Chapter 92
Wu Aizhen was looked down upon by her colleagues yesterday, who felt she was being too soft on the seconded Qiao Wei. She had originally planned to be firm and cold toward Qiao Wei today.
But Qiao Wei finished and handed back the work she was assigned before eleven o’clock.
She didn’t drag it out until twelve o’clock lunchtime.
Then, when it was time to eat, everyone greeted each other, and just like before, no one called out to Qiao Wei.
Wu Aizhen naturally took out her lunchbox, preparing to join the group.
If everyone had just acted like before, nothing would have happened. But of all things, the person who had complained yesterday about Wu Aizhen being too soft just had to glance at Qiao Wei and then cast a sidelong look at Wu Aizhen at this very moment.
People naturally have a rebellious streak.
That glance made Wu Aizhen fly into a rage out of shame.
“Qiao Wei,” Wu Aizhen took the initiative to call out, “Let’s go eat.”
“Coming!” Qiao Wei walked over with a beaming smile.
The two of them walked out together.
“I told you Wu Aizhen is no good,” that person said, curling their lip.
Everyone felt it was rather boring.
Honestly, most people didn’t have the energy to maintain a specific emotion for a long time. Most people just went along with the “collective.”
When the “collective” gave Qiao Wei the cold shoulder, they naturally couldn’t be warm either.
Going with the flow wouldn’t go wrong.
But now, Qiao Wei had broken through the “collective” via Wu Aizhen. They could no longer stand as a solid, united front.
The overall atmosphere was gone.
If anyone continued to persist, it was driven solely by their own personality. Others didn’t have such a strong driving force.
Everyone gave a couple of half-hearted agreements.
As they walked, some people drifted over to Wu Aizhen and Qiao Wei.
Qiao Wei walked side-by-side with two colleagues, smiling and chatting.
She was beautiful and elegant, with a firm character but soft tactics. She bore no trace of the weakness that invited bullying; on the contrary, she was the type who naturally drew people in.
Once given a breakthrough point, the cohesion directed against her crumbled like a heap of loose sand.
When she went home in the afternoon, Qiao Wei told Yan Lei about this.
“It was so funny,” she described it, using the word “funny.”
Hearing this description, Yan Lei knew she could handle it on her own.
But he was still unhappy about it.
Qiao Wei stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “As long as you leave the house, you can’t avoid this kind of thing. Who can stay at home and be a baby forever? You can’t see the rainbow without going through the storm.”
What was she even saying? What a mess.
But Yan Lei was blinded by lust, hiding in the kitchen with her, kissing and nibbling.
The food almost burned.
After dinner, Qiao Wei called out to Yan Xiang, “Go see if Gangzi and the others are on the street. If they are, call one of them over for me. Anyone is fine, except Jun Jun.”
Yan Xiang ran off and brought Huazi back.
“Aunt Qiao, what’s up?” Huazi asked.
“Do you know where the home of Broadcaster Lu from the Broadcasting Station is? That is, Director Lu from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative’s home,” she asked.
Huazi didn’t know, but Qiao Wei told him the street.
“I’ll go and ask around,” Huazi said.
“Alright, here’s
ten cents for running an errand for me.” Qiao Wei handed him the money and the items. “Give this to Broadcaster Lu. Tell her I gave it to her.”
Just a few light pieces of paper, and he could earn ten cents. Huazi went off without a second thought.
“What is it?” Yan Lei asked.
“Something to be used for the upcoming National Day,” Qiao Wei said. “I just wrote it down in my spare time.”
Actually, it wasn’t just for National Day. Now that the office atmosphere had improved, the people in the Propaganda Section weren’t forcing extra work on her, so she wasn’t that busy. In her free time, she had written a few templates. They were completely formulaic, leaving blank lines for specific events to be filled in. She wrote down several adjectives separated by slashes so they could be freely combined and chosen.
With these few templates, it would be enough for Lu Manman to handle the broadcasting scripts for the Broadcasting Station.
The town was small, and boys ran fast. Huazi returned very quickly, grinning.
“Broadcaster Lu asked me to tell you that you are her sister forever!” He showed her his coat pocket. “She’s so generous, she gave me so many candies.”
This trip was so profitable. He even generously shared two pieces with Yan Xiang.
Qiao Wei burst into laughter.
Next, Qiao Wei’s work at the County Party Committee got on track. She integrated into the Propaganda Section.
On Thursday, Secretary Meng remembered and asked Secretary Huang, “How is Qiao Wei doing in the Propaganda Section?”
She had been there for a week now.
Secretary Huang said, “I saw her laughing and chatting with the officers of the Propaganda Section in the Cafeteria at noon.”
Secretary Meng nodded. “She looks like someone who can integrate into a group quickly.”
Secretary Huang smiled.
Secretary Meng said, “Gaining some experience in the section will be good for her. At the end of October, if there are no issues, we’ll transfer her to the office.”
Secretary Huang said, “Alright.”
Qiao Wei’s article was published on Friday. Wu Aizhen called her over to look. “It’s your article.”
Someone sighed. “Was my article rejected?”
“It was probably filtered out by Secretary Huang.”
“How do you know mine was filtered out? To be safe, they usually send three articles over.”
“Hehe, yours wasn’t written as well as mine, so it must have been filtered out.”
“Bah!”
Qiao Wei didn’t know about Secretary Meng’s plan. But she remembered very clearly that Secretary Huang had told her they would “try to publish it around the 27th or 28th,” and today was only the 25th.
She didn’t quite understand, so she went to consult Section Chief Zhou.
“On normal days, it’s easy to arrange,” Section Chief Zhou said. “But for National Day, every county competes for this layout, depending on their ability.”
“Then which dates are better?”
“The closer to the actual day, the better. The actual day is reserved for the city and the province. Our subordinate counties all want to grab the dates closest to the actual day.”
So this time, they didn’t manage to grab it.
Was it because the specific handler lacked ability? Was the county not strong enough? Or was the leadership’s capability inferior to others? It wasn’t polite to ask.
She told Yan Lei when she got home.
Yan Lei asked her about her current work situation.
“The Propaganda Section assigns me work, and the Secretary and the office do too,” Qiao Wei said. “The Propaganda Section mostly gives me odd jobs. The work assigned by the Secretary is more professionally suited to me, and Secretary Huang usually assigns me some administrative tasks after I finish the work arranged by the Secretary.”
Yan Lei crunched and chewed
on a fruit as he listened, then stopped to ask, “Is there no fixed organizational affiliation?”
Qiao Wei had actually been confused about this as well.
Since she was a broadcaster for the Broadcasting Station under the town’s Propaganda Section, being seconded to the County Party Committee made her naturally assume she should belong to the county’s propaganda department.
Thus, doing grunt work and meaningless physical labor in the propaganda department’s section felt quite normal to Qiao Wei.
But the Secretary would directly assign her work that was highly suited to her professional skills.
Qiao Wei said, “Maybe it’s because I won an award before.”
Secretary Huang assigned her office work.
Qiao Wei said, “Maybe that’s just how secondments are, like being a general helper?”
That’s how people are: if they believe there is a reason and explanation for something, they will actively look for a logical explanation.
Explaining it this way seemed reasonable.
But Yan Lei was unhappy: “The management is a complete mess.”
Qiao Wei comforted him, “I’ll work for a month first, and then I’ll come back and pester Secretary Gao to recall me.”
But that still meant spending a month “outside” being ordered around by these disorganized people to do odd jobs. If she had gone there specifically to write articles and do cultural work, Yan Lei wouldn’t have been so displeased.
He crunched and munched until he finished the fruit.
The town received the City Newspaper a day later than the county.
On Saturday, Qiao Wei was suddenly called to answer a phone call, which was said to be from Xiahekou Town.
Qiao Wei thought something had happened and rushed over, but it turned out to be Lu Manman.
“We all saw it! You’re in the City Newspaper again!” Lu Manman was very happy. “You’re really something.”
The telephone was right in the section office, and since Qiao Wei had worked at the Broadcasting Station and the telephone room was right next door, she knew very well that all such calls would be eavesdropped on by bored operators. She had even done it herself.
“It was all the leadership’s instructions. The leadership gave the outline, and I just wrote accordingly,” she said.
As soon as she spoke in official jargon, Lu Manman understood instantly: “The melon seeds in the county town aren’t easy to crack, are they?”
Hu Sui was exceptionally good at roasting melon seeds, and hers were extremely fragrant. Cracking melon seeds together was a happy time at the Broadcasting Station.
“Well, there’s no helping it. When you grab a handful of melon seeds, there are good ones and bad ones. But they can still be cracked, and you know I have strong teeth.”
Lu Manman was in the telephone room next to the Broadcasting Station. She covered her mouth and laughed, then said, “I believe you. You can definitely do it.”
Qiao Wei said, “Remind my uncle-in-law to keep me in mind. Don’t forget about me out here.”
Lu Manman promised, “I’ll go tell him.”
After hanging up, Lu Manman went to find Section Chief Xie, who was her uncle-in-law.
“When are you going to ask for Weiwei back?” She went to pester her uncle-in-law. “The people over there are ordering her around.”
“Isn’t that just how secondments are? Otherwise, why would everyone be reluctant to go?” Section Chief Xie said.
“I don’t care. Anyway, get Weiwei back quickly. Don’t let her suffer there,” Lu Manman said.
Section Chief Xie said, “She’s only been there for a short while. Let her stay for at least a month.”
Lu Manman said, “Then don’t you forget.”
Section Chief Xie said, “Alright, alright, alright.”
Lu Manman felt he was humoring her like a child and threatened him, “If you forget, I’ll go to your house to find you.”
Section Chief Xie said, “If you come over, have your dad get me a pressed duck, one with thick fat.”
“My aunt doesn’t like thick fat.”
“She doesn’t like it, but I do. How can you, child, not know how to care for your uncle-in-law at all?”
“…Fine.”
Actually, Qiao Wei herself didn’t think much of it. As a corporate slave who had been beaten down by capitalists in her past life, she had a strong ability to “grind,” was open-minded, didn’t fuss over minor things, and had her own ideas on major matters. In fact, she could thrive anywhere.
In fact, because the County Government was an away ground and she had no plans to settle down there, she held back and didn’t try to compete at all.
She organized her work daily depending on the situation.
Secretary Meng’s work was her top priority. Secretary Huang’s tasks came second. The odd jobs in the Propaganda Section were flexibly scheduled depending on how much free time she had.
Everything was in perfect order. Everyone got used to it too.
There was someone with a mean and snobbish personality who kept trying to suppress her but failed several times. Instead, Wu Aizhen led a few people to get closer to Qiao Wei.
Qiao Wei originally thought she would just drift along like this until the Town Committee leadership remembered her and recalled her, or until the National Day passed and the county-town merger was completed, leaving fewer matters so she could be released back.
Unexpectedly, just as the National Day holiday was approaching, on Monday, September 28th, a group of people suddenly poured into the Propaganda Section.
Seeing the top leader, Secretary Meng, arrive, everyone in the section stood up.
But Secretary Meng reached out and called to Qiao Wei, “Qiao Wei, look who’s here.”
Among the people Secretary Meng led inside, several wore green military uniforms. The middle-aged officer leading them had a deep aura and a refined face. He smiled warmly at Qiao Wei, “Qiao Wei.”
He smiled and said, “It’s been a while, and now our military family member has actually come to work in the county.”
This middle-aged man was none other than Division Commander Pan.
“Division Commander,” Qiao Wei walked over, extended her hand, and shook hands with Division Commander Pan. “It’s the same anywhere; we are all serving the people.”
With a flower-like smile, she cast a sidelong glance at someone standing slightly behind Division Commander Pan.
Yan Lei stood straight as a pine, with a smile playing on his lips, looking at her.
This man was really annoying, giving absolutely no warning and launching a surprise attack like this!
