A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

After making the first call home, he called his girlfriend the second time.

The first thing I said after the call connected was:

"Hey, I got the news, it's the National News First Prize."

Then Fan Bingbing's side exploded.

Li Mu guessed that she should be at home right now, otherwise she definitely wouldn't be shouting like that.

And that is indeed the case.

"Ah!!!! Dad!!! Li Mu won an award!! He won an award!!!!"

Seeing his daughter suddenly burst out of the bedroom, gesturing excitedly, Fan Tao asked in bewilderment:

"What kind of prize?"

"The one I told you about, the highest honor for journalists, the National Press Award, first prize! He won it! The government personally called to inform him! Ah!!!!"

Li Mu listened to the commotion on the other end of the line with a smile on his face.

After chattering for a while, Fan Tao's voice came from the other end of the phone:

"Hey, Li."

"Hey, Uncle Fan."

"You won an award?"

"Yes."\

"Haha, congratulations!"

"Thank you, Uncle Fan."

"Next..."

Fan Tao was about to say something when his daughter snatched the phone away.

"Hey, baby, when are you coming over? Ah!!! I'm so happy! Quick, let me give you a kiss to cheer you up! Mwah mwah mwah..."

Hearing the joyful voice on the phone, Li Mu's smile grew wider and wider.

Just then, he noticed several people coming out of the cafeteria, all of whom were his classmates, walking this way, so he quickly said:

"Okay, I have something to do, I'll talk to you later."

"Mmm! Hehe, love you!"

"ha."\

He hung up the phone with a smile, and his colleagues all came over:

"Li Mu, congratulations!"

"A veteran reporter, that's amazing!"

"Big reporter, could you take care of the younger brother?"

These people all offered their congratulations, and some even jokingly suggested that Li Mu treat them to dinner that evening.

Unfortunately, tonight is a dinner party for the Arts and Sports Department.

And people are always in high spirits when something good happens. After get off work, he arrived at the restaurant where they were having dinner, and seeing the group of people inviting him, "Little Li, you should drink more tonight," Li Mu readily nodded.

Indeed, this is great news, we should drink more!

Especially the comical scene of Sui Kuan wailing, "It's worse than being killed," after rushing back from an interview.

He smiled and raised his glass.

One year into the job, I received the National News Award.

Um.\

Thank you, America.

Long live 911 million!

Although the thought was somewhat hellish, in his drunken haze, Li Mu still drank a glass of wine alone, muttering to himself:

"Evil belongs to America, glory to me."

……\

On the 6th, despite feeling unwell from a hangover, Li Mu still appeared at the time clock right on time.

That morning, Sui Kuan, who had gone out for a smoke, brought Li Mu some news:

"Hey, they've put up a banner for you at the entrance of your workplace."

"?"

Seeing Li Mu's puzzled look, Sui Kuan pointed out the window:

"See for yourself."

Li Mu got up and quickly went to the window, where he saw several people hanging red banners at the main entrance of the workplace.

"What did you write?"

"Congratulations to our reporter Li Mu for winning the National News Award—First Prize! Wow, you're really famous now! I bet you'll be making headlines on the day of the awards ceremony!"

Sui Kuan watched with envy, and the commotion they made attracted the attention of several colleagues working near the window.

Everyone looked out the window, saw the banner, and asked what it said. Then they all cast envious glances at Li Mu.

As I said before, this is an honor that many journalists can only dream of, yet a junior reporter, just one year into his career, has achieved it… no, a senior reporter.

And it was also the first national news award awarded to the organization.

Of course, it needs to be promoted properly.

Li Mu estimated that the banner would remain up until the next time the group's leaders came to inspect the area before being replaced.

For some reason, he felt a little better.

But even though I'm in a good mood, I still need to keep a low profile when necessary.

Back at his workstation, Li Mu asked Sui Kuan:

"Any recent news?"

"...?"

Sui Kuan was speechless for a moment:

"You're asking me for news?"

"Otherwise what? I haven't posted anything lately, and you know about my business trip last time... I'm trying not to bother Brother Bie, so if you have any local news, give it to me. In exchange, if I have any business trip news in a few days, you can go."

"Alright. I don't have any big news right now, just the promotion of Wing Chun..."

"Give me."\

"good."\

The two began engaging in petty scheming, and although the banner at the workplace was put up, the award's popularity gradually waned due to Li Mu's deliberate attempt to keep a low profile.

Time flies, and half a month has passed.

On the 15th, Li Mu received a total of over 54,000 yuan, including his salary and group bonus.

The group was incredibly generous with the money.

Next month, he will be a senior journalist.

Things seemed to suddenly get better.

Busy until 10:30 a.m., Bie Yan arrived at the main office:

"

"Xiao Li, come with me for a bit, there's an interview."

"Okay, Brother Bie."

Li Mu quickly responded, got up, and walked out.

After leaving the office building, the two got into Bie Yan's Accord.

"It's so hot."

Bie Yan muttered something and turned the air conditioner up even higher, but unfortunately, it only blew out hot air.

Li Mu nodded:

"Even the office air conditioning is starting to give out."

"Let's just hang in there for a few more years. Around 05 or 06, it should be about time."

"?"

Li Mu was taken aback and asked in confusion:

"What do you mean?"

"Yes."

After driving the car out of the workplace, Bie Yan pointed to the open space right next to the workplace:

"We've bought this land. We're going to rebuild it, and I heard it's planned in two phases. One building will connect to our old building, expanding the area. The other, it seems, will be an office building."

Li Mu was somewhat surprised and laughed:

"Our company has really made a fortune!"

"I heard that GG's revenue alone has already exceeded 80 million so far. Exceeding 100 million this year is no problem at all. And if we calculate based on exceeding 100 million, our entire company's bonus will probably exceed 10 million..."

Upon hearing Bie Yan's words, Li Muxin remarked, "This doesn't make sense."

According to the bathrobe guy, it's twelve million.

Tsk.

With a sigh, he shook his head:

"But this has nothing to do with you, Brother Bie, right?"

"You didn't have any either? Didn't Old Zhou subtly hint at something to you the other day?"

As he spoke, he chuckled:

"Ignore him."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm not taking the money; whoever wants it can take it. It's just... I feel a little bad for everyone, since GG's performance is also factored into the year-end evaluation."

"There's no need. The evaluation is based on overall performance, not average performance. Besides, you've brought honor to the company; for that alone, no one will say anything."

"What should we do about Sui Kuan?"

"Fatty? Let him bear with it. This money is too much to handle, Xiao Li. Don't be fooled by how glamorous things are at work now. Think about it, with our company doing so well, the group will definitely announce it at the end of the year, whether it's to incentivize other magazines to increase revenue or to give a reward... this kind of thing needs some kind of official recognition. But the more famous you are, the easier it is to cross the line. Like I said, nobody knows what the consequences will be if you cross the line like this. If we were an independent private company, it wouldn't matter. But we're a provincial-level unit, directly supervised and managed by the public security, procuratorate, and courts. Who knows if someone will come and slaughter a pig that suddenly becomes fat..."

The older brother expressed his opinion in the most straightforward way:

"It's better to be cautious than to make a mistake. Only in this way can we steadily move forward on our path."

"clear."\

After Li Mu nodded to indicate that he understood, Bie Yan responded and casually asked:

"Did you bring the invitation?"

"I brought it with me."

"Ha, let's go to the feast. We'll have to ask Weiwei properly at the table why she didn't hide it..."

"Sister Weiwei is pregnant, brother. If she hits you, it'll be a gang fight."

"Uh...hahahaha, wow! What kind of brain circuit is that? Hahaha~"

Bie Yan was thoroughly amused by the joke.

Amidst their laughter and conversation, the two arrived at a restaurant that didn't appear to be of high quality.

Of course, Li Mu's assessment of what constitutes a "low-class" establishment was based on his experience with high-end restaurants.

This restaurant, named "Yuexiu Restaurant," is a very suitable choice from the perspective of working-class people. They even include "banquet catering" on their sign.

And it's very close to Director Zhang's house.

After parking the car in front of the restaurant, the two got out, and suddenly, Bie Yan paused, startled.

Then he whispered something:

"Stay close to me."

？\

While Li Mu was still wondering, he saw Bie Yan walk quickly towards the restaurant entrance, and after reaching the top of the steps, his voice rang out:

"Brother Zheng, what are you doing here?"

Li Mu looked in the direction Bie Ge was looking and saw a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and glasses.

The middle-aged man called Brother Zheng, however, didn't seem surprised upon seeing Bie Yan's words. Instead, he smiled and said:

"Ha, Bieyan, it's been a long time!"

"Absolutely."

Bie Yan smiled and nodded, her attitude warm, but not in a particularly familiar way; it was more like a show of respect.

"Brother Zheng, are you eating here?"

"Ha, no, I'm here for a banquet... And you?"

"Me too... Brother Zheng, is this an engagement party?"

"Hmm, then we should be the same."

"?"

Bie Yan was taken aback, and seeing his expression, Brother Zheng also paused for a moment, then asked:

"Did you bring your invitation from home?"

"...No, I'm quite familiar with...Zhang Wei."

"Zhang Wei, this is the woman's family, right?"

"right."\

"Oh~ I received it from Huaiming. The boss is busy, so I came to say hello."

"...?"

Bie Yan was taken aback at first, then seemed to understand something, thought for a moment, and smiled:

"Weiwei's father is my former director. We also have a pretty good personal relationship, so I came to share in the joy."

"Oh, I see. Then we'll see the newlyweds soon. We'll have to get two packets of wedding candy to share in the joy."

hear the words

Don't just smile and nod:

"Yes, definitely."

Standing two steps behind Bie Yan, Li Mu listened to their conversation and seemed to vaguely understand their unspoken message.

These two are probably exchanging information.

But... is this Brother Zheng here on behalf of the leader?

Who is this leader?