Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Underworld

  Qian Xiaohong raised her glass, gave the general manager a sly smile, and threw in a flirtatious glance, saying "cheers" in an affected tone, then downed the drink in one gulp. After several cups, her face was flushed with a layer of redness, which made the general manager even more infatuated. He also raised his glass and downed half a cup of wine, gazing at Qian Xiaohong's chest with narrowed eyes, looking stupid and nauseating. It wasn't until after a long while that he finally shifted his gaze away, then poured himself another full cup of wine.

  Qian Xiaohong immediately stood up and sat beside the general manager, using her body fragrance to try to make the general manager dizzy. When the general manager's mind was completely blank, she began to implement the plan that had been brewing in her heart for a long time. Originally, she had discussed with Lu Xiao Ying to deal with this "iron rooster" together, but somehow, Lu Xiao Ying's performance tonight made her incomprehensible, still sulking and absent-minded. So, for Ouyang Qing, she could only do it herself.

  "Why didn't the general manager invite his wife to join us?" She coquettishly wiped her chest against the general manager's sturdy shoulder, and even leaned her soft and boneless body against the general manager's body, which made her feel nauseous.

  "Her?" The general manager grunted, quietly stretching out his hand, first blocking Qian Xiaohong's slender waist, then slowly moving down, finally stopping at Qian Xiaohong's round buttocks, and pinching hard before saying, "Just looking at her dead face makes me sick, she's old and worn out, but I don't think of you two, my beauties, so fresh and tender, just looking at you makes me want to eat you, can I eat you?"

  The general manager evaluated his own wife without any reserve, it seems he really got drunk.

  "Your sister-in-law is still quite pretty, isn't she?" Qian Xiaohong suppressed her anger and smiled as she said, "You're saying this about her, oh, is it because your sister-in-law has control over the finances, so you can't spend money freely outside like a man, always giving people a stingy impression? You're not satisfied with her now? If that's the case, then you'd better go home early. If your sister-in-law suddenly comes in and sees you or if you get home late, I think you'll be punished to kneel on the washing board."

  "She fined me for kneeling on the washing board?" The general manager let out a long sigh, and with one hand that was idle, he slapped the table and said, "She dares!"

  "How dare you not?" Qian Xiaohong had been observing the general manager's facial expression, seeing that he really showed a look of anger, so she hurriedly added fuel to the fire and said, "Can she give you money to use? Oh right, you said to invite us to play in the bar, do you have any money on you? Won't it be that you gave all your money to your wife and then asked us to foot the bill?"

  "I'm rich!" The general manager's claws never left Qian Xiaohong's delicate body, and now he was holding Qian Xiaohong's hand, this jade-like hand was slender and tender, soft and beautiful as if boneless, crystal clear and translucent.

  "Hey," Qian Xiaohong pulled her hand back, gently tapping the general manager's shoulder and said, "Just saying we have money, but we can't see it, are you lying? Let me tell you, we won't pay the bill."

  "All you do is talk nonsense, let me show you if I'm a big shot or not," said the general manager. He snorted and immediately pulled out a stack of 100-yuan bills from his pocket like a nouveau riche and slammed them on the table, then pointed at the money and said, "You see, am I not a big shot?"

  "With this little money, you can be called a big shot? Qian Xiaohong glanced at the banknotes, estimated to be around 10,000 yuan, and thought that the general manager had finally been deceived. So she quickly said, "If with this little money one can be called a big shot, then all men in the world are big shots.""

  The general manager sneered and took out another 10,000 yuan from his bag, saying: "All of this is for you. And I have a 100,000-yuan bank card here, the password is 131419, take it. You said all men in the world are uncles, but have you ever seen an uncle who gives money like me?"

  "Wow," Qian Xiaohong hastily took the card and put the money on the table into her bag, laughing and saying, "The general manager is indeed a great man. He's the most impressive person I've ever seen in my life."

  The general manager nodded and grabbed Qian Xiaohong's jade finger, sucking it hard like a chicken claw, making Qian Xiaohong feel waves of nausea.

  At this time, the music and dance gradually subsided, people gradually dispersed, a waiter came over to say that the song hall was going to close, please leave as soon as possible.

  It's time to go, Qian Xiaohong couldn't wait any longer. She hastily pulled Lu Xiao Ying up and walked towards the counter to settle the bill. However, settling the bill wasn't really for the general manager's sake, but rather because she was afraid that after the general manager sobered up, he would ask them to return the money he had impulsively taken out earlier.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, the next day at the company, the general manager put on his serious face and called for them to be invited into his office with a stern expression.

  The two of them arrived soon, the general manager made a very majestic gesture, seemingly like a leader, pointing to the sofa in the office, indicating that they should sit down. After clearing his throat twice, he said: "You two, didn't you go with me to the song hall last night?"

  "Yes," said Lu Xiaoying, "we two went later than you, what's wrong?"

  Qian Xiaohong also pretended as if nothing had happened and said: "Yes, General Manager, what's wrong?"

  "It's like this," the general manager paced back and forth in front of them, occasionally stopping to look at them with a puzzled expression, then continuing to pace, before finally saying, "Didn't I give you some money?"

  "Money?" Qian Xiaohong pretended to be surprised and said, "What money?"

  "Don't pretend to be like this," the general manager said, "I remember, 120,000 yuan, I was drunk at the time, and impulsively gave you the money Xiaohong,... no, it should be given to Xiaoying... wait, or is it still given to Xiaohong?"

  "Where did you get the money from?" Qian Xiaohong said, "You said at the time that your wife was very strict and couldn't even take out the money to pay the bill, so we paid for it. Look, I kept the receipt well, can you see my name on it? I was afraid you wouldn't admit it, so I wrote my name on the receipt. This will prove that you won't say I forgot, hurry up and return our money! You said you'd treat us. To be honest, General Manager, now I suspect that you pretended to be drunk last night, you must not have had enough money to pay the bill, so you made an excuse to ask us to go out and play, and then when we saw you, you pretended to be drunk and didn't know what was going on. Your goal was to let us pay the bill. If you're a man, return our money from last night!"

  Originally wanted to get back his own 120,000 yuan, but unexpectedly not only did he not get the money back, but also suffered a scolding.

  Qiu Xiaoqian took the bill, and indeed it was from last night's visit to that song and dance hall. He furrowed his brow, starting to mutter to himself: Qian Xiaohong produced the bill, which means she really did pay for it. Was it true that I didn't have any money at the time? These two cheap people usually only use other people's things, how would they think of taking the initiative to pay the bill? Could it be that there was no money on me and she had no choice but to take the initiative to pay? Then where is my money?

  He shook his head and let them go out temporarily, he had no thread at all.

  As soon as she walked out the door, Qian Xiaohong burst into a fit of loud laughter. She hadn't expected things to be settled so easily, and now they had money to help Ouyang Qing's campaign for town mayor.

  Then hurriedly found Lan Jingqiu and told her the matter carefully, Lan Jingqiu was also very surprised after hearing it, everyone discussed and decided to go find Ouyang Qing after work.

  Just as they were congratulating Ouyang Qing, Ouyang Qing was worried about the election. His unit had nothing to do today, so he had some free time to sigh and worry.

  Yesterday evening, he was late getting back from overtime. In front of the office window, he saw his colleague who was competing with him get on the mayor's special car with luggage. Through the car window, he also saw his colleague take out an envelope from his pocket and hand it to the mayor. The mayor hesitated for a while before putting it in his own pocket, then drove away.

  He sat in the office, on the desk in front of him was an ashtray filled with cigarette butts, and he was still smoking heavily, thick smoke spewing from his mouth, making the whole office hazy.

  He spent the whole day in the office until late afternoon when he was about to get off work, and then the director of the municipal government office asked someone to invite him to the director's office to discuss important matters.

  In the director's office, two people were already seated, and three people were smoking and chatting idly. One of them was a rival candidate for town mayor with Ouyang Qing. They seemed to be discussing something, but when they saw Ouyang Qing enter, they mysteriously fell silent.

  "Director, you're looking for me?" Ouyang Qing walked into the office, greeted them politely and pulled up a chair to sit down.

  "Yes," the director exhaled a mouthful of thick smoke, "I'll get straight to the point. You've been doing well in your work recently, working hard and getting along with your colleagues. Originally, we were going to give you more important responsibilities, but those above considered that you still lack experience and need to be tempered... Hmm, you see... this thing about running for town mayor..."

  "Director," said Ouyang Qing, "I may indeed lack experience as you said, but I am extremely serious about my work. If I am elected, I will work even harder and will not disappoint the leadership." He spoke very directly, without any reserve.

  "I know you young people are very motivated, but motivation alone is not enough. Here's what we'll do: the several candidates will prepare to complete a task, and whoever completes it the best and the fastest, we'll give priority consideration to him." The director seemed to think for a moment, looking at them with great caution as he spoke.

  "What's the task?" Ouyang Qing asked hastily, pulling his chair forward.

  "You two will be assigned to different villages under the jurisdiction of Qianlong Town as village cadres for three years. After three years, you will return and report your achievements, and I will report them to the leaders. Based on your performance, we will decide who should take the position of town head." The director asked, looking at the two of them.

  "This is still fair!" Ouyang Qing thought to herself, and hastily said: "Good, this idea isn't bad."

  "It's settled then," said the director, and then had them all leave to prepare for the village enclosure.

  Ouyang Qing walked out of the office, and with work to measure, it was fair. So his mood suddenly became relaxed. These two days were still worried about the election, but unexpectedly, the leaders arranged such a competition way that served the people but also showed their ability. He felt that the opportunity should be grasped.

  If it were someone else, he thought the chances of running for mayor would be slim. Since the leader announced him as a candidate for mayor that day, he had secretly investigated the background of his opponents. The opponent's family was not bad, his father was the county magistrate before retirement, and his mother was the general manager of a company in the county. There was plenty of money at home; what about him? His reborn object's parents died early, and it was his uncle who raised him with difficulty. His uncle's family lived in the countryside, and their economic conditions were poor. They could barely make ends meet. He got into government work after graduating from college and passing the civil service exam, so he had no background at all.

  But now it's fine, he can rest assured, what's left is just hard work.

  It was just time to get off work, he tidied up his office, locked the door and walked out of the government building.

  At the gate, he met Chen Zhenhua, Huo Jucui and Lan Jingqiu. They all hugged each other and went to a bar for a casual chat.

  Ordered several dishes, seven people ate and chatted while eating.

  "How is it? How difficult is the election?" Qian Xiaohong asked Ouyang Qing.

  "There shouldn't be a problem," Ouyang Qing said confidently, "the leader has arranged a very fair task for me and my competitor, whoever completes it the best and the fastest will become the town mayor."

  "I've already gotten 120,000 yuan for you," Qian Xiaohong said. "We're still worried it's not enough."

  "I think I don't need it now," said Ouyang Qing. "I want to rely on my own ability, and not resort to unfair means."

  "That's a great idea!" Lan Jingqiu said, "I have faith in you, just like I believe I can change the current state of the Lan Corporation."

  "What about this money? How will it be handled?" Qian Xiaohong looked disheartened, regretting the hard-earned money she had swindled that couldn't be of any help.

  "I suggest donating this money," Chen Zhenhua said. "Donate it to an orphanage, anyway the Ouyang brothers won't need it."

  "Right!" Everyone agreed unanimously. Then, several people pushed cups and plates, happily ate dinner, and didn't return home until late at night.