"Huh?" Li Qiang was startled, thinking he had heard wrong. After all, Zhou Rui loved these plants and flowers the most, spending a lot of time every day tending to them. But now, she was going to move out, which certainly felt puzzling and surprising. Li Qiang hurriedly asked, "Move… move everything out?"

"Yes!" Zhou Rui nodded earnestly, without a trace of jest.

"But... where to?" Li Qiang asked again.

"That…" Zhou Rui suddenly lifted her head, glanced at the plants she loved most, and said with a wry smile, "Anywhere will do, just give them away to people. If nobody wants them, find a place to plant them and let them fend for themselves. I won't have time to tend to them anymore anyway."

Li Qiang had intended to ask about the situation, but seeing Zhou Rui like this, he had no choice but to let it be.

"Get to work." Li Qiang waved his hand.

After that, five or six people started working. Despite the office not being very big, there were more potted plants than they could count, in all sizes. It took them more than ten trips up and down to clear all the greenery from the office. Once these things were removed, the office immediately seemed much larger. And no matter how you looked at it, it felt awkward, like something was missing. Indeed, what was missing were those green potted plants that had been moved out.

Zhou Rui looked up at the now empty office, showing a helpless wry smile on her face. Who made her decide that starting from today, she wanted to work harder and make the most of the few resources she had in hand.

Zhou Rui used to lack motivation. She thought that managing the companies well was enough, and her workday was routine, with little to do and fewer tasks to handle. Thus, she could finish a day's work in just over an hour, or sometimes even in half an hour. But now, things were different. After receiving a promise from Lin Chuan, she felt very excited and driven to strive. She was determined to maximize her abilities to create the greatest benefits.

After clearing out the office, they immediately brought in a larger sofa set for receiving guests.

Zhou Kai received a message from Li Qiang and the others. Out of curiosity, he paid a visit to Zhou Rui's office and, sure enough, it was sparkling clean.

"Kai, what... has gotten into Zhou Rui?" Li Qiang asked curiously. "She used to love these plants like her life depended on them, and now she's just abandoned them."

"Heh heh..." Zhou Kai grinned and said, "Looks like our spicy girl finally wants to make a go of it. Brother Chuan is really prescient!"

"Huh?" Li Qiang and the others were very curious.

"Don't worry about it too much," Zhou Kai shot back at them, "Just work hard."

"Yes, yes!" They all nodded.

Zhou Kai then scurried off to find Lin Chuan.

Upon learning about the drastic change in Zhou Rui's demeanor, Lin Chuan laughed and said, "This is all within expectations. After all, Zhou Rui grew up with me. Don't you understand her temperament?"

"Ah..." Zhou Kai was taken aback and said, "Spicy girl... she's just a forthright person, right?"

"You're wrong," Lin Chuan shook his head, took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "That forthrightness is just one aspect of Zhou Rui's temperament. Deep down, she harbors many shining facets of humanity. She's kind, takes responsibility, has a sense of duty... She won't follow the crowd, preferring to stick to her own principles..."

Zhou Kai's mouth hung open, amazed. "Is spicy girl really that good?"

"If she weren't like this, with her talent, why would she deign to stay with us?" Lin Chuan smiled.

"Otherwise, what could she be doing?" Zhou Kai pursed his lips.

"Zhou Rui is exceptionally talented, and she has a very wide network," Lin Chuan said, giving Zhou Kai a look. "I once checked some of her background info, do you know who her college classmates are?"

"Who? Bill Gates?" Zhou Kai scoffed.

"Although not Bill Gates, she's associated with someone as famous." Lin Chuan took another puff of his cigarette and said, "It's Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg."

"What?" Zhou Kai exclaimed in surprise.

Zhou Kai had long heard of Zuckerberg's fame and was taken aback to learn that Zhou Rui was actually his classmate. He said in shock, "Brother Chuan, you... don't mess with me. Zuckerberg is a rich American, second only to maybe Bill Gates in wealth."

"Exactly," Lin Chuan nodded, "Not only is Zuckerberg a tycoon, but he's also a great philanthropist."

According to the "Chronicle of Philanthropy," in the previous two years in America's fifteen largest charitable donations (totaling fifty-one billion US dollars), Warren Buffett ranked first, donating ten point three billion US dollars to the charitable foundations of each of his three children, with a total of forty billion US dollars in donations. And Zuckerberg ranked second in America.

"No wonder," Zhou Kai suddenly realized, "Could it be that Zhou Rui is deeply influenced by her classmate?"

"That's right." Lin Chuan nodded and said, "I looked into Zhou Rui's class, and out of forty students, twenty-nine have been involved in charity work. Think about it, how could Zhou Rui not be influenced by such an environment?"

"Exactly!" Zhou Kai nodded and said, "Brother Chuan, your move is truly powerful. This way, our little firecracker won't be idling away her days."

"Hehe..." Lin Chuan chuckled.

Zhou Rui wanted to do charity work, and Lin Chuan fully supported her.

............

On March 29th in Jiangbei City, the 14th People's Congress representative's first meeting was formally held.

In Jiangbei City's auditorium, hundreds of People's Congress representatives from the city sat together, each expressing their views, providing the City Committee with various investigation and research proposals, and pointing out the future direction of government work.

Almost every representative had their own proposal. Leaders from the City Committee also listened to their opinions one by one.

As the Executive Deputy Secretary, Song Ming also made a related report. Tang Yumeng intentionally placed her work report at the very end. This did surprise everyone a bit; according to the order, Tang Yumeng should have been the first official from the City Committee to speak. But this time, it was Song Ming, which inevitably led the representatives on the scene to speculate and feel both puzzled and astonished.

Just as everyone's proposals were about to finish, Tang Yumeng's work report was finally about to be officially presented.

Dressed in a sharp black suit with a white shirt underneath and high heels, Tang Yumeng stood tall and graceful. As she stood at the front of the stage, she immediately attracted everyone's attention. Everyone loves beauty, everyone adores things that are beautiful.

"Comrades." Tang Yumeng stood in front of the microphone, glanced over the audience, and spoke with a solemn face: "Today, I'll just say a few words. I think that our City Committee's work is not comprehensive enough, nor has it penetrated deeply into the grassroots to understand the most profound issues. Of course, the reports of several comrades here are quite good, and they have mentioned the two issues that I am about to raise. Of course, I also believe that these two issues will become the focus and central work of our Jiangbei City government in the future."

Rustling applause...

Song Ming looked surprised. Tang Yumeng went up without a manuscript, which meant she had completely discarded her prepared speech. That is to say, today Tang Yumeng was improvising. Song Ming had seen Tang Yumeng's work report—it was entirely formalistic, just a formality. It seemed that this time she was about to drop a bombshell.

"The first issue is social elderly care," Tang Yumeng held up a finger and said sternly, "Our country has already entered an aging society, and the problem of elderly care is imminent. When the one-child policy was first implemented, the government promised that elderly care would depend on the government. But what about now? The government points out that we cannot rely on the government for elderly care, but instead must rely on ourselves. This is a policy mistake, and even more so, a loss of government credibility..."

Tang Yumeng deeply elaborated on the severity of the current elderly care problem and the tragic situation of the elderly with nowhere to turn for support.

The meeting hall was dead silent. Even after Tang Yumeng finished discussing the first issue, the place remained quiet. Xiao Xue couldn't stand it anymore; she hurriedly began to clap vigorously, which then led to a round of warm applause across the venue.

"Secretary Tang, what's the second issue?" asked Song Ming with a sneer.

"The second issue is healthcare," Tang Yumeng continued without sensing Song Ming's mockery, "Nowadays in society, the deeply rooted social contradictions are that the elderly have nowhere to turn for support, and the sick have nowhere to go for treatment. Patients cannot afford medical care, the poor cannot access treatment, hospital fees are exorbitant, hence causing many to suffer..."

Tang Yumeng's two issues were like two giant clubs striking many people.

This left everyone dumbfounded.

At that moment, Song Ming stood up, turned around, and walked away.

The meeting hall fell silent once again.

At this point, the meeting host urgently announced loudly: "Meeting adjourned, meeting adjourned!"

Tang Yumeng stood alone in front of the microphone in the auditorium, while hundreds of People's Congress representatives orderly left their seats and exited the scene. Tang Yumeng felt very sad; she had not expected her speech to be so coldly extinguished.

"Secretary Tang..." Xiao Xue hurried over.

"Xiao Xue, were the issues I discussed really so detestable?" Tang Yumeng asked in dejection.

"No, the two issues you discussed were very profound indeed," Xiao Xue immediately responded. "I think they are the most urgent and in need of resolution at the moment. If even these two issues cannot be addressed, what's the use of discussing others?"

"But..." Tang Yumeng looked helpless.

"That's because many people haven't yet realized the seriousness of these two issues," Xiao Xue hurriedly consoled.

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