Shen Huai and Zhao Dong first sent Xiao Mingxia to the dormitory of the steel plant, then went to the factory office.

  Wang Kangsheng and Xu Wenda were on night duty, but both of them were in the smoking room next to the guard's office, puffing away.

  The entire Shenhuai factory is smoke-free, and currently, there is only a smoking room set up at the gate guard's post.

  Whether they are front-line workers or factory directors, those who want to smoke can only come here.

  Apart from Wang Kangsheng and Xu Wendao, there were several night shift workers resting inside smoking. Shen Hua took out two packs of cigarettes from his pocket and threw them on the table, which were immediately snatched up by the night shift workers. Shen Hua cursed: "You bunch of bastards, leave me two cigarettes!"

  "Wang Changzhang has the Golden Leaf cigarettes that Secretary Shen likes to smoke, we'll take care of it for him." The workers also ignored Shen Hua's curses.

  The management of the steel plant must be strict, and Shen Hua also had to implement a clear and strict hierarchical system. However, smoking was not allowed regardless of rank, and he required managers to proactively offer cigarettes to workers in the smoking room, so that managers could have more contact with frontline workers and make management more flexible.

  After smoking two cigarettes, Shen Hua took Wang Kangsheng, Xu Wenda and Zhao Dong to walk around several buildings with insufficient structural strength, enough to clear snow on time, and then returned to the smoking room.

  Qian Wenhui was also working overtime, and by the end of the year, financial work was the busiest. Seeing Shen Hua, people from the office came running over: "Director Shen, I'm looking for your signature..."

  Shen Hua and Wang Kangsheng, Zhao Dong, Xu Wenhao were all stopped there. Shen Hua took over the document handed over by Qian Wennui, which was originally a year-end bonus distribution form just calculated by the finance department. Wang Kangsheng, Xu Xiting and others had signed it, indicating that they had reviewed it, and now only waited for his signature before the bonuses could be issued tomorrow.

  Shen Hua took the money from Qian Wen-hui, drew a circle around his own name and crossed it out, then handed the document back to Qian Wen-hui, saying: "I have an annual bonus at the government office, so it's not suitable for me to receive another one here. Remove my name, recalculate the management layer's bonuses, and get Old Xu and Old Wan to sign again..."

  "How can this be?" Qian Wenhui said, "The government is in charge of the government, the steel plant is in charge of the steel plant, it's not a single thing, we are also following the financial system, there is nothing inappropriate."

  Shen Huai said: "The financial system is set by me, you follow the financial system to take bonuses, no one will say anything, if someone says something, I will also bear it for you. But if I follow this financial system to take money, it's not appropriate. Others will say that I set up this reward system to make it convenient for myself to get money, and then this system will not be implemented..."

  Wang Kangsheng, Zhao Dong and Xu Wendao heard that Shen Hua was going to cancel his year-end bonus, so they all came over and said: "The steel factory has been able to revive to its current state, the credit of the whole factory's people put together is not as great as yours, Director Shen. The year-end bonus doesn't have to be 60,000, even if it were 600,000, I think no one in the factory would say no. If you don't take this year-end bonus, we won't take it either..."

  Shen Hua said, "Don't bother me with nonsense, you all know that the resistance won't be in the steel factory. This year I'm taking 600,000 yuan, it's not a lot, and the town won't say much about it. However, our target for next year is 200 million in profit, but I want to strive for 400 million. At that time, we'll need to take out 32 million to reward the management team, according to this ratio, I'll get 5 million. How many people will be thinking of stabbing me in the back? Should we still implement this reward system? Should the steel factory continue to reform?"

  "Whoever can make the steel factory's profit reach 10 million, I'll let him take away 1 or 2 million, and I'll admire him; whoever doesn't have this ability, whatever he says is just nonsense," said Wang Kangsheng.

  Shen Huai burst out laughing and said, "Old Wang, with your words, I've already won this year-end award. However, in our country, it's a good thing to be a high-ranking official and get rich at the same time, but those are the corrupt officials that ordinary people curse behind their backs. Don't harm me, I still want to have a future in my official career..."

  "The reward system for the management team is set by you, and as the leader of the entire management team, you are the lead goose. If you don't take the year-end bonus, aren't you leading the way in destroying this reward system?" Qian Wenhui said.

  Shen Hua thought for a moment and said, "Alright, you can give me half of my year-end bonus. I usually only work half a day at the steel plant anyway. Also, call Li Feng Secretary to come and collect this money as my party dues - that's settled then! You all go back to your own business!"

  Wang Kangsheng, Qian Wenhui and Xu Wendao were still there, unwilling to leave. Shen Huai said: "I won't chat with you guys anymore, I still have to go to the town..." He pulled Zhao Dong and walked out of the factory. Before leaving, he warned Qian Wenhui: "If you don't listen to me, tomorrow I'll replace you with Guo Quan as the financial deputy director, you can just go home and take care of your kids..."

  ****************

  "You won't lose out by taking this money," Zhao Dong couldn't help but persuade Shen Hua on the way, "your contributions are evident to all, not just the factory workers, but also the town officials..."

  "I know I won't be able to justify taking this money," Shen Hua stopped and said, "Zhao Dong's thinking is not thorough, Wang Kangsheng, Qian Wenhui, Xu Xiting and others may also come to persuade again. 'The workers in the steel plant may not have any opinion, the cadres in the town may not have any opinion either, but what about the 50,000 people in Meixi Town? If they know that I, as a party secretary, took 600,000 yuan in annual bonuses from the steel plant, and next year even took 3 million or 5 million in year-end bonuses, what will they think? Are you going to explain it to each of them individually? And what about the county, city, and province, how will they think?"

  "......" Zhao Dong said, "The accounts can be clearly calculated and made public. If others have any ideas, the steel plant can make the accounts public for them to check."

  "Zhou Dong, you also understand in your heart," Shen Hui said with a smile, "where in the country can you be considered clean just because you think so yourself? You can't have both fish and bear's paw. I think, if I take this money, the best result would be to resign as the town party committee secretary, go back to the steel factory to be the factory director, do a good job in management, maybe that way I can shut other people's mouths."

  "I agree with this," Zhao Dong said, "the work in the countryside is too complicated and chaotic, which is not conducive to your play; everyone also hopes that you will come to lead everyone to do business."

  "It's not that simple," Shen Hua said, "The steel mill is still an asset of Mei Creek Town. Once I give up the position of party secretary, the future development direction of the steel mill will fall into someone else's hands. Especially with today's events, what does it really mean behind the scenes? I think you're clear about that too. I even more cannot let go of the party secretary position, otherwise the dominant power of the steel mill will fall into someone else's hands. Does the steel mill still need to be further developed and reformed in the future?"

  "So, doesn't that mean you won't get anything good?" Zhao Dong asked.

  "Lao Xiong hasn't called me on his own for days," Shen Huai's eyes stared intensely at Zhao Dong, directly asking the crucial question, "What do you think about this?"

  "Both I and Hai Peng have told him that Lao Xiong did this thing in a very unscrupulous way," said Zhao Dong.

  "With you saying that, it's enough," Shen Hui said. "I'll also be frank with you about my thoughts. I don't care much about money, but I yearn to gain more power. Only with more power can I do more things. Others might say that to become an official, one must have someone backing them up, but this isn't necessarily true. Our country still needs people who can get things done. Even if someone wants to suppress me in Meixi Town in the future, so what? You need to understand, the stage of Meixi Town may not be big, but the stage of Meixi Steel Factory is huge. Maybe from now on, the support I can get from the city will become limited, but Meixi Steel Factory can grow bigger and bigger, and you can also support my work, so I won't have to worry about others suppressing me..."

  "I'm always thinking, what is the essence of power? Is it official position or wealth, or the influence that comes with authority? I think these all have some characteristics of power, more accurately, it's the ability to control resources. In the eyes of ordinary people, a municipal party secretary must be more powerful than a town party committee secretary, but this is just an appearance of power, and not necessarily true in every case. There are things that a municipal party secretary can't accomplish, but a town party committee secretary can, at least in this area, the town party committee secretary's power is greater than the municipal party secretary's, the difference lies in who has stronger ability to control resources..."

  Shen Hua's words made Zhao Dong fall into deep thought all the way, he was originally worried that today's events would have some impact on Shen Hua, but unexpectedly Shen Hua had never taken Tan Qiping's persistence seriously, and even more unexpected was Shen Hua's strong determination to advance in his official career...

  Just as they were about to return to the town government, Yang Haipeng's phone call came over. A moment later, Yang Haipeng emerged from the wind and rain, saying: "The roads are all snowy, Zhou Ming, Su Kainan and others can't get back to the city, they're all staying in hotels. This old bear is really something, how could he let Zhou Ming and Su Kainan join forces to launch such a sudden attack?"

  They all knew that Xiong Wenbin would not have gotten Tan Qiping's attention without Shen Hua's recommendation, so they were very dissatisfied that Xiong Wenbin didn't even inform Shen Hua about the Su Kaiwen incident.

  Although Yang Haipeng and Zhao Dong were both brought out by Xiong Wenbin in the steel plant, but at this time Xiong Wenbin was the deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, Tan Qiping's confidant, and the absolute power holder of Donghua City. At this time, Zhao Dong and Yang Haipeng could say such things, which can also be said to be a kind of statement. Shen Huai felt very pleased.

  To be honest, Shen Hua is more worried about the change in Tan Qiping's attitude, which will disperse the hearts of Zhao Dong, Yang Haipeng and others. The unity of people's hearts is the foundation. Even if this foundation is still weak, it will one day flourish!

  Shen Hua smiled and said, "Lao Xiong has his own difficulties. Besides, Secretary Tan's side is not as serious as you think, mainly it's some conflicts between me and my family members, maybe that's why Secretary Tan has a negative view of me..."

  Yang Haipeng and Zhao Dong didn't ask much, Shen Hua surprisingly had a French mixed-blood cousin who was a high-level executive at Industrial Bank, so he knew the situation of Shen Hua's family was more complicated than they imagined.