Chapter 76: Pulling chestnuts out of the fire
Whether Su Can liked it or not, the Tang family's invitation to Yucheng's deputy mayor had put him at a disadvantage. The matter was growing increasingly complicated. First of all, he had never expected Tang Xiaowu to get her family involved, though it also offered an indirect demonstration of her parents' influence.
It was a classic countercheck, the sort of maneuver often depicted in realistic fiction about officialdom: buying a favor, then turning around and selling it on. Tang's mother, Mu Xuan, had made a substantial bargain. It also demonstrated her ability to influence personnel appointments above the deputy department level.
Of course, nothing was absolute. There were still plenty of variables. Whether Sun Changjie could move from deputy mayor to executive deputy mayor-or, more boldly, climb another step-was by no means settled. But at least the Tang Family had demonstrated that they had a say in the matter.
If an executive deputy mayor's post really could persuade Yucheng's Yi Family to call a truce, things still seemed far less straightforward than he had imagined. Su Can was beginning to regret it. Man proposed, but heaven disposed. How could he have known that his and Wang Weiwei's clash with Yi Lihuan would become the flash point for a contest between powerful forces behind the scenes? Had he known it would lead to this, the trip to Xiling Snow Mountain would never have happened.
This was the drawback of rebirth, a consequence that someone like him, accustomed to the advantage of knowing things beforehand, found difficult to adjust to. Ever since changing his own fate, he had found the future harder to grasp. He did not know what the things he did now would turn into down the road.
Rivers, lakes, and marshes