Power and Wealth

Saturday.

Evening.

The sky slowly darkened.

The investors, city leaders, and officials dispersed, and the staff from various counties' investment promotion departments naturally packed up their booths and left the park. After concluding the first day of the investment promotion conference, the people from Zhen Shui County had dinner at the restaurant designated by the city. Afterward, they headed to the hotel booked for their stay in the city. Zhen Shui County is considered the poorest county in Meihuo City, and the economic situation of Meihuo City is also the worst in the province. Naturally, the hotel was just average, and it was probably one of the better hotels in the entire city.

Inside.

The hotel had over a dozen floors, and the people from Zhen Shui County were placed on the fourth floor.

After getting room keys from the front desk, Dong Xuebing discovered that everyone except himself had standard rooms. As were Chang Juan and Gong Na, Zheng Dayou and Chen Yunsong were placed together in one room. Considering the economic situation of the city and the shortage of rooms due to the many investors present, this was understandable. Everyone was accommodating each other. However, when going upstairs, Dong Xuebing noticed that the Director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of Yangli County, Ma Yanfen, and the Director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of Meiyang District, Chen Mingming, each had their executive suite. This made the people from Zhen Shui County feel unbalanced again.

What's the meaning of this?

Repeatedly targeting us.

"Oh, Old Zheng is back."

"Shall we have dinner together tonight?"

"Oh, you've all finished eating, then forget it."

It seemed like the heads of the investment promotion bureaus had made some kind of arrangement. They came out of their rooms and waited in the hallway. After a while, a few other officials from different counties' investment promotion bureaus came out of the executive suites at the end of the fourth floor. Some were top-level officials, and some were second in command. The fourth floor was quite long, and basically, all the officials from the investment promotion bureaus lived on this floor, mostly in individual rooms. Finding a setup like Zhen Shui County, where the head and a staff member shared a room, was impossible. This arrangement seemed a bit much.

"Hey, Director Ma."

"Director Sun is here too."

"Director Chen went to dinner. You guys have made a scene today."

"Hey, I was lucky. Plus, our district has indeed had several excellent projects recently."

"Director Zheng, how come Zhen Shui County hasn't secured a single deal yet? You should have been prepared beforehand. I remember your performance was decent last year."

"Director Zheng is modest."

"Yeah, maybe they are waiting until the last day of the conference to reveal something."

Everyone gathered and immediately engaged in a conversation filled with tension and gunpowder. Zhen Shui County had achieved nothing today and instantly became the object of everyone's mockery and schadenfreude. After ridiculing Zhen Shui County, the leaders of several other counties, who had experienced friction before, also started mocking each other.

As they talked, Lu Weiguo, the City Investment Promotion Bureau Director, walked over. Seeing everyone there, he immediately clapped his hands to get their attention. "Everyone's here."

Seeing him, Dong Xuebing's eyes turned cold, and he didn't move.

Chen Mingming smiled and said, "Director Lu, we were discussing going to dinner."

Lu Weiguo nodded, "I haven't eaten either. Let's book a private room downstairs. All the heads of the investment promotion bureaus from various counties will attend, and we'll have a meeting."

"Okay."

"Sounds good."

"Director Lao, you guys go ahead and eat first."

Each director left with their deputy and staff.

Lu Weiguo looked around, "A few more people are not here."

"Old Sun and Old Xu aren't here, right? I'll call them." Someone said.

While he made the call, everyone continued chatting together. With Director Lu present, the conversation became much more cordial.

Dong Xuebing glanced at Lu Weiguo. Just then, Lu Weiguo also noticed Dong Xuebing and the people from Zhen Shui County. However, Lu Weiguo didn't say anything. He glanced and then gave an order to his subordinate, seemingly instructing them to book the private room downstairs. He didn't speak, but Dong Xuebing went forward.

"Director Lu." Dong Xuebing's eyes narrowed. The more he interacted with Huilan, the more he picked up her habits.

Lu Weiguo looked at him, "Mayor Dong."

Mayor Dong?

Many people who didn't recognize Dong Xuebing were stunned. They had been talking to Zheng Dayou and hadn't paid much attention to Dong Xuebing. They even thought this young guy was a Zhen Shui County Investment Promotion Bureau staff member. Who would have thought that he was a Mayor? Apart from Director Lu, he held the highest position in the room.

Which Mayor was he?

Is he the Deputy County Mayor?

Wait a minute, is it Dong Xuebing from Zhen Shui County?

In the months since Dong Xuebing took office, he has caused quite a stir in Zhen Shui County, significantly impacted Cheng Gang County, and even gained a notorious reputation in the city. They naturally heard about it from neighboring county or city officials, even if not extensively. There are hardly any secrets in government offices, so everyone figured it out when they heard Director Lu address him as Mayor Dong. Some had already recognized Dong Xuebing and gave him a few glances. Recently, the person making the most waves in the city was undoubtedly Dong Xuebing. He brought in a 50 million RMB grant from the central finance department, causing a political shake-up in Zhen Shui County and reshuffling the alignment of factions among the county officials. This even led to the suspension of Wei Lin, the director of the city's finance bureau, and his falling off a building, which alarmed the city Party secretary and Mayor. In this situation, how could there be officials who hadn't heard of Dong Xuebing? Everyone knew him.

This was Dong Xuebing, who was currently in the spotlight.

But why does he seem so ordinary? Nothing special at all.

He had an average appearance, temperament, and such a young age – everything about him seemed average. This contradicted the impressions people had of him.

However, it must be correct since Director Lu addressed him this way.

"Mayor Dong, is there something?" Lu Weiguo asked, looking at him.

Dong Xuebing, who had reached his limit, didn't want to endure it any longer. They treated him as if Dong Xuebing were a sick cat just because he stayed low-key for a while.

A joke!

They should find out a bit.

"I've never been afraid of anyone from childhood till now. Whoever the hell loves it," thought Dong Xuebing.

But Dong Xuebing had no intention of physically confronting anyone. There was no need to resort to violence to resolve such conflicts; he had many other ways to annoy people.

Dong Xuebing looked at Lu Weiguo and said, "Director Lu, is there a problem with the room allocation? How come the heads and deputy heads of the investment promotion bureaus from other counties all have single rooms, except for us from Zhen Shui County? Director Zheng is an old comrade, and the transfer of Director Chang has also been approved. How come they are not allocated to single rooms?"

Only Dong Xuebing dared to ask such a question.

When he wanted to be aggressive, he didn't care much about hierarchical concepts.

Lu Weiguo calmly responded, "In several hotels, investors almost fully occupy the rooms. Room allocation is a bit tight, but we can do nothing. You'll have to make do."

Dong Xuebing did not back down at all. "Why don't others have to make do, and only Zhen Shui County has to? Director Lu, this doesn't seem fair."

Lu Weiguo said, "All the rooms are full now, even the suites are booked. If they don't have any, what can we do? I admit that there may be some grievances for the comrades from Zhen Shui County, but you also need to consider the overall situation of our city."

"What about the exhibition booths?" Dong Xuebing asked.

Lu Weiguo replied, "The front square is full, so we must move some to the back. Sacrifices have to be made."

"Oh, and once again, Zhen Shui County is the only one sacrificing. It has nothing to do with others," Dong Xuebing said sarcastically.

Everything good is for others and has nothing to do with us. But when there are sacrifices, it's all ours. Still, they ask us to prioritize the overall situation.

Screw the overall situation.

No matter how you put it, it's all on you.

Chang Juan and Chen Yunsong were also getting irritated.

Later, an official from the city's investment promotion bureau couldn't stand it anymore and interrupted, "It's not targeting you, but the investment promotion results of Zhen Shui County are indeed not as good as those of other counties. On today's first day of the investment promotion conference, each county has received investments or letters of intent. But what about Zhen Shui County? We informed you about the conference in advance. Why didn't you even do any preparatory work? Where are your results?"

Results?

Still talking to us about results?

We've already brought in investors today, and they're ready for inspections. But what about you? Director Lu, as soon as we bring in investors, your city's investment promotion bureau interferes and causes trouble. How can we achieve any results? Forget about us; any country in our situation would fail to produce results. The position of the head of the city's investment promotion bureau is there. If you say a word, the investors will naturally lean towards you. Strictly speaking, this is an abuse of power and settling personal grievances.

As they spoke, the atmosphere became increasingly tense, and it seemed like they were about to quarrel.

Chang Juan, who usually seemed ordinary, turned out to be someone who, when angry, dared to confront even higher-ups. She had a temper not much different from Dong Xuebing's. She was a woman who grew up at the foot of the imperial city and dared to kick even leaders in their nuts when things got serious. This time, seeing that even Chang Juan was unwilling to tolerate it, she started arguing with the person from the city's investment promotion bureau.

Chang Juan stared and said, "Talking about results?"

The person looked at her and said, "If there are no results, then what should we talk about?"

"Then, if we talk about results, it should be last year's results. Although our county's investment promotion quota wasn't large last year, it was still okay. The booth and accommodation were arranged beforehand. So, tell me, what standards are you using? What are your criteria? Are they decided on the day of the event? What kind of standards are you following?"Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on ɴoᴠel ꜰɪre.nᴇt

Chang Juan scolded the small official from the city's investment promotion bureau so fiercely that he couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Gong Na secretly gave Chang Juan a thumbs-up.

Zheng Dayou and Chen Yunsong blinked and looked at Chang Juan. They couldn't help but wonder, are people from the capital all so good at talking?

Dong Xuebing is.

Now Director Chang is also…