Chapter 358 — A Scheme with Ulterior Motives
Years of Heartflutter · Page 3 of 5
He decided he must separate Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe as quickly as possible—and for that, he could only start with Chen Shutang. As long as Chen Shutang was on guard against Yang Moyi, everything else would be easy.
Of course, there was one more thing to do: make sure Yang Ce and Chen Shutang were together as much as possible. That way, he believed, a clever girl like Lin Yanhe would keep her distance from Yan.
At this thought, Xu Qianxing smiled faintly and quietly stepped down from the stage, walking briskly toward an inconspicuous corner of the corridor. Seeing no one around, he took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, is this You Zhengmin? This is Xu Qianxing. Where are you?" Xu Qianxing asked in a low voice. Inside the auditorium, though, even speaking loudly would be drowned out by the dialogue of the skit onstage and the laughter from the audience. "Oh? Chairman Xu, I'm down in the audience watching the performance. You need something?" You Zhengmin asked nervously upon hearing that the call was from Xu Qianxing, the student council president.
He was hoping to climb another rung. He was currently president of the School of Economics student council. If he could rise further and become vice president of the university student council, there would be hope of staying on at the university after graduation—so You Zhengmin was eager to curry favor with Xu Qianxing.
"Oh, come over here for a moment. I need to talk to you about something." Xu Qianxing glanced around and then said, "I'm by the emergency exit at the lower right of the stage. You'll see me when you come over." "All right, Chairman Xu, I'll be right there," You Zhengmin said hurriedly.
Xu Qianxing naturally knew what You Zhengmin was after—and precisely because he knew, there was a chance to make use of him.
Before long, You Zhengmin came trotting over. Catching sight of Xu Qianxing, he immediately put on a humble smile. "Chairman Xu, sorry to keep you waiting! I was sitting rather far in, so it took some squeezing to get out—I had to get past several classmates."
"Mm, no matter." Xu Qianxing smiled and patted You Zhengmin on the shoulder. "You Zhengmin, have you thought about rising any further? I'm still only acting president of the student council, and once I'm formally confirmed, a position of executive vice president will open up. But the executive vice president's lot is a worrisome one—far busier than you are now, with none of your present ease and leisure."
You Zhengmin's heart stirred. He looked at Xu Qianxing in disbelief! He had indeed wanted to rise further and become a student council vice president, but he had never dreamed of becoming executive vice president!
What he had in mind was that simply bearing the title of vice president while concurrently heading some inconsequential department would already be quite good—say, concurrently heading something like the Health Department, a department with no real power that was always doing heavy lifting.
But what he had never expected was that Xu Qianxing, right off the bat, would offer him the executive vice presidency. You Zhengmin was instantly stupefied, hardly able to believe it was real.
After all, although Xu Qianxing was currently acting president and his former post had been executive vice president of the student council, once he moved up, the position he vacated was being eyed by several vice presidents who concurrently headed departments. No matter how you looked at it, it would never be You Zhengmin's turn!
Yet strange as it was, Xu Qianxing had actually brought it up with him! You Zhengmin was not afraid of having too much on his plate—he wished he could be given even more work, so he could show his face before the school leadership and the university Youth League Committee. That way, if he hoped to stay on at the university later, things would go more smoothly.