Family connections: From special recruitment by the county committee to the pinnacle of power

In Xu He's eyes, Xu Hansheng should be standing in the same trench as him, but Xu Hansheng didn't say anything. Sometimes, saying nothing is an attitude in itself.

"Brother Xu!"

Xu Hansheng frowned, forcibly pressed Xu He back into his chair, and then said to Li Qiang, "Section Chief Li, please don't take it to heart."

Li Qiang narrowed his eyes and sized up Xu Hansheng for a long time.

He initially intended to use Xu He's lateness as a pretext to shift the blame onto Xu Hansheng and question him about why he left early yesterday. However, in the end, he inexplicably ended up having a big argument with Xu He.

Xu Hansheng, who should have been the primary target of the attack, was instead the one mediating the fight, which was truly strange.

"Alright, everyone get back to what you're doing. No one is allowed to leave before lunch break. I have something to say!"

After saying that, Li Qiang turned and went back to his office.

He had just had a minor altercation with Xu He, so his original plans had to be postponed until noon.

Otherwise, as a section chief, he would be too narrow-minded. After arguing with Xu He, he would criticize Xu Hansheng. Both of them are responsible for liaising with enterprises. Criticizing Xu Hansheng is tantamount to indirectly reprimanding Xu He. If this gets back to Jiang Qinghua, it won't sound good.

After Li Qiang left, Su Jie turned her head and glared at Xu He, snorted angrily, and then turned back to attend to her own business.

Xu He sat alone in a chair, feeling sullen for most of the morning, and he even put aside the work he was doing.

"Brother Xu, Brother Liu, let's go out for a smoke together."

Xu Hansheng chuckled and offered Xu He a cigarette. Then, together with Liu Haitao, they forcibly dragged Xu He out of the office.

Once in the backyard, Xu Hecai, while smoking, glared at Xu Hansheng and said, "You didn't help me this morning, fine, but why are you siding with outsiders now!"

"Brother Xu, I am responsible for this, but you only need to target Section Chief Li. Why did you have to drag Su Jie into it?" Xu Hansheng said with a troubled expression, "Do you know that your words didn't just offend Su Jie, they offended everyone."

What?

Xu He blinked, looking at Xu Hansheng with a mixture of belief and doubt.

"Brother Xu, you said Su Jie's job is the easiest, that's true, but the question is, is Lao Shen's job easy? Is Du Xinyang's job easier than ours? And what about Xu Meijing, and Li Wei and Zhang Xiaoguang who don't talk much, do they not have to run around for their jobs?"

"I know you mean that Section Chief Li is selfish and takes care of his sister-in-law, but you can't say that in this kind of situation, and you certainly can't say it in that tone."

As soon as Xu Hansheng said this, Liu Haitao nodded repeatedly and said, "Brother Xu, I'm on Hansheng's side this time. He's right. Lao Shen and the others are all busy with their office affairs. If we're talking about being tired, they're all about the same."

Seeing that Xu He was still somewhat indignant, Xu Hansheng exhaled a puff of smoke and said calmly, "There's another reason why everyone is targeting you. Nobody wants to switch positions with you and suppress you, so this whole mess will be over, right? Even if you take it all the way to the director, no one will side with you. I'm just a newcomer, and my words carry little weight. If I were to speak up for you in that situation, it would only bring you more trouble."

After listening to Xu Hansheng's explanation, Xu He thought about it carefully and agreed that Xu Hansheng made sense. His anger subsided considerably, but he was still somewhat unwilling to give up and said, "Li Qiang just doesn't like me. I wasn't late at all this morning. There were still two minutes until eight o'clock. Anyone would have snapped at him if he was bossing them around in front of so many people."

Xu Hansheng said calmly, "Brother Xu, the problem is, you didn't hit the nail on the head. If I were you, I would ask him how his talks with Xu Changqing about Tiancheng Holdings are going. It's been more than half a year, has there been any news?"

"Our department's investment promotion work is not going well. Whose responsibility is it? As the old saying goes, 'A bad soldier is a bad soldier, but a bad general leads to a bad army.' Ask him, in our department's poor performance, is it the soldiers who are bad, or the generals?"

Xu He coughed a few times, his face flushing slightly, and said, "Wasn't I too angry at the time? I got a little carried away with my emotions, and you didn't even remind me!"

Hearing this, Liu Haitao, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but laugh and said, "How should I remind you? Should I pass you a note? But I have a feeling that this guy surnamed Li is going to target you guys again at noon today."

Xu He said nonchalantly, "Whatever. I don't believe he can fire me. If he dares, I'll make a scene, go to the Party Secretary and demand an explanation. I refuse to believe that someone with nothing to lose is afraid of someone with something to lose!"

Xu Hansheng glanced at Xu He but didn't say anything, lost in his own thoughts.

Although Tang Bing agreed in the morning, I'll have to think of a better way to keep her here and say something "heartwarming." Otherwise, she might just leave after a few minutes, which would be pointless.

If they wanted to dig a hole to bury both Li Qiang and Xu Changqing, they couldn't avoid Tang Bing no matter what.

"Xu Hansheng, what are you thinking about? Let's go."

Xu He threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it out, and then shoved Xu Hansheng.

"Oh, they're gone."

Xu Hansheng threw away the half-smoked cigarette in his hand and quickly followed.

Back at his desk, Xu Hansheng, having nothing to do, pulled out his diary again and roughly recorded what had happened that morning. Then, after Xu He's name, he added a comment: Impulsive and easily angered, poor alcohol tolerance (half a jin).

After closing his diary, Xu Hansheng reflected on Li Qiang's behavior that morning and made a judgment about his personality.

However, to Xu Hansheng's great disappointment, Xu He failed to find out Li Qiang's bottom line.

Just as Xu Hansheng was deep in thought, Li Qiang pushed open the office door, entered the office hall, and lightly clapped his hands, saying, "Everyone, put down your work for a moment!"

Upon hearing Li Qiang's voice, everyone put down their pens and paper and looked up at him.

Xu Hansheng put away his diary, took out his work logbook, picked up a pen, and looked up at Li Qiang with a serious expression, like a student listening to a lecture.

"I need to reiterate the work discipline: no one is allowed to be late or leave early!"

Li Qiang stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on Xu Hansheng, and said pointedly, "Some of our young colleagues were very disciplined when they first started working, but they should pay attention in the future and maintain their good habits. It's only been a few days, and they've already started to be late and leave early like some other colleagues. This has had a very bad impact on you personally and on our department."

Swish!

Apart from Xu He, everyone's eyes turned to Xu Hansheng.

Even a fool could tell that they were preparing to attack Xu Hansheng.

Xu Hansheng smiled faintly, stood up, and looked directly at Li Qiang, saying, "Section Chief Li, I almost forgot. Last night, Brother Xu and I contacted the assistant general manager of Tiancheng Holdings, and he agreed to meet with us, so we rushed to Qingshan City."

"Right, Brother Xu?"

As he spoke, Xu Hansheng turned to look at Xu He.