Me! A high-ranking official!

Xu Ling is an unpretentious and straightforward person, but she's too talkative and can't keep anything to herself. You can get a lot of inside information from her, but you should never get too close to her. Otherwise, the moment you fart, she'll spread a dramatic digestive tract news story throughout the entire bureau.

As they spoke, the two arrived at the two rooms next door, with signs on the doors reading "Tourism Development Division".

Xu Ling knocked on the door and called out, "Pingping!"

There was no movement inside.

Xu Ling awkwardly pushed the door open: "Oh dear, this girl, I specifically told her yesterday that the new director is coming today, and I told her to come and open the door early. She must have missed taking that little darling to kindergarten again..."

"It's alright, it's alright, taking the kids to school is the priority, everyone understands." He acted with a magnanimous demeanor.

Just then, the sound of hurried high heels running suddenly came from the courtyard.

A woman in her early thirties, with slightly disheveled hair and carrying a half-full cup of soy milk, rushed into the corridor in a panic. Upon seeing Xu Ling and Zhao Jianguo standing outside the door, she immediately blushed and bowed repeatedly, apologizing profusely: "I'm so sorry! Director Xu! Oh dear, this must be the new Director Zhao, right? I'm so sorry!"

As Wang Pingping took out her keys to open the door, she complained helplessly, "My little devil refuses to get out of bed every morning. This morning he was rolling around on the floor again, and I had to drag him into getting dressed before I could get him to kindergarten. Even though I rushed, I was still late..."

"Alright, Pingping!" Xu Ling deliberately put on a stern face, adopting the air of a seasoned lecturing officer: "I repeatedly warned you yesterday that Director Zhao is taking office today, and you're giving him a hard time on his first day? What will he think of our group's style?"

"It's my fault, it's my fault. I'll definitely be more careful in the future. Please don't take it to heart, Director Zhao." Wang Pingping awkwardly pushed open the door, quickly grabbed a rag, and began to wipe the table haphazardly.

"It's okay if it happens once in a while; everyone has their difficulties." He waved his hand with a smile, appearing extremely easygoing.

The room wasn't large. Against the wall were three old-fashioned metal filing cabinets, and in the middle were three slightly worn desks with only two computers and faded posters pasted behind the screens.

"Director Zhao, that table at the very back is yours. Director Li is on long-term sick leave and rarely comes, so Pingping is usually the only one overseeing the stalls here." Xu Ling pointed to the innermost spot. "You guys get familiar with it first. If you need anything, just go to the office to get it. I'm heading back now."

"Thank you for your trouble, Director Xu." He politely saw Xu Ling to the door.

Back in the office, Wang Pingping was wiping the sweat from her forehead with a tissue. When she saw Zhao Jianguo come in, she quickly put on a somewhat ingratiating smile: "Director Zhao, please have a seat. I'll make you a cup of tea."

"No need to trouble you, Pingping." He pulled out a chair and sat down, casually flipping through the documents on the table that were covered with a thin layer of dust. "Pingping, I'm new here. Could you give me a heads-up about the current situation in our bureau?"

"Hey, what big things could possibly happen in our bureau?" Seeing how easygoing the new leader was, Wang Pingping started talking as well, and pulled up a round stool to sit down: "All things considered, there are more than twenty people, including those on the payroll and temporary staff. Above us are the offices, personnel and finance, public culture, industrial development, cultural relics, and market management."

Zhao Jianguo nodded.

Other major tourist counties have a small number of staff, with only 40 or 50 people in their cultural and tourism bureaus. Linshui County is just a tiny sparrow, not only small but also lacking in feathers.

"In our department, what specific approvals or project coordinations do we usually handle?" he asked seemingly casually, but in reality, he was weighing the weight of the power he held.

Wang Pingping sighed: "Director, let me be frank with you, the only department in our bureau that still has some power is the Market Management Section, which can manage the approval of internet cafes and KTVs and conduct routine surprise inspections. They make a little money from that. As for our tourism development..."

She pointed to the locked metal cabinets: "They're just empty benches."

"Benchwarmer?" He leaned back with interest. "Didn't our county have a huge project called 'Fantasy Martial Arts City' a couple of years ago?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Pingping lowered her voice, as if she were talking about something unlucky: "Don't even mention it, it's a real headache for the bureau! Back then, it was the former director who had a sudden inspiration, wanting to imitate the experience of the wildly popular martial arts city online. The county gritted its teeth and approved 40 million yuan, and then secured more than 20 million yuan in special funds from higher authorities. And what was the result? The cultural park in the western suburbs was transformed into a hodgepodge, with pavilions in the style of the Jiangnan water towns and sculptures in the style of the desolate desert..."

Wang Pingping gave a bitter smile: "After half a year of intermittent trouble, the funding couldn't keep up, and the acceptance fee couldn't be passed. Now it's a huge unfinished project. I heard that the county head was furious about this back then, and since then, he has completely cut off our bureau's funding. He hasn't allocated any large sums of cultural tourism development funds for two years. We are now just a bunch of people who are just loafing around waiting to die."

Hearing this, he couldn't help but smile. Of course he knew about this project. How much tax revenue did the county have in a year? Forty million yuan was poured in all at once, which was the salary of many people. In the end, the Culture and Tourism Bureau made a terrible mistake. Han Baomin was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table in his office and gave the current director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, Zhu Xingkai, a thorough dressing down. He almost got punished!

I glanced at my phone; it was 10:30.

Zhao Jianguo strolled around the corridor with his teacup in hand. All told, of the twenty or so people in the Culture and Tourism Bureau, only eleven or twelve had come today. Some were knitting inside, some were huddled together studying how to get a discount on Pinduoduo, and one older colleague was even brewing Kung Fu tea in his office, slowly and methodically washing his teaware.

A disorganized mess, utterly hopeless.

But this disorganized state is a perfect cover for Zhao Jianguo right now.

He returned to his office and greeted Wang Pingping, who was watching a Korean drama online: "Pingping, I'm going back to the government office. I still have some personal belongings to pick up, and I'll also be handing over some old documents to my colleagues from my old department. I won't be back for lunch. If anyone looks for me this afternoon, just tell them I'm at the county committee compound on business."

"Okay! Director Zhao, take care!" Wang Pingping didn't even look up, clicking the mouse rapidly.

After leaving the old county committee compound, he hailed a taxi at the intersection and headed straight for the black dog farm.

When he arrived at the destination, the security guard at the gate stared at him warily. Without saying a word, he took out the VIP card that the lobby manager had given him last time from his pocket, held it between two fingers, and handed it over.

The burly man glanced at the dark pattern on the card, and his fierce look immediately changed. He bowed respectfully and opened the iron gate to let them pass.

Arriving at the dog kennel in the third courtyard, the last fight of the morning was taking place at the bottom of the pit. Two pit bulls were biting each other until they were bloody and mangled, while the gamblers in the stands waved their betting slips like madmen and howled at the top of their lungs.