When Deng Shaoqun met Ma Zhencai at the beginning, he knew how to be humble and retreat, but now he is a bit stubborn and always competes with Fang Zhicheng.
Listening to Shen Lin's soft snoring with a slight fragrance, Chen Chao sighed. If he allowed the current situation to continue, he was afraid that he would be in despair along with Deng Shaoqun. He was not an unfaithful person, but he also had a family and a wife who loved him very much. If he fell, wouldn't Shen Lin be implicated and live an unhappy life
When Zhang Xiaoliang returned home, his wife Lu Xiaofen had already prepared dinner. He washed his face first, and when he saw that his son had not come home yet, he frowned and asked, "Where's Xiaolei?"
Lu Xiaofen set the table and said, "I'm going to my classmate's house to do my homework and have dinner at his house."
Zhang Xiaoliang frowned and asked, "Which classmate?"
Lu Xiaofen smiled and said, "Zhou Zixian, your old colleague's home."
Zhang Xiaoliang nodded, sat down and took the chopsticks, and said, "Zhou Zixian's daughter has good grades, so Xiaolei can run more. Xiaolei will take the high school entrance examination next year. If his grades remain the same as before, neither up nor down, that won't do."
Lu Xiaofen smiled proudly and said, "This is a different time. As the district head in charge of education, it should be easy for you to get into the district's key high school. Even if Zhou Zixian's daughter wants to get into a key high school, it still depends on her performance."
Zhang Xiaoliang knew that Lu Xiaofen had more to say, so he didn't respond. He buried his head and took two mouthfuls of rice, complaining, "Today's rice is hard. You know I have a bad stomach."
If it were in the past, Lu Xiaofen would have lost her temper, but Zhang Xiaoliang is no longer the same Zhang Xiaoliang as before. Lu Xiaofen smiled implicitly and said, "Just bear with it for now. I'll pay attention tomorrow."
Zhang Xiaoliang put his chopsticks aside, poured a bowl of soup, drank two sips, and then asked, "Did you take any advantage of Zhou Zixian?"
Lu Xiaofen thought to herself that Zhang Xiaoliang was smart, and said with a smile, "Hubby, you are getting smarter and smarter. You guessed it right in an instant. Today Zhou Zixian's wife sent me a box of milk. I saw that it had been opened, so I opened it and took a look. There was a big envelope inside."
Zhang Xiaoliang's face was gloomy, and he said angrily: "You are confused! How can you take such money? Return it to me immediately."
Lu Xiaofen's face turned bad at this time. "Husband, I won't quit. In the past, we invested so much to help you climb up. Now we can finally get it back. How can you let me quit?"
Zhang Xiaoliang simply threw the bowl of soup on the table, spilling the soup all over the table. "Women's views are really short-sighted. Do you know how many eyes are staring at me now, waiting for me to make a mistake? How do you know that Zhou Zixian's red envelope is not a trap set by others?"
"Is it that serious? It's only 5,000 yuan." Lu Xiaofen muttered.
Zhang Xiaoliang waved his hands and shouted angrily: "If you want me to go to jail, take it!"
Seeing Zhang Xiaoliang leave in anger, Lu Xiaofen lost her courage immediately. She sighed and said, "Okay, I'll do as you say. I'll go back later. I'm destined to live a hard life in this life!"
Chapter 0550: Cutting the Gordian knot
Lu Xiaofen is very strong at home, especially when Zhang Xiaoliang was frustrated in the past, which made Zhang Xiaoliang nicknamed a henpecked husband. However, as Zhang Xiaoliang left the Statistics Bureau and became a deputy district mayor, the atmosphere at home gradually changed. When the man gained power, Lu Xiaofen had to consider giving Zhang Xiaoliang some face.
When Zhang Xiaoliang was in the Statistics Bureau, people would send him gifts. If the amount was not much, Lu Xiaofen would not tell Zhang Xiaoliang and would just accept it. But now Lu Xiaofen has changed. She is a smart woman and knows that as Zhang Xiaoliang's position changes, there are some things he can take and some things he cannot take, so she will consult Zhang Xiaoliang for his opinion.
Zhang Xiaoliang clearly told Lu Xiaofen that she must not accept the money. Although Lu Xiaofen was greedy for money, she was also ruthless. After all, a little money was more important than the identity of the deputy district chief's wife. After dinner, she simply cleaned up the table, went to Zhou Zixian's house to pick up her son, and then cleverly stuffed the red envelope back.
Lu Xiaofen went out to pick up the children, and Zhang Xiaoliang returned to the study to organize his work ideas. Although he was now in charge of education, his focus was not on this, and he paid more attention to collecting information about Deng Shaoqun and others. Zhang Xiaoliang was a smart man, and he knew that Fang Zhicheng treated him specially because of his strong ability to collect, organize, and analyze intelligence.
Next to Zhang Xiaoliang were a list of district officials and a list of city officials. He had been studying these two lists for two or three months. The more he studied them, the more problems he found. The relationships between officials in Xiaguang were complicated and connected.
If Fang Zhicheng wants to form his own network of relationships in the shortest time possible, he can adopt three strategies. The first is merger, such as smoothly handing over power to Ma Zhencai, which is a good idea; the other is plunder, by confronting Deng Shaoqun, plundering the power in Deng Shaoqun's hands, and thus controlling the personal connections that originally belonged to him; the last one is training, but because Fang Zhicheng has no personnel power, he is still at a disadvantage in training.
In the long run, only the connections that one has cultivated oneself are the most loyal, so Zhang Xiaoliang is thinking about designing a plan for Fang Zhicheng to cultivate his own people.
This series of ideas was not Fang Zhicheng's request, but Zhang Xiaoliang's own thinking. He had nothing to recommend him in terms of government affairs, so he found another way and assisted Fang Zhicheng in other areas.
Fang Zhicheng is an extremely smart young man, but no one is perfect. In terms of building personal connections, he is not yet comparable to some old-timers in officialdom. Therefore, Zhang Xiaoliang positioned himself accurately and made himself the glue for Fang Zhicheng to build his camp.
It has to be said that Zhang Xiaoliang's positioning of himself is accurate enough, and he also believes that Fang Zhicheng can see his value. No matter what level Fang Zhicheng reaches, he will need Zhang Xiaoliang, the hidden "Organization Minister", to take care of things for him.
The cell phone vibrated. Zhang Xiaoliang took it out and looked at it. He frowned, sighed secretly, and decisively did not reply to the text message. After ten minutes, the cell phone vibrated again. The woman couldn't help it and finally called him.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Although there was no one else at home at the moment, Zhang Xiaoliang still asked in a low voice.
"District Chief Zhang, there's no need for you to be so unkind. Have you forgotten me in such a short time?" the woman on the other end of the phone said pitifully.
Pretending to be pitiful and seeking sympathy is a woman’s greatest weapon, making it difficult for people to make up their minds.
This is a smart woman.
Zhang Xiaoliang sighed and said, "Meilu, we agreed last time that we were together just for fun because we both had families, and that we would give each other space when we got tired of each other. Now you keep pestering me, which goes against our previous decision."
Meilu was slightly stunned and sighed secretly. For a month, Zhang Xiaoliang did not contact her again, so she knew that Zhang Xiaoliang was ready to get away. During this time together, Zhang Xiaoliang helped her a lot, such as adjusting her work unit and becoming a teacher in the best elementary school in the city. But after getting along with Zhang Xiaoliang for a long time, Meilu found that she had a feeling for him, and she thought it was love.
Mei Lu's nose felt sore and she choked up, "Lao Zhang, I've fallen in love with you, do you believe it? As long as you abandon me, I'm willing to give you everything. Even if you ask me to divorce, I can do it."
Zhang Xiaoliang obviously didn't expect Meilu to be so extreme. He was slightly startled and smiled bitterly: "Meilu, let me ask you, if I were not the deputy district director in charge of education now, would you still love me?"
Mei Lu was silent by Zhang Xiaoliang's question, not knowing how to answer. Indeed, if Zhang Xiaoliang no longer had the identity of deputy district chief, he would be just an ordinary person, Mei Lu would never be able to give up everything and abandon her family and children.
Zhang Xiaoliang patiently persuaded, "Meilu, I just felt that you took our relationship too seriously, so I decided to break up with you. As the saying goes, a short pain is worse than a long pain. It is better to cut the Gordian knot now than to let it get out of control later. Although we will not be together in the future, we are still friends. As long as you have any difficulties, I will spare no effort to help you."
Mei Lu sighed, knowing that the result could not be changed. She wiped the tears from her eyes and said sadly, "Lao Zhang, you are really terrible."
Zhang Xiaoliang laughed at himself and said, "Since you know I'm a scary person, then stay away from me."
Meilu hung up the phone, and Zhang Xiaoliang closed his eyes. Meilu was a good woman, and Zhang Xiaoliang felt that the time he spent with her was particularly happy, but compared to women, Zhang Xiaoliang cared more about the power in his hands. Because he was a rational person, when he was just the director of the Statistics Bureau, no one took the initiative to deliver it to him.
It was Fang Zhicheng who made Zhang Xiaoliang decide to completely sever his relationship with Meilu, because his immediate superior knew that he had such a connection with Meilu. Although there is a saying that "good brothers have fought together and visited prostitutes together", Zhang Xiaoliang knew that Fang Zhicheng was not satisfied with his behavior and he had to make amends.
Originally, Zhang Xiaoliang thought that Fang Zhicheng and Jiang Pei were having an affair, so he put a lot of thought into transferring her to work in the district government. However, after careful analysis in recent times, he found that Jiang Pei and Fang Zhicheng did not have much connection. As he had misunderstood, Fang Zhicheng and Jiang Pei's departure that time was just a coincidence.