Chapter 32: Finding a job is quite difficult

  Five people rode four bicycles, with Lu Zhong carrying Ma Cuihong.

  After turning a few corners, I soon merged into the bicycle stream on the main street of the county town. Pedestrians shuttled back and forth, looking at the crowded crowd on the main street of the county town, Lu Zhong said that it was true that the floating population of Guangning County had increased several times. Among them, there were many outsiders from southern and northern provinces, no wonder the Ushan City Bureau issued a notice to start implementing the temporary residence permit policy.

  Riding a bike has the advantage of being able to chat and relieve boredom while walking. Xiaoliang seems to have already obtained information about Lu Zhong from Lu Xiaoping, and now he looks down on Lu Zhong with disdain. These two are indeed "not from the same family, not entering the same door."

  Xiao Liang also has a characteristic, when speaking, he likes to open his mouth "my dad" and close his mouth "my dad", "what my dad is like" has almost become his catchphrase.

  For a moment, Lu Zhong almost had an illusion that his father was County Party Secretary Qiu Dahai, but later when he listened to them chatting, he vaguely heard that Xiaoliang's father was a deputy director of the county industrial bureau surnamed Wang.

  But in the ordinary working class, the deputy director of the county industrial bureau is a high-ranking official, so it's no wonder that Lu Xiaoping treasures him and thinks he has caught a golden turtle son-in-law.

  Lu Guobin and his group entered the Dongmi Garden, but they didn't meet the boss of the garden. Instead, while waiting for the factory director in a private room on the second floor, the waiter who came to serve tea kept glancing at Lu Zhuang. Seeing that Lu Zhuang was sitting in an inconspicuous position, it seemed that the host and guest were chatting intimately, with one older and one younger person. The waiter shook his head, thinking that he must have mistaken him for someone else. Who could it be? Even if it were the county party secretary having dinner with him, they wouldn't be so cold to each other. Moreover, the old man who didn't look very young was dressed in a way that seemed like a ordinary worker, and his demeanor and behavior also didn't seem to indicate any special status.

  After waiting for almost an hour, Wang Xiaoliang became increasingly impatient and said with a gloomy face: "Gao Dayong's tone is too big, isn't it?"

  Lu Guobin saw his impatience and explained: "His family is in Sanhe, he came to the city today to do something, this time was not fixed anyway, let's wait a bit longer, besides, he doesn't know that Xiaoliang you are here."

  Just as they were speaking, laughter came from outside. "Old Lu, you're making them wait!" The door curtain of the room was lifted and a middle-aged man in Lenin attire walked in, with a square face and slightly dark skin, clearly from a working-class background.

  Lu Guobin stood up with a smile and shook hands with him, then introduced Wang Xiaoliang, Ma Cuihong, Lu Xiaoping and Lu Zhong one by one.

  When Lu Guobin introduced Wang Xiaoliang's father as Director Wang of the County Industrial Bureau, Gao Dayong smiled and said: "Director Gao was at our canning factory just a few days ago to inspect preparations. I've never met Director Wang." The Director Gao in Gao Dayong's words was the big director of the Industrial Bureau. Needless to say, this remark was aimed at Wang Xiaoliang - your dad doesn't count for much in my eyes.

  Actually, if it were an ordinary first meeting, everyone would be polite and courteous. However, Gao Dayong overheard Wang Xiaoliang's sarcastic remarks about him outside, which made him feel annoyed in his heart. Sanhe's canned food factory, which was under preparation, belonged to the Food Company, which was under the Commerce Bureau, and its system was different from that of the Industry Bureau. Of course, the Industry Bureau guided the county's industrial production as a whole, and Gao Dayong, the person in charge of the Industry Bureau, also couldn't be ignored. However, a deputy director who had never been heard of before, Gao Dayong didn't take him seriously either. If it were the other way around, Gao Dayong would have been polite and courteous, and might even have tried to curry favor with him. But how could he let some unknown kid get away with such behavior?

  Nowadays, at the grassroots level, leading cadres have many children and don't have the mind to take care of their children. Not every child can speak in front of them, even if they do, which leader will take it seriously?

  Gao Dàyǒng looked at Wang Xiǎoliàng's flustered appearance and thought that if he were to speak ill of himself in front of Deputy Director Wáng, it might even be a good thing. If the leader is influenced by such a son to distinguish between kinship and social connections, then it's not worth fawning over him anymore.

  Gao Dàyǒng's words were slightly sarcastic, and Lù Guóbīn was taken aback for a moment. Originally, he thought that Wáng Xiǎoliàng and Gāo Dàyǒng were quite familiar with each other, so he could have borrowed some of Wáng Xiǎoliàng's power. But it seemed that things weren't like that at all.

  Wang Xiaoliang was used to being a young master in the Lu family, but when he heard Gao Dayong mention "Director Gao", he was startled. He knew that his father feared Director Gao very much, and this Gao Dayong also had the surname Gao - could it be that he was a relative of Director Gao's? He was thinking that others were just like him.

  No matter what, Wang Xiaoliang's momentum was gone, and he even became servile, "Gao Dayout" quickly turned into "Uncle Gao".

  When introducing Lu Zhong, Lu Guobin just said: "Just call him Little Lu."

  Gao Dàyǒng was still carefully sizing up Lù Zhēn, but after hearing Lù Guóbīn's introduction, he didn't think much of it. When everyone sat down later, Gao saw Lù Guóbīn ordering "Little Lù" to pour tea and serve dishes, running around like a servant. Gao couldn't help but smile wryly, thinking that he had misjudged the situation.

  Originally, Gao Dàyǒng felt that Lù Zhēn was not an ordinary young man when he first saw him. His skeleton was slightly larger and more rugged than others, but his temperament was calm and composed, with a hint of superiority.

  It seems I was overthinking things.

  Lu Guobin wasn't a naive person, but he had already formed an impression of Lu Zhong and didn't pay much attention to him. However, in the eyes of Gao Dayong, Lu Zhong could sense that something was different.

  However, many things are caused by the environment and social status. After Lu Guobin ordered Lu Zhong to do this and that, Gao Dayong looked at Lu Zhong again and felt that it was nothing.

  The dishes were served quickly, and everyone picked up their chopsticks. Perhaps because they had heard Lu Guobin and Wang Xiaoliang's complaints outside, Gao Dayong spoke aggressively, sometimes not giving Lu Guobin any face at all.

  Indeed, Lu Guobin was just the team leader of the third workshop of a fertilizer plant. He had been given the title of deputy director of the workshop, but this was a title that every shift team leader had, and he didn't even qualify as a deputy department level cadre. Although his seniority gave him some face in the factory, once he stepped out into society, he found himself completely unable to cope.

  Lu Guobin put on a pretentious air, after all, he was at that age. But he also had to flatter Gao Daliang, as it was too difficult to find a job without farming in this era.

  Ma Cuihong watched as the old man, who had always been strong-willed at home, was forced to humble himself and ask for help, her nose slightly sour.

  Wang Xiaoliang was a bit annoyed, but still didn't forget to instruct Lu Zheng: "Little Lu, how come you're so careless and haven't poured wine for Uncle Gao yet?!" "Little Lu, swap these two dishes, Uncle Gao can't reach them!"

  Lu Zhong had never served anyone before, today was a new and interesting experience. He took the opportunity to whisper in Ma Cuihong's ear: "Auntie, don't make it difficult for her, I'll think of a way to deal with Xiao Ping's work later."

  He stood up with a big yawn and said: "I'm going to the toilet."

  Lu Guobin gave Wang Xiaoliang a look, but Wang Xiaoliang didn't understand and was annoyed by Lu Guobin. After Gao Dayong left, he whispered: "Follow him to see, Director Gao has had a lot to drink."

  Wang Xiaoliang suddenly understood and hastily got up to chase after him.

  Lu Guobin sighed and shook his head, saying: "It's really hard to get things done..."

  Lu Zhong looked at this old man who was usually very tough on himself, asking for help from others outside, and somehow, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

  Lu Xiaoping was furious, obviously, Wang Xiaoliang's performance just now completely exceeded her expectations and made her extremely dissatisfied.

  Ma Cuihong didn't hear clearly what Lu Zhong said either, and just sighed with worry.

  Several people in the room each had their own concerns and fell silent.

  Lu Zhong said: "I'm going out too." He stood up and left his seat.

  After a few minutes, next door, there was suddenly a loud noise, and it seemed that Wang Xiaoliang's strange cry and Gao Dayong's voice were heard. Lu Guobin was stunned for a moment, listening to the movement with his ear, and then, laughter came from that side again. Lu Guobin thought he had misheard, shook his head, and said to himself that he was really old, and his ears were having hallucinations.

  A few minutes later, Gao Daxiong furrowed his brow and walked back, looking like the intoxication from earlier had completely dissipated.

  Wang Xiaoliang followed behind him, his face looking very bad. He had just sat down when Lu Xiaoping, who was sitting beside him, suddenly let out a cry of surprise: "Xiaoliang, what's wrong with your face? Who hit you?"

  Wang Xiaoliang's face had several bright red finger marks on it. At a glance, you could tell that he had been slapped hard in the face.

  "What are you yelling about?" Wang Xiaoliang, somewhat annoyed, shook off Lu Xiaoping's hand. It was all because of Lu Xiaoping's one sentence that now everyone in the house knew he had been beaten up.

  "Look at how my dad is going to deal with them!" Wang Xiaoliang said indignantly.

  Gao Dayong was also furious, and sneered: "Is that your dad? Do you know who he is? He's not afraid of your dad! I haven't even scolded you yet, just apologize after hitting someone, what are you pretending to be a big shot for? In Guangning, who do you think you are? If it wasn't for me speaking up for you, he could have beaten you to death!" He then turned his head and said to Lu Guobin: "Old Lu, this time I'm really being dragged down by you...by you..."

  "What's wrong? What's going on?" Lu Guobin asked hastily.

  Gao Dayong sighed and said, "Next door is our Sanhe Village's Party Secretary Guo, that whole house is full of Sanhe Village's public security personnel. But this kid...". He pointed at Wang Xiaoliang with hatred, "When Secretary Guo came out to use the restroom, he bumped into him and he started cursing! What can you expect from Secretary Guo's underlings? They dragged him in and beat him up! If I hadn't intervened, they would have beaten him to death!"

  Lu Guobin said: "Isn't this matter over? What else do they want?"

  "What's going on?" Gao Dàyǒng shook his head, "Old Lu, you don't know, my canning factory, there are a lot of procedures for fire safety and security that need to be approved by others. Now the public security bureau has a lot of power, if they want me to open, I can open, if they don't want me to open, they can shut me down immediately. Although it's a public matter, if it can't be opened in the end, won't my position as factory director become useless?" He also had an unspoken sentence, actually this canning factory, he wanted to contract it out himself.

  Gao Dàyǒng sighed and said: "I think Gū Suǒér's intention is to annoy me, just now when I spoke to him, he didn't even bother to respond."

  Lu Guobin exclaimed "ah" and pondered for a moment, saying: "Liu Tangyi from the Sanhe Police Station I do know, is he here?"

  "He's indeed capable, but he's just an ordinary police officer..." Gao Dàyǒng shook his head, and then suddenly brightened up, saying: "Old Lǔ, how about this? You come with me, let's go pay our respects with a drink." After thinking for a moment, he pointed at Wang Xiǎoliàng and said: "You're coming too, you're the one who stirred up all this trouble, make sure to say something nice! Otherwise I'm afraid things won't be over yet!"

  Wang Xiaoliang, although unwilling, did not dare to disobey. The people next door were as fierce and terrifying as evil spirits. They beat him up with a loud crash, which could have scared him to death. Wang Xiaoliang was really afraid that they would come after him again in the future.

  Gao Dayong took a few steps forward with his wine glass, then stopped and turned back to say: "Why don't we all come? Let's go together to offer some toasts." He was thinking that if the whole family came over to speak some soft words, this matter might just pass by, and besides, it was originally Wang Xiaoliang who had caused this trouble, he himself was truly an innocent victim.

  Lu Guobin smiled and said, "Okay." But in his heart, he felt a little humiliated. He and his wife were already quite old, yet they had to go toast someone unrelated to them, and it was bound to be a pretentious toast like that of a sycophant.

  But to say it, it's all because of this little scoundrel! Lu Guobin glared at Wang Xiaoliang fiercely.

  Lu Xiaoping was also unwilling, she walked at the back, Gao Dayong and Lu Guobin, Ma Cuihong, Wang Xiaoliang first lifted the curtain and entered the next room. She hesitated, fell behind the curtain, turned around, but saw Lu Zhong walking back, Ma Shan waved his hand and said: "Zhongzi, come here!"

  Lu Zhong was unclear about it, just went to the restroom earlier and bumped into the owner of Dongmi Garden when he came out, so they chatted casually for a few sentences.

  "What's wrong? What are you doing?" Lu Zhong came over.

  Lu Xiaoping handed the wine cup in her hand to Lu Zhong and pushed his back, saying: "Go inside to toast!"

  ……

  "In the private room, Gao Daxiong was awkwardly speaking: 'Gusu Er, leaders, a thousand mistakes and ten thousand wrongs are all my fault, today, everyone's bill will be counted on me, okay?'"

  Gu Xiangdong was a middle-aged man in his forties with a bald head, triangular eyes and a ferocious face. He had no expression on his face as he sat there fiddling with the chopsticks on the table, not even looking at Gao Dayong.

  Lu Guobin saw Gao Dayong rush towards him, making eye contact, but he had no choice and could only take two steps forward. He raised his wine glass and said to Gu Xiangdong: "What you're good at, this child is my nephew, he has offended many people, we old couple would like to toast with you and the leaders." He saw Liu Tangyi sitting around the table in this circle of people. However, Liu Tangyi also clearly saw him, but pretended not to recognize him, didn't turn his head, and just kept glancing at him sideways.

  Lu Guobin felt a deep sense of helplessness in his heart, these people were really ungrateful and had forgotten their past favors.

  Lu Guobin and Ma Cuihong raised their glasses, but still no one paid attention to them. They stood there awkwardly until Lu Zhong was pushed in by Lu Xiaoping. "Why did you push me?" Lu Zhong complained as he followed Lu Xiaoping in, catching the tail end of Lu Guobin's words. Although he didn't quite understand what was going on, he knew a dispute had arisen. He scanned the room with a slight frown and said, "I'll also toast our leaders!"

  Lu Guobin's temper flared up, and he turned around to scold: "What business is it of yours! Hurry back to that house!" This Lu Zhong was still a bit short-sighted, always muddled like a fool.

  Who knows, suddenly there was a burst of noise, the tables and chairs were in disarray, and some plates had even been knocked to the ground. Lu Guobin turned around in surprise, only to see that the people at this table had all jumped up like their butts were on fire, although they moved differently, it was clear that they all wanted to stand up. Although they were a bit disorganized and uneven in their haste, within ten or so seconds, they were all standing upright.

  Including Gu Xiangdong, all the people at the table stood up in unison.

  Only on the table and floor, bowls, plates, and chopsticks were scattered all over the place.

  "Director!" Gu Xiangdong suddenly changed his demeanor, accompanying a smile as he jogged to Lu Zhong's side. "How did you come here?" That radiant smile completely erased the previous deep and terrifying expression.

  "I don't know how I ended up here either." Lu Zhong was actually telling the truth.

  "You take a seat, you take a seat." Gu Xiangdong stretched out his hand to gesture, and on the other side, a police officer had already pulled out the chair for the main seat.

  "I won't sit down then." Lu Zhong pointed at Lu Guobin and Ma Cuihong, saying: "The two elderly people are toasting you."

  Gu Dong was stunned, only then did he realize that the director knew these people, and had thought they were just coming in to take a look because it sounded lively inside.

  Gu Dong busily raised his wine glass, forced a smile and clinked glasses with Lu Guobin and Ma Cuihong, of course, it was a low-key toast. Then he drank it all in one gulp and said: "I'll punish myself with three more cups."

  Lu Zhong waved his hand and said to Ma Cuihong and Lu Guobin, "Let's go back and sit down, I have something to do this afternoon, just a couple of words and I'll leave."

  Lu Guobin and Ma Cuihong were stunned, really didn't know what was going on.

  Back in the elegant room, Lu Zhong originally wanted to sit back in his original seat, but Gao Dayong pulled him over and pointed to the main seat: "Little... you sit here."

  Lu Zhong looked at the hand that was holding his own and quickly let go, smiling awkwardly: "You...you're actually a leader from the Public Security Bureau?"

  Lu Zhong hummed and asked: "What just happened?"

  Lu Xiaoping was already feeling wronged, and now she had found a target to vent her frustrations. She hastily added oil to the fire as she recounted what had happened, and even called out to Lu Zhong in an unusually familiar tone, "Zhong-ge, you have to help us get revenge!" Earlier, she had vaguely heard those police officers calling Lu Zhong "Director", but she didn't know what kind of director he was. However, judging from their behavior, they seemed to be very afraid of "Zhong-ge".

  Lu Guobin's face turned pale, today's events were beyond his expectations, but it made him feel even more humiliated, in his heart, he was more uncomfortable than when he had just gone to apologize and offer a toast.

  Ma Cuihong took advantage of Lu Xiaoping's pause to ask: "Zhuangzi, what did they just call you? They called you 'Director'?"

  Gao Dayong and Wang Xiaoliang also immediately perked up their ears to listen.

  Lu Zhong smiled and said: "Yes, I have transferred to the Public Security Bureau, now I am the director."

  Gao Dàyǒng let out a loud cry, and it turned out that he had heard from someone two days ago when drinking with others that the county public security bureau chief had been replaced by an exceptionally young one, who was said to have a legendary experience and be very capable of controlling the scene! It was actually this person in front of him.

  Ma Cuihong was somewhat bewildered, and even thought she was dreaming. Zongzi, how could you have turned out so well?

  "Director Lu, let me toast you a glass?" Gao Daxiong hurriedly smiled and raised his wine cup.

  Lu Zhong waved his hand and ignored Gao Dayong and Wang Xiaoliang, saying to Lu Guobin and Ma Cuihong: "Aunt, uncle, let's go back. I'll ask about Xiao Ping's work later."

  Gao Dàyǒng is so depressed, forcing a smile on his face while cursing in his heart. These cops are all bastards, not a single good one among them. They'll turn against you the moment they change their minds. But then again, it's probably my own fault to blame. Thinking back to when he was yelling at "Little Lu" and ordering him around, Gao Dàyǒng suddenly felt cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

  Wang Xiaoliang also thought of his own performance just now and was so scared that he almost wet his pants.

  The next dish, everyone didn't eat much, Lu Guobin was the most unhappy, Gao Dayong frequently wanted to toast Lu Zhuang, after being cold-shouldered, he also understood that he himself was not in the same class, it's better to say less, the other party can still turn around and chat with him for a few sentences, which is already quite leader-like.

  Ma Cuihong was overjoyed, but also very perplexed, and for a moment she really didn't know what to say to this poor child who had suddenly come into good fortune.

  Wang Xiaoliang sat on one side, not even daring to look at Lu Zhong.

  Lu Xiaoping's initial excitement had passed, and she felt as lethargic as Wang Xiaoliang. Thinking about her past attitude towards "Zhuangzi Ge", she felt like a thorn in her back, and all the small bones in her body were not working properly.

  So when Lu Zhong said: "Let's stop here for today and meet again another day?" everyone present let out a sigh of relief, hastily getting up one after another.

  Lu Zhong whispered a few more words to Ma Cuihong, smiling as he saw everyone off at the entrance of Dongmi Garden, watching the backs of Lu Guobin, Ma Cuihong and others disappear into the distance.

  "Director, have all your guests left? If so, why don't you come to our place for some guidance?" Gu Xiangdong appeared beside Lu Zhong at some point, a smile on his triangular face.

  Lu Zhong couldn't help but smile and said, "Old Gu, I'm not good at directing drinking. Let's do it another day, we'll sit down."

  An ancient heart hanging in the east has finally landed.