Chapter 65

Li Shanshan gave an "Oh," and seemed to use an imperative tone as she said, "Then let's go! Let's go grab a bite together!"

Zhao De had been wanting to get close to her for a long time. Usually, Li Shanshan always wore an arrogant, condescending air that left him with no way to approach her. Now, however, she had taken the initiative to invite him to eat, which was exactly what he had been praying for. With a face full of smiles, he said, "Sure, sure. It is my honor, Zhao De, to be able to have a meal with a leader."

Flattered by his compliments, the corners of Li Shanshan's mouth curled into a smug smile. She glanced at him, and as she tapped down the stairs in her high heels, "clack, clack," she said, "Zhao De, you've only been at work for a few days, and you've already become so slick!"

Zhao De followed behind her, chuckling, "Not at all. One must be respectful toward leaders, after all." Watching Li Shanshan's tall figure and her round, plump buttocks in front of him, Zhao De really wanted to pounce on her and take a bite.

Zhao De followed Li Shanshan to a spicy hotpot shop near the Coal Bureau, ordered a table full of food, and sat opposite her. Zhao De opened with sweet talk, "Leader, do all beauties like to eat spicy food?"

Li Shanshan was secretly delighted, but she kept an arrogant expression and said, "Zhao De, do you often come to eat spicy hotpot with beauties?"

Zhao De hurriedly shook his head like a rattle-drum to deny it, "No, no. This is my first time coming here to eat, and to be with a beautiful leader at that—I've simply had a stroke of incredible luck. I'm so fortunate."

Li Shanshan tapped her chopsticks against the dish, opened her almond eyes wide, and said indignantly, "What? Incredible luck? You're saying that eating with me is a stroke of incredible luck!"

Zhao De hurriedly laughed and said, "No, no, I misspoke. It's a stroke of eight lifetimes of good luck. What I meant was that eating with a beautiful leader is a stroke of great luck for me."

Only then did Li Shanshan smooth her brow and say, "That's more like it." She picked up her chopsticks again to eat. Her plump, rosy, and sexy lips parted slightly, and with two rows of pearly white teeth, she gently bit into an oily water spinach stalk, rolling it into her mouth bit by bit. Watching this, Zhao De's mind began to wander, fantasizing about his own treasure being rolled into Li Shanshan's mouth like that; how delightful that would feel.

Li Shanshan glanced at him, and seeing him staring straight at her while she ate, she stopped, put down her chopsticks, and asked, "Zhao De, why aren't you eating? Why do you keep looking at me?"

Zhao De snapped back to reality and hurriedly flattered her, "I'm watching you eat so elegantly, Leader. Your posture is very beautiful."

Li Shanshan rolled her eyes at him, but a shy smile appeared at the corners of her mouth as she said, "Zhao De, I see that you have a bright future as Deputy Bureau Chief Wang's secretary. Look at that mouth of yours—it's like it's been dipped in honey!"

Zhao De chuckled and said, "Not at all. You are the one with the bright future, Leader."

Li Shanshan reined in her smile and asked him, "Zhao De, tell me honestly, do you have a backer?"

Zhao De hurriedly denied it, saying, "Where would I have a backer? I'm just a nobody." This job of his had cost his father, who was in prison, quite a bit of effort; he didn't know how many favors his father's close friend had had to pull with Deputy Bureau Chief Wang to get it settled.

Li Shanshan looked at him with half-belief and asked, "Are you a university graduate?"

Zhao De said, "Of course. Otherwise, how would I be qualified to enter the Coal Bureau?"

Li Shanshan asked, "Which school?"

Zhao De chuckled and said, "The school was too lousy—a third-rate university. I won't even mention it; it's definitely not as good as your school, Leader."

Li Shanshan glanced at him with disdain, lowered her head to pick up a stalk of water spinach, and while eating, said, "Zhao De, you are too glib. I'm afraid that before long, you'll be snatching my position!"

Zhao De flattered her with a smile, "Leader, you think too highly of me. If by any chance I ever reached your position, you would surely have been promoted even higher. Besides, doesn't the Coal Bureau have a rule that leaders cannot have secretaries of the opposite sex?"

Li Shanshan thought that was true, so she looked up and asked, "What have you been busy with lately? What kind of work has Deputy Bureau Chief Wang arranged for you?"

Zhao De said, "I've been idle the whole time. The leader hasn't arranged any work for me, so I don't know what I should be doing. I'll need your guidance in the future, Leader."

Li Shanshan gave a disdainful smile and said, "I've been busy to death lately. Regarding the bidding for the Baishui Town coal mine, Bureau Chief Zhang has arranged a lot of work for me. The public tender will open on the seventh of next month, and there's just too much to do. Guidance? I don't even have the time!"

Zhao De secretly noted the bidding date she mentioned, intending to tell Ma Lan.

After accompanying her for a meal, Zhao De felt that Li Shanshan wasn't as high-and-mighty or difficult to approach as he had thought; sometimes she was quite easygoing, and that was just a habit she had developed at work. What made him even more pleasantly surprised was that after the meal, Li Shanshan actually invited him to go to a nightclub. Zhao De agreed with great joy, planning to go find Ma Lan tomorrow.

At this moment, in a VIP private room at the Haitian Hotel in Yuyang City, Gao Husheng was hosting Wang Anguo for a meal.

Gao Husheng was illiterate and not highly educated, but he firmly believed that there was nothing in this world that money couldn't accomplish. In order to win the mining rights for one of the wells, he was prepared to use ten million to grease the wheels.

The leaders in charge of coal mining in Yuyang City were always the same few people, and the people with the financial strength to win the bid were also just those few, so they were all secretly playing games against each other. On one hand, Wang Anguo had promised to handle this matter for Ma Lan, but on the other, he wanted to weigh the options between Gao Husheng and Ma Lan to see who offered more benefits before he would seriously help anyone. The reason he hadn't considered Lin Dafa was that he felt Lin Dafa was an old hand with Bureau Chief Zhang backing him, so his winning the mining rights for one of the wells was already beyond doubt.

Gao Husheng said straightforwardly, "Bureau Chief Wang, I won't beat around the bush. We are both straightforward people. This five million is a tribute to you. After the matter is settled, there will be another five million. What do you think, Leader?" As he spoke, he brought out a large suitcase and placed it on the table, opening it to reveal a thick stack of hundred-yuan bills, neatly bundled and arranged inside.

Wang Anguo was obsessed with money; seeing so much of it, his eyes lit up. Ma Lan had promised him a kickback of five million, and Gao Husheng had just added another five million on top of that. His inclination for help shifted toward Gao Husheng, but he pretended to be in a difficult position and said, "President Gao, look at you. We're just having a meal, and you put such a large money box on the table—it's not good for everyone to see. Put it away, put it away."

Although Gao Husheng had a low level of education, he was already well-versed in the ways of entertaining and gift-giving. He froze for a moment, then chuckled, closed the money box, took it off the table, and whispered, "Deputy Bureau Chief Wang, shall I have someone send it to your home tonight?"

Wang Anguo pondered for a moment, and a smile of approval appeared on his bloated face. He said, "We'll see, we'll see. Come, let's drink, let's drink." He raised his glass to clink with Gao Husheng, tilted his head back, and downed it in one gulp.

Gao Husheng knew that Wang Anguo had already agreed. He toasted with him, and they drank to their hearts' content. Wang Anguo's face became flushed. Finally, Gao Husheng stood up, sat down next to Wang Anguo, draped an arm around his shoulder, and said with a wicked grin, "Leader, how about I arrange a few girls for you tonight?"

Wang Anguo's face was flushed, but he pretended to be serious and said, "President Gao, is that necessary? I'm already tired of it. In a place like Yuyang City, playing around, it's always the same few places. It's boring."

Gao Husheng leaned into his ear and said with a wicked grin, "Bureau Chief Wang, have you ever played with foreign girls?"

Wang Anguo immediately perked up, squinted at him, and said, "Foreign girls? In a place like Yuyang, is there any place I haven't been? Where would foreign girls come from?"