Supported by her niece, the elderly Ji Weizhen gazed wistfully after the black sedan as it receded into the distance. When she saw Mayor Zhou lean his head out of the window and wave to them, tears streamed silently down her cheeks, and the sound of camel bells seemed to ring in her ears.
Pan Longqun, board chairman of the Xinlong Group, was also among the crowd. Looking at the long lines of people winding along both sides of the road, he could not help feeling a surge of emotion.
He still remembered the year they elected the mayor, when he had been a deputy to the city's People's Congress. It had been a rainy July day, pouring from morning straight through noon. Then came a great crack of thunder, and Mayor Zhou was born!
Lu Chengfeng, Party secretary of Jigao County, and several other county Party secretaries were also among those seeing him off.
To Lu Chengfeng, Mayor Zhou was the man who had recognized his talent, a good leader and comrade who shared his ideals and devoted himself to the people's well-being.
Serve a term in office, bring prosperity to the people!
Such a simple maxim, yet how many senior Party and government officials could actually live up to it?
Only a good official who lived up to those words could earn such trust and support from the entire city, leave its people so reluctant to let him go, and have them waiting here early to see him off as soon as they heard he was leaving.
Yuan Guoqing, Party secretary of Laifeng Township, waved at the sedan along with the villagers behind him. Villagers from Laifeng Township made up a third of the farewell crowd.
Ordinary people had their own measure of fairness. No one knew better