"Hello, Yiwei, where are you?" County Magistrate Zhang Zhiyuan called Lu Yiwei at 6 p.m.
Lu Yiwei was playing mahjong at this moment, so he immediately left the room and covered his phone. "County Magistrate Zhang, I'm at home."
"Oh, the Chairman of the CPPCC is treating me to dinner tonight. My chauffeur has applied for leave, so you can pick me up later." Zhang Zhiyuan replied.
"Alright, I'll pick you up immediately." After hanging up the phone, Lu Yiwei lit up a cigarette in the courtyard and pondered about the purpose of Zhang Zhiyuan's call. Why would the Chairman of the CPPCC, Duan Changyun, invite him to dinner? Could it be that Zhang Zhiyuan has accepted his suggestion? Since the chauffeur has applied for leave, there's also a substitute driver, so why did he pick him up? Lu Yiwei figured out that Zhang Zhiyuan must have placed him in an important position, and he even wanted him to accompany him for dinner tonight. After thinking it through, Lu Yiwei threw the cigarette on the ground and stepped on it before he apologized to his friends and rushed to the County party committee.
When Lu Yiwei arrived at the County party committee building, he gave a call to Zhang Zhiyuan. A brief moment later, Zhang Zhiyuan came down wearing a black coat.
Zhang Zhiyuan was thin and small to begin with. Now that he was wearing the knee-length windbreaker, he looked even more dainty and delicate. He opened the front passenger compartment, lifted his leg and butt, and dashed in. "County Magistrate Zhang, it's safer for you to sit at the back," Lu Yiwei reminded out of goodwill.
Zhang Zhiyuan removed his glasses and pinched his nose. "What's there to care about with me? The view is good, and I can chat with you. Let's go."
Since that's the case, Lu Yiwei no longer insisted and stepped on the accelerator. He nervously drove out of the County party committee and asked, "County Magistrate Zhang, where are we going?"
Zhang Zhiyuan closed his eyes and said, "Nanzhou City."
Lu Yiwei didn't ask any more questions. He turned around and drove toward Nanzhou City.
Located in the west, Xijiang Province was an economically underdeveloped province and ranked behind the rest of the country. There were a total of 12 prefecture-level cities under his jurisdiction, among which the five cities of East, West, South, South, and River were more well-known. The provincial capital, Jiangdong City, was the political and cultural center. Due to its geographical advantage and rich natural resources, Eastern City became the economic center of the province. Although the Northern City was rich in mineral resources, it had never been able to break through the traffic bottleneck. The driving force for development was insufficient, and the room for improvement was huge. Needless to say, Xi Zhou City was a typical mountainous city. It was ranked last in the province and was the poorest city in the province. The situation of Nanzhou City was rather special. There were no resources within the borders, but there was a vast land. It was a purely agricultural city. Once they left the "One Line of Sky", they would enter a province with stronger overall strength.
In recent years, the economic development of the neighboring province had entered the fast lane, and the speed of development was astounding. It was almost different every day, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was changing with each passing day. The economic development had heated up the real estate market, and the housing prices had been rising year after year, approaching that of a first-tier city. Some who couldn't afford to buy a house turned their attention to the "backyard" of Nanzhou City. As a result, a large number of builders had come to Nanzhou to buy land and build buildings. In just a few years, Nanzhou had changed greatly. It had suddenly become a new city, competing with Eastern City, an economic powerhouse.
There was a popular saying among the people: "Jiangdong is proud. Eastern State is suitable for retirement. Western State is high and remote. Northern State is full of treasures. Southern State's buildings are taller than the sky." With just a few words, it succinctly summarized the characteristics of the major prefecture-level cities of Xijiang Province. In addition, there was another version: "Jiangdong has many officials, Eastern State has many scenic spots, Western State has many thieves, Northern State has many bosses, and Southern State has many young ladies." This way, it was more straightforward to describe the characteristics of each place.
If you went out and said you were from Jiangdong, people would look up to you. After all, it was the provincial capital. If you said you were from Northern State, people would always say, "You're a big boss, right? How many mines do you own? " If you said you were from Western State, people wouldn't even bat an eyelid. Their eyes would be filled with disdain. It was a serious form of regional discrimination. If you said you were from Eastern State, girls would take the initiative to get close to you and excitedly say, "Don't you have a boyfriend?" All of them wanted to marry into Dongzhou City. Now, Nanzhou City had also become tough. However, the people who went there, other than the "migratory birds" from the neighboring province, the rest were either there to gamble or to look for prostitutes.
The entertainment and dining industry of Nanzhou City had entered a golden age with the rise of the real estate market. Outsiders called this place "Little Hong Kong." Although the praise was a little exaggerated, it had to be said that Nanzhou City had changed a lot. In just a few years, it had completed the urbanization process and became a bright pearl of Xijiang Province.
When Lu Yiwei followed County Head Chu Yunchi, he often came here. Now, Zhang Zhiyuan also proposed to go to Nanzhou. This scene was so similar to the past.
On the way, Zhang Zhiyuan asked, "Yiwei, what do you think of Duan Zhangyun?"
Zhang Zhiyuan asked casually, but Lu Yiwei's answer was not easy. He didn't know what the other party wanted to know, so he tried to sound him out. "Chairman Duan used to be a member of the County party committee and the head of the Publicity Department. He's quite good at doing publicity."
"Oh." Zhang Zhiyuan narrowed his eyes and said thoughtfully. The headlights of the approaching car shone on Zhang Zhiyuan's dry and cold face. If one wanted to judge his mood from his face, it would be difficult to make an accurate conclusion unless one had followed him for a long time.
Of course, Lu Yiwei's words were not said casually. He was hinting to Zhang Zhiyuan that Liu Kecheng was in charge of human resources, but he didn't pay much attention to public opinion. If Zhang Zhiyuan could take over the publicity, it would be a sharp sword against Liu Kecheng. However, Lu Yiwei couldn't say it out loud. After all, Zhang Zhiyuan hadn't shown any dissatisfaction with Liu Kecheng. It was just his own speculation.
After a long time, Zhang Zhiyuan said again, "I've only met Duan Zhangyun a few times, so I don't know him very well. Tell me more about him."
Lu Yiwei didn't plan to hide anything and told Zhang Zhiyuan everything he knew. "Chairman Duan is from Xi Zhou City. He's been working in Nanyang County ever since he started. It's been a few decades. He's honest and treats people well, especially his subordinates. He doesn't put on airs and gives people the impression that he's close to the people. "When he was competing with Zhang Longfei, the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, for the position of Chairman of the CPPCC, Secretary Liu was biased towards Zhang Longfei. However, Chairman Duan had a good foundation among the people, and the higher-ups recognized him. In the end, he defeated Zhang Longfei and became the Chairman of the CPPCC. "Because of this, Chairman Duan and Zhang Longfei became enemies. It seems that Secretary Liu doesn't like him."
"Oh." Zhang Zhiyuan didn't express any opinion. He just closed his eyes and listened. Lu Yiwei continued, "Chairman Duan is very talented, especially when it comes to writing materials. It can be said that he's very good at writing. There's almost no fault to be found in the materials he writes. Every year, the materials for the Three Cadres Meetings or large-scale typical materials come from him. Outsiders call him the 'first pen' of Nanyang."
"Then what does Secretary Liu think of him?" Zhang Zhiyuan suddenly threw out such a question.
This topic was sensitive, so Lu Yiwei had to answer perfunctorily, "County Zhang, I've left the political circle for five years. I don't know much about the current situation."
"Oh." Zhang Zhiyuan's answers were always short of words. A simple 'oh' contained too many hidden meanings. This needed to be judged in a specific context.
Zhang Zhiyuan didn't say anything else. He leaned back in his chair and seized the time to rest. As leaders, time was tight, so they had developed the ability to seize the free time to rest. On the surface, it looked like he was resting, but in fact, he was thinking about problems.
When they were approaching Nanzhou City, Lu Yiwei noticed through the rearview mirror that a suspicious car had been tailing them from Nanyang County to Nanzhou City. He couldn't help but be alarmed. Therefore, he deliberately pulled over and stopped the car. The car behind also slowly stopped not far away.
Zhang Zhiyuan thought they had arrived. He opened his eyes to look around and said, "Go straight to Liduyuan Hotel."
Lu Yiwei reminded Zhang Zhiyuan, "County Zhang, there's a suspicious car behind us. It followed us from Nanyang County to here. I stopped just now, and it also stopped."
Zhang Zhiyuan suddenly frowned. He stood up and carefully observed through the rearview mirror. "Do you recognize this license plate number?"
Lu Yiwei said, "If it starts with 'Xi E', it must be from Bei City. If it's a unit's car, it should start with '20'. This car is obviously not from that unit."
"Ignore him. Shake him off," Zhang Zhiyuan said, a little angry.
Lu Yiwei's driving skills were adept. He started the car and continued moving forward. He drove to a small alley and suddenly turned into it, then sped up and rushed out. When they returned to the main road, the car was already gone.
"Who do you think it could be?" Zhang Zhiyuan looked back.
Lu Yiwei was not familiar with Zhang Zhiyuan's social connections. After all, it was only their third meeting. He shook his head and said, "This … I'm not too sure."
"Did you write down the license plate number just now? Investigate it secretly when you get back, "Zhang Zhiyuan said in a commanding tone.
"Noted down. I'll do it when I get back," Lu Yiwei said decisively. He also wanted to know who dared to follow the County Mayor. However, he was still suspicious. He vaguely felt that this matter must have something to do with Liu Kecheng.
When they arrived at Liduyuan Hotel, Lu Yiwei carefully parked the car in the backyard after dropping Zhang Zhiyuan off. He covered the license plate and was about to turn around to leave when he saw a familiar black Passat. He looked at it carefully and realized it was the car of the County party committee secretary, Liu Kecheng.
Why is he here? Is he also having dinner tonight? Lu Yiwei thought to himself. He was puzzled by Zhang Zhiyuan's actions.
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