1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 368 Liaison

Outsiders had no idea what Yang Mo talked about with Song Wenxuan and Eggplant Girl at the mouth of the Yellow River.

The only thing we know is that the two men and two women wandered around for a long time and only returned when the sun began to set.

Of course, some unexpected incidents disrupted Yang Mo's plan. Therefore, he originally planned to take a bus back to Texas at 7 o'clock in the evening, but he kept delaying at the very enthusiastic dinner party hosted by Song and Lin's families. In the end, he did not return to Texas until after three in the morning.

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As the executive secretary of DZ City, 28-year-old Xiang Hui is actually very envious of the secretary next to the city's deputy monitor.

This is not simply because the other person's status and position is slightly higher than yours, nor is it because the other person's name is more famous than yours.

But their jobs are much easier than mine.

Tsk tsk, that person is called a secretary. Instead of calling myself a secretary, I might as well call my secretary by its real name...liaison officer.

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5 month 3 day.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, Xiang Hui was awakened by the life-threatening ringing of the bedside bell. He struggled to get out of the warm bed. Although he had stayed up until 1 a.m. the night before to write materials, the dedicated Xiang Hui still had to overcome his fatigue and forced himself to get out of bed... Don't mention to him that yesterday was the weekend and yesterday was the May Day holiday. In their system, there are no holidays!

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At 6:40, just as he was about to go downstairs and push the cart to the office, he received a call from Ye Tao at home, saying that he was not satisfied with the speech materials last night and asked him to add some more content. So Xiang Hui could only shake his still groggy head and start to conceive new speech materials... At this moment, he was extremely envious of the secretary who was beside the deputy squad leader. The speech materials there were all written by the security department. How could he be so miserable like himself?

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At 7:10, Xiang Hui rode his bike as fast as he could to the compound. After hurriedly going to the cafeteria to eat two steamed buns, he thought about Ye Tao's schedule yesterday, and then brought a bowl of millet porridge and two steamed buns for his leader... Ye Tao had a reception last night, and he accompanied the guests introduced by the province to drink until o'clock in the evening. Not only did he not eat anything in the middle, so a bowl of millet porridge in the morning would be the most appropriate thing to nourish his stomach.

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At 7:15, Xiang Hui arrived at the leader's office on the fourth floor, put breakfast on the coffee table, and quickly sorted out the documents on his leader's desk, put the pile of folders that Ye Tao had approved the day before into the file basket, and boiled hot water for his leader. After finishing his work, he found that the cleaning lady had come to clean up. He looked at his watch and saw that it was already 7:30. Thinking about the economic operation scheduling meeting at 8:, Xiang Hui hurried to the meeting room on the second floor to check it out, and then returned to his office on the fourth floor to revise the speech materials.

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At 8:5, Xiang Hui added content to the materials according to Ye Tao's requirements. During this time, he also answered calls from two directors, coordinated work reports with the general manager, and then quickly proofread the manuscript.

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At 8:15, Xiang Hui heard the door of the leader's office opposite open, and hurriedly took the materials to report his work to the leader.

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At 8:30, the meeting was successfully held. Each economic department reported on the progress of their work one by one. During the meeting, Xiang Hui was called out by other staff members to answer five or six calls, including those from the deputy director of the office and the heads of various departments. He walked in and out with his body bent, looking very busy.

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At 9 o'clock, after asking for instructions from his leader, Xiang Hui left the venue and returned to his office to write a meeting plan. He had just received a notice that the event to receive provincial leaders originally scheduled for the afternoon was cancelled. Ye Tao, the executive, had freed up time, so without any hesitation, he immediately decided to hold a work promotion meeting at 2 pm to gradually open up the DZ City light industry bidding to the whole society. Xiang Hui quickly drafted the meeting plan with full concentration... He knew very well that this matter was related to Dahua Company and his leader attached great importance to it.

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At 10:15, the economic coordination meeting had not yet ended, and Ye Tao was still making endless demands in the meeting room. However, Xiang Hui, who had been waiting outside the meeting room for a few minutes, looked at his watch and had to go back in to remind his leader... At 10:30, there was a negotiation meeting between the city and enterprises that required his leader to attend.

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At 10:25, the meeting ended, and Xiang Hui hurriedly packed up his leader's notebook and meeting materials. At this time, the heads of several departments such as water affairs, land, and finance came up to him and told him in a consultative tone that they still needed to report to the general manager, and hoped that Xiang Hui could help them coordinate time... Xiang Hui responded with a smile, but his head was about to explode. His leader's work schedule was full in the past few days, and he almost had to split one minute into two. How could it be so easy to squeeze out time?

But there was no way. These departments were all key departments. Xiang Hui knew why they wanted to see Ye Tao. How could he dare to make decisions for Ye Tao easily?

In desperation, Xiang Hui could only trot to his leader and ask him about the matter in a low voice.

Fortunately, Ye Tao's work focus during this period was related to these departments, so he gave instructions without any hesitation.

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At 11:30, the reception was over. After finishing other work, Ye Tao and the heads of the previous departments held a small meeting in his office.

At this time, Xiang Hui had already sent out the afternoon meeting notice. After hanging up the phone, he was shocked to realize that... he had handled more than twenty calls since he got up.

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At 12:20, Xiang Hui had just finished his work and went to eat a meal, then hurried back to prepare an outline for a speech on opening up bidding to the public in the afternoon and prepared relevant materials for the leader.

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At 13:15 p.m., due to the heavy work before and after the May Day holiday and the non-stop work for many days, the 28-year-old body was a little exhausted. Xiang Hui, who had not slept for no more than six hours for several months in a row, was too sleepy and wanted to take a nap. So he fell asleep on the small bed in the office, but he did not dare to oversleep, so he set three alarms to wake himself up on time in fifteen minutes.

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At 13:20, before the alarm clock woke him up, the phone on his desk pulled him out of his sleep. It was Xiang Hui's "number two leader", the office director, who called and asked him to participate in a large-scale event tomorrow, which would be attended by the deputy squad leader and Ye Tao. The whole event would be reported by a TV station, so he was asked to pay great attention to it.

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At 15:30, the work promotion meeting on gradually opening up the bidding of light industry in DZ City to the whole society had not ended yet, but Xiang Hui was still writing furiously in the office. The densely packed "pending matters" on the table dazzled him. After putting two drops of eye drops, Xiang Hui wrote down his proposed opinions one by one. During this period, several phone calls came in. Some of these callers were liaisons of other leaders in the city, some were heads of enterprises, and some were heads of various functional sections or departments... Some of them did have urgent matters to report to Ye Tao, but most of them were just trying to get closer to him.

Resisting the huge feeling of irritation, Xiang Hui wrote down various matters one by one in the notebook to prevent forgetting them.

Just as he took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, and was about to pick up his pen to continue writing his opinions, the phone rang again.

Xiang Hui's expression was blank, and the veins in his temples bulged. Then he picked up the phone and asked calmly, "Hello, this is the Executive Liaison Office. Who is this?"

Unexpectedly, a very humble voice came from the other end of the phone. Xiang Hui could even see the smile on the other party's face through the phone line: "I am Yang Mo from Dahua Company...Excuse me, is General Manager Ye free this afternoon?"

Half a minute later, Xiang Hui put down the microphone and wiped the cold sweat from his palms.

Fortunately, before answering the phone just now, I relied on my strong business skills to control my emotions and did not show any impatience, otherwise I would be in big trouble.

He knew very well that as Ye Tao's secretary, how far he could go depended largely on his leader's opinion and recognition of him.

Dezhou is currently a county-level city, not a prefecture-level city; and he is just a secretary, not a secretary-general; in this era when ordinary secretaries in county-level cities may not even be civil servants, he, the secretary beside the executive, is actually just a small clerk-level shrimp. It is most appropriate to describe him as "the prime minister's door".

Therefore, in the system, there are some people you can ignore, some people you can just maintain the minimum decency with, but there are some people you really have to be enthusiastic about.

Yang Mo, a young man who does not belong to the administrative system, belongs to the last category.

Don't ask why.

As a secretary, if Xiang Hui can't even see this from Ye Tao's arrangement of work focus during this period, then he can just get out.

In fact, Yang Mo's brief and casual words on the phone also confirmed this.

You have to understand clearly that as a cadre of a central enterprise system, the other party did not send a letter, nor did he mention "meeting" or "visit", but simply asked "Is General Manager Ye free this afternoon?"
It was obvious that the other party was asking for an informal cross-system meeting.

However, when facing a general manager, who is a member of a central enterprise, the other party not only did not use the formal communication line, but instead limited the time to "afternoon". Anyone with a little bit of common sense can appreciate the meaning behind this.

So, without any hesitation, Xiang Hui immediately put down the pile of "extremely urgent" work in his hands, called for a car, rushed to a medium or large enterprise as quickly as possible, and then reported the matter to Ye Tao in the slightly surprised eyes of a large group of people.

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At 16:30, the work promotion meeting ended in a somewhat hurried atmosphere, and Ye Tao returned to his office.

Fifteen minutes later, as a Crown car drove into the compound, a man who looked younger than himself entered the office of his leader under the enthusiastic guidance of Xiang Hui.

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At 17 p.m., the door of his leader's office was still closed. After knocking on the door and asking for instructions, Xiang Hui followed his leader's instructions to carry out today's work one by one and communicated with relevant personnel.

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At 18:30, Ye Tao's office door was still closed, but Xiang Hui received a call from the office director... All members of the secretarial team needed to attend a temporary office meeting. Because the recent activities were very intensive, the office director could not squeeze out time during the day, so the meeting was arranged in the evening.

So after a meeting that lasted for an hour and a half, Xiang Hui had a lot of work to deal with immediately: 1. There were more than a dozen documents that needed his opinions; 2. General Manager Ye’s speech materials for tomorrow’s large-scale event needed to be revised, and he had to make the revisions according to the director’s latest requirements.

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At 20:12, Xiang Hui returned to the office and found that the door of his boss' office was still closed. However, judging from the light coming through the crack in the door, his boss and the young guest had obviously not left yet.

He knocked on the door and asked his leader if he needed some dinner or midnight snack. After receiving a negative answer, Xiang Hui confirmed that his leader was safe, then gently closed the door, returned to his office, and began to deal with the work assigned by the office director.

…………At 22:10, the door of Ye Tao’s office finally opened, and he walked out with the young guest.

Although it was impossible to tell the outcome of the negotiation, which lasted more than four and a half hours, from the fact that their leader took the initiative to invite Vice President Yang to the office cafeteria for a midnight snack, it seemed that the talks went relatively smoothly.

Since the leader wanted to treat the guests to a midnight snack, there was no need to argue. Xiang Hui immediately trotted down the office building, knocked on the door of the duty room of the office's small canteen, instructed the dishes that needed to be prepared, and then turned on all the lights that had been extinguished in that half of the canteen.

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The midnight snack dishes in the canteen were simple. After being hungry for several hours, my leader and the young guest ate very quickly.

So at 22:40, the two of them waved goodbye, chatting and laughing.

It was already very late, so as a secretary, Xiang Hui naturally had the responsibility to ask for a car and send his leader home.

After sending the report to his leader, Xiang Hui returned to the office and spent another half an hour revising the materials, then neatly stacked them into several piles.

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At 23:50, Xiang Hui finally returned to his small home of only more than square meters.

His wife, awakened by the sound of the door opening, walked out of the bedroom, handed him the pajamas in her hand with an expressionless face, then took his coat and shirt and threw them into the washing machine, which was already a few years old.

When working in government agencies, clothing and image are very important. However, unlike in later generations, in an old industrial area like Dezhou, although Xiang Hui, the secretary of the general manager, looks very glamorous to outsiders, his salary is actually not high... In fact, if the treatment was really good, the incident of millions of soldiers going to sea in 92 would not have happened.

Therefore, Xiang Hui actually only has three sets of spring clothes that he can wear out. As a result, after coming back every day, he needs to quickly wash the clothes of the day and hang them outside the windowsill of the tube building to dry. In this way, they can be completely dry on the third day, and then he can show a spirited face every day.

Obviously, given his condition where he is exhausted every day, he can only leave things like washing clothes to his wife.

However, his wife also had to work, and if she washed the clothes the next day, there was no guarantee that they would be completely dry. Therefore, she had to get up in the middle of the night to wash clothes, which was unknown to outsiders.

As the old washing machine made a creaking noise that made his teeth ache, Xiang Hui, who was dragging his tired body, had just squeezed the toothpaste, but saw his wife squatting in the corner with squinting eyes and a wronged look on her face.

The food factory where my wife works has not been doing well in recent years, and wages have been delayed from month to month. During one round of reform after another, the tasks assigned by the unit have become more and more diverse...even to the point where female factory workers are asked to go out and sell products.

It just so happened that they had a child three years ago, which was the time when they spent the most money. Xiang Hui had to support the whole family with just his salary, and also had to help the elderly on both sides from time to time. The pressure was enormous.

Those who have been parents know that children are the most troublesome when they are three or four years old. The wife has to go to work and take care of the children every day. She can't even sleep well at night. When she finally has a chance to close her eyes, she has to get up and do the laundry for her. It is really hard work.

Look, these two days happen to be my wife's menstrual period, so it's normal for her to be depressed and unhappy.

Secretaries are all very smart and know how to think from other people's perspective. So even though he was feeling extremely sleepy, Xiang Hui still put down the water cup in his hand, squatted down, gently hugged his wife and explained.

"Wenwen, you also know that for us liaisons, if the leader doesn't rest, you won't rest; and if the leader rests, you may not be able to rest either;"

"It just so happens that Executive Director Ye is in charge of many departments, whether it is finance, state-owned assets, security, natural resources, housing and construction, etc., all need to report to him... As his liaison, I naturally have a much heavier workload than other people in the secretarial team."

"Although I'm still young and in good health, you've been through a lot in the past two years."

As he spoke, Xiang Hui stroked his wife's slightly dull face with a look of pity: "But don't worry, everything will be fine. After I train with Executive Ye for another year or two, I may be transferred to the grassroots to train... Then we will have an easy life. At that time, I will definitely accompany you to walk around, and then go home every day to make delicious food for you to make up for your good help!"

Listening to these little love words that he had repeated countless times in different ways, his wife just looked at him indifferently: "Wait for you to be transferred to the grassroots to take charge of work? Just continue to dream your sweet dream! It's been so many years, you work so hard every day, aren't you still just a liaison officer... You dare not say anything to help, you can't help at home, and you can't even be promoted to a deputy section chief, and you still want to be transferred?"

"Hehe...just continue to be a laborer beside Executive Ye. After a year or two, you can see whether he will give you a hand or kick you away and replace you with someone younger and more capable!"

Xiang Hui frowned when he heard this: "Wenwen, what's wrong with you today? Why are you so angry? You know that Dezhou is only a county-level city at present, and the positions are there. I am also the liaison of General Manager Ye, and my identity is somewhat sensitive. The evaluation of professional titles involves things that are not as simple as those in your unit... Besides, if the professional title is not evaluated now, it does not mean that it will be the same in the future. When I am demoted in the future..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by his wife: "I just want to sleep for a while now. I don't want to listen to your nonsense. It's up to you to dream. I just want to go back to bed now... I haven't been feeling well these past two days. You can watch over the washing machine. You can hang it up after washing. The child has been wetting the bed lately. I need to take a nap first... I'm going to bed first!"

Looking at his wife yawning and walking into the bedroom, an indescribable feeling of fatigue surged from Xiang Hui's heart.

After all, I graduated from a prestigious university, but now I am trembling with fear every day and exhausted like a dog. When I go home, I have to face my wife who is becoming increasingly cold and indifferent and her increasingly contemptuous looks. She even refuses to listen to my attempts to please her.

Is it really interesting to be a secretary?

If Executive Director Ye really has nostalgia for the old times, and arranges for himself to be transferred to the grassroots level to take charge of work a few years later before being promoted, then it would certainly be a case of sweet rewards after suffering.

But if Executive Ye doesn't take this matter to heart, or if his own situation changes by then, then all his hard work over the past few years will be wasted!

Don’t think it’s impossible. In an old industrial city like Texas, the situation is far more complicated than outsiders think!
Thinking of this, Xiang Hui sighed a little irritably. After the noise of the washing machine slowly stopped, he took out the clothes and hung them out to dry. Then, with soft steps, he walked into the guest room which was only eight square meters... After having a child, he and his wife had already slept in separate beds in order to maintain sufficient energy to cope with the next day's work.

At 1:10 a.m., Xiang Hui forced himself to stay awake and proofread the materials he had written today in his mind. After finding that there were no omissions, he picked up the alarm clock on the bedside table and set five times to prevent himself from oversleeping the next day.

Just as he closed his eyes and ran towards Zhou Gong quickly...

Jingle bell bell~
The phone in the living room suddenly rang.

As the crying of a child in the next room and the slightly hysterical complaints of his wife rang out, Xiang Hui, who was a little overwhelmed, flipped over and climbed down from the bed, then quickly walked to the living room to bring up the topic.

"Hey, Xiao Xiang... I called you so late, I hope I didn't disturb your sleep?"

As expected, the voice coming from the microphone was Ye Tao's.

Without any hesitation, Xiang Hui immediately replied respectfully: "Leader, no, I just got home and haven't had time to lie down yet!"

It is a compulsory course for any secretary to express his or her hard work to his or her boss in a timely and subtle manner. Obviously, the 28-year-old Xiang Hui is qualified in this regard.

Ye Tao on the phone smiled, pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked a question that had nothing to do with work: "I'm glad I didn't disturb your sleep... Speaking of which, Xiao Xiang... How long have you been with me?"

All the hairs on Xiang Hui's body stood up instantly, his sleepiness disappeared without a trace, and even his hands began to tremble.

This is not fear or terror, but a stress response caused by excessive secretion of adrenaline when a person is extremely excited.

After turning his head slightly away from the microphone and taking a careful breath, Xiang Hui smiled and said respectfully into the microphone: "Leader, you have stumped me with this question... Following you and receiving your teachings, I don't know how fulfilling my days are. How can I remember how long I have been following you?"

"But roughly speaking, it should be about three or four years, right? Don't blame me, Boss. I have been following you for a long time and I really didn't calculate how long it has been."

Ye Tao's voice of laughter and scolding came from the phone: "You little rascal!"

Then he fell into silence again, but from his words, it seemed that he was very satisfied with Xiang Hui's answer.

Just when Xiang Hui's heart was about to jump out of his chest, Ye Tao's voice came again: "Xiao Xiang, you have been with me for quite a while. I still admire your work attitude and ability very much."

"But you're not that young anymore. It's not a good idea for you to always be my liaison... So, do you want to go out and exercise?"

Xiang Hui's breathing became rapid, but his tone was full of grievance: "Leader, if there is anything I did wrong, please point it out and criticize me! Can't I change it? Are you not going to keep me anymore?"

Ye Tao's laughter came again: "Little rascal! Don't give me those empty words, I just ask you, are you willing?"

Xiang Hui immediately corrected his attitude: "As long as the leader needs it, please arrange it!"

Ye Tao hummed softly on the phone: "Vice President Yang of Dahua Company came to visit me today. Did you see it?"

Xiang Hui nodded: "I see."

Isn't this nonsense? I was the one who brought you into the office, and even arranged your midnight snacks.

Ye Tao pondered for a moment on the phone: "Mr. Yang came to me today because he wants to cooperate with us on a very important project. However, due to practical reasons, this project cannot be implemented all at once. Even the discussion at the meeting will have to go through at least a dozen rounds. But from my point of view, this project is worth promoting... To be precise, from my point of view, I think it is necessary to further deepen the cooperation with Dahua Company, although the promotion of this project needs to be circuitous."

Ye Tao stopped talking halfway.

roundabout?

Xiang Hui naturally knew what was being emphasized, and without hesitation, he said, "Leader, if there is any work, just arrange it!"

Ye Tao hummed again on the phone: "So, I plan to adjust your future work content. The secretarial team will transfer a new person to take charge of your previous daily work, and you... starting from tomorrow, will specifically connect and assist with various cooperation matters with Dahua Company... I wonder what you think, Xiao Xiang?"

Special connection with Dahua Company?

Is it docking and assistance, rather than just docking?

Are they various cooperation matters, rather than various tasks?
Xiang Hui, who felt like his heart was about to jump out, took a deep breath and managed to calm himself down. He then replied in a still trembling voice: "Leader... Thank you for your cultivation. I will always remember it in my heart!"

Hearing this somewhat out-of-control tone, Ye Tao laughed on the phone: "Okay, don't talk so early, it's hard to say whether it's cultivation or not... Mr. Yang of Dahua Company is very capable, just don't embarrass our executive office when the time comes... In the future work, fully cooperate with them... Xiao Xiang, I'm optimistic about you!"

Xiang Hui understood the meaning of the song and nodded vigorously, "Yes, leader!"

(End of this chapter)