Sail across the sea

Chapter 378 Don't tell anyone

Xu Ying's analysis was correct. After receiving the joint notice from several central ministries regarding the rectification of rare earth development, the Provincial Economic Commission immediately established a joint working group led by the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources and including seven or eight other units such as the Department of Chemical Industry and the Department of Metallurgy. The working group went to Zeshan City to investigate rare earth development and issued working guidelines, requiring Zeshan City and its subordinate county governments to comply with them.

Gao Fan was recommended by the Chemical Industry Bureau to join the joint working group, but a small problem arose when he was appointed to his position.

The working group was headed by a deputy director of the Provincial Economic Commission, while Hao Caibao, deputy director of the Provincial Department of Geology and Mineral Resources, served as the executive deputy head, effectively in charge. The Provincial Department of Chemical Industry and the Provincial Department of Metallurgy, among others, each sent a division chief to serve as a deputy head of the working group, which is standard practice.

The aforementioned group leaders and deputy group leaders were actually responsible for holding meetings and issuing documents. The ones who actually did the work were the so-called "staff members," who were drawn from various professional departments. Among them, the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources was the responsible unit for this work, and the people it sent were full-time staff members who were required to be stationed in Zeshan to solve problems. The staff members sent by other professional departments were just extras; they did their regular work in their respective departments and only went to the site temporarily to make up the numbers when special inspections were needed.

Gao Fan's situation is different from the aforementioned groups. He was specifically named by the Ministry of Chemical Industry to participate in this work. It is said that when the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources assigned work to the Maolin Provincial Department of Geology and Mineral Resources, it also specifically mentioned that Comrade Gao Fan from the Maolin Provincial Department of Chemical Industry should be included.

Therefore, the working group could not allow Gao Fan to remain just an ordinary staff member; instead, they needed to give him a higher position.

Should we make him the deputy team leader?
Firstly, the Chemical Industry Department has already appointed Qiao Jiaxi as deputy group leader, and adding Gao Fan as another deputy group leader would be somewhat irregular. Secondly, the other deputy group leaders are all department heads or section chiefs, and are all quite old, while Gao Fan is only 18 years old, and his official position is manager of the Labor Service Company of Canghai Fertilizer Plant, which is at most equivalent to a section chief level, thanks to Canghai Fertilizer Plant being upgraded to a provincial enterprise. Appointing such a person as deputy group leader would lower the overall standing of the entire working group, wouldn't it?
Fortunately, the system was not lacking in experience in solving such problems, and Gao Fan was eventually appointed as the special assistant to the head of the working group, or simply Assistant Gao.

Don't be fooled by the "special" in "special assistant." It doesn't elevate the assistant's status. Instead, it subtly suggests to others that this assistant isn't the team leader's representative, but rather someone outside the core of the work group.

Gao Fan didn't concern himself with official matters. After carefully keeping the letter of introduction issued by the Provincial Economic Commission, he took his secretary Xu Dan and boarded a bus from Ruizhang, the provincial capital, to Zeshan.

The journey from Ruizhang to Zeshan is over 400 kilometers. The dilapidated bus bumped along the equally dilapidated national highway for a whole day before finally arriving at Zeshan Bus Station. Upon arrival, Gao Fan was only slightly pale, while Xu Dan was too weak to walk and had to be supported by Gao Fan to get off the bus.

"Gao Fan!"

Outside the station exit, a young man saw Gao Fan, called out, and ran over. Reaching him, he recognized the haggard-looking girl standing beside Gao Fan and asked in a hesitant tone, "This is... Xu Dan?"

Xu Dan looked up at the other person and understood something from their eyes. She futilely ran her fingers through her hair, then said to them in a fierce tone, "Yin Xiaobiao, I'm warning you, you're not allowed to tell anyone about what happened today!"

This young man was Yin Xiaobiao, Gao Fan's high school classmate, and also Xu Dan's classmate.

After graduating from high school, Yin Xiaobiao failed to get into university. Inspired by Gao Fan, he went to Renqiao in Shuainan, intending to buy a batch of small commodities to sell back in Cangtang. However, when he arrived in Renqiao, his money was stolen. Just as he was at his wit's end, Gao Fan, who was strolling with Chen Xingquan and Ke Shuilong on the streets of Renqiao, happened to see him. Subsequently, Gao Fan asked Ke Shuilong to go up to Yin Xiaobiao, pretend to bump into him by chance, and lend him some money as start-up capital for his business.

After that, Yin Xiaobiao's business grew bigger and bigger, from reselling plastic pencil cases to reselling electronic watches. This Spring Festival, Gao Fan met Yin Xiaobiao in Cangtang and heard him say that he had stopped doing retail and switched to wholesaling small commodities to small individual businesses in the surrounding counties. His business scale had obviously reached a new level.

On that occasion, Yin Xiaobiao did not reveal his wealth to Gao Fan, but from their conversation, Gao Fan could guess that Yin Xiaobiao must have at least 100,000 yuan, which would be considered a wealthy person in China at the time, and even more so in a small, third-tier county like Cangtang.

A few days ago, Yin Xiaobiao called the Ruizhang office of the fertilizer plant to ask when Gao Fan would be free to return to Cangtang. Gao Fan said he was about to go to Zeshan, and Yin Xiaobiao immediately said that he happened to be doing business in Zeshan and very warmly offered to come to the bus station to pick up Gao Fan.

When Gao Fan told Yin Xiaobiao about the train he was on, he didn't mention that Xu Dan was traveling with him. Yin Xiaobiao had just seen Xu Dan and almost didn't recognize her.

During their school days, boys and girls in the class didn't talk to each other, so Yin Xiaobiao and Xu Dan weren't very familiar with each other. Their interactions were limited to a few class reunions after graduation and occasional chance encounters on Cangtang Street. In Yin Xiaobiao's memory, Xu Dan, while not a great beauty, was still pretty and charming, looking like a cute girl next door. She was nothing like the disheveled girl he was seeing now.

Upon hearing Xu Dan's threat, Yin Xiaobiao quickly declared, "I swear, I will absolutely not tell anyone about what happened today. Well, it's really nothing. The road from Ruizhang to Zeshan is just too dilapidated. Every time I come to Zeshan, the journey is so bumpy that I feel like I've been sick."

"Sigh, what can I do? I'm too poor." Gao Fan posted a nonsensical comment, then asked, "Old Yin, you said you'd book a guesthouse for me, but where exactly is it, and how far is it?"

Yin Xiaobiao said, "I booked the Zeshan Commerce Bureau Guesthouse for you. It's one of the best guesthouses in Zeshan. It's not far from the bus station. I borrowed a car to come over. We'll get there in five minutes."

"Wow, Lao Yin, you're really a big boss now. You even managed to borrow a car after coming all the way to Zeshan."

Gao Fan exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.

In those days, owning a car meant working for a government-affiliated organization, and one with a certain rank. For Yin Xiaobiao to be able to borrow a car here showed he had considerable influence.

As for his motive for going to such lengths to borrow a car to pick me up, was it to show off his success in front of me?

(End of this chapter)