Chapter 46: 045 The Annual Skills Competition

Fang Qingye paused, then smiled and replied, "What would I do at your class reunion? Have fun, bye..."

After speaking, Fang Qingye started the car, waved to Bai Ou again, and the small car drove onto the road and moved forward.

Bai Ou pushed her bicycle, watching the direction where the car disappeared; there was a sentence she had not spoken just now.

In the class group announcement for their Senior Year Two class, it was notified to all classmates: "This class reunion allows guests, limited to one's own boyfriend or girlfriend..."

The next afternoon, the reunion of the Senior Year Two class of Nanxin No. 1 High School was held at a farmhouse by Longyou Lake.

Senior Year Two was the school's key liberal arts class; the whole class achieved good Gaokao results. The best one got into Fudan, another into Jin Ling University; many got into 985 or 211 universities, and even the worst, like Qian Xiaoli, scored for a second-tier university.

After graduation, a small minority, like Bai Ou, got into graduate school to continue studying; most entered the workforce, many took civil service or public institution exams to join the system, and some went to work in big-city companies like Jin Ling or Shen City; none were doing poorly.

Since their own situations were relatively good, they were willing to attend such class reunions; not only from Jinghai, but classmates working in Shen City and Jin Ling also came back specially to attend.

Many brought guests; everyone introduced each other in a harmonious atmosphere.

Bai Ou was the kind of girl in class who didn't stand out; she didn't have many close friends, only had a good relationship with Qian Xiaoli; the two of them were sitting on a swing under a tree at the edge of the yard, whispering.

"Bai Ou, why didn't you invite Ye Zi? He heard he's on annual leave, idle all day with nothing to do; the day before yesterday I even saw him driving to fish," Qian Xiaoli asked.

I invited him, but he won't come...

In front of her close friend, Bai Ou didn't want to tell the truth, so she lied: "I only came back the day before yesterday, I haven't seen him yet." After answering, she quickly asked back:

"Xiaoli, why are you alone too? What is Dahai busy with? Didn't you invite him?"

"I invited him, but the guy won't come." Qian Xiaoli put her hands in her pockets, stood by the swing, and looked faintly ahead, saying: "This guy is chasing a girl, from the same unit as Ye Zi, named Chen Meimei."

"What? Then what will you do?" Bai Ou was somewhat surprised.

She knew the embarrassing stories of Qian Xiaoli and Song Dahai from childhood, but after growing up, Qian Xiaoli liked Song Dahai very much.

"No fear!" Qian Xiaoli smiled, very confidently: "My mom once took my and Dahai's birth dates and times to find a master at Dinghui Zen Temple to calculate our fortune; he said our birth dates match especially well, we have a couple's resemblance... He can't escape my palm!"

After speaking, Qian Xiaoli stretched out her right hand and clenched it hard, as if everything was under control.

Bai Ou sat on the swing, no longer speaking, staring blankly at a cluster of blooming Crinum asiaticum by the small path, lost in thought.

The leisurely vacation ended, and Fang Qingye went back to work.

Just starting work, he encountered a major event: the system's annual skills competition was about to begin.

This is a tradition of the Dongxing System in Jinghai City, held every July.

The skills competition consists of four events: manual bill counting, bill flipping and calculation, Chinese character entry, and counterfeit bill identification.

Among them, bill flipping and calculation requires contestants to complete the flipping, calculation, and recording tasks of bills within a specified time. It tests the contestants' calculation speed and accuracy; contestants need to perform quick calculations on the bills and record the results.

For the four events, all seven sub-branches and the branch headquarters must send people to participate; five people participate in each event, and each person can register for at most two competition events.

Moreover, the document notice issued by the branch this year clearly stipulates: to improve the professional level of young employees, it requires that every sub-branch must have at least one employee who joined within the last three years in each event.

The skills competition is held in the name of the city branch's labor union; subordinate sub-branches also have labor unions, but none have full-time labor union staff; the labor union chairman is generally concurrently held by the office director, so the organization of this activity actually falls to the General Office.

That morning, as soon as Fang Qingye started work, Wu Shengli called him to his office.

"Xiao Fang, have you seen the document regarding the skills competition organized by the city branch?" Wu Shengli asked.

Fang Qingye nodded.

"This matter will be led and organized by our General Office; in the past, it was mainly handled by Liu Meili, but she is indeed very tired working alone, so I want you to participate as well, select the contestants, and do the pre-competition preparation work." Speaking here, Wu Shengli paused and emphasized again.

"This is also Branch Director Xia's intention."

"Director Wu, I will naturally accept the work you arrange," Fang Qingye said: "However, I haven't been in the General Office for long; to be honest, among the employees of our three savings offices and two service outlets, I am not familiar with many people, I can't even match some names, let alone understand their abilities; how can I select suitable team members?"

"You don't need to worry about this; Liu Meili is clear, you mainly do some auxiliary work," Wu Shengli said.

Just running errands, right.

Fang Qingye understood.

"Okay, no problem."

The General Office has relatively many trivial matters; he had mentally prepared himself since arriving.

"Alright then, go find Liu Meili; discuss the specific matters with her; if you encounter problems you can't solve, come directly to me."

Fang Qingye returned to his own office; Liu Meili saw him enter and immediately called out.

"Xiao Fang, come over here."

When Fang Qingye walked up close, Liu Meili handed a list to Fang Qingye: "Take a look; these are the names of the contestants."

Fang Qingye felt somewhat surprised.

"Sister Liu, you have already prepared it?"

"Every year these are the competition events; the participating employees are basically the same people... Some people, if you want to participate? No! Because their level is insufficient; some people don't want to participate, but they can't refuse either; the unit relies on you to bring in results," Liu Meili smiled.

Indeed, that is the logic.

There is also a more important reason: the competition prize money is very generous!

For each event, one first prize, one second prize, and one third prize are awarded, plus five excellence awards.

Among them, the first, second, and third prize amounts are 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000 respectively; the excellence award also has a prize of 1,000 yuan.

This is not a small amount!

Especially the first prize, it is equivalent to half a year's salary!

Fang Qingye carefully looked at the list; inside were several names he was familiar with:

Chen Meimei, Zhang Rong.

Chen Meimei registered for the bill flipping and calculation event, while Zhang Rong was even more impressive, registering for two events: bill flipping and calculation, and Chinese character entry!

Fang Qingye also saw that the two temporary workers who joined the same time as them had also registered to participate, mainly for bill counting.

"Xiao Fang, according to the rules, you should also register for one event," Liu Meili said with a smile.

"Sister Liu, don't make things difficult for me; I am not good at any of these," Fang Qingye said.

These five competition events mainly focus on the skills assessment of frontline staff, especially tellers; except for typing, he rarely comes into contact with the others.

Most importantly, he is not interested.

The bonus held even less attraction.

"Sister Liu, should I enter this into an Excel spreadsheet?" Fang Qingye asked again.

"Yes, after you finish entering it, check for errors, print it out, and hand it to Director Wu. After he reviews it, President Su will audit it, then the electronic version will be sent to the branch via the official document platform," Liu Meili said.

"Alright, I'll go handle it now."

Returning to his seat, Fang Qingye opened the Excel spreadsheet issued by the municipal branch and began entering data.

This was extremely simple for him; he typed away with a rapid clatter.

Cao Ting, sitting opposite him, saw this and smiled, saying, "Little Fang, I don't understand why you didn't sign up for the typing competition. Your typing speed is so fast, and you use Wubi, which is rare among young people."

"Sister Cao, our bank is full of typing experts; why would it be my turn?" Fang Qingye said, while his hands kept moving. "Besides, Wubi isn't popular now; Pinyin typing is the way to go."

"But the fastest typist in our bank still uses Wubi," Cao Ting countered.

That was true... not just at Nanxin Sub-branch, but specialized typists at other sub-branches basically all used Wubi.

However, whether it was Wubi or not didn't matter to Fang Qingye; he had no intention of participating anyway.

The electronic registration list was quickly typed out. Fang Qingye printed a copy for Liu Meili to check, then went to hand it to Wu Shengli. After confirming there were no issues, he went upstairs to submit it to Su Ming.

As for Xia He, there was no need to check with her; these small matters didn't require her worry, as the Vice President would make the final decision.

After Su Ming signed the registration list, Fang Qingye returned to the office and asked Cao Ting to send the electronic version to the municipal branch via the official document platform, concluding the registration work.

The next key task was intensive pre-competition training for the contest.

Since everyone had to work, the participants' training was concentrated in the sub-branch building after work in the afternoon. Some were unhappy about occupying their rest time, but thinking they could earn the bonus, everyone practiced quite actively.

Some practiced counting money, others practiced typing; it was quite lively.

Fang Qingye's task was to call a restaurant, have them deliver boxed meals to the training employees on time, and after they finished eating, the employees would train for a while longer before he turned and left.

With nothing left for him to do, he went home to rest.

Today, after eating the boxed meal as usual, he watched Chen Meimei and the others practice typing in the office for a while, felt a bit bored, and prepared to leave.

Just as he stepped out of the office door, Zhang Rong followed him out and whispered, "Fang Qingye, I have a plan to defeat Li Lifen, the typing expert from the municipal branch office known as the 'Six-Fingered Key Demon'."