Chapter 38: Self-Interest!
She spoke with fluid eloquence.
Her third uncle had told her that Bureau Chief Zhao liked people who were capable! When you had capability, you had to showcase it right in front of him.
She had gone around to ask about Lin Wan. In school, Lin Wan was a total nobody who was entirely useless, and her graduation certificate was something she had barely managed to scrape by to obtain.
Xu Hui talked about how many class meetings she had organized in school, and how she had assisted the school in organizing multiple sports meets.
“I can also design blackboard newspapers. The ones for my class and the school—many of them came from my hands!”
There just so happened to be a blackboard in the meeting room, which made it convenient to write down themes during meetings.
Seeing Xu Hui voluntarily recommending herself, Section Chief Tang had her step up to the stage to write a few words.
Xu Hui walked up with her chin high and her chest puffed out.
In the eyes of Director Xu, who was watching from outside the meeting room, this scene looked exactly as if Section Chief Tang was actively helping Xu Hui. He secretly stole a glance at Bureau Chief Zhao. Seeing a trace of an appreciative smile surface on Bureau Chief Zhao’s face, he knew this matter was in all probability locked in.
Consequently, he set his heart entirely at ease.
Come to think of it, he had to blame this niece of his for stirring up trouble on the day of the exam; otherwise, how could so many issues have cropped up? Not only did it cause him to owe Section Chief Tang a massive personal favor, but he even had to give away an electric fan to smooth things over! Fortunately, this niece of his was acting quite sensibly right now, knowing to perform well.
Xu Hui wrote several massive block characters on the blackboard. They were three-dimensional, featuring a bit of shading.
‘All reactionaries are paper tigers!’
Then she drew a bit of sunlight and sketched a few flowers on top.
A few people who had decent relationships with her immediately clapped and voiced their praise. Bureau Chief Zhao nodded slightly. Section Chief Tang also clapped and praised her performance.
Xu Hui cast a highly provocative glance at Lin Wan. When she had asked around about Lin Wan, she found out that the girl was useless at absolutely everything. Word was that whenever it was Lin Wan’s turn to design the blackboard newspaper back in school, others had to step in to help her finish it.
“Comrade Lin Wan, I heard your blackboard newspapers are also designed beautifully. Why don’t you step up as well so everyone can see your strength!”
She absolutely had to force Lin Wan up to the stage to write and draw, explicitly to give Bureau Chief Zhao a direct, visual comparison. That way, it would be completely impossible for Lin Wan to contest her for the union position anymore.
Lin Wan put on a thoroughly difficult expression. “Didn’t they say today was for allocating positions? Why bother with all these bells and whistles?”
My god! Is this female lead a teammate sent by my own side? She is actually serving up her own head on a platter! If she had been even two seconds slower to bring out this proposal, Lin Wan would have bounced up to the stage to draw all by herself!
Seeing how utterly reluctant Lin Wan appeared, Xu Hui grew even more certain of her own assumptions, resolutely insisting on making her draw:
“Comrade Lin Wan managed to score first place, so she must have been a student of excellent character and academic performance in school!”
“She must have designed blackboard newspapers before too.”
“If Comrade Lin Wan writes and draws better than I do, I will withdraw from the competition for the union officer post and hand it over to you, Comrade Lin Wan!”
“Everyone, let’s encourage Comrade Lin Wan!”
“When you possess strength, you must display it!”
“Don’t let it be buried! Letting it be buried would be a massive loss for our Huacheng Post Office!”
Luo Jiahui inspected Lin Wan with intense anxiety. This Xu Hui was clearly forcing Comrade Lin Wan to withdraw from the competition for the union officer post! The others had already begun to join the commotion, clapping to encourage Lin Wan to step up to the stage. She wanted to say a few words to help Lin Wan, but Lin Wan had already walked up to the blackboard with feigned reluctance.
Xu Hui must have mapped out her plan long in advance, because she had only occupied half of the blackboard, leaving the remaining half completely empty. It was explicitly meant to create a direct contrast with Lin Wan’s blackboard newspaper.
“Then I will make a fool of myself. If it’s written poorly or drawn badly, please don’t laugh at me!”
Xu Hui said with a smile, “Comrade Lin Wan, being overly modest equals arrogance. You are the first-place candidate, so you must absolutely never underestimate yourself!”
Lin Wan let out a cold sneer in her heart. Trying to employ the tactic of praising me to death against me? I’m sorry. She had genuinely studied drawing before, and she had even worked at an advertising agency.
Lin Wan picked up a piece of chalk. With rapid scratch, scratch, scratch motions, she swiftly sketched out five figures on the blackboard: a soldier, a worker, a peasant, and two young children wearing red scarves. Every single one of them looked righteously imposing and brimming with vibrant spirit.
Then, she wrote down five massive characters: ‘Serve the People.’ Once she finished writing, she drew a dense field of wheat ears representing a bountiful harvest right beneath the characters, and on the right side of the text, she sketched a minimalist version of Tiananmen Square…
The moment she finished drawing, the entire room fell into a dead silence. Every single person’s eyes widened to the absolute extreme.
Standing right behind Bureau Chief Zhao outside the door, the union chairperson wished he could immediately abduct Lin Wan over to the union. The union was precisely in dire need of a publicity officer who knew how to design blackboard newspapers. However, the moment his gaze landed on Main Office Director Xu, whose face had turned completely black, he forcefully suppressed this impulse. He couldn’t go back on a matter he had already agreed upon with Director Xu in advance. Never mind. A blackboard newspaper was just a blackboard newspaper; as long as it was readable, it would suffice.
A flash of absolute astonishment flickered in Bureau Chief Zhao’s eyes. This Comrade Lin Wan was truly excellent, fully living up to being the young comrade he thought highly of. Her professional knowledge was rock-solid, and her other skills were equally outstanding.
“I see Little Lin is highly suited for your union!” Bureau Chief Zhao said to the union chairperson beside him.
Director Xu was practically driven mad with rage! Ahhh! Why did Xu Hui have to take matters into her own hands? He had already settled everything with Section Chief Tang, so why did she have to cause unnecessary complications?
Xu Hui’s face turned stark white. How could things turn out like this? Hadn’t the rumors explicitly said Lin Wan’s handwriting looked like a dog’s scratch, and her drawing ability was at most at the level of sketching a stick figure? How could she draw this beautifully? What was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to save face and step down? Xu Hui was completely dumbfounded.
Lin Wan gave Xu Hui a deep, meaningful look, then declared to Section Chief Tang in a loud, clear voice: “Section Chief Tang, I want to respond to your call and become a glorious mail carrier!”
“I am a young person, and I ought to fight on the front lines of serving the people!”
“I want to dedicate my youth and sweat to the grassroots level, contributing to the development of the post office enterprise!”
“As an educated youth, one shouldn’t solely lock their gaze onto comfortable, easy positions; one must possess the courage to endure hardships and be glad to take on grueling labor!”
“If it feels bitter or hard, think of the Red Army’s twenty-five-thousand-li Long March!”
“If it feels tiring, think of our old revolutionary predecessors!”
“If even we young people lack the spirit of enduring hardships and working industriously, then where exactly lies the future of our nation?”
“Section Chief Tang, please, you must fulfill my request!”
The moment her words fell, Luo Jiahui was the first to stand up and clap. “Excellent!”
“Beautifully spoken!”
“I also want to respond to Section Chief Tang’s call, and I apply to go to the front lines of the grassroots level!”
“I also respond to Section Chief Tang’s call—I’m going to the front lines!”
“I respond too, count me in!”
Even Wu Xue was infected by the atmosphere, her blood boiling with revolutionary fervor as she declared, “I want to go down to the grassroots level too!”
Stirred by Lin Wan’s speech, several comrades stood up to clap and voice their agreement. Anyone who didn’t know the truth would assume they were about to head to the Great Northwest to plant trees. A mail carrier post was one of the “Eight Great Professionals,” yet in this specific setting, it had transformed into a job that was picked only after everything else was rejected.
Tsk tsk~ Where on earth could one go to find reason?
In truth, to be perfectly fair, whether it was a switchboard operator, a sorter, or a maintenance technician, none of the jobs were easy. However, with the situation unfolding this way, it made the few people who had selected their posts in advance look exactly like clowns who were unwilling to endure hardships. They felt a wave of deep regret, wanting to follow the lead and respond as well, but it was already too late.
Lin Wan couldn’t help but sigh in her heart; the vast majority of people in this era truly possessed a distinct spirit of dedication. Plenty of people were incredibly pure.
Section Chief Tang smiled so wide his mouth couldn’t close. This young comrade Little Lin was truly someone he could work with! She was simply far too capable!
Bureau Chief Zhao cast an appreciative gaze toward Section Chief Tang. “Old Tang, you’ve done an excellent job with your political work!”
Section Chief Tang laughed out loud, saying, “It’s only proper, only proper. I still have plenty of areas where I need to learn from Bureau Chief Zhao…”
It filled Director Xu with intense envy and irritation! But what good did envy do? He delivered a ferocious glare to Xu Hui—what an absolute piece of trash, thoroughly incapable of achieving success yet more than capable of ruining everything!
Xu Hui was completely cornered now. She looked out the door in total helplessness, only to lock eyes with Director Xu’s piercing, dagger-like gaze.
Bureau Chief Zhao clapped as he walked inside. “Excellent!”
“Beautifully spoken!”
“Comrade Lin Wan and you several comrades all possess highly robust ideological awareness!”
“The bureau precisely requires comrades like you who possess the courage to dedicate themselves…”
The affirmation and praise coming straight from Bureau Chief Zhao made the group of people who had followed Lin Wan’s lead feel as though they had been injected with chicken blood, looking intensely excited.
Lin Wan secured the post of mail carrier at the Tuanjie Office exactly as she had wished. Xu Hui entered the union exactly as she wished.
However, Xu Hui couldn’t muster a single shred of happiness. Because with Lin Wan pulling off a stunt like this, she had been turned into a person who feared hardships and exhaustion, who was incapable of industrious labor or simple frugality, and who solely coveted comfort and ease. Once this label was firmly slapped onto her, it would be exceptionally difficult for her to advance in her career in the future.
Unlike her, Wu Xue, who ultimately still entered the main office to work, carried the praise and commendation with her because she had also applied to go down to the grassroots level. Deputy Bureau Chief Wu praised her fiercely in private. He even instructed her: “This young comrade Lin Wan is quite decent. You can associate with her more and become friends in the future!”
Meanwhile, Xu Hui hung her head low as she faced a harsh tongue-lashing inside Director Xu’s private office.
When she found out that Section Chief Tang’s entire purpose in pulling off that performance was precisely to dump her into the union, her whole world turned completely bleak. So, it turned out she was the one who had lifted a rock only to drop it on her own foot.
She had voluntarily thrown herself flat on the ground to act as a stepping stone for Lin Wan???
