Chapter 494: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 494: The Matter of Fire Safety Inspection and Acceptance

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"Xiaolong, why do you look so absent-minded? Is something on your mind?"

Lin Xiaolong is someone who can't hide what's on his mind; sure enough, Huang Mengna spotted his distraction at once.

"No, no, I was just thinking about work stuff..."

Lin Xiaolong hurriedly explained.

The moment work was mentioned, Huang Mengna spoke up again:

"Speaking of work, we really have to thank General Manager Wang. General Manager Wang not only hired you, he also brought me into the company. The two of us get to work at the same company, and the work is this relaxed, and the pay is this high — that's all General Manager Wang's gift."

If it were the old days, Lin Xiaolong would've had a thing or two to say — what "General Manager Wang's gift"? Wasn't it just because of his brother-in-law? Wang Erhai only gets by on his brother-in-law's coattails anyway.

But things are different now. Now he not only didn't refute Huang Mengna's words, he even chimed in agreement:

"Yeah, General Manager Wang is a good person."

Those words came from the bottom of his heart.

This morning Wang Erhai received that U disk. He didn't make its contents public right away, didn't give it to Huang Mengna, didn't give it to Niu Chunsheng. Instead he helped keep the secret, even handed the U disk to him and let him dispose of it himself, keeping the secret for him.

Just on that one point alone, it's enough to see what a good person Wang Erhai is.

You have to understand, he, Lin Xiaolong, hadn't exactly made things easy for Wang Erhai before, yet Wang Erhai actually repaid enmity with virtue — how broad-minded is that?

No wonder the man could become a company boss.

It all makes sense.

"You think we should invite General Manager Wang to the wedding banquet?"

Huang Mengna asked just that at this moment.

"We should, definitely should. General Manager Wang is our benefactor; how could we not invite him?"

Lin Xiaolong put it exactly like that.

And at this time, on the other side.

Wang Erhai was in the office, leisurely sipping tea.

Since returning to the county town, this was the day his mood was most relaxed.

He still had a lot of work on his hands to be busy with, but he wasn't in a rush.

Now that he'd dealt with the thorny problem of Lin Xiaolong, he ought to reward himself with a few hours' rest, enjoy the leisure of drinking tea.

Actually, before this Wang Erhai hadn't not considered making the video on the U disk public. He'd even thought about handing the U disk directly to Huang Mengna, ruining Lin Xiaolong and Huang Mengna's wedding, then complaining to Niu Chunsheng on grounds of Lin Xiaolong's improper conduct, getting Lin Xiaolong kicked out of Shanhai Real Estate.

But on further thought, doing that would be simply too cruel.

It would directly ruin Lin Xiaolong's life.

And a hot-tempered punk like Lin Xiaolong — if you directly destroy someone's life, they might just show up at your door with a knife, ready for a fight to the death.

So Wang Erhai changed tack and thought:

No need to make things that absolute. Lin Xiaolong looks stubborn and bad, but he's actually simple; he should be pretty easy to manipulate.

So Wang Erhai settled for the next best thing, handling the matter in a more gentle way.

He figured, if this approach still couldn't subdue Lin Xiaolong, it wouldn't be too late to release the video publicly later.

Never expected this one move would turn out remarkably effective.

Now it could be called a win-win for everyone.

Lin Xiaolong kept his secret, and he, Wang Erhai, had Lin Xiaolong in his grasp.

As long as he had Lin Xiaolong in his grasp, handling things afterward would be that much easier.

Over the next few days, Wang Erhai continued busy with company affairs.

Although Shanhai Real Estate Fugang Branch had already been registered and established, it still wasn't getting on track that quickly.

Some employees had been hired, but still far from enough.

The company operational system was also being gradually built up, not yet formally operating.

The most important point was, the company's fire safety approval just couldn't get processed.

For this Wang Erhai had already made several trips.

Each time it was either missing this document or missing that document, or the other side had no time to come do the inspection.

This left Wang Erhai furious — those dog things, can't they just say clearly all at once which documents are needed?

Think back to when he and his eldest brother started a company in Guangzhou — when was it ever this troublesome?

They only went once and got the fire safety sorted out properly.

This little county town's economy is no good, but the officials' airs are huge — they say no and it's no, no room for negotiation at all.

Wang Erhai knew, it might take some greasing of palms before they'd be willing to help him get things done.

Just how to grease those palms?

He couldn't exactly go straight to the government office building and stuff red envelopes to staff who are on duty, right?

If he really did that, they'd be even more unwilling to help him get the permit.

Because that violates a major taboo.

Greasing palms has its channels.

You have to understand the channels before you can grease palms.

Otherwise a careless move will only backfire.

Wang Erhai was tearing his hair out over this matter.

At this moment, Lin Xiaolong took the initiative to come knocking.

"General Manager Wang, I heard the company's fire safety approval has been dragging on. Why don't you let me go run a trip for you?"

Wang Erhai couldn't help but be stunned; he completely hadn't expected that Lin Xiaolong would actually take the initiative to offer help with the matter.

In Wang Erhai's view, as long as Lin Xiaolong didn't obstruct him, that was already burning high incense.

So actually he had never arranged any substantive work for him.

"No need, I'll go run another trip in a few days and that'll be fine."

Wang Erhai politely refused.

Although he had a handle on Lin Xiaolong, he didn't trust Lin Xiaolong, so he didn't want to let him help with the matter.

"General Manager Wang, just let me go run a trip. I know the connections inside. I guarantee I'll get it done for you. If you go yourself, no matter how many trips you run, it's useless."

Seeing Lin Xiaolong's face full of sincerity, Wang Erhai thought for a bit, and finally relented:

"Alright then. Then I'll trouble Brother Xiaolong to help me go handle it. If you can't get it done, don't force it. If it really doesn't work, we'll go ask Uncle Chunsheng for advice; he definitely knows how to handle it."

Lin Xiaolong, however, said with a smile:

"Such a small matter, why would it need my sister's husband to worry? Leave it to me!"

That very afternoon, Lin Xiaolong went to run a trip to help.

Unexpectedly, by a little past five in the afternoon, he had brought the fire safety acceptance personnel over to the company.

On-the-spot acceptance, on-the-spot stamping, on-the-spot passing.

Seeing this, Wang Erhai was inwardly shocked beyond measure.

Before, he had run several trips; either his own documents were incomplete, or they had no time. They wouldn't say they wouldn't process it for you; they just delayed and refused to come do the acceptance. Finally they came once, nitpicking this and that, just refusing to pass you.

This time it was good; Lin Xiaolong brought them over, they barely even looked, and directly took out the acceptance form to stamp it.

Anyone with eyes could see it was just going through the motions.

"Old classmate, tonight call the brothers over for a meal, Nan Hai Food Street, seafood banquet!"

When Lin Xiaolong saw off that group of fire safety acceptance staff, he still said laughingly to a leader:

Wang Erhai asked and only then learned that the leader was named Wang Zhiyang, Lin Xiaolong's junior high school classmate, who hadn't been a little mischievous with Lin Xiaolong before.

It's just that later Wang Zhiyang went to vocational school, and with family help operating behind the scenes, he got into the fire safety queue.

While Lin Xiaolong also went to vocational school, because he had no connections, after graduating he could only go out to work in a factory.

Because of the old classmate relationship, and now Lin Xiaolong had reached the position of Deputy General Manager of Shanhai Real Estate — although a sinecure, it was still impressive enough to bluff — so Lin Xiaolong took the initiative to contact Wang Zhiyang, gave him face, and Wang Zhiyang immediately brought people over for acceptance.

When leaving, Wang Zhiyang even said apologetic words to Lin Xiaolong, saying he hadn't known this company was opened by Lin Xiaolong before, which caused so many misunderstandings, and also saying that at tonight's meal, he would punish himself with three cups.

One can only say, a small county town's personal connections are this real.