Seeing that his wife's anger had mostly subsided, Zhou Jinliang, who had been standing to the side, immediately chimed in. "That's for sure."
After a pause, he added, "Actually, you shouldn't worry too much. You may not have been promoted to deputy minister this time, but as long as the old man is still standing, you'll get your chance sooner or later. Maybe you'll even rise faster in the future!"
"You make it sound so easy." Zhang Yazhi shot Zhou Jinliang a glare and sneered. "Do you think climbing the ranks in the system is that simple? If our old man hadn't been up there backing you, do you think a penniless college graduate like you, with nothing going for him except a sweet tongue, could have risen so quickly?"
Zhou Jinliang heard words like that ten or twenty times a day. He had long since gotten used to them. Hearing this, he immediately followed Zhang Yazhi's lead. "Of course, of course. Everything I have today is thanks to my wife and the old man."
Zhang Yazhi snorted in particular displeasure. "Even if we promoted you, you'd still be useless. If you'd shown even a little backbone today, our family wouldn't have had to pay more than a million. Such a huge sum, and our daughter has to publicly apologize to the media too. We've lost both face and substance."
Zhou Jinliang's face alternated between green and white. Seeing this, Zhang Yazhi raised her brows and snapped, "What? You don't like hearing a few words from me?"
"How could that be?" Zhou Jinliang came back to himself and hurriedly smiled ingratiatingly. "I just feel that we really shouldn't be the ones paying this money. No matter how our daughter handled things, she did it to stand up for Zhang Yaxian.