Chapter 435

After finishing a cigarette in the office, he went downstairs with a very complicated heart to find Li Shanshan at the gala performance site. After searching a circle and not finding her, he went home.

That night was the most conflicted night Zhao Desan had spent since "entering the trade," tossing and turning all night. The next day was New Year's Day, so he didn't have to go to work. He only fell asleep at dawn, and when he woke up, the sunlight was already spilling onto the bed. He rubbed his sleepy eyes wearily, grabbed his phone from the bedside to check the time, and saw it was already 10:30. He climbed out of bed, took a shower, got dressed, returned to his room, sat in front of the computer, and habitually opened the browser to check the news.

In the corner of the Sina news page, he discovered a headline: "Mass Petition Incident Occurs in Yuyang City, Hexi Province; Local Municipal Committee and Government Have Properly Handled It." Combining this with what Deputy Mayor Yu had said at the gala the night before, Zhao Desan opened the news link page, filled with mystery.

After carefully reading the news, he learned that the foundations of seven or eight households near the Heihe Coal Mine and Xiaogou Coal Mine had subsided. The villagers suspected it was caused by underground coal mining and had united to protest at the Yuyang Municipal Government. The high-level municipal leaders had promised to handle the matter properly.

As the section chief of the Safety and Quality Section in charge of coal industry units, Zhao Desan felt he had been derelict in his duties. Coupled with being caught in the act by Li Shanshan while having sex with Bai Ling in the office the night before, he felt a massive headache. It was finally a holiday, but he couldn't feel relaxed at all. However, he didn't regret the act with Bai Ling; rather, he felt that the attitude he had shown toward Li Shanshan had been too ambiguous, when in fact he had never intended to have any progress with her. Initially, getting close to Li Shanshan and having a relationship with her was just to get close to Bureau Chief Zhang through her. Now that things had turned out like this, he was truly afraid that Li Shanshan would be detrimental to him in his future work.

After sitting in front of the computer for a while, Zhao Desan felt he should take the initiative to apologize to Deputy Mayor Yu, so he picked up his phone and, after hesitating for a while, sent him a message.

Not long after, Deputy Mayor Yu's call came through directly. He answered the phone with some trepidation. Deputy Mayor Yu laughed and said, "Comrade Xiao Zhao, it's a holiday today, why are you still sending me a message? You say you want to apologize, what are you apologizing for?"

"Deputy Mayor Yu, I only learned from the news today that the people in Baishui Town went to the municipal government to make trouble because of coal mining. I didn't understand the situation in time; this is... this is my dereliction of duty."

"Heh, Comrade Xiao Zhao, the municipal committee didn't expect this either; it's a sudden mass incident. According to the situation learned from the villagers, it's because the two new coal mines opened there caused varying degrees of damage to houses. I still need to understand the specifics of this matter."