“And also, young man, don’t be impatient. When you’re down there, you must blend in with the local cadres and build yourself a good reputation. As for political achievements, that’s secondary. This way, if others want to help you, they’ll actually be able to.”

Secretary Grant’s intentions were certainly well-meaning, but Andrew Brooks already had a shadow in his heart and simply couldn’t hear the goodwill in those words. What he heard was malice!

That’s right, he believed Secretary Grant was misleading him!

He couldn’t figure out all the twists and turns in this, but he thought he’d sensitively grasped one point: you and Mayor Grant are brothers—if I ask you for help, isn’t it the same as asking him?

Secretary Grant actually refused to help, which showed that something had already gone wrong at the cement factory. The two brothers just wanted to trap him there for life!

Being an official without needing political achievements? Listen to that—how off does that sound? Andrew Brooks sneered inwardly. His emotional intelligence was not what it was a couple of years ago.

Fine, you don’t want me to make any achievements? Well, sorry, but I’m really going to stir things up in Donglinshui! For the first time in his life, Andrew Brooks planned to actually do something for the villagers under his jurisdiction!

This whole thing was really a bit of a fluke. If Emily Young had been present, she would have recognized that this Mayor’s younger brother was the very examiner who was supposed to tutor her one-on-one!

Mayor Grant and Emily Young’s father were comrades-in-arms, the kind who slept head-to-head in the same bed.

When Emily Young took the civil service exam, her father knew exactly what was going on. He hadn’t wanted her to take it, but he also knew that failing the college entrance exam had hit his daughter hard, so in the end, he didn’t stop her.

But he didn’t want his daughter to suffer another blow, so he made an exception and went to see his old comrade, now the Mayor. He himself was a very upright man and hadn’t asked his comrade for any favors in all these years.

As luck would have it, Secretary Grant was one of the exam committee judges. In such situations, it was inevitable for someone from the Propaganda Department to be involved, so when he got the call from his brother asking him to look after Emily Young, of course he was going to give her some special attention.

Of course, as for the evening tutoring, that was genuinely for tutoring. But then again, Secretary Grant was quite taken with Emily Young’s beauty. If Andrew Brooks hadn’t intervened, it’s hard to say what might have happened that night.

To speculate about Secretary Grant like this might seem a bit unfair, and the whole thing does sound a bit far-fetched. The daughter of the Mayor’s comrade—would the Secretary’s younger brother really dare to make a move?

But in fact, that’s exactly how things were. That Robert Grant was a notorious womanizer, and among the beautiful women in official circles, few hadn’t experienced similar harassment. So, the Deputy Minister of the Propaganda Department personally felt: he was just “ripening” another woman for officialdom!

Besides, once he succeeded, he wouldn’t just take advantage without giving anything in return, so he figured Emily Young wouldn’t feel she’d lost out.

Strictly speaking, aside from his lecherous tendencies—which were easy to criticize—Secretary Grant was actually quite capable and had a lot of potential. There weren’t any other major flaws in him.

Naturally, since Emily Young didn’t go to his house, the Secretary didn’t care much. After all, there were so many women throwing themselves at him, he wasn’t particularly interested in a naive young girl.

As for Secretary Grant standing up for Andrew Brooks during the evaluation, that’s another story for another time.

But Andrew Brooks really misunderstood Secretary Grant’s words. On his way home with the color TV, his mind was full of one thing: what kind of political achievement could he make in this backwater village of Donglinshui?

His son had come home, and even brought back a big color TV. Andrew Brooks’s parents were grinning from ear to ear. While Andrew Brooks was taking a bath, his mother whipped up a sumptuous meal.

Father and son drank and chatted. As they talked, his mother suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, Taizhong, your teacher came looking for you yesterday.”

“Our teacher? Which teacher?” Andrew Brooks was a bit puzzled. He didn’t seem to have any teachers he was close to. “What did they say?”

“She said she was your proctor,” his father said, draining his glass with a slurp, his eyes narrowing with a mischievous glint, smacking his lips meaningfully, his eyebrows waggling. “A real beauty, Taizhong, with those unbeatable single eyelids…”

“You old rascal!” Andrew Brooks’s mother glared at him fiercely, then turned to her son. “She said if you called home, we should tell you to give her a call—she has something important to discuss with you.”

Donglinshui village really was inconvenient. Andrew Brooks didn’t even have a landline. But—“Which proctor is it? I don’t know this teacher’s number, I don’t even know her surname…”

“Her name is Julia Reed,” his mother said, getting up. “I’ll go find her phone number for you.”

Chapter 14: A Meeting After Dusk

Julia Reed lived in the teachers’ dormitory at City No. 5 High School. The number she left was for the reception desk, along with her pager number.

Andrew Brooks really couldn’t imagine what important matter this teacher could have with him, but when it came to chatting, he was quite skilled at it now.