13 Toasting and Punitive Drinks
f your worries will materialize into reality.With the chance to start over, Su Cen proved that he had reached out and failed to grasp the love that was within his reach.Not everyone has the opportunit...Chapter 13 Toasting and Compulsory Drinks
The Urban Management Bureau of Qiaocheng is located near the first ring road in Xiahai City. It was formed from the original Municipal Public Utilities Bureau, urban appearance administration, and other units, serving as an integrated administrative functional department responsible for implementing urban management work under the municipal government and Construction Committee. Its responsibilities include managing municipal facilities, street lighting and water supply, landscaping and greening, environmental sanitation, harmless waste disposal, construction supervision, and flood control in the city area.
The Urban Management Bureau is situated within a large compound where the fence is entwined with climbing vines, creating an unclear boundary. The interior features dull-looking grassy gardens and lawns. At the center stands an aging main building; some of its windows appear hazy due to surface oxidation, indicating that this was originally a unit building for the Municipal Public Utilities Bureau and Sanitation Bureau, which now serves as the Urban Management Bureau's landmark.
The main building is also covered with green vines, giving it an appearance reminiscent of a dilapidated medieval castle from afar.
Parked on the vacant ground are several white and black enforcement vehicles such as Chang'an small trucks and Santana sedans. Beside the old family dormitory buildings behind stands a bustling construction site for collective housing.
In the office of the bureau director, Director Wang Weidong is puffing away at a cigarette while uncomfortably bouncing on his chair, exhaled smoke swirling around him. Yet he feels anxious and unsatisfied inside.
During a recent law enforcement operation not long ago, they suffered a setback at Xiahai Stationery Shop, where several of their team members, including Dazhuang, got into a conflict with the police squad. They were all taken to the bureau for questioning.
How could he bear this anger Even if it involved the police squad, no one should treat them like that. Moreover, Zhao Lijun had acted high-handedly towards him, and he seemed destined to swallow this humiliation – a slap to his face as Wang. But what can he do when Zhao is so powerful Is he supposed to urinate on Zhao's head too
These matters are fundamentally different; it’s difficult to make use of them.
Furrowing his brows, he recalled the situation at the entrance of that stationery shop. He was particularly annoyed by that sharp-tongued kid. Wang Weidong then suddenly smacked himself on the head!
That's right! Why hadn't he thought of it earlier Even if he can’t confront Zhao Lijun, why can’t he take action against Xiahai Stationery Shop
Aren’t they arrogant and mighty So today I’ll come to collect your sunshade umbrellas, tomorrow I'll order you to rectify the dirty stains on your signboard. Even if Zhao Lijun finds out that it's me causing trouble, let’s see what he does! He dare challenge Zeng Quanming or Red Xiaotian I've heard that the construction of Star Sea Square has recently received attention from provincial leaders, and Red Xiaotian is at the peak of his power. Even the city secretary-general gives way to him; several municipal committee meetings have favored him... let Zhao Lijun try moving against me!
The one is the criminal investigation system, and the other is the municipal system. He does not necessarily have to go against Zhao Lijun; in Wang Weidong's view, it was Zhao Lijun who first broke the rules, which made him feel smug at being unable to do anything about these petty vendors.
Wang Weidong took another drag on his cigarette. To put it bluntly, the newly appointed Director of Construction, Zeng Quanming, was exceptionally capable despite holding two positions concurrently. He handled municipal construction with ease and had many unique insights that were well-supported by Hong Xiaotian; it is said he was ordered to be promoted to the position of Director of Construction by a higher-up. With such limitless prospects ahead of him, befriending someone like this could greatly benefit his political career.
While Wang Weidong was indulging in flights of fancy...
A boy around sixteen or seventeen years old appeared at the door and knocked on it, saying, "Director Wang."
Wang Weidong was taken aback and did not understand why a high school student would show up. However, after taking another look, he found that he recognized the boy; recalling who the young man was—the son of the owner of the stationery shop—his face immediately fell as he grunted in acknowledgment.
Wang Weidong fiddled with his cigarette and propped one leg up while staring intently at Su Can.
The way Wang Weidong was looking him over made Su Can feel like punching him right in the face.
Su Can placed a plastic bag on Wang's desk, then reached inside to take out the Soft Yun cigarettes and the Red Plum brand, placing them side by side on the table.
When Wang Weidong saw the Soft Yun cigarette, he became slightly more serious. Upon seeing the Red Plum cigarettes, however, a look of disdain flashed across his face. Although this era hadn't yet reached the point where they smoked Zhonghua or Yellow Crane Tower cigarettes at will, the Soft Yun was already considered an upscale brand. However, presenting such cheap-priced Red Plum cigarettes to him suggested he would probably not even bother to pick them up.
What does this kid mean He couldn't come out himself for fear of revealing too much; instead, he sent his nephew Does he think that by sending a little bit of stuff like this, I can be satisfied
Su Can pretended not to see Wang Weidong's expression and said after placing the cigarettes down, "Director Wang, my uncle asked me to bring these over. He said that last time it caused you trouble."
Wang Weidong examined Su Can for a moment, appreciating his clear and loud voice despite being irritated by him. He extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray and picked up the Soft Yun cigarettes, idly playing with them as he thought, "Even monks and Buddhas have their dignity; your apology doesn't even include meeting with someone in charge, yet you throw around phrases like 'causing trouble' Who do you think you are!"
Seeing Wang Weidong remained silent, Su Can smiled and said, "Then Director Wang, I'll be going."
Wang Weidong grunted in acknowledgment. When Su Cen reached the door, he said with a hint of condescension, "Your uncle, which one is your uncle"
Su Cen turned around then and smiled brilliantly. Zeng Quanming walked away without looking back, disappearing at the corner of the corridor.
Inside Wang Weidong's office in the Urban Management Bureau, he was staring blankly at the Soft Cloud cigarettes in his hand, still thinking about what the young man had said. When a gust of wind blew in from the door, he realized that sweat had started trickling down his back.
After pondering for a moment, Wang Weidong immediately picked up the phone and dialed.
"Excuse me, may I speak with Director Zeng This is Wang Weidong from the Urban Management Bureau. Director Zeng, haha, my colleague Xia Fan from the bureau has been doing quite well without any trouble. I just wanted to ask if it's alright for us to purchase office supplies at that Culture and Stationery Store on Government Street."
Zeng Quanming frowned slightly, "This is an internal matter of your Urban Management Bureau; you should decide it yourselves. Why are you asking me about everything" Hearing the continuous affirmations from the other end—"Yes, yes, yes,"—Zeng Quanming realized that this was his sister's store. Wang Weidong's call likely came after he received some information and wanted to curry favor with him, so Zeng paused for a moment before saying, "Ah, is it true that the Xia Hai Culture and Stationery Store has been designated as a定點 procurement unit Yes, it should be. You can go there."
Hanging up the phone meekly, Wang Weidong looked at the Red Plum cigarette on his desk, feeling another wave of sweat breaking out along his spine. He finally understood that Zeng Quanming’s gift of two cartons of cigarettes was to see if he would accept a bribe or refuse it! At this thought, Wang Weidong secretly sighed with relief; such an ordeal left him so shaken that even his leg bones felt weak.
The two cartons of cigarettes cost Su Cen nearly three hundred yuan, but using those three hundred yuan to resolve the potential problem at the Urban Management Bureau was worth it. If he had tried to solve this issue through official channels, ten times the amount might still not have been enough to appease Wang Weidong.
After dinner, Liu Rui and Xue Yi Yang approached Su Cen, and the three of them eagerly went to an internet cafe. Internet cafes were just beginning to become popular in this era; although they had passed their novelty phase, each hour cost three yuan for regular booths and five yuan for private rooms.
"This InterNet Cafe opened last month. The computers are great—Windows 98 system, Pentium processor, 32MB RAM. You can play any game. 'Quake' runs smoothly! Recently there's a new release called 'Half-Life.' You haven't played it yet, right It’s really exciting! Later we’ll play StarCraft; see how I crush you with my newly learned tricks!"
Xue Yi Yang enthusiastically described the cafe and its features, making Su Cen look quite amused.
"Such machines cost three yuan an hour," compared to the網吧標配 of quad-core processors, high-capacity memory, large hard drives, and dedicated graphics cards in later times, Su Cen found the computers around him now, all with big-headed dolls display screens, quite disappointing.
“Humph, that's still on the low side! I can predict that as computer performance gets better and better, internet cafe prices will become even more expensive. In major cities like Ji City, an hour of gaming time on a good machine can cost ten yuan, and you get coffee with it! Now at just three yuan per hour, you should be satisfied. Don't come crying when the price goes up to twenty yuan an hour!” Liu Rui spoke with certainty.
薛易陽 also hesitated, “What you say isn’t entirely correct either. You haven’t considered future wage changes. Now my dad’s salary is high, and the internet cafe charges three yuan per hour. In the future when it's twenty yuan an hour in the internet cafes, our wages will be over four thousand yuan a month!”
Liu Rui thought about this for a moment before nodding, sighing, “Money really doesn't seem to be worth much now.”
Su Cen didn’t bother with these two guys and opened the computer.
After playing several rounds of《雷神之錘》(Quake) and a prototype version of《半條命》(Half-Life), Xue Yiyang started setting up his game of StarCraft, while Liu Rui put on his serious gamer face. Earlier, they had been quite beaten by Su Cen in fast-paced games; now they aimed to dominate strategic games to regain their pride.
At this time, playing such games in internet cafes was still a recent trend, and soon the sofa behind them gathered many people, obviously attracted by Su Cen's skill level.
They were amazed for the first time seeing rocket jumping calculations in《雷神之錘》(Quake), and they were thrilled at the sight of players wielding pipes and close-combat attacking armed opponents in《半條命》(Half-Life).
In StarCraft, they witnessed a "Mind Control" strategy where Zerglings (小狗) evolved into Mutalisks (飛龍). In StarCraft, these three types of units are generally used as shock troops and cannon fodder, while the Mutalisk is an air-based mid-tier unit that serves as a powerful combat force.
When Su Cen used low-level Zerglings to evolve into large numbers of Mutalisks to overwhelm Xue Yiyang's Protoss base and Liu Rui's human mobile troops, there was a collective low murmur of awe in the room.
"Where did you get so many Mutalisks This is unbelievable!" Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui both quit the game one after another, nearly vomiting from shock.
Su Cen leaned back on the sofa, stretching lazily. Time passed quickly in this era; when they had been diligently practicing for the Victory Eleven CD-ROM game half a year ago, new competitive games had arrived with the wave of computers, leaving no time to miss what came before.ide would sometimes address him respectfully as "Teacher Xiao!" This implied their respect and fear towards him. He was most skilled at exploiting a student’s sense of guilt.However, Su Zan’s indiffer...