Dawn of Life

As Xiaoyu put a coiled noodle into his mouth, he mumbled, "No, I won't have my own room anymore. I can sleep with Mommy if I want, or with Grandpa and Grandma if I want." As he finished speaking, his eyes shone with happiness as he looked at Lin Yue.

Lin Yue was instantly moved; for children, companionship is always the most important thing.

After finishing her meal, she took out her phone and bought plane tickets to return to her hometown the next day. She needed to get things settled as soon as possible before picking them up.

After returning to Mianyang, Lin Yue did not contact any of her classmates, as she was not yet ready to face them. Her family's house in Mianyang had been rented out, and the lease still had three months remaining. She had originally planned to rent a single room by herself, as the lease would expire after she brought her parents and Xiaoyu back.

However, unable to resist his aunt Lin Hua's hospitality, he eventually stayed at Lin Hua's house.

Lin Yue's uncle is an English teacher at a middle school in Mianyang. Lin Hua works at a bank, and her cousin works in Chengdu. They don't usually come back. Two rooms in the three-bedroom house are usually empty, so Lin Hua cleaned one room for Lin Yue.

Lin Yue was always the kind of child others admired, and Lin Hua had always treated her well. Before Lin Yue returned, Liu Cuiying asked Lin Hua two things: to help Lin Yue find a job and to help her find a boyfriend.

Lin Hua took it seriously and quickly used his connections to find Lin Yue a general office job at the post office. Lin Yue had originally wanted to find a job herself, but she discovered that there weren't many companies in Mianyang; most positions were sales clerks, waitresses, or hotel receptionists. So, at Lin Hua's strong recommendation, she accepted the job.

On her first day, to show how much she valued the job, she got up half an hour early, put on professional makeup, and wore a dress, perfectly balancing professionalism and competence.

She was supposed to start work at 9:00, but she arrived at the office at 8:40, only to find a cleaning lady changing the trash.

It wasn't until 8:58 that people started arriving at the company, and most of them clocked in right at 9:00. What surprised Lin Yue even more was that everyone was dressed very casually, looking just like a group of aunties who had come to buy groceries together. These people also looked Lin Yue up and down with strange eyes, and whispered among themselves in groups of three or five, making tsk-tsk sounds.

Lin Yue shook her head helplessly and took off her earrings, necklace and other jewelry and put them in her bag. After all, if she decided to settle down here slowly, she had to start learning to adapt to the rhythm of this place from this moment on.

Her main job is to draft work plans, summaries, and reports.

Right now, she was sitting at her workstation looking at the materials the office director had given her. She recalled that when Lin Hua brought her to the interview two days ago, Lin Yue had prepared a complete resume and respectfully handed it to Director Liu.

She introduced herself as working in human resources in Hangzhou. Director Liu casually flipped through the thick resume and said expressionlessly, "It's just a clerical job. We happen to have an office clerk position with a monthly salary of 4500 yuan."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yue's heart sank. She was prepared for a lower salary and position, but this was still far below her expectations. The director, not hearing Lin Yue's reply for a while, adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses and looked up at Lin Hua and Lin Yue sitting opposite him.

Lin Yue moved her lips as if she was about to say something, but Lin Hua gently patted Lin Yue's hand and preemptively said to the director, "Yes, yes, my niece works in this field. She's introverted and excels at dealing with piles of documents."

Lin Yue muttered to herself, thinking that this would be her new persona here from now on.

A voice rang in her ears, pulling her back from her reverie: "My name is Liu Mei. What's your name?" She turned her head and saw a woman who looked to be about 45 years old. She had single eyelids, thin lips, and wrinkles at the corners of her eyes that clearly marked the passage of time on her face.

Lin Yue gave her a friendly smile and said, "Hello, Sister Liu, my name is Lin Yue." She originally wanted to ask about her older sister's work and the situation here, but then she suddenly remembered Lin Hua's instructions to her: "When you arrive in a new place, listen more and talk less, observe more and ask less." So she swallowed back the series of questions that were about to come out of her mouth.

Liu Mei was unusually enthusiastic. She moved her chair closer to Lin Yue and lowered her voice, saying, "What's your relationship with Director Liu? I heard you came back from a big city. What makes you interested in this job? Are you married? You look to be in your early thirties, right?"

Lin Yue was a little stunned by Liu Mei's barrage of questions and didn't know how to answer. After a while, she saw Liu Mei still waiting for her answer with an expectant look.

She opened her mouth, but in the end she could only laugh awkwardly and say, "Sister Liu is so enthusiastic. I don't know how to answer so many questions at once. There's plenty of time in the future, I'll tell you when I have the chance."

Liu Mei immediately showed a disappointed expression. Just as she was about to ask more questions, she suddenly heard Director Liu call out to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue knocked on the door of Director Liu's office and then went in. Director Liu looked very thin, around 50 years old, and what was most striking about him was his silver-rimmed glasses, which gave him the air of a humble old man.

On the mahogany desk sat an old-fashioned desktop computer, with two large piles of documents beside it. He liked to print out all the reports to read, so the computer was more of a decoration and he rarely turned it on.

Director Liu pushed a pile of documents to his right so he could better see Lin Yue's expression and said, "Lin, there's a semi-annual summary meeting at the end of the month. Could you coordinate with your colleagues to organize the data and help me write a report?"

He then handed her a stack of past reports. Lin Yue took the materials and flipped through them. The entire document consisted of narrative text, and they were all quite similar. She looked up and tentatively asked, "Director Liu, can I just adjust them according to the old templates?"

Director Liu picked up his teacup, lifted the lid, gently blew the tea leaves aside, took a sip, and slowly said, "Xiao Lin, you're young and have just returned from the big city. Show me a draft based on your own ideas; you don't need to completely refer to the previous standards."

Lin Yue quickly racked her brains, pondering Director Liu's words. He was testing her abilities.

Although Lin Hua repeatedly told her to be low-key in her dealings with people and things, since she was going to use this place as the starting point of her career, she couldn't easily give up the opportunity to show her abilities.

Moreover, Director Liu was presenting to higher-level leaders, which was also her first public appearance. First impressions in the workplace are applicable everywhere.

Thinking of this, Lin Yue looked up and stared into Director Liu's eyes to confirm again, "I think we can further improve the data, such as business data, financial data, and management data. For example, the outgoing mail data, parcel data, and postal savings business data within the business data would more intuitively demonstrate the strength of our bureau."

Director Liu put down his teacup, took off his silver-rimmed glasses, rubbed his left eye, and said, "Not bad, very insightful. Let's proceed according to your plan."

After leaving Director Liu's office, Lin Yue checked the postal management system and found that the data had fluctuated greatly in the last three months.

It was learned that the system experienced a malfunction last month, and no one has been manually calibrated since the repair. Therefore, to obtain accurate data, it is necessary to verify it with the data entry clerk at the branch office. There are still about twenty days before the report submission deadline, which is still manageable.

She wasn't familiar with the staff at each branch, so it would be better if she could have a senior employee to help her sort things out.

So she told Director Liu about her idea. Director Liu called Liu Mei over and said, "Xiao Lin needs to prepare a report at the end of the month. You're a senior employee, so help her check the data with the various branches."

Liu Mei patted her chest confidently and said, "I must say, Director Liu really knows how to use people. You know what, those people at the branch really only listen to me; you might not be able to get anyone else to do it. Don't worry, I'll help Xiaoyue with it."

As Liu Mei left the office, she felt a secret sense of satisfaction.