“Oh, that’s not bad.” Andrew Brooks knew what was going on. As the only daughter of Deputy Mayor Noah Summers, and with the prestigious diploma from Yanda University, Emily Summers naturally had the credentials to get into the most desirable government office in Binhai City.

“By the way, Emily, your parents, about me…” Andrew Brooks thought for a moment, holding the soda bottle in his hand, his clear gaze falling on Emily Summers’s smiling, pretty face, a warm feeling rising in his heart.

“Xiao Tao, don’t you know my heart by now?” Emily Summers gently leaned over, resting on Andrew Brooks’s shoulder, tightly holding his hand, and said resolutely, “Whether they agree or not, we’ll be together. In another couple of years, once we’re both working, we’ll…”

A blush crept over Emily Summers’s face as she whispered, “We’ll move out and live together!”

The two of them leaned close, saying nothing, lost in their feelings.

In fact, there were a few things Emily Summers hesitated to say. Although their family backgrounds were very different and her mother Ethan Stone was strongly opposed, as the only daughter in the family, if she was determined to marry Andrew Brooks, there was nothing Noah Summers and his wife could do but accept it.

Seeing his daughter’s firm attitude, Ethan Stone still hadn’t given in, but Noah Summers had started to soften a little. Last night, he even quietly hinted to Emily Summers that he could help with Andrew Brooks’s job situation.

Of course, Emily Summers hoped her father would arrange a good government job for Andrew Brooks. Although both of them majored in journalism, these days, it’s common for people to work outside their field, and being a junior reporter was nowhere near as comfortable as working in a government office. But she also knew that Andrew Brooks was very proud and would never accept her father’s help, especially given her mother’s “unfriendly attitude.”

So, Emily Summers decided to put the idea aside for now, planning to wait another year or so before asking her father to help get Andrew Brooks into a government office—ideally, in the same office as her.

……

……

Andrew Brooks returned the empty soda bottles to the dozing old lady sitting by the ice chest and smiled, “Auntie, here you go… the bottles for you. Auntie, how’s business lately?”

The old lady vendor sighed, “Young man, I’m just barely getting by. Hardly anyone comes all day. If it weren’t for a few drivers stopping by for cigarettes, soda, or popsicles during the lunchtime and evening traffic jams, I would’ve packed up long ago. Sigh!”

Chapter 008: In Depth

Andrew Brooks smiled and casually started chatting with the old lady. Since business was slow, she had nothing else to do, and generally, people running small street stalls are quite talkative. Soon, the two of them were deep in conversation, and Andrew Brooks managed to get some “firsthand information” from her, just as he’d hoped.

Then Andrew Brooks took Emily Summers on his bike to the traffic bureau, where he got some basic data from the bureau’s press office, basically gathering all the material needed for this in-depth report.

Andrew Brooks understood that this could be a real opportunity for him.

From what he remembered from his previous life, Gavin Duke would remain in charge of Binhai for another ten years. Demolishing the overpass to build an interchange and even a coastal avenue was his first major achievement in Binhai, so he naturally attached great importance to it. But even though the drawbacks of the overpass were obvious, since it was built by the previous Party Secretary Owen Grant, he couldn’t just come out and say he wanted to tear it down. He had to create a public opinion environment that painted the overpass as an obstacle to economic development and a threat to traffic safety, paving the way for his “decision” to demolish it.

This is a common political tactic, but the problem was that very few people could “sense” Gavin Duke’s thinking at this point. And since he couldn’t say it outright, he had the Municipal Party Office Director Ryan Smith drop some very subtle, ambiguous hints in the external publicity reports.

That’s why a small news story caused so much trouble for Lily Carter and the Binhai Morning Post. Otherwise, why would a city’s Party Secretary pay so much attention to a news report, making such a big deal out of it?

So, Andrew Brooks’s article fit perfectly with Gavin Duke’s intentions, which is why he was assigned to continue with follow-up in-depth reporting. As long as Andrew Brooks kept writing in-depth criticism of the overpass, he would fully meet Gavin Duke’s expectations. If nothing unexpected happened, this in-depth report would be published simultaneously in all Binhai newspapers thanks to the Party Secretary’s directive.

Conservatively, Andrew Brooks would make a name for himself in Binhai’s media circles because of this report; optimistically, he might even win Gavin Duke’s appreciation, laying a solid foundation for his future.

……

……

Andrew Brooks and Emily Summers went for a stroll in Binhai’s largest shopping mall before reluctantly parting ways. After they separated, Andrew Brooks slowly rode his bike to the newspaper office.