Chapter 353

Zhu Huayu called and asked where we were and if she should come over.

I told her to handle official business in the office and told her that from now on, her main responsibility was to sit in the office. If there were things that needed my signature, she should organize them together. If they didn't need my signature, she should decide and handle them directly. Meeting notifications should be called directly to my mobile phone, and invitations to eat and drink should be rejected across the board.

My demeanor while on the phone appeared calm and dignified. Qian Youyu and the others didn't dare to make a sound on the side, looking up at me with infinite admiration, which gave me a small sense of vanity.

Men all hope to be looked up to by others!

After hanging up the phone, I asked Qian Youyu, "Are there any difficulties in starting work after the New Year?"

"No!" Qian Youyu stated firmly, looking like a monkey that had just stolen a corn cob.

"If there are difficulties, you must report to the organization in time," I warned him, "If the progress of the project is delayed due to personal reasons, you must be held accountable!"

"I understand!" Qian Youyu said seriously, "I definitely won't hold back County Magistrate Chen. I see it clearly now; County Magistrate Chen, you are a great talent. Could I let you have any worries? Don't worry!"

With Qian Youyu's statement, I was naturally happy in my heart. But I couldn't show it; people who are officials must be good at hiding themselves. No cadre would expose themselves in broad daylight!

I called Yu Wei to drive, and we were going to the old township government.

Suxi Town's administrative status was upgraded from a township to a town, but the office location hadn't moved. Since the new town government hadn't been built, they had to continue staying in the old place. The township became a town, but nothing changed; only the sign hanging on the wall changed.

The old township government was still like a ship drifting in the dust of history; the hull was the same, but the sails were different.

All the town cadres had arrived; my gaze swept over them, and not a single person was missing. I had to thank Guo Wei for this; without his initial tough measures, the cadres would have been as scattered and boundless as sheep grazing on a hillside.

When Liu Quan was in power, none of the township cadres knew what it meant to go to work. If there was something to do, he would call out, and they would gather together, bring out a jar of grain liquor, and sit around with just a few peanuts. Liu Quan would talk, and everyone would listen. There was no voting, no objections; they would swarm in for a meeting and swarm out when it ended.

When Zhu Shizhen was acting township head, the township lacked a secretary, and he made all the decisions himself. At the beginning of Zhu Shizhen's tenure, he wanted to vigorously rectify work discipline. He held several meetings, but there was no effect. Everyone knew he was an acting head and hadn't been confirmed, so he couldn't do anything to anyone. It just so happened that Liu Quan was transferred away, and many people didn't understand the meaning from above and had emotional issues. Therefore, they were indifferent to Zhu Shizhen's rectification; anyway, there was no money to deduct, and could Zhu Shizhen really fire them?

When it reached Guo Wei's hands, the situation changed. Guo Wei was a meticulous person who knew that township cadres valued practical benefits the most. Those who were township cadres had basically no hope for the future and mostly held the mentality of muddling along until death. Moreover, more than half of the cadres in Suxi Township were "half-side households."

The so-called "half-side household" is a family where the husband or wife is a cadre eating national grain, and the other half has a rural household registration, farming a few acres of thin fields at home.

Most of the cadres in Suxi Township were transferred from the military; there were almost none with formal academic backgrounds, and their average cultural level was less than high school.

These cadres usually had low wages and basically no other income. Sometimes when they went out for meetings, they didn't even have a decent set of clothes to wear, so money was more desirable to them than to ordinary people.

Guo Wei saw this point, so the first thing he did when he came to Suxi as secretary was to hold paid meetings.

Guo Wei was not like Liu Quan or Zhu Shizhen; he dared to spend money. At the first meeting, there wasn't much money in the township finance account, and Old Zhao refused to take it out to pay the meeting subsidy no matter what. Guo Wei shouted, "Either you go home to retire, or you take the money out and distribute it."

In fact, Old Zhao of the finance department didn't have any other meaning. He had been in charge of township finance for a lifetime, guarding a few pitiful pennies. These pennies were all "one radish, one pit"; if he pulled out the radish, he couldn't fill the pit left behind.

And the cadres of Suxi Township were waiting for those few pennies every month to take home to support their families. If Old Zhao couldn't pay their wages, they might just tear him apart.

Guo Wei distributed the money for the first time, and the cadres tasted the sweetness; from then on, whenever there was a meeting, everyone ran faster than a rabbit.

Unfortunately, good times didn't last long. After distributing subsidies for meetings, Guo Wei demanded strict work discipline. The cadres were still laughing and joking, thinking that just like with Liu Quan and Zhu Shizhen, what could he do to them?

Guo Wei remained calm and arranged for someone to register the number of people at work every day, creating a sign-in book. By the end of the month, when wages were distributed, many people were dumbfounded. Most of them received less than half of their wages, and a few not only didn't get a penny but even owed money.

This caused an uproar, and everyone went to Guo Wei to ask for an explanation.

Guo Wei put his hands on his waist and said lightly, "If you don't come to work, who will pay your wages?"

The cadres looked at each other, unable to find a reason. Someone whispered, "It was like this in the past, and it didn't seem like we were paid a penny less."

Guo Wei said, "The old calendar was turned over long ago. If everyone wants to turn it back, I'll accompany you to the end."

Everyone knew that Guo Wei was a cadre with a background and was young, so naturally, they didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore. They had to calculate on the side, and after calculating, they found that the subsidy for meetings was just enough to make up for the deducted wages, which made them feel much more comforted.

Since then, the work discipline in Suxi Township became the best period since the township was established.

I was promoted to Deputy County Magistrate and concurrently served as Suxi Town Party Secretary; everyone knew this. Although the County Party Committee Organization Department hadn't sent anyone to announce it, grapevine news often came faster and more truthfully than official news.

I coughed and announced the start of the meeting.

After Suxi Township was upgraded to a town, the organizational structure was adjusted, and some new cadres were added. Most of these cadres were originally branch secretaries of various villages, and taking advantage of this east wind, they changed their appearance and became formal national cadres.

I am the secretary, so naturally, there must be a town mayor. Of course, the secretary can concurrently serve as the town mayor, but the problem is that I still wear the hat of a Deputy County Magistrate, so this town mayor's hat must be worn by someone else.

I took out my notebook, pondered for a moment, and said, "Calling everyone here for a meeting today is to announce important personnel arrangements."

I first made the atmosphere tense, which would make them restless.

In the town, besides the secretary, the rest is the town mayor. Others such as the People's Congress, Discipline Inspection, Women's Federation, Youth League Committee, Civil Affairs, and the Armed Forces Department are all supporting roles.

The Chairman of the People's Congress was the original old Deputy Township Head, who was also someone who would retire after the New Year and had already completely despaired of his official career. Therefore, he closed his eyes and turned a deaf ear to external affairs. His biggest purpose for attending the meeting was to go to Old Zhao to collect a 100-yuan subsidy to take home after the meeting ended.

The Director of the Women's Federation was also a very old woman whose husband was a cadre in Chengguan Town, and her home was in the city. She was also someone waiting to retire early and go home to enjoy her blessings.

Discipline Inspection was a nominal position, generally concurrently held by the secretary. As for the Youth League Committee, after Liu Hongyan was transferred to the police station, this position had been vacant. I originally wanted to let Yue Bai take it, but I eventually gave up because I was worried that the name wouldn't be right and the words wouldn't be smooth.

Only the Minister of the Armed Forces Department was a young man who had just retired from the military. It was said that he was a platoon leader in the military, but because his wife made a big fuss, there was no other way but to transfer him to our Suxi Town.

The Director of the Party and Government Office followed Liu Quan in the past, then followed Zhu Shizhen, and later followed Guo Wei; he belonged to the legendary figure of a "tumbler." Although this person was still a distance away from retirement, his usual performance seemed to show no great interest in being an official. When I came to Suxi Township, I was a soldier under him. Although we didn't have much interaction, he was my superior after all. To this day, I have always respected him in my heart.

The Civil Affairs Office managed a pile of social affairs, and the person in charge of the Civil Affairs Office held a large sum of money in his hands. For example, the five-guarantee households, disaster relief, social assistance funds, etc., were all in his hands. He was a good hand at getting money for the town. If he were replaced, others wouldn't be able to do this work well.

Two deputy secretaries, one in charge of the Party and Government Office and one in charge of civil affairs. A deputy township head in charge of family planning and the Armed Forces Department. Social and economic development had always been directly responsible by the town mayor.

I cleared my throat and announced with dignity, "Now, on behalf of the Chunshan County Party Committee and County Government, I am making new adjustments to the personnel arrangements for Suxi Town. I ask all comrades to cooperate and support each other in future work."

Everyone looked at each other; my announcement made everyone unable to adapt for a while. In the past, personnel adjustments were a big deal and required going through many organizational procedures.

"I announce that Comrade Liu Yue Bai will serve as the Town Mayor of Suxi." I glanced at the meeting venue; it was silent.

Yue Bai was caught off guard by the sudden announcement; she looked at me with a flushed face, seemingly not believing my announcement.

I turned my gaze away and took the lead in applauding.

I had laid the groundwork in advance, and I was announcing on behalf of the County Party Committee and County Government, so after the cadres were slightly surprised, they followed me and applauded.

"To better carry out the town's youth work, the Town Party Committee has decided to request a full-time Youth League Committee Secretary to come over. Do you have any opinions?" I said, but my eyes turned to the two deputy secretaries. They were members of the Town Party Committee, and my preemptive announcement that it was the Town Party Committee's opinion was to cut off their retreat.

The two deputy secretaries looked at each other and nodded slightly in approval.

I didn't want to move the people in other positions yet. Yue Bai's sudden promotion from the Township Enterprise Office to the position of Town Mayor was itself an unexpected thing and needed a period of time to settle.

In fact, pushing Yue Bai to the position of Town Mayor, my purpose was very simple: to "kidnap" Qian Youyu!

"I'd like to introduce the Youth League Committee Secretary who is coming; she is a northerner named Xuelai, twenty-four years old this year." I changed the subject, diverting everyone's thoughts away from Yue Bai.

"Is it a man or a woman?" the Minister of the Armed Forces Department asked me with a smile.

"Of course it's a female comrade. For this Youth League work, especially grassroots Youth League work, female comrades are the best at getting started," I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, it felt strange, and my heart suddenly felt like I had kicked away a shit-basin, feeling disgusted.

Everyone didn't seem to feel any other meaning in the words; rural cadres are generally simple!

The cadres all looked at me, and I understood they were waiting for the newly appointed Town Mayor to speak.

I had to say, "Now, let's invite Town Mayor Liu to say a few words to everyone."

Yue Bai hesitated for a moment, but still got up and walked over, sitting next to me, and said with a flushed face, "Thank you for the organization's trust! I really didn't expect it to be me."

Someone below whispered, "You coming to be the Town Mayor makes you the only beautiful Town Mayor in Chunshan County."

Everyone laughed, and Yue Bai became even more awkward, turning her face to look at me.

I cast an encouraging look at her, telling her that everything was with me.

She seemed to understand the meaning in my eyes, pondered for a moment, and said, "Since the organization trusts me and the comrades support me, I will definitely let everyone..."

She didn't know what to say next, her legs tightly closed together.

"Not be disappointed!" I reminded her in a low voice.

"Hmm, I will definitely not let everyone be disappointed." Yue Bai smiled faintly, her gaze sweeping across the meeting venue. Her smile slowly solidified, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, looking like she was smiling yet not smiling.