Merchant of the Underworld

"This building was allocated to him when he was the director of the Agricultural Bureau." Lao Li turned off the car and lowered his voice: "Later, I tried to reassign it to him several times, but he refused, saying that the house was not bad. At least many citizens can't live there yet. When all the citizens in Wuhan can live in better houses than this one, they can move. Later, they have been living there until now..."

I was silent for a moment, looked at Mayor Wang who was still sleeping soundly, turned to Old Li and said, "When Mayor Wang wakes up, please tell me that I will definitely do this for him."

"No, this must be investigated to the end!" Before Lao Li could say anything, Mayor Wang suddenly raised his hand, lifted the blanket and sat up suddenly.

Then it hit the roof of the car with a bang.

"Ouch..." He rubbed his head and turned to look at me and Lao Li. He was stunned for a moment, and then he woke up completely. He laughed and said, "Look at me, I fell asleep while talking." It’s over. I just dreamed of someone cutting corners, how can this be okay? Haha, Master Zhang, let’s go, we’re home!”

"Mayor Wang, that's no need." I looked at him sincerely: "Don't worry, I will definitely help you accomplish this!"

"These are two different things." Mayor Wang said with a straight face: "I found you here in the middle of the night and didn't even give you a sip of tea. What kind of hospitality is this? If word of this gets out, I will still be so old-fashioned. Where to put it? Let’s go, let’s go, now that we’re at the door of our house, why are we so polite? Let’s go up and sit down first.”

After saying that, he pulled me out of the car without further explanation.

"Lao Li, thank you for your hard work." Mayor Wang closed the car door, took out the money and passed it through the car window naturally.

It seemed that this was not the first time that he took Lao Li's night train.

Lao Li was well aware of his temper, so he didn't refuse immediately and reached out to take it.

"Old Li, you still have to work. I won't keep you here. Come back another day and let us have a drink together." Mayor Wang said and waved to Old Li.

Lao Li's eyes were a little moist: "Mayor Wang, you should also pay attention to your health!" Then he flashed the lights twice, turned his head and drove away.

It wasn't until the car disappeared into the night that Mayor Wang turned around and said to me cheerfully: "I haven't had a visitor in my house for a long time. Let's go and let you have a taste of my craftsmanship!"

"This..." I was a little embarrassed. It was me who proposed to come to his house to check, just to see his jokes, to check his background, and to see how long he could keep his dirty face.

But at this time, I knew that I was really wrong. Mayor Wang is really a rare and good official!

He now forced me to go upstairs, which made me extremely embarrassed.

"Don't worry, I'm inviting you to dinner and it's at home. This doesn't count as bribery." Mayor Wang said with a smile.

"Mayor Wang, let's wait for another day." I continued to evade: "Besides, it's already this time, and my sister-in-law..."

"She's working the night shift and won't be back until midnight. I'm the only one at home now. We didn't even order food at Aimanlou.

I'm very hungry. Come on, just think of it as having a meal with me. "After Mayor Wang finished speaking, he put his arm on my shoulder and walked inside.

In this case, I naturally have nothing to do.

Mayor Wang's home was on the fourth floor. He opened the door, turned on the light, took off his coat and threw it on the sofa. As he walked into the kitchen with his sleeves rolled up, he said to me: "Sit down for a while and drink the tea yourself. I'll be ready in a moment!"

Immediately, there was a clanging sound in the kitchen.

I stood in the room, looking at this extremely ordinary yet extraordinary room in front of me. I was so stunned that I was speechless for a moment.

It is said to be ordinary because this is the most common two-bedroom and one-living room, which is only about sixty or seventy square meters. The decoration in the room has long been out of date, and there are traces of time everywhere.

It is extraordinary because there is absolutely no other home with such magical furnishings.

There is a crumpled sofa in the living room, but what is opposite the sofa is not a coffee table, but a large square book table. The book table is filled with various drawings and documents, as well as large and small, colorful books. map.

There are bird's-eye views of the city, topographic maps, and water and sewage network diagrams... If I hadn't just followed Mayor Wang into the house, I would have really doubted whether I had walked into the construction site command post?

It seems that he is really a desperate man!

According to Lao Li, he worked so late every day. When he finally got home, he had to face these maps and work hard to ponder and study them.

He doesn't want to leave any flaws, he wants to strive for perfection and build a new city that reassures him and satisfies all the citizens.

Now, he has done it, but he may never see that day.

He has worked hard and struggled for half his life, but in the end, he can only have regrets and die with his eyes closed?

I believe that any Wuhan citizen who knows this will be extremely sad and sigh!

I looked at the maps in front of me and remembered his smiling face along the way, and my eyes suddenly became moist.

"It's time to eat!" At this moment, Mayor Wang suddenly shouted and walked out of the kitchen with two large bowls in his hands.

It was two bowls of noodles, noodles boiled in white water, with some shredded cucumbers topped with Lao Gan Ma's soup. What was a little more luxurious was that there was a poached egg on the side of the bowl.

"Here, one bowl per person, no leftovers allowed." He handed me a bowl, picked up the other, sat down on the sofa, and immediately started devouring it.

When I saw his appearance, my nose suddenly became sore.

This is the dignified mayor of Wuhan! A big city with millions of managers has countless money flowing in its hands.

Is he just treating himself like a mule?

"Why, can't you eat?" He swallowed several mouthfuls, and when he saw me standing there without moving, he scratched his hair with the head of his chopsticks, and said apologetically: "This is your first time in my house, so I invite you to eat this. It’s a bit outrageous. But I… can only do this.”

"No, I'm hungry too!" I said and picked up the bowl, sat on the sofa next to him and ate.

He glanced at me, said nothing, picked up the noodles and continued to eat.

Xili snored, and the two grown men said nothing and gulped down the noodles.

My bowl gradually stood up, and then, while he wasn't paying attention, I secretly wiped away the moisture from the corners of my eyes.

Mayor Wang ate all the noodles in one go, and even drank the soup. He burped with satisfaction and said, "This noodles may not look like much, but it really works."

"I used to be busy with work, and you never knew when I would come back, so your sister-in-law couldn't leave any food for me. Sometimes when I came back in the middle of the night, I was really hungry, so I forced myself to learn how to cook noodles. I dare not say anything else about this. , it’s quite simple, but very hungry! Just like being an official, as long as you keep the people in your heart and really want to do it, then there is nothing you can’t do.”

He just sighed and suddenly turned his head and realized that I was not from the government at all. The teaching just now seemed a bit redundant. He laughed again and said: "Look, I'm really an old bureaucrat and I'm used to it, no matter what I do, I can bring it to work."

As he said that, he took my empty bowl and said, "If you sit here for a while, I have to wash it away quickly. If you wait for your sister-in-law to come back, it's time to criticize me again!" He said this, but the expression on his face was different. It is extremely happy.

"Hey, that's right." After taking two steps, he stopped again and said solemnly: "If you see her in the future, don't let it slip! In addition to helping me with my illness, No one knows about it except the small amount of money for the report, not even Lao Li, so this matter must be kept highly confidential."

"Okay!" I nodded heavily.

There was a gust of wind blowing, and a lot of map paper was scattered on the table. I quickly lowered my head to pick it up and put it back.

But at this moment, I suddenly found a photo, which was pressed under the thick glass on the table.

The photo was in black and white, slightly yellowish, and looked very old.

In the photo, there are two young men in their twenties standing side by side. One is wearing a military uniform and the other is wearing a Chinese tunic suit. Both of them hold their chests high and have a shining party emblem hanging on their chests. Their faces were full of pride and joy, and they were in their prime.

Although we were far apart in years, I could still recognize him at a glance. The young man in Mao suit was Mayor Wang.

Below are a few lines of handwriting with flying dragons and phoenixes.

Thousands of hammers were used to carve out the mountains, and the fire burned them as if nothing happened.

Don’t be afraid of being shattered into pieces, keep your innocence in this world!

Behind it is a line of small words: "I would like to express this sentence to Yuejin, and I hope you will remember it, February 1984."

"His name is Hu Qingshan, and he is my best classmate and friend." I was staring blankly, but Mayor Wang stood behind me for no apparent reason.

He ignored my astonishment, stared at the photo and said: "Back then, we graduated together and joined the Party together. We vowed to work hard and serve the motherland. But just a few months later, he died. At the Sino-Vietnamese border, not even the bones were found, only these few lines left for me."

Mayor Wang was a little melancholy: "These words of Qingshan are especially in my ears, and they always alert me like thunder. Whenever I am confused, I can't help but look at the photos, and Qingshan can always give me a head-on blow." Wake me up! Regardless of whether you are a big official or a small official, you will always represent not yourself in front of the people, but this country, this party, and the hope of this nation!"