Chapter 290: The Scapegoat

Zhu Hua Yu handed the notebook to me with such trust, which took me by surprise.

Her actions were clearly contrary to her father's wishes; what exactly was in the notebook, apart from Zhu Shizhen, no one knew, even Zhu Hua Yu was as ignorant as I was right now.

But I was very clear that this notebook definitely hid secrets. Zhu Shizhen didn't take it out even when he was dismissed from both posts, preferring to jump off a building rather than make it public; a notebook that could make someone bet their life on it—if one said there was nothing in it, even a ghost wouldn't believe it.

Sure enough, I couldn't wait to open it after Zhu Hua Yu left, and after reading only a few pages, I gasped.

It should be said that this was a book about the current state of Chunshan County's officialdom, covering almost all the promotion charts for all bureau committees, offices, and township cadres in the entire county.

Even for someone like me, there was a description of no less than five hundred words.

Zhu Shizhen used eight characters to describe me: "Young, vigorous, and good at thinking." His evaluation took me by great surprise; these eight characters were each worth their weight in gold, and I couldn't help but feel proud for quite a while.

Looking further, I discovered that Zhu Shizhen was no ordinary person; he had seen through the relationship between me and He Zhi the first time her cousin came to Chunshan County. He used double quotation marks and three consecutive question marks on the word "relative." He briefly glossed over the romantic relationship between me and Xue Bing, using the term "a match made in heaven" to express his admiration.

Zhu Shizhen wrote clearly in the notebook about his original intention for introducing me to the Party, one of the reasons being that he had taken a fancy to the relationship between me and He Zhi.

Such an old hand in officialdom who could read people's expressions ended up in ruin, and the main reason still lay in his love for his children. This point made me sigh with emotion, and at the same time, a sense of respect for him sprouted in my heart. Thinking of all the parents in the world, as long as their children are happy, even their lives can be sacrificed without hesitation. My eyes moistened for no reason, and I closed the notebook, my bewildered heart feeling clear and bright.

After reading about myself, curiosity drove me to flip through the text about Guan Peishan.

Guan Peishan and Zhu Shizhen had a relationship spanning twenty years. When Zhu Shizhen was serving as the Chairman of the Township People's Congress, it happened to be when Guan Peishan was about to be promoted to the position of County Magistrate. In Chunshan County, Guan Peishan's popularity wasn't bad, but at that time, a competitive election was implemented. The Executive Deputy County Magistrate of a neighboring county was competing with him for the position of Chunshan County Magistrate, which made the election full of variables. Guan Peishan was not a person who would accept defeat easily. It was only when he was calculating the possible destination of all the representative votes in the county that he felt crisis-ridden. The fact that the Deputy County Magistrate of the neighboring county dared to come and touch his tiger's backside showed that the other party had courage and boldness; without a certain killer move, they wouldn't have come to compete with him.

Just when Guan Peishan was feeling uneasy, Zhu Shizhen came to visit him carrying fifty catties of high-quality tea oil.

Zhu Shizhen had worked in Chunshan County his whole life, and his connections were intertwined. Although he was still just a Chairman of the Township People's Congress, his reputation for being a person was very good.

Guan Peishan placed his last straw on him, and it was this last straw that allowed Guan Peishan to carve out a bloody path from the crisis-ridden election.

Of course, the vanguard was Zhu Shizhen.

Zhu Shizhen spent three nights lobbying all the chairmen of the township-level People's Congress delegations in the county. In the final vote, Guan Peishan defeated the Deputy County Magistrate of the neighboring county with an absolute advantage, and from then on, he took root in Chunshan County, walking step by step from County Magistrate to the position of Secretary.

Zhu Shizhen's evaluation of Guan Peishan was: "Faithless!"

Looking further, I learned that Guan Peishan had not fulfilled his promise back then. The position of Deputy Director of the County People's Congress that Guan Peishan had promised Zhu Shizhen had never been fulfilled from the time he became County Magistrate to Secretary!

I closed the notebook again. Where was this some kind of running account? It was clearly a literary work, a record of the current state of Chunshan County's officialdom.

My eyes felt a bit sore, so I boiled a pot of water, picked up the tea bag from the tray, and brewed a cup of tea, preparing to calm down and continue reading.

My cell phone rang, and when I looked, it was my aunt calling, asking me if I had eaten as soon as she opened her mouth.

I said I had already eaten and asked her where she was.

My aunt laughed and said, "Guess."

This childlike tone made me laugh; in front of me, my aunt sometimes acted as a guardian, and sometimes she was as lovable as an ignorant young girl.

"I don't want to guess." I said, "Wherever you are, it's none of my business."

My aunt cursed, "You heartless thing, how many months has it been since you've seen your aunt?"

I touched my head, thought for a moment, and said, "I don't remember." After a pause, I added, "Isn't it normal not to see you for a few months?"

My aunt scolded, "You heartless little thing, you don't even think about it, when you were in college, I still saw you once every three months."

"Is that so?" I had no impression of it at all.

"Forget it. Where are you?" My aunt threw a sentence at me: "I'm coming to see you."

"I'm in the county." I said, "There's no car to go back."

"Didn't you miss your aunt?" She questioned me over the phone.

"Miss you, of course I miss you." I said, "Who wouldn't miss a beautiful aunt like you?"

"Smooth talker!" She hung up the phone.

My aunt's call made my heart much calmer. This beautiful aunt of mine would always give me direction when I was most hesitant.

What was Zhu Hua Yu's purpose in giving me the notebook?

I had read the contents of the notebook, what was the direction?

A series of question marks made me agitated again, and my head began to ache faintly. I simply threw myself onto the bed, staring at the ceiling to look for spiders.

The hygiene conditions at the County Party Committee Guesthouse were very good, and not even half a spider could be found on the snow-white ceiling. This made me disappointed; unable to see a tenacious spider spinning a web, I felt as if my heart was empty, with nowhere to exert force.

The night wind was biting, and the tree branches outside the window swayed in the cold wind, occasionally a dead branch snapping in the wind, making a crisp sound. The first snow after the beginning of winter was about to fall.

The cell phone rang again, and this time it was Guo Wei calling, asking if I was still in the county.

I said irritably, "Secretary Guo, you really are like a rabbit; I turn my head, and you've run off without a shadow. How am I supposed to go back?"

Guo Wei laughed and said, "Is there anything that can stump Town Mayor Chen?"

I complained, "I'm not a god."

Guo Wei paused for a moment without speaking, and I thought the line had been cut; just as I was about to hang up, he added another sentence: "Has Chen Meng left?"

"Didn't we send her off together?" I asked him back, feeling a bit amused.

"Sigh!" He sighed and said, "A girl like her, pregnant before marriage, if Secretary Chen finds out, wouldn't it cost him his old life?"

My heart skipped a beat; Guo Wei suddenly called, could he be probing for the truth?

"I can't manage that." I said, downplaying it.

"You want to distance yourself?" Guo Wei was clearly a bit angry.

"Secretary Guo, I don't like the sound of that." I said, remembering what Chen Meng had told me, my heart tightened, and I had to soften my tone, "It's not that I want to distance myself, it really has nothing to do with me. If it really had something to do with me, could I distance myself? Would I distance myself?"

Guo Wei hesitated on the phone and said, "That's true. I don't quite believe it either."

"It's going to snow!" Guo Wei's tone became heavy, "Once it snows, the project won't be able to start. We'll have to wait until after the New Year when spring begins."

"Yes." I sighed along with him, "The weather is getting colder and colder. Now is the time to put the project aside and find a way to solve the problem of the common people getting through the winter."

"I want to go back to the city." Guo Wei didn't answer my question.

"Something up?"

"Nothing much. I want to go see Chen Meng. Fulfill a friend's duty." He said, lowering his voice, "What's your opinion?"

"Alright." I said, my heart becoming as clear as a mirror.

Guo Wei going back to see Chen Meng, this was the heart of Sima Zhao—everyone knew it.

"I'll leave when you come back." He said, hanging up the phone.

I held the phone and wanted to laugh. This call from Guo Wei made me understand his intentions.

He wanted to be the scapegoat!