Chapter 1241: Taciturn

Zhao Desan was taciturn for the first time in history today. He had no power to counterattack against the enemy's attack. He glared at him speechlessly, his back teeth tightly grinding, but he really didn't know how to counterattack this old guy.

I didn't just fall into the hands of this old bald guy today, I also fell into a mess! Zhao Desan thought to himself, and finally spat out helplessly: "Old Zheng! I've fallen into your hands this time! You'd better keep your word. If those photos are known by others, even if I don't mix in the government unit, I'll make you bleed! Don't force me!" Zhao Desan retreated step by step. The first half of the sentence already expressed that he agreed to Zheng Tulu's request, and the second half was to warn Zheng Tulu not to always use those photos to threaten him.

Seeing that Zhao Desan had voluntarily withdrawn from the competition for the Deputy Section Chief position, Zheng Tulu felt a great sense of relief and chuckled, "Comrade Xiao Zhao, don't worry about the photos. I will definitely keep them carefully and keep them confidential for you and Xiao Lan. At most, I'll just enjoy them myself. I definitely won't show them to others. If you want to see them one day, just give me a greeting and I'll send you a copy." Zheng Tulu was still tearing apart Zhao Desan's dignity as a man bit by bit, making him completely submit in front of him.

"You..." Zhao Desan glared at him, pointing at Zheng Tulu and breathing heavily. Finally, he swallowed the words greeting his ancestors and left in a rage.

"Bang!" He kicked the door open and came out of Zheng Tulu's office. The bright sunshine bathed down, but Zhao Desan couldn't feel any warmth. The matter he thought was a done deal had an opposite result at the last step. He couldn't accept this result no matter what, but the old guy had those photos of him and Lan Mei, and he was powerless to change this result. Leaving Zheng Tulu's office without saying anything meant he had silently agreed to his request. Watching himself act like a dog, smiling at everyone for a year, and just when he was about to climb up, he fell down again and returned to the original spot. Zhao Desan's mood at this moment was indescribably frustrated. Coupled with the fact that he only knew after seeing those photos that Section Chief Lan had made such a great sacrifice for him, and he had been wrongly accusing her and insulting her with vicious words, for a moment, shame, self-blame, helplessness, and pain were intertwined in his heart, a mix of five flavors. He really never expected that he would be grabbed by the handle by Zheng Tulu and led around like a dog on a rope. This kind of thing couldn't be known by others, and for a moment, he really had to swallow his bitterness.

Walking down the stairs in a daze, like a walking corpse, he returned to the office, sat in his seat, and Zhao Desan didn't say a word until work ended, remaining taciturn. Xia Jian, who was on the side, saw Zhao Desan suddenly wilt like a cucumber and knew he must have been scolded by Zheng Tulu for some reason, so he secretly laughed with schadenfreude all afternoon.

He Liping, who had been eavesdropping in secret, heard a loud "bang," and then there was no movement in Zheng Tulu's office next door. She knew Zhao Desan had left Zheng Tulu's office in a rage. I don't know why, but she felt an indescribable pleasure. He Liping understood that her current official status was Deputy Director of the Provincial Construction Committee, but in reality, she was just a puppet and a tool for pleasure used by Zheng Tulu to monopolize power. Although she had been promoted three levels to the Provincial Construction Committee, she was still a deputy, a second-in-command, with no real power in her hands. How could she be willing? Perhaps under the influence of these psychological factors, the deepening conflict between Zhao Desan and Zheng Tulu gave her an indescribable sense of pleasure.

After a while, He Liping couldn't stand the "loneliness" and wanted to find out the specific situation. She opened the office door, walked out, pushed open the door of Zheng Tulu's office next door, and walked in. After sitting on the sofa, she asked him: "Old Zheng, how did the talk with Comrade Xiao Zhao go?"

Zheng Tulu leaned on the chair smoking, humming with smug satisfaction: "That stinky kid still wants to play with me! I'll play him to death!"

"Then that means he agreed to voluntarily withdraw from the competition?" He Liping heard from his words that Zhao Desan had been defeated in this storm, and asked him so.

Zheng Tulu sneered cunningly and said gently to He Liping: "Of course. He, a kid who is still wet behind the ears, wants to play with me. Isn't that like an egg hitting a stone, overestimating his own strength?"

"Old Zheng, is it really that Comrade Xiao Zhao is so willing to withdraw from the competition?" He Liping looked at him with a strange smile and asked. She really didn't expect that Zhao Desan, who had forced himself on her in the toilet on her first day in office, would be so easily played by Zheng Tulu.

Zheng Tulu took a puff of his cigarette and said: "Where is it willing? It must be unwilling, but he has no choice. If he doesn't agree, and the photos of him and Section Chief Lan are made public by me, then his future will be over. Do you think he's afraid when I say that?" Zheng Tulu looked at He Liping triumphantly, appearing extremely high-spirited.

"That's true. Comrade Xiao Zhao is still young and definitely wants to achieve something. Now he has to agree even if he doesn't want to. Old Zheng, you're really something." He Liping gave Zheng Tulu a thumbs up and complimented him endlessly. At the same time, she suddenly thought of something she didn't quite understand. Since this old guy would use photos to threaten Zhao Desan to voluntarily withdraw, didn't Zhao Desan also have photos of this old guy that couldn't be seen on his phone in the warehouse that day? If he used it to fight back, at least he could tie, and that kid also had Minister Su backing him. No matter how you look at it, he didn't need to be afraid of Zheng Tulu. He Liping didn't quite understand this matter.

Zheng Tulu smiled triumphantly, leaned on the chair with his legs crossed, and while shaking his legs, chuckled and said: "Liping, this guy Comrade Xiao Zhao is now convinced by me. Ma Debang has been kicked away by me, and with you by my side, now no one in the Construction Committee dares to go against me. From now on, this is our territory, and everything is decided by us!"

He Liping nodded with a smile, suddenly remembered something, and said seriously: "Old Zheng, don't forget, there is also Secretary Zhang."

Zheng Tulu heard this and "ha" laughed, saying with disdain: "I don't take the old man Zhang seriously at all. He doesn't care about anything now, it's almost like retirement. He can't manage the affairs inside and outside the Construction Committee, and he won't manage them."

He Liping nodded in understanding. In order to find out the truth, she asked in a joking tone: "Old Zheng, you said you secretly took photos of Comrade Xiao Zhao and Lan Mei. Then what if Comrade Xiao Zhao secretly took photos of you in return? Wouldn't you be unable to do anything to him?"

"Liping, aren't you making an international joke? Can that stinky kid secretly take photos of me? Even if I were doing it with you, Liping, in the office with the door open, he wouldn't dare to secretly take photos! Besides, how much time does that stinky kid have to contact me? Does he know every woman I meet? That's impossible." Zheng Tulu appeared very confident, certain that he hadn't been secretly photographed. After finishing, seeing He Liping staring at him with a strange gaze, he realized that the sentence "every woman I meet" shouldn't have been said. Saying it like this seemed to convey the meaning that he had many women, so he added: "Besides, apart from my wife Ma Lili at home, there's only you, Liping. That stinky kid has no chance to secretly take photos."

Zheng Tulu's deliberate explanation made He Liping even more convinced of what Zhao Desan said that day about Zheng Tulu having read countless women. However, that noon in the warehouse, she understood that she was not the only woman outside of Zheng Tulu's marriage on his official path, but just one of many playthings. Promoting her to his side was, first, to replace Ma Debang with a suitable candidate, and second, to facilitate his enjoyment. As a 35-year-old married woman, He Liping took the feelings between men and women very lightly. Originally, she had always thought that this old guy Zheng Tulu was truly sincere to her. For him, she had dedicated several years of her youth and almost divorced her husband because of it. After learning her true identity that day, she shed tears, she let go, and she took all this lightly. She was only 35, still young, and had the ambition of a strong woman. In order to hold real power in the future, it now looked like she would just pretend nothing had happened, and she would come whenever Zheng Tulu summoned her, and leave whenever he told her to.

"Old Zheng, do you mean Comrade Xiao Zhao has no room for resistance at all?" He Liping asked with a shallow smile, as if she hadn't heard anything.

Zheng Tulu saw that He Liping didn't notice anything because he had slipped up on the woman issue, "hummed" and laughed, saying: "What can he use to resist? He just has to honestly withdraw from the competition for me."

He Liping nodded in understanding and asked: "Then when are you planning to report Ruru up?"

"Tomorrow. Anyway, there is only one candidate, Ruru, now. I have also talked to Director Zhu. As long as the Construction Committee reports the materials, he will quickly finish the procedure and issue an official appointment document." Zheng Tulu's face was full of smug smiles, shaking his legs and smoking leisurely. The god-making plan for his daughter had officially entered the right track.

He Liping said in a joking tone: "Old Zheng, once your Ruru is promoted to Deputy Section Chief, this Construction Committee will really be covered by your Zheng family." ===== CHAPTER 1242 =====