Chapter Twenty-Two: A Chance Encounter on New Year's

  Another year's Spring Festival is approaching, at this moment, everything is temporarily put on hold. Every year before the Spring Festival, Liu Siyuan feels more deeply the benefits of being a civil servant, especially after entering the system.

  A few small examples, someone buys train tickets back home for you, guaranteeing a seat ticket, no need to compete with the Spring Festival rush. The New Year's goods are even more worry-free, the gifts received by the inspection room every year can be piled up into a small mountain, so much that the office is almost impassable. The only difficulty is that there are too many things and don't know how to bring them back. In addition, before each festival, a sum of money will be transferred to the card, last year's amount made Liu Sihuan somewhat overjoyed, and this year's number left him speechless. After thinking about it for a while, he finally realized that his level had gone up, so the festival expenses also went up a lot, and it was in multiples.

  To be honest, Liu Siyuan has never been too fond of festivals, except for the opportunity to reunite with his parents. His hometown is in a county town called Beishan under the jurisdiction of Ziwai City, and as one of the few college graduates, he is almost always compared by his elders with other cousins who have also graduated from college during every Spring Festival. To some extent, he understands the emotions of these elderly people, but unfortunately, they seem to not quite understand his feelings about being used as a comparison object.

  Last year, due to the low salary of civil servants, especially compared to foreign companies, he didn't give his parents much face. Fortunately, his sister, as an idol-like figure in the family, greatly maintained their parents' dignity. This year, however, seems to have changed direction, with more and more relatives starting to envy his civil servant job, with stability being the key word. Especially after hearing that he was promoted to deputy director, many people praised both of Old Liu's children for having achieved success. Correspondingly, those siblings working in foreign companies seemed less glorious than in previous years.

  Talking about working in foreign companies, the outstanding one is Liu Sijia, Liu Siyuan's elder sister. Her salary has now reached a staggering five-figure number, and she is an idol-like figure among relatives. However, this year her sister did not come back for Chinese New Year again, and even Liu Siyuan hasn't seen her for quite some time.

  This year's Spring Festival was destined to be less relaxing than before. According to Fang Xinyi's guidance, he started guarding the phone on New Year's Day to give a few leaders New Year's greetings. It turned out that these leaders' phones were like hotlines, and it was not easy to get through. He also mentioned to Minister Ouyang and Secretary-General Zhang, as per Fang Xinyi's instructions, that he wanted to visit them in person next year. To his surprise, they both agreed after a few polite words, with Zhang Zhengdong jokingly emphasizing not to bring any gifts, or else he wouldn't be allowed in the door.

  The Spring Festival is getting less and less festive, especially for Liu Siyuan. Because he had to visit his leaders, on the third day of the new year, he set off on a journey back to Hanjiang with his parents' repeated reminders and instructions. After returning to his rental house, he put down his luggage and picked up the local specialties from his hometown and rushed to his leader's home.

  The two leaders' homes were both crowded with guests, but as a regular hall cadre, there was still a slight difference. Zhang Zhengqiang's secretary's home had more visitors from the municipal government office, mainly at the deputy department level, and occasionally a few section-level cadres, all of whom were full-time or deputy section chiefs, he hadn't seen anyone else besides himself as the second one. Among them were also a few leaders from lower districts, counties or municipalities.

  While the guests at Ouyang Xinghua's home were mostly from Hanjiang City and its subordinate districts and municipalities, there were several prominent figures, including a few second-in-commands of Hanjiang City's subordinate districts and municipalities. For Liu Siyuan, these people were usually figures to be looked up to, but unexpectedly, they were all very amiable at the Ouyang home. Especially Zhao Zhijie, the head of Beihong District, who held his hand and kept saying that Little Liu was great, bringing a lot of help to the land work in Beihong District.

  It's not convenient to stay at the leader's home for a long time, after all, the leader's time is very limited. They can only receive them today, and from tomorrow on, the leader will also go to pay New Year's greetings to their own leaders. So everyone was very self-aware and stayed for about 15-30 minutes before dispersing. Liu Siyuan also reluctantly sat in two leaders' homes for about 20 minutes, leaving some not-too-expensive local specialties before hastily taking his leave.

  Back in his rented hut, he unexpectedly had a rare moment of peace on this festive day. He didn't expect that the peace wouldn't last long, as he soon received a call from Ouyang Qian, saying that they had just met at Ouyang's house in the afternoon, but hadn't chatted much due to the crowd.

  "Hey, come out and play with me." The young lady said over the phone in a commanding tone.

  "What's going on?" he asked in surprise.

  "Go dance, meet at the entrance of Sydney Hall in thirty minutes, don't be late." Without waiting for Liu Siyuan to refute, he hung up the phone with a slap.

  Liu Siyuan felt a bit helpless, who was leading whom anyway. After struggling with his inner self for a while, he still arrived at the entrance of the disco on time.

  It's said that during the Spring Festival, the temperature of the Han River was almost close to freezing point. However, Ouyang Qian appeared in front of him wearing a short skirt and black stockings, which really shocked him greatly. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that this outfit is still very stunning.

  "What's with the long face? I brought you out to have fun, you should be happy." She muttered discontentedly as she pulled him in.

  Liu Siyuan had always been a good student, a well-behaved child. This was the first time in his life he had entered a disco, and as soon as he went in, he was startled by the deafening music. However, Ou Yangqian beside him was extremely excited, leading him to force his way through the crowd towards the bar, jumping up and down along the way.

  He reluctantly accompanied her to dance for a while, and Liu Siyuan felt some waist soreness and back pain. It seems that after work, he really lacked exercise seriously. He had no choice but to lean against the bar to rest for a while under someone's contemptuous gaze, watching her continue to vent her energy alone in the center of the dance floor.

  Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder. Turning around, he didn't expect to run into two acquaintances at once. Hu Tianfang, wearing a casual suit, and Yin Mo, in a black turtleneck sweater.

  The former is openly a developer, while the latter is the director of the Beihong District Construction Committee. With these two people together, it's hard not to make someone's heart tighten up.

  He had ideas in his mind, but on the surface he still greeted warmly

  Hu Tianfang looked at him and didn't say anything, but Yin Molei chuckled and said: "Yesterday Xiaofei mentioned to me that she originally wanted to tie a red thread for you, but it didn't work out. At the time, I told Xiaofei that it was definitely a huge loss for your cousin, missing out on the rising star of Hanjiang's political scene."

  Liu Siyuan hastily said: "Director Yin is too kind to me, actually I'm still young, this matter isn't urgent yet. Also thank Yang Fei sister for me, she's got a good heart."

  Yin Mo shook his head and said, "It's not early anymore, don't learn from me, getting married at 28 is too late."

  At this time, Hu Tianfang suddenly said: "Hey, Old Yin, I'm telling you not to worry about it, they have a clear goal." The two of them followed his gaze and saw Ouyang Qian walking towards them.

  Ouyang Qian apparently also knew the two people, and she was somewhat surprised that Liu Siyuan also knew them. Liu Siyuan took the initiative to explain: "I met Hu Zong and Yin Director when I inspected the land problem in Beihong District last time."

  "It turns out that Little Liu has taken a liking to Miss Ouyang, no wonder, no wonder. Indeed, a perfect match of talent and beauty." Yǐn Mò said with an expression of sudden realization.

  "Director Yin, don't get me wrong, Ouyang and I are just colleagues." Liu Siyuan hastily explained, but judging from their expressions, it was clear that they didn't believe him at all. Would ordinary colleagues come to a disco together?

  "Is what you said last time true?" Hu Tianpeng suddenly asked as he leaned in close.

  Liu Siyuan was taken aback, but immediately understood what he meant and said: "In that case, I don't know either. I just pointed out a possibility, and it's up to you, Director Hu, to decide how to handle it."

  Hu Tianfang glanced at him, didn't say a word, and walked away with his wine glass in hand, lost in thought. Yin Mo and the other two exchanged a few pleasantries before following him and disappearing into the crowd.

  "It's rare to see you have some guts, and you're not even afraid of the Municipal Party Secretary's son." Ouyang Qian rarely praised him with a sentence.

  "No choice, I've had a lot of dealings with Director Qianjin from the municipal party committee's organization department, so I'm used to it." Liu Siyuan shrugged.

  Ouyang Qian chuckled and said: "Hehe, not every official is as obedient to me as you are."

  "Good boy..." Suddenly someone felt a chill... Not sure if it was because the air conditioner in the disco hall was turned up too high.

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