Seeing the usually prodigious Zhu Haifeng actually drunk under the table by Du Fei, Zhang Zhitao’s expression turned unpleasant. He had been counting on Zhu Haifeng to get Liu Shishi drunk for him, but surprisingly, Zhu Haifeng was so useless. However, he couldn’t entirely blame him, as who would have thought that Du Fei, with his ratio of two drinks to Zhu Haifeng’s one, could actually drink him under the table.
“Shishi, wait for me in the car for a bit. I need to have a private chat with Section Chief Zhang,” Du Fei said softly to Liu Shishi, ignoring Zhang Zhitao.
Liu Shishi looked at Du Fei, then at Zhang Zhitao. Just as she was about to speak, Du Fei smiled at her, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
Hearing Du Fei say this, Liu Shishi could only nod and leave the private room first.
As soon as Liu Shishi left, Zhang Zhitao’s expression immediately soured. “It’s getting late, I need to go.” After speaking, Zhang Zhitao stood up, not intending to give Du Fei any chance to speak. Unexpectedly, Du Fei directly stood up and blocked Zhang Zhitao’s path.
“What do you want!” Zhang Zhitao never expected Du Fei to dare to block his way. Ever since he knew Du Fei was Liu Shishi’s boyfriend, Zhang Zhitao found him increasingly displeasing to the eye.
“Section Chief Zhang, have you been experiencing dull pain in your upper right abdomen recently, feeling weak in your limbs, and noticing your urine turning yellow?” Du Fei didn’t answer Zhang Zhitao’s question but instead countered.
“How do you know?” Zhang Zhitao blurted out. Then, he seemed to realize and said coldly, “My health is excellent, where did you get those rumors from?”
At this moment, Du Fei reached out and patted Zhang Zhitao’s shoulder. “Section Chief Zhang, I know what you’re plotting. But I advise you, if you don’t want to die, you’d better not have any more ideas about my girlfriend.”
“What are you going to do? Are you threatening me? Fine, I want to see how capable you are. Going against me, Zhang Zhitao, in this territory of the development zone is practically seeking death!” Zhang Zhitao, his sordid thoughts exposed by Du Fei, bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
However, Du Fei remained calm. He turned around and walked out of the private room. It felt like his punches were hitting cotton, infuriating Zhang Zhitao. Seeing Zhu Haifeng still sprawled on the ground, he directly swept his arm, knocking the food on the table to the floor. Clatter. Bowls and chopsticks scattered everywhere, some shattering into pieces.
…
“Du Fei, what did you say to that Zhang guy just now?” After agonizing in the car for a long time, Liu Shishi couldn’t help but ask.
Du Fei glanced at her, “Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything, just told that Zhang guy not to have ideas about you.”
“Sigh, actually, as soon as I entered the private room tonight, I felt it was a banquet with ulterior motives. But since I was already there, I couldn’t just walk away rudely. That Zhang guy seems to have offended us, and building the factory will likely be troublesome.” Liu Shishi, a sharp and intelligent girl, had seen through Zhang Zhitao’s intentions at a glance. She just didn’t want to embarrass him on the spot due to his position. But now that things had been made clear, his anger would surely lead him to create all sorts of obstacles, which was unavoidable.
“Why don’t we change locations? Chengdu is so big, it’s not like we have to build the factory in the development zone,” Liu Shishi said after a moment’s hesitation. After getting the idea of building a factory, Liu Shishi and Du Fei had surveyed many places. Through comparison and consultations, the development zone was the most suitable. First, land was cheap there, and second, there were many targeted policy supports. Now, changing locations temporarily was a last resort, as they had offended Zhang Zhitao.
“Why change locations? We’ll build the factory right here in the development zone, and don’t worry, Zhang Zhitao absolutely won’t make things difficult for us.” Liu Shishi looked at Du Fei’s confident demeanor and became curious. From her long acquaintance with Du Fei, she knew he never spoke without reason. Since Du Fei said so, there must be a reason. Seeing that Du Fei didn’t intend to explain, Liu Shishi didn’t press further. Some things didn’t require digging into every detail; as long as the matter could be resolved in the end, that was all that mattered.
…
“Director Xu, you said my liver problem wasn't serious before, but yesterday it hurt so much I couldn’t sleep!” Zhang Zhitao rushed to the Municipal Hospital No. 1 early in the morning. Opposite him sat Xu Xiang, the chief physician specializing in liver diseases at the hospital.
“Section Chief Zhang, did you disobey my advice and drink alcohol again? How many times have I told you…”
“No, Dr. Xu, since you last warned me, I haven’t had a single drop.” Seeing Xu Xiang frowning with displeasure, Zhang Zhitao quickly stated that he hadn’t drunk any alcohol. Xu Xiang saw that Zhang Zhitao’s expression didn’t seem like a lie, and considering he had carefully warned him last time to stay away from alcohol if he didn’t want to die, he didn’t think Zhang Zhitao would seek his own demise.
“Then let’s do this. I’ll write you a referral for a detailed examination. I’ll review the report then.” Xu Xiang scribbled and wrote a referral form for Zhang Zhitao.
Zhang Zhitao left the consultation room and made a phone call. Then, after paying the fees and arriving at the crowded examination hall, he was directly led to a corner examination room. Nowadays, as long as you have connections, you don’t have to queue like ordinary people. What would have taken at least one to two hours of queuing for an examination finished in less than ten minutes thanks to a phone call.
About half an hour later, Zhang Zhitao received the examination report and returned to Xu Xiang’s office. However, the moment Xu Xiang took Zhang Zhitao’s report, his expression changed drastically.
“Dr. Xu, wh-what’s wrong?” No matter how formidable Zhang Zhitao was, he couldn’t be arrogant in a hospital. Seeing Xu Xiang’s very grim expression, Zhang Zhitao had a bad premonition.
“Well, well, Section Chief Zhang, I have some bad news for you… Your liver disease has worsened, and it’s now… liver cancer!” Xu Xiang tried to soften his tone. But when he uttered the words “liver cancer,” Zhang Zhitao, who was already tense, instantly weakened, could no longer sit in the chair, and slumped to the floor.
Liver cancer? How could it have worsened to liver cancer? Liver cancer was known to be one of the most difficult cancers to treat. In his younger days, Zhang Zhitao had frequently drunk with various superiors to climb the ladder. As he got older, his liver had developed problems. After being hospitalized a few times, Zhang Zhitao stopped drinking, because even if promotion was important, losing his life would be the most terrifying outcome. But he never expected that even though he had followed the doctor’s orders to abstain from alcohol, taking medication three times a day to regulate his body, he would develop liver cancer. He couldn’t understand it at all.