Me! A high-ranking official!

The meeting tonight is over, and the big meeting on Monday is a foregone conclusion. But this is the first cultural tourism project that Zhou Qingyan personally selected to undertake since taking office! Secretary Zhou wants "short, simple, and quick" results, and he wants to see tangible economic benefits this summer.

If things go wrong, or if progress is slow, the Bureau of Culture and Tourism may not even be able to afford bland food in the future.

Since the Culture and Tourism Bureau is in charge of the preliminary work, what follows are the tough nuts to crack: project proposal, feasibility study, land use change, fire safety joint review, planning approval... This involves several major government departments, including the Development and Reform Bureau, the Housing and Construction Bureau, and the Natural Resources Bureau. How to cooperate with those arrogant state-owned enterprise bosses from the Industrial Investment Group is an even more challenging task.

The next day was Saturday. That's the good thing about the Bureau of Culture and Tourism, a government office with little influence. On public holidays, once the gates are closed, no one will bother you with work calls.

But Zhao Jianguo didn't dare to rest. Although the project had passed at the small meeting, he was still uneasy. In the morning, he took Liu Tao to find two familiar construction team leaders to inquire about the labor costs and material prices for repairing the ancient buildings. In the afternoon, he braved the sun and went into Xiaozhai Village. This time, he went from house to house, taking pictures of which house was leaking and which wall was dangerous. He got his feet covered in mud and only after understanding these details did he feel truly confident.

To be honest, he was quite surprised. The impromptu idea he came up with to get by actually hit Zhou Qingyan's sweet spot. Monday was the May Day holiday, a five-day break, but the county committee's regular meeting was still going on as scheduled, which meant that Secretary Zhou was eager to achieve political results.

On Sunday morning, Zhao Jianguo woke up on the hard bed in the budget hotel. Looking at the mold in the corner of the wall, he decided to solve the problem of where to stay first. He didn't need money in his account, and it wasn't right to keep renting like this.

Through an intermediary, he found a house he liked in the old residential compound of the Finance Bureau, which is two streets away from the Culture and Tourism Bureau. It was a red brick building from the late 1990s, with ivy almost reaching the top of the exterior walls. However, the Finance Bureau used solid materials to build the residential compound back then, and the quality was excellent. What was most rare was that it was a ground floor with a yard, and it also came with a small attic with a high ceiling that could be used as a second floor, totaling more than 150 square meters.

The homeowner was in a hurry for money. The price was a little over four thousand per square meter, but he was offered a fixed price of six hundred thousand. Without hesitation, he paid the deposit on the spot by swiping his card. After getting the keys, he found a fellow villager who did renovations and asked him to take advantage of the holiday to quickly go in, break down walls, and run the wiring to make the place brighter.

On Monday morning, the bureau was closed for the holiday, and the building was empty except for the cicadas chirping outside the window. Feeling uneasy, he made himself a strong cup of tea and sat in his office, mentally reviewing all the joint reviews and planning approval processes for the upcoming projects.

Around midnight, my phone on the table vibrated, and three words popped up on the screen: Li Dafang?

He raised an eyebrow. Li Dafang was the director of the Industrial Development Section of the Bureau. Usually, when the two met, they would just nod to each other in the hallway and exchange cigarettes. Why would he call on the afternoon of a holiday?

Pressing the answer button, Li Dafang's slightly hoarse yet familiar laughter came through: "Oh, Director Zhao, I hope I didn't disturb your rest? It's like this, Director Zhang asked me to inform everyone that at 12:30 this noon, all middle-level managers will have a short meeting in the conference room on the third floor to specifically discuss the preliminary work for the tourism development of Xiaozhai Village. Thank you for making the trip."

"Okay, I understand." He replied calmly, hung up the phone, threw his phone on the table, and his face instantly turned so gloomy it could drip water.

Having worked within the system for so many years, he knew all too well the intricacies of it all. He wrote the entire plan for the Xiaozhai Village project himself, conducted all the research himself, and even cleaned up the messes left by Zhang Baocheng during meetings. Now that a meeting was needed to push things forward, Zhang Baocheng wouldn't let him, the key figure, make the announcements. Instead, he had Li Dafang, who was in charge of industrial development, issue the notices.

What does this mean? It means that Zhang Baocheng has already served the freshly cooked dish to Li Dafang!

The Culture and Tourism Bureau has been poor for so many years, and finally a project that catches the eye of the county party secretary has fallen from the sky. Who wouldn't want to get a piece of the action and make a name for themselves? Li Dafang has seized the opportunity to reap the benefits, and Zhang Baocheng has obviously tacitly approved of it, or even been the driving force behind it.

He took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. Back when he was in the county government office, he had Guo Huaixing protecting him from above, and his mother-in-law, Cao Wenting, the deputy secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, protecting him from at home. Who would dare to touch his territory? Now that Cao Wenting has fallen, and he has just been relegated to this sideline, do these people really think he's an easy target?

If he backs down and lets them snatch the project away, Zhao Jianguo will be nothing more than a spineless coward in the Bureau of Culture and Tourism, someone to be trampled on at will.

At 12:15, he pushed open the door to the third-floor conference room, carrying his notebook.

The conference room still reeked of the lingering smell of cigarette smoke and musty carpet. Several department heads were already seated in small groups. When he entered, a few of them exchanged glances, their greetings carrying a hint of something intriguing.

He acted as if nothing had happened, a professional smile on his lips, and pulled out a chair to sit down in the back.

At two minutes to 12:30, Deputy Director Guo Nanguo slowly strolled in, carrying a faded glass teacup. Old Guo was in his early fifties, with a receding hairline and a chubby face that always wore a smile like that of Maitreya Buddha. He sat in the first seat on the left and nodded cheerfully to everyone.

Immediately afterwards, a series of light footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Li Dafang walked in with a radiant face, not carrying his own notebook, but holding Zhang Baocheng's signature white porcelain teacup with a lid in both hands.

In front of everyone, Li Dafang walked to the head of the table and placed the teacup on the table with great ease and care. He turned the handle to the most convenient position and even took a tissue to wipe the last drop of water from the bottom of the cup.

After completing this set of actions, he pulled out a chair, sat down in the first seat on the right, and smiled as he nodded to several familiar directors.

"Hey, Director Li, why are you serving the boss tea today?" a director next to him asked half-jokingly.

Li Dafang leaned back in his chair, his eyes glancing precisely at Zhao Jianguo out of the corner of his eye. He chuckled and said, "Hey, don't even mention it. Director Zhang's driver, Xiao Liu, was on vacation today. Director Zhang had to go to the county for a routine meeting this morning, so I acted as his temporary driver all morning, running around with the leader. I didn't even have time to drink water."

Upon hearing this, a series of low, knowing laughs immediately filled the conference room, and several pairs of eyes drifted towards Zhao Jianguo again, seemingly casually.

Everyone could tell that Li Dafang wasn't complaining about the hardship, but rather asserting his authority. "See? I'm now Zhang's trusted confidant, accompanying him to meetings in the county. Zhang has already handed over the Xiaozhai Village project to me."