The man who approached was none other than the Deputy Secretary of the munic.i.p.al committee in Shanghai who was on the verge of being promoted to Secretary of the munic.i.p.al committee w.a.n.g Ping. He originally had plans to meet Li Hao in Xiang Fei Pavilion Teahouse to casually discuss his future plans. Unexpectedly though, he came upon Ye Qian and decided to stop for a chat.
He couldn"t help his curiosity after seeing Ye Qian sitting across from Xu Mei. He felt that Xu Mei was similar to himself. This kind of sense might"ve been due to prolonged exposure to fellow government officials. After a tentative star, w.a.n.g Ping asked, "This is...."
But Xu Mei was only a local official, in Zhejiang province"s Huangzhou she only held the position of chief of the Financial Bureau, though it wasn"t a high position, their authority was not small. However, it was only a local position, far from w.a.n.g Ping"s secretarial seat in the munic.i.p.al committee. So even though w.a.n.g Ping didn"t recognize her, she definitely knew w.a.n.g Ping. Just now, as w.a.n.g Ping greeted Ye Qian, she watched in astonishment. Not only had w.a.n.g Ping greeted Ye Qian with a smile, but he did so with some familiarity, which only drove her to be all the more curious of Ye Qian"s status. This youngster might actually have the means to back up his arrogance.
"Secretary w.a.n.g, this is my mother-in-law. Like you, she works in the government in Huangzhou." Ye Qian said with a small chuckle. He spoke frankly, not caring whether Xu Mei approved or not.
The matter of w.a.n.g Ping"s imminent promotion to chief secretary was already known to Ye Qian, so he straight up called him "Secretary w.a.n.g Ping" instead of the previous "Deputy Secretary w.a.n.g Ping" . Though it was different only by a word, the feeling when you hear it was not very different from each other.
w.a.n.g Ping only dumbly stared at them, letting out a small laugh as he said, "h.e.l.lo, I am called w.a.n.g Ping."
Xu Mei glanced at Ye Qian, obviously rebuking him for introducing her as his mother-in-law, but she did not say anything out loud. Though from a lower-cla.s.s family of government officials, she had still received a good education. Even if she was opposed to the matter of Ye Qian and Lin Rou Rou being together, she wasn"t about to shout abuse at him like a fishwife in the middle of the street. She shook hands with w.a.n.g Ping then said, "Secretary w.a.n.g"s great name is already known to me. I had not imagined myself to be having this fortuitous meeting today, it is truly an honor."
Ye Qian in the meanwhile, paid no attention to the spectacle in front of him, rather, he was still thinking over the supercilious look he received from mother-in-law just moments ago, wasn"t it quite flirtatious. Ye Qian thought inwardly that if mother-in-law somehow did away with her stubbornness and arrogance, she would certainly be a charming woman. However, even her present self had a charm that ordinary women were unable to compare to.
The handshake was not overdone, it was just right, then w.a.n.g Ping said with some laughter, "Miss Xu is too modest. As things stand, I am also quite lucky today to be able to meet with Brother Ye to ask for his help. Miss Xu, you are indeed quite blessed to have such a great son-in-law."
w.a.n.g Ping may have said the words very casually, but nevertheless, Xu Mei was gobsmacked. From the sounds of it, w.a.n.g Ping"s promotion may very well have had some to do with this youngster before her, it was inconceivable to her. She couldn"t help sending a look towards Ye Qian, but the youngster only had an indifferent smile on his face that she could not glean anything from. This man that her daughter had fallen for was surprising her at every turn, so much that she was now having doubts about who would actually win their bet. Win or lose though, it would not bring her or the Lin family any harm.
Ye Qian chuckled and said, "Mother-in-law has yet to recognize me as her future son-in-law."
w.a.n.g Ping stared blankly, then a laughed. Mother-in-law meeting with the son-in-law, this kind of domestic affair was a little foreign to him, but he could still somewhat understand the situation
w.a.n.g Ping was quite tactful; after a short chat at the table, he made to leave and went to a different table with Li Hao. With that, Ye Qian"s first confrontation with his future mother-in-law was coming to and end, with Ye Qian in the lead with a huge score. For this meeting, Ye Qian was quite pleased as well, easily awarding himself a high marks. He also came to understand a few things about his future mother-in-law, and in the end, they didn"t hit if off too badly.
As Xu Mei was about to leave, Ye Qian respectfully saw her out of Xiang Fei Pavilion Teahouse. Right when they were about to part, Xu Mei suddenly said, "Rou Rou is not to know of my being here today in Shanghai."
"I understand!" Ye Qian nodded in agreement. Xu Mei"s meaning clear, she did not wish for him to let Lin Rou Rou know of their meeting today. Actually, even if she had not said it, Ye Qian would not have been likely to bring it up with Lin Rou Rou. If a grown man like him were to get angry and run back to complain, it would only mean that he had no backbone. But Ye Qian was also aware of the other meaning in her words. It might be that because of the two year agreement, Lin Rou Rou"s relationship with her mother was in a deadlock.
Nodding her head, Xu Mei was pleased and subsequently got into a car. If one were to ignore family backgrounds and only looked at Ye Qian"s character, Xu Mei already had a rather favorable impression of him. It was just that the Lin family had no use for such an individual, they needed a son-in-law with a good family background. Only now, Xu Mei couldn"t help but be greatly curious of Ye Qian"s family background. If Ye Qian weren"t lying and really had no family background, he had used his own power to get to his position now, otherwise, w.a.n.g Ping would not have spoken in such a way. She was naturally disinclined to think that w.a.n.g Ping would lead her falsely, since making a munic.i.p.al committee secretary lie for you was no small matter.
Ye Qian went back into the teahouse and headed straight for w.a.n.g Ping and Li Hao"s table. Even in the past, Ye Qian had never been one for pleasantries, so now, he immediately took a seat. w.a.n.g Ping"s face no longer had a trace of the smile he had a while ago, it now had an expression full of worry. After a somewhat distracted look, Ye Qian began to say, "Secretary w.a.n.g, didn"t you say you had important matters to discuss with me a while ago? What is it?"
w.a.n.g Ping started to say something, but hesitated. He paused for a moment, then said, "Young Li, you tell him."
Li Hao nodded, and said, "Ouyang Cheng has come out of the Discipline Inspection Commission. Although he lost the qualifications to take part in the election for chief secretary of the munic.i.p.al committee because of the issue before, he"s still a deputy secretary."
Ye Qian"s brows creased minutely. Although he already knew that bureaucracy was somewhat rotten, Ye Qian hadn"t antic.i.p.ated it to be this bad. But this also made another matter known to Ye Qian, Ouyang Cheng definitely had a huge supporter behind him, otherwise, though he hadn"t been sentenced, he would have been asked to retire at the very least. If it was like that, then in the future, dealing with Ouyang Cheng would need quite a bit of preparation. They would have to take care of both Ouyang Cheng and his backer or else they were unlikely to get favorable results. "Secretary w.a.n.g, what do you think?" Ye Qian asked.
Translated by:
korezmi
Edited by:
Furutze