Special forces soldier demobilization: Starting from the county government compound, a meteoric rise

"Mr. Liu, please wait a moment!"

Just as Liu Ming was about to step out of the auditorium, a slightly hurried yet inquisitive voice suddenly rang out from the crowd in the back row.

Liu Ming stopped in her tracks.

He turned around and saw a thin young man with black-rimmed glasses standing there, his face flushed and looking somewhat flustered. He recognized the young man; he was a newly promoted county party secretary from an inland province, a scholar by trade, and possessed the stubbornness typical of intellectuals.

"Young comrade, is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Liu Ming smiled slightly, his expression as if he were looking at the bamboo shoots that had just sprouted in his own backyard.

The young man took a deep breath, as if summoning the greatest courage of his life, and asked loudly, "Elder Liu! Before I came to the Party School, the senior leaders of the province often used your deeds to educate us. They said you were a 'national hero' who comes along only once in a century. But... I've always been confused. What exactly does it take to be worthy of the title 'national hero'?"

"Is it like you, capable of strategizing and outmaneuvering multinational corporations in the financial battlefield, leaving them routed?" "Or is it like you, able to use an iron fist to fight corruption and uproot those deeply entrenched interest groups?"

"Or rather... must one perform an extraordinary feat that could change the fate of the nation to be called a national hero?"

The questions raised by young people are very pointed. This is also a common concern among all the trainees in the training program for young and middle-aged cadres.

The term "national hero" carries too much weight. It's like a mountain pressing down on their heads, making these self-proclaimed elite young people feel a deep sense of powerlessness and distance when facing this title.

The auditorium fell silent once more. Everyone pricked up their ears, awaiting the legendary figure's reply.

Liu Ming did not answer immediately. He walked back to the podium, his gaze sweeping over the faces that were full of vigor yet also tinged with a hint of eagerness for quick success.

"Do you consider me a national hero?" Liu Ming asked rhetorically.

"Of course you are!" the young man nodded without hesitation. "If you don't count, then no one in this world would dare to call themselves a national hero!"

"Wrong."

Liu Ming shook her head, a faint, self-deprecating smile playing on her lips.

"I'm nothing but a national hero."

These words caused an uproar. Even the executive vice principal was so shocked that he almost dropped his thermos.

"In my life, Liu Ming, I've indeed done a few things that were quite remarkable. I've arrested corrupt officials, fought against compradors, and even fought those foreign devils in the border forests—it was all real combat." "But why?"

Liu Ming pointed to his own nose, his eyes suddenly becoming unusually sharp. "That's because I have power! I have Old Master Lin backing me up! And the Nangong Group is throwing money at me!"

"I was able to bring down those multinational corporations because I controlled national-level resource allocation. I was able to send that old dog Luo Binwang to prison because I had top-secret intelligence that no one else could get."

"I'm just an executor who was pushed into the limelight and happened to have a sharp knife in my hand."

Liu Ming's voice echoed in the empty auditorium, carrying a frankness that had stripped away all pretense.

"Do you think that if you strip away all these accolades, power, and resources, I, Liu Ming, can still be considered a national hero?"

The young people in the audience looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

"You just asked me what exactly a national hero is." Liu Ming's smile faded, and her expression became more solemn than ever before. "I'll tell you."

"Twenty-five years ago, I went to inspect a base in Northwest China. On that vast Gobi Desert with its endless yellow sand, I met an old engineer in charge of the reactor cooling system."

"His name isn't in the file. What rank is he? He's not even a section chief."

"But in order to solve the heat resistance problem of a core material, he endured eight years in that desert where even water was rationed! Eight years! His wife divorced him, and he couldn't even go back to see his son's wedding."

Finally, he collapsed in the lab, clutching the data model he had just successfully calculated as he died.

"Is he considered a national scholar?"

Liu Ming paused, her eyes slightly reddening.

Ten years ago, there was a major flood in the south.

"A young soldier, only eighteen years old and having been in the army for less than six months, jumped into the swirling floodwaters with sandbags on his own, without receiving any orders, at the moment the dike breached. He used his own body to buy the villagers behind him three more minutes to evacuate."

"Not even their remains were found."

"Is he considered a national scholar?"

The auditorium was quiet. Some of the more sentimental female cadres couldn't help but have tears welling up in their eyes.

"A national hero is never a lofty official title, nor is it an empty honor that can be measured by money and power."

Liu Ming placed his hands on the podium, leaning slightly forward, and a power that could penetrate the soul burst forth from his slightly aged body.

"What is a national hero?" "A person who, in times of national crisis, dares to step forward, even at the cost of their life, never retreating a single step... a person of unyielding integrity!"

"A clean person who, in the face of temptation and the encirclement of money and power, still holds fast to their principles and never takes a single needle or thread from the common people!"

"In those corners where the spotlight doesn't shine. In laboratories, on the border, on the lecture platform, in the fields." "Silently burning themselves out, leaving light and warmth for this land... fools!"

"As long as you always have your country and the world in your heart." "As long as your starting point for doing things is for the sake of the lights of every home on this land." "Even if you are just a street sweeper, even if you are just a poor scholar who can't even afford to eat."

"You are a national hero!"

His words were a wake-up call. Like a heavy hammer, they shattered the vulgar fantasies of these young cadres about "getting promoted and making a fortune" and "bringing glory to their ancestors."

It was like a fire, igniting the most primal and pure childlike heart deep within them.

The young man who asked the question had tears welling up in his eyes. He suddenly stood up straight and bowed deeply to Liu Ming on the stage. This was not a submission to power, but a belief in a spirit.

"I understand, Old Liu." The young man's voice was choked with emotion, yet unusually firm. "When I get back, I will definitely get that abandoned agricultural project up and running. Even if it costs me my job, I will never let the people's hard-earned money go to waste!"

"Okay." Liu Ming nodded with satisfaction. He knew that this seed had already been planted in the hearts of these young people. As long as this seed remained, the future of China would not collapse.

He took one last look at the group of vibrant faces, as if seeing himself thirty years ago. He turned around and walked with steady steps toward the bright autumn sunlight outside the auditorium.

Behind him lies his final piece of advice, which he left to this era and to all those who come after him.

The sound wasn't loud, yet it was like a grand, resonant bell, its lingering echo reverberating through the air.

"The greatest heroes are those who serve their country and its people." "The most unparalleled national hero is also like this."