Inside the long van of the "Empire Dream" luxury car, Lu Ming looked at Jennifer who was sitting timidly beside him, feeling amused and speechless for a moment.
All the way out, she actually grabbed the corner of my clothes and followed me into the car, ignoring other people's gazes.
"What do you want to do by following me like this?" Lu Ming asked helplessly.
"I, I don't know..." Jennifer lowered her head slightly.
Lu Ming shook his head: "Where do you live now? I'll take you home."
"I, I was originally in the West District, but, there are also places in Beiguan, and I, I think recently, I've been living in Beiguan..." Jennifer answered in a low voice.
Lu Ming nodded and remembered that the Sanliwan Garden mentioned in the will was a villa area similar to the American country style. Moreover, most of the residents were Westerners. There were probably no more than 10,000 Westerners in Beiguan, and most of them lived in the Sanliwan community.
In fact, the houses in Sanliwan are not really expensive, and it is not considered an upper-class community. After all, it is mainly composed of two-story wooden buildings, and the area is not large. With the shift of development focus to Beiguan, the Sanliwan area has gradually faded from its once prosperous place.
Sanliwan Community has a convention that selling a house requires the consent of all owners.
The main thing is that it is forbidden to sell houses to other ethnic groups, but there are no other restrictions.
Sanliwan Community is also one of the Beiguan constituencies and belongs to the 23rd constituency.
This house in Beiguan might have been bought for her by old Renault when he was arranging his funeral affairs. It was a temporary arrangement and he was in a hurry, so there was not much room for choice of good houses.
"Go to Sanliwan." Picking up the phone, Lu Ming informed the driver in front.
Looking at this timid little white rabbit, Lu Ming suddenly became curious, "Jennifer, what did your father say about me? Did he want you to marry me?"
Jennifer lowered her head and said nothing.
Lu Ming rolled his eyes and said with a smile, "Jennifer, look, you want to marry me and be my fifteenth concubine, right? How to be a concubine? First of all, do you have to listen to me and obey me in everything? Your father... my Uncle Renault, didn't he tell you that?"
Jennifer whispered, "Yes."
"Okay, then tell me now what Uncle Renault said to you about me." Lu Ming coughed, feeling like a big bad wolf bullying a little white rabbit. Besides, Uncle Renault... Oh, would the ghost of old Renault feel his scalp tingling when hearing this name
Jennifer was silent for a while and whispered, "My father said you, said you..." She glanced at Lu Ming secretly, and there was a hint of panic in her light blue eyes.
“Don’t be afraid, I won’t be angry no matter what Uncle Renault says to me…” Lu Ming’s tone was extremely gentle, and he gritted his teeth in his heart, I’m not angry.
"He said that you, you are very vicious..." Jennifer said the word "vicious" very quietly, "but, but, as long as you promise something, you will definitely do it, so..."
Lu Ming nodded. Maybe sometimes, the person who knows you best is really your enemy.
…
In Sanliwan Community, the two-story rural wooden buildings have a very uniform style. Although the paint colors are different, they are very coordinated, giving people a very harmonious and beautiful feeling.
The Sanliwan Community Convention does have requirements for the exterior of houses, lawns, etc. Unlike rural residents who can do whatever they want with their own homes, the Sanliwan Community Convention requires that the exterior of residents' houses must comply with community requirements and must not destroy the overall style of the community.
The black stretched luxury car drove into the neighborhood, attracting many people standing at the door to watch.
After all, most of the Westerners here are from the working class, or to put it nicely, the middle class, white-collar workers in companies, etc. They are just not as frugal as the Central Africans. They know how to enjoy life and live a more refined life.
Jennifer's new home is located in the middle of a row of American-style wooden buildings, not far from a small square with a flower bed and fountain.
Inside the low white wooden fence, a black-haired maid in her forties was mowing the lawn. She was a little surprised to see the luxury car parked in front of her house. Then she saw Jennifer getting out of the car, and hurried over and opened the fence: "Miss, you are here."
Jennifer whispered to Lu Ming, "She is Hill, my maid since I was a child. She came here a few days ago and started to organize the things here."
Hill bowed respectfully to Lu Ming, "Master..." He spoke fluent Central Plains dialect.
Obviously, she also knew what happened.
Lu Ming nodded to her. The Hosai people with black hair and deep eyes are basically regarded as a part of Westerners, but in reality, their status is relatively low among Westerners, and they mostly engage in physical work. In his eyes, the Hosai people are a bit like Latin people.
Hill led the way as Lu Ming and Jennifer entered the wooden building. The living room inside the porch was very spacious, with a dark green plaid sofa, a coffee table and a TV. It was a very casual layout, and the kitchen and bathroom were also very good.
Hill made coffee and went outside to continue mowing the lawn.
Jennifer took off her exquisite little hat embellished with silver flowers and removed her silver hairpin. Her beautiful long chocolate-brown hair fell like a waterfall, slightly curled, which made her delicate little face look even more pure and beautiful.
Lu Ming sat on the sofa, stamped his feet hard on the dark brown wooden floor, and said with a smile: "Actually, I also want to live in a small house like this. It's very down-to-earth."
Without touching the coffee on the table, he said, "Well, now that you've arrived, I should go too! This place looks pretty good."
Jennifer stood up, lowered her head, and whispered, "I'll go to Wendebao to see you tomorrow. I'll bring my own driver and car, so I won't bother you."
Lu Ming smiled bitterly: "Why are you looking for me? Do you want me to agree to marry you as my concubine?"
Jennifer's pretty face turned pale, she lowered her head and said nothing, tears welled up in her eyes again.
Lu Ming coughed. His words seemed a bit vulgar to this innocent young lady who grew up in a greenhouse, was doted on and received aristocratic education. But his words were true. He just exposed the euphemistic title of concubine.
But it was still a bit cruel. Jennifer was too pure. She was really like a pool of clear water. Moreover, it was the clear elixir that was worshipped by people in the past.
He does not understand the sufferings of the world and lives in a fantasy world woven by others. But it is also because of this that he is so simple and has an extremely precious and pure temperament of a high level.
She's just a carefree little princess who doesn't understand anything.
Old Renault had been too overprotective of her in the past. Although they were from a noble family, there were very few little princesses as carefree as her nowadays.
After thinking for a while, Lu Ming smiled and said, "Look, I have two concubines now, and I am going to marry a concubine-to-be. One of my concubines is a fairy, and the other can help me make money. Her looks and figure are both at the level of the flower of the empire. My concubine-to-be is my childhood sweetheart, and she is also an excellent prosecutor and police officer. What about you? You want to be my fifteenth concubine. What are your specialties?"
Jennifer lowered her head and said, "I, I can play the piano, I can ride a horse, I can, I can dance ballet..." The more she spoke, the less confident she became. She reached out to wipe away the tears that were sliding down her face. She would never sob in front of this man, because her father said that what such men hate most are girls who cry all day long.
Looking at her, Lu Ming felt helpless for a moment. He might as well just sit on the ground and cry loudly, crying out all the grievances, embarrassment and sadness he had experienced during this period of time. She looked really pitiful now.
"Okay, okay, I will seriously consider your request..." Lu Ming coughed, as if it was a bit strange. Such a beautiful and elegant noble lady with an extremely rich dowry was chasing after you to be your concubine, and you reluctantly agreed to consider it. You felt that you were almost not a normal man. However, you felt that you were too happy now. The three concubines all had their own opportunities. If you asked for more, God would probably be jealous of you. The moon is full and then it wanes. It is better not to live too arrogantly.
"Well, you promised that you would seriously consider it! My father said that you are the most trustworthy person in the world!" Jennifer looked up happily. For the first time, she felt a little happy. Perhaps, she was happy that she had fulfilled her father's last wish and that she had finally made a small step forward with her efforts.
And her pure and beautiful face, although with a happy expression at this moment, her deep blue eyes seemed to be faintly covered with a layer of hazy mist, which was very beautiful and charming, but also looked more and more pitiful.
I cried with joy every time my little wish was fulfilled.
Lu Ming was helpless. You, is it really that necessary
…
Nearly a month after the assassination of the boundary commissioner, the campaign office finally reopened.
When all the campaign officials were called together and heard Lu Ming announce the good news, there was immediate joy in the office.
"The election situation is not good, right?"
Chief Secretary Murong Xue and Deputy Chief Secretary Gong were called to Lu Ming's office. Lu Ming smiled after asking, "My question seems very stupid."
Indeed, in the most crucial month, the election campaign has come to a halt and the candidates are even more mired in murder cases. How can they still have supporters
"What's Cao Ying's support rate?" Lu Ming asked.
Murong Xue handed over a stack of information, including recent opinion polls and clippings of various activities in Cao Ying.
Apparently, she has been collecting information on her opponent even though her campaign office is temporarily closed.
"Well, the latest poll showed 69 percent. Let's not talk about that. The opposition rate is over 20 percent? It's a bit high. It seems that no matter what, we have some loyal supporters in the third district? There should be 5 to 10 points of people opposing him. They are our fanatical supporters, right?" Lu Ming flipped through the materials.
Mr. Gong nodded. "He didn't have any effective way to deal with your community cafeteria idea. He has always been known for his sharp writing and his courage to criticize current affairs. When he gave speeches to voters, he always advocated social justice. But what you did for Huahua's grandchildren has spread from one person to another in the third district. Almost everyone knows about it. Apart from writing a few articles, he has not taken any practical action."
Master Gong was completely different from before, his face was solemn and he obviously knew that now was not the time to flatter.
"Boss, so it's not like we don't have a chance. If Cao Ying is willing to have the TV debate you originally planned, that might be our only chance to turn the tables. But I'm afraid he won't agree to have a TV debate with you anymore."
Lu Ming nodded. The gap between the two was too big. Even if Cao Ying felt that he had a 99% chance of winning the TV debate, he would not go crazy with him. Wouldn't it be better for him to make it to the end and win the election
"Well, originally we were supposed to have a TV debate in the second week. We should coordinate our own time, right?" Lu Ming said thoughtfully.
Murong Xue and Master Gong nodded.
Lu Mingtai looked at the calendar. Today was December 7th.
There are 6 days in a week, 5 weeks in December, and now, it happens to be Monday of the second week.
In the fourth week, starting on the 20th, voters officially voted.
Preliminary results will be released on the 21st.
After the Election Supervisory Committee reviews the voting results, the new members will be declared officially elected around the 23rd or 24th.
Then came the handover of work, etc. On December 30, the new term of parliament held its first meeting and elected a seven-member committee.
"We need to think of a way to force Cao Ying to agree to a TV debate with the boss." Master Gong gritted his teeth and said, "Let's expose that he committed adultery with a married woman. His office manager has served him for many years and there are some rumors about him. We have a lot of money in our account. We can buy headline ads in major newspapers and implicitly criticize him." He paused and said, "Well, the tabloids can put some blurry photos in there."
Murong Xue frowned but said nothing. Elections were inherently dirty and horrible.
My own boss was even falsely accused of doing such a horrible thing.
Although I don't agree with what Lao Gong said, I won't strongly oppose it. This is the job of officials like me.
Lu Ming waved his hand, "That's too much of a fool. I might as well kidnap his wife and force him to debate with me."
Master Gong was stunned and laughed dryly. Although the boss was obviously joking, but...
Master Gong secretly looked at Lu Ming's face and thought that his boss might do such a thing.
Being involved in the big case of shooting a border commissioner actually shows from a certain perspective that the boss is a dangerous person and his opponents are also dangerous people.
Take Cao Ying for example. Even if others wanted to attack him and throw mud at him, they would not do such a big and scary thing, because with his social circle, it is impossible for him to be capable of doing such a thing.
It's just a secret affair, or something like that, those little things between men's and women's crotches.
"You guys go first, I'll think about it." Lu Ming waved his hand.
As soon as the two of them went out, Big Head knocked on the door and came in.
Lu Ming smiled: "Has the club resumed normal activities?"
"Well, what I want to say is, didn't you customize an armed helicopter from Sanmai? Should we not use it for the time being?" Big Head said hesitantly.
Lu Ming knew what he was worried about and smiled, "It's still a long way to go before it's delivered. From design to manufacturing, it's the first time. It's the first real armed helicopter in the history of our empire. Just think about that. It will be delivered in half a year at the earliest. So, there's no need to return it. Just wait to receive it."
“It just feels a bit exaggerated…” Big Head smiled bitterly. In fact, militia organizations are more popular in western states.
There were originally many Western militia organizations in the East China Sea, but now the Freedom Force can be said to be the largest armed militia organization in the East China Sea. Almost all of its core members are from Central Asia, and they even have to customize an armed helicopter.
Of course, because there were no armed helicopters in the past, there were no laws prohibiting private clubs or community organizations from owning helicopters, so this was a gray area ball.
Datou always felt that if things continued like this, even if the boss had great connections, it would still be a little dangerous.
What just happened is a lesson for us.
"When we move back, most of the left-wing group will move to the countryside, so it won't be so eye-catching, and it won't be an exaggeration!" Lu Ming looked at Datou and smiled, "Don't you think so?"
Datou thought about it and it seemed to be true. After all, in some villages in remote mountainous provinces, even the people of Central China had militias organized by gentry to fight against bandits and the like.
The affairs of the militia in the westernmost state of the empire regarding refugees, smuggling groups, opium trafficking groups, etc. at the border and in the Western city-states are even more confusing.
Lu Ming pondered again, "Also, let's wait until the middle of next year, when everything is stable. I plan to recruit more retired soldiers and register a mercenary company to help friendly neighbors. Didn't the two local leaders of Yingzhou go to war again recently? In this case, we can charge money to do things in the future. I heard that many people are itching to do things when they are idle every day? You also told me that if we expand further, we will not be able to manage it. We are afraid that there will be collective robberies and the like, which will bring disaster to our club? After all, they all have guns, and when there are too many people, they dare to do anything. Then find something for them to do frequently, and it can also be used as training."
"However, we must make a good assessment. We are here to collect money, not to die. We will not participate in a confrontation where there is a huge disparity in strength."
"In the early stages, we can just participate in some small fights."
Big Head listened and nodded repeatedly.