Chapter 32

Part One: Turbulent Waters of Officialdom. Chapter 32: The mayor's toast

At the banquet, West District Party Secretary Du Xiaoshan brought his son Du Fei along too, saying it was a chance for him to get to know his classmates in advance.

When Du Xiaoshan had held his son's school admission banquet, Tang Xueqian had happened to be under isolated investigation by the Provincial Inspection Team, so this was Zhang Ke's first time meeting Du Fei.

He was exactly as Zhang Ke remembered him in high school, somewhat introverted, greeting only the people his father told him to greet. His father was skinny and gaunt, with rough, dark skin, but Du Fei was fair and clean-cut. In high school, he had been even more popular with girls than Zhang Ke. Yet while Zhang Ke had gone through girlfriend after girlfriend, Du Fei had waited until he finished graduate school before frantically asking Zhang Ke to help him find a prostitute to solve his virginity problem.

Of all the friends Zhang Ke had made, Du Fei was the one who really suited him. Apart from his false propriety and secretly lustful nature, he could treat others fairly and accept them, and had none of the self-importance of an official's son. These were undoubtedly admirable qualities.

Zhang Ke had thought he would have to wait until school started for Du Fei to get to know him. He had not expected Du Fei's father to decide he was a promising prospect and bring his son over first. Perhaps Du Xiaoshan had decided his son could charm Tang Xueqian's daughter, Tang Jing.

Naturally, Zhang Ke knew whom Du Fei had been infatuated with throughout his three years of high school. Once, in the dormitory late at night, he had cried out, "Teacher Li!" According to informed sources, his bed had shuddered several times at that moment, after which he had been seen furtively getting up to change his underwear. Wan Yong's son, Wan Tiancai, had spread the story among the girls, and girls from their school had carried it to the girls at East China University. That was how Du Fei had been forced to retain his shameful virgin status even into graduate school.

Thinking of these things that might yet happen, Zhang Ke suppressed a laugh and invited Du Fei to sit with him and Tang Jing. Seeing that Du Fei merely stole two extra glances at Tang Jing, who brimmed with youthful vitality, before paying her no further attention, he thought, So his admission notice really was delivered to his home by Teacher Li Zhifang, the director of academic affairs.

Zhang Ke recalled Li Zhifang, whom he had seen when registering at No. 1 High School a few days earlier. At thirty-three, she had a graceful figure that inexperienced young girls could hardly match, a rosy face, bright eyes, fine eyebrows, a broad forehead, and moist red lips. Every feature was enticing. A woman so easily made the subject of adolescent wet dreams and masturbation would naturally leave Du Fei awestruck at first sight.

With his deep understanding of Du Fei, Zhang Ke chose nothing but topics that interested him during the banquet. Before the meal was over, Du Fei was almost ready to become his sworn brother.

Seeing Du Xiaoshan's son quickly hit it off with Tang Xueqian's daughter and Zhang Zhixing's son, Wan Yong deeply regretted not bringing his own son, Wan Tiancai.

In Haizhou City, only a handful of people, including Zhou Fuming and Tang Xueqian, knew Zhang Ke had saved Xu Xueping's granddaughter from beneath the wheels of a vehicle. The other Haizhou officials merely thought Zhang Zhixing had suddenly come into favor. Not only had he performed a great service for Tang Xueqian and cleared him of suspicion, but he had also established a connection with Deputy Provincial Party Secretary Xu Xueping. They all thought the man had been extraordinarily fortunate.

Although Zhang Zhixing had only just been promoted to full division rank and his seniority could not compare with theirs as longtime officials of that rank, they did not dare slight him. They took turns toasting him at the banquet with great warmth.

Ostensibly, today's banquet celebrated his and Tang Jing's admission to No. 1 High School, but as Zhang Ke watched the cups passing back and forth, it looked more like Haizhou's officials were celebrating Zhou Fuming finally becoming Municipal Party Secretary as he had wished, Tang Xueqian becoming deputy secretary, and, incidentally, his father becoming Municipal Government Secretary-General. Once everyone was well into the drinking, it was Tang Xueqian's turn to offer toasts of thanks. Instead, Tang Xueqian approached him with his glass. "Ke, Uncle Tang will toast you first. The next glass will be for your father..."

Of the Haizhou officials present, only Zhou Fuming knew how the Ding Xiangshan Case had been solved. He could only envy Zhang Zhixing for having such a son, and naturally found nothing surprising in Tang Xueqian's gesture. He thought, Without Zhang Zhixing's son's quick thinking and courage in seizing on the flaw in Ding Xiangshan's trap, how could Tang Xueqian possibly be sitting here accepting everyone's flattery?

The others were utterly dumbfounded to see the deputy Party secretary and acting mayor of Haizhou City raise his glass to a half-grown boy before anyone else.

Zhang Ke was somewhat surprised too. Picking up his glass of orange juice, he hurriedly said, "My father respects Uncle Tang more than anyone, and so do I. What I wish for most is for Uncle Tang and his family to be safe and well. That way, my father's official career can go smoothly too. For this glass... I'll substitute juice for wine and wish Uncle Tang and his family safety, happiness, and harmony..."

"I'm sure you added another line in your head, wishing your own father a smooth official career," Wan Yong, director of the Foreign Economic and Trade Commission, joked from beside him. "Just like my boy. I asked him what his greatest wish was, and he said he hoped I'd become a high-ranking official. He'd be perfectly happy spending his whole life as a high-ranking official's son..." Everyone burst out laughing. Wan Yong continued, "It's a fine wish, but drinking juice won't do. Give him some liquor. My boy can drink half a jin of Maotai. I think you have more potential than he does."

Tang Xueqian laughed heartily and said to Zhang Ke, "Can you drink a little? How about having some liquor with Uncle Tang?"

Zhang Ke had a strong tolerance for alcohol, but under his mother's strict supervision, he had had no chance to touch it before sixteen. His youngest uncle, Zhang Zhifei, beside him, replaced his drink with a small half-glass of liquor. Zhang Ke drained it in one go, and everyone cheered.

Tang Xueqian also drained the liquor in his glass, then drank another small half-glass with Zhang Zhixing. When he toasted the others at the table afterward, he only took a small sip.

These details left the men who had spent years navigating officialdom deeply puzzled. What was it about this half-grown boy that made Tang Xueqian value him so highly? He was no ordinary boy. Certainly no ordinary boy.

Tang Xueqian had not thought that much about it. Although Zhang Ke was a junior, he deserved this toast. Nor had Tang Xueqian considered how much of an impact offering it in front of Haizhou's officials, high and low, would have.

Wan Yong was quite unrestrained. Seeing Zhang Ke drain the small half-glass of liquor, he egged him on. "Zhixing's boy is pretty good, every bit as game as mine. Shouldn't you toast all of us uncles one by one? After all, everyone gathered here today to celebrate your admission to No. 1 High School."

Zhang Zhixing's good fortune was truly enviable, so plenty of people joined Wan Yong, making such a fuss that Zhang Ke could not sit down.

Zhou Fuming said, "Zhixing, take your son around and introduce him to the uncles here. Toast them table by table. Come on, lad, toast our table first. Half a spoonful will do. Zhixing can hold his liquor, so he should drink a little more with us..."

Hearing how protective Zhou Fuming's words were of Zhang Zhixing's son, Wan Yong shut his mouth in some embarrassment. The others were even less likely to be so tactless as to keep egging him on. Since Tang Xueqian had taken the initiative to toast Zhang Ke, when Zhang Zhixing brought him over to toast Zhou Fuming's table, Zhou Fuming half-rose to drink. When they moved on to toast the other tables, naturally no one remained seated without stirring.

When they reached the table of Chengnan District Chief Song Peiming, Zhang Ke used the toast as an opportunity to study him. He was about his father's age, with a fair, plump face and no beard, not even stubble. It was impossible to tell from his expression whether he knew about the 718 Major Traffic Accident, for which he too bore some responsibility. He had personally driven the relocation of the heavily polluting Xinguang Paper Mill's main plant to the development zone. It had been a good thing that benefited the public, but he had not seen it through properly. The workers had not been adequately resettled, and the new plant could not begin operations smoothly. He probably had not anticipated so much trouble arising either, had he?

To leave a deeper impression on Song Peiming, Zhang Ke stood beside him during the toast and took the initiative to refill his glass afterward. There was little else he could do.

After the banquet, they saw off Tang Xueqian's family and Secretary Zhou Fuming. Zhang Ke, his parents, and his youngest uncle stayed until the end to pack up the leftovers. His father's older cousin Zhang Zhiwei had been helping with the banquet preparations all along, and in the end rushed to settle the bill. When Zhang Zhixing asked how much it was, Zhang Zhiwei feigned anger. "We already said this celebration for Ke was on me and his youngest uncle. When Ke gets into university, you must leave that opportunity to us too." Liang Gezhen did not want to take a chunk out of the cash gifts they had received that day to pay for the food and drink. Thinking that his elder uncle had probably paid for most of it himself, she said from beside them, "We really must thank his elder uncle and youngest uncle. Zhang Yi has already graduated and started work, so we missed our chance there. When Xiaomei gets into high school in a couple of years, I'll throw her a celebration banquet as her aunt."

Hearing his wife say this, Zhang Zhixing stopped insisting on paying for the meal. They went their separate ways, and once home, opened the red envelopes and counted the money. There were 234 envelopes containing more than 66,000 yuan in total. Even after returning the cash gifts from several city leaders, they would still have received more than 60,000 yuan on this occasion.

No wonder people fought tooth and nail for an official post of any sort. This amounted to several years of an ordinary person's income. Reciprocal gift-giving was a joke. If someone ranked above you gave you money, could you really accept it with an easy conscience? You still had to find some way to return it, along with a gift in return.

The banquet had been a happy occasion, but it was not entirely free of underlying worries. At least three deputy Municipal Party secretaries had not attended. Beneath Haizhou's apparent stability and unity, there was also a trace of discord.

The next day, they treated their relatives to a meal. Apart from his father's older cousin, his youngest paternal uncle, and his two maternal uncles, who each gave a generous red envelope containing 2,000 yuan, the other relatives gave only around fifty or sixty yuan. This was the normal level of gift-giving in Haizhou City in 1994. The previous day, they had benefited from Tang Xueqian's presence: because people had to give gifts to both families at the same time, they could not vary the amounts according to official rank.