Chapter 1391: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 1391: Receiving Liu Yumeng

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"Haven't you heard? Our Poverty Alleviation Office is getting a new colleague soon!"

"I heard, and they're being transferred down from a county-level unit!"

"They're a connection household, coming to gild their resume — we can't afford to offend them!"

"A connection household coming to the Poverty Alleviation Office — we're done for. Not only do we have to alleviate poverty, we have to support the connection household too; workload's going up again!"

This Monday, the Shangang Town Rural Revitalization Office held its usual weekly meeting.

Wang Chang, Dong Dongdong, Huang Meiling, Zhao Xiaohui, Lin Aijun.

All grassroots members of the office had already arrived.

Wang Xiaohua, however, arrived unexpectedly late.

Usually he was the first to arrive at the office.

Only today a new person was coming to the Shangang Town Rural Revitalization Office, and Town Party Secretary He Gaofeng had specifically arranged for him to go to the town street entrance to receive them.

Wang Xiaohua was quite speechless about this — a new employee coming to work at the grassroots level, yet he, the department director, had to personally go pick them up?

Isn't that a bit precious?

But on second thought he quickly understood.

The other party was definitely a connection household with power and influence, coming down to the Shangang Town Rural Revitalization Office merely to gild their resume.

He Gaofeng having Wang Xiaohua personally go receive them was telling Wang Xiaohua that this person was someone even the Town Party Secretary didn't dare slight, so as office director, when dealing with this connection household subordinate, he had to carefully weigh what words to say and what not to say, what tasks to let that connection household do and what not to let them do.

There was another important implication: He Gaofeng clearly hoped Wang Xiaohua would build a good relationship with that connection household, which was why he specially made this arrangement.

So you see, in the system many things seem ordinary, but actually contain hidden depths.

If you can't see through them, you'll be blinded by a single leaf and never see a chance to move up in your whole lifetime.

But if you do see through them, you'll discover many things are just that — so-called rules, so-called unwritten ways, also just that.

Wang Xiaohua waited at the street entrance for about half an hour.

At this time a rural bus slowly approached, the old dilapidated vehicle's engine sounding as if it had asthma.

After the bus steadied, several people got off one after another.

"Liu Yumeng?"

The moment Wang Xiaohua saw Liu Yumeng, he couldn't help but be stunned.

He and Liu Yumeng were merely casual acquaintances — they only recognized each other when they went together to the County Organization Department to report for duty.

One was this year's top-scoring selected graduate in the whole city, the other was this year's bottom-ranked selected graduate in the whole city.

In the end both were assigned to the same county town.

During the county town's secondary position assignment, Wang Xiaohua took the initiative to come to Shangang Town, while Liu Yumeng chose to stay in the county town.

By rights Liu Yumeng shouldn't be able to transfer posts easily, but in reality it was another matter.

"Wang Xiaohua!"

Seeing Wang Xiaohua, Liu Yumeng took the initiative to smile and wave in greeting, dragging her luggage and jogging over.

"Liu Yumeng, we meet again."

Wang Xiaohua gave a polite smile.

Liu Yumeng hurriedly said:

"I know you're at the Rural Revitalization Office — was it your leader who sent you to pick me up?"

Liu Yumeng thought Wang Xiaohua was still a grassroots cadre, probably the office director, sent by him to receive her.

Wang Xiaohua smiled:

"Counts as it."

Wang Xiaohua wasn't lying.

After all, He Gaofeng counted as his leader.

Liu Yumeng smiled:

"Looks like your leader treats you well, actually sending you to receive me!"

Wang Xiaohua couldn't help but retort:

"Sure it's not treating you well? A grassroots employee, first day on the job, needing someone to pick them up and drop them off?"

Liu Yumeng shamelessly spread her hands:

"I didn't want to either, but my family arranged it for me, and I couldn't very well refuse."

Wang Xiaohua couldn't help asking:

"Was coming here also arranged by your family?"

Liu Yumeng sighed:

"Otherwise? Who would willingly come to this godforsaken place on their own."

Speaking to this point, she suddenly remembered something and hurriedly added:

"Except for someone like you with such a spirit of contribution! Among our city's selected graduates this year, you had the best grades and the most impressive education, yet you deliberately chose the worst place! Honestly, I feel it's not worth it for you!"

Wang Xiaohua smiled:

"What's not worth it? Shangang Town is my hometown; being able to contribute to my hometown, I'm full of drive every day."

Wang Xiaohua helped Liu Yumeng pull her suitcase, the two chatting as they walked, passing through the town's market, ahead lay the Town Government office building.

Today happened to be Shangang Town's market day, and there were quite a few people at the market — vegetable sellers, fruit sellers, clothing sellers, dogskin plaster sellers — all had set up temporary stalls on both sides of the road, calling out to passing customers.

Most of those coming to the market were middle-aged and elderly people; there was no helping it — nowadays in township areas, young people have all gone out to work, leaving mostly the elderly behind.

So the market stalls had changed accordingly; whether selling clothes or fruit and vegetables, more was targeted at elderly customers — stalls selling children's toys, which were plentiful at the town market when Xiao Hua was small, couldn't even be seen a single one of now.

"This town of yours still has quite a bit of life and bustle to it."

Liu Yumeng said this as she passed through the market.

Xiao Hua replied:

"It's market day today, so there are more people; normally there aren't many."

Liu Yumeng couldn't help but be stunned: "It still depends on the day? I thought this street would be this lively every morning."

It was obvious she wasn't too clear on the operating rules of rural markets.

Rural markets aren't like city supermarkets, open every day.

First, there isn't that large a user base.

Second, coming from the village to the market isn't convenient.

So very early on, rural markets spontaneously formed an unwritten rule: certain days were agreed upon as market days; on market days villagers came to buy, merchants came to sell, and no one would make a wasted trip — you wouldn't have villagers arriving on market day and finding no merchants, nor merchants arriving and finding no customers.

In Shangang Town, every day ending in 3, 6, or 9 is a market day.

Specifically: the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 26th, and 29th of each month.

Xiao Hua told Liu Yumeng this point, and Liu Yumeng was extremely surprised:

"There's actually such a thing? Who set the rule?"

Xiao Hua smiled:

"No one set it; it all formed spontaneously. Since I was small it's been this rule; my parents also said when they were small, days ending in 3, 6, 9 were also market days."

Xiao Hua also said:

"Now transportation is convenient — rural buses can go direct to our Shangou Village's mountain pass — so the concept of market days has faded a lot among the younger generation, but in the eyes of the older generation there's still a deep fixation; they rarely come to town on non-market days, and on market days that morning rural bus is absolutely packed with the elderly — at every stop you can hear the bus prompt: 'Beep, Senior Free Card'!"

Liu Yumeng laughed:

"If I were the boss of the bus transport company, I'd cry to death — how could I make any money like that?"