Chapter 1682: Visiting Xia Jian's Home

As soon as Xia Jian entered, he said with a face full of smiles: "Deputy Division Chief Liu, you can't decline today. Your sister-in-law specifically took a day off and prepared a sumptuous dinner, waiting for you to go."

As soon as Zhao Desan saw him enter, he knew what he was there for. He originally wanted to firmly refuse regardless of what he said, otherwise, the assessment results for the excellent workers the day after tomorrow would be hard to handle—after all, 'one who eats another's food has a soft mouth!' But hearing that the little sister-in-law had specifically taken a day off to cook for him, he found himself nodding as if possessed and saying: "Alright, since the little sister-in-law thinks so highly of me, I will respectfully obey."

Xia Jian hadn't expected Zhao Desan to agree so readily, and he felt a surge of excitement. He wasn't excited because Zhao Desan agreed to attend the banquet at his home, but because from Zhao Desan's attitude, he could tell that his inclusion on the final list was a done deal.

Zhao Desan, while tidying up the things on his desk, said to Xia Jian: "You wait for me at the unit entrance for a while. I need to take care of something first, then I'll go with you."

"Can do, no problem. You go ahead and handle your business, I will definitely wait for you at the entrance." Xia Jian, thinking he had the situation figured out, appeared particularly excited.

After Xia Jian left, Zhao Desan hurriedly took a rough count of the afternoon's spoils. The result was that he didn't know until he counted, and he was shocked once he did. He really hadn't expected there to be so much. Just as he was secretly feeling excited about this, he looked up and saw the fingernail-sized camera on the window lattice. That feeling of excitement was instantly extinguished, and he couldn't help but feel a chill on his head, his mood becoming tense and uneasy. He thought, 'This is a disaster. I was so busy collecting gifts today, how could I have forgotten the camera on the window?' Thinking this, Zhao Desan guessed that it was probably the old Eunuch who had deliberately given him the power of the excellent worker assessment, wanting to lure a wolf into the trap and watch him jump into the pit.

Damn it, he really is an old fox, truly too cunning. Thinking this, Zhao Desan looked at the afternoon's spoils and finally decided to make a bold attempt: take these spoils honestly and send them to the old guy's office to see what his reaction would be. Hiding them wouldn't work, because the old guy already had the whole process in the palm of his hand. Only by doing this could he perhaps make the old guy relax his distrust of him. This way, things would be easier to handle in the future.

After much thought, Zhao Desan finally made up his mind. Carrying the counted spoils, he snuck up to the third floor and arrived at the door of Zheng Tulu's office. With the spoils in his arms, he looked left and right while knocking on the door, but there was no response. Just as he was puzzled, the office door next door opened. He Lili walked out and, seeing it was Zhao Desan, looked him up and down with a suspicious gaze and asked: "Xiao Zhao, what are you sneaking around for?"

"I... I'm looking for Director Zheng." Because he was carrying those spoils in his arms, it felt like he was carrying a time bomb, making Zhao Desan appear extremely unnatural.

"Old Zheng isn't here today. What do you want with him?" He Lili asked, looking at him with a strange gaze.

"He hasn't been here all afternoon?" Zhao Desan asked, answering a question with a question.

"He hasn't been here all day. What is it?" He Lili's gaze became even more suspicious.

Zhao Desan snuck a look left and right, then whispered: "Sister He, let's go inside to talk, let's go inside."

"What's so sneaky?" He Lili looked at Zhao Desan suspiciously and brought him into her office.

As soon as Zhao Desan followed her into the office, the first thing he did was to lock the door behind him, then placed the spoils he was carrying onto her desk. Before he could even speak, seeing the money on the table, He Lili asked in surprise: "What are you doing?"

"Sister He, this is the gift money from the people who came this afternoon. You were really right." Zhao Desan truly admired He Lili's foresight.

He Lili smiled happily, then suddenly asked in confusion: "Then why were you knocking on Old Zheng's office door just now? This wasn't Old Zheng's idea for you, was it!"

This hit the nail on the head for Zhao Desan, so he told the whole story from beginning to end and asked He Lili what he should do. He Lili paced around the office a few times and then said to Zhao Desan: "Wait a moment." Saying this, she walked out of the office.

A few minutes later, He Lili came up from downstairs, holding a large bunch of keys. She successfully opened the door to Zheng Tulu's office, locked it from the inside, and then snuck to the computer with Zhao Desan to start tampering. Relying on Zhao Desan's excellent computer skills, they quickly deleted the afternoon's video recordings and then paralyzed the monitoring software.

After finishing this, Zhao Desan thought it was truly a blessing in disguise. As long as the software was paralyzed, the old guy definitely wouldn't suspect him, and he certainly wouldn't be able to fix it for a while. Plus, with the idea He Lili came up with, the two of them successfully made a fortune through this employee assessment opportunity.

Although, truthfully, the spoils weren't that much, after splitting the loot, Zhao Desan was still very satisfied. After all, he had been really short of money lately, and this bit of money could at least alleviate his urgent needs. Locking He Lili's office door, he walked toward the construction committee gate in high spirits. On the way out of the unit, Zhao Desan thought that it would be better to give this money to Zheng Jie first. Now that the company was officially operating, although they had signed one order, the capital recovery process was very slow. In case of an emergency, he wouldn't want Zheng Jie to be stuck.

Arriving at the construction committee gate, he saw Xia Jian already standing there waiting. So he greeted Xia Jian and said: "You should just wait in the office. I'll call you when I get back, and then you can come down."

Xia Jian waved his hand with a smile and said: "No problem, no problem. I'll just wait here for you. You don't need to rush, finish your business and come back. It's just a meal, it doesn't matter if it's early or late."

Seeing his firm attitude, Zhao Desan didn't insist further. He took a taxi all the way to Zheng Jie's house; after all, he couldn't let Xia Jian wait there for too long.

Zheng Jie's family, plus Shuanzhu, were eating dinner. They didn't expect Zhao Desan to come back at this time. After entering, Zhao Desan saw the two meager dishes on the dining table, one of which was pickled vegetables, and felt very uncomfortable. Seeing Zhao Desan arrive, Zheng Jie immediately got up and headed for the kitchen. She thought that since Zhao Desan came at this time, he must want to eat dinner at home, so she hurriedly went into the kitchen to stir-fry two more dishes for him.

Zhao Desan smiled and stopped Zheng Jie, saying: "I still have things to do, I won't be eating here."

Zheng Jie looked at Zhao Desan and asked suspiciously: "It's already this late, you should eat before going to handle your business."

"No, no, I have a social engagement." Zhao Desan said while declining, nodding at Zheng Jie to signal her to come over for a moment.

After Zheng Jie came over, Zhao Desan greeted Zhao Da and Shuanzhu, saying: "You guys eat first, I have something to tell the sister-in-law and then I'll be off." After speaking, he pulled Zheng Jie out of the room, not even hearing Shuanzhu greeting him behind him.

Zhao Desan didn't know why he trusted and cared about Zheng Jie so much, or why his feelings for her seemed different from his feelings for others. In his own understanding, it might be because of Zheng Jie's poverty, or because she needed help, but it was definitely not because of her beauty. The biggest possibility was that she was the first woman he had contact with outside of work after arriving in Xijing City!

After keeping a small portion of the money for himself, Zhao Desan gave the remaining majority to Zheng Jie and instructed her that she could spend it as she pleased to improve their living conditions, such as clothing, food standards, and so on. After finishing this, he returned to the unit gate feeling relaxed, only to see Xia Jian had been waiting there for a long time. After meeting again, Zhao Desan apologized with a smile: "Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

The two took a taxi and arrived at Xia Jian's house in a short while. For some reason, when Zhao Desan arrived at Xia Jian's door, he felt his heart pounding again, and he became inexplicably nervous. Perhaps it was because he was about to see Afang, the little sister-in-law who had once knelt on the sofa and let him indulge in madness. But then again, ever since Afang became pregnant, Zhao Desan hadn't seen her for almost half a year. Just two months ago, Afang gave birth, and he also wanted to see what Afang looked like now. ===== CHAPTER 1683 =====