After telling what happened to Lu Hanqing, Zhou Yihong said with red eyes: "Xiao Tao, I have always been ashamed of your father, and I have tried every means to help him and your family. However, your father was very stubborn and had too much self-esteem, and thought that I was pitying him and despising him by asking for help, so when I was in the army, I sent him letters, and he replied to them at first, but then he did not reply at all;

"Later, I wrote to your village, but the original copy was returned, saying that there was no longer this person in the village. At that time, I estimated that your father might have moved out of Linjia Village to do business or work elsewhere, and I lost contact with your father ever since. Unexpectedly, he died twenty years ago-"

At this point, he couldn't control his emotions anymore, and tears rolled down his face like raindrops, instantly wetting the collar of his shirt......

Lu Tao's heart was also sour, tears rolled in his eyes, and he couldn't bear it, so he comforted Zhou Yihong and said: "Secretary Zhou, I don't know my father, but I heard my mother say: He is a very strong and face-saving person. After returning from the army, he was depressed and rarely smiled. Even when he later married my mother and gave birth to my sister and my children, he was rarely happy. He later got liver cancer, which is probably related to his depressed mood—"

As soon as he said this, Zhou Yihong grabbed one of his hands, choked up and said, "Xiaotao, don't say it, my heart is going to break, let's talk about something else." What about your mother and your sister, how are they doing?"

"My mother later remarried to a more remote and impoverished place, and my stepfather was also an honest farmer, a decade older than my mother, an old bachelor, who died of illness two years ago. My sister married one of her high school classmates five years ago, also rural, and gave birth to twins. Now the two of them are working in Guangzhou, and my mother follows them in Guangzhou, taking care of their children. ”

Zhou Yihong nodded, wiped the tears on his face with a tissue, and reluctantly smiled: "Xiao Tao, you are alone in Songshan now, and you will treat me as your relative in the future." Your father and I are comrades-in-arms and good brothers who are friends in life and death. I understand your father's thoughts: because the two of us have a very good relationship, and he was my superior when I was in the army, I was afraid that after accepting my support, I would look down on him, and at the same time he was worried that it would affect me, and that his problems would affect my future in the army, so he was unwilling to accept my help until death, and did not even want to see me again.

"However, I will always remember his life-saving grace and fulfillment virtue. If I hadn't had your father on the battlefield to save me, I would have died in a foreign land, and if he hadn't taken the initiative to take the mistake, I would have returned home with a punishment. Suffice it to say: all the honors I have received since then, including my current status, have been accomplished by your father—"

As soon as he said this, someone knocked on the door outside, and a very soft voice asked: "Secretary Zhou, have you finished talking to Xiao Lu? It's already a quarter past twelve, and the food prepared in the village is almost cold, and the comrades in the county and the village ask if you can go down to eat now?"

Zhou Yihong glared at the door a little annoyed, raised his wrist to look at his watch, stood up and said, "Xiao Tao, you go to dinner with me first, and you go back to the county seat with me in the evening." By the way, do you know how to cook?"

Lu Tao was surprised why he suddenly asked if he would cook food, but he still replied respectfully: "Yes." I was independent at a very young age, and I used to cook for myself when I was in junior high school, and I often cooked in my dormitory when I arrived at work. ”

Zhou Yihong happily patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, I won't go to the county banquet in the evening, so I'll go to your house for dinner." ”

Speaking of this, he seemed to suddenly think of something, looked at the door, and then whispered: "Or, you invite Xiaoying to your house for dinner in the evening! You can call her first, ask her to take time to buy some food for you in the afternoon, say that there are guests coming to eat in the evening, and then invite her to eat with you by the way." You can't tell her I'm going to dinner, though, or she'll probably refuse. ”

When Lu Tao saw his eager and expectant expression, he suddenly realized: no wonder he suddenly proposed to go to his house for dinner, it turned out that he still wanted to meet He Ying secretly.

After understanding this, he couldn't help but feel a little awkward in his heart, and couldn't help but look up at Zhou Yihong, thinking to himself, how can you, a hero who was born and died on the battlefield, and a high-ranking cadre of the party, also corrupt and degenerate to this point now? In order to see your lover, you actually want to use the descendants of your life-saving benefactor to match, don't you feel embarrassed at all?

However, Lu Tao still didn't dare to show it on his face, so he reluctantly nodded and agreed......

A few minutes later, Lu Tao and Zhou Yihong both walked out of the office. In order to show the close relationship with Lu Tao, Zhou Yihong deliberately slowed down at the door, walked side by side with Lu Tao, and held his hand affectionately, and said with a smile to Luo Qiulin, secretary of the county party committee, Fu Lei, head of the organization department of the county party committee, and others: "Xiao Lu is the son of one of my closest comrades-in-arms, I haven't seen him for a few years, and I just happened to see him on the side of the highway, so I specially invited him to come over to catch up on the old days. Ask him about the situation at home, I didn't expect us to forget the time to chat, so everyone was hungry and waiting for us, I'm sorry!"

Luo Qiulin and the others didn't expect Secretary Zhou, who had always been dignified and serious and unsmiling, to be so affectionate to Lu Tao, and he also smiled rarely, and couldn't help but be surprised, and they all turned their eyes to Lu Tao and kept looking at him. These eyes of surprise, envy, or jealousy made Lu Tao very uncomfortable when he arrived, so he gently broke free of Zhou Yihong's hand and whispered: "Secretary Zhou, I have to go to the toilet first and retire for the time being." ”

Zhou Yihong nodded and said, "Okay, you go to the toilet first, and then go directly to the place to eat after you finish." ”

A few minutes later, Lu Tao came out of the toilet in the stairwell and walked to the door of a large office temporarily converted into a canteen on the west side of the first floor.

It turned out that Li Weijun had just gone to the town to pick up the director of the county people's congress to accompany Secretary Zhou for dinner, and after returning to the village, he went into the temporary kitchen, urging the kitchen to wash the dishes and stew the chickens a little......