Chapter 72: The Great Earthquake
From Liu Shang's expression and his words, everyone at the dinner table caught on, and they immediately started to joke around with him.
"Hehe, Liu Shang, a little girlfriend back at school, right?"
"Hey, a kid like you, being put in a university environment is like a tiger among sheep. I can't imagine how many girls' hearts you'll break!"
"Hah, forget about the girls in college. I've heard that plenty of the young women at our plant have started asking about this kid!"
"It's true. Compared to those immature university boys, Liu Shang is so much more mature in every way. It's a night and day difference."
Liu Shang smiled wryly at their teasing. "Are you guys praising me or insulting me?"
His question drew a round of loud laughter from everyone present.
Pan Qingfeng patted him on the shoulder and laughed. "Liu Shang, when you get a chance, Uncle Pan will send a car for you. Bring your young girlfriend to meet us old folks."
"And don't look down on our oilfield just because it's out in the wilderness. The scenery in some places is actually quite good."
"The wild fish and pheasants here... you can't buy those in the city no matter how much money you have..."
On the other end of the line, after hanging up, Jiang Ruolin leaned against the corridor wall, clutching her phone as she let out a slow sigh.
She pursed her lips slightly, an undeniable feeling of disappointment welling up inside her.
When she had officially become Liu Shang's girlfriend, what Jiang Ruolin had envisioned was the ideal college romance—sunny, innocent, and beautiful.
She imagined them having common hobbies, ideals, and pursuits.
However, she also felt it was best for two people to have their own lives—interconnected but relatively independent.
This way, they could be close while still maintaining a certain distance, leaving space for both of them to breathe.
At the time, Jiang Ruolin had even been a little worried, afraid that Liu Shang would be like most college boys, wanting to be joined at the hip all the time.
She had feared that would lead to all sorts of conflicts and quarrels.
Fortunately, what Jiang Ruolin had worried about never happened.
On the contrary, that infuriating guy Liu Shang seemed to be even busier than she was. In fact, she was the one who actively sought him out, and she initiated getting closer more often than he did!
Especially after they shared their first kiss in the movie theater, and then secretly found opportunities to be intimate several more times, Jiang Ruolin felt she had completely fallen under love's spell and couldn't extricate herself.
Instead, she began to find herself missing Liu Shang more and more in her spare time, and even she was the one who now wanted to spend every waking moment by his side.
Jiang Ruolin, who had always been independent with firm goals and ideas, could never have imagined that she would one day act like a lovestruck middle school girl!
Is this the magic of love?
***
Three days later, Liu Shang received a call from Manager Zhong and returned to the company.
From the moment he stepped through the door, he could see deep exhaustion etched on the face of every person he saw.
Even Manager Zhong and Xu Tiande, who were normally above the daily fray, were no exception.
What shocked him even more was that in their massive office, a third of the desks were vacant.
This time, the magnitude of the "earthquake" at Huahai Company was far greater than Liu Shang had imagined.
During the three days Liu Shang was away, Song Guangyuan had led a top-to-bottom internal investigation of the company, working nearly around the clock.
The problems they discovered were quite serious and shocking.
Worse, some of what was uncovered constituted economic crimes, enough to send people to prison.
Fortunately, these problems were confined to the technical and production departments; the finance and other departments were relatively clean.
This eased Song Guangyuan's anxious heart a little.
In the end, since the people involved were either relatives or had powerful connections, Song Guangyuan did not pursue legal action, but instead drove them all out of the company.
Yang Xu's clique, which had already been dealt a blow, was hit the hardest this time. In the end, only two or three people, including Yang Xu himself, remained.
Over the past few days, Song Guangyuan had personally called Yang Xu and berated him countless times.
Interestingly, because of this major purge, Ma Yuan, who had been in a precarious position and could have been dismissed at any time, found his position secured once more.
However, Ma Yuan now regarded Liu Shang with a mixture of fear and awe, and he would never again dare to plot or cause trouble.
After everything returned to normal, the nine operational wells at the front line finally resumed construction.
Unlike the last time, Liu Shang now went to the site in person to supervise and direct the work.
Fortunately, the company had a shuttle on standby for him 24 hours a day. Liu Shang would usually leave school in the morning, spend a busy day at the construction site, and then be driven back to school at night.
His efforts paid off. A few days after work restarted, all nine wells began to show positive dynamic responses one after another, and the results were quite good.
This, of course, made Pan Qingfeng and the others at the oil production plant overjoyed.
For Han Ping and his fifth oil production team, this was their second time experiencing it, so they weren't surprised that this round of construction was effective.
But for the members of the other teams, it was the first time they had seen and experienced such a situation with their own eyes.
They could never have imagined that these kinds of measures could actually increase the oil yield.
The assumption they had always held—that it was all just a show put on by Pan Qingfeng and the plant's management—was naturally overturned.
Which meant that during the previous drinking sessions, when that kid Han Ping was crying poor and acting miserable, it was all an act.
In fact, had Han Ping, who already knew how effective the measure was and had taken on four wells at once, been playing the victim while secretly profiting?
And so, the other oil production team captains, their eyes red with indignation, stormed Han Ping's team headquarters and practically dragged him out.
At the dinner table, before they could even begin to lay into him, Han Ping was the first to raise his hands in surrender.
"Brothers, brothers, my dear brothers, I was wrong!"
"I was wrong, okay?"
"Beat me, scold me, punish me however you want. I just ask my brothers to calm down, please calm down..."
Before he could finish, the furious men couldn't bear it any longer and began to grill him.
"I've got to say, Han Ping, you've got some nerve!"
"Tsk tsk, looking back at the miserable and helpless act you put on at the last few dinners, it was so convincing!"
"And we were foolish enough to comfort you, to treat you to drinks!"
"I'm just wondering now, during those dinners, were you eating meat and drinking wine while secretly laughing at us for being idiots?"
"Exactly! At the time, I really believed the results from the Shangkou Well were just a show put on by Plant Manager Pan and you."
"I thought you were forced to accept four more wells this time just to keep the 'secret' from leaking!"
"But that's not what happened at all, is it?"
"Tell us the truth right now, you brat. Did you take the initiative to ask Mr. Zhang for those four wells?"
---
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