Chapter 91
Qiao Wei did not find Secretary Meng.
“There is a standing committee meeting today,” Secretary Huang said. “Give the manuscript to me, and I will hand it to the Secretary when he returns.”
Qiao Wei handed it over: “Sorry to trouble you.”
Secretary Huang was a fairly young man, about the same age as Yan Lei. He wore glasses, looked refined, and spoke gently.
Since Qiao Wei had been seconded here, every interaction she had with him left her with a rather good impression.
But Qiao Wei had seen the subtleties of human nature in her previous life, and having experienced the atmosphere of government offices over the past two days, she became more cautious. She smiled and said, “I will come by again at noon to ask if the Secretary has any parts that need revising.”
Secretary Huang’s expression didn’t change as he smiled: “Fine.”
He watched Qiao Wei leave.
This young woman was very beautiful. But the vitality she radiated even overshadowed her beauty; a sunny and bright feeling took precedence, rushing towards him. Only then did he notice her beauty.
She was very meticulous. A single sentence blocked any loopholes, leaving no room for anyone to exploit. It wasn’t necessarily aimed at him, but by making it impossible for anyone to find a gap, it ensured that everyone could get along well.
Secretary Huang twirled his fountain pen between his slender fingers and unfolded Qiao Wei’s manuscript to read it.
His first impression was that the handwriting was good, but not as good as his own.
But after reading it, a look of appreciation appeared in his eyes.
After Secretary Meng returned from the meeting, Secretary Huang went into the office to receive instructions.
After Secretary Meng finished giving his instructions, he did not delay and submitted Qiao Wei’s manuscript: “This is from Qiao Wei, who is on secondment from Xiahekou Town.”
“This young comrade is quite efficient,” Secretary Meng said with a smile as he took it.
When Secretary Huang walked out and closed the door, he glanced back and saw that Secretary Meng had already unfolded it and was reading.
He closed the door properly.
After Qiao Wei returned from the Town Committee Office to the Propaganda Section office, she had just sat down when a female colleague came over.
She spoke unexpectedly gently: “Qiao Wei, do you have any work on hand right now?”
Since the other person was polite, Qiao Wei was also polite: “No, is there anything you need me to do?”
“Then please carve this wax stencil. Carve it according to this sample draft.”
“Okay.” Qiao Wei followed her usual practice of confirming the deadline when accepting work: “When do you need this by?”
“Before you get off work.”
“Okay.”
As the person turned to leave, Qiao Wei called out: “Wait a moment.”
“I’ve never carved one before, could you please teach me first?”
“Eh? Aren’t you from the Xiahekou Propaganda Section?”
“I’m just a broadcaster.” And she had only been on the job for a little over a month.
“Alright then.”
The person carved a line of text first to show her as an example. It was a very simple task, and she learned it immediately.
Qiao Wei actually enjoyed carving; after all, it was something she had never played with before. Last time at the Town Propaganda Section, she had only played with the drum mimeograph.
She kept an eye on the clock, and at 10:50, she wiped her hands and went to the County Party Committee Office again. She went directly to find Secretary Huang first.
Standing there, before she could speak, Secretary Huang said: “The Secretary has read it.”
He took out her manuscript and smiled: “It’s written quite well. There’s nothing that needs changing. The Secretary said to send this piece to the city later. We’ll strive to have it published around the 27th or 28th.”
The manuscript had the Secretary’s red pen annotations on it, just as Secretary Huang had said.
Moreover, the manuscript was neatly clipped into a folder, along with several other documents that also had annotations.
That was it. The first task Secretary Meng had assigned her was successfully completed.
What followed was Secretary Huang’s business; since it was no longer in her hands, it had nothing to do with her, and she bore no responsibility.
“Then I’ll head back.” Qiao Wei felt relieved.
“Wait a moment.” Secretary Huang picked up a folder: “Tidy up these meeting minutes and transcribe them onto this record sheet. Give it to me before two o’clock this afternoon.”
Secretary Huang did things more efficiently than the people in her section. He explained the work clearly while also specifying the submission time, unlike the people in her section who made Qiao Wei have to actively ask before they would say anything.
Qiao Wei liked this clean and efficient work style.
She still had the wax stencil carving job on hand. But she had already completed a portion of it and was becoming more and more proficient. She could basically estimate the time needed to finish.
That one was needed before getting off work, and this one was needed by two o’clock. Qiao Wei flipped through them, quickly scanned the volume of content, estimated it, and saw no problems.
“Okay.”
Back in the section office, she moved the wax stencil aside and started working on the meeting minutes first. The submission deadline for this task was earlier than the wax stencil, so she had to do it first.
She had just started for a while when someone else came over: “Qiao Wei, get this done.”
Qiao Wei took a look and asked: “When is this needed?”
The person said: “Give it to me before getting off work.”
“That won’t work,” Qiao Wei said. “I have two tasks on hand right now, look, both of these are needed today. I definitely won’t have time to do yours before getting off work, find someone else to do it.”
Saying “find someone else to do it” was done with confidence and righteousness, without a shred of the self-sacrificing, long-suffering awareness that other seconded personnel usually displayed.
But Section Chief Zhou had already spoken; no one was allowed to engage in corrupt practices.
The person continued, changing their tone to be gentle: “Then, give it to me tomorrow.”
“Before you get off work tomorrow?” Qiao Wei asked.
If the answer was yes, then there was no need to tell her to finish it before getting off work today. The person paused: “Before noon tomorrow.”
After saying this, the person wanted to leave, but was called back by Qiao Wei: “Sorry, I haven’t remembered everyone’s names yet.”
“Wu Aizhen,” she said. “My name is Wu Aizhen.”
Qiao Wei actually had an impression of this Wu Aizhen; yesterday, her expression towards her had not been this good. Come to think of it, indeed, after returning from the Town Committee Office today, the atmosphere in the room towards her had improved quite a bit. It was as if everyone was speaking more politely, not being so sarcastic anymore.
But this did not hinder Qiao Wei from being meticulous in her work.
“Wu, Ai, Zhen, today is September 21st, the current time is…” Qiao Wei looked up at the clock on the wall, “Oh, it’s not yet 11:30. The specific work is…, and the required time is before noon on the 22nd.”
“Comrade Wu, please sign here.”
Qiao Wei smiled as she pushed her notebook over.
The time, work, person handing it over, and required completion deadline were all written very clearly. Adding a signature—verbal agreements were baseless, but with a signature, there was proof.
Wu Aizhen was clearly much less sophisticated than Secretary Huang. Qiao Wei had never seen any emotional fluctuations on Secretary Huang’s face; young as he was, he already had some of the old cadre’s skill of not showing his emotions, no wonder he could be the person beside the top leader.
Wu Aizhen was not like that.
When Qiao Wei pushed this notebook over, the change in her expression was quite interesting.
“Is this necessary? It’s just a small matter,” she said. “Is it really worth it?”
“We people from lower-level units treat every task assigned by the higher-level units with such seriousness, regardless of whether it is a big matter or a small one,” Qiao Wei said with a very gentle smile. “Sign it.”
Wu Aizhen signed her name quite reluctantly.
This way, if any situation arose, she couldn’t deny it. She couldn’t point at her nose after work and say, “I clearly told you to finish it today, what’s going on?”
Only then did Qiao Wei accept the task.
That was great. For the rest of the time, indeed, no one else brought work over to her and said, “Give it to me before you get off work.”
Qiao Wei quietly and calmly did her own work.
She first finished transcribing the meeting minutes, and then continued carving the wax stencil.
At 1:50, she got up and delivered the meeting minutes to Secretary Huang.
Secretary Huang opened it and looked, had no complaints, and didn’t assign any more tasks to Qiao Wei, just nodded: “Nothing else here.”
Qiao Wei returned to the section office to continue carving the wax stencil. Around three o’clock, she finished carving the wax stencil and found the person who had assigned the work to hand it over.
She returned and started working on the third task, in an orderly manner.
Four o’clock was Qiao Wei’s time to get off work.
She put the unfinished items into the drawer and locked it.
The lock was one she had brought from home today. That desk’s drawer already had a hasp, so just bringing a lock was enough.
She put the key into her bag.
Qiao Wei put on her bag and walked over to someone else’s desk: “Wu Aizhen.”
Wu Aizhen looked up and blinked.
“I’m leaving. It’s not finished yet, but I will definitely give it to you before noon tomorrow,” Qiao Wei said with a smile.
It was as if the cold exclusion of those two days last week had never happened.
One does not strike a smiling face.
Wu Aizhen didn’t have such a tough heart to be able to glare at someone who was smiling fully at her. She hesitated for a moment and said: “Oh, okay. Oh… goodbye.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Oh… see you tomorrow.”
Qiao Wei went to greet Section Chief Zhou again, got permission, and got off work.
After she left, others leaned over and said to Wu Aizhen: “Why are you still being so nice to her?”
It would be enough not to use words to pressure her, why were you even greeting her?
Wu Aizhen was momentarily speechless, and a bit angry from embarrassment: “She is polite, I can’t be impolite, can I?”
Section Chief Zhou sipped his tea: “That’s right. Xiao Wu is correct.”
Since the Section Chief had spoken, that person didn’t say anything more. But in their heart, they felt that Wu Aizhen was quite useless; clearly, everyone had reached a tacit understanding to treat that Qiao Wei with a fake smile, and politely assign her a large amount of work… but the result was that the “large amount of work” wasn’t assigned, and Wu Aizhen had defected.
Tch.
The weather was too good today. The sunshine was particularly nice.
Qiao Wei did not go straight home; she took Yan Xiang to the Department Store to buy seasonal clothing.
As an only child, he didn’t have any old clothes from older brothers or sisters to wear. His father could earn money and coupons, providing a comfortable life, and since there were few people in the family, the coupons could not be spent in time. The original owner, when buying clothes for Yan Xiang, had never bought them several sizes too big; at most, one size larger.
Now that the season was changing, she had to buy new clothes for Yan Xiang.
Qiao Wei actually really wanted to buy comfortable sportswear or casual wear for Yan Xiang.
But children’s clothing in this era was quite magical; it was surprisingly dominated by shirts. If worn seriously, he would really look like a miniature old cadre.
The characteristics of the era were very distinct.
Generally, in the North, after October 1st, the temperature would trace a downward slope. Buying things here was not as convenient as in later generations, so everything that needed to be prepared had to be prepared in advance.
Qiao Wei bought tops, trousers, and thermal underwear for Yan Xiang. She also bought yarn.
She had seen it at noon today; although no one knitted sweaters in the section during work hours, some people did during the lunch break.
And perhaps because it was close to major holidays and the Propaganda Section had a relatively large workload, that was why no one was knitting. Because when she went out, she saw people in other sections knitting sweaters during work hours.
She was also prepared to knit. She had learned from Hu Sui. Although she only knew how to knit plain stitches, she was confident she could knit a complete sweater.
As long as she had a healthy body, nothing could stump her.
“Xiangxiang, can you hold all that?” Qiao Wei asked Yan Xiang worriedly.
Yan Xiang sat on the back seat of the bicycle and opened his arms. All the things they had bought were stuffed into a net bag, which he held tightly in his arms.
“No problem!” he answered loudly.
Qiao Wei now super loved net bags.
This thing was truly magical; such a small bundle, once opened up, had an incredibly strong capacity.
“Then hold on tight. I’m going to start riding.”
Yan Xiang rested his chin on the soft yarn: “Let’s go~”
[The weather was particularly good that day, and I was immersed in the joy of soon having new clothes to wear. Fearing that the new clothes and new fabric would fall off, I held onto that bulging net bag tightly the entire way. The yarn made my chin itch, so I rubbed it against the cords of the net bag to relieve the itch.]
[Following Mom to the county town, I began to have my own social life.]
[Children may not be able to accurately describe various emotions such as envy, liking, jealousy, or dislike, but in their hearts, they can indeed feel them clearly. From the emotional feedback of the people around me, I began to realize that Mom and Dad had given me a good life that surpassed many others.]
[Compared with the children of my father’s comrades who ran around everywhere with snot running down their noses, the children in the county town were clearly different. I think these subtle differences might be the reason why city people are always so condescending. But as a child from a small town coming to the county, I had never felt negative emotions such as timidity or inferiority, and I never had the awe that people from small places are supposed to have when they arrive in big places.]
[On the contrary, I clearly knew that the children in the county town were not as good as me; most of them didn’t understand anything. Some people could recite Tang poetry, but they could only recite a part of what I could recite, a very small part.]
[A teacher said that Yan Xiang was even more “city-like” than the city children. The teacher guessed that my mother might be from Beijing.]
[I knew she wasn’t, but I didn’t say anything.]
