Chapter 46: 045 The Annual Skills Competition

Fang Qingye paused, then smiled and replied: “Why would I go to your class reunion? Have fun, bye...”

With that, Fang Qingye started the car and waved to Bai Ou again; the small vehicle pulled onto the road and drove off.

Bai Ou pushed her bicycle, watching the direction the car vanished, the words she had just held back unspoken.

In the class group announcement for Senior 3 Class 2, she had notified all classmates: “This class reunion allows family members—limited to your own boyfriend or girlfriend...”

The next afternoon, the Senior 3 Class 2 reunion was held at a countryside resort by Longyou Lake.

Senior 3 Class 2 was the school’s top liberal arts class; its students performed well on the college entrance exam, with the best getting into Fudan and Jinling University, many others into 985 and 211 schools, and even the lowest, like Qian Xiaoli, clearing the second-tier cutoff.

After graduation, a few like Bai Ou went on to graduate school; most entered the workforce, many passing civil service exams to join the system, others working in big-city companies in Jinling or Shanghai, all doing reasonably well.

With one’s own situation stable, one was eager to attend such reunions—not just those from Jinghai, but even classmates working in Shanghai or Jinling made special trips back.

Many brought family members; everyone introduced each other, the atmosphere warm and cheerful.

Bai Ou was the quiet type in class, with few close friends, only truly close to Qian Xiaoli; the two sat together under a tree’s shade on a swing at the courtyard’s edge, whispering.

“Bai Ou, why didn’t you invite Ye Zi? He’s on public holiday, bored stiff—I saw him driving out to fish the day before yesterday,” Qian Xiaoli asked.

I invited him, but he didn’t come...

In front of her friend, Bai Ou didn’t tell the truth but lied: “I just got back two days ago—I haven’t even seen him yet.” She quickly turned the question:

“Xiaoli, why are you alone? What’s Da Hai up to? Didn’t you invite him?”

“I invited him. He won’t come,” Qian Xiaoli said, hands in her pockets, gazing blankly ahead. “He’s chasing a girl—same unit as Ye Zi—Chen Meimei.”

“What? What are you going to do?” Bai Ou was startled.

She knew about Qian Xiaoli and Song Dahai’s childhood mishaps, but since growing up, Qian Xiaoli had truly liked Song Dahai.

“Don’t worry!” Qian Xiaoli smiled confidently. “My mom once took our birth dates to Master Da Hui at Dinghui Zen Temple for a fortune reading—they said our Bazi are perfectly matched, we’re destined to be husband and wife... he can’t escape my palm!”

With that, Qian Xiaoli clenched her right hand tightly, as if holding everything in her grasp.

Bai Ou sat on the swing, silent, staring at a cluster of blooming Wen Shu Orchids by the path, lost in thought.

The leisurely holiday ended; Fang Qingye returned to work.

Right away, a major event arose: the annual skills competition within the system was about to begin.

This was a tradition of the Jinghai City East Bank system, held every July.

The skills competition had four events: manual cash counting, voucher flipping and calculation, Chinese character input, and counterfeit bill identification.

Voucher flipping and calculation required contestants to complete voucher flipping and calculations within a set time, testing speed and accuracy—contestants had to rapidly compute and record results directly on the vouchers.

All four events required participation from each of the seven branches and the head office; five contestants per event, each person limited to registering for at most two events.

This year’s official notice from the head office explicitly required: to improve young employees’ skills, each branch must include at least one employee hired within the last three years in every event.

The skills competition was organized under the name of the city branch’s trade union; subordinate branches also had trade unions, but none had full-time staff—the union chair was always the office director—so actual organization fell to the Integrated Office.

That morning, Fang Qingye was called into Wu Shengli’s office right after arriving.

“Xiao Fang, you’ve read the notice about the city bank’s skills competition, right?” Wu Shengli asked.

Fang Qingye nodded.

“This event is led by our Integrated Office. In the past, Liu Meili handled it alone, but it’s too much for one person—I want you to join in, help select contestants and prepare for the competition.” Wu Shengli paused, then added:

“It’s also Director Xia’s request.”

“Director Wu, I’ll accept whatever task you assign,” Fang Qingye said. “But I’ve only been in the Integrated Office a short time—I don’t know most staff from our three savings offices and two sub-branches; I can’t even match some names to faces, let alone assess their abilities. How do I pick suitable contestants?”

“Don’t worry about that—Liu Meili knows everyone. You just assist with auxiliary tasks,” Wu Shengli said.

Just running errands.

Fang Qingye understood.

“Alright, no problem.”

The Integrated Office had plenty of miscellaneous tasks—he’d expected as much.

“Good. Go find Liu Meili, discuss details with her. If anything’s unresolved, come straight to me.”

Fang Qingye returned to his office; Liu Meili greeted him immediately.

“Xiao Fang, come here.”

As Fang Qingye approached, Liu Meili handed him a list: “Take a look—these are the contestants.”

Fang Qingye was surprised.

“Sister Liu, you’ve already prepared this?”

“Every year it’s the same events—the same employees usually compete... Some you want to enter? No—you’re not good enough. Others don’t want to enter? Still must—your unit needs the results,” Liu Meili chuckled.

That made sense.

And there was another crucial reason: the prize money was substantial!

Each event awarded first, second, and third prizes—one each—and five excellence awards.

First, second, and third prizes were 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000 yuan respectively; excellence awards carried 1,000 yuan each.

That wasn’t a small sum!

Especially first prize—it equaled half a year’s salary.

Fang Qingye studied the list carefully; several familiar names stood out:

Chen Meimei, Zhang Rong.

Chen Meimei had signed up for voucher flipping and calculation; Zhang Rong was even more impressive—he’d entered two events: voucher flipping and calculation, and Chinese character input!

Fang Qingye also saw two temporary workers from his cohort signed up—mainly for cash counting.

“Xiao Fang, technically, you should enter one event too,” Liu Meili smiled.

“Sister Liu, don’t tease me—I’m bad at all of these,” Fang Qingye said.

These five events focused heavily on frontline staff, especially tellers’ skills; aside from typing, he rarely touched any of them.

Most importantly—he had no interest.

The prize money held no appeal either.

“Sister Liu, am I supposed to input this into an Excel sheet?” Fang Qingye asked.

“Yes. After you input it, verify it, print it, and give it to Director Wu. He’ll review it, then send it to Director Su for approval. The electronic version goes to the city branch via the official document system,” Liu Meili said.

“Alright, I’ll do it now.”

Back at his desk, Fang Qingye opened the Excel file issued by the city branch and began inputting.

For him, this was easy—he typed rapidly, fingers flying.

Cao Ting, sitting opposite him, smiled: “Xiao Fang, I don’t get it—why don’t you enter the typing contest? Your typing speed is so fast, and you use Wubi—rare among young people.”

“Sister Cao, our bank’s full of typing experts—why me?” Fang Qingye replied, fingers never stopping. “Besides, Wubi’s out of fashion now—pinyin’s king.”

“But our bank’s fastest typist still uses Wubi,” Cao Ting countered.

That was true... Not just at Nanxin Branch, but other branches’ dedicated typists all used Wubi.

But whether Wubi or not didn’t matter to Fang Qingye—he had no intention of entering.

The electronic registration list was quickly done; Fang Qingye printed one copy for Liu Meili to check, then delivered it to Wu Shengli. After no issues, he took it upstairs to Su Ming.

No need to show it to Xia He—these minor matters didn’t concern her; the deputy branch manager made the final call.

After Su Ming signed the registration list, Fang Qingye returned to his office and had Cao Ting send the electronic version to the city branch via the official document system—the registration process was complete.

The next priority was pre-competition intensive training.

Since everyone had to work, training sessions were held after work, concentrated in the branch building. Some complained about using their rest time, but the prospect of prize money made them train enthusiastically.

Cash counters practiced counting, typists practiced typing—it was lively.

Fang Qingye’s task was to call a restaurant and arrange for boxed meals to be delivered on time to the trainees. After they ate, they trained a bit longer, then he left.

Nothing more to do—he went home to rest.

Today, after the boxed meals, he watched Chen Meimei and others practice typing for a while, grew bored, and prepared to leave.

Just as he stepped out of the office, Zhang Rong followed him, whispering: “Fang Qingye, I have a plan to defeat Li Lifen—the so-called ‘Six-Fingered Keyboard Demon’—from the city branch’s office.”