Chapter 2: The Donkey Seduced by Carrots

  Chen Weiping is the director of the office of Xinleng County Local Taxation Bureau, and it was he who transferred Ye Ming, with his exceptional writing skills, from a branch bureau to the office to work on secretarial tasks.

  In the tax bureau, generally speaking, especially young cadres, no one wants to do secretarial work in the office. Because secretarial work is very hard, often having to write information, summaries, speeches, and experience materials, not to mention being exhausted, but also without any benefits. But if you are managing taxpayers in a branch bureau, it's relatively much freer, and there are always taxpayers inviting you out for meals. Even if you're not corrupt or taking advantage, it's still much better than working in the office writing materials all day...

  At that time, in order to win over and appease Ye Ming, Chen Weiping solemnly promised him: as long as you work hard, get good results from the county bureau's information research work, and write a good summary report for the leaders, within three years, I will definitely let you sit in the office as deputy director of the secretariat.

  In these three years, Ye Ming has indeed made great achievements: the county bureau's information research work has jumped from the original city's tax system to first place; provincial and national newspapers often feature news reports about Xinleng County Taxation Bureau; Ye Ming's experience materials and tax research articles often appear in the provincial taxation bureau's internal publications...

  Because of this, he got the reputation of "first pen" in K city land tax system. Also because he is tall and handsome, his face looks like Hong Kong and Taiwan star Louis Koo, and he is knowledgeable and talented, eloquent, and humorous when with colleagues and friends, so he also has a nickname called "Ye Tianle".

  According to the general staff of Xinleng County Bureau, this time the bureau promoted four middle-level deputy cadres. Among them, the position of Deputy Director of Document Secretariat was absolutely Ye Ming's. No one could compete with him, nor did anyone have the strength to compete with him - because document work is not something that everyone can do well, and you must have goods in your belly to be qualified.

  So, when Ye Ming heard Chen Yi say that the bureau had already released a plan for competitive jobs, and he, as the popular candidate for the deputy director of the secretariat, was completely unaware of it, he would be so surprised and unexpected...

  It's obvious that Chen Weiping deliberately didn't inform me of this news. And he is the secretary of the party group and the director Li Li's confidant and yes-man, which means that Li Li has already chosen another candidate for the position of deputy director of the general office. This time I was arranged to go to the provincial bureau to study for half a year, in fact it was a plan to move the tiger away from the mountain, let me leave my work unit, far away from the post of deputy director of the general office. When I come back after studying, everything will be settled, and even if I have a great opinion, I will be powerless.

  However, Li Li and Chen Weiping did not expect that due to the provincial bureau's internal hotel "Huahui Building" holding a national tax work conference, in order to vacate the premises, Ye Ming's training class ended more than ten days ahead of schedule...

  After realizing this, a sense of humiliation from being deceived and bullied made Ye Ming's face turn extremely ugly: he didn't necessarily want to be the deputy director of the secretariat. It was just that for so many years, Chen Weiping had been hypocritically encouraging him, saying that he had mentioned it to Director Li many times, and this time he must let him take the position of deputy director of the secretariat. And Li Li also said many times that he was a great talent in Xinleng County Bureau, an indispensable reserve talent, and must be reused...

  Unexpectedly, behind their solemn promises, there was such a sinister intention: using false promises to mobilize their enthusiasm, bringing up the county bureau's information research work, and then when it's time to promote someone, kicking themselves out with one foot. And by that time, they had already been in a secretarial position, making it difficult to transfer to other departments...

  This made Ye Ming think of the famous story about a donkey and a carrot: Westerners drive a donkey, whenever the donkey refuses to move, the whip is useless, they hang a bunch of carrots in front of the donkey's eyes and above its lips. The silly donkey thinks that as long as it takes one more step forward, the carrots will reach its mouth, so it continues to move forward step by step, the more it wants to bite, the faster its feet move, unknowingly walking another station. Whether it can eat this bunch of carrots at that time depends on the driver's mood...

  Unfortunately: I have become such a foolish donkey in these few years. And Li Li and Chen Weiping are two husbands who deceive themselves...

  Chen Yi heard Ye Ming say that he still didn't know about the job competition this time, and he also looked very surprised. He quickly said: "Then you have to hurry up and prepare! This job competition will first hold an examination, and the content and scope of the examination have already been determined. Taxation business knowledge accounts for 70%, and other comprehensive knowledge and writing only account for 30%. You haven't been engaged in taxation business work for many years, so you must be unfamiliar with tax policies and regulations. Hurry up and review to welcome the exam!"

  Ye Ming asked: "Has the job competition plan been issued? Is it in the official document processing system?"

  "No, I haven't had a chance to forward it yet. Why don't you use my account to log in to the document processing system and take a look at the file?"

  Chen Yi is in charge of filing and document processing in the office. All documents from the bureau must be forwarded through her before they can be received by various units under the bureau.

  Ye Ming hesitated and said: "Is this suitable? Your identity involves some confidential files, I'd better not enter!"

  "What secrets does the tax bureau have? It's not the national security bureau. Just use my ID to take a look: ID number is 0108, password is 024689690926."

  Ye Ming saw the worried expression in her eyes, knowing she was really concerned and anxious for him, so he smiled gratefully at her, sat down in front of his computer, opened the intranet, logged into the document processing system with Chen Yi's identity, carefully read that one copy of the job application scheme that had been signed but not yet forwarded, and felt increasingly annoyed: This competition was conducted according to the procedure of qualification examination, registration for those who meet the qualifications, business examination, democratic evaluation by cadres and workers, and examination by the party group. If he hadn't returned from the provincial bureau in advance, after two days, when the registration period was over, he would no longer have been eligible to participate in the competition.

  It can be seen that: one's own guess was not wrong at all, Li Li and others just wanted to take advantage of the fact that they were still studying in the provincial bureau to complete this competition...

  At this moment, Director Chen Weiping pushed the door from outside and walked in. He saw Ye Ming and forced a smile on his face, saying: "Xiao Ye is back? It's just in time, I have something to tell you. Yesterday when I called you, I forgot to mention that the bureau will be conducting a mid-level deputy position competition soon. You'd better prepare well, go back and take a look at the business books, and get ready for the competitive examination."

  Ye Meng glared at his round, chubby face, and in her heart, she couldn't help but want to punch that oily, worldly face into a rotten flatbread.

  "Director Chen, if I hadn't come back ahead of time today, would the bureau have notified me to return and participate in the competition?"

  Ye Ming asked coldly.

  Chen Weiping's face turned stern, and he said: "Xiao Ye, don't measure others with your own yardstick. You are a qualified cadre for the competition, even if you are studying at the provincial bureau, the party group will notify you in time to come back and participate in the competition. Besides, I have recommended you to Director Li many times, how could you have such thoughts?"

  After finishing his speech, he ignored Ye Ming and turned to face Chen Yi. His face immediately changed like magic, piling up a flattering smile, and said in a soft and gentle tone: "Chen Yi, Director Li wants you to go to his office for a while. There's something very important he needs to discuss with you."

  Chen Yi glanced at Ye Ming, whose face was red with anger, and a hint of sympathy and concern flashed across her face. She asked Chen Weiping in a very calm tone, "Director Chen, I'm just an ordinary cadre. What important matter does Director Li want to discuss with me? If he has work for me to do, you can just arrange it. There's no need to go to his office to talk about it!"

  Chen Weiping was not affected by her coldness and continued to smile: "This conversation is about your participation in the competition, it's absolutely good news. Let's go, Director Li is waiting for you!"

  He said, and then dragged Chen Yi to the director's office on the fourth floor without saying a word.

  Ye Ming heard that Li Li was going to discuss the competition with Chen Yi, and his heart skipped a beat again. After careful consideration, he suddenly realized: it turned out that Li Li was trying to please Chen Yi by offering her the position of deputy director of the office secretariat, wanting to use this official promotion to win her heart and make her willingly become his mistress - according to people familiar with Li Li, when he was the head of the high-tech branch, he used this trick to get a beautiful female cadre into his hands.

  And now, he has Chen Yi called into his office, definitely starting to make a move on her...

  As soon as this thought occurred to him, Ye Ming's heart ached: Could it be that Chen Yijia, who appeared refined and noble on the surface, this goddess in his mind who was not tainted by worldly desires, was actually a woman who pursued fame and profit, a philistine? Otherwise, why didn't she call him during his training period at the provincial bureau to mention this job competition? Why didn't she sternly reject Li Li's explicit flirtations and insinuations?

  Could it be that she had already known that Li Li was going to leave the deputy director of the secretariat position for her?

  At this time, Ye Ming suddenly remembered Chen Yi's various suspicious and strange behaviors: several times, he pushed open the office door and went in, and Chen Yi, who was typing on the computer with his head down, suddenly looked up at him like he had been frightened, his face flushed, his expression flustered, and quickly closed the computer page.

  Based on intuition: Chen Yi was writing something in her QQ space, and the content should be what she considered highly confidential, so when Ye Ming came in, she would appear so flustered.

  So, is the content of this space diary related to Li Li? Is it related to Li Li's promise to her?

  If that's really the case, then her usual display of affection and concern for herself would be purely a performance and disguise, and her city would be too deep...

  Thinking of this, Ye Ming felt a pang of sadness in his heart. He mechanically switched the computer to the external network and prepared to log onto his QQ account to chat with a few good friends and relieve his depressed mood.

  When he was logging in, he suddenly and inexplicably entered Chen Yi's QQ number and tried to log in with the password of the document processing system that Chen Yi had just told him, and it actually worked.

  As he was about to enter Chen Yi's QQ space, he hesitated for a moment, feeling that this seemed a bit unethical. But his curiosity to know the truth overcame his moral sense, and after a brief hesitation, he opened Chen Yi's QQ space with trembling hands...