Chapter 572: Count It as My Investment

Three days after the Lantern Festival, I received a call from Gan Lu; she had already received the organization's appointment to serve as Deputy Mayor in Yongning City.

Yongning City and Hengyue City were neighboring cities, typical mountain areas, so there were many beautiful legends. Gan Lu going to serve as Deputy Mayor in that city just matched her own beautiful qualities. Beautiful places should have beautiful mayors.

When I said these words to Gan Lu, she told me with incomparable sadness that she actually didn't want to go; she was a woman who only hoped to live quietly and didn't want to spend too much energy on her official career.

I comforted her, "Gan Lu—oh, now I should call you Mayor Gan. Mayor Gan, the leader letting you come out to take on the burden is because they have high hopes for you and trust you."

When I said these words, I didn't feel good at all. They had places to go, but my destination had no movement so far, and even Duanmu and Xu Mengda didn't give me a call.

I began to feel uneasy; according to the organization's principles, I was the monitor of the training class and should have been arranged before all the students in the class. But the reality was that Gan Lu was arranged, what about the others?

Gan Lu also revealed a piece of information to me, saying that Meng Xiaoyu had also moved, and it was said that he was arranged to be Deputy Mayor in the central city of Central Province.

Central City and Yongning City and Hengyue City were not at the same level. Central City was the location of the provincial capital and could be considered the capital's territory. The Municipal Party Secretary of Central City was a member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, and the Mayor was naturally half a level higher than the mayors of other cities.

I wasn't surprised at all that Meng Xiaoyu held this position; after all, he had a high starting point and had people, not something that grassroots small officials like us could compare to.

Hanging up Gan Lu's phone, my mood was gloomy, as if it were about to rain.

I didn't want to spread my emotions to my family, so I took a coat and said I wanted to go out for a walk.

During this period, I had been busy being a househusband; Xi Meizhu only came back on the day of the Lantern Festival. Before she came back, I had to take care of my son and mother, as well as my delicate wife Huang Weiwei.

Being a househusband was actually quite good; I was almost satisfied with this state of life.

But as soon as Xi Meizhu came back, she deprived me of all my work, leaving me idle and bored all day.

I decided to go to my aunt's house.

During the New Year, I hadn't been to my aunt's house, and I hadn't even made a call.

Sometimes I stood on my balcony, watching my aunt's busy figure at home, and felt very satisfied and happy.

When my aunt opened the door and saw it was me, the smile on her face floated up and then sank, throwing a sentence at me, "Still remember me!"

I accompanied her with a smiling face, "Aunt, you are wronging me. When have I ever dared not to remember you? Haven't you seen me watching you on the balcony every day?"

Aunt returned to a smile, poked my forehead with her finger, and said, "I thought you really married a wife and forgot your mother."

"Don't dare!" I walked to the sofa and sat down, asking loudly, "Where is my uncle?"

Aunt was busy serving me fruit plates and pouring water, turning back and saying, "Took the child back to his hometown."

"Why didn't you go?"

"I was afraid you would come and be shut out."

A warm current suddenly surged in my heart. My lovely aunt was actually afraid that I would come to her house and be shut out, so she gave up the big event of returning to her hometown with her husband and children.

My uncle's hometown was in the countryside, in a very poor small mountain village.

Aunt put the fruit plate on the coffee table and said, "Come, hang red. Although the New Year is over, hanging red is still necessary."

Many people don't know the custom of hanging red, and of course, the name is different in some places.

The so-called hanging red is that during the New Year, every household will prepare one or several fruit plates. The fruit plate is divided into six to eight grids, each filled with dried fruits, candied fruits, etc. The center of the fruit plate is wrapped with a piece of cake in red paper, which we call it a "fat cake" here; it is only for looking and not for eating.

Hanging red only happens during the New Year or when marrying a daughter, and there is no such treatment at ordinary times.

I examined the "fat cake" wrapped in red paper and said, "Aunt, I want to eat this."

Aunt was stunned, then laughed, and scolded, "You've already had a child, and you're still so ignorant. Can this fat cake be eaten?"

When I was a child during the New Year, the thing I was most itchy for was the fat cake in the middle of the fruit plate. Every year during the New Year, although there were many delicious things in the fruit plate, the fat cake wrapped in red paper was always what I wanted to eat most.

Aunt once, to satisfy my desire, quietly stole the fat cake and gave it to me to eat. She found a tile, the same size as the fat cake, wrapped it in red paper and put it in the fruit plate. It wasn't until the Lantern Festival was over and my mother cleaned up the fruit plate that she discovered this secret.

Fat cakes are generally not allowed to be moved, so every family buys at most one or two.

My mother was very angry after discovering the secret and dragged me to beat me. Because she knew that in our family, besides me, no one would be interested in fat cakes.

Just when my mother's thorn branch fell on my butt, Aunt stood out and said she took the fat cake and she ate it.

My mother paused for half a second, and then a slap fell on Aunt's face.

This past event had once been hidden in my heart for a long time. I said to Aunt when she was about to leave home, "Aunt, only you treat me well in this world. I want to love you for a lifetime! I won't let you leave me."

Aunt smiled bitterly and scraped my nose, "Little thing, Aunt loves you too. Remember, it's not just me who treats you well in this world, everyone treats you well!"

The past floated up, and it was actually sad.

I patted the sofa and let Aunt sit. Aunt sat opposite me. I shouted dissatisfiedly, "Sit here with me."

Aunt hesitated for a moment, but still stood up and came over, sitting beside me, peeling a candy and stuffing it into my mouth, "Eat candy."

The candy is sweet and the person is even sweeter! I hadn't enjoyed such a warm scene for a long time.

I bit the candy and signaled Aunt to bite the other half.

Aunt's face turned red instantly, and she slapped me, "Naughty!"

I was unrelenting; this scene often happened when we were children.

As long as Aunt had candy in her hand, she would never be willing to eat it herself and would definitely bring it back for me to eat. Every time, I would bite one end and leave the other end for Aunt to eat.

She stood up to leave, and I dragged her hand, "Eat or not? If you don't eat, I'm leaving."

Aunt hesitated for a long time, her face blushing like purple and red. She closed her eyes, not daring to look at me.

I leaned over and stuffed one end of the candy to Aunt's mouth. She was still hesitating and resisting, but I didn't give up, so she had to open her lips slightly and bite the candy.

The candy was too greasy, and the whole mouth was covered in sugar, which was not comfortable at all.

I picked up the teacup and took a sip, then handed it to Aunt, "Drink some water."

Aunt was still shy, but I boldly reached out and hugged her shoulder.

She leaned quietly against my chest, saying nothing, letting time flow quietly beside us.

"Aunt, I want to ask you, why hasn't there been any movement about my appointment?" I let go of the hand hugging her and leaned back on the sofa, looking at the ceiling with empty eyes.

"Good things come slowly!" Aunt comforted me, picking up one of my hands and examining it, "Look at your hands, as slender as a woman's. Such hands are the hands of a cadre."

I smiled, "Your hands are even more beautiful."

Aunt rolled her eyes at me, "I am a woman."

"Yes, you are a woman. My aunt is a woman." I grabbed her hand back and kneaded it. Aunt's hand was incomparably warm and soft as if without bones.

Aunt seemed to hear the meaning in my words. She raised her head and looked at me, sighed, and said, "Little Feng, you are a high-level cadre now, your vision must be good, and your ideas must be firm."

I smiled, "I am still me, just like this, can't change."

"Must change even if you don't want to." She pulled back her hand, suddenly reached out again, rubbed my face a few times, and said with a pained heart, "Look, you've lost a lot of weight."

Aunt's hand was like a spring breeze, and I felt as if I were bathing in the warm sunshine, my heart running with the sunshine.

"I don't want to be an official anymore." I blurted out a sentence.

"What?" Aunt heard this, her willow eyebrows stood up and glared at me, "Say that again if you dare."

I didn't dare to try again; Aunt's anger was actually very scary. She beat me the same way when I was a child, and once she beat me to the point where I even wanted to break off relations with her.

"A big man, don't be like a woman. Look at things openly when there is something, and think openly when there is nothing." She scolded me, "If you don't be an official, what else can you do?"

"Do business!" I deliberately smiled, "Look at when I was in Suxi, didn't I do business quite well?"

Aunt frowned and scolded, "Do you think it's the old calendar of the past? Now doing business, without connections and resources, you can only wait to die."

I didn't want to continue to entangle on this matter; this was the first time my aunt strongly opposed me.

In the past, no matter what I did, Aunt was always the first to support me unconditionally. I didn't expect her to have such a fierce reaction, to the point that I was almost speechless to Aunt's questioning.

After Aunt scolded me a few words, she said softly, "Don't blame me for scolding you, the current society, it's different every day."

I smiled bitterly, "I didn't say anything."

"I don't care. Now you have to remember, from now on, such topics are not allowed to be mentioned again. Tell Aunt if there is a big difficulty, even if we go back to before liberation, I won't let you be isolated and helpless." Aunt spoke eloquently, her expression excited. Looking at her, I almost wanted to laugh.

I tentatively said, "The students in our training class have basically implemented new positions, but I don't have any news at all, what is the situation?"

Aunt hesitated for a moment and said, "Maybe there is a bigger task for you to complete."

My disappointment didn't escape her eyes. She hugged my head to her chest and patted me like comforting a child, "I have always believed that good things come slowly."

Sticking to Aunt's chest, feeling the tenderness transmitted from her body, I was almost fascinated.

"I heard that the city is going to develop a new city, if only I could get a piece of land before the news is implemented." Aunt murmured.

I raised my head and asked in surprise, "Where did you get this news?"

Aunt smiled without saying a word, and after a long time spat out a sentence, "The five million you withdrew from the company, it just happens to be useful at this time."

My heart turned around, and the first thing I thought of was Qian Youyu.

If it were true, I would make Qian Youyu grateful to me for a lifetime this time.

"Don't worry about these, leave it to me." Aunt smiled, "You do your own thing, just be a good official."

Just as I was about to refute her, the phone in my pocket rang.

The call was from Xu Mengda, asking me to go to the provincial capital overnight, he had important things to find me for.

Hanging up the phone, I stood up apologetically, hugged Aunt and kissed her on the face, "I'm going to the provincial capital."

Aunt smiled, "Go, pay attention to safety."

I still wanted to hug her, but she had already dodged, took a bag of money from the inner room and handed it to me, "Take it."

I wanted to refuse, but Aunt smiled, "Do you have money? Five million is not in your hands. It costs money to go to the provincial capital, men can't be stingy."

I had no choice but to take it, whispering, "Count it as borrowing."

Aunt smiled, "Not borrowing, count it as my investment."

I was speechless. ===== CHAPTER 573 =====