The game of power begins with the police officers at the local police station.

At 7:00 AM on May 1, 2012, Chen Shi was woken up by his alarm clock. He picked up his phone and saw that it was already 7:00 AM, so he quickly got up.

He usually gets up at eight o'clock, but today he needs to get up an hour earlier. The groundbreaking ceremony is at ten-thirty, so he needs to get there early to inspect the site and see if there are any problems.

I walked to the window, opened it, and saw that the sky was dark and a light drizzle was falling.

Chen Shi thought to himself, "This is really unhelpful; the weather is bad."

At 7:30, Chen Shi walked out of the family building. Yang Bin was waiting at the door in his car. When he saw Chen Shi come out, he quickly got out of the car and opened the door.

Chen Shi sat down: "Let's go to the groundbreaking ceremony."

At this time, there were few cars on the road, and Yang Bin drove very fast. Chen Shi took out his phone and called Huang Ming.

The phone rang twice, and then the call was answered.

Director Chen

"Director Huang, I'm on my way to the groundbreaking ceremony. Have you arrived yet?"

"Director Chen, I'm here. I'm arranging for staff to set up the groundbreaking ceremony site. You can come later. I'll call you once the site is set up."

"You're all busy, and I can't sleep alone. I came to check on you so I'd feel more at ease."

Around eight o'clock, Chen Shi arrived at the groundbreaking ceremony site. When Huang Ming saw Chen Shi's car arrive, he quickly ran over to greet him.

Li Zhe and Wang Zhikai also arrived at the scene. Unexpectedly, Chen Shi arrived so early, so they jogged over as well.

Chen Shi got out of the car, Yang Bin held an umbrella for him, and Huang Ming jogged to his side: "Director Chen, you're here really early."

"You've all arrived before me, thank you for your hard work. How much longer until the setup is complete?"

Huang Ming said, "In another hour, we should be able to get everything set up."

Chen Shi glanced at his three deputies, Huang Ming, Li Zhe, and Wang Zhikai, and said solemnly, "The groundbreaking ceremony is very important. The main leaders of the county and the city will be there. There can be no mistakes. You don't need to worry about me. Go and do your own work."

Huang Ming and the other two nodded and went to supervise the site setup.

Chen Shi looked at the newly paved asphalt road. Fortunately, the road was open. If it had been a dirt road and it was drizzling, the leader's car wouldn't have been able to drive to the site, and they would have had to walk. That would have been bad.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, before the cement road surface had been laid, a thick layer of small stones was used to cover the mud road.

Staff from the Education Bureau and Donghai Zhencheng Group were busy setting up the venue.

Huang Ming, Li Zhe, and Wang Zhikai inspected the areas under their responsibility, and the second-level leadership team of the Education Bureau directed the workers and arranged the site.

When everyone saw that Director Chen Shi had arrived, no one dared to slack off and everyone worked hard.

At 9:10, Wan Xirong's car, the chairman of Donghai Zhencheng Group, drove into the scene.

Wan Xirong and his group arrived in five cars, and more than a dozen people got out of the cars.

Chen Shi led three deputy directors and members of the second-level leadership team to go and greet them.

Wan Xirong took two quick steps, came up to Chen Shi, and tightly grasped Chen Shi's hand.

"Director Chen, you've worked hard; the site was set up so quickly."

"Chairman Wan, you've come all the way from Yizhou, and we haven't even set up the venue yet. You have every right to complain."

Wan Xirong laughed and said, "We came here to help you set up the venue, but now we've gotten a bargain and can take it easy."

I was supposed to come down last night, but something came up and I was delayed.

"Chairman Wan is so busy, don't do everything yourself. Your supervisor arrived very early yesterday and brought people to the site at six o'clock today to cooperate with our work. This is all thanks to everyone. When the leaders come later, we will be ready to welcome them."

Wan Xirong introduced Chen Shi to the senior executives of Donghai Zhencheng Group, and Chen Shi introduced Wan Xirong and his entourage to the leaders of the Education Bureau. Everyone shook hands and greeted each other.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chen Shi accompanied Wan Xirong and his entourage on an inspection of the site.

Just after ten o'clock, the light rain stopped, the sky slowly turned blue, and a few rays of sunlight shone down from the clouds.

At 10:10, the first group of guests, three cars from Mingzhou No. 1 High School, arrived at the scene.

Chen Shi, along with relevant leaders from the Education Bureau, and Wan Xirong, chairman of Donghai Zhencheng Group, along with senior executives, went to greet them.

Chen Shi jogged up to Li Nan. In this formal setting, he didn't call her "aunt" but instead addressed her as "Principal Li" with a big smile. He then introduced Li Nan to Wan Xirong and other senior executives of Donghai Zhencheng Group.

Li Nan led two vice principals and the director of studies from Mingzhou No. 1 High School to attend the groundbreaking ceremony.

After arranging for Li Nan and his entourage to be seated, at 10:15, county leaders including Liu Youguang, Zhang Xiangdong, and Gao Rong arrived at the scene.

Liu Youguang and his entourage, in eight or nine special vehicles, drove into the scene.

Chen Shi led the group, standing on both sides to welcome them.

As soon as the car stopped, Chen Shi went forward and opened the car door for Liu Youguang, Huang Ming opened the car door for Zhang Xiangdong, and Wang Zhikai opened the car door for Gao Rong.

Other section-level leaders were greeted by members of the secondary leadership team who opened the car doors for them.

Chen Shi introduced Wan Xirong, chairman of Donghai Zhencheng Group, and his entourage to Liu Youguang and others.

Everyone shook hands and greeted each other.

Chen Shi accompanied Liu Youguang and other county leaders to inspect the groundbreaking ceremony site. Liu Youguang highly praised the work of the Education Bureau and also commended the work of the Zhongshan Subdistrict Office.

Li Hong and Wang Jianming exchanged a glance, and a look of joy appeared on their faces.

Chen Shi arranged for Liu Youguang and other relevant county leaders to take their seats.

When Liu Youguang saw Li Nan arrive, he quickly went over to greet her.

At 10:25, the city leaders arrived, and Chen Shi led the group to greet them.

The car carrying Zhou Quanfu, the director of the Municipal Education Bureau, stopped, and Chen Shi quickly stepped forward to open the car door, smiling broadly: "Director Zhou, welcome to the groundbreaking ceremony."

The car carrying Hong Xiaojia, the director of the Municipal Finance Bureau, stopped. Huang Ming stepped forward, opened the car door, and said, "Director Hong, welcome to the groundbreaking ceremony."

Zhou Quanfu and Hong Xiaojia got out of the car, accompanied by their respective directors of the Party and Government Offices, Ye Li and Wen Xianglin.

Zhou Quanfu explained, "Director Chen, I'm sorry I'm late, there was a bit of traffic on the way."

Chen Shi quickly said, "It rained in the morning, so there's bound to be traffic jams."

Chen Shi shook hands with Zhou Quanfu and Ye Li, then greeted Hong Xiaojia and Wen Xianglin, and shook hands with them in return. He then introduced them to Wan Xirong, chairman of Donghai Zhencheng Group, and his entourage.

Upon arriving at the site prepared for the groundbreaking ceremony, Liu Youguang, along with relevant county leaders, shook hands and greeted Zhou Quanfu and Hong Xiaojia.

Li Nan also shook hands with the two and greeted them.

At 10:30, the groundbreaking ceremony officially began, hosted by Huang Ming.

The first item on the agenda at the groundbreaking ceremony was Huang Ming's introduction of the entire project and the significance of rebuilding the three key high schools for education in Chunyang County.

It took ten minutes.

The second item on the agenda of the groundbreaking ceremony was a speech by a leader. Chen Shi was the first to speak. Yang Xiaobo had given Chen Shi the speech draft two days earlier. Chen Shi memorized the general content and spoke extemporaneously.

First, I would like to thank the county party committee and county government for their support of the Education Bureau. Second, I would like to thank the municipal education bureau, the municipal finance bureau, and Mingzhou No. 1 Middle School for their support of the Education Bureau.

Chen Shi's speech was very brief, lasting only five minutes.

Next, Wan Xirong, Chairman of Donghai Zhencheng Group, spoke. He emphasized that the project construction would be completed on time and with high quality. By September next year, the project progress would be 80% complete, ensuring that the three schools would open on time in September next year.

Wan Xirong's speech lasted five minutes.