Chapter 37: Taking Office (2)

  Du Jian's office is much more spacious than He Qing's.

  Wooden floor, suspected mahogany office furniture, potted plants with dripping water, leaves still have water droplets hanging down, window sills are all wrapped in stone materials.

  Du Jian is the secretary, He Qing She is the deputy secretary and also the town mayor. Generally speaking, even if the town mayor is marginalized and not given actual power, on the surface, the treatment of the secretary and county magistrate should not be too different.

  The fact before our eyes can only explain one problem, Du Jian is arrogant and domineering in Meixi Town, with a high profile as a tyrant, even the superficial articles are too lazy to do.

  Some things were heard by Shen Hua before, but it wasn't until he walked into the town government and saw these details that he had a deeper feeling about some rumors: Du Jian was the local snake head of Meixi Town.

  Shen Huai took the opportunity to visit Du Jian's office, thinking to himself: Tao Jixing forced Du Jian to give up his position at Meixi Steel Factory, he must be full of resentment! He thought about how to suppress Du Jian's arrogance.

  To be honest, Du Jian was unwilling from the bottom of his heart to give up the position of Meixi Steel Plant.

  Steel is losing money again, and business is getting worse, but the production scale is there, and there are many places where he can make money.

  Located in the Donghua area, at the township level, which position has this fat? Du Jianning can't be the party secretary of the town, and he also wants to occupy the position of the director of Meixi Steel Factory forever.

  However, there are some things that cannot be changed, and some people have directly altered personnel appointments through County Party Secretary Tao Jixing; as someone who was promoted by Tao Jixing, how much room for resistance does Du Jian have? He can't even figure out what Tao Jixing is thinking.

  Although Du Jian obeyed Tao Jixing's arrangement, he couldn't help but feel resentful about throwing such a fat piece of meat into someone else's mouth.

  Du Jian heard Shen Huai standing at the door talking to He Yuelian's son Wang Gang, and his heart was even more furious, thinking: Good, you little devil is not shallow, haven't officially taken office yet, come over to probe into the situation of the steel plant.

  Du Jian took a slight step back and leaned against his office desk, sizing up Shen Hua who had followed He Qing into his office.

  For more than a month, Shen Hua has been insisting on long-term exercise every day, and his body has recovered, and he has gained a lot of weight. His figure hasn't changed much, probably because the reduced fat volume is large and the increased muscle volume is small. Shen Hua still looks somewhat thin and can't be described as sturdy at all.

  However, a healthy body and abundant energy may be what makes Shen Hua stand in front of the office with those words that are not intentionally hidden, making his eyes look both deep and sharp.

  Shen Hua walked into the office, with several people from the Town Comprehensive Management Office and the Joint Defense Team still between him and Du Jian. Shen Hua didn't rush to squeeze over to shake hands with Du Jian, nor did he hastily shift his gaze to Du Jian's body. Instead, he took a step to the left of the door, seemingly yielding to Huang Xinliang and He Qingshe, but actually standing in a more open area to take stock of this office.

  Shen Hua didn't rush to shake hands with Du Jian, and his attitude of not deigning to mingle with the ordinary staff of Zhen Zhuo's office and the joint defense team could be said to reveal unmasked arrogance.

  Du Jian has been the head of the town for a long time, and he has developed the temperament of a tyrannical lord. He looks down on anyone who doesn't obey him, and if they don't comply, he will scold them loudly. Sometimes, he can't control himself and will even resort to physical violence. However, this kind of temperament can only be fully expressed in front of people who are lower than him in status.

  Looking at Shen Huai, the heavenly king, standing in front of him, Du Jian's heart was annoyed and his anger was about to erupt, but he managed to suppress his fiery temper, his face sinking as he ordered the people from the General Affairs Office and the United Defense Team to leave first.

  "I was just thinking of finding He Zhenchang to discuss whether to schedule the party-government joint meeting for this afternoon, and wait for Secretary Shen to arrive before holding it," said Du Jian, "I didn't expect Secretary Shen to come so soon..."

  "In the past, when I was in the municipal government, it wasn't like being in a small town. If you were late to work and fell behind your leader, you would inevitably get scolded, so I developed the habit of arriving on time." Shen Hua's face wore a faint smile as he spoke, but his words made the people standing in this office feel a chill in the air.

  He Qing originally wanted to say a few more good words about Shen Huai, making the atmosphere even more harmonious, but he didn't expect that Shen Huai's second sentence would directly hint at the sloppy work style of the town government, with no attempt to hide his criticism, and Du Jian's face immediately turned dark.

  He Qing didn't say a word, although he gave Du Jian some leeway, but after all, he wasn't afraid of him. Before Shen Huai came over, he even thought about standing on the same front line with the new deputy secretary to confront Du Jian. Unexpectedly, Shen Huai was so young and vigorous, with sharp edges.

  He Qing She didn't like young people who relied on their background and didn't know when to stop. Seeing Shen Huai come out with a confrontational attitude towards Du Jian, he decided to stand aside and watch the show. When he saw Du Jian's face turn black, he thought that he wouldn't make a scene in public, but he wondered what he would do behind the scenes to deal with this somewhat arrogant deputy secretary...

  "Huang Xinliang, take Secretary Shen to the office and give him a good introduction about the party-government joint meeting." Du Jianke restrained himself from getting angry, but also didn't want to argue with Shen Huaihan anymore, so he directly let the director of the Party and Government Office lead Shen away.

  "That's nothing, I'll go back to the office too." He Qing said and followed him out.

  The people from the Zongzhi Office and the Lianfang Team couldn't just leave, they were still there to continue being scolded. Du Jian picked up his teacup, took a sip of the cold tea left over from last night, but the evil fire in his heart couldn't be suppressed, "Bang" he smashed the teacup in his hand, pointing at the people from the Zongzhi Office and the Lianfang Team in front of him, scolding: "If I still see you all clogging up Xuetang Street tomorrow, get out of here and go home to hug your kids..."

  Listening to Du Jian smashing a teacup and scolding in the office, Shen Hua was oblivious and said to Huang Xinliang who led him to the office: "Secretary Du's work style is really tough!"

  Huang Xinliang forced a smile and said: "Secretary Du is just this kind of temperament, his requirements for work are a bit too strict."

  "Oh, really?" Shen Hua took over Huang Xinliang's words and said, "Since you have such a big opinion about Secretary Du, let's mention it to him when we meet him later..."

  Huang Xinliang was so angry he wanted to slap himself, and in his heart, he cursed Shen Hua's ancestors for eighteen generations. He was also afraid that Shen Hua would go to Du Jian's side and stir up trouble. But Shen Hua wasn't afraid of anything, Huang Xinliang had just heard Du Jian slamming a cup in the office, and his heart skipped a beat.

  He Qing listened to Shen Huai teasing Du Jian's confidant Huang Xinliang, thinking that he still had a good understanding of the situation in Meixi Town, but seeing Shen Huai being too unreserved, she also felt that this person was a dangerous element and decided to keep her distance from him.

  He Qing thought so, and invited Chen Kuan into his office to chat. Chen Kuan had heard about Shen Hua's arrogant attitude in the municipal government, but he didn't expect that as soon as he took office in Mei Creek Town, he would stir up trouble. He had originally planned to stay for lunch, but now he completely gave up on that idea and chatted with He Qing for a few sentences before leaving early to return to the county.

  The secretary and town mayor's office are on the third floor.

  The Party and Government Office has also prepared Shen Hua's office in advance, to the west of He Qing's office, with the document printing room of the Party and Government Office in between.

  The office, although not as spacious as Du Jian's, was also equipped with solid wood furniture, and the floor tiles were polished to a shine. In the corner, there was even a pot of lucky bamboo. Opening the window, on the other side of the wall was the playground of Mei Xi Middle School, where over a thousand people were doing exercises at this time. The conditions of the playground were somewhat poor, and with several days without rain, the dust flew everywhere as thousands of people ran around.

  Shen Huai looked for half a day but still couldn't find Xiao Li's figure.

  Mei Creek Town is not a small town.

  Before 1992, there was a district-level administrative division between counties and townships in the Donghua region. Meixi Town belonged to Xiamei District at that time.

  Unlike the municipal city, the county district cannot be considered a formal regional administrative establishment, but only as a dispatched agency of the county party committee, in order to better manage the towns and townships, but also prompting the resources of Xiaomei District at that time to concentrate on Meixi Town.

  Xia Mei District was the first to be abolished as a pilot area in Donghua region in 1990, and the townships were directly under the jurisdiction of the county. However, the pattern of Meixi Town had already taken shape before that, and it also has the only full-time middle school in the southwestern part of Xiapu County, as well as reception stations and other establishments.

  Shen Huai was a good student since childhood, and he attended high school in the county town. However, his mother passed away during his third year of junior high due to illness, which greatly affected his studies. As a result, his scores on the middle school entrance exam were not ideal, and he could only attend Meixi Middle School.

  Huang Xinliang subconsciously disliked the new deputy secretary, but he didn't have the qualifications to show his displeasure and even had to put on a polite face. Seeing Shen Huai open the window and stare at the playground of Mei Xi Middle School across the street, he thought he was annoyed by the noise and dust, so he said: "Regarding the problem of the middle school's playground, Secretary Du has also expressed his opinions several times, but for now, there is no solution. First, there is no land, second, there is no money."

  Shen Huai nodded to show that he understood, sat down at the office desk, pointed to the chair against the wall and asked Huang Xinliang to pull one over and sit down. He said: "I officially started working in Meixi today, but I'm not familiar with the situation in the town yet. Director Huang, you tell me..."

  Huang Xinliang stood in front of Shen Hua's office desk and said, "At 9 o'clock is the party-government joint meeting. Several deputy secretaries and deputy town mayors are at home. Later, I will introduce you to Secretary Shen one by one. There are only five small cars in the town. Except for Secretary Du and Mayor He having dedicated cars, other leaders need to instruct the party-government office when needed. If there are not enough cars, we can borrow from enterprises. Mayor He originally suggested preparing a dedicated car for Secretary Shen, but Secretary Du said that Secretary Shen will soon take on the role of factory director at the steel plant, and the steel plant's cars are better than the government's..."

  Shen Hua, due to his shallow experience, cannot directly hold a full-time position, but Zheng Er Ba Jing is a formal department-level position, ranking ahead of other deputy secretaries and deputy town mayors. Therefore, if Du Jian and He Qing She both have dedicated cars, while other deputy secretaries and deputy town mayors do not, then whether Shen Hua has a dedicated car or not is also acceptable.

  Shen Hua just smiled, according to the regulations, township party and government officials are prohibited from having a dedicated vehicle, but this provision has not been well implemented. In Donghua, as long as it is not a poor township that cannot afford to open a pot, the first-in-command generally have a dedicated vehicle. Of course, due to the limited financial resources of the townships, even if they have a dedicated vehicle, most are Santana or Jetta and other joint-venture cars.