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  Ginger is old chili.

  Before Xiang Tianliang could think of a way to deal with Wang Zigui, Wang Zigui had already made his move.

  However, Wang Zigui did not directly target Xiang Tianliang, but instead pointed his "spearhead" at Chen Dabao.

  Persimmons should be picked soft, and Chen Dabao is also unlucky enough. In the office with so many people, only he is easily bullied by the stinky old lady.

  Xu Heng's wife Xu Lao Fuzi hung a "war exemption card", got a hospital certificate, and took a month's sick leave, so she didn't have to face the "desert face" of the old hag every day.

  Old Liu, Liu Zhengfeng, can rely on his age to get away with things, after all, he's also over 50 years old. The stinky old lady can't do anything about him, and besides, Old Liu is good at flattering the leaders, whenever he sees Wang Zigui, he nods and bows, and his work is the most straightforward in the office, guarding the duty phone, so Old Liu's days are passable.

  Li Xiaogang and Shi Haifeng, obviously having received guidance from a superior, have a strong leadership presence, and the three fires must be lit. It's better to keep a distance. They respectively contacted the construction bureaus or sub-bureaus of the lower counties, with reasons not to stay in the office, every day when they come to work, they just report their arrival and then slip away. Wang Zigui is looking for trouble with them, but there's no one else to find trouble with.

  Ye Nan is the secretary of the director and the head of the office. Relying on everyone being women, she is also the niece of the former director and the adopted daughter of the previous director. She quickly became a favorite of Wang Zigui. In just a few days, during lunch in the second-floor cafeteria, people began to discuss that Ye Nan was equivalent to the second director, with actual power greater than several deputy directors.

  Li Yajuan is now the deputy director of the office and has become Wang Zigui's go-to person for business. More importantly, according to Li Yajuan's private confession to Xiang Tianliang, Wang Zigui is very sympathetic to her personal life experiences, having been abandoned by her husband due to infertility, which makes their encounters seem "similar" and they can empathize with each other, making it easy for them to get along.

  As for Xiang Tianliang, Wang Zigui wanted to find trouble but had no opportunity. Xu Heng was not around, and the archives room was left to Xiang Tianliang alone. It wasn't easy to catch him off guard. Recently, the provincial construction department issued a document requiring all cities and counties to pay attention to archive construction work, and there would be inspections and assessments at the end of the year. This is a matter of face, and Wang Zigui also had to take it seriously.

  Only Chen Dabao, nominally in charge of contacting various departments and institutions, is actually a idle person. When important things happen in each department, they look for the director or deputy director who can make decisions, what's the use of looking for you, a mere clerk?

  Then Wang Zigui ordered Chen Dabao to take over, and at first Chen Dabao was quite pleased that the new director valued him so much. He bustled about busily, handling all documents, official letters, and instructions personally signed by Wang Zigui, whether they were being sent up or down, and handing them all over to Chen Dabao, making him an out-and-out "postman".

  Less than two weeks later, Chen Dabao couldn't take it anymore and cried with a sad face, seeking help in the archives room.

  "It's daytime, you have to help me now." Chen Dabao plopped his butt down on a pile of files.

  "Who bullied you?"

  Xiang Tianliang lay on Xu Hengtai's chair, with his legs raised and looking very comfortable. The recliner, which had been moved from home, now belonged to Xiang Tianliang.

  "You little scamp, isn't this a case of asking what you already know?" Chen Dabao said with a bitter face.

  Xiang Tianliang reached out to take the teacup on the table, sipped a few mouthfuls slowly and deliberately, and then said: "Dabao, I'm now deaf to everything outside my window, focusing solely on these worthless papers. I'm busy, you see? Look at me, look at me! Xu Lao Fuzi has escaped, and there are two rooms full of archived documents. Can I handle it all? I can barely take care of my own affairs, how can I help you?"

  "Cut the act, you're not fooling me," Chen Dabao said with a smile. "Others may not know, but I do. I'm asking you, lately you've been arriving half an hour early and leaving half an hour late, what are you really up to?"

  He said to Tian Liang with a serious face: "For the sake of revolutionary work, is it wrong for me to work overtime? Of course, I also have personal motives. I want to be more proactive and get an advanced worker award at the end of the year, take it home and make my grandparents and parents happy."

  "Huh? Is it really like that?"

  "Of course, I'm nothing like you, Chen Dabao, I'm very innocent."

  Chen Dabao smiled and said: "You arrive early and leave late every day, each time with the help of Ye Nan and Li Yajuan. After work, you move the files from the file room to Ye Nan's car and transport them to Mr. Xu's home. The next day, half an hour before work, you bring back the files that Mr. Xu has organized. Look at the files in this file room, which one is not organized by Mr. Xu? With your lazy disease of getting a headache from seeing documents, how can you do it? People who don't know think you're busy digging through piles of documents every day, but actually, you're just hiding here sleeping."

  Xiang Tianliang was shocked, "Daba, how did you know? Is it the old habit again, hired by which leader, and following me again?"

  "Don't worry, I once left the house key in the office after work and came back to retrieve it, only to discover your little trick."

  Xiang Tianliang let out a sigh of relief, "Hehe, I'm not helpless, can't provoke her but can avoid her. I need to find something to do so that the old hag won't have an excuse to bother me."

  It turned out that Xiang Tianliang's early arrival and late departure were a clever tactic to avoid being caught by Wang Zigui, as Xu Hengtai was preoccupied with the files and didn't want to come to work, so he simply became a porter every day, satisfying Xu Hengtai's desire for work while avoiding being targeted by Wang Zigui.

  This trick is very useful. According to Ye Nan's reflection, Wang Zigui wanted to find Xiang Tianliang several times, but was persuaded by Ye Nan and Li Yajuan. In order to persuade Wang Zigui, Ye Nan even showed her the daily work progress table of the file being organized. After seeing it, she said, "I didn't expect that this little brat really has some patience," and then stopped making a sound.

  "But you dodged it, and I got into trouble instead." Chen Dabao's face turned sour again.

  Xiang Tianliang said to Le Duo: "You, really are blessed and don't know it. Among the hundreds of people in our construction system, only you, Chen Dabao, have the opportunity to see Director Wang every day. What a wonderful thing this is!"

  Chen Dabao sighed and said, "That old hag makes me run errands for her more than ten times a day on average. I'm exhausted from running around inside and outside the office. With my physical condition, how can I take it? Just look at me, my wife Xiaoxian says I've lost even more weight these days."

  He smiled brightly towards the sky, Chen Dabao was originally thin and weak, at home he had to serve a tigress, and at work he was being pressured to the point of suffocation, it was all he could take.

  "Hehe, I'm telling you, Dabao, can't you just voice some objections for once?"

  Chen Dabao shook his head and said, "I don't dare to do that. If I slack off a bit, the old hag will glare at me and say, 'You little brat, listen up! That stinky little brat I couldn't catch, so I'll just play with you, this mixed-up little brat. I want to make you wear a pair of small shoes. If you can't take it, then get out of the office.'"

  "Good heavens! Did she really say that?"

  "I'm going to cheat you, I am Xiaogou." Chen Dabao said with a wronged tone.

  Toward Tian Liang nodded and muttered: "This stinky old woman, it seems she really has a habit of fooling people."

  "When day breaks, you have to help me, or I'm done for." Chen Dabao said pitifully.

  He burst out laughing, with one leg raised high, "You don't listen to me, why should I help you? Ha ha, besides, now that you've become a scapegoat, why would I fly into the fire and seek my own destruction? No way, no way, I won't help you with this."

  Chen Dabao pushed Tianliang forward, "No way, you have to help me."

  "Why should I help you?"

  "My wife Qiao Xian said, at home listen to her words, in the unit listen to yours, because you will help me protect me."

  "Hehe...... Did your family's Qiao Xian really say that?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "So you're saying I really have an obligation to help you?"

  "It's just a duty."

  Xiang Tianliang couldn't help but laugh and scratched his head, saying: "But the old hag is formidable, just like a porcupine, whoever gets entangled with her will suffer."

  Chen Dabao stood up, "Daybreak, if you don't help me, don't blame me for being impolite."

  "Oh yeah? What's your problem, kid?"

  "Chen Dabao said with a bad tone: 'You're making false reports on one hand and sleeping in the archives room on the other. If I report you to that old hag, just see how she'll deal with you!'"

  Having said that, Chen Dabao turned around and left.

  He swiftly reached out and grabbed Chen Dabao, pulling him back onto the pile of file bags.

  "***, you little brat dare to threaten me? Am I someone who can be intimidated?"

  "Hey, sorry bro, I gotta find a scapegoat and shift that old hag's attention elsewhere."

  "Towards Tianliang spat, 'Daba, do you know why I didn't help you?'"

  "Why? You can't still remember things from the past, can you?"

  Xiang Tianliang smiled and said, "I'm not one to hold grudges, but the lessons of history have taught me that I must remember. You're too soft, always unable to withstand the pressure at critical moments, your mouth is like a woman's, can't keep anything in. If I help you, what if you betray me in the future? Wouldn't I be even more miserable?"

  "I've changed long ago, can you stop looking at me with old eyes?"

  "It's hard to change one's nature, but easy to change the world; it's difficult to alter one's inherent character."

  "Haha, with you covering for me, I don't even have a chance to betray you, how could I ruin things for you?"

  "Haha, that's also true." Xiang Tianliang suddenly stopped smiling and said after a pause, "However, you're the kind of person who can't keep their mouth shut, saying things they should and shouldn't say."

  "Nonsense! When did I ever harm you?" Chen Dabao shouted.

  Xiang Tianliang kicked Chen Dabao and cursed, "You still dare to be tough? That day, it was just the three of us who went to Lao Taitai's house to help move furniture. What happened between me and her maid is now known by Qingqing as well. Driver Xiao Gao won't say anything, so who else could have said it?"

  Chen Dabao smiled awkwardly, "It's dawn, sorry about that. I'm not always reporting to Qiao Xian every day when I get home, am I? So, I just treated what happened that day as a joke and reported it to her. I didn't expect her to tell her sister-in-law about it. Sorry, sorry, heh."

  He let out a sigh and said, "Forget it, let's get down to business. It seems we have no choice but to put up with this stinky old woman."

  At this time, the door of the archive room was pushed open.

  "When day breaks, who will you go with?"