Marry a female star at a bargain price

After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiao quickly drove to the town.

The town was overcrowded; it took almost half an hour to drive a distance of less than 2 kilometers.

Thankfully, we finally arrived.

Once inside the hospital, he abandoned Lin Yu and Liang Tian and rushed upstairs to the duty room.

Deputy Mayor Ge Tao is on duty at his workplace today.

Wherever the old chain smoker is, things are always shrouded in mist, and the duty room is no exception.

Upon seeing Lin Xiao arrive, Ge Tao immediately emerged from the clouds, as if he had ascended to heaven on the spot.

"What happened? What's wrong with Lao Dong?" Lin Xiao asked quickly.

"This one……"

Ge Tao stammered, his face and tone showing great hesitation.

This really worried Lin Xiao.

He asked Ge Tao on the phone earlier, and Ge Tao was so hesitant and evasive. He couldn't wait any longer, so he drove to town to ask him in person.

As a result, he's still in that half-dead, pathetic state.

Old Ge is usually a very decisive person, but now that he has changed his attitude, it can only mean that things are getting more serious for Lin Xiao.

So he became even more anxious.

"What exactly happened? Lao Ge, tell me quickly, or I'll force you to report me to the county for smoking while on duty!"

Lin Xiao took out his phone, pretending to take a picture of Lao Ge's immortal ascension in the duty room.

Ge Tao was not afraid at all; he knew the town mayor would not do such a thing.

There was a reason why he hesitated, but now he has no choice but to speak.

"Mayor, before we get to the main point, I need to report something to you..."

Ge Tao hesitated for a few more seconds before finally saying, as if he had made up his mind, "Well, Old Dong lives in the county town, you know that, right?"

Lin Xiao rolled his eyes: "Of course! I've taken his car back to the county several times, how could I not know?"

Ge Tao nodded: "His car... he usually drives for ride-hailing services on evenings after get off work and on weekends..."

Lin Xiao paused for a moment, then blurted out, "You knew about this?"

This question left Ge Tao completely bewildered.

"This... Mayor, you're aware of this?"

“I know!” Lin Xiao said.

"How did you know?" Ge Tao still couldn't believe it.

"Never mind how I know, how did you know?"

"I already knew that!"

"Who else knows besides you?"

“Uh…uh…” Ge Tao stammered again, scratching his head while chuckling awkwardly.

Lin Xiao instantly understood, his face darkening slightly: "Could it be that the whole company knows?"

Ge Tao's smile became even more awkward.

This reaction was tantamount to acknowledging Lin Xiao's guess.

Lin Xiao was extremely embarrassed.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to praise the unity of the town's officials or feel sad that even after being in office for so long, everyone still treated him like an outsider.

It's become obvious.

Dong Jianhui has been working part-time as a ride-hailing driver outside of his regular working hours for some time now. All the town's officials know about this, and not only do they know, they also cover it up for him, especially from the newly arrived town mayor.

After all, it is against regulations for civil servants to hold concurrent positions.

Even though some restrictions have been eased in recent years, it's far from being met with strong support, and of course, that's absolutely impossible.

The fact that Dong Jianhui drove a ride-hailing car without reporting it to the town or county authorities is undeniable.

Based on this one point alone, he has violated the rules. There is no need to consider whether he has family difficulties, whether it has affected his normal work, or whether driving for a ride-hailing service falls under the category of appropriate part-time work.

Everyone understood this, which is why they felt it was better to avoid trouble and covered it up for him.

As a result, this cover-up lasted for more than three years.

So much time passed that everyone forgot about it, and no one ever mentioned it outside of Starlight Town. Even Lin Xiao, the new town mayor, was so famous and well-known that everyone chose to keep quiet about it. Of course, no one found an opportunity to talk about it, since mentioning it would seem like deliberately informing on someone.

Later, Lin Xiao used his own money to resolve the issue of the cadres' overdue wages and bonuses, and worked overtime with the cadres to handle urgent, difficult, and dangerous problems.

In the past six months, he and everyone have gone from being complete strangers to being comrades-in-arms in the same trench.

However, the fact that Dong Jianhui was working part-time as a ride-hailing driver was never revealed. It was only when Lin Xiao hitched a ride with Dong Jianhui back to the county town that he accidentally discovered it.

Now, he has successfully confronted Deputy Mayor Ge.

His first reaction was anger. The town's officials still didn't treat him like one of their own. Everyone knew, but they deliberately kept it from him.

However, this reaction lasted only a moment.

In an instant, he felt very gratified, after all, so many people were keeping a little secret and not letting a word of it slip out.

This unity made Lin Xiao, the person in charge, feel very warm and grateful.

He immediately cleared his mind of his resentment at being cheated.

Let's get down to business first.

"What's wrong with Lao Dong? Get to the bottom of this!" Lin Xiao's voice was already filled with anger.

At this point, Ge Tao stopped trying to hide anything and said with a bitter face, "This morning, he was driving in the county town when he hit someone at an intersection..."

Lin Xiao's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

In an instant, I had many questions to ask, but after forcing myself to calm down, I quickly grasped the key points.

"Killed?"

"That's not true!"

"call……"

Lin Xiao let out a long breath.

Ge Tao hurriedly said, "They did bump into him. His leg scraped against the curb and he got a minor cut, but it's nothing serious!"

Lin Xiao nodded: "Well, it's nothing serious, why are you in such a hurry?"

Ge Tao's expression did not improve at all; on the contrary, he became even more anxious.

"The key point isn't that Lao Dong hit someone, the key point is... that person was a tourist, and even recognized Lao Dong as the deputy mayor of Mashan County!!"

"???"

Lin Xiao was stunned.

This turn of events was completely unexpected, and he was at a loss for words.

After a long pause, he asked, "No... how could an ordinary tourist recognize Lao Dong? Dong Jianhui is just an ordinary deputy mayor, not a public figure. He has never appeared on television, nor does he have his resume or appointment certificate hanging in his car. How could a tourist from out of town recognize him?"

Ge Tao clapped his hands and stamped his feet, saying, "The strange thing about this is that the tourist just came to our Xingguang Town yesterday. He picked oranges in the navel orange orchard in Shiliang Village and got into a conflict with other passengers. Yesterday, Lao Dong was on duty, and when he heard about the incident, he rushed over and mediated in front of that person."

"The first day it was the deputy mayor and the tourist, the next day it was a ride-hailing driver and a passerby. That guy recognized Lao Dong immediately. That tourist is no pushover; yesterday he was making a fuss about compensation, but Lao Dong didn't give in and forced him to stop. Now Lao Dong is in his hands, and he can't run away. He grabbed Lao Dong in the street demanding an explanation, shouting that he's a civil servant working part-time as a ride-hailing driver, and that Lao Dong deliberately sought revenge by running him over... This has really blown up!"

After Ge Tao finished speaking, he shook his head, sighed, and stomped his feet three times in a row.

Lin Xiao's brows furrowed higher and higher as he listened, feeling that this was too much of a coincidence. But then he thought that there were bound to be coincidences, and when people are down on their luck, even drinking cold water can cause problems. It wasn't impossible for him to encounter such bad luck.

It seems Dong Jianhui is destined for this calamity. Lin Xiao also thought of Old Dong's coughing habit when he speaks. If he were recognized as the deputy mayor in public, who knows how he would be insulted and ridiculed? He wouldn't be able to argue back, and he would suffer a great injustice.

Lin Xiao's expression grew increasingly serious.

"How did you know about this?" he asked.

“The deputy captain of the county traffic police team is my brother-in-law. When he arrived at the scene and saw that it was the deputy mayor of Xingguang Town, he immediately called me, so that’s how I found out.”

Ge Tao said.

Lin Xiao nodded.

It's National Day now, and Xingguang Town and Mashan County are dark horse tourist destinations in the province and even the country. He has already experienced firsthand how many tourists there are and how congested the traffic is.

Dong Jianhui driving a ride-hailing car is a trivial matter, and the accident that resulted in minor injuries to a passerby is not considered a big deal.

But this scene happened precisely when there were the most tourists and when Mashan County was receiving the most attention, and the person they encountered was not a kind one.

This is a huge matter, bigger than anything else.

The mere fact that civil servants are illegally holding concurrent positions is enough to give Dong Jianhui a run for his money.

If this matter doesn't escalate, the organization might handle it leniently, at most giving the child a warning and letting it go.

But now the question is.

The accident site was crowded with tourists, and the scene had been lingering for so long that related photos and videos must have already been widely circulated online.

So far, this is just a simple social event.

However, once the title of "Deputy Mayor of Xingguang Town" was attached to it, the name "Lin Xiao" was immediately brought into the picture, and the traffic of this matter skyrocketed.

Lin Xiao predicted that by the afternoon at the latest, this matter would top the trending lists on major social media platforms and spark discussions across the internet.

Until then.

It's impossible for the organization to treat Dong Jianhui leniently anymore.

In order to give the public an explanation and society a response, this matter should and must be dealt with severely.

It's hard to say what will become of Dong Jianhui.

Thinking of this, Lin Xiao's brows furrowed even more deeply, and a chill crept into his heart.

While clarifying the whole story.

Lin Xiao quickly made a decision: he had to save Lao Dong and couldn't let him become a victim of this public opinion incident.

It's not that Lin Xiao is a busybody or considers himself a good person.

But as the mayor of Starlight Town, he had to do it, and he had no choice but to do it.

As Dong Jianhui's superior, he had a responsibility to educate and supervise Dong, who was a member of the leadership team. His failure to promptly learn about Dong's family difficulties and his use of ride-hailing services to supplement his income was a dereliction of duty on behalf of the town mayor.

Moreover, Lin Xiao had already discovered that Lao Dong was driving for ride-hailing services.

But he chose to remain silent and pretend he didn't see it, which was also a mistake he made.

If he had reminded Lao Dong at the time, or strictly ordered him not to do any more part-time work, the situation today would not have happened.

Personally, Lin Xiao bears the primary responsibility for Dong Jianhui being caught in such a massive media storm.

After all, if it weren't for him, Starlight Town wouldn't be so popular now.

In particular, the tourism boom in Xingguang Town and Mashan County was entirely the work of Mayor Lin. Even that unreasonable tourist was brought in by Lin Xiao.

If not for him.

In Mashan, a poor and remote place, hardly anyone from other places comes to visit. Old Dong can run his ride-hailing business for a lifetime without any problems.

Now, however, because of Lin Xiao's unauthorized actions, the peaceful and comfortable lives of the people in the county have been forcibly changed, and the county's economy has been pushed onto an unprecedented fast track.

Among those whose lives were changed was Tung Chee-fai.

Therefore, this matter seems to have nothing to do with Lin Xiao.

But whether from a public or private perspective, he bears primary responsibility.

Even setting aside the issue of responsibility.

Lin Xiao now regards the 22 cadres in the town as his own brothers and sisters. He cannot stand idly by if any of them encounter problems or difficulties.

Therefore, he's determined to handle Dong Jianhui's matter.

After learning the details, Lin Xiao immediately drove to the county.

Before this matter goes viral online, it will inevitably be discussed and reviewed in the county. The best way to save Lao Dong is to settle things with the county leaders before the online buzz gets out of hand.

This could offer a glimmer of hope.

However, God did not fulfill his wish.

It was nearly noon when they returned to the county town. The tourists in Xingguang Town, tempted by their cravings, also began to frantically return to the county town to find food.

As a result, the only national highway was once again completely blocked.

The country road that Lin Xiao took to get here was also occupied by vehicles of people going to farmhouses and picking gardens, so he could not go back even though he arrived safely.

Lin Xiao could only walk three meters and then stop a few steps, moving towards the county in this halting manner.

On the way, he called Dong Jianhui, but no one answered. He also called the county head and deputy county head, but no one answered either.

Lin, the talented scholar, is usually calm and collected, but this time he was really flustered.

He finally arrived at the entrance of the Mashan County Government at 1 p.m.

Just as I parked the car in the yard, my sister-in-law, Liang Tian, ​​suddenly screamed while holding her phone: "Brother-in-law... he's trending on social media!"

Lin Xiao took the phone and looked at it.

The fourth spot on Weibo's trending topics list was occupied by the hashtag "Lin Xiao's subordinate hits someone while driving a ride-hailing car".

Lin Xiao couldn't help but laugh.

These netizens know how to ride the wave of trending topics. They didn't mention the person's name at all, but directly posted it under the banner of "Lin Xiao's subordinate".

Upon entering the topic page, the comment section was already in an uproar.

"A civil servant holding a part-time job? Isn't that illegal?"

"Lin Xiao is so unfair! He earns so much money from variety shows, but he doesn't even share some with his subordinates. He actually has to drive a ride-hailing car to earn extra money!"

"With tourism so popular in Xingguang Town, why isn't this deputy mayor serving tourists in town? Instead, he's out driving a ride-hailing car to make money? That's hilarious!"

"Upstairs, if the town mayor can go out and be a guest at a music festival during the holidays, why can't the deputy town mayor drive a ride-hailing car to earn some extra money? Don't be so hypocritical!"

"These aren't civil servants, they're just money-grubbers!"

"He must be expelled!!!"

"..."

All sorts of opinions, using every possible means, were almost all negative.

Lin Xiao didn't feel much after watching it, because he had already expected this outcome.

After all, the higher you climb, the harder you fall; this has been true since ancient times.

When you're at the peak of your career, people don't think about you climbing even higher; they just wish you'd fall from grace as soon as possible.

As for the truth, it doesn't matter at all!

Lin Xiao didn't blame netizens for making unfounded accusations and rushing to criticize without knowing the facts, after all, everyone is having a hard time in the current environment.

It's good to have the chance to vent your frustrations and curse at others.

Lin Xiao didn't take it to heart and handed the phone back to Liang Tian.

Then, taking a deep breath, he got out of the car and walked confidently towards the main building in the spacious courtyard. (End of Chapter)