Chapter 318: Having connections in the imperial court makes being an official easy

The Hengyue City Three-Level Cadre Conference was grandly convened in the Municipal Committee auditorium, with over a thousand seats packed to capacity. A row of seats was set up on the rostrum, with Secretary Chen in the center, Secretary He Zhi to his left, and the Mayor to his right. The main leaders of the "Four Great Committees" were all gathered together; if a bomb were to be dropped... I smiled wickedly, imagining the wailing and howling, and couldn't help but be overcome with joy.

Mao Ping, who had entered behind me, punched me in the small of my back and whispered, "What good thing happened? You're smiling like a blooming flower."

I reined in my smile and turned back to say, "Nothing good. I was just thinking about what it would look like if you were sitting up on that rostrum."

"Do you think me sitting up there would be like sticking a green onion in a pig's nose? Don't look down on me, okay? Let me tell you, it's all the same whoever sits up there; who doesn't know how to act all dressed up?" Mao Ping rolled his eyes at me and sighed, "You still dare to think about it; I don't even have the desire to think about it anymore. I'll just muddle through this life like this."

Passing the front row, I saw a whole row of nameplates for the County Party Secretaries and County Magistrates of each county, and the second row had the nameplates for the Executive Deputy County Magistrates. I took a deliberate look and was shocked to discover that the seat for Chunshan County was, for the first time ever, right in the center, and the second row held Guo Wei's nameplate.

"Fuck!" I blurted out a curse, luckily without attracting anyone's attention. I quickly shut my mouth, found the spot labeled for Chunshan County, and found a seat to sit down.

Just as I had settled in, I saw Deng Hanyu hurry in, walk straight up to Mao Ping and me, take a look, and sit down next to me.

Since we were colleagues, we naturally had to greet each other. I turned my face to the side and smiled at Deng Hanyu.

Deng Hanyu returned the smile and asked me in a lowered voice, "Brother, you weren't in your room last night? Where did you go?"

I looked at him strangely and said, "Who said I wasn't there?"

"Li Fulian, she said you weren't there." Deng Hanyu smiled slyly, nudged me with his elbow, and said lecherously, "Brother, you made poor Li Fulian wait for you all night."

"And how do you know that?" I asked with a smile. Of course, there was foreshadowing in this sentence. If you, Deng Hanyu, weren't staying with Li Fulian, how would you know she waited for me all night?

Sure enough, Deng Hanyu blurted out, "She was in my room."

I laughed, "Town Mayor Deng, oh Town Mayor Deng, you two lone man and woman in one room all night, who knows what good things you might have done."

Deng Hanyu only then realized he had fallen into my trap. He cried out that he was wronged, leaned over from in front of me to pull Mao Ping, and said in a flustered rage, "Old Mao was there last night too; he was staying in the same room as me."

I asked Mao Ping with a faint smile, "Is that so?" I winked at him hard.

Mao Ping caught the hint, deliberately closed his eyes to think for a long while, and then said slowly, "I went drinking with an old classmate last night and didn't get back until almost dawn. See, I'm still sleepy now."

I laughed and pointed at Deng Hanyu, saying, "Town Mayor Deng, tell me, Li Fulian is such a beautiful woman, didn't your heart move all night?"

Deng Hanyu was speechless and said with a bitter face, "You're formidable, I fell into your trap again." After finishing, he emphasized, "I've been friends with Li Fulian for many years; it's not as vulgar as you think."

"Of course! Town Mayor Deng is a person of the upper class; this kind of thing isn't vulgar, it's romantic. Since ancient times, romantic men have had many strange ambitions, right?" I continued to tease him. Deng Hanyu waved his hands in surrender, stopped responding to me, and turned his eyes to the rostrum.

After watching for a while, the leaders still hadn't arrived, and the stage was completely empty.

Mao Ping was a man who couldn't sit still; after sitting for a while, it was as if boils had grown under his buttocks, and he became restless, unable to sit or stand.

"I've never seen a meeting with such a huge momentum before." Mao Ping couldn't sit still, and his mouth didn't want to be idle either, so he made conversation.

"When the Municipal Committee holds a meeting, there is always a plan. A meeting this big naturally has its necessity." I answered him, telling him with this answer to talk less nonsense.

"Didn't you see Guo Wei's nameplate? It's placed in the seat of the Executive Deputy County Magistrate." He said indignantly, "Quietly and without a sound, he's gotten ahead. Sigh! Having connections in the imperial court really makes being an official easy."

He lamented, seemingly trying to stir up my anger.

Deng Hanyu didn't miss the opportunity to say, "Exactly, this seat should have been for Town Mayor Yu to sit in. Look, Suxi Town went from a township to a town, handled household registrations, relocated, and even brought in several big bosses to invest. Which of those things wasn't done by Town Mayor Yu? Leaders should reward based on merit, not use a 'one-size-fits-all' approach."

"Exactly, exactly." Mao Ping echoed, "Doing it this way, we aren't convinced."

"If you aren't convinced, you should make suggestions! That's the way we Communist Party members should be. Didn't the Party say we must serve the people? Secretary Guo has only been in Suxi Town for a year; what has he served? I think that when encountering such things, we should unite and recommend someone who can convince people to be the leader, don't you think? Town Mayor Mao." Deng Hanyu's words had a hidden meaning; he was prompting Mao Ping about the joint recommendation letter.

Mao Ping seemed not to hear, staring straight ahead, and suddenly pointed his hand and said, "They're coming out, they're coming out."

We looked forward following his hand; this time, the Secretaries and County Magistrates of each county came out, followed by important County Committee leaders from each county attending the conference as observers. Guo Wei walked in the middle, eyes looking straight ahead, looking like a big leader.

"Fuck! Looking like a human but acting like a dog." Mao Ping cursed and said indignantly, "Even if you, Town Mayor Chen, didn't sit in this seat, it should have been Town Mayor Deng, how did it ever get to his turn?"

Neither Deng Hanyu nor I responded to him, pretending not to hear, and followed others in applauding to welcome the County Committee leaders into the venue.

When Guo Wei walked to his seat, he finally raised his head to look in our direction, just happening to meet my gaze. He smiled faintly, turned around to sit down, and gave me the back of his head.

As soon as the County Committee leaders were settled, thunderous applause erupted in the auditorium, and then we saw the County Committee leaders all stand up. We followed suit and stood up; through the gaps in the crowd, I saw Secretary Chen walk out with a vigorous stride.

Behind Secretary Chen was the Mayor, behind the Mayor was Deputy Secretary He Zhi, I didn't recognize the next leader, and the fifth to come out was Minister Huang Shan.

The applause lasted for several minutes and only stopped after Secretary Chen pressed his hands down several times.

The meeting was presided over by the Municipal Committee Secretary-General. This was an old man who spoke Mandarin with a very unpleasant Hengyue City accent, which we abbreviated as "Heng-Pu."

The official structure of Hengyue City is very subtle; since the founding of the country, it has basically been cadres of local origin who have taken the lead, and very few cadres from other places have come to serve as important leaders. According to the popular saying in society, the officialdom of Hengyue City is not only an airtight net but also an organization relationship map with clear veins.

My cousin-in-law, Deputy Secretary He Zhi, is considered an outlier. He was transferred to Hengyue City from Zhangjiakou City, violating a great taboo of Hengyue City's officialdom. Fortunately, his father was once the first Prefectural Party Secretary of this region and is the forefather of Hengyue City's cadres, so although they feel uncomfortable in their hearts, they haven't gone so far as to exclude him too blatantly.

The Secretary-General's "Heng-Pu" was laughable; I saw several young cadres from townships laughing until their faces twitched.

There is an unwritten rule in officialdom that whenever there is a big occasion, one must speak Mandarin. If a high-ranking cadre cannot speak Mandarin, people will look down on them. Therefore, the cadres of Hengyue City, as long as they are in a meeting or being interviewed by a TV station, will definitely speak a version of Mandarin that laughs people to death.

The Secretary-General is an old-school cadre who was originally a County Party Secretary in a county below. Back then, he was a cook at the May 7th Cadre School and, by a stroke of fate, met a leader from the province who had been overthrown and exiled. The Secretary-General was still very young and served the provincial leader, who was in poor health, with all his heart, trying every possible way to satisfy the leader's needs. For example, when the provincial leader wanted to eat fish in winter, the Secretary-General didn't dare to go lie on the ice to seek fish, but he would take his newlywed wife, carry a wooden bucket, find a small stream to block it off, and catch a few small fish.

The Secretary-General was a cook born and raised in the countryside of Hengyue City, so catching fish was a small matter that couldn't stump him. After doing this several times, the provincial leader was moved. As soon as he was rehabilitated, the first thing he did was promote the Secretary-General to the commune to be a cadre in charge of logistics. By the time the provincial leader retired, the Secretary-General had already become a County Magistrate.

Later on, the Secretary-General started from being a County Magistrate and worked his way up to the position of Secretary, and now, he has become the Secretary-General of the Hengyue Municipal Committee.

The Secretary-General's story is basically a legend, widely circulated in the Hengyue region, and is a model for many young cadres. Even I, for a period of time, took him as my role model and worked hard.

The Secretary-General announced the start of the conference, and everyone stood up to sing the "National Anthem."

Because his pronunciation was inaccurate, he said it as "Qiang Gua Guo." No one in the audience dared to laugh, and everyone opened their mouths seriously following the music.

After the song, everyone sat down, and the Secretary-General announced the second agenda of the meeting: Municipal Committee Secretary Chen would give the "Report on Deepening Reform and Liberating Productive Forces in Hengyue City."

Thunderous applause erupted in the auditorium again. I followed along in applauding, but my eyes scanned the venue; I was looking for Chen Meng.

At a meeting like this, it was impossible for her, a Chief Reporter, not to be present.

Sure enough, after scanning a few times, I finally saw her graceful figure behind the curtain at the back of the rostrum.

I was thinking, He Jiaxiao is coming back to the country! Should I tell him this news! ===== CHAPTER 319 =====