Chapter Forty-Four: Newcomer

  Xu Shaojie sat in the office, during a brief period of leisure time, he fell into deep thought. The scenes after graduation were like a movie replaying in his mind.

  The day after graduation, he went to Secretary Ding Yuan's home. Secretary Ding Yuan spoke little and his attitude was much more formal than before. It was basically all about putting forward work requirements.

  "Xiao Xu, now that you've started working, you're no longer a student, but a formal employee of the state. Moreover, as a party member, my expectations for you are different. In our work relationship, we are superior and subordinate, I won't give you special treatment. You need to be mentally prepared. Your time working in the municipal committee office won't be long. My expectation is that within the shortest time possible, you'll become familiar with the overall situation of the city, especially Huai'an City's situation. Read a lot of documents, don't think the content on them is dull. Familiarizing yourself with the situation quickly requires reading a large number of documents. Additionally, your life may encounter some difficulties, and in future work, you'll face many challenges."

  You face it bravely, keep yourself clean and don't get polluted, let alone follow the trend. Having independent judgment is necessary sometimes. I have high hopes for you, don't disappoint me. Report to the municipal party committee office tomorrow to start work."

  On the third day after graduation, Xu Shaojie appeared in the municipal party committee office on time during working hours. At this moment, he didn't even have time to go through any formalities, but there were special personnel in the municipal party committee office to handle these matters. Soon, Qian Dazhi arranged for someone to take over the grain and oil, household registration and other documents brought by Xu Shaojie to handle them. Liao Hongyun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee, took him to his office, where another serious conversation ensued.

  "Comrade Xu Shaojie, you have been assigned to the municipal party committee office and will temporarily work in the comprehensive department. Your main task is to do a good job of transmitting and receiving documents and file management. This is a very important task. The municipal party committee office is the core of the entire city, equivalent to the brain of a person, directing all aspects. There can be no problems. Xilin University has a high evaluation of you."

  "In your work, show your ability, do a good job in essence, if there's anything you don't understand, ask everyone for advice, today you go familiarize yourself with the environment, tomorrow start working."

  Here is the translation:

  As it turned out, Xu Shaojie was getting a bit nervous. He wasn't familiar with anything and had to start working right away without anyone showing him around. But he couldn't make any demands since Secretary Liao had arranged everything.

  When he arrived at the office, he met Cheng Ping, who was the first female colleague he had met in the municipal party committee office. Xu Shaojie understood that his first task was to answer phone calls, including notifications for meetings and occasional requests from leaders to meet with responsible persons from certain units. The comprehensive department was also responsible for sending out notifications about various situations reported by lower-level departments.

  Of course, there were also some private phone calls and work-related calls. He had to do a good job of keeping meeting records so that they could be looked up later.

  Behind him was a large file cabinet filled with a huge number of files, including documents sent from lower-level departments and those received from the municipal party committee, government, people's congress, and political consultative conference. Xu Shaojie had to sort through these files carefully. Every day, someone from the comprehensive department would come to collect the files that needed to be reviewed by leaders.

  According to Ding Yuan's arrangement, Xu Shaojie shouldn't think about resting at night; he should read through the files instead. It was unlikely that he could do this during work hours since there were always phone calls to answer. After answering a call, it wasn't like his work was done; sometimes he had to notify other offices immediately.

  Xu Shaojie took a glance at the files in the cabinet behind him and felt a chill run down his spine. The files were stacked haphazardly inside the cabinet, scattered all over the place, as if they hadn't been organized for a long time.

  Xu Shaojie watched Cheng Ping answer phone calls for half a day, and the next morning he officially started work. Two days later, Xu Shaojie only found out that Cheng Ping had been transferred to the Political and Legal Committee to work. The Political and Legal Committee is an idle unit, and Cheng Ping can be considered relieved. Female comrade, this arrangement is quite good.

  From the first day of work, Xu Shaojie had no concept of working hours. For the first three days, after work, he began to sort out files. The files in the cabinet were too messy, and Xu Shaojie felt uncomfortable looking at them. According to his own understanding, he quickly categorized the files by level, system, and content. This task was not difficult, as long as you grasped the rules, it would be much more convenient and faster. Xu Shaojie was young, and while doing this work, he always kept a clear head. Later, when sending out files, Xu Shaojie also categorized them according to these requirements.

  From the fourth day on, Xu Shaojie began to read files, focusing on work summaries and key points. All county-level units' work summaries and key points were available in the municipal party committee office. Xu Shaojie also prioritized them: the municipal party committee and government, as well as county and city governments, were the top priority; important functional departments were the second priority, including important departments of the municipal party committee and government; and other general units could be roughly browsed.

  Reading files was not an easy task, it was dry and tasteless, requiring patience. Xu Shaojie always remembered Ding Yuan's words: "Be serious when reading files." The municipal party committee office seemed to know about Xu Shaojie's situation and did not assign him a dormitory. Xu Shaojie had no choice but to take the files home every afternoon. Zhang Shaocai joked that Xu Shaojie was busier than the President of the country.

  When reading the file, Xu Shaojie excerpted some of its contents, focusing on some practical measures. Gradually, Xu Shaojie learned a lot of things, including the annual work priorities, what to do first and next, the busy and slack seasons for farming, as well as the key work areas of the Huaiyang Municipal Committee and Government, subordinate counties and cities, and municipal departments. After reading a lot, Xu Shaojie summarized the rules from it and wrote his own insights in his notebook. The situation in Huai'an City was what Xu Shaojie focused on. He vaguely knew Ding Yuan's intention, and the possibility of going to Huai'an City was not great. It would be better to stay in the municipal party committee office like this. Most likely, he would go to the countryside.

  In Yudou District, is Secretary Ding Yuan planning to directly send him to Yudou District? But the municipal party secretary can't manage the district, right? The municipal party secretary only manages leaders above the deputy county level, and personnel in the district are under the jurisdiction of the county municipal committee.

  "Xiao Xu, it's time to get off work, let's go to the cafeteria for dinner."

  "Oh, it's Old Cao, okay, time to get off work."

  Deputy Director Qiao Yurong walked into the office, Qiao Yurong is the only female comrade with a long title in the municipal party committee office, working diligently and carefully, 35 years old, looking quite beautiful. Xu Shaojie quickly came to his senses from his previous memories, he pulled down the phone switch, the municipal party committee office phone needs someone to answer at any time, after work, pulling down the phone switch, the mainframe is connected to the machine room, the machine room has 24-hour duty, so as not to miss the call.

  "Xiao Xu, it's been tough lately, but it'll get better slowly. Now that I'm in charge of the office, it's much neater and files are easier to find. In the past, cleaning up files would take a long time, but now it's more convenient. It's always been strict requirements, just couldn't be achieved."

  "Director Qiao, I'm just organizing the files according to my own ideas. You're the expert, and from now on, I still need to learn a lot from you. Director Qiao must give me more guidance."

  "Little Xu, your mouth is so sweet, you're eloquent, after all, you're a university student. Even Cheng Ping wasn't as articulate as you back then, and her work wasn't as good as yours either. Young people have vitality! I see that everyone who comes to the municipal office to do business nowadays praises you, leaving with smiles on their faces. How about I treat you to lunch today? Stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat, sound good?"

  "Alright, Elder Sister Qiao knows my hobby, I'd rather obey than show respect."

  "Xiao Xu, why have you changed your title again?"

  "Director Qiao, during working hours, I have to call you Director Qiao, but now that it's after work, if I still call you Director Qiao, I won't be used to it and will feel a bit distant. You care about me so much, you're like my elder sister."

  Qiao Yurong's face broke out into a smile, and she patted Xu Shaojie's shoulder, although there wasn't any dust on it. Xu Shaojie was actually quite intimidated by Qiao Yurong's action, which was originally just an older sister showing concern for her younger brother, but Xu Shaojie wasn't very used to it.

  "You little stinker, why do you always shrink away when your sister pats you on the shoulder? One of these days I'll introduce you to a friend and they'll be patting you on the shoulder every day, let's see how you handle that."

  "Sister, I didn't mean it that way. Every time you pat me, the force is different, so I have to guess. When you pat heavily, it means my work isn't done well and I need to be more careful in the future. When you pat lightly, I get nervous, thinking you're impatient with me and won't bother with me anymore. But why do you rarely pat me with a moderate force?"

  "Hahaha..."

  Qiao Yurong couldn't help but laugh.

  "So when you say it's neither too light nor too heavy, what time is it?"

  "Sister, when you patted me on the shoulder for the first time, it was just right, neither too light nor too heavy, and I felt extremely close to you."

  "Alright, then I'll take a few more shots today and see what it feels like to be neither light nor heavy, so you won't have any wild ideas in the future."

  Two people soon arrived at the cafeteria, which was located in the municipal party committee's compound. The living conditions were quite good, of course, thanks to government subsidies. Staff members ate there, taking advantage of the cheap prices - a stir-fried meat dish cost only 20 cents. Most staff members had lunch at the cafeteria every day, and their monthly expenses were around 50 cents. Even if they spent more on food over time, it wouldn't exceed 2 yuan. Xu Shaojie's salary was just over 100 yuan, so spending 2 yuan on food seemed a bit expensive to him.

  The municipal party committee's cafeteria had a rule that leaders didn't need to pay for meals. These "leaders" referred to deputy directors and above in the municipal party committee office, as well as deputy department heads and above. They wouldn't eat in the main hall but rather in private rooms. Room 1 was usually off-limits, reserved for members of the municipal party committee's standing committee, who were high-ranking leaders and rarely ate at the cafeteria. Xu Shaojie had been there for half a month and still hadn't seen any municipal party committee leaders eating at the cafeteria.

  Qiao Yurong insisted on cooking a dish of bamboo shoots and meat for Xu Shaojie, and the two sat down in the dining hall to eat and chat.

  "Xiao Xu, it's the weekend today, want to go back home or not?"

  "I didn't think that a one-day holiday would be too short, going back today and coming again tomorrow, running around, getting tired, it's better to just sleep in. I calculated that from the end of work on Friday to the start of work on Monday, there are 38 hours, with 18 hours for sleeping, assuming no sleeping in, leaving only 20 hours for free activities. Going to the provincial city and back takes 7 hours, leaving 13 hours, but also need to eat, um, also need to use the restroom, and constantly thinking about the time I calculated earlier. You say is it worth it or not? The main reason is economic, coming and going by car costs money, big sister, my salary is all spent on the road."

  Qiao Yurong glared at Xu Shaojie with a puffed up face and said "toilet" while eating, isn't that disgusting?

  "Sister, don't worry about it, I'll tell you a riddle. You guess it and afterwards no matter what others say, you can eat well without any problem."

  "Okay, but you're not allowed to mention anything about what's in the toilet."

  "No, I'm saying one person eats an apple and suddenly finds a worm inside. What do you think is the most frightening, how many worms they see?"

  "Needless to say, of course it's more terrifying the more there are."

  Qiao Yurong heard this riddle and let out a sigh of relief.

  "No, no, you're wrong, it's most frightening when you see half a worm."

  Qiao Yurong heard the answer and quickly understood, spitting out a mouthful of rice, glaring at Xu Shaojie.

  "You little stinker, I was solving riddles like this while eating, isn't it disgusting?"

  Xu Shaojie's face was bitter as he looked at Qiao Yurong, he didn't

  Qiao Yurong didn't expect such a big reaction. Seeing Xu Shaojie's pitiful appearance, Qiao Yurong couldn't help but laugh.

  "You little stinker, don't tell such jokes again, especially during meals, or else your sister will knock on your head."

  At noon, everyone usually rests in the office. Going home doesn't make sense as there's nothing to do. Taking a nap is also meaningless. The weather is hot and running around makes one sweat a lot. Besides, the office has air conditioning, which is rare in the city, including the municipal party committee office.

  Xu Shaojie entered the office and pulled up the phone switch. As long as he was in the office, he could answer the phone himself. Usually, there were no calls at noon, and Xu Shaojie had never encountered any before. Everyone had gone home for lunch, and if there were any matters, they would call during working hours. Even leaders needed rest.

  The first-floor office was quite cool and didn't require air conditioning. At the hottest time, turning on the electric fan could handle it, but now wasn't the hottest time yet - mid-August was the worst. Qiao Yurong sat in the office for a while before returning to her own office for lunch break.

  Xu Shaojie turned on the electric fan and lay down on the sofa, preparing to take a nap. At this time, the phone rang. Xu Shaojie hurriedly answered the phone, and before he could speak, the other person's voice came over.

  "Is it Little Xu?"

  "It's me, Secretary Ding. Hello."

  "After work this afternoon, follow me back to the provincial city, and I'll have the driver notify you at that time."

  Xu Shaojie hadn't even had a chance to speak when the phone hung up.

  Xu Shaojie lay down on the sofa again, but he couldn't take a nap. He knew that Secretary Ding must have something to ask him.

  Here, Xu Shaojie sat down on the chair, took out his notebook and began to look at it carefully. All the insights were on the notebook, and whatever Secretary Ding asked, Xu Shaojie roughly knew.