Chapter Twenty-Four The Old Leader

  "No, I've got a deputy director of the Planning Commission to deal with." Lu Zhong pushed away his plate and rubbed his belly, looking quite satisfied.

  "What?" Wei Xiangxiu's beautiful eyes widened in surprise, Deputy Director of the Planning Commission? Although Wei Xiangxiu was not a government official, she also knew what the Planning Commission was.

  He was still worried that Lu Zhong might not be able to stay in the Education Commission for long, but unexpectedly, he was suddenly transferred to the Planning and Economic Commission as a deputy director.

  This twist is too bizarre, right?

  "What's all this fuss about? Hurry up and eat, then come with me to my place to watch TV. I don't even dare smoke here." Lu Zhong tapped the table.

  Wei Xiangxiu stood up, "I'm not eating anymore, I drank a can of soda just now and I'm full."

  Weixiangxiu's life is much easier now, with Ayi Jing taking care of her parents-in-law. She can finally catch her breath and do things she likes after work.

  Now she often watches "The Deer and the Cauldron" with Lu Zhong, a Hong Kong drama starring Tony Leung as Wei Xiaobao, broadcast on Wushan TV every night for two episodes.

  Lu Zhong went ahead and Wei Xiangxiu followed behind, then they left the house. When Wei Xiangxiu closed the door, she shouted: "Xiao Jing, I'm going to watch TV, I'll be back soon."

  Lu Zhong suddenly came to his senses and thought that Wei Xiangxiu had always followed him around, while Xiao Jing was unsure what he and Wei Xiangxiu were up to, no wonder she avoided him in the past, always taking two old men with her.

  Out of 302, Lu Zhong was taken aback, but saw three people standing in front of his house, a man and two women, who seemed to be eavesdropping on the conversation inside.

  How about asking Old He for help? Lu Zhong suddenly remembered the rural principal he had taken down before leaving the Education Committee.

  "Land Bureau..." The man who heard the voice turned his head, a short and stout young man, now with an excited face, wasn't he Jiao Kai, his driver in Guangning County Bureau?

  "Zhengzi Ge!" The girl beside Jiao Yan was actually Lu Xiaoping, his nominal younger sister.

  The young girl standing on the other side of Jiao Yue wore glasses, looking gentle and elegant. When she saw Lu Zhong and Wei Xiangxiu, she habitually adjusted her glasses.

  "Great! Ha." Lu Zhong smiled and shook hands with Jiao Yue.

  Lu Bureau was still as affectionate towards him as before, Jiao Ye's excited hands grasped Lu Zhong's hand, speechless and choked with emotion.

  "Xiao Ping, you're here too." Lu Zhong smiled and nodded at Lu Xiao Ping.

  "Come on, don't just stand there, let's all go inside." Lu Zhong took out the key and opened the door, leading everyone in. Meanwhile, Jiao Ye didn't miss the opportunity to greet Wei Xiangxiu: "Director Wei."

  Wei Xiangxiu smiled and said: "Xiao Jiao, you still brought two girlfriends with you?"

  Jiao Yue was startled and quickly said: "Director Wei, don't joke with me, Xiao Ping is our old director's sister. This is Zhang Xiaqing, my wife, I got married last month."

  At this time, everyone had entered the living room. Upon hearing these words, Lu Zhong exclaimed and said: "Xiao Jiao, congratulations to you too! You didn't even give me a message. Wait for me..." He turned around and entered the bedroom.

  Wei Xiangxiu washed a plate of bright red apples and placed them on the tea table. Lu Xiaoping had a keen eye for this, followed Wei Xiangxiu's busy movements, and said with envy: "Your brother's family is really good, Director Wei, when can I call you sister-in-law?" She thought Wei Xiangxiu was Lu Zhen's object of affection.

  Lu Zhong happened to come out of the bedroom and heard, laughed: "Soon." Made a gesture to the awkwardly standing Jiao Yue couple: "Sit down, don't be polite, we're all family here." Walked over, stuffed a red envelope into Jiao Yue's hand, inside was 10 big yuan bills, which is 100 yuan.

  Jiao Yue was initially perplexed, but when he saw that Lu Zhong had stuffed a red envelope into his hand, and upon feeling it, found it to be thick with cash, he hastily said: "This, this won't do!" He tried to return the envelope to Lu Zhong, who furrowed his brow and said: "Hurry up, don't dawdle, sit down!" After Jiao Yue sat down across from him at the tea table, Lu Zhong continued: "If I had known you were getting married, I would have given a bigger gift. But since your wedding is already over, don't blame me." As he spoke, Lu Zhong smiled.

  In fact, Jiao Ye followed his own way. Major life events shouldn't be treated carelessly, but gifts can be expensive. If you give money, it's almost enough, otherwise, it will put too much pressure on others.

  He felt the red envelope in his hand, which was worth 180 yuan. Holding this red envelope made him restless. Nowadays, when attending a wedding, it's good to give a red envelope from one's work unit, usually with 5 yuan inside. Some people even put 10 yuan in it. But Lü Bureau had given him 180 yuan, which was really exciting. However, he had come to ask Lü Bureau for a favor, so he gritted his teeth and bought two bottles of Lang wine and two cartons of Hongtashan cigarettes. After calculating the cost, he found that he had actually made a profit.

  Lu Zhong turned his head and asked Zhang Xiaoqing: "Xiao Zhang, where do you work?" Just before entering the house, Jiao Kai introduced that his girlfriend's surname was Zhang, named Zhang Xiaoqing.

  Zhang Xiaoqing had heard from Jiao Yue before that this deputy director of the Education Commission was Jiao Yue's former superior, and was very young, but when they met in person, she didn't expect him to be so young.

  Is this vice director of the Education Commission true? It won't be spread blindly below, will it be misinterpreted and misinterpreted?

  Zhang Xiaoqing muttered to herself, her face expressionless, and politely replied: "Director Lu, I'm a teacher at No. 23 Middle School."

  Lu Zhong smiled: "Municipal key, good unit."

  Jiao Yan sighed and said: "She just graduated from Wushan Normal School, was assigned to No. 23 Middle School, my wife and I just got married, but we have to be apart."

  Lu Zhong hummed in response and guessed the general purpose of Jiao Ye's visit, saying: "So, Little Jiao, you want to move into the city?"

  Jiao Yue was startled, and waved his hand repeatedly, saying: "How dare I have such thoughts? Yes, yes, it's like that." He hesitated for a moment, then said: "Director Lu, can you think of a way to transfer Xiao Qing to Guangning County Town? Best would be to get her into No. 2 Middle School; if not, No. 3 Middle School would also do." Now, transferring from down there to the city is as difficult as ascending to heaven, but transferring work from the city to the county town is equally not easy.

  Guangning No. 1 Middle School is a provincial key school, which is even better than the city's No. 23 Middle School, so Jiao Ye made an effort and said it was No. 2 Middle School.

  Lu Zhong nodded, now because all the work is assigned, everything follows the organization's arrangement. Therefore, it is not uncommon for couples to be separated in two places. Transferring jobs is often the most difficult problem faced by these special groups, and it usually takes several years or even a decade of hard struggle to solve it.

  Lu Zhong seemed to be thinking, and didn't respond. Zhang Xiaoqing's heart became anxious, saying: "Old Director, I heard you're now the Education Commission Director, can you help me? I'm still very confident in my teaching level, and I won't violate any principles."

  Lu Zhong only then truly knew why Jiao Ye and Zhang Xiaoqing were looking for him, it turned out they hadn't received the letter yet and thought he was still at the Education Committee.

  "The problem is I'm no longer with the Education Committee now."

  Zhang Xiaoqing's heart suddenly cooled down by half, and she couldn't help but glare at Jiao Yue. She had known all along that this guy was unreliable and liked to brag. He was very dissatisfied with his current job at the county bureau and spent every day boasting about how great his old leader was, what a load of nonsense! Just look at this so-called old leader, wasn't he even younger than Jiao Yue? What kind of deputy director of the Education Commission could he possibly be?

  Zhang Xiaoqing didn't catch the most glorious moment when Jiao Ye drove Lu Zhong, although she liked this object who had a free love affair after meeting in the county cinema, but also particularly annoyed that he always bragged about his past and didn't believe what he bragged about.

  Lu Zhong asked Jiao Ye: "Must Xiaozhang go down? Can you come up instead? If Xiaozhang must go down, it's not impossible. I can call Wang Futang and he should be able to help me with that. But I think it's better if you come up. The salary level in Wushan is also higher than in Guangning. In the future, children's education and various development opportunities will definitely be better than being down there."

  Zhang Xiaoqing also didn't quite understand what Lu Zhong was saying, only hearing him say "call Wang Futang", directly calling out the name of the number one person in the city's education system, speaking with such ease and familiarity, as if Wang Futang and he were old friends, and his own work was just a matter of a single sentence. It turned out that he was on the same wavelength as Jiao Lei, who was full of hot air. Since it was so simple, why not help himself? What's the point of calling Jiao Lei over? Is he coming to work in the city? If Jiao Lei can put aside his work and come to work, why did we have to go through such a big circle to find him?

  Jiao Yue had seen Lu Zhong's most glorious performance on stage, and when he heard Lu Zhong call him "come up", his heart was moved. Was he being summoned to the city? He himself had never dared to think about it, now the gap between urban and rural areas was simply a chasm.

  Lu Zhong continued, "I'm currently in the Planning Commission, if you want to come up, there are two options. The first is to join the Planning Commission's driver class..." He paused for a moment, "But there's a small problem." To say that Lu Zhong can still arrange for a driver to be transferred to the commission without any issues, the problem is that he had just offended Yang Wenxue, the deputy director. If this guy makes things difficult and doesn't cooperate, it would indeed cause some obstruction.

  "After some thought, Lu Zhong said: 'But I think it's also a solution. The second option is Changming Company, going to this company as a driver isn't bad either, the income can be higher than in the government agency by a big margin.'"

  Changming has already started preparing to recruit workers, and for drivers like Jiao Ye who are down-to-earth and familiar with the local area, Germans are still quite rare. If they introduce themselves, it's not a problem at all.

  As he spoke, Lu Zhong asked Jiao Yue: "Do you know Changming Company?"

  Jiao Ye was already stunned, stuttering: "Director Lu, your meaning is that if I come up, can I enter Changming?" How could he and Zhang Xiaoqing not know about the Changming company? These days, TV and newspapers were all reporting on the news of this German high-tech enterprise investing heavily in building a factory in Wushan.

  Foreign company? Joint venture? This is a hundred times better than being in the government, Jiao Ke never thought that his old leader could help him get into Changming Company.

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly, "There are only two options, one is Ji Jing Wei and the other is Chang Ming. Think about it carefully and make a decision, then give me a call, I'll help you arrange."

  Jiao Yue hastily said: "I, I want to enter Changming."

  Lu Zhong just smiled: "It's okay, don't rush, think it over carefully, and don't regret it later."

  Zhang Xiaoqing stared blankly at Lu Zhong, her mind a bit dull, bringing Jiao Lei to the city? Moreover, it's not entering Ji Cheng Committee or Changming. What kind of person is this old boss Jiao Lei? This energy is too big, it's a bit out of bounds, right?

  Lu Xiaoping left, Jiao Yan invited her to come together, originally hoping that she could also help herself say a few words, but unexpectedly, it was not useful at all.

  Jiao Ye and Zhang Xiaoqing were still in a daze when they left, until they reached the bottom of Lu Zhong's building. Jiao Ye gradually came back to his senses, nudged Zhang Xiaoqing with his arm, and said with a pleased smile: "How about it, my old leader? Isn't he impressive? I told you earlier, there's nothing that can't be done by him. And unlike other leaders, he's righteous and takes care of his former subordinates." Today, she finally got to show off in front of her lover, whereas before, she always said that bragging was free.

  Zhang Xiaoqing was impressed and a little shocked, this is the style of leaders who hold great power in the city, really eye-opening, speaking lightly, but every sentence seems to contain the power of authority.

  The hardest thing is that he is willing to help with things, not pushing three and blocking four. Moreover, it seems like he gave Jiao Yan a big red envelope, as if the two of them came here this time just to take advantage of the autumn breeze.

  But on the surface, Zhang Xiaoqing didn't back down, cutting in with a "Just wait until everything is arranged properly and then you'll see!"

  Jiao Yue smiled and said: "You're just a stubborn dead duck." This provoked Zhang Xiaoqing to give him a punch.