Chapter 39: Devoted and Diligent

  The sky outside the window turned dark, and the fluorescent tube on the top of the living room flickered twice before truly lighting up, casting a silver glow.

  It's 6:30, the color TV in the red TV cabinet started singing the happy melody of Black Cat Sheriff. Since December 1980, every Sunday at 6:30, CCTV's animation program has become a happy ocean for children all over the country.

  Sitting on the soft sofa, Lu Zhong smiled and hummed two sentences "Ahahaha, Black Cat Police Chief......" He really liked the current era.

  Hou Jianjun, Wang Yuguo, Hong Tao and Wei Qingxian, who were sitting in a circle, were all extremely surprised and found it hard to imagine that Lu Ju had such a side.

  Wei Qingxian, like the other deputy directors except for Hou Jianjun, had no personal relationship with Lu Zheng. Today, it just so happened that he was on duty at the bureau, and when Lu Xiaotiger went to pick up Wang Yuguo, they bumped into each other. He politely asked: "Director Wei, are you coming or not?"

  But unexpectedly Wei Qing was very enthusiastic and got on the car without saying a word.

  Like Hou Jianjun and Wang Yuguo, this young director's economic conditions also surprised Wei Qingxian, but he wouldn't ask more questions.

  Perhaps only the head of the city's public security bureau, Hong Taohong Er, would be so obtuse and single-minded that he wouldn't think about these issues.

  Wei Qing was the deputy director and head of the Discipline Inspection Group, which was newly established at the beginning of this year. In fact, it didn't have much power to speak of, let alone the agency's discipline inspection group. Even the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which was established six years ago to replace the disbanded Central Supervision Committee during the turmoil, had its powers further enhanced.

  But after all, since the founding of the country, the party has been rectified and purified through movements. The disciplinary inspection organs have not played their due role. Now, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is even a new thing, so although it has great power, at the grassroots level, the Disciplinary Inspection Committee is almost like a decoration.

  Let's just talk about Guangning, which is also a relatively developed county. However, many tasks that should be handled by the Discipline Inspection Commission are now scattered among various power departments. Among them, the Public Security Bureau accounts for more than half, and it is the economic investigation team of the Public Security Bureau that investigates the economic problems of the heads of the county's departments and bureaus.

  Wei Qingxian, the head of the county public security bureau's discipline inspection team, was just a nominal title and had never taken the initiative to handle any disciplinary cases unless Lu Zhong had made a prior arrangement.

  Wei Qingxian was almost fifty years old and knew he had no room for advancement, but he was more enthusiastic about power. As long as he was in a position, he naturally wanted to grasp the power in his hands every day. So, he had been thinking of finding an opportunity to talk to Lu Zhong and improve their comradely feelings. Today was a good chance.

  "Director Lu, this cigarette is hard to come by, right?" Wei Qing held in his hand was a Red Tower Mountain cigarette given by Lu Zhong, and he savored the smoke rings he blew out.

  Lu Zhong smiled and said: "All of these were given to me by my sister, she started her own business a few years ago, but didn't want to get rich, she loves me the most, all of these family properties are rewards from her."

  Everyone laughed and thought to themselves, "So that's how it is."

  Wei Qing had already figured out Lu Zhong's situation and knew that his foster parents were indeed doing business in a distant place, so he naturally didn't know which sister was which. However, he thought to himself, "If I had known it was this profitable, I would have started my own business years ago." But now, as the years went by, he also didn't have the courage to strive for more.

  Several people present had the same thought at this moment of flash.

  Hou Jianjun sighed and said directly: "I also wanted to start a business this year, but first, I don't know what kind of business is good; secondly, the public security bureau won't approve my request for unpaid leave, otherwise, you might not be seeing me now."

  Everyone laughed, but actually they all knew that Hou Jianjun was definitely telling the truth.

  In coastal developed cities, the wave of resignation and entrepreneurship is getting higher and higher. Now, making money by doing business is more enviable and respectable than eating a dead salary in an administrative unit. When choosing a partner, girls will definitely choose individual entrepreneurs over administrative staff with thick income.

  Lu Zhong smiled and said: "Jianjun, look at the big picture. In this society, someone has to serve, right? You can't just follow the money." He sneered in his heart, originally Hou Jianjun had also thought about jumping into the sea, no wonder, because he used to be excluded by others everywhere.

  Wang Yuguo stood up and said: "I'll go to the kitchen to help."

  The living room can hear the sound of stir-frying in the kitchen, and Du Xiaohu and Jiao Ke are busy.

  Lu Zhong made a gesture, "No need, Tiger's craftsmanship is quite good." He then asked Wang Yuguang: "Upstairs and downstairs, left and right neighbors, who lives there? Are Old He and Old Wang there?" He was asking about the deputy director of the bureau, He Lian Sheng and Wang Yi. Immediately, Lu Zhong waved his hand and said: "Forget it, no need to call them, a gentleman's friendship is as thin as water, let's skip the eating and drinking!"

  Wang Yuguo smiled slightly and swallowed his words.

  Lu Zhong didn't really like to eat and drink, but in this gathering, he also couldn't help but have a few more cups. The wine glasses clinked together as they toasted each other, until after 9 o'clock, Wang Yuguo and Wei Qingxian took their leave one after the other. Wang Yuguo lived in the nearby Public Security Bureau's residential building No. 1, while Wei Qingxian, although he had also been allocated a house, still lived in the department store's residential compound that his wife had been assigned last year. So Jiao Lei also got up and drove to send Wei Qingxian back home.

  Du Xiaohu drank a lot of wine and couldn't hold on anymore, so he went back to his bedroom to sleep soundly. But he has one advantage.

  He doesn't snore, but occasionally there are murmurs of talking in his sleep.

  The living room was left with Lu Zhong, Hou Jianjun and Hong Tao, only three people.

  Hou Jianjun's deputy director is also good, Hong Tao's Chengguan police station chief is also good, both are brought up by Lu Zheng, these two county bureau party committee members can be said to be Lu Zheng's confidants.

  However, in official and professional settings, no matter how close the relationship is, many things are still inconvenient to say directly. So when talking about Ju Dahe and Ma Weiguo, Lu Zhong and Hou Jianjun, the words were all very implicit, only Hong Tao would occasionally fire a shot.

  As for the matter of Ma Weiguo's son, Hong Tao scolded: "If I were there, I would have killed that little brat. Ma Weiguo taught his son to be such a thing, he is not a good thing either."

  Hou Jianjun smiled silently and thought that Lu Ju had really detained him for 15 days, this matter was far from over.

  However, now Secretary Qiu is quite supportive of Director Lu, and the provincial hall also seems to have a high-level leader who appreciates Director Lu. If Wei Guo really becomes the county magistrate as he wishes, Director Lu will not be afraid of him either.

  But Lu Bureau is unstable and has no foundation, Qiu Secretary is old, and Ma Weiguo is in his prime, if this continues, it won't be a good thing.

  However, Hou Jianjun had already made a mistake and didn't want to think about it anymore. He just followed Lu Ju, who was known as the "Living Bandit" and seemed rough but actually had a deep understanding of things. As for what happened later, it seemed that he had already planned everything out in his mind.

  "Director Lu, is there still hope for Liu Baojun?" Hou Jianjun had been wanting to ask this question for a long time. He saw Director Lu walking very close with Liu Baojun and couldn't understand the situation. Today, with no outsiders around, he hoped Director Lu could give him an answer, so he would know how to treat Liu Baojun.

  I heard that Liu Baojun and Qiu Secretary have a big conflict, is it a rumor?

  Lu Zhong smiled and said, "There's hope."

  Hou Jianjun let out a sigh, it seems that the rumors were indeed false. It appears that Secretary Qiu also holds Liu Baojun in high regard. After Ma Weiguo was promoted, Liu Baojun might become the Executive Vice County Magistrate, the second-in-command of the government, and Secretary Qiu uses him to balance out Ma Weiguo.

  Hou Jianjun did not know that Lu Zhong was not meant to be this way at all. His understanding of "having hope" was completely wrong.

  They chatted for a few more sentences, and then Jiao Ye came back to send off the car. Hou Jianjun and Hong Tao both stood up to bid farewell. Lu Zhong sent the three of them to the door, turned on the lights in the stairwell corridor, and saw them off as they went downstairs. Listening to their footsteps, it seemed like they had reached the first floor, before he turned off the lights and prepared to head back inside. But just then, the opposite door opened, and two little boys rushed out, turning around to shout at the room: "Sister, hurry up, hurry up!"

  Then, a beautiful and charming policewoman with an alluring smile walked out of the house. Her figure was slender and elegant, her footsteps light and nimble, every frown and smile exuding an inexplicable charm. It was none other than Wei Xiangxiu, the flower of Guangning Police Bureau.

  Lu Zhong saw her slightly stunned, but didn't expect that the one living next door was actually her.

  Wei Xiangxiu did know that Lu Zhong was on the same floor as her, but when they really bumped into each other, her pretty face looked somewhat unnatural.

  After the two returned from the Gold Coast, they never met alone again. The total number of words exchanged between them was probably less than ten sentences, and all were work-related.

  "Director Lu." Wei Xiangxiu greeted in a low voice.

  Lu Zhong saw Wei Xiangxiu leading her two monkey brothers down and suddenly came back to his senses, asking: "You... where are you going?"

  Wei Xiangxiu really wanted to hurry up and escape, but now she had no choice but to stop in her tracks and say: "Let's go move house, we still have a lot of things at the old house."

  Lu Zhong exclaimed "Ah" and immediately said: "This is quite far away, are there many things?"

  Wei Xiangxiu hadn't spoken yet when the older boy hastily said, "There's a lot of stuff, it's okay, I can pedal the tricycle, my sister borrowed it."

  The little monkey pulled the slightly older boy's sleeve and whispered, "Brother, don't mind him, he's a bad guy." Apparently, he still remembered the time Lu Zhēng caught him.

  "Don't talk nonsense!" Wei Xiangxiu sternly scolded her younger brother.

  Lu Zhong smiled and said, "It's okay." After a moment of consideration, he said, "How about this? I have a car downstairs. I can take you there and bring you back in one trip. It'll be more convenient."

  After that, Lu Zhong also felt a little guilty. After all, Wei Xiangxiu was forced by life, and he couldn't make her feel at ease earlier. It was his own work mistake that pushed her onto this despicable path. Didn't he have any responsibility?

  From how she treats her disabled husband, younger brother-in-law and parents-in-law, Wei Xiangxiu should be a good girl who has just taken the wrong path.

  Now that the house is in hand, she no longer clings to herself and even avoids herself. She's not that kind of woman who pursues wealth and glory through fleshly desires. Otherwise, having finally caught a big fish, how could she bear to let go?

  No matter what happened between them that day, this girl was indeed a pity and a shame.

  What if what happened that day was true? Can you just pretend nothing ever happened?

  Perhaps it was because he felt a subtle sense of intimacy, but now when Lu Zhen looked at Wei Xiangxiu, he felt that she was completely different from before.

  When Lu Zhong offered to drive them there, Wei Xiangxiu repeatedly said, "No need, no need." In a flurry, she rushed downstairs, with the two little monkeys following close behind.

  Lu Zhong shook his head and turned into the house.