8: Chapter 8: A Deep Talk Between Father and Son, Zhu Wenhao's Whereabouts

The night is deep.

The incandescent light in the living room hurts the eyes.

The Ming dynasty imperial palace used red candles, with soft, dim light that could hide people's hearts.

Zhu Wenhao is not used to this.

Secretary Zhu Tianhe pulls a Yellow Crane Tower cigarette from the pack, holds it between his fingers, but does not light it.

He just uses the filter to tap the cold coffee table, one tap after another, silently.

He is ruminating on what his son just said.

"With remaining courage, pursue the fleeing enemy."

The admiration in his eyes flashes and disappears.

Replaced by deeper exhaustion.

This Executive Vice Mayor, who has floated in the bureaucratic sea for many years, shakes his head.

"The great man's poem is meant to swallow mountains and rivers."

"This pond of Linjiang is too small to contain it."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe finally presses the cigarette, now slightly softened from the tapping, firmly onto the table.

"The bad debts of the City Investment Group," Secretary Zhu Tianhe's voice is hoarse, "end here."

The tone is an order, not a discussion.

Zhu Wenhao picks up the warm water, steam curling up.

"Why?"

He asks back calmly.

There is no distinction between ruler and subject, only the tug-of-war of a father and son playing chess.

"Today, the old leader, Minister Xiao of the Organization Department, called."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe finally lights the cigarette, the dark blue flame reflecting in his bloodshot eyes.

"Deputy Secretary Yang personally inquired about it."

The smoke Secretary Zhu Tianhe exhales is thick and heavy.

"He told us to work with peace of mind."

Work with peace of mind.

These four words in officialdom, translated, mean: shut up, stop, obey arrangements.

Zhu Wenhao strokes the side of the cup, his gaze without a ripple.

He knows this is just an appetizer.

"Deputy Secretary Yang's meaning is for Mayor Su Changming to succeed Former Mayor Xiao Tianyou."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe's voice carries a sense of powerless compromise.

"I will move up to take his place as Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee."

The Executive Vice Mayor becoming Deputy Secretary is a half-step to heaven.

The Deputy Secretary turning into the Mayor is getting what one wishes.

A bloody battle that could have overturned the Linjiang political scene has been turned into a mutually beneficial outcome by a light sentence from those above.

"The meaning from above is stability. If a mayor has an accident and it causes a cluster of cases, the impact is bad. Stability is the big picture."

"Former Mayor Xiao Tianyou has fallen, the city cannot be in chaos. A smooth transition is the result the province wants."

Politics is gray.

It is the art of compromise.

Zhu Wenhao does not speak.

He is using his sixty years of imperial experience to rapidly analyze the gear logic of this modern officialdom.

There is no absolute, unilateral authority; everywhere there is balance and exchange.

Even if you hold the enemy's fatal weakness, if the timing is wrong, acting rashly will only result in being ground into powder by this massive machine.

"Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish."

"Secretary Yang's skill at muddying the waters is truly masterful."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe looks up in surprise.

His arch-enemy is about to reach the top, yet this kid, instead of jumping up in anger, has pinpointed the essence of it.

"The general trend is such; one can only follow the trend."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe stubs out the cigarette, seemingly having made up his mind.

"For the provincial exam next week, I've arranged for you to go to the Youth League Committee."

"That is a place for gilding, a greenhouse for young cadres."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe seems to have regained his sense of control, taking pen and paper, drawing what he sees as the perfect path to the heavens.

"Start at the Municipal Youth League Committee, use your Aunt Li's connections to get into the Provincial Youth League Committee."

"Once you have enough seniority, get sent down to a county to hold a leadership position, fill in the grassroots experience, then get transferred back to the city, guaranteeing at least a deputy department-level position."

"Once this path is finished, your life will be secure."

This is a smooth road.

A broad avenue paved by a calculating father for his son.

If it were the original owner, he would already be tearfully grateful.

But he was once the master of the Great Ming.

Zhu Wenhao listens quietly until the end, his left thumb subconsciously hooking his index finger, as if holding that vermilion imperial brush that reviewed the world.

"The path is good."

He affirms first.

"But I am not going to the Youth League Committee."

"I want to go to the 'Two Offices'."

The Municipal Party Committee Office, the Municipal Government Office.

The power center, the eye of the storm.

"Nonsense!"

Secretary Zhu Tianhe's voice rises sharply.

"The 'Two Offices' are a meat grinder! You think it's a playground?"

"I am in the Municipal Government; do you understand the avoidance principle? You can only go to the Municipal Party Committee Office!"

"Whose territory is Division Two of the Municipal Party Committee Office? It's Mayor Su Changming's lair! You are walking right into a trap!"

Secretary Zhu Tianhe's chest heaves violently.

"If everything goes smoothly and my appointment passes the Five-Person Group meeting and the Standing Committee, I will be transferred to the Municipal Party Committee. What will you do? Roll back from the Municipal Party Committee Office to the Municipal Government Office? Do you think you haven't lost enough face?"

Changing orders in the morning and evening, jumping back and forth.

A major taboo in officialdom.

Zhu Wenhao laughs instead.

He stands up, walks to the huge administrative map, and points vaguely at The Capital.

"Father, do you know that the Great Ming Cabinet had an iron rule?"

Secretary Zhu Tianhe is stunned.

"One cannot enter the Hanlin Academy without being a Jinshi, and one cannot enter the Cabinet without being in the Hanlin Academy."

"The Youth League Committee is a greenhouse; it raises sheep, it raises flowers. People who come out of there only know how to read scripts, shout slogans; they are rootless duckweed."

Zhu Wenhao turns around, behind him is the vast world.

"The 'Two Offices' are the Hanlin Academy of this modern officialdom!"

"Only by standing in the place closest to power can one see how the chess game evolves, understand how human hearts are connected, and forge the blades that can truly be used by you!"

"Be a blade in the 'Two Offices', then be the sheath when sent down to a county."

"By then, my foundation will be incredibly solid, my connections plentiful; only with a firm foundation can one go far."

"Where the ambition goes, nothing is unreachable."

"Even high mountains and distant seas cannot limit it!"

The last sentence he recites very softly, but it is like a great bell, making Secretary Zhu Tianhe's eardrums buzz.

Only the wall clock continues to "tick-tock".

Secretary Zhu Tianhe looks at his son, his eyes completely changed.

It is not looking at a child.

But looking at his own father-in-law, the former provincial leader, with the same composure, the same ability to point out the country's direction.

That boldness, that insight piercing through the current situation, makes him feel a bone-chilling cold.

Going to the 'Two Offices' is taking a blade to chop at stubborn rock.

If you chop and fail, it's a dead end.

But once it succeeds...

That is a broad, smooth road.

After a long while.

Secretary Zhu Tianhe sighs heavily, picks up the cold water glass, and drinks it in one gulp, his Adam's apple rolling.

"The Municipal Party Committee Office is Mayor Su Changming's iron bucket. Getting in is as hard as ascending to heaven."

He does not say it definitively.

The way of being an official is knowing how to leave room.

The way of being a father is the same.

"Think clearly, there is no turning back on this road."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe stands up, for the first time not issuing orders to his son.

He drags his feet, goes upstairs.

His back looks somewhat desolate.

The first floor returns to silence.

Zhu Wenhao sits back on the sofa, turns on that strange computer.

He adapts very quickly.

Because the game of power has never changed.

Compromise?

That is just the mercy of the strong, the breath of the weak.

It is the groundwork laid for the next, more violent attack.

Mayor Su Changming thinks that with Deputy Secretary Yang's mediation, he can sleep soundly?

Naive.

As long as the chessboard is still there, and the pieces are not dead, the outcome is never decided.

Zhu Wenhao types a few words awkwardly into the search box.

[Jiangnan Province Civil Service Exam, Past Papers]

The cold light of the screen reflects in his bottomless pupils.

This square inch of examination hall is his first platform for appointing generals.