Chapter 573: Still Pretending to Be Deep

Xu Mengda was still living in the sanatorium; judging from his recovery, the chance of standing up was not impossible.

When I went, Duanmu was also there, and seeing me come, he said let's go out for a drink.

I was surprised that Xu Mengda actually agreed; he was a person dragging a sick body, even if he was willing, I didn't dare. In case something happened, not only would his father Xu Da not let us go, but my own conscience wouldn't be at peace.

Coming to the provincial capital after the festival, I felt that the city still carried the aftertaste of the New Year. Red lanterns were still hung high, and some families even had window flowers pasted on their windows. In the sanatorium, the festive atmosphere of the New Year still remained, so Xu Mengda's spirit was unprecedentedly good.

Xu Mengda suggested going out for a drink; Duanmu didn't dare to oppose, so he could only look at me.

I stammered for a long time and said, "How about we drink tea instead of wine and have a good drink here?"

Xu Mengda didn't want to at first, saying that since he entered the sanatorium, he felt a moldy smell in the air, the sun was green, and life was left with only one color.

We couldn't strongly oppose Xu Mengda's persistence. After all, he was a patient, and we had to try our best to satisfy the patient's requirements. More importantly, Xu Mengda was not a simple friend in my and Duanmu's eyes and hearts.

Although Xu Mengda was not a cadre now, he had resources that we cadres didn't have.

I came with a ghost in my heart, but I couldn't ask directly. So everything seemed absent-minded to me.

Xu Mengda clearly felt that we were perfunctory to him, and he couldn't lose his temper, so he had to settle for the next best thing and let Duanmu go out to buy some wine, and we would drink in his room.

Not long after Duanmu went out, Old Master Xu Da came.

We had met once and had an impression of each other. So as soon as I saw the old man walking in staggeringly, I hurriedly stood up to support him.

Xu Da looked at me and smiled, pushing away my hand supporting him without changing his expression.

"Little Da, your mother is not feeling well today, so she didn't come to see you." Xu Da sat gently beside his son, placing a hand on his son's wheelchair, his eyes full of love.

From this sentence, I perceived that the old man came to see his son every day. This kind of emotion couldn't help but move me, so my heart softened and my eyes became wet.

Xu Mengda clearly felt my sadness and said with a smile, "Chen Feng, what's wrong with you?"

I wiped the corners of my eyes and said, "Nothing, I'm just uneasy seeing the Chief come every day."

Xu Da sighed and said, "I only have this one son; besides him, I have nothing in this life."

I admired him even more, poured a cup of hot water and handed it to him with both hands, "Chief, I understand."

Old Master Xu smiled faintly, sat silently for a while, then stood up and said, "Little Da, I have to go back. Your mother is still waiting for me at home."

Xu Mengda finally called out "Dad" and said, "Dad, you don't have to come to see me every day. I'm very good, it's okay. In a few days, I plan to go home to live."

Hearing this, Old Master Xu's face showed a piece of joy, and he said excitedly, "Good, I'll ask your mother to prepare your room again. My son is going home!"

He murmured, turning to go out.

Looking at his staggering back, Xu Mengda finally couldn't hold back his tears, letting them flow wantonly on his face.

Xu Mengda hadn't lived at home for a day since he started working. In twenty years, he only went home once every Spring Festival, which was just to sit and leave.

Xu Mengda didn't go home mainly because of his parents, Minister Xu Da and his wife. From the time Xu Mengda took his first salary, they nagged him to get married and have children.

Xu Mengda couldn't stand their nagging, so he hardened his heart and moved out of the house. Originally, he was just going to live for a while and then go home, but who would have thought that the world outside was completely different from living at home. Once a heart is wild, it's harder than ascending to heaven to want to take it back.

Xu Mengda had the comfort of a swimming dragon entering the sea, happy and not wanting to go home. But who was standing behind him? Everyone in the officialdom of Central Province knew it like the back of their hand.

Later, under the recommendation of a friend, Xu Mengda met a division chief of the Provincial Radio and Television Bureau, who guided him to act as an agent for advertisements on TV stations. Xu Mengda wanted to take a time slot on the TV station; who wouldn't give face? So starting from the provincial station, he took down the TV stations of all thirteen cities and prefectures in Central Province.

At first, Xu Mengda was playing with a playful mentality, but he didn't expect that this play would actually make a name for himself.

In those years, everyone wanted to do advertisements on TV stations. Anything as long as it appeared on the TV station, the common people would think it was a trustworthy thing, and when they bought it again, they wouldn't be soft-hearted. People who made products all saw the amazing effect of TV dissemination and wanted to come and show their faces, but the advertising time of TV stations was limited. If you wanted to advertise, you couldn't even get in the door without hard connections.

At that time, Xu Mengda was still working his own job, until one day someone found his unit, threw a 10 million yuan check at him, and the purpose was only one: to give him one minute in his advertising slot.

Xu Mengda only felt the power at this time, so he secretly resigned and focused on running his own advertising company.

Xu Mengda's resignation was discovered by the old man Xu Da half a year later. For Old Master Xu, who had been eating imperial grain all his life, it was no less than a bolt from the blue. The old couple finally found Xu Mengda and tried to persuade him to turn back, but Xu Mengda had already made up his mind and refused to turn back even if he died.

Old Master Xu was so angry that he publicly announced the severance of father-son relations with his son Xu Mengda. This allusion was spread widely in Central Province for a period of time.

The father and son reconciled only after Xu Mengda had a car accident.

Old Master Xu learned that his son had a car accident and was so scared that he only had half a life left. Later, knowing that his son had picked up a life, he thickened his old face and personally found the dean of the Provincial People's Hospital, sending someone to pick Xu Mengda back to the provincial capital. When the illness was basically better, the old man wanted to pick Xu Mengda home to live, but Xu Mengda refused again, so he had to use the resources in his hand again and arranged for him to live in the Provincial High-Level Cadre Sanatorium.

Now that he learned his son was willing to go home to live, it gave the old man's heart incomparable comfort. Whether his son gets married or not is no longer important; as long as his son is by his side, he is willing to take all the responsibility.

I finished listening to Xu Mengda's narration, and my tears couldn't help but flow.

Just as Duanmu brought two bottles of wine and some cold dishes in, seeing the two of us crying, he was so shocked that his mouth couldn't close for a long time.

At my insistence, Xu Mengda finally drank tea instead of wine, and Duanmu and I drank real wine.

After a bottle of wine hit the bottom, Duanmu's tongue became much larger, and he began to speak incoherently.

I was very sober; a bottle of Yuntou Daqu might not necessarily put me down. Like the high-end wine Xu Mengda brought, it was as bland as water in my mouth.

But I also pretended to be drunk, sized up Duanmu for a long time, and asked him with a smile, "Duanmu, do you have something you didn't tell your brother?"

Xu Mengda smiled and tapped the table, "Duanmu, what did you hide from Chen Feng?"

Duanmu looked at me suspiciously, then turned to look at Xu Mengda, touched his head and said, "No, I didn't hide anything from him."

I pretended to be angry, "Still say no? Brother Xu, thirty students in our class, twenty-nine are arranged, only I am left alone, what is the reason? Even if you want someone to die, you have to let them die clearly, right?"

Xu Mengda was surprised and asked Duanmu with a dark face, "What do you mean?"

Duanmu laughed, awkwardly, "Big brother, you don't know, I'm a sesame-sized official, can I manage such a big thing?"

"Can't manage, that's understandable, but why didn't you tell him if you have news?"

"Isn't he here now?" Duanmu took a wine glass and touched me, "Originally I wanted to call you, but big brother said you would come today. I thought it would be better to say it in person, so I didn't call."

My heart was pounding; what news did Duanmu have to tell me?

Xu Mengda also urged Duanmu to speak quickly. Duanmu was still laughing, and while laughing, he fell onto the table. Looking at him, he was already snoring.

Duanmu is pretending to be dead! I understand very well in my heart. But I should also be drunk now, and I can't ask about the situation too soberly, so after determining that Duanmu wouldn't speak in front of Xu Mengda, I also pretended to be unable to drink, lying on the table pretending to sleep.

Xu Mengda called us a few times, and seeing that we didn't respond, he sighed and called the nurse to help clean up the room, leaving us lying on the table snoring, and he went out in his wheelchair.

Xu Mengda had been gone for less than five minutes when Duanmu raised his head, patted my arm and shouted, "Chen Feng, still pretending?"

I laughed and said, "I learned from Brother Duanmu, let's see what it feels like to pretend to be dead."

Duanmu shook his head embarrassedly, "Mengda is no longer a person in the organization, and some things carry a confidential nature. If I leak secrets, I'm sorry to the Party and the government."

Seeing him look serious, I also felt uneasy.

The thing Duanmu wanted to tell me was definitely not an easy thing.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? My heart was like hanging ten buckets, swaying up and down.

"Chen Feng, do you think everyone is arranged, and only you are left alone, is it that the organization forgot you, or are there other arrangements?"

I smiled noncommittally.

"The organization didn't forget, and there are no other arrangements."

"What do you mean?" I asked in surprise.

"Anxious?" Duanmu laughed happily, "Still pretending to be deep in front of me!"

I had to smile with my face, "Brother Duanmu, I'm a small person, how can I pretend to be deep?"

"Pretending is like this, not pretending is also like this." Duanmu drank the last drop of wine in the glass, "Ask your father-in-law about your business!"

"Minister Huang Shan?" I asked suspiciously.

"Don't you have a few fathers-in-law?" Duanmu laughed, "No wonder Minister Huang doesn't want you to work in the provincial capital."

"He can't represent the organization, right?" I asked tentatively.

"Hard to say. To say he can represent, he really can. To say he can't represent, he also can't. However, after all, you were a city-managed cadre in the past, and now you want to go to provincial management, or even central management, you really need the opinion of the locality."

I shook the wine glass and said, "Brother Duanmu, the wine is not enough."

Duanmu glared at me, "Do you really want to drink until you die?"

I smiled, "Can't drink to death, isn't it just wine? Back then, I could drink three bottles of Yuntou Daqu in Hengyue City."

Duanmu gave a thumbs up, "You are powerful, awesome! I won't accompany you. Mengda has something to tell you later, I have to go first."

Duanmu said this and ran faster than a rabbit. By the time I came back to my senses, I saw Xu Mengda had already entered in his wheelchair. As if they had made an appointment, one went out, and one came in.

I still wanted to shout, but Xu Mengda waved his hand and said, "Don't call him, let's talk, brothers." ===== CHAPTER 574 =====