official career

Chapter 2990 Humiliating Ma Shanming

"I'm sorry, Secretary-General, the mayor has a very full schedule this afternoon," Zhang Xinming replied quickly.

Ma Shanming, on the other end of the phone, was unhappy; he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee.

Although Ma Shanming was unhappy, he still patiently asked, "When is the mayor available? Tomorrow, tomorrow morning is fine too."

"I'm sorry, Secretary-General, the mayor will be going out to inspect work tomorrow."

"..."

Ma Shanming started cursing on the other end of the phone, but Zhang Xinming wasn't angry. He waited until Ma Shanming finished cursing before respectfully hanging up the phone.

"Did you swear?" Qin Feng asked with a smile.

“I would have cursed too if I were in your shoes,” Zhang Xinming said with a laugh.

"Let him rant. He'll call again once he's calmed down, and then he'll call your cell phone directly." Qin Feng continued reviewing documents.

"We can't just keep disappearing, can we?"

“That won’t do. We’ll have to leave him alone for two days, let him rationalize himself, figure out who’s in a hurry and who’s begging whom, and then he can come and talk to me. Two days, one day today, one day tomorrow. If he calls again, we’ll have him come the day after tomorrow,” Qin Feng said casually.

Ma Shanming wasn't stupid, so of course he wouldn't really believe that Qin Feng was busy. No matter how busy Qin Feng was, he couldn't possibly not have time to see anyone, especially since he was a member of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee.

Qin Feng was clearly deliberately ignoring him and giving him a hard time, which was actually a way of expressing Qin Feng's attitude.

Ma Shanming understood that if he called Qin Feng again to ask when he would be free, Qin Feng would most likely agree to meet him, which would achieve Qin Feng's goal.

Before the two sides even met, Jiang Longjun's side was already on the defensive.

Ma Shanming was aware of the situation, but he still had to make the call because he had to carry out Jiang Longjun's orders.

Everything went as Ma Shanming had predicted. When he called Zhang Xinming, Zhang Xinming told him that Qin Feng wanted him to come over at 10 a.m. the day after tomorrow.

For Ma Shanming, a member of the municipal party committee, to have to wait two days to see Qin Feng is not just a warning, but an insult.

But Ma Shanming had to swallow his anger.

On the morning of the third day, Ma Shanming arrived at Qin Feng's office just in time, but was stopped by Zhang Xinming at the door.

"Secretary-General, the mayor is inside discussing work. Please wait a moment." Zhang Xinming respectfully invited Ma Shanming to sit down in his office.

"Didn't we agree on ten o'clock?" Ma Shanming asked Zhang Xinming five minutes later.

"Yes, the 10 o'clock time slot was specially arranged for you according to the work schedule, but the previous supervisor hasn't come out yet, so..."

Although Ma Shanming was unhappy, he didn't make things difficult for Zhang Xinming.

After waiting another five minutes, and still no one came out of Qin Feng's office, Ma Shanming couldn't bear it any longer and asked Zhang Xinming, "What exactly is going on?"

"Secretary-General, I don't know either. Sometimes the leaders' conversations go on for quite a while..."

Ma Shanming patiently waited for another ten minutes, and he waited for a full twenty minutes before he finally lost his patience.

Just as Ma Shanming was about to explode at Zhang Xinming, the door to Qin Feng's office opened, and Zhou Feiping, the district head of Fuchang District, walked out.

"Secretary-General, what are you doing here?" Zhou Feiping was surprised to see Ma Shanming sitting there and quickly came over to greet him respectfully.

"I want to talk to the mayor about some work." Ma Shanming was furious and naturally wouldn't give Zhou Feiping a friendly look. He walked towards Qin Feng's office as he spoke.

"Secretary-General, I'll go and make an announcement." Zhang Xinming ran in front of Ma Shanming and blocked his way.

Ma Shanming forced himself to suppress his anger and nodded, then stood outside the door waiting.

Ma Shanming was only welcomed inside by Zhang Xinming after Zhang Xinming went in to announce his arrival.

Qin Feng's arrangement wasn't intentionally meant to make things difficult for Ma Shanming; he was doing it on purpose for Jiang Longjun's benefit, since Ma Shanming would eventually tell Jiang Longjun all the grievances he had suffered.

Ma Shanming walked into Qin Feng's office. Qin Feng was sitting at his desk, writing something without looking up, completely ignoring Ma Shanming's arrival.

As a fellow leader, Ma Shanming was well aware that Qin Feng had done this on purpose, especially since Zhang Xinming had just come in to report it.

Now that he was already here, Ma Shanming could only keep his head down and obediently walk over to Qin Feng, saying respectfully, "Mayor!"

Originally, it should have been Zhang Xinming who reminded Qin Feng of his arrival, but Zhang Xinming, the secretary, deliberately didn't speak, so Ma Shanming had to take the initiative to speak.

After Ma Shanming addressed him respectfully, Qin Feng finally looked up.

"Oh, the Secretary-General is here? Please have a seat." Qin Feng quickly got up and walked to the sofa.

"Come, come, Secretary-General, please sit down. Xinming, go and bring out my best tea for the Secretary-General to taste." Qin Feng kindly invited Ma Shanming to sit down on the sofa.

"Mayor, you're too kind," Ma Shanming chuckled.

"I'm sorry, Secretary-General, I've been extremely busy these past few days."

"The mayor is a very busy person. The millions of people in Shazhou rely on the mayor for food and clothing."

"I am indeed busy, but I always have to put aside other work when the secretary-general comes to see me. But Comrade Xinming is young and doesn't know any better. He only told me this morning that I would come at ten o'clock. I got angry with him then..." Qin Feng lied through his teeth.

"It's alright, it's alright. The mayor is very busy. I'm free in a bit." Ma Shanming cursed inwardly, but outwardly spoke politely to Qin Feng.

At this moment, Zhang Xinming brought over tea.

"Remember this from now on: if the Secretary-General needs to come over, he doesn't need to ask me. He can just make the arrangements directly. Do you understand?" Qin Feng reprimanded Zhang Xinming.

"Yes, I understand." Zhang Xinming nodded quickly.

"Go out." Qin Feng waved his hand, and Zhang Xinming closed the door and left.

"Secretary-General, please try this tea. It's the best tea I have here. I wouldn't bring it out for anyone else if you were here."

Ma Shanming was somewhat flattered and quickly picked up his tea leaves and took a sip, while once again cursing Qin Feng's ancestors for eighteen generations in his mind.

Although Ma Shanming didn't know much about tea, people like him had been drinking tea all their lives, and mostly high-quality tea. So even if they couldn't distinguish the type of tea, they could tell the difference between good and bad tea as soon as they tasted it.

Ma Shanming knew after taking one sip that Qin Feng's so-called good tea was complete nonsense. It was just ordinary tea, the kind Ma Shanming would throw away directly. Of course, no one would give him this kind of tea.

"How's the tea?" Qin Feng asked.

"Good tea, indeed good tea, mellow taste, sweet aftertaste..." Ma Shanming commented with a smile, giving it extremely high praise.

"I have two more boxes left. The secretary-general will take them later."

"Mayor, you're too kind. I'll gladly accept your offer."

"..."