Evening.
Dinner was ready.
The fragrant aroma of food wafted out of the kitchen. Dong Xuebin and Xu Yan came out carrying dishes, one serving the rice and the other fetching chopsticks.
"Big Sister Xu, shall we have a drink?"
"Drink what? Juice or tea?"
"Wine, of course. To celebrate your promotion."
"It's not certain yet. The transfer order hasn't come down."
"I know Minister Lü well enough. Someone at his level definitely means what he says. Since he asked you and you agreed, there's absolutely no problem. Haha, I told you yesterday, didn't I? I wanted you to pull some strings and transfer to our province, so we'd have more chances to see each other. Look at that, what a coincidence. Before we even did anything, the good news fell right into our laps. Isn't that great?" Dong Xuebin was in a very good mood. For one thing, he was happy for Xu Yan's promotion. For another, they would be able to see each other more often in the future. The road from his place to the provincial capital was not particularly easy and was somewhat far, but if traffic was smooth, he could get there in just over an hour—two hours at the absolute most.
Xu Yan ate a bite of food and said calmly, "It probably wasn't a coincidence."
Dong Xuebin picked up some food for her and looked at her. "You have the ability and the seniority. It's perfectly normal for the higher-ups to value you."
"But Big Sister was only promoted to full division chief not long ago," Xu Yan said.
Dong Xuebin asked suspiciously, "Uh, then was it Old Lu who took a liking to you?" He no longer called him Minister Lü, directly calling him Old Lu instead. His thoughts were plain to