Li Weidong asked Wang Hai for Ye Ming's mobile phone number, then hung up his phone, stretched his finger to the keypad of the landline, and hesitated at the moment of dialing-from the heart, he was extremely reluctant to call Ye Ming, because he still had a deep grudge against Secretary Lu and Ye Ming, and he didn't want to give them a chance to reconcile.

However, now he is at a critical juncture in his career: if he finds the right person, takes the relationship with the No. 1 or No. 2 chief, and is promoted to the ministerial level at the time of the party congress next year, he can work until he is 68 years old, and he still has nearly ten years to make a big move, realize his ambitions, fulfill his wishes, and have no regrets for the rest of his life; On the contrary, if you don't grasp the current critical juncture to a higher level, you can only retire or retire in two years, which is the most unacceptable and tragic result for yourself!

And now, the person who is most hopeful of helping him to catch the line of the No. 1 chief is fellow countryman Wu Dongsheng. As long as he is willing to do his best to help himself, it is still possible to achieve his willingness to go to the next level next year. And to make friends with Wu Dongsheng, Yi Xiaonan may be his only bridge, although this bridge may not be useful, but as long as there is one percent hope, he must do his best one hundred percent!

Therefore, even though he knew that Ye Ming might want to use his eagerness to get to know Yi Xiaonan to get close to him, but for the sake of that one percent hope, he still decided to go to the banquet and use this opportunity to get to know Yi Xiaonan first......

After carefully weighing and thinking about it for a minute or two, Li Weidong gritted his teeth and quickly dialed Ye Ming's mobile phone.

After the phone was connected, Li Weidong deliberately said in a very flat tone: "Xiao Ye, just now Comrade Director Wang made a phone call to me and invited me to have dinner together. I had other arrangements tonight, but Director Wang is my old colleague, and he will go back to Tianjiang tomorrow, so after thinking about it for a while, I turned down another friend's invitation and decided to attend the dinner between you and Director Wang. By the way, where is the location you arranged? I went straight over after work. ”

Ye Ming said happily: "Thank you, Minister Li, I arranged to have dinner at the Jiahe Hotel near CCTV, which is not far from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and it will take twenty minutes to drive away." You call me when you arrive at the hotel and I come out to greet you. ”

At 6:20, Li Weidong rushed to the "Jiahe Hotel" by special car, and sure enough, he saw Ye Ming and Yi Xiaonan standing at the door of the hotel lobby waiting for him.

After Li Weidong got out of the car, he pretended to be reserved and walked slowly to the door of the lobby, first stretched out his palm to Yi Xiaonan, shook hands with him, and said with a smile: "Director Yi, it's an honor to be able to have dinner with you again." ”

He knew that Yi Xiaonan was only a section chief now, but in order to please him, he deliberately called him "Director Yi".

Yi Xiaonan greeted him with a smile, chatted with him casually, and saw that he didn't seem to have the intention of shaking hands with Ye Ming, so he pointed his finger at Ye Ming and said, "Minister Li, we are destined to meet again today, and I want to thank Brother Ye." He is my best friend, the most respected eldest brother, and the young man my uncle admires the most, so please talk to him first! ”

Li Weidong originally wanted to ignore Ye Ming and get close to Yi Xiaonan directly, but he didn't expect that he seemed to know his intentions, and straightforwardly let himself talk to Ye Ming, so he had to let go of the hand holding him, turned his face to Ye Ming, stretched out his hand and said lightly: "Xiao Ye, thank you for your kind invitation, wait for us to pay tribute to Director Yi for two more glasses of wine." ”

Ye Ming knew that the knots in his heart could not be eliminated in a day or two, so he winked at Yi Xiaonan, signaled him not to say more, and then exchanged a few polite words with Li Weidong, and then took them upstairs into the box.

At this time, Wang Hai, Sister Wei, Director Liu of the CCTV News Center, and the two reporters, Zhao Jiping, had already sat in the box, and Ye Ming introduced them one by one. Xia Chuchu didn't come over to eat because he had to record a show in the evening.

Li Weidong saw that Director Liu, Wei Lin and other famous CCTV figures were really at the wine table, and they were polite to Ye Ming, and he was both surprised and puzzled: With the fame and status of Director Liu and others, a small county party secretary, they naturally don't pay attention to it, but why are they so polite to Ye Ming? Does he really have any extraordinary skills?

It wasn't until after the banquet began, when he saw Ye Ming swaying freely and talking and laughing at the wine table, that Li Weidong realized: Zhao Han's son is indeed not simple. Let's not talk about other things, just looking at his vertical and horizontal and graceful bearing at the wine table, it makes people feel good. Moreover, judging from his calm and chic demeanor and eloquence, he almost completely copied Lu Zhiyao's appearance when he was young, so it can be concluded that he is Lu Zhiyao's illegitimate son.

So, when Ye Ming toasted him again, he suddenly asked, "Xiao Ye, how is your mother now?" Where did she go to school? ”

Ye Ming was originally elated, but when he asked him this, his face suddenly darkened, and he replied, "Minister Li, my mother died of liver cancer eight years ago?" ”

"What? Your mother has died? Li Weidong's eyes widened all of a sudden, and he almost didn't believe his ears.

Ye Ming nodded sadly and said, "That's right." She had been teaching in a rural middle school in the small county town of our hometown since she joined the work, and she did not leave the middle school until her death, and finally collapsed on the podium. The year she died, I had just been admitted to the civil service, but she left forever before she could see me go to work. ”

At this point, his voice was already choked.

Li Weidong didn't expect that Zhao Han had passed away, and when he suddenly heard the news at this moment, he was shocked, and a wave of compassion suddenly surged in his heart, and he was stunned for a while with a wine glass, before he said to Ye Ming in a low tone: "Xiao Ye, let's respect your mother together with this glass of wine, and wish her a peaceful rest under the Nine Springs!" ”

Then he took his glass and drank it down.

The other people at the table also picked up their wine glasses and drank with Ye Ming, and Wang Hai patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

At this moment, Yi Xiaonan's mobile phone rang suddenly, and after glancing at the caller ID on the screen, he quickly picked up his mobile phone and hurriedly walked out of the box and went outside to answer the phone.

A few minutes later, Yi Xiaonan reappeared at the door of the box and beckoned to Ye Ming to go out.

When Ye Ming came to the aisle, Yi Xiaonan looked around at no one, lowered his voice and said, "Brother Ming, just now my uncle called me and asked me to go to a teahouse to drink tea after eating with you, Director Wang, and Minister Li, and he will come over to meet and chat with us at about nine o'clock." ”

Ye Ming didn't expect Director Wu to take the initiative to come over to meet them, he was surprised and delighted, and hurriedly asked, "Where does Director Wu usually drink tea?" I'll book a private room on my phone right away. ”

Yi Xiaonan thought for a while and said: "He likes to drink tea in a teahouse called 'Yurun Teahouse' near his residence, you can search on the Internet, and it will be here!" Director Wang and Minister Li will be notified by you, okay? ”

"Okay, I'll book a box right away."