Early the next morning, Song Guanchao called his grandmother.

Sure enough, his grandparents already knew, but they weren't the usual worrying old folks.

In the morning, a few more reporters came in succession.

After dealing with the reporters, Zhou Zheng, the City Secretary of Jiangzhou, came personally with a team of City Committee leaders to express their condolences.

After he left, Wu Qiangwei also came.

She came for personal reasons last night, but today she was here in her capacity as Mayor.

She also brought some City Government leaders with her, including Zhang Yan.

After finally dealing with all these people, Song Guanchao lay back on the bed, mentally and physically exhausted.

All he wanted now was to get discharged from the hospital quickly.

Bzzzz.

He picked up his phone and raised an eyebrow at the incoming call.

It was Lin Min, the Deputy District Chief of Tongchi District, calling.

"District Chief Song, the subway construction has started."

She made this call to report this good news to him.

These days, he was in party school training, and had left all subway matters to her.

Every week she would call to report, and for some milestone work progress, she would notify him immediately.

Now that the subway construction was officially underway, the land auction in Tongchi District was also ongoing.

Everything was moving in a positive direction.

After reporting her work, Lin Min said, "District Chief Song, I heard you're hospitalized?"

"It's nothing serious."

"I saw the news, you're really amazing."

"Well, not really."

Song Guanchao modestly smiled, wondering if it was his illusion, but he seemed to detect a certain special emotion in Lin Min's voice.

Admiration, and the kind that exists between a man and a woman.

This woman was 36, but she maintained herself well. Although not as pretty as women like Qu Xiangru, she could be called beautiful, and her feminine charm was arresting.

Song Guanchao had no such thoughts about her, but he hadn't expected this woman to have such feelings toward him.

After exchanging a few words, he hung up the phone, resolving to keep his distance from her in the future.

Leaning against the headboard, deep in thought, Song Guanchao concluded that the spotlight from this incident had increased his chances of getting to the Provincial City.

But it still wasn't enough.

After all, the gap from principal division level to director-general level was still considerable.

Although he was now a hero for saving lives, relying solely on this merit to leap a whole rank was clearly insufficient.

Bzzzz~

Two minutes hadn't passed after hanging up before another call came in.

He glanced down and raised his eyebrow again.

It was Tan Xiang calling.

He went over to lock the ward door from the inside and walked to the window to answer the call.

"Chairman Tan, what's up?"

"I heard you got injured?"

"Not seriously."

"When are you getting discharged?"

"In the next couple of days."

All the interviews had been done, so unless he chose to stay, getting discharged would be fairly straightforward.

"Let me know when you're discharged."

"Did you need something from me, Chairman Tan?"

"Yes."

Tan Xiang didn't say what it was, just agreed and hung up the phone.

…

Zhang Yan sat in her office, looking extremely displeased.

The big fire last night had indeed been her doing.

Her aim was to create a major incident.

If the situation hadn't been controlled, or if a few more people had died, Wu Qiangwei would certainly have been affected.

She had even arranged for someone to livestream the incident as soon as it happened.

She wanted to blow up the story online before the publicity department could react.

Initially, everything was going according to plan; the fire was spreading rampantly, and people were trapped inside.

But then, Song Guanchao appeared.

The people she arranged to broadcast had inadvertently become tools to extol his heroism.

Those trapped inside the inferno were rescued by him, with the fire serving as his dramatic backdrop.

A disaster that seemed bound to escalate was effortlessly averted by him.

Zhang Yan's back teeth were nearly ground to nothing in frustration.

She couldn't fathom why Song Guanchao had even been at the music festival!

But now wasn't the time for those thoughts.

The fire had broken out suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly.

Given Liang Jianfeng's experience, there was no way he wouldn't spot something fishy.

Fortunately, she was meticulous, leaving no trail behind.

No one could possibly suspect her.

Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to substantiate it.

"Wu Qiangwei, you got lucky this time."

Zhang Yan snorted softly, her anger unabated.

She had been deeply attached to Luo Sanming, and after his death, she was consumed with tears, single-mindedly seeking revenge on those whom she believed wronged him.

Wu Qiangwei, Qu Xiang, and that Song Guanchao!

All of you deserve to die!

But she retained some sense; her acts of revenge only went so far as trying to undermine them, not directly seeking vendetta.

This time, fate allowed Song Guanchao to resolve things, but there wouldn't be such luck next time.

…

Song Guanchao was discharged on Tuesday.

Cheng Xiang and two others asked their professor for leave to come pick him up at the hospital.

Seeing the trio, Song Guanchao felt a bit exasperated.

He wasn't that badly injured; was this show of support really necessary?

"Let's go, time for a meal."

As they had come to get him, he figured the least he could do was treat them to a meal.

At the restaurant, Cheng Xiang was in high spirits, recounting the events of the past few days.

The accident had cast some limelight on them, leading to several interviews, and even their old professor had been curious about the details.

Song Guanchao smiled and responded courteously.

After leaving the restaurant, they headed straight back to the party school.

During the afternoon class, as he listened to the professor's lecture, Song Guanchao felt as if he had overlooked something, but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

He stared blankly at the professor droning on at the lectern, when suddenly his phone vibrated.

He took it out and saw a message from Tan Xiang.

"Have you been discharged?"

Only then did Song Guanchao realize he had forgotten about Tan Xiang.

Tan Xiang had asked him to get in touch after being discharged.

Frowning at the message, Song Guanchao wondered what she wanted.

He'd only been discharged that morning, but this immediate follow-up suggested she had someone check the hospital for news of his discharge.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so coincidental.

"Discharged this morning, currently in training."

"Can you come out tonight?"

"I can," Song Guanchao replied, "I'll pick the place and send it to you."

Thinking her actions strange, he wanted to be cautious and chose not to let her arrange the meeting place.

He was almost certain that Tan Xiang was an undercover agent for the police, but he didn't fully trust her.

After the training ended, just as Song Guanchao was leaving the classroom, Chen Yirou walked towards him, but his phone began to ring.

"Let me take this call."

He looked at the screen; it was Liang Hao calling.

"Hello, Mayor Liang."

"Brother, it's settled!"

Liang Hao's voice was brimming with excitement.

Song Guanchao was taken aback, but he immediately understood.

He was referring to his promotion to Mayor!

His first reaction wasn't to celebrate but to ask, "Did Secretary Qu return to the provincial capital?"

"Not yet," Liang Hao answered, "It will take some more time."

"But Secretary Qu and Mayor Zheng called me over today to discuss this matter."

"It's now basically a certainty that Mayor Zheng will take over as City Secretary, and I'll step up as Mayor."

"Congratulations, congratulations! Once you're in office, I'll be sure to take leave and return to celebrate!"

A broad smile spread across Song Guanchao's face; Lingjiang was now fully stable.

However, just two minutes after hanging up, Jiang Yuan called.

"Jiang Yuan?"

Seeing his number, Song Guanchao was a little surprised.

Why was this guy calling?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.