Chapter 91

Qiao Wei couldn’t find Secretary Meng.

“Today is the Standing Committee meeting,” Secretary Huang said. “Give me the draft, and I’ll hand it over to Secretary Meng when he returns.”

Qiao Wei handed it over. “Thank you.”

Secretary Huang was quite a quite young man, probably around the same age as Yan Lei. He wore glasses, had a gentle demeanor, and spoke politely.

Having interacted with him a few times since being seconded by Qiao Wei, she had a good impression of him.

But having experienced the subtleties of human nature in her previous life, and particularly witnessing the atmosphere in government departments these days, Qiao Wei had become more discerning. She smiled and said, “I’ll come back at noon to ask Secretary if there are any modifications needed.”

Secretary Huang’s expression remained unchanged as he smiled. “Sure.”

He watched Qiao Wei leave.

This girl was very beautiful. But the vitality emanating from her even surpassed her beauty. Her sunny disposition was striking, almost overwhelming, before one even noticed her beauty.

She was sharp-witted. With just a few words, she could plug any loophole, leaving no room for maneuvering. It might not necessarily be directed at him, but making it impossible to exploit any openings led to a harmonious situation for everyone.

Secretary Huang spun the pen between his slender fingers and began reading Qiao Wei’s draft.

His initial impression was that the writing was good, but not as good as his own.

However, as he finished reading, an expression of appreciation appeared in his eyes.

When Secretary Meng returned from the meeting, Secretary Huang went into the office to receive instructions.

Once Secretary Meng had finished giving instructions, without delay, Secretary Huang submitted Qiao Wei’s draft. “This is from Qiao Wei who was seconded from He Kou Town.”

“Little comrade, you’re quite efficient,” Secretary Meng said with a smile.

As Secretary Huang walked out and closed the door, he glanced back to see Secretary Meng already engrossed in reading.

He closed the door.

Qiao Wei returned to the Publicity Department office from the Town Committee office. As soon as she sat down, a female colleague approached her.

Speaking unexpectedly amiably, the colleague asked, “Qiao Wei, do you have any tasks at hand right now?”

Being polite as well, Qiao Wei replied, “No, what do you need me to do?”

“Then, could you carve this wax paper? Follow this sample.”

“Sure.” Qiao Wei habitually confirmed the deadline when accepting a task. “When do you need this by?”

“Before the end of the workday.”

“Okay.”

As the colleague turned to leave, Qiao Wei called out, “Wait.”

“What is it?”

“I haven’t done this before. Could you please teach me first?”

“Huh, aren’t you from the Xiahekou Town Propaganda Department?”

“I’m just a broadcaster.” And she had only been in the job for a little over a month.

“Okay.”

The colleague carved a line of text as an example for her. It was a simple task, and she quickly learned.

Qiao Wei felt quite happy carving, as it was something she had never tried before. Last time in the town’s Propaganda Department, she had only played with the roller offset printer.

She kept an eye on the clock. At ten minutes to eleven, she wiped her hands and went to the County Committee office. She went straight to find Secretary Huang.

Before she could speak, Secretary Huang said, “The Secretary has reviewed it.”

He took out her draft and smiled, “It’s written quite well. There’s nothing to change. Regarding this piece, the Secretary said to send it to the city later. We aim to publish it around the 27th or 28th.”

The draft had annotations from the Secretary in red pen, just as Secretary Huang had mentioned.

And the draft was neatly placed in a folder, along with several other documents with annotations.

That was it. She had successfully completed the first task assigned by Secretary Meng.

The rest was up to Secretary Huang; it was not her responsibility anymore.

“I’ll head back then,” Qiao Wei said, feeling relieved.

“Wait a moment.” Secretary Huang picked up a folder. “Please organize these meeting records and transcribe them onto this sheet. Get it done before two o’clock this afternoon.”

Secretary Huang was much more efficient than the people in her department. He gave clear instructions along with submission deadlines, unlike the people in her department who often required her to ask for details.

Qiao Wei liked this clean and efficient work style.

She still had the task of carving the wax paper. But she had already completed part of it and was getting more proficient. She could roughly estimate the time needed to finish.

One task was due by the end of the workday, and the other by two o’clock. Qiao Wei flipped through the papers, quickly scanned the amount of content, estimated the time needed, and found no problem.

“Okay.”

Back in the department office, she put aside the wax paper and started working on the meeting records. Since this task had an earlier submission deadline, she tackled it first.

Just as she started, someone else approached her. “Qiao Wei, could you do this?”

Qiao Wei glanced at it and asked, “When do you need this by?”

The person replied, “Before the end of the workday.”

“That won’t work,” Qiao Wei said. “I already have two tasks at hand today. Look, both of these are due today. I definitely won’t have time to do yours before the end of the workday. Find someone else to do it.”

Her refusal was firm and without any of the usual accommodating compromise or self-sacrifice seen from other seconded personnel.

But Section Chief Zhou had already made it clear that no one was allowed to cut corners.

The person changed their tone, still friendly. “Then, could you do it for me tomorrow?”

“Before the end of tomorrow?” Qiao Wei asked.

“If that’s the case, then there’s no need to tell people it needs to be completed by the end of the workday today,” the person paused. “By tomorrow noon.”

After saying that, they seemed to want to leave, but Qiao Wei stopped them. “Sorry, I still haven’t remembered everyone’s names.”

“I’m Wu Aizhen,” she said. “My name is Wu Aizhen.”

Qiao Wei actually remembered this Wu Aizhen. Yesterday, she wasn’t so pleasant. But come to think of it, the atmosphere in the room improved quite a bit after she returned from the Town Committee office. People were speaking more politely, not as confrontational as before.

But that didn’t stop Qiao Wei from being meticulous in her work.

“Wu… Ai… Zhen, today is September 21st, and the time now is…” Qiao Wei glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, it’s not even half-past eleven. The specific task is… and the required completion time is before noon on the 22nd.”

“Wu Comrade, please sign here.”

Qiao Wei smiled and pushed her notebook over.

The time, task, person in charge, and required completion deadline were all clearly written. Verbal agreements could easily be forgotten, but a signed document was tangible evidence.

Wu Aizhen obviously lacked the composure of Secretary Huang. Qiao Wei had never seen any emotional fluctuations on Secretary Huang’s face. Despite his young age, he already had the demeanor of a seasoned official, adept at concealing his emotions. No wonder he could be the right-hand man of a leader.

Wu Aizhen, however, was different.

Her facial expressions were quite amusing when Qiao Wei pushed the notebook over.

“No need, it’s just a small matter,” she said. “Is it necessary?”

“People in our lower-level units take every task assigned by the higher-level units seriously, regardless of its size,” Qiao Wei smiled warmly. “Please sign.”

Reluctantly, Wu Aizhen signed her name.

This way, there would be no excuses later. They couldn’t blame her for not completing the task by the end of the workday.

Only then did Qiao Wei accept the task.

It was quite good. From then on, nobody approached her with tasks demanding completion by the end of the workday.

Qiao Wei quietly focused on her work.

First, she transcribed the meeting records, then she continued carving the wax paper.

At one fifty, she got up and delivered the meeting records to Secretary Huang.

Secretary Huang opened it, glanced through it without any dissatisfaction, and didn’t assign Qiao Wei any further tasks. He just nodded and said, “You’re done here.”

Qiao Wei returned to the office and continued carving the wax paper. Around three o’clock, she finished carving the wax paper and handed it over to the person who had assigned the task.

Then she began working on the third task in an organized manner.

At four o’clock, it was time for Qiao Wei to leave work. She put the unfinished tasks in a drawer and locked it.

She had brought the lock from home today. The desk originally had a lock, so all she needed was a key.

She put the key in her bag.

With her bag on her back, Qiao Wei went to Wu Aizhen’s desk. “Wu Aizhen.”

Wu Aizhen looked up and blinked.

“I’m leaving now, the work isn’t finished yet, but I’ll make sure to give it to you before noon tomorrow,” Qiao Wei said with a smile.

As if the coldness and exclusion from last week never happened.

There is no use in being hostile. Wu Aizhen didn’t have the heart to be cold to someone who was smiling at her. After hesitating for a moment, she said, “Oh, okay. Uh… goodbye.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Uh… see you tomorrow.”

Qiao Wei also greeted Section Chief Zhou and got permission to leave.

As she left, others leaned over to Wu Aizhen and said, “Why are you still so nice to her?”

If they weren’t squeezing her, why were they greeting her?

Wu Aizhen was momentarily speechless and a bit embarrassed. “She’s polite to me, so I can’t be impolite.”

Section Chief Zhou took a sip of tea. “Exactly. Xiao Wu is right.”

Once the section chief spoke, the person didn’t say anything more. But they thought Wu Aizhen was pretty useless. Clearly, everyone had reached an understanding to treat Qiao Wei with fake smiles, politely assigning her a lot of work… yet Wu Aizhen betrayed that.

Whatever.

The weather was exceptionally good today. The sunshine was wonderful.

Qiao Wei didn’t go home directly. Instead, she took Yan Xiang to the department store to buy clothes for the change of season.

As the only child, Yan Xiang didn’t have any older siblings’ hand-me-downs to wear. With her father being able to earn money and provide a comfortable life, and with fewer family members to support, they never lacked anything. The original owner had only bought Yan Xiang clothes that were slightly larger in size, at most one size larger.

With the change of season, Yan Xiang needed new clothes.

Qiao Wei actually wanted to buy comfortable sportswear or casual wear for Yan Xiang.

But children’s clothing in this era was quite peculiar, mainly consisting of shirts. If worn properly, they would look like miniature old cadres.

The characteristics of the times were particularly distinct.

Generally, after October, the temperature in the north would drop sharply. Shopping here was not as convenient as it would be in later years. Everything that needed to be prepared had to be done in advance.

Qiao Wei bought tops, bottoms, and autumn underwear for Yan Xiang. She also bought some yarn.

She had seen at noon today that although no one was knitting during office hours, some people were knitting during lunch break.

And perhaps because of the upcoming major holiday, the workload in the propaganda department was relatively heavy, so there was no one knitting. Because when she went out, she saw people from other departments knitting during their working hours.

She was ready to knit. She had learned from Hu Sui. Although she only knew how to do plain knitting, she was confident in knitting a complete sweater.

As long as she had a healthy body, nothing could defeat her.

“Xiang Xiang, can you hold everything?” Qiao Wei asked Yan Xiang worriedly.

Yan Xiang sat in the back seat of the bicycle, arms outstretched. Everything they bought was stuffed into the net pocket, held tightly in his arms.

“No problem!” he answered loudly.

Qiao Wei really loved net pockets now.

They were so magical. They could hold so much once they were opened up, despite being so compact when folded.

“Then hold on tight. I’m going to ride the bike.”

Yan Xiang rested his chin on the soft yarn. “Let’s go~”

[That day, the weather was exceptionally good, and I was immersed in the joy of having new clothes to wear. Afraid that the new clothes and fabrics would fall off, I held onto the bulging net pocket tightly all the way. The yarn itching my chin made me scratch it against the rope of the net pocket to relieve the itch.]

[Accompanying my mother to the county town, I began to have my own social interactions.]

[Children may not be able to accurately describe emotions such as envy, fondness, jealousy, or dislike, but they can feel them clearly in their hearts. From the emotional feedback of the people around me, I began to realize that my parents had given me a life far better than many others.]

[Compared to the children of Father’s comrades who ran around with runny noses everywhere, the children in the county town were noticeably different. I think these subtle differences may be why urban people always seem superior. But as a child from a small town coming to the county town, I never felt any negative emotions such as fear or inferiority, nor did I have the awe that small-town people were supposed to have when they came to big cities.]

【On the contrary, I knew clearly that the children in the county town were not as knowledgeable as me. Most of them didn’t understand much. Some could recite Tang poems, but they only knew the parts that I also knew, a very small portion.】

【One teacher said that Yan Xiang was even “more urban” than the city kids. The teacher guessed that my mother might be from Beijing.】

【I knew it wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything.】