ever he felt confident before an exam, the results could disappoint him greatly. He believed that this time his test scores would exceed eighty points for a pass, yet he only scored fifty or sixty out...Chapter 52: Eavesdropping

Mayor Hong Xiaotian and Secretary Wang Jinrong of the Municipal Party Committee commended the main leaders of several government agencies, including the Construction Commission, Urban Planning Bureau, Land Resources Bureau, and City Investment Company, for their work on attracting investment this year and urban construction projects. They emphasized the need to seize every moment to accelerate the high-standard advancement of urban infrastructure construction, speed up major project progress, expedite the pace of building Xiahai's central city area, and strive to create a good development environment and living conditions.

The Xiahai Star Sea Square Project, currently the most closely watched project in Xiahai City, immediately drew attention. The contractor was a Canadian construction company that had come to help build the Star Sea Square. Upon hearing this news, all the leaders felt relieved. Hong Xiaotian and Liu Lan were quite cooperative on this project; two or three years later when they needed to reshuffle personnel for re-election, this would be tangible political achievement.

The representative of the Canadian company appeared rather cultured, wearing glasses and speaking with a coastal intellectual tone. During the banquet, Zhou Chunlan from the Construction Commission also accompanied them to sit at Uncle’s table.

The English name was Lira, while her Chinese name was Li Yuhang. She toasted with Zeng Quanming: "Our Starlight Construction Company has a great affinity with your city's Star Sea Square project. This is our first inland project, and we will certainly put in one hundred percent effort to ensure that the Star Sea Square becomes the most representative central square in western cities!"

The heads of the municipal government all laughed heartily.

Zeng Quanming nodded indifferently. Recently, he felt that Li Yuhang paid too much attention to superficial things and was not steady enough.

Zhou Chunlan was displeased. Generally speaking, there were different functions for the Construction Commission and Urban Planning Bureau in different cities. In Xiahai City, the Construction Commission was half a level higher than the Urban Planning Bureau; the former belonged to the Party Committee, while the latter belonged to the government. Of course, at this stage, it was still the case that "the Party commands the gun" (meaning the Communist Party of China's dominance over governmental bodies), unlike in later times when there would be a significant trend towards separating party and administrative functions.

Zhou Chunlan naturally belonged to Secretary Wang Jinrong’s faction. She was very displeased with Zeng Quanming, who worked under Mayor Hong Xiaotian. Originally, she had prepared someone for the position of Director of Construction Bureau; however, unexpectedly, within one period of internal and external assessment in the party organization, with assistance from the provincial level, Hong Xiaotian played a good hand and promoted Zeng Quanming. This made many things inconvenient on her end. She also disliked Zeng Quanming’s personality, and after discussing several times with Secretary Wang Jinrong, they planned to find an opportunity to move him. He didn't care much about this small figure but mainly wanted to send a warning shot to Hong Xiaotian.

Thus, when Wang Jinrong saw Zeng Quanming’s demeanor, he sneered inwardly. They were ostensibly celebrating the achievements of various relevant departments, but their real target was Li Yuhang. Through the Star Sea Square project as a stepping stone, if they could secure future Canadian investment, it would be a significant achievement for them all to lower themselves to greet her with smiles, yet Zeng Quanming acted indifferent. Who did he think he was Was his status higher than that of a deputy secretary of the municipal committee

Zhou Chunlan observed Wang Jinrong’s displeasure and harbored resentment towards Zeng Quanming. She just happened to see Tong Jianjun and Su Licheng from the Engineering Department sitting there, so she smiled at them: "Oh, Jianjun, you're here too!"

Tong Jianjun grunted in acknowledgment. He and Zhou Chunlan used to be old classmates; back then, when Zhou was young, she had even pursued him, but nothing came of it.

The passage of time has changed many things.

Now Tong Jianjun is assigned as the head of a company under the Fourth Engineering Division in Xia Hai. Meeting with the leader from the Construction Committee unexpectedly reminds him of his former classmate who once pursued him. Both are now old and gray, evoking a sense of melancholy. Although they had dinner together and reminisced about old times, it was hard for Tong to maintain his dignity.

"Is this your deputy division chief I heard he's also related to the former director" Zhou Chunlan turned toward Su Licheng with a smile that held hidden daggers.

Tong Jianjun was surprised; he hadn't expected Zhou to turn the tables on him.

Wang Jinrong raised his eyelids and glanced at Zhou Chunlan, showing a hint of satisfaction.

A relative of the construction bureau director who's involved in engineering naturally sparks speculation and can easily lead to sensitive issues.

The mayor's faction seized the opportunity to push further. "Tong Jianjun Fourth Engineering Division You're the new division chief, right Huh!" His smile was laden with deeper meaning, causing many people's expressions to become intriguing.

Su Licheng watched the scene unfold and realized that their recent activities had made Xia Hai's small circle take notice of them. However, they were famous not for their excellent engineering quality or outstanding safety measures but for a series of issues that had come to light.

It was like many people gathering around an emaciated camel, mocking its glorious past and reminiscing about the envy they felt when it was in its prime, while no one offered any help. They were merely indulging in their own fantasies and bolstering their inferior self-esteem.

This roughly described the current situation.

When Zhou Chunlan felt that the public opinion around her had reached a certain point, she spoke earnestly, "Your Engineering Division Four has been facing quite a few problems recently! Issues need to be addressed and those responsible must be held accountable. The responsibilities on your shoulders are great!"

By mentioning Su Licheng as a relative of Ceng Quanming and then saying this, it was clearly a kick aimed at Ceng Quanming. This caused Ceng Quanming's face to turn dark green, and Hong Xiaotian also kept silent with a stern expression.

This was not just a minor issue but more like stabbing oneself in the ribs. Tou Jianjun didn't know whether Zhou Chunlan realized how openly speaking out before all the heads of city departments would cause so much trouble for his work, and bring about significant resistance to his career path!

Indeed, one could never return to that initial state of beauty; past events were like wisps of cloud smoke. People were inevitably driven by their own interests.

Lǐ Yínghé just gave a dry laugh, "Heh heh," without responding. Recently, he had been treated coldly by Ceng Quanming, so now he was fully enjoying the victory in seeing Ceng's dark green face.

The group moved to one side, and as they saw the dejected Tou Jianjun, Zhou Chunlan left with a faint sense of despondency when she turned around, but it was only slight.

Su Can watched this scene coldly and knew how great the difficulties his father was facing were now. His maternal uncle also appeared to be living in glory on the surface; having risen to power didn't mean everything would go smoothly for him. The more intense competition made it hard for him to act.

After drinking some water, nobody at the table could speak easily, with their expressions not very pleasant.

"I need to use the restroom," Su Can said to his father. Whether or not Su Licheng heard was unknown; he got up from the table and walked straight towards the hotel's bathroom.

He quietly entered the toilet, then silently moved into the first cubicle.

The third cubicle emitted Lǐ Yínghé’s voice, who had earlier apologized for taking a phone call and going to the restroom. He was saying, "Ah, Uncle Zheng, you can rest assured, okay There's nothing I can't handle over here. It's just a small matter. Just wait for me to solve it. Afa Afa’s big boss has been looking for him recently! If it isn’t our turf, we won’t meddle in other people's business either. The money on my end is very straightforward, clean as the back of my hand..."

Different from Li Yuhua's fluent Mandarin, this was pure Cantonese, connecting to the person on the other end. In Xiahai City of the western region in 1998, there were probably very few people who could understand it; however, Su Cen was one of them.

From the beginning, Su Cen had been observing Li Yuhua. In his memories of the future life, the construction of the Xiahai Star Sea Square would not start until three or four years later at least. Although he had never entered politics and did not know all the ins and outs, now that the Star Sea Square was being built ahead of time for recruitment, it must have a significant connection to him. Therefore, he wanted to find out what subtle connections his reincarnation brought about and led to changes in the process and history.

Based on Li Yuhua's description, if the Vancouver Starlight Construction Group from Canada was so powerful, then the construction of the Xiahai Star Sea Square would not be as intermittent and delayed as he remembered.

This discrepancy with historical records must have happened due to his influence in some way

Most importantly, Li Yuhua's overly artificial Mandarin and the now familiar Cantonese brought Su Cen a very uneasy feeling. Phrases like "dodgy" (陀地), "overstepping one’s bounds" (撈過界), and "pitch black" (墨漆) similar to "make a living" (揾食) were mostly slang used in Hong Kong and Macau, full of the flavor of the underworld. For a respectable businessman with foreign investment background, it was rather suspicious.

If Li Yuhua knew that his words could be analyzed by Su Cen to such an extent, he would surely regret it.

While Su Cen was contemplating this, he accidentally touched a loose tile on the wall of the partitioned space and heard a "clink."

The phone call from the other end suddenly stopped!

A dead silence...

An eerie atmosphere that made one's scalp crawl.

In his mind, Su Cen imagined Li Yuhua on the other side of the partitioned space with an expressionless face, his glasses reflecting a pale white light as he was startled to stop speaking.racticing their dribbling skills like Su Cen did. Moreover, since Mao Xiaoshi had been the captain and sports committee member of the school’s basketball team, he borrowed a ball from the gym for Su C...