Chapter 37: New Year at Work

  Looking at the two people's faces changing as fast as a monkey, Zhang Qingyun had an inexplicable sigh in his heart. In his previous life, he hated officials speaking in an official tone the most, but after becoming an official himself, he realized that sometimes this official tone was unavoidable. Take these two goods, for example. He had previously spoken frankly with them, but they thought he was young and gullible, their eyes full of disdain.

  Now that I've slightly disciplined them, their faces have changed immediately, not to mention the respect, and there's even a hint of reverence in their eyes. Using both kindness and severity is indeed an art when it comes to speaking official language!

  "Alright, alright, you two webmasters. I'm not entirely clear on the specifics either. After all, such a major matter still requires discussion and approval from our leaders, even needing to be reviewed and approved by the People's Congress. You'd best just wait and see how things develop!"

  Ma Tao and Chen Ke were not satisfied in their hearts, but Zhang Qingyun had said everything he wanted to say, so they didn't dare ask again. They just wanted to leave as soon as possible and go to other leaders to test the wind, for a while both of them felt restless.

  Zhang Qingyun felt amused in his heart, he wasn't worried at all about Ma and Chen going elsewhere to investigate the truth. For officials, who can say for sure about these policy-related things? Even leaders with some level of seniority would definitely only say some flexible words, such as "Focusing on solving the 'passenger transport' problem is the general direction, but personally I think this issue should still be handled cautiously..." and so on. As for individual functional departments possibly denying it outright, but lacking credibility, these two guys could only become more and more confused the more they asked.

  "Alright, it's getting late too. I can see that both of you are eager to leave, so I won't keep you any longer." Zhang Qingyun said with a smile.

  Ma and Chen's faces turned red, Ma Tao smiled awkwardly: "Director Zhang, you have a keen eye for this. The Spring Festival transportation work is still in full swing, and things are complicated here. Let's just say goodbye for now."

  He finished speaking and gave Chen Ke a glance, Chen Ke hastily added:

  "Director Zhang, this... hehe, a small gift, not enough to show respect!" He said while pointing at the gift on the tea table, "This box of ginseng is prepared for the elderly, hehe... it was dug up from Wugai Mountain last June, and now that the weather is dry, I took it out to air dry... air dry... the medicinal effect is even better."

  He finished speaking and intentionally or unintentionally patted a small, unremarkable wooden box. Immediately afterwards, he and Ma Tiao respectfully retreated.

  After the two left, Zhang Qingyun's heart moved, and his eyes glanced at the inconspicuous wooden box. He got up and opened the wooden box, and inside it was indeed a ginseng, with a red silk lining.

  Zhang Qingyun pulled out the red envelope with a "rustling" sound, and a 100-yuan bill fell straight down.

  His face changed, and he secretly thought that it was fortunate that his parents were not around. If they had encountered such a situation, the two elderly people would have been frightened out of their wits. They were honest people, and Zhang De Nian had a bit of an intellectual's demeanor. If he found out that his son had taken bribes as an official, it would be a matter of great shame for Zhang Qing Yun.

  "It seems that I have to think of a way to move out later." Zhang Qingyun muttered, and the money had been taken away by him, a total of 2,000 yuan.

  Holding this bundle of real gold and silver, Zhang Qingyun's mouth corners rose with a cold smile. This car station is too fat, the casual red envelope is two thousand, what about those direct leaders?

  However, deep down, Zhang Qingyun didn't want to take the money, but it was also not suitable to go back now. What about Ma Tao and Chen Ke's urgent situation? Lei Gang's position was already unstable, and if he made more enemies, it would be adding insult to injury.

  After a long time, Zhang Qingyun let out a long sigh, put the money away properly, and fell onto the sofa. In her heart, she was secretly telling herself that this kind of thing must never be done again. Fortunately, the matter at the bus station would not cause any trouble.

  Zhang Qingyun was very clear in his mind that officials embezzling money and taking bribes were actually the most foolish and easiest to be taken advantage of. The lessons learned from this experience are countless, and it's better not to do such things in official circles. This time, he was inexperienced and was forced to do it once.

  A person sat alone on the sofa for a long time, but the two old men had not returned yet. Zhang Qingyun felt sleepy and his eyelids were fighting each other, so he could only go back to his own bedroom first.

  But as soon as he lay down, he couldn't fall asleep, his mind was filled with work-related thoughts, thinking about Li Gang one moment and Wu De this moment. In the past few months, everyone he had come into contact with flashed through his mind, thinking to himself that he had only been in the county committee compound for a month, yet he had experienced so many things and gained so much trouble, ah, being an official is difficult!

  After a while, Zhang Qingyun heard the sound of opening and closing doors in the living room, and someone was making rustling sounds. Zhang Qingyun knew that her parents had finally returned.

  "I told you! Old man, the guest left early, Qingyun is probably too tired to sleep, let's go to bed first." Yín Sù'é said in a low voice.

  "Aren't I worried? What if our son is discussing official business with them and we're present, disturbing them wouldn't be good!"

  "Reasonable!" Yun Su-eo hummed and said, "Hey! The two of them brought some pretty good stuff. Look at this, what is it? This is Wugai Sanshen, worth over a thousand bucks on the market!"

  She suddenly changed the subject and said, "Hey! Old man, I think those two people are probably asking our Qingyun to do something for them. What did they call Qingyun? Director Zhang? What kind of director is Qingyun?"

  "Alright, alright, wife, stop nagging me, how would I know?! Why don't you just ask Qingyun directly tomorrow?! This kid, the bottle of wine he gave was worth a month's salary for me, humph!" Zhang Deyan said with some impatience.

  "Hey, I'm telling you, old man, why are you looking so sour? Are you not happy to see your son doing well?"

  ……”

  Vaguely, Zhang Qingyun listened to the conversation between the two old men, a warm feeling welled up in her heart, and her mind was also freed from work, soon she fell asleep.

  The next morning, Zhang Qingyun got up early and prepared to go to work. The county committee and government of Yongping County were in the same courtyard. As soon as Zhang Qingyun entered the courtyard, he felt a little confused and couldn't help but laugh.

  He didn't know whether he should go to the county committee office or the county government office. He was a member of the county committee, and his workplace was on this side of the county committee, but on the other hand, he was also Li Gang's secretary, and the government office was closer to Li Gang, so it would be more convenient to go there.

  As for Yongping, the county government office basically doesn't manage anything. There are four deputy county magistrates in the Yongping government, Wang Ping is concurrently serving as one of them and also serves as deputy secretary, a member of the party committee, with his focus on the county committee. There are two other deputy county magistrates, one named Leng Xueru, who was transferred from the military.

  The reason why this brother changed his career is that he was ill, suffering from diabetes and having to inject insulin every day, so being a deputy county head is just a way to pass the days.

  As for another deputy county magistrate, Zhou Gang, he is basically the same as Wu De, nominally in charge of rural work, but actually with financial power in Wu De's hands, and he just handles things according to Wu De's intentions.

  And Huang Songshan is also a veteran, I don't know how he managed it, but the director of the county government office actually let that sickly Cold Xueru take on the role, nominally with high specs, but in reality, the county government office just kept a bunch of idle people.

  He shook his head with a wry smile, the county government was indeed a deformed government. The county magistrate and the secretary of the deputy county magistrate were both selected from the county party committee office, while the government side was basically dominated by Wu De's orders, and Wu De and Huang Songshan were also vying for power in the county party committee, making it seem chaotic. This chaos resulted in Lei Gang being unable to start work now, the county party committee belonged to Huang Songshan, the government side was a mess, Wu De ruled without taking action, and Lei Gang, the head of the county government, had no room to maneuver.

  After a slight hesitation, Zhang Qingyun decided to go directly to Li Gang. Today was the first day of work, and the county leaders would follow the usual practice of visiting each department to pay their respects. Li Gang must have needed someone by his side.

  “