Chapter 3: Mixed with People

  Lu Zhong didn't understand the situation and it wasn't good to interrupt, but he had heard Zeng Jiang say before that Director Pei was transferred from the municipal party committee office. It seemed that there was indeed some resentment.

  The office of the party's advisory committee is actually a good place to be, especially for young people who serve these old leaders from an early age and have access to provincial or even central leadership, which will inevitably lead to a good future.

  But at the municipal level, the situation is quite different. Especially for middle-aged cadres, few people are willing to spend a few years in the discipline inspection committee, unless they have no other way out and are idle in the organization, they will not have any objections to being assigned to the discipline inspection committee, but it's just a matter of going with the flow.

  As for some places where the main leaders of the consulting committee and the party committee have contradictions, there are even fewer officials willing to enter the consulting committee. After all, who is more important than who, and who is heavier or lighter, everyone has a plan in their heart.

  "Come on, let's go take a look. Huang Lao is rarely resting at noon."

  Following Pei Aihong, they went upstairs to the second floor and stood in front of the room directly opposite the stairwell. Pei Aihong tiptoed to the glass window and took a peek inside, then lightly knocked on the door and whispered to Lu Zhong, "Huang Lao is inside."

  With a low and slightly aged "come in", Pei Aihong gently pushed open the door, gave Lu Zhong a look, and walked in first.

  The office is not big, very simple, no office supplies, a long bamboo chair against the wall, should be prepared for visiting guests.

  Behind the desk by the window, sat an elderly man with a calm demeanor. His hair was snow white, even his eyebrows had some white in them. The old man's slightly thin and wrinkled face had faint age spots, but his eyes were bright and piercing, making it hard for people to look directly at him. Anyone who saw him would have the same feeling - this was an elderly man who had reached the twilight of his life, yet still held great power in his grasp.

  "Huang Lao, you must pay attention to rest!" Pei Aihong walked over first, lifted the tea cover on the office desk and took a look, then helped the old man refill water. Her gentle and caring appearance was like a completely different person from just now.

  The old man nodded slightly, but his eyes were fixed on Lu Zhong's body.

  "Ah, Huang Lao, let me introduce him to you. His name is Lu Zhong, the new deputy researcher in our office. From now on, he will assist with your work."

  Lu Zhong took two steps forward, "Old Huang." In fact, until now, he still hadn't figured out the identity of the old man in front of him.

  The old man nodded and cast his eyes on the documents on the table again, saying: "Xiao Pei, take Xiao Lu back to your house first. I still have some things to deal with. At 3 pm, I'll go out. Xiao Lu, come and call me at that time."

  "Alright, Old Huang, you're busy." Pei Aihong didn't wait for Lu Zhong to speak, she pulled on Lu Zhong's sleeve and dragged him out.

  When Pei Aihong arrived at the door, Lu Zhong said to her while walking downstairs: "Director, I'm still attending classes at the Party School now. It's a full-time class and it will take another month before I can officially come to our office to work."

  Pei Aihong furrowed her brow, "Is studying important or working..." She felt it wasn't suitable to say that and stopped, saying: "You call in for a leave of absence, Huang Lao's side can't wait."

  Lu Zhong slightly hesitated and said: "I took half a day off this afternoon."

  Pei Aihong rolled her eyes, "I don't care, if you have the ability, go tell Old Huang."

  Lu Zhong nodded and turned to go upstairs.

  Pei Aihong was taken aback and shouted: "Hey, what are you doing?" She didn't know that Lu Zhong was a big shot. If she had known, she probably wouldn't have spoken to him like that.

  She saw Lu Zhong rushing past, but he didn't seem to hear her. She quickly chased after him, but Lu Zhong's footsteps were extremely fast. By the time she caught up to the second floor, he had already knocked on the door and entered Old Huang's office.

  Pei Aihong was furious, and for the first time she saw such a person. Those who didn't come to take care of the office were all idle people, with high ranks one by one, each with their own ideas, some were liked by old cadres, and some just mixed in every day. Regardless of what attitude, they didn't care about her much, so she had no prestige in the office. Finally, a young person came, but this guy was even older than her.

  "Xiao Lu, something's up?" Huang Lao looked at Lu Zhong with a hint of surprise as he returned once again.

  Lu Zheng said calmly: "Huang Lao, that's what it is. I'm currently attending the middle and young class of the municipal party committee school. This afternoon..."

  Huang Lao waved his hand, interrupting him, and asked: "Can you drive?"

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly and said: "Okay."

  Huang Lao said, "Alright then, I'll call Li Changgeng later and approve your two-day leave. I'm going to Qinglong this afternoon and will be back the day after tomorrow. You come with me." Li Changgeng was the deputy secretary of the municipal party committee and the principal of the party school.

  Lu Zhong actually didn't want to go to the party school to listen to those theories that could make your ears produce silk, but someone gave him a chance, of course he was willing. He naturally pretended to hesitate for a while, after all, he couldn't show these old cadres that he particularly disliked going to the party school, right?

  Lu Zhong reluctantly agreed with a forced expression and said: "Then, I'll go to the first floor office and wait for you?"

  Huang Lao nodded slightly, just as Lu Zhong was about to pull the door open. Suddenly, Huang Lao smiled and pointed at him with his hand, saying: "You, little Lu, I've heard of you. You're Lu Kouxing, right? Do you like studying?" As he spoke, he burst out laughing.

  Lu Zhong sighed, opening the door to find Pei Aihong standing outside with an incredulous expression, clearly having overheard Old Man Huang's words and laughter.

  ……

  In the office, everyone was busy, and Lu Zhong seemed like an outsider, sitting in front of the desk that had just been assigned to him, flipping through some materials given to him by Pei Aihong.

  The Municipal People's Congress Office is divided into several departments, including the Secretariat, Economic Research Department, Investigation Department, Letters and Visits Reception Department, and Political Work (Security) Department. The office has a formal administrative staffing of 23 people, which is half that of the Municipal Party Committee Office. This is why Pei Aihong has been complaining about insufficient personnel all along, and in fact, it is true. One of the important tasks of the Municipal People's Congress Office is to take good care of the lives of the members of the Municipal People's Congress, which is quite different from the nature of the work of the Municipal Party Committee Office.

  For example, now Pei Aihong is preparing to host a bridge competition for all city veteran cadres next month. Just determining the list of veteran cadres invited to participate in the competition requires some effort. From level, seniority to influence and physical endurance, everything needs to be considered comprehensively. The more retired veteran cadres are, the more they care about treatment issues. Whether they can show up in some activities is also part of political treatment.

  Pei Ai Hong stormed out of the office in a huff.

  There are five people in this office, except for Pei Aihong and Lu Zhong, there is also a deputy director, a researcher and a deputy researcher.

  The Municipal Consumer Protection Committee Office has three deputy directors, one of whom is a full-time deputy director at the departmental level, but the other two deputy directors do not work in this room.

  The researcher and deputy researcher are not here, it seems that they went to investigate with the leaders of the customer committee. After Pei Aihong left, Deputy Director Wang received a call and also hurried away.

  In the office, only Lu Zhong was left.

  At the moment of utter boredom, the door was lightly knocked, and then a young man in a suit pushed the door open and asked, "Is the director here?" As soon as he saw that there was only Lu Zhong in the room, the young man was taken aback, looked him up and down, and chuckled, "You're the new Lu Chu, right?"

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly, and the young man hastily pulled out a pack of cigarettes, saying: "While the old witch is not around, Mr. Lu, would you like to smoke one?"

  "Old witch?" Lu Zhong immediately understood, it must be Pei Aihong.

  "Then let's have one." Lu Zhong took over the cigarette handed by the young man and lit it on his lighter.

  Young Lu hastily introduced himself: "Lu Chu, younger brother Cheng Kai, Deputy Director of the Secretariat, with Old Zhu."

  Lu Zhong knew that the so-called Zhu Lao was none other than Zhu Changzheng, the Executive Deputy Director of the Municipal Consumer Committee. He smiled and said, "With Old Zhu?"

  Cheng Kai also laughed and said, "These are all our office's own terms. The several deputy directors in the commission, including Old Huang, all have someone to follow them, take care of their daily lives, assist with their work, and run errands for them, haha."

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly, somewhat understanding. It seemed that from today on, he would be "following" Old Man Huang, essentially playing the role of both a work secretary and a life secretary combined.

  Cheng Kai smiled and said, "Lu Chu's arrival has rescued Peng Aihong from her suffering. Originally, I thought Peng Aihong was quite pitiful, always looking so tortured every day, it's a shame, now we won't be able to see that anymore."

  Lu Zhong smiled and said: "Is Huang Lao really so difficult to get along with?"

  "Let me tell you, our office has several deputy directors and researchers who have all worked with Old Huang, but none of them can withstand his energy. In the end, it's always the old witch who takes charge." He sighed and said, "Lu Chu, this old witch is not a good person, be careful."

  Lu Zhong couldn't help but smile, it was clear that Cheng Kai was the type who came to Gu Wei's office with some background and a golden tongue, and also seemed to be quite favored by Zhu Lao. So, he didn't show much respect to Peng Ai Hong either. Moreover, it seemed like he had been bullied by Peng Ai Hong before, and now he liked to stir up trouble whenever he saw someone, still a bit too young for that.

  It's rare for someone to come and chat with him, Lu Zhong was overjoyed and smiled: "Huang Lao, what kind of person are you after all?"

  Cheng Kai looked at Lu Zhen in surprise: "You don't know?" Seeing Lu Zhen shake his head, he was even more surprised, scratching his head and saying: "Huang Lao is actually the number one person in our city's CPPCC, he's a deputy provincial level who retired, originally, he could have entered the provincial CPPCC standing committee, but he just wouldn't go, saying he wanted to return to his hometown of Wushan, the provincial party committee couldn't do anything about it, so he became a member of our city's CPPCC, and was given the position of director, but he didn't want it, saying that since he retired, he just wanted to make some contributions to his hometown, and didn't want these empty titles."

  Lu Zhong hummed and had a vague impression that this Old Huang was mentioned by someone in Wushan, but at the time, he didn't pay much attention to it.