division. The key to success or failure lay in Su Qing's joint.

Su Qing said, "It's the New Year, and every unit hasn't resumed work yet. You know the work efficiency of government agencies; who would deal with these things while on holiday? I'll inquire for you again when I go to the unit tomorrow. But don't worry, I've already greeted Zheng Tulu. This time he definitely won't play any tricks. I told him very clearly: even if I, the Minister of the Organization Department, can't continue, I will promote you. I think he also knows that just by relying on him as a Construction Committee Director, he wouldn't dare to be tough with me, right?" Su Qing appeared extremely confident. After all, as the Minister of the Organization Department of the Hexi Provincial Party Committee, she knew what kind of power she possessed.

Seeing Sister Su's certainty about this matter, Zhao Desan smiled and flattered, "That's right. If Zheng Tulu wants to fight with you, Sister Su, wouldn't that be like throwing an egg against a rock, overestimating his own strength?"

Su Qing said, "You can rest assured this time. Sister won't lie to you about what I promised."

Zhao Desan hugged Su Qing and flattered, "Exactly, Sister Su, when have you ever lied to me?"

Just when Zhao Desan naively thought that under Su Qing's pressure, Zheng Tulu would recommend him without hesitation, he didn't know that he was already at a disadvantage in this war without smoke. Holding the passionate video of Zhao Desan and Lan Mei having fun in the hotel, Zheng Tulu had already treated Su Qing's words as wind in his ears, in one ear and out the other. This day, after returning from the Sanya inspection, he had just sat down at home, and in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Lin Dafa and Zhang Jiayin came to visit one after another, carrying expensive gifts.

This was something Zheng Tulu had become accustomed to every holiday. He handled Lin Dafa and Zhang Jiayin's New Year visits naturally, happily accepted their "little bit of heart," and after sending them away, returned to the living room, sat down, and lit a cigarette. Zhang Jiayin and Lin Dafa's visit did remind him of something. Every year, taking the opportunity of the New Year to visit leaders and give gifts was a compulsory course for almost every official who was like a fish in water in officialdom. During this year's New Year, because Zheng Tulu organized all cadres at the division level and above to inspect Sanya, he missed the best time to visit superior leaders, but the New Year had to be visited, and gifts had to be given. Moreover, Zheng Tulu had to rely on the help of superior leaders in promoting his daughter after the New Year, so these relationships had to be maintained. Another major event on his mind was that Ma Debang had offended him last time, which made him think of getting rid of Ma Debang.

Before going to bed at night, Zheng Tulu instructed his wife to divide the valuable gifts received from others during the New Year into two piles overnight, one for Li Changping and one for Director Zhu. The gifts included a box of West Lake top-grade Longjing tea, a carton of Huanghelou 1916 cigarettes, and a box of bird's nest supplements.

After the gifts were prepared, Zheng Tulu looked at this pile of gifts and still felt something was wrong. He thought to himself, for officials as big as Director Zhu and Li Changping, would these gifts seem a bit too thin? But the gifts at home were just good cigarettes, good wine, and good tea; there were no other rare treasures. After thinking carefully, Zheng Tulu suddenly remembered that when he was the head of the Xijing Construction Committee, He Liping, a beautiful clerk in the Audit Division of the Xijing Construction Committee at the time, in order to be promoted to the head of the Audit Division, had sent gifts in a very ingenious way by replacing all the cigarettes in a carton with hundred-yuan bills rolled into cigarette rolls. That was seven or eight years ago. At that time, Zheng Tulu had just been promoted to Director of the Xijing Construction Committee, and his courage and appetite were far from as big as they were now. If He Liping had openly placed twenty thousand yuan of hundred-yuan bills in front of him, he might not have dared to accept them directly, but after receiving them in the form of a carton of cigarettes, he accepted them with peace of mind. Coupled with the fact that He Liping was naturally beautiful, had a good figure, and a flexible mind, Zheng Tulu fell under her pomegranate skirt through both wealth and beauty, promoted her exceptionally to the head of the Audit Division of the Xijing Construction Committee, and had maintained an underground lover relationship with her ever since. Although in recent years, because Zheng Tulu was promoted to the head of the Provincial Construction Committee, his relationship with He Liping had gradually alienated, he did not forget to promote He Liping to the Director of the Xijing Construction Committee through relationships.

In some news reports about officialdom, one often sees the sentence "draw lessons from certain events and draw inferences from one instance." Thinking of the ingenious gift sent by He Liping years ago, Zheng Tulu fully exerted his ability to summarize experience and draw inferences from one instance. Inspired by this, he got up and went to the "small treasury" to open the safe, took out one hundred thousand yuan, came to the living room, sat down, opened the tea box, poured out the tea, emptied the box, divided the one hundred thousand yuan into two parts, fifty thousand each, rolled them into a large roll, stuffed them into two empty tea boxes, repacked them, clapped his hands, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face. He lit another cigarette, took a puff, picked up his mobile phone, turned to Director Zhu's phone number, and dialed it.

The phone rang for a long time before it was connected. It sounded noisy inside, occasionally mixed with shouts like "Cheers" and "Clink a glass." "Hello, is this Director Zhu?" Zheng Tulu said with a smile.

"Yes, I'm busy now. Old Zheng, if you have anything to say, just say it quickly." Director Zhu's tone sounded a bit unhappy.

"Director Zhu, I'm wishing you a late Happy New Year. I wish you a happy New Year, good health, and a happy family." Zheng Tulu smirked. ===== CHAPTER 1111 =====