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

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Shi didn't go anywhere and spent the whole day with her parents. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Yiqiu drove to pick up Chen Shi and took her to her house for dinner.

Chen Shi prepared gifts for Jiang Yiqiu's parents, four boxes of valuable gifts.

As the car drove into Jiang Yiqiu's yard, Jiang Huazhou and Zhang Qingrong hurriedly came out to greet it.

After having dinner at Jiang Yiqiu's house, we went to Yizhou to travel abroad.

Chen Shi drove for two hours, and Jiang Yiqiu asked, "Honey, are you tired? Let me take over driving."

"I'm not tired. I slept well last night."

The phone rang, and Chen Shi, wearing headphones, answered it.

"Hey, Xiao Rong."

"Brother, where are you?"

"On the way to Yizhou."

Where are you going?

"Traveling to Thailand"

I want to go too.

"Why didn't you say so sooner? The plane tickets were already booked. Do you have a passport?"

"You didn't tell me beforehand that you were going to Thailand for a trip. I was bored by myself, so I thought I'd go to your house to visit your parents."

"I missed it this time, but I'll let you know in advance next time I go abroad."

"Forget it, I don't want to be a third wheel and interfere with your time alone with Director Jiang."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yiqiu asked, "Was that Shen Xiaorong calling?"

Chen Shi hummed in agreement.

Jiang Yiqiu said, "Your adopted sister is quite concerned about you."

"She lives alone, without any relatives. We should care for her more and make her feel that she has family around her."

"Doesn't she have an aunt?"

"Her aunt doesn't care about her, and she doesn't contact her aunt at all; she's no different from a stranger."

The two chatted for a while, and time flew by. Chen Shi drove straight to Yizhou Airport.

Jiang Yiqiu checked the time: "We still have a little over an hour before boarding. Let's find a place to rest."

"Let's go to Starbucks for a coffee"

The two went to Starbucks, ordered two coffees, and sat down to rest.

With only half an hour left before boarding, the two got up to board the plane.

I spent three days in Thailand and returned to Yizhou on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

Chen Shi began sending gifts from Yizhou, first to Zhao Ji and Ding Yi, and then returned to Mingzhou.

Gifts were given to Hong Xiaojia, director of the Finance Bureau; Zhou Quanfu, director of the Education Bureau; Huang Ao, secretary-general of the Municipal Party Committee; and Zhang Kai, secretary of Wang Mingzhang.

After delivering the gift, Chen Shi called Li Nan.

"Xiao Shi"

"Auntie, are you home?"

"I'm at home. You've come up to Minnesota?"

"I just arrived in Minnesota and came to visit you and my uncle."

"Your uncle just returned from Yizhou, come over quickly."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Shi drove to the municipal party committee compound.

Chen Shi prepared local specialties, and Jiang Yiqiu also prepared gifts. When they arrived at the villa, they rang the doorbell, and the nanny, Xiao Chen, opened the door.

Chen Shi smiled and said, "Sister Chen."

"Director Chen, Director Jiang, please come in."

Jiang Yiqiu greeted her with a smile. She had visited once last year; the nanny, Xiao Chen, remembered her. No wonder she worked as a nanny in the mayor's house; her memory was excellent.

Li Nan, who was in the living room, came out to greet them. Seeing that Chen Shi and Jiang Yiqiu were carrying gifts, she smiled and said, "Just come and sit down, what are you carrying?"

Chen Shi smiled and said, "These were all brought by my mother. She wanted to come up and see you, but she has to stay home to take care of the children and can't leave."

Jiang Yiqiu quickly greeted her, "Auntie."

"Come sit in the living room, your aunt is here too."

Wang Mingzhang also had a younger sister whom Chen Shi had never met. The two went to the living room, where a woman in her forties, dressed fashionably, looked at Chen Shi.

Sitting next to her was a man in his fifties with gray hair, who was also looking at Chen Shi and Jiang Yiqiu.

Chen Shi thought to himself, "She must be Wang Mingzhang's younger sister, Wang Xiaoya."

Li Nan smiled and said, "Xiaoya, this is your eldest sister's youngest son, Chen Shi, who is now the director of the Chunyang County Education Bureau."

She looked at Jiang Yiqiu: "This is his girlfriend, Jiang Yiqiu, the dean of studies at Chunyang No. 1 Middle School."

Chen Shi and Jiang Yiqiu quickly greeted her, "Auntie."

Wang Xiaoya smiled and said, "You're so young and already at the level of a section chief. If you can catch up with your uncle in your future career, you'll at least reach the level of a department director."

"I'm not so lucky. I'm over forty and I've only managed to get a deputy division-level position with no real power."

Chen Shi could tell that she was complaining about Wang Mingzhang, who had arranged a powerful section-level position for her, while she, Wang Mingzhang's own sister, had only been given a powerless deputy division-level position.

Li Nan ignored her words and looked at the middle-aged man: "Xiao Shi, this is your uncle, Gao Zhiyuan, the deputy general manager of Mingzhou Urban Construction Group."

Chen Shi greeted him with a smile: "Uncle-in-law."

Gao Zhiyuan chuckled: "Chen Shi, it's been so long, why don't you come over for a visit?"

"Uncle, I'm usually busy with work, so I came up here today to visit you."

"Okay, let's go over to my place and sit down. If we hadn't run into each other today, we might have gotten into a fight outside and no one would have known."

Wang Xiaoya didn't take Chen Shi seriously. Where did this "elder sister" come from? She didn't want to acknowledge her at all. Poor relatives in the countryside always wanted to be recognized, just to get benefits.

When my father was alive, he never mentioned that he had a half-sister in the countryside.

Whether it's true or not, who knows? She just ignored Wang Xincheng and Song Ya when they said it. Without her older brother's help, those two would still be farming at home. Now they act all high and mighty, daring to look down on her.

Wang Xiaoya waited a long time for her older brother to come down, then stood up and said, "What is my brother doing in the study? I'll go up and see."

Li Nan knew that the couple had come because they wanted an official position.

"Your eldest brother's study contains important documents, and outsiders are not allowed to enter."

"I'm his own sister, not an outsider."

Wang Xiaoya went upstairs.

Chen Shi could tell that Wang Xiaoya didn't take Li Nan seriously, and she certainly wouldn't take him, a nobody, seriously either. Chen Shi was too lazy to bother with this aunt.

Wang Xiaoya pushed open the door to the study and went inside.

"Brother, what are you doing? You haven't come down for ages."

Wang Mingzhang was practicing calligraphy, writing many characters for "quiet." He put down his brush and looked at Wang Xiaoya: "What are you doing in the study? Your sister-in-law is keeping you company in the living room, isn't that enough?"

"She can't help me anyway."

"What are you going to do now?" Wang Mingzhang's voice became stern.

"Brother, what's wrong with you? A guy named Chen Shi came along, saying he was your nephew, and you helped him become a section-level bureau chief, a young man with real power in the education bureau."

"I'm your own sister, and what you do is put me in the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) as the office director, or even a deputy one—just a retirement department with no real benefits."

Wang Mingzhang's eyes turned cold: "Don't you know why you went to the Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference?"

Wang Xiaoya looked aggrieved: "I only accepted a few gifts, what? These days, who among the officials dares to say they haven't accepted gifts?"

"Is that what you call accepting a gift? You accepted over a million yuan in gifts from someone. That's not a gift, that's bribery. If investigated, you'll go to jail. If I hadn't pulled some strings for you, you'd still be in jail right now."

Wang Xiaoya scoffed, "It's no big deal, didn't I return it?"