A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 142 Busy

Li Mu adhered to the principle of not talking about such private matters if possible, and if he had to talk about them, he would say as little as possible.

So when Zhou Lipeng asked him a casual question, he answered and stated his position before climbing back onto his bunk.

After reading for a while, I got sleepy and went to sleep. When I woke up, I went to the dining car with everyone to eat.

During the meal, he received another text message from Fan Bingbing:

"Brother Li, Sister Zhang is here too."

Li Mu recalled the information given by the frowning man, thought for a moment, and replied:

"Then just go with the flow and let Sister Zhang and Sister Ding arrange the itinerary."

"I understand."

After finishing dinner, although the train was crowded and he had difficulty moving around, he still tried to wander around the carriages as much as possible to digest his food.

Then, around 8 o'clock, Fan Bingbing sent another message:

"Brother Li, what shoe size do you wear? I saw a pair of sneakers that would suit you perfectly."

"Didn't we just buy two pairs last time?"

Fan Bingbing didn't reply to his message immediately, but more than ten minutes later, she replied:

"Sister Zhang and Sister Ding also said these shoes are nice and asked me to buy them for you."

This time, Li Mu honestly gave the correct size.

After all, in the eyes of these two deities, the two are a "couple".

When Li Mu had almost digested her food and was about to go back to rest, she sent another message:

"I bought you three T-shirts, two shirts, four pairs of pants, and three pairs of shoes... These two ladies can really shop! My legs are sore."

Li Mu's lips twitched:

"Why don't you buy less?"

"They were buying it for their husbands too, and they kept insisting that I get them a few items for you. What could I do?"

"Okay. I'll reimburse you later."

"Haha, then I'll buy you a few more sets."

"Please don't..."

"Ha ha……"

The two chatted until the sleeper car lights went out, at which point they stopped.

Then, the night passed, and around six o'clock in the morning, he woke up and saw the report that Fan Bingbing had sent around midnight the night before:

"I discovered that Sister Ding can really hold her liquor. I'm so dizzy from drinking. They invited me to have dim sum tomorrow. Brother Li, I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight."

Li Mu recalled Zhang Jie's enormous appetite in Macau and thought to himself, "That's for sure."

That guy can really drink.

But... anyway, the train rattled along and finally arrived in Yanjing at around 2 p.m. on the 4th.

Li Mu felt like he was going to go numb from sitting so long.

This slow mode of transportation, compared to air travel, is indeed quite grueling. Especially the hard sleeper berth…

At least the beds in a sleeper car are more comfortable!

After getting off the bus with a slight feeling of discomfort, the staff from Caijing Magazine had clearly made arrangements.

After everyone took taxis to the hotel where the reporter was staying, Zhou Lipeng took everyone to his room for a short meeting.

The WTO held its first forum in Yanjing, which was highly valued by the country. Therefore, there were strict requirements for all kinds of arrangements, including those for journalists.

The time was even precise down to the minute. Zhou Lipeng distributed the schedule to everyone, which ran from the opening ceremony until the 6th. Li Muguang glanced at it and knew that the workload would be enormous.

The eight people, excluding Zhou Lipeng, were divided into three groups and would participate in a total of seven meetings and interviews.

That's quite a lot.

Just as Li Mu returned to his room to fully charge his laptop, he received another call from Fang Jianxian, a senior reporter in the business news department of the Southern Metropolis Daily.

"Xiao Li, we've arrived at the hotel. Where's your room?"

After Li Mu reported his room number, he quickly met up with the four reporters from his workplace.

Everyone had the same schedule, but the focus of the interviews differed.

Li Mu was assigned to lectures by WTO Director-General Mike Moore, Supachai Panipaladi, and most importantly, former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. These were the lectures that Wang Long, he, and Xue Xingqi were required to attend.

Fang Jianxian's participants, aside from Gali, include Michael Spence, the 2000 Nobel laureate in economics, who overlaps with another group from Caijing Magazine, and Raymond Kromnerk, the WTO representative and Asia-Pacific coordinator for the WTO's Department of Technology Use...

Furthermore, besides the Economic and Information Department, there's also the Current Affairs Department, who haven't arrived at the hotel yet. However, the interviewees are also figures like Bill Monning, an expert in Business Diplomacy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and Chen Kuytz, Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, among others.

Look at that, that's the value of this year's WTO Yanjing Forum.

Not to mention the domestic leaders, the international guests were almost all top elites from various fields around the world.

They came and conducted round after round of lectures, jointly studying and discussing various ideas, paths, and directions for the country after joining the WTO. As a journalist, my job was to summarize and plan their speeches and then report on them.

It's fair to say that... everyone has a heavy workload.

But Li Mu still agreed to Fang Jianxian's request for help anytime.

After all, the older brother himself said that he could read and write in English, but he couldn't do things like simultaneous interpretation yet...

Li Mu would certainly do his duty without hesitation in such a matter.

And so, time flew by, and it was already the evening of the 4th.

All 32 reporters from the Southern Media Group, including those from Caijing, arrived at the scene.

After the director of the Yanjing Information Office held a small welcome meeting and conveyed the group's instructions, everyone went to rest without even having a drink at the gathering.

On the 5th, early in the morning, Li Mu followed the team and got into the car that was specially used to take reporters to the venue.

This forum, the first to be held on Chinese soil since China's accession to the WTO, officially opened at 9:30 a.m.

What a grand scene!

Li Mu had to admit... he was actually quite excited.

The first session was titled "The Macroeconomic Impact of China's Accession to the WTO".

The second session was titled "China's Governance Reforms After Joining the WTO".

The third session, "The Relationship Between Trade Policy and Environmental Policy under the WTO Framework"...

Next came lunch.

The first session in the afternoon was titled "International Investment and International Competition"...

This was Li Mu's first real experience participating in such an international conference, and by the end of the first day...

Well, to be honest, when he got home and started writing his article that night, his laptop keyboard was already smoking.

Around 10 a.m., he and Xue Xingqi finished writing the article that Wang Long had requested.

Then around 11 o'clock, I went to Fang Jianxian's room and started translating some long and difficult sentences.

In Fang Jianxian's words, it was like this: "What do you mean by one word per line?" and "They really don't break up these long and complicated sentences when they speak them!"

Just imagine how difficult it must be to translate what these people are saying...

We were busy until 2 a.m. before we finally finished.

Then, number six continued as usual.

In the morning, after attending a lecture by Mike Moore entitled "Prospects for Sino-US Trade and US Investment in China after China's Accession to the WTO," Li Mu had completed the task assigned to him by Caijing.

To be honest, although the schedule for this WTO forum seemed very tight at first glance, it was actually not a particularly difficult job for the journalists.

It simply requires that the translated article conveys the meaning accurately and without error.

Furthermore, aside from these, the arrangements for other aspects of the itinerary, such as those for a national-level conference, were incredibly meticulous.

With their press passes on their chests, they could move about almost unimpeded, provided the rules allowed.

In the afternoon, Xue Xingqi and I compared our translations, agreed on the changes to the inconsistencies, and then submitted the article to Wang Long.

With this, Li Mu's work with Caijing magazine came to an end.

Next, I helped Fang Jianxian.

He didn't even attend the closing ceremony; the photos and news from the closing ceremony were handled by others.

Everyone had a clear division of labor.

He wasn't even involved in the banquet.

As journalists, what Li Mu and his team need to do most right now is to turn the content of this forum into articles and publish them in the newspaper as soon as possible, so that other people who care about this forum can know about its content.

Everything else can be ignored.

He stayed with Fang Jianxian until after 10 p.m., when his room was borrowed by people from the political department...

Two days was enough time for these people to recognize Xiao Li's work ability.

Fluent in English, the writing conveys meaning accurately.

This is the most needed skill for journalists throughout the forum.

He completed it successfully.

Around midnight on the 7th, after the Ministry of Public Security sent the article back to the newspaper's email address, which was still waiting for typesetting, everyone, including Fang Jianxian who had come to help, breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm finally done with my work.

"Little Li."

"Brother Fang, what's wrong?"

"Let's have a meal together when we get back to the office. You've worked hard these past two days, as your older brother, I have to show you some appreciation."

"Hehe~ Okay."

Li Mu smiled and agreed.

He was quite happy, and the reason was simple.

Because whether it's the financial reports or the help he's given these past two days, he's always credited in the articles.

Although they are all second or third-authored works, the mere fact that these are national-level forum news articles, as long as they have a name, represents a highlight and recognition of ability.

Another entry can be added to my resume.

After chatting and laughing for a while, and receiving news from the newspaper that the article had been approved and sent for typesetting, Li Mu, finally noticing his exhaustion, waved his hand and went straight back to his room.

I'm a little tired.

Before going to bed, when he plugged in his phone, which had run out of battery, he received a message from Fan Bingbing as soon as he turned it on:

"Brother Li, it's past midnight, and you haven't wished me a happy birthday yet?"

Why can't I get through on the phone?

"Hmm... never mind, I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow morning is my last scene, I'm wrapping up filming! I need to get some sleep and stay in shape."

"Good night."

Li Mu was taken aback.

Indeed, it's almost 1 a.m. now.

The 7th, the 16th day of the ninth lunar month...

Is she wrapping up filming tomorrow?

Li Mu's finger instinctively clicked the reply button, but for a moment he didn't know how to reply.

Just then, the phone rang.

It was Xue Xingqi calling.

"Hey, Sister Qi."

Are you asleep?

"I was just about to go to sleep, what's wrong?"

"Just letting you know, the article has been approved and will be published in the next issue along with the expert commentary we invited. Everyone's thinking of going out for some late-night snacks, wanna come?"

"I won't go, I'm a little tired."

"Okay then, I'll hang up."

"Sister Qi..."

"What's wrong?"

"What date are we leaving?"

"Number 8, we're taking a day off tomorrow. Tickets for the 8th."

"...Okay, got it."

After hanging up the phone, Li Mu recalled the experience of sleeping in a hard sleeper car for more than a day, and his eyes suddenly moved.

or……