Chapter 1270: Risk

Under the humming of his mother, the little boy's eyes could hardly open, but he still smiled at his mother and said a "Good night, Mom," before sinking into his dreams.

The woman's hand patting his quilt gently moved away from him. Seeing that the little boy didn't wake up, she turned off the light and left the room.

The room was very warm. It could be seen that there were some fashionable stickers and decorations on the wall, and the person who decorated the house had put a lot of thought into it.

With the closing of the door, the last beam of light was gathered from the outside and finally disappeared, leaving only the darkness of the night.

Coming out of the little boy's room, the woman came to the storage room next door. There was a small balcony here. She put on a coat, stood on the balcony, and lit a cigarette.

She didn't smoke in the room because she didn't like the smell of cigarettes affecting her child, so every time she wanted to smoke, she would come to this small balcony.

The night sky in the city center flickered with the colorful neon lights, and the entire community was quiet at this moment, forming a sharp contrast with the distance.

Every household was very quiet, and the lights that were on were not that many.

This is a middle-class community. People living here, like all middle-class residents, think they are decent people.

But in reality, not everyone can be decent, for example, her.

She actually has a decent job, a civilian staff member of the state government. Her daily work is to handle the work in her hands in the office. If there are no surprises, her income is enough for her to spend.

But with a child, and a child about to go to school, her income is a bit unable to support the current expenses, and she has already started to use the reserve funds.

She knows very well that for a child, a good school will affect his whole life.

She couldn't let her child receive better elite family education and could only settle for the second best, letting him go to a relatively good private school here.

The cost of public schools is relatively low, only two dollars a month. If a lunch is needed, then it is five dollars.

Yes, the price is so low. Many people are willing to pay this fee to let their children go to school and have a meal, saving the time and energy of adults.

The cost of private schools is very high. The two private schools she took a fancy to in Manton cost two hundred and seventy-five dollars per semester, plus one hundred dollars for meals, and other expenses. A semester requires about five hundred dollars, and a year is one thousand dollars.

There are always people saying that children in public schools also have those who can get into university, and also have those who can find their own position in social practice and stand out.

But in reality, these "lucky ones" are often just part of the world's operating mechanism. People in the bottom society see "someone entered an elite alliance university through their own efforts," while in the eyes of the upper class, that is just a few indicators given to bottom students every year.

These indicators don't count for anything to elite alliance universities and those well-known universities, but they can stabilize the emotions of the bottom of society very well.

Explaining "resource monopoly" as "you are not working hard enough."

So the woman knows very well that if she can't stand behind that line from the beginning, then her child will only be able to stand in front of that line forever.

She took a deep breath of the cigarette, somewhat worried, and her mind recalled the scene that appeared on the TV set just now. That man, she hadn't met him for several years.

?

Sometimes she also pays attention to some of William's dynamics, for example, knowing that he went to Hucheng to serve as mayor, and also knowing that his wife gave birth to a son for him, called Victor.

She even heard that those people hired the best private tutors for Victor, starting the best education from the time he just became sensible.

That is what she craves but cannot reach.

Her son is also William's son, and Victor is also William's son. Clearly, both are his sons, yet they have completely different fates.

After leaving William, she found a man and got married—it was just a fake marriage, and then she quickly divorced, so she could explain the origin of her child.

There are always many free voices in federal society, but this society is not that free and progressive. No one can tolerate a woman who is pregnant before marriage and even gave birth to it.

Between choosing to accept an unmarried mother and accepting an unmarried abortion lady, people are more likely to accept the latter than the former.

But people are strangely able to accept a divorced mother who is single and has a child, even if it is just a formal marriage that only lasted a few days.

The magical and real society is like this. Resistance will only hurt more. The best way is to adapt.

Now she is single and has this child. In the depths of her heart, she actually still has some————thoughts. After all, this is a boy, and he is smart and beautiful.

The Mr. Corner in her drawer has also been replaced in several batches. Since leaving William, she has not slept with anyone else.

In the deepest part of her heart, she still has such a thought.

Wanting to reconnect with William.

Before, it might have just been for herself, wanting to get better enjoyment and treatment.

But now, she is for her child. She wants her child to be able to receive better education, have no more far-reaching future, and, with a tiny possibility, get some benefits from William!

In the cold wind, she wrapped her clothes, took the last puff of the cigarette, then pinched the cigarette butt in the ashtray, turned around, and returned to the room.

Perhaps, she could meet William.

The "Top Ten Mayors" election event has very high popularity in Laizhou and even the entire Federation.

People are already very familiar with political capitalization; everything has to do with money.

But political entertainment is the first time it has appeared in front of people, which makes people feel novel and interesting, and the attention has also become very high.

Television stations in many states have signed rebroadcast agreements with the news group in Laizhou, and will rebroadcast this political event as a "political variety show."

Some consulting agencies believe that the political scene in Laizhou will lead a new political storm, and more politicians will be willing to appear on TV and say some of their own things.

This is different from their attitude toward traditional media. Current politicians are not very willing to accept interviews from traditional media, and are not very willing to publish many things they want to say in newspapers or magazines.

This will be regarded by people as a performance of instability, but TV media seems to have changed this situation.

Since the program was broadcast, it has been two weeks, and every participant has obtained benefits that belong to them from it.

This "Top Ten Mayors" itself is also a distribution of resources and interests. Eight of the selected mayors belong to the Jincheng Consortium, including William. Lans is not very interested in how the quota is divided, as long as they don't mess around.

The remaining two quotas were given to those mayors who are truly capable.

Now, this political show has entered the second stage, which needs to reflect more personal style, so the program will be recorded centrally. The mayors will gather together to discuss and debate around some topics, and then the audience will vote for them.

The way of voting is also very simple, that is, pick up the phone and dial the paid phone.

That's right, it's a paid phone. Spend money to vote for these "contestants." Each dial will deduct one dollar from the phone account, with no upper limit.

Finally, the TV station will record all the voting numbers and conduct the first stage of selection.

Of course, the result of this selection must be a black-box operation. Whatever the TV station says it is, it must be. In order to ensure the "fairness" of this program, they also set up a studio to specifically answer phone votes and then play them, but not around the clock.

William took time to come to Manton, because the recording location was in Manton. It takes half a day to come from Hucheng, and the recording is on the weekend.

After recording, he still has time to stay for one day, and then rush back on Monday to continue working.

Actually, the work of mayors is not as busy as people imagine. They can remotely control the city's daily work arrangements through the phone, instead of having to sit in the office in person.

Before nine o'clock in the morning, William appeared at the program recording site. He talked face-to-face with other Top Ten Mayor candidates very enthusiastically and got to know each other.

This is also a good social activity and site. You don't need to worry that the guy in front of you might just be an insignificant civil servant in the city hall, because everyone standing in the room is a mayor, and everyone's status is equal.

As equal as possible.

William met some new friends here, and then at the invitation of the program director, everyone started the formal recording.

The program group brought out three topics, letting them play freely. They could choose left or right. These topics were not sensitive, and choosing left or right would not bring any metaphors about stance and camp, just some discussions on policies.

Before recording, the director mentioned that they could perform more true to their nature, and didn't need to suppress their emotions. Only by letting emotions erupt could they attract the attention of the audience.

This unprecedented program opened a precedent, which also means they have no experience to learn from, and everyone is somewhat restrained.

Before the formal recording, Lans and William also talked about this topic.

Politics can be homogenized, but politicians cannot be homogenized; they need to be distinct and independent.

The truth is very simple. Regardless of which camp's city, the most basic governance platform is the same: to increase employment rate and improve economic construction. Every city almost revolves around these things.

The public can only remember these policies and cannot remember those stereotyped politicians, so at this time, they must appear in front of the public with a strong personal color to be remembered.

In the program, William performed very prominently. Sometimes he would emotionally express some of his views, which was a bit————a little surprising.

For example, when talking about the issue of economic development and construction, William performed more aggressively, which also received support from some audiences.

After all, no matter how good the environment is and how stable the social industrial structure is, it is not as real as being able to obtain more income.

The recording of the day ended very quickly. The mayors at the recording site all had a very special feeling. They didn't seem as————friendly as when they first met. Everyone played different roles in the program.

In this program, they also seemed to gradually learn something, a little————something about how to make themselves look more able to attract people's attention.

Originally, the TV station planned to invite everyone to have lunch together after the recording, but now everyone rejected this proposal. They had other things to do.

They have to think about how they should express their characteristics in the subsequent program, how to attract the audience's attention, and how to effectively express what they want to express.

William also declined the invitation of two mayors and left the TV station directly. After he got into his car, the car drove toward the outside.

Lans has a villa in Manton. It was not bought by himself, but someone gave it to him.

Once a person reaches a certain class, even if he doesn't take the initiative to strive for material things, someone will constantly give them to them.

And it's not just one villa, but several. There are real estate developers in the Jincheng Consortium, and they all gave Lans villas.

If the manor in Manton wasn't too expensive, they might have given Lans a few more manors.

These vacant villas are vacant anyway, so Lans "sold" one of the villas to William at a relatively low price.

Actually, he could directly let William live there, but doing so is not very good, because the nerves of the bottom public are sensitive and fragile.

If the house is William's own, then they won't have any objections. After all, Lawrence Farm itself is a very strong entity, and William doesn't need to accept bribes to afford this house.

But if this house is Lans's, even if Lans is just his son-in-law, the public will also guess whether there is something they don't know in it.

Sensitive and fragile, so from the beginning, don't give them a chance to be sensitive and fragile.

When the car drove away from the TV station parking lot, William's peripheral vision seemed to notice a figure on the sidewalk outside the gate, a figure that gave him a very familiar feeling, and that person was holding a little boy.

He immediately turned his head to look over there, but the vehicle happened to start turning, blocking his line of sight.

When he turned around again and looked at the sidewalk from the rear window, he could only see some ordinary pedestrians. That big and small person who gave him a special feeling could no longer be seen.

He stared at the street behind him, searching for pedestrians on the street, and couldn't see anything.

"Do you want to stop?", the driver asked. He saw William's movements through the rearview mirror.

After William turned his head back, he shook his head, "No, no need, keep driving."

That figure just now gave him a very familiar feeling, and in his heart, there was also a person who had been almost forgotten by him gradually emerging.

He couldn't help but look back again, and finally withdrew his gaze suspiciously.

After returning to the villa, he sat there for a while, walked back and forth a few steps, and was always somewhat hesitant.

When he "broke up" with his former secretary, he remembered that the other party was not pregnant, nor did she mention pregnancy.

Maybe it was just her new life?

Thinking of this, William still decided to investigate. Extramarital affairs and illegitimate children are absolute taboos in the Federation!

He thought about it and still dialed Lans's phone. In this matter, only Lans could help him, and he could only trust Lans.

"Did something go wrong with the shooting?", after Lans knew the phone was called by William, his first thought was that something went wrong with the shooting.

Otherwise, William should have no reason to call him at this time. The Lawrence family is also an important part of the Jincheng Consortium, and its share is much larger than the previous Imperial Chamber of Commerce.

They are not only "locals," but also possess a lot of industries and wealth. In agriculture, they control nearly half of the agricultural output of Laizhou and are a force that cannot be avoided locally.

With the signboard of the Lawrence family and the Jincheng Consortium, no one would want to find trouble for William, so Lans could only guess in the direction of the program.

William denied Lans's guess, "The program was shot very smoothly and has nothing to do with the program. I might have seen————that woman today, and there was a child beside her."

After Lans finished listening, he didn't express his position immediately, "And then?"

"Do you want to meet her, or something else?"

William sighed, "I'm in the rising period, how could I think about meeting her?"

"I'm just worried, you know, I want to figure out her current living situation to avoid us losing control of things at a critical time."

Lans gave him positive feedback, "Your worry is very reasonable. I will arrange for someone to check it now, and I will give you news later."

After putting down the phone, William couldn't sit still. He lit a cigarette, walked to the window, looked at the scenery outside that was not good-looking, and smoked.

For this secretary————he had a kind of emotion that he didn't know how to say.

When Emily was pregnant, as a man in the rising period of his career, he indeed needed to vent.

Calling for prostitutes is too dangerous. Those women are all doing things for money. They can take off their clothes for you today because of your money, and tomorrow they can publicize the things with you everywhere for other people's money.

Plus the secretary intended to guide, so he cheated.

The secretary didn't mention anything about pregnancy when she left, and he didn't pay much attention, but now, he has a kind of inexplicable anxiety.

Soon, the results of Lans's investigation were fed back, "After your little secretary came here, she experienced a short marriage, and then had a child. After she divorced that man, she got custody of the child."

"Now she lives alone with the child and serves as a civilian staff member in a department of the state government. That's roughly the situation."

William keenly noticed the keywords in the words Lans told him, "She has a child?"

Lans immediately grasped the change in his mentality, "Do you suspect that the child is yours?"

William didn't speak, didn't say yes, and didn't say no.

But this is precisely the best expression. ===== CHAPTER 1271 =====