Feng Zhou City.
In front of the City’s Investment Promotion Agency office building.
Dong Xuebing answered the call while walking to his car. “Hello, who’s that?”
“Xiao Bing, it’s me.” Dong Xuebing’s mother, Luan Xiaoping, said. “Where are you now?”
Dong Xuebing boarded his Camry and replied. “Didn’t I tell you that I will be in the City for a meeting today? The meeting just ended, and I will be going back to the County after lunch. What is it? Are you coming over to my place? Wait… this is a mobile phone number. Did you buy a mobile phone?”
Luan Xiaoping stuttered. “Old Yang… Old Yang… had given me a mobile phone this morning.”
Dong Xuebing is speechless. “Are you also in the City? Did you go and find that Old Yang again? Can you be more reserve? Why are you always traveling to the City to look for him? Why can’t he come and look for you?”
Luan Xiaoping grumbled. “Stop your nonsense. Old Yang is busy with his work, and he had sent his driver to pick me up.”
Dong Xuebing touched the steering and felt jealous. “You had forgotten about your son after getting a boyfriend. How many times have I told you to get a mobile phone, and you refused to get one? How come you accept Old Yang’s mobile phone?”
Luan Xiaoping is feeling amused. “He had already bought it, and you had not bought the phone.”
“Fine… fine…” Dong Xuebing rolled his eyes. “It’s all my fault, ok? I will buy gifts for you without asking in the future.”
“I don’t need anything, and you should not spend unnecessarily.” They chatted for a while, and Luan Xiaoping suddenly asks. “Xiao Bing, are you free now? You had agreed to meet your Uncle Yang, and I think he is looking forward to meeting you too. It’s Saturday, and he is not working today. Since you are in the City and is free now, do you want to have lunch together? I will give you his address.”
Dong Xuebing suddenly felt his mother and Old Yang had gotten closer. “Mum, did you stay over at his place last night?”
Luan Xiaoping quickly denied. “No… stop talking nonsense!”
“Alright… I will head over now.”
“Ok. Takedown his address. Oh, if the guards refuse to let you enter, call me. I will go downstairs to bring you in.”
“His place still has guards?! A high-class residence? What is Old Yang doing? Business? He sounds rich.” Dong Xuebing keyed in the address on his mobile phone. Suddenly, he froze. “Huh? This address is very familiar. Mum, this seems to be the City’s Party Committee family quarters’ address.” Dong Xuebing had come to the City for a few meetings when he was Public Security Deputy Chief.”
Luan Xiaoping hesitated. “Err… your Uncle Yang is a leader with the Government. I only found out about this recently.
“What?!” Dong Xuebing is stunned. “He is a leader with the City Party Committee? Which department is he in?”
“I am not sure. Everyone calls him Minister, and I think he should be the head of the organization department.”
Dong Xuebing took a deep breath. He is really stunned. “Mum, you are terrific. The organization department’s head within the City Party Committee is at least a Deputy-Bureau-Director level official and a Party Committee Member. All of us have to suck up to him. Damn! Is he really a leader with the Party Committee? Why is he interested in you?”
Luan Xiaoping is pissed. “Old Yang is not as superficial as you.”
Dong Xuebing knew he had said the wrong things. “Mum, I don’t mean that. You are so pretty and have a good character. It’s right for him to like you.”
“What rubbish are you talking about? Hahaha… I am pretty?”
Dong Xuebing asked after pacifying his mother. “Is he really the head of the City Government’s organization department?”
Luan Xiaoping replied impatiently. “Old Yang is Old Yang. Why do you keep asking about this? I am hanging up now!”
“Ah… what’s the hurry? Alright… I will not ask anymore. I will head over now.”
After hanging up, Dong Xuebing slapped his forehead a few times. He is feeling complicated and called Luo Haiting. “Hello, Sister Luo. It’s me. Are you having your lunch now?”
Luo Haiting laughed and replied. “Not yet. I am preparing to cook lunch.”
“Oh, do you know who the head of the City’s Party Committee’s organization department is?”
Luo Haiting is puzzled. Who doesn’t know the City’s Party Committee’s Organization Department’s Head? But she remembered that Dong Xuebing was transferred in from outside and replied. “It’s Minister Yang Zhaode.”
It’s really him!
Dong Xuebing sighed. “I suddenly overheard someone talking about him. Alright, I am only curious. Carry on with your cooking.”
Dong Xuebing kept his phone and drove towards the City Party Committee Family Quarter.
Along the way, Dong Xuebing thought about a lot of things. He had met lots of unpleasant things within the government service and does not really want his mother to be with Yang Zhaode. He is a high-ranking government officer, and Dong Xuebing’s family is only an ordinary family. Yang Zhaode might look down on them as their social status are not the same. But Dong Xuebing is still impressed with his mother. His mother had seldom gone out and had not to look for a partner for so many years. But now, she had gotten a City Government’s Party Committee Member as her boyfriend. Could this be fate?
Dong Xuebing’s imaginations ran wild, and he put aside all these thoughts.
He will think about this after meeting Old Yang. If Old Yang is someone like Meng Xianglin, Dong Xuebing will go all out to object to his mother being together with him.
City Party Committee Family Quarters.
Dong Xuebing drove up to the entrance, and a guard saw him tried to stop him.
Dong Xuebing did not stop and continued his way while sounding the horn.
The guard hesitated and did not dare to stop Dong Xuebing’s car. Someone who dares to sound his horn in the City Party Committee Family Quarters should be a somebody.
This is the first time Dong Xuebing enter the City’s Party Committee Family Quarters. As the City Government governing Yan Tai County, the City’s Party Committee Family Quarters is much nicer. There are not a lot of buildings, and all of them are around four to five stories. Each building is further apart, and there are a park, garden, and lots of empty spaces for people to exercise.
Dong Xuebing parked his car in front of a grey building and walks up the stairs.
First floor…
Second floor…
Third floor…
Dong Xuebing looked at the door and took a deep breath before pressing the doorbell.
Ding dong… Ding dong… and someone opened the door.
Luan Xiaoping had opened the door. “You are here? Why are you so late?”
“I bought something along the way.” Dong Xuebing showed the bag of fruits. It’s his first time visiting someone’s house, and he should not come empty-handed.
Luan Xiaoping held her son’s hand into the house. “Old Yang, Xiao Bing is here.”
This is a three-bedroom apartment and is well renovated. Dong Xuebing did not see Yang Zhaode in the living room, and just when he was about to ask his mother, he heard some movements from the kitchen. A middle-aged man walks out of the kitchen with a smile. He is wearing an apron and has thick brows.
This is the City’s Party Committee Organization Department Minister?
Dong Xuebing is shocked. This is totally different from what he expected.
Yang Zhaode looked at Dong Xuebing and smiled. “You are Xiao Bing? Good… no wonder you can head a department at such a young age. Heh… why did you bring gifts along? Haha… don’t bring anything next time. Have a seat.”
Luan Xiaoping gave her son a stare. “Call him Uncle Yang.”
Yang Zhaode laughed and waved his hand. “It’s alright. Just call me Old Yang will do.”
“No…” Dong Xuebing cleared his throat and greeted him. “Uncle Yang.”
They chatted for a while. But Yang Zhaode is still a City Party Committee Leader after all, and Dong Xuebing felt uneasy speaking casually. Dong Xuebing has a good first impression of Yang Zhaode as he did not have the airs of a high-ranking government official and is still wearing an apron. It’s hard to imagine the person in front of him is the City’s Party Committee Organization Department Minister. Of course, Dong Xuebing knows that he will not be dressed this way if his subordinates visit him. He can tell Yang Zhaode had put in many thoughts for their meeting, which is a form of respect for his mother.
“Oh, I forgot I still have not cut the vegetables.” Yang Zhaode stood up. “You two can carry on chatting.”
Luan Xiaoping pulled him back. “Let me cook while you take a break.”
Yang Zhaode laughed. “Haha… Cooking is my hobby, and you must not take it away from me. It’s your off day today. You should spend some time with Xiao Bing.”
Luan Xiaoping refused. “Our dinner last night is also cooked by you, you should…” She suddenly stopped and quickly make her way to the kitchen. “You all watch TV first while I cook.” Bam! Luan Xiaoping quickly closes the kitchen door.
Dong Xuebing secretly gave his mother a stare. His mother had spent the night with Old Yang! Hmph! She still claimed Old Yang had sent his driver to pick her this morning?! She is getting good at telling lies.
Only the two of them are in the living room.
Dong Xuebing is sitting very straight on the sofa, and he doesn’t know what to say.
Yang Zhaode took out a packet of Zhonghua Cigarettes from the coffee table and offered Dong Xuebing. He laughed as Dong Xuebing rejected his offer. “Haha… why are you sitting like this? Don’t be so uptight. You are not meeting your leader. I should be the nervous one.” He joked. “I still need your approval to be with your mother. Xiaoping told me that you are the decision-maker in your family.”
Dong Xuebing thought to himself. You two had already spent the night together. What’s there to decide?
Although Dong Xuebing has a good impression of Yang Zhaode, he did not agree immediately. “Minister Yang…”
“Minister?” Yang Zhaode interrupted. “Address me as Old Yang!”
“Err… how can I do that?”
“What’s wrong with this? We don’t have all these rules here.”
Dong Xuebing replied. “Alright. I will address you as Old Yang.”
“That’s right… Hahaha…”
