Chapter 723

Around ten o'clock, the phone Su Qing had left on the nightstand suddenly vibrated a few times; it must have been a message. For some reason, the fact that someone was still messaging Sister Su so late made Zhao De feel a bit unhappy. Looking at Sister Su lying beside him—a woman who had been divorced for many years, still had a graceful figure and charming appearance, and held supreme power—he figured there must be quite a few people in the officialdom who, like him, wanted to get close to her to pave their official path using her connections. With this wild train of thought, Zhao De quietly took the phone from the nightstand to look at it. The screen displayed the words "Department Head Xu of Jiangnan." From the literal meaning, Zhao De guessed this must be a big shot, but he couldn't understand why he would be texting Sister Su so late. Human curiosity made him want to open the message to see what it said, but he was afraid that if it were about work, Sister Su would definitely find out if he read it. If it were work-related, he couldn't just delete it after reading, could he? Holding the phone, Zhao De hesitated for a moment.

Once a person passes the age of thirty, they sleep quite lightly and will wake up at the slightest disturbance. Zhao De moved his body slightly beside Su Qing, and Su Qing opened her eyes. Seeing him holding her phone in a daze, she asked, "De, why aren't you sleeping and holding my phone for?"

Seeing that Sister Su had woken up, Zhao De quickly handed the phone to her and said, "Sister Su, you got a text message. I was just about to give it to you, but I saw you were asleep and felt bad about waking you up."

"Who would be sending a message this late?" Su Qing muttered to herself as she took the phone from his hand. Seeing the name on the screen, she realized it was from Department Head Xu of the Jiangnan Provincial Organization Department, whom she had dined with while attending a meeting in Beijing. She thought that if he were messaging so late, there must be something to say, because when they dined together in Beijing, he had leaked a piece of news to her, saying that the Central Organization Department had plans to transfer people up from the lower levels. Thus, Su Qing intentionally tilted the phone so Zhao De couldn't see the content on the screen, unlocked it, and pressed 'Read' in the bottom left corner.

Zhao De also noticed Sister Su's not-so-subtle move, which was clearly intended to keep him from seeing the message content. After all, he felt he had known Sister Su for quite some time, and having lived with her for so long, he was clear about who she associated with outside of work. The fact that someone was messaging her in the middle of the night right after she returned from Beijing made Zhao De suspicious, and he stared straight at her with a very unhappy expression.

Just as he was staring at Su Qing, full of suspicion, she suddenly burst into loud laughter. This left him bewildered, and he looked at her, confused, asking, "Sister Su, what are you laughing at?"

"This old Xu, I thought there was some matter since he was texting me so late, but he's actually so bored he's sending me this kind of text." Su Qing laughed heartily and turned the phone screen toward Zhao De to let him see.

'A cow was grazing by the side of the road when she saw a bull running past frantically. The cow asked, "Why are you running?" The bull panted and said, "The leaders are coming." The cow asked, "Why do you have to run just because the leaders are coming?" The bull said, "When the leaders come, they want to eat bull penis." Having said that, he took off running to hide in a safe place. A moment later, the cow also came running frantically. The bull asked, "Why are you running?" The cow panted, "The leaders are coming." The bull was puzzled, "What does it have to do with you if the leaders are coming?" The cow said, "When the leaders come, they like to brag while drinking."'

After reading the message, Zhao De couldn't help but chuckle, thinking he had been overly suspicious. He said, "Who is this Department Head Xu?"

"The head of the Jiangnan Provincial Organization Department," Su Qing said. "I didn't expect this old Xu to be so funny, sending this kind of message in the middle of the night."

Zhao De nodded in understanding, feeling the message was quite funny, and said jokingly, "I thought high-ranking officials were all very serious. Turns out they're just like us ordinary people."

Su Qing handed the phone to him, instructing him to put it down, and asked with a faint smile, "Then do you think Sister is a high-ranking official?"

"Yes," Zhao De said.

"Then is Sister serious?" Su Qing stared at him with bewitching eyes, a charming smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

"Not serious," Zhao De said with a grin.

"Then let's be 'not serious' once more." Su Qing laughed mischievously, flipped over, and climbed onto his body. She pressed her lips to his, kissing him gently from head to toe, kissing every inch of his body, and then mounted him again, rising and falling, changing various positions as they lingered and rolled on the bed...

After they were finished, it was already past eleven. Feeling satisfied, Zhao De lit a cigarette and leaned against the headboard, smoking while holding the flushed Su Qing in his arms. The feeling after their lingering was even more blissful than that of an immortal. After finishing the cigarette and stubbing it out in the ashtray on the nightstand, he saw Su Qing's phone and thought of that message again. Feeling it was quite interesting, he picked up the phone and said to Su Qing, "Sister Su, forward that message to me too." As he said this, he unlocked the screen, opened the inbox, and forwarded the message to his own phone number.

The next day at work, Zheng Ru happened to borrow Zhao De's phone for a moment and discovered this funny message. She ran over to him with the phone, unable to stop laughing, and said, "Zhao De, this message of yours is quite funny. Forward it to me."

Zhao De looked at her with some surprise and joked, "You want this kind of dirty joke too?"

"Hurry up, hurry up," Zheng Ru said excitedly. "Send it to me quickly, I still have to go apologize to the one surnamed Lan."

Xia Jian, who was nearby, also came over and asked for Zhao De's phone from her hand, saying, "Let me see what the text is." After taking the phone and looking at it, he also became interested and said, "Comrade Xiao Zhao, forward it to me too."

"Alright then, I'll send it to you all." Zhao De didn't expect this message to be so popular. Well, working in a public institution, everyone usually took turns telling these kinds of dirty jokes at the dinner table. So, he took the phone, found the 'Planning Division Colleagues' contact group, and without thinking too much, directly selected everyone in the group and pressed the confirm button.

"Ah! You're forwarding it to Division Chief Lan too?" Zheng Ru, who had been staring at the phone screen, suddenly exclaimed.

Once reminded, Zhao De suddenly realized what he had done. At first, the group only had Comrade Xiao Zhao, Zheng Ru, and Xia Jian. Division Chief Lan's number had only been saved in this group on Saturday when she messaged him to come to her house to help fix the wiring. A moment of carelessness made him select all four people in the group without thinking. Now, looking at it, Division Chief Lan's name was clearly on the list.

Damn! This is bad. How could he send this kind of message to her? Zhao De immediately panicked and pressed the cancel button, but how could he cancel a message that had already been sent? In his desperation, he quickly opened the back cover and pulled out the battery, praying to heaven with a nervous face that the message wouldn't be sent successfully.

Seeing Zhao De so nervous, Zheng Ru also felt sorry for him and said sympathetically, "Zhao De, you're definitely finished for sending this kind of message to the one surnamed Lan."

Xia Jian was actually gloating in his heart, but he put on a hypocritical face, patted him on the shoulder to comfort him, and said, "It's fine, it's just a dirty joke. Our Division Chief Lan is a leader after all; what kind of scenes hasn't she seen? There are plenty of dirtier jokes than this at the dinner table."

Zhao De felt it was truly a tragedy. He really had the worst luck in eight lifetimes. He regretted being so careless; why did he just do a group forward without even looking? He felt an unbearable sense of pain and could only secretly pray to heaven that the message wouldn't be sent successfully after pulling out the battery.

But after a moment, he heard the phone Zheng Ru had left on the table beep. Zhao De thought it seemed the message had been sent after all. It was over; his heart went cold, and he just waited for Division Chief Lan to come and skin him alive.

Xia Jian, that guy, noticed the message had been sent and cast a gloating glance at Zhao De from the side, preparing to watch the show.

Zheng Ru looked at her phone and turned to Zhao De, saying, "The message was sent. You're out of luck."

Zhao De felt dejected and lost all interest in work, sitting in his chair, feeling extremely uneasy.

"I had a face-to-face argument with the one surnamed Lan yesterday, and I was scolded by my dad when I got home last night. Sigh, I'd better go apologize to her in person, and by the way, I'll scout out the situation for you to see if Division Chief Lan has any reaction after receiving your message," Zheng Ru sighed. Last night, after being lectured by Zheng Tulu with his experienced advice, Zheng Ru also felt she had been too rash yesterday. After all, she still wanted to get by in this unit and didn't want to rely on her dad's face. Besides, Division Chief Lan was her direct superior, and she was the one at fault first, so she put aside her pride and went to Lan Mei's office, biting the bullet.