"Here, I must sternly criticize Comrade Zhou Yi. Secretary Kejian is your superior, after all. Even if he said something out of line, you should have controlled your emotions and maintained the proper courtesy!"
Hou Xiangyang looked at Zhou Yi and was about to reprimand him, only for Provincial Governor Lan Kun beside him to beat him to it.
Then, after hearing Provincial Governor Lan's supposedly stern criticism, Secretary Hou and the other Standing Committee members struggled to keep straight faces.
Hold on a moment, Governor!
Seriously, you call that stern criticism? What exactly was stern about it?
And was that even criticism? At most, it was a word of advice!
Could you make your favoritism any more obvious?
Fortunately, Liang Kejian had already been sent to the hospital. Otherwise, hearing Provincial Governor Lan's remark probably would have made him seize up all over again.
"Secretary Hou, Governor, esteemed leaders, I deeply regret my conduct. I failed to keep my composure just now and spoke without weighing my words carefully. Afterward, I will certainly visit Secretary Liang in the hospital and apologize to him in person!"
Zhou Yi understood exactly what the governor's "criticism" meant and immediately responded with a sincere admission of fault.
Hou Xiangyang watched coldly from the sidelines. You two make quite a team, playing off each other. In just a few exchanges, you've smoothed over the fact that Liang Kejian was angered into the hospital.
But he had no time to dwell on that now. Looking back over the entire exchange, apart from the two instances of "What else?" and the final "You can control me, but can you control who the audience likes watching?" being somewhat out of line, there was really nothing else he could fault.
Zhou Yi definitely knew the art of language!