Chapter 329: We Are All Looking For You

The sky was slightly bright, and birds unafraid of the cold chirped happily in the woods. The world seemed to suddenly awaken, filled with vibrant vitality everywhere.

Li Lian lay in the back seat of the car, wrapped in a coat, sleeping sweetly. The many romantic moments of last night dissipated into the slightly brightening air.

We held our ground! At the final moment, I resolutely refused Li Lian's love.

Holding my urine all night, it felt as if it were about to burst through its cage and gush out. Facing the snow-covered woods, I pulled out my gear and wantonly wrote a large "White" character in the snow with my urine. On the tree opposite, two small birds stood, billing and cooing, as if I didn't exist; they seemed not to see my lewdness.

The urine sprinkled on the snow, and the sight of the disgusting yellow was jarring. Such a beautiful snowy field, trampled by my body—it was simply a waste of heaven's gifts. I carefully aimed at the character; it was crooked, as if written by a child who had just learned to write. Thus, I shook my head and sighed, waiting for the arrival of the first car.

This night, we slept neck-to-neck. Although the cold wind outside the car was biting, we were as warm as if bathed in a spring breeze.

I remembered a cultural saying, "striking the sparks of love." It turns out that between a man and a woman, one really can strike sparks that make one feel warm.

Just as I was feeling poetic, I heard the scream of a siren in my ears, and then I saw a car with flashing police lights coming head-on. As soon as it stopped, Lao Mo jumped out of the car and ran toward me in a great hurry.

"Chen Feng, where is my wife?" he asked me, his face deathly pale, as if he hadn't slept all night, looking incomparably exhausted.

I pointed at the car and stomped my feet, kicking the nearly extinguished fire apart.

Lao Mo left me behind, ran to the car alone, pulled open the door, and bent over to get inside, then I saw him carrying Li Lian out in his arms.

Li Lian woke up, opening her sleepy eyes. Seeing her husband holding her, her brows immediately smoothed out. She affectionately reached out to wrap her arms around Lao Mo's neck and said sweetly, "You're here."

Lao Mo roared, "You were going to worry me to death!"

"What's wrong?" Li Lian tilted her head, looking at her husband suspiciously.

"What's wrong? Don't you know it's below zero at night? Even a piece of iron would freeze stiff; what are you trying to prove? Staying with him." Lao Mo was clearly very angry. I wanted to laugh, but I didn't blame him. If it were me, having a beautiful wife spend a night in the snowy wilderness with another man, I wouldn't be at ease either!

"Didn't Mao Ping sprain his waist? He couldn't stay, so I had to," Li Lian said lightly, throwing me an ambiguous glance.

"That son of a bitch Mao Ping, even if his waist wasn't hurt, he'd still find a way to slip away. I know him!" Lao Mo carried his wife into his own car and asked tenderly, "You didn't freeze, did you?"

"How could I freeze so easily?" Li Lian answered Lao Mo with a coquettish pout, stretched her arms, and said, "Chen Feng sat by the fire all night; see if he froze."

I smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm fine. I'm a man, and besides, there was a fire; I didn't freeze."

Li Lian was reminding me that our romance last night was already a thing of the past.

Lao Mo closed the car door, handed me a cigarette, and said with lingering fear, "Late last night, Old Mao called me and said you guys had a car accident. Hearing that, I was almost scared to death."

He smiled bitterly, lowered his voice, and said, "This woman of mine, she has no other merits, but she has one point: she is as loyal as a man and values brotherhood."

I smiled and said gratefully, "If Sister-in-law hadn't been here to give me courage, I would have been scared to death last night."

Lao Mo looked at me inscrutably and said contemptuously, "In this world, is there anything you, Chen Feng, are afraid of? Go lie to a three-year-old kid. I won't fall for your tricks."

I smiled and said, "Brother Mo, this sister-in-law of mine is truly admirable."

Then I told him about how Mao Ping ran away last night and she stayed behind.

Lao Mo was so angry his teeth itched; he stomped his feet and cursed, "I knew that son of a bitch Mao Ping was playing games. He's a man; how could he do such a thing? Why doesn't he just die!"

Lao Mo described his feelings after receiving Mao Ping's call last night, wishing he could sprout wings and fly over. Only then did I realize Lao Mo really hadn't slept all night. He had called a tow truck in Chunshan County, but the driver refused to go out at night, no matter how high a price Lao Mo offered, insisting on waiting until dawn.

Lao Mo was worried about his wife; this wife was the only family he had left in his life. He couldn't have children, and she refused to leave him, so they had made a promise to rely on each other for life. How could he let his wife, Li Lian, suffer the slightest accident?

The tow truck driver stayed in his quilt and refused to get up, so Lao Mo broke in, grabbed a gun, and forcibly dragged the driver out of bed. The two cars set off one after the other just as dawn was breaking, searching all the way here.

The tow truck driver shrank back, circling my car. After a few turns, he held a bundle of steel cable and shouted with a dark face, "Are you still towing or not?"

"Towing, of course we're towing." I accompanied him with a smiling face, helped the driver tie the steel cable, and with a muffled grunt, pulled my car back from the edge of the road to the surface.

"Let's go?" The driver tied the cable and came over to ask me.

Just as I was about to climb into the car to steer, Lao Mo came over and said to me, "Chen Feng, don't blame me for not warning you. The County Committee is holding a big meeting the day after tomorrow. I heard that they are going to select a Vice County Magistrate from among you, Deng Hanyu, and your Suxi Town Secretary."

Lao Mo was in the political and legal system, an agency under dual leadership. It was not strange at all that he knew these things.

"It has nothing to do with me, right?" I asked tentatively, though my heart was beating like a drum. This was good news!

"Believe it or not!" Lao Mo spat the cigarette butt in his mouth onto the ground and ground it with his foot: "You think Mao Ping really hurt his waist? That son of a bitch went to lobby for votes for Deng Hanyu."

I seemed to understand and asked faintly, "He lobbied you?"

"None of my business! I'm not a third-level cadre; it's not my turn. I heard it from that brother of yours, the County Youth League Secretary." Lao Mo kicked the snow, sending up a spray of snow foam.

"You saw him?" I asked, feeling some panic in my heart. It seems Mao Ping and the others knew about this long ago. Mao Ping deliberately riding in my car might not have been a coincidence!

"Son of a bitch!" I cursed.

"Forget it! Everything is fated. I think you don't have the fate to be a Vice County Magistrate," Lao Mo sighed regretfully.

"Not necessarily!" I squeezed two words through my teeth.

"Look, we're starting to leave now. Your car needs to be towed, so we can't go fast. Plus the ground is slippery, so we couldn't go fast even if we wanted to. By the time we get back to the county, it will basically be past noon. By then, the opportunity will have long passed." Lao Mo analyzed for me, counting on his fingers, appearing as if he had everything under control.

Hearing him say this, my heart felt colder than it had last night.

"How about you drive my car and go first?" Lao Mo tested me.

"Go to hell!" I cursed bitterly: "Others fight battles they are sure of winning; I have no certainty at all, at most I'm just a candidate tagging along. Whether I'm selected as Vice County Magistrate or not actually has nothing to do with me. Don't you think, Brother Mo?"

Lao Mo smiled honestly and said, "That's true. Let's just go together. Man proposes, God disposes; let it be."

Lao Mo got into his car and led the way, his siren wailing.

I sat in the car, holding the steering wheel, my mind a blank.

The tow truck crawled like a snail. I sat in the car, burning with anxiety. I had been stubborn just now and refused to take Lao Mo's car first, but now I couldn't help but regret it. This promotion was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity; missing it might mean waiting a lifetime!

Suddenly I remembered Lao Mo's words, saying that Huang Qishan had told him. In that case, Qishan must know some inside information!

I took out my phone and waited until I reached a place with a signal. I started calling Huang Qishan. As soon as it connected, I heard Huang Qishan roaring on the phone: "Chen Feng, where the hell did you die? Do you want to worry us all to death?"

Huang Qishan's words made my heart skip a beat, and I asked, "You all...?"

"Yes! We, I, your aunt, and many others are all looking for you!"

"What are you looking for me for?"

"You're nowhere to be found, no word, and your phone won't go through. We asked at home, and they hadn't seen you. We asked Huang Weiwei, and she said you returned to Chunshan County after the meeting. You brat, where did you hide?" Huang Qishan scolded: "If you want to die, at least let us know. You've made the world go into chaos."

I smiled and said, "What happened to alarm my aunt? What is she doing?"

"It seems you really don't know? Could it be that the Emperor isn't anxious, but we eunuchs are?" Huang Qishan asked irritably.

"You are a eunuch," I teased him: "And I, this Emperor, spent the night in the snow."

"Stop nagging, I know. Hurry up and tell me, where are we now?"

"Still two or three hours to go." I glanced out the window, gauging the distance to Chunshan County.

"You really are a pot of dog meat—you'll never make it to the dinner table!" He hung up the phone. I gripped the receiver, listening to the beep-beep-beep sound coming from it, feeling so annoyed I wished I could kick over the car I was sitting in.

Just after hanging up, a call from Huang Weiwei came in, also asking anxiously: "Chen Feng, where did you go?"

I repeated what I had said to Huang Qishan and asked curiously: "You are all in such a rush to find me, what major event has actually happened?"

Huang Weiwei said unhurriedly: "It's not really a major event. Your Chunshan County is going to elect a vice county magistrate at the Three-Level Cadre Conference. You are one of the candidates."

"Isn't the election supposed to be handled by the People's Congress? Why is it being held at the Three-Level Cadre Conference? That's illegal," I asked, completely unable to understand.

"Why do you care about that? This election was approved by the Municipal Party Committee. Once the cadre is elected, they'll just confirm it again at the People's Congress in the spring, and the organizational procedure will be complete."

"Am I really a candidate?"

"Yes! My dad's intention is that whether you get elected or not, having the experience is better than having none."

"Your dad knows I'm a candidate too?"

"Secretary He knows as well!"

"Oh." I let out a long sigh and hung up the phone.

This selection for the vice county magistrate of Chunshan County, to put it bluntly, was just a contest between several factions. As for who would ultimately win, only heaven knows!