The Tempting Road to Becoming an Official

"Shikang's father, Mei Jun, is a city leader. Do you think your newspaper has the courage to offend him?"

Chen Fang's words made Lan Lv understand immediately.

"Are you doing this to protect me?"

"Not entirely. Under the current circumstances, I'm still no match for him. Since I want to survive in the Safety Supervision Bureau, I can't push him too hard. Otherwise, he still has the capability to take me down with him. I have to be cautious."

Upon hearing this,

Lan Lv sighed.

She said, "They say in officialdom, one must plan three steps ahead. At first, I couldn't believe you were the new deputy director. Now I do. Okay, I'm going back to write my article. If fate allows, we'll meet again."

"If fate allows."

After Chen Fang waved his hand, Lan Lv hailed a taxi and left.

A farce thus came to an end.

The next morning,

As soon as Chen Fang walked through the gates of the Safety Supervision Bureau,

many colleagues who worked with him warmly greeted him.

After entering the office,

the heads of various departments began spontaneously reporting their work to him.

Of course, reporting work was just a pretext; in reality, it was about building relationships.

Everyone knew that Shikang had been the king of the Safety Supervision Bureau before Chen Fang's meteoric rise disrupted everything, especially for those who were not favored by Shikang who had now finally found a new ally.

Around ten in the morning,

He Duo, the Party Committee Secretary and Director of the Safety Supervision Bureau, convened a party team meeting.

At the meeting, he announced Chen Fang's appointment by the organization department.

The matter of Tang Weiping being investigated by the anti-corruption bureau, however, was not mentioned at all,

as if he wasn't interested in it in the slightest.

If Chen Fang had "ridden the breeze with swift horse hooves," then for Shikang, it was "heavy rain leaks striking on the same night."

He had failed to intimidate his opponent.

And had lost a key "general."

More importantly, the lucrative chain of trading permits had been completely severed.

Just that morning, three members of the General Affairs department were taken away by the anti-corruption bureau.

The trusted lieutenants he had painstakingly nurtured were uprooted.

One piece of bad news after another had brought him to the brink of an explosion.

After pacing back and forth in his office for a while,

he picked up the phone on the desk, dialed a number, and said, "Come to my office."

Three minutes later,

the office door was pushed open.

A woman elegantly walked in.

In her twenties, the woman wore a strappy dress and a very small jacket, exuding youth and charm.

The two seemed to have an understanding.

Seeing the woman enter,

Shikang walked to the couch, sprawled out as he sat down.

The woman went straight to his knees and crouched down.

Her fair, slender fingers unzipped his trousers, then she adjusted her hair and rested her head there.

With the woman's head bobbing,

Shikang's gloomy expression gradually relaxed.

Just as he felt a surge of energy about to burst forth from his body, suddenly, the office door opened without warning.

"Shikang..."

Another woman appeared at the door.

She had just called out his name when the scene before her stunned her.

The smile on her face faded instantly.

Equally shocked was the on-edge Shikang.

Seeing the woman at the door, his expression twitched, and he abruptly pushed the woman between his legs away and zipped up his trousers.

"Go on."

The woman dropped that remark and then turned away and left.

Mei Shikang was in a panic.

As he chased after her, he shouted, "Xi'er, Xi'er you've got it all wrong, Xi'er..."

In the corridor, the woman stopped walking.

She turned around to face a flushed Mei Shikang and sneered, asking, "A misunderstanding? Come on, explain it to me then—what have I misunderstood? Was she just giving you a root massage?"

Mei Shikang really didn't know how to explain.

He hemmed and hawed, but couldn't manage to cobble together a coherent response.

"Forget it, there's nothing you need to explain—we're breaking up."

Seeing Mei Shikang like this, the woman said with some disappointment.

Mei Shikang grabbed the woman's hand and said, "Come on, stop making a fuss. Men always have to deal with such scenes, right? What are you playing at?"

"I'm making a fuss? Mei Shikang, how can you even say that?"

This serious matter, glossed over so lightly by Mei Shikang, obviously didn't sit well with the woman.

"Enough, Zhao Xi'er, don't think you're all that great. It's your good fortune that Mei Shikang fancies you. You're a 'white tiger' girl—what are you whining about? Without me, do you really think anyone better would take a second look at you?"

No pretense now, cards on the table.

The woman in front of him was none other than Zhao Shoujiang's daughter, Zhao Xi'er.

That remark hit Xi'er right in her weak spot.

Zhao Xi'er's eyes filled with anger.

She looked at Mei Shikang and asked, "How did you know I am... am... white...?"

Mei Shikang scoffed.

He said, "You still think you're some kind of pure and untainted maiden? Since I chased after you, of course I checked out your background thoroughly. Not only do I know about your 'white tiger,' I also know how your mom died, how your first love died—what good is looks, do you think anyone dares to touch you?"

This time, Mei Shikang's words not only struck deep, but they also reopened Zhao Xi'er's wounds.

Zhao Xi'er wasn't always like this.

There had been a time when she was a cheerful young girl.

At the age of 16, while vacationing at a lake with her mother, a careless step led Zhao Xi'er to accidentally fall into the water.

Struggling in the water, which she did not know how to navigate, it took a long time before her mother noticed.

To save her daughter, her mother, also not adept at swimming, bravely jumped into the lake.

As a result, Zhao Xi'er was rescued, but her mother closed her eyes forever.

That very year, a fortune teller told Zhao Shoujiang that his daughter Zhao Xi'er was born under an evil star, a bane to parents and husband alike—anyone close to her was doomed.

Zhao Shoujiang was highly superstitious.

Although he doted on his daughter who had lost her mother, he began distancing himself from her from that time, making her stay at boarding schools with hardly any meetings.

In her 19th year...

Zhao Xi'er met a boyfriend in college.

It was her first love.

She and her boyfriend were very much in love.

Unexpectedly, their romance lasted only for six months, as her boyfriend was stabbed in the chest during a robbery on his way home from a part-time job and died tragically.

Remembering the fortune teller's words, Zhao Xi'er started to doubt herself.

Since then, she cut off all romantic ties.

Shielded herself with thorns.

And stayed away from anyone until a few months ago, when Mei Shikang pursued her relentlessly.

Having her long-dormant emotions rekindled, Zhao Xi'er was finally moved by Mei Shikang, and they started dating.

"You knew I was born under an evil star, so why did you chase after me?"

As she asked this question, Zhao Xi'er's heart was already shattered.

Mei Shikang sneered, "What else could it be for, of course, it's because of your dad? Although he fears you, you're still his only daughter. Zhao Shoujiang is nothing in front of our Mei Family, but he can still be of some help to me in Changming County, right?"

"You... you're despicable!"

Zhao Xi'er shouted furiously, teeth clenched.

Mei Shikang scoffed, saying, "Okay, okay, so I'm despicable, sure, but even that's better than you being hairless, right? Zhao Xi'er, Zhao Xi'er, if you break up with me, it's your loss. Besides me, in the entire Changming County, who else would take you seriously? Oh, maybe those punks from your store might be interested in you, haha..."

"Nobody would, is that it? Come on, follow me!"

With that, Zhao Xi'er grabbed Mei Shikang's arm and pulled him towards Chen Fang's office.