In this cyberpunk era, why are you still playing the traditional villain?

"If you put it that way yourself, I won't think it that way anymore."

Xu Shi came to his senses and smiled back, "As for gratitude and such... don't think too much about it. It's just because you're suitable. To put it more bluntly, it's called each getting what they need."

Even if you say that, it's still a huge favor to me.

Tang Shuang shook her head. "This is the highest level that an ordinary person can reach in their lifetime, apart from conglomerates, right? If it were someone else, they would be considered to have backbone if they didn't kneel down and kowtow to you twice. Why would they defy you and confront you like I did?"

"Thinking about it this way, I should be even more grateful to our Chairman Xu for his magnanimity."

There was no sarcastic tone in his words; it was clear he was speaking from the heart.

"This isn't the first time some people have disagreed with me; I'm used to it."

Xu Shi waved his hand, indicating that she didn't need to worry. "Besides, this position will be yours sooner or later. Even if I don't make a move, I can't change it. To put it modestly, I just accelerated the process."

"Really?"

Governor Tang asked a question in return.

"Why isn't it real?"

Xu Shi retorted, "You know yourself, in the past few years, the public opinion polls in Night City have consistently shown that you are at the top."

"But that's not the decisive factor."

Tang Shuang blinked. "Let's not even talk about how long Yue Chizheng can stay in the position of governor if nothing happens. Even if he really retires and steps down according to the normal procedures, countless people will try their best to climb up to him, won't they?"

Xu Shi neither confirmed nor denied this statement.

From some perspectives, Tang Shuang does indeed have many competitors—the city hall is not just a few people, but also a very large system. Even though she removed Yue Chizheng this time, it has implicated many others.

However, those people were simply beneath his notice, but for Tang Shuang, it was indeed an issue she couldn't escape having to consider.

Even without this incident, her chances of competing for the position would have been extremely slim. There's no way around it; this girl has a straightforward personality, and within the inspection bureau, they call her a "tiger mom" or a "living Yama." Not to mention other functional departments, interpersonal relationships are her weakness, or rather, she simply doesn't care about them.

"Whatever you say."

Even so, now that everything has settled down, he is not worried. "Anyway, the result is good. I can only feel at ease if you take on the position of governor."

"Oh? Didn't some people just say that if I didn't agree, they would come and experience the thrill of being in power themselves?"

Hearing him say that, Tang Shuang suddenly felt like laughing and couldn't help but tease him.

"Forget it, I'd rather be a hands-off boss than suffer like this."

Xu Shi denied all of his jokes.

That's the logic. No matter how hard you try, he won't actually do it. Wouldn't that be like losing the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed? Even putting a puppet on it wouldn't work. You'd still have to operate it from behind the scenes. It's not much different.

"So I'm the one who has to suffer, right?"

Tang Shuang's smile gradually faded, and her tone became serious. "Do you know what Xu Shi is like? Actually, this is also my biggest contradiction."

"Ok?"

"I know this is a good outcome, for both you and me. Putting everything else aside, I have always harbored ambitions to become governor."

Governor Tang pulled him to sit down by the flower bed. "And I'm confident that I can do a better job as governor than that old bastard Yue Chizheng."

“But I can’t be as ruthless as you, only pursuing results. I used to think that no matter how difficult it was, I would strive for it with integrity.”

She continued with her lament, "Instead of things like now, where they even have to fabricate a charge to arrest Yue Chizheng."

In a sense, this can be considered taking a shortcut, right? Even if she was completely unaware of this beforehand, being pushed along by Xu Shi is proof that she is qualified to join the game.

But can a dream that doesn't come true as expected still be considered a dream?

For Tang Shuang, this was by no means the case; otherwise, she wouldn't have reacted so angrily when she received this windfall, because it was dishonorable.

So you're blaming me?

Xu asked with great interest.

"No, this is my own problem."

Tang Shuang denied this, saying, "I can't completely agree with your approach, simply because our starting points and values ​​are different. But in essence, what we pursue is quite similar."

"No matter what your purpose is, I cannot deny that everything you have done is beneficial to this city, so I must accept your actions and will not blame you or anything for it."

That's what she said, but she wasn't without emotions. Her lukewarm attitude towards Xu Shi perfectly illustrated this point—she dared not say that she had no feelings for Xu Shi, otherwise she wouldn't have become so conflicted and even tormented when their opinions differed.

If it were just a simple cooperative relationship, she would feel more at ease accepting it all.

In short, this guy is really annoying! Tang Shuang knows that there is a perfect Xu Shi in her dream, but in reality, she is sometimes very close to that Xu Shi and sometimes very far away from that Xu Shi. Anyway, she is being pulled in and out of place, which makes her very uncomfortable.

"Nothing in this world is perfect, Miss Tang Shuang."

It was rare for Xu Shi to call her by her first name, just as she had said to him earlier, "If everything could go according to our imagination, then everyone would just be a dreamer."

"I'm not a child anymore, I understand this principle."

Tang Shuang nodded. "So I accepted it, didn't I? I didn't stubbornly refuse to comply, otherwise that would have been acting on impulse."

"According to you, this is called 'each getting what they need,' right?"

"Completely correct."

Xu Shi was quite satisfied with this.

Tang Shuang... how should I put it?

At first, he did dislike her, even hate her, since she condemned him without any explanation. But later, he found her more and more pleasing to the eye.

After all, Tang Shuang genuinely harbored the ambition to eliminate the city's ills and make a significant contribution. In this respect, she was quite similar to her grandfather, which was exactly what he needed at the moment.

Such character is truly rare. She is probably the only one so far who remains consistent in personality even though the plot has changed drastically, even though Su Lin is not normal now.

This might also be related to how I treated her? I never used my abilities to influence her from beginning to end, otherwise, no matter how strong my will was, things wouldn't be like this now.

However, rationally speaking, using her abilities would have been the most advantageous way for him to deal with her... Just kidding, a fuzzy ball that obeys your every word would certainly be easier, but unfortunately he didn't do that at the beginning, and now it seems a bit too late to find a way to change things.

I guess people are just inherently shameless. (doge)

"You... sigh."

Seeing his nonchalant demeanor, Tang Shuang chuckled, "He always has this attitude; it's impossible to dislike him even if you want to."

Even if she is aware of it, it's the same - if you have to categorize, her little brother is definitely the kind of person who is cunning and wicked. He deliberately does you a favor while pretending to be indifferent. In fact, this makes the recipient feel even more guilty and more uncontrollably think about how to repay him. This must be the legendary NBA, right?

"Have it?"

Xu Shi pretends to be stupid all the time. It's all your own overthinking, it has nothing to do with me.

"Anyway, I owe you a huge favor."

Tang Shuang didn't mince words and spoke frankly, "But that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want in the future. If you do something too outrageous, I'll still have to deal with you."

"sure."

Xu Shi raised his hands in surrender, saying, "I am a law-abiding citizen."

The fact is that he no longer needs to go against Tang Shuang—as she just said, their goals are similar, and as long as they are based on this premise, they can always work together.

Besides, she couldn't do anything to me when we had conflicts before, so it's even less likely she will in the future... Since that's the case, letting her vent her anger isn't a problem, there's no need to take everything so seriously.

Governor Tang still thought of herself as the older sister in front of Xu Shi, but in reality, she was already the bratty younger sister.

"Alright, since you put it that way, I'll choose to believe you."

Tang Shuang smiled with relief and extended her hand to him, "Then, in my capacity as the Governor of Night Sin City, I wish you a pleasant cooperation with Chairman Xu in the future?"

"Okay."

Xu Shi was also in a good mood, and shook her hand firmly, saying, "It's a pleasure working with you."

then.

He then discovered that he couldn't pull his hand back.

"What do you want to do?"

Xu Shi immediately had a bad feeling. "Trying to be a hooligan, is that it? Guards! The governor is abusing his power and harassing an innocent young man!"

"What? Are you in a hurry to leave? I haven't finished speaking yet."

Governor Tang wasn't buying it. His smile became sly. "Of course, I was speaking to you as Governor just now, but now I'm speaking as the Director of the Inspection Bureau."

"What do you mean?"

Xu Shi was a little confused for a moment.

"What I mean is that although the handover has been completed, according to the normal procedure, I have not officially stepped down yet, and I am still nominally the director of the inspection bureau."

Tang Shuang explained very seriously.

"so?"

Xu Shi's eye twitched involuntarily. No wonder you haven't changed your clothes yet...

"So I need to take advantage of this time to finish the last piece of work that's been piling up."

Tang Shuang laughed even more unrestrainedly, "If I remember correctly, some people still owe 120 hours of community service."

"You're not going to take this so seriously, are you?"

Xu Shi finally understood what she meant. Good grief, I thought you had really let it go, but it turns out you were just waiting for this, to retaliate, huh?

"Don't forget, whether I was the governor or the director, before that, I was a woman."

Tang Shuang tightened her grip slightly, seemingly unintentionally. "Being petty is a woman's prerogative, you know. So, tell me, are you in or not?"

"...Fine, fine, I'm scared of you."

Xu Shi gasped, damn, that's some serious strength...

The disadvantage of not being a combatant is now becoming apparent; they can't defeat her...

"Hmph, that's pretty much it."

Hearing him say that, Tang Shuang finally let go of his hand with satisfaction.

You little brat, I finally got my revenge, didn't I?

Of course, she also knew that if Xu Shi really insisted on doing something that was dispensable, there was nothing she could do to him... You can't expect Yu Xingchuan to continue fulfilling his supervisory duties, can you? It was already a sign of her modesty that she didn't actively try to get close to Xu Shi.

So, this was just an excuse. Her main purpose was to put aside other things and spend some time with Xu Shi without a care in the world.

That's why she's conflicted. She can't fully agree with Xu Shi's values, but she also can't completely cut ties with him and just treat him as a business partner.