The Tempting Road to Becoming an Official

"Hehe, by the sounds of it, Director Qi, am I forced to reconcile with Director Pi?"

Chen Fang asked.

With a flick of Qi Hui's index finger, the cigarette butt flew out, landing in the bushes at the entrance of the auditorium.

He said, "Director Chen, this meeting is starting in a few minutes. All the logistical work is handled by the Guidance Office. It's a quick task for the Guidance Office to prepare a nameplate and a seat for Director Chen, so you need to hurry up."

Initially, Chen Fang thought that the lack of a prepared seat for today was merely due to the oversight that he had not yet assumed his position.

As soon as he said this...

Chen Fang understood.

It was an outright threat.

The message was clear: if Chen Fang didn't reconcile with Pi Yanping today, he wouldn't be able to save face in today's meeting.

After all, Chen Fang was the top authority.

And he had just taken office.

Even someone as arrogant as Sun Shenru wouldn't embarrass a leader on his first day in office.

This showed that Qi Hui had never cared about Chen Fang at all.

"Fine then, since that's the case, I'll just be an attendant. It's also a good opportunity to witness the prestige of Jinde County's education system."

Chen Fang snorted coldly.

He then turned and walked in.

Qi Hui was stunned, standing frozen in place.

He was somewhat slow to react.

A wise man adapts to circumstances.

He had never seen someone like Chen Fang who failed to recognize Rising opportunities.

"What's going on?"

While he was blanking out...

Pan Youde emerged.

Qi Hui shook his head and muttered, "Young and foolish, thinking he's the top leader of the county committee."

"Oh?"

Hearing this response, Pan Youde also seemed surprised, mocking, "A person like this can be a director? I had too high an estimation of him."

"What should we do next?"

Qi Hui asked.

Pan Youde thought for a moment and said, "What to do? The meeting proceeds as normal. If we don't discipline such a person, won't he think he can do anything he wants later on?"

Qi Hui chuckled, speaking to Pan Youde, "Old Leader, don't worry. With me here, no one will turn things upside down. The education system is still your education system; it won't undergo a name change."

Pan Youde patted Qi Hui on the shoulder.

Looking very pleased, he said, "Let's go, let's start the meeting. I want to see where Director Chen Fang can put his face after this meeting."

The scheduled meeting time was 11:30 am.

There were about two or three minutes to go.

All participants had already arrived.

I don't know if it was intentional, but the host of this meeting was actually Pi Yanping.

Suddenly, he picked up a microphone.

His eyes scanned the auditorium.

They landed on Chen Fang, who was seated in the farthest corner.

A hint of contempt flashed in his eyes.

Just as he was about to speak, Vice Mayor Xiao Xiao suddenly exclaimed, "Wait a moment."

Pi Yanping immediately approached, asking respectfully, "Vice Mayor Xiao, is there something else?"

Xiao Xiao asked, "Where is Director Chen?"

Pi Yanping turned towards Qi Hui in a fluster.

Seeing this, Qi Hui quickly stood up, leaned over next to Xiao Xiao, and said, "Vice Mayor Xiao, today's survey and study session was planned long ago. At that time Director Chen had not yet taken office, and the school didn't know he would be attending today, so no table or nameplate was prepared for him."

Xiao Xiao nodded.

He said, "Oh, so that's the case."

It seemed this would be concluded.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Xiao paused, then said, "Then do this, remove your nameplate, come down, and let Director Chen come up."

"Vice Mayor Xiao, is that really appropriate, considering Qi Hui's earlier arrangements?"

Pan Youde hurried over and whispered.

Xiao Xiao glared,

and said, "We have the top authority sitting below, while the second in command sits up high as if it were his throne. Have we lost all sense of propriety here?"

Pan Youde and Qi Hui's faces turned pale in an instant.

Seeing that neither of them made a move,

Xiao Xiao asked, "Shall I and Director Xu go sit down below while you two leaders take the stage?"

The tone of this statement held an angry note.

Pan Youde was shocked.

He glanced quickly at Qi Hui, who could only resentfully leave the platform.

Qi Hui gave no indication of inviting Chen Fang to come over.

Xiao Xiao turned on the microphone switch in front of her and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, before the meeting starts, let me introduce our newly appointed Director of the Education Bureau of Jinde County, Comrade Chen Fang."

Having said this,

she led the applause.

Xiao Xiao applauded.

Nobody else dared to remain idle.

They all followed suit and began applauding.

Chen Fang walked through the seats to the stage,

arrived at the spot previously occupied by Qi Hui, and gave everyone a bow.

In doing so,

Chen Fang made his first official appearance in the Jinde County education system.

After the introduction was over,

Pi Yanping began to chair the meeting.

Chen Fang picked up the agenda lying on the table and realized that the meeting was, in fact, a commendation assembly for the selection of a primary school to become a municipal key school.

Among those being commended was Pi Yanping himself.

That such a person could still be selected as an outstanding contributor to the education system showed there was indeed a lot of trickery involved.

Everything before had been just a bunch of pompous talk.

When it was the turn of Xu Ting, the deputy director of the Municipal Education Bureau, to speak,

Pan Youde, sitting next to Chen Fang, suddenly said, "Director Chen, how about you announce the award winners later?"

Upon hearing this,

Chen Fang shivered.

He was to announce the award winners?

According to the arrangement,

wasn't it supposed to be Pan Youde who did the announcing?

All at once, it became clear to him.

No wonder Qi Hui was so confident; he must have been directed by Pan Youde.

The two had been collaborators for several years, so it was no surprise they were in cahoots.

By having him announce the award winners, it would ensure that Pi Yanping's award would come from his own mouth. Once cloaked in that aura, any later attempts to deal with him would be like slapping his own face.

No one would do such a foolish thing.

This was blatantly setting him up.

Seeing the malicious smirk in Pan Youde's eyes,

Chen Fang knew he had to overcome this challenge today.

The next part of the program was the announcement of the award winners.

Under the expectant gazes of all, Chen Fang walked to the podium.

Qi Hui, sitting below the stage, saw him take the microphone and sneered coldly to himself, "Fine, I want to see how you embarrass yourself."

As the Director of the County Education Bureau,

Chen Fang began reading from the script.

Pi Yanping, already knowing the outcome, also wore a big smile,

as, in his view, once his name was read by Chen Fang, his previous crisis would be considered resolved.

"All right, that concludes the announcement of the award winners. Congratulations to everyone!"

In a daze,

Chen Fang had finished reading the list.

Loud applause erupted.

Pi Yanping was momentarily stunned and looked anxiously at Pan Youde.

Pan Youde's previously triumphant expression also froze.

Because during the announcement, Chen Fang had not mentioned Pi Yanping at all.

As the applause died down,

Pan Youde immediately turned on the microphone,

and said, "Director Chen, please check again. Have you missed any names?"

"No, I have read them all,"

Chen Fang said with an innocent expression.

Pan Youde insisted, "That can't be right, there must be some you've missed, please check again."

Chen Fang picked up the speech in his hands, flipped through it, and scrutinized it several times, saying, "No, I've read them all."

"No way, the name of Pi Yanping, the director of the teaching department of the seventh primary school, is not there,"

Pan Youde couldn't hold back any longer.

Finally, it slipped out.

"Oh, so it was this name that was obscured by the ink here, I apologize, everyone. I, Chen Fang, being new here, am not very familiar with this list, and the speech was also smeared with ink, I really apologize. Since Deputy Director Pan has already mentioned it, I won't add anything further,"

said Chen Fang,

raising the speech in his hand in front of everyone as he did so.

Indeed,

in the middle of the page, there was a large blob of pen ink, precisely obscuring a name.