Chapter 65 Final Round Work Exchange + Awards Ceremony

The finals of the Anling County Games have begun.

The top three performers from each county and project, their families, onlookers, and county propaganda staff all arrived in Anling one after another and checked into the inn arranged by Gu Lanying.

People visiting Anling for the first time, filled with intense curiosity, first went to see the competition venue and gymnasium of Longyuan Academy, then went to the East Market to eat, and then strolled around the entire city.

Unlike the envoys from Maozhou before, Cheng Hui and his team organized athletes and locals to visit the administrative hall, various workshops, the city guard, and the military camp, allowing people from other places to see the construction and development of their prefecture.

Firstly, it's to broaden their horizons, and secondly, it's to exchange and learn from each other's good experiences and lessons.

During her visit, the current deputy director of the publicity department of Yunhe County had an idea and immediately went to find Gu Lanying.

“Sister Ying, I was thinking that we could occasionally organize exchange activities between our various counties, and between counties and prefectures,” she said earnestly, looking at Gu Lanying.

When Gu Lanying was still the leader of the Yunhe Propaganda Team in Yunhe County, she was Gu Lanying's subordinate. Later, when Gu Lanying moved to Anling County with the goddess, she stayed behind and was appointed as the deputy minister.

Gu Lanying was delighted to see an acquaintance and said, "Tell me about it."

The deputy minister thought for a moment and said, "Our staff in various departments of the administrative office can learn from other counties and prefectures, and adopt some good methods and approaches when carrying out their work and handling problems, so as to avoid some mistakes."

"The same applies to all workshops. When they first started their workshops, they may have learned the same techniques, but through summarizing experiences and lessons learned in their daily work, they may improve their work efficiency. If we organize everyone to exchange and learn from each other, we can teach good techniques to workshops in other counties."

After all, the distance between counties and between counties and prefectures is quite far.

We can't fly, and we don't have cell phones and computers like those books in the library, which allow us to communicate face-to-face even though we are thousands of miles apart.

They can only use the old methods.

Something suddenly flashed through Gu Lanying's mind, and she said, "Just like Xiao Mo and Xiao Yun."

When the ministers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance lead teams to rural areas, isn't that a process of guidance and exchange?

The vice minister asked in confusion: What are you talking about?

Gu Lanying patted the deputy minister on the shoulder, her tone gratified, "Xiao Zhang, that's a great idea. I'll bring it up for discussion at the next administrative meeting."

The vice minister was delighted to hear this, "Great, I look forward to your good news!"

Gu Lanying casually asked, "How's Yunhe's publicity work going lately?"

The deputy minister replied, "It's alright, but I have some questions about my work that I'd like to ask you about, it's just that..."

The person who came from the Publicity Department of Hulin County was the Minister. She saw Gu Lanying chatting with an acquaintance, so she waited quietly to the side.

Only after they finished talking did I go up to greet them.

Gu Lanying and the minister had exchanged work-related correspondence, but this was their first meeting.

She smiled kindly and asked the other person what was wrong.

The county head of Hulin County smiled and asked, "I'd like to ask about the matter of someone betraying the Goddess. Is it convenient for Minister Gu to ask?"

Good heavens! They had only been at the inn for a short time when they overheard locals talking about this. Unfortunately, those people only had a vague understanding and couldn't explain it clearly. If they wanted to know more details, they would have better ask someone from the administration office.

Gu Lanying's expression remained unchanged. Neither she nor her family had betrayed the goddess, so she had nothing to be ashamed of.

"Indeed, some people were bribed by the people in Maozhou to try to coerce the Goddess. They have all been captured and imprisoned. We will hold a meeting after the people from the military camp return to discuss the specifics of their actions."

"The goddess is unharmed."

After discussing the other party's concerns, and seeing the unfriendly expression on their face, Gu Lanying did not say that the goddess was using entrapment to make an example of someone. Instead, she proposed to launch a county-wide ideological education campaign.

The minister of Hulin County was taken aback.

Gu Lanying patiently explained, "After doing this work for so long, you know that some of our people can be taught, while teaching others is a waste of your time. Among these people, there are also some who can be intimidated."

The minister of Hulin County understood and said, "Okay, I will convey this message to our county administrative office when I get back."

Everyone will be furious.

The finals of the Autumn Games lasted for five days.

The participating athletes showcased their talents and formed friendships with athletes from other regions who shared similar personalities.

Overall, everyone had a great time.

The athletes who made it into the top three began to look forward to the strawberries and lychees that the goddess would present as prizes.

He Qinglan is picking fruit in the faraway Lingnan region.

Her body had just recovered, but fortunately, picking fruit didn't require much magic power. She simply made a hand seal, and all the ripe red strawberries were stored in her system space.

She immediately flew to the lychee grove.

Outside the lychee grove, a minor official who was ordered to take turns keeping watch on Xiangli Mountain thought today would be another day of wasted time.

He suddenly saw a woman in pink fly from a distance and land above the lychee grove.

The clerk's eyes widened: "!!!"

He didn't even have time to go back and inform the prefect. He saw the woman in pink form a hand seal, and then a blue light spread out from her, enveloping all the lychee trees.

The minor official watched helplessly as the red lychees fell from the tree on their own, flew upwards, and floated in the air.

What's going on?! The clerk was so shocked his legs went weak.

With a flick of her left sleeve, the woman in pink caused all the lychees floating in the air to vanish.

She glanced at the lychee tree below and said in a cool tone, "I'll pick these that are already edible first, and come back in a couple of days to pick the ones that aren't fully ripe yet. Don't be lazy."

As if she could understand her words, the lychee tree shook its branches frantically.

The woman in pink seemed quite pleased with their good behavior and said, "Good boy, I'll reward you."

The minor official grabbed onto a nearby tree to support himself and prevent himself from collapsing to the ground.

He stared in astonishment at the pink-clad woman, who he couldn't tell if she was a fairy or a demon, and felt he had to say something.

Otherwise, she would have flown away, and how would he explain it to the prefect when he got back?

Good heavens, who would have thought she could pick lychees so quickly?

Otherwise, how long would it take her to pick all the lychees from this mountain?

The minor official had already gone down the mountain and summoned Xu Dongyang!

Seeing the woman in pink about to leave, the clerk opened his mouth, "..."

He couldn't make a sound.

The official encouraged himself and finally mustered up the courage to call out, "Fairy, please wait!"

He Qinglan lowered her eyes and looked at him.

She had known all along that someone was watching this lychee grove, but she had set up a barrier. What did it matter how many people were watching? They couldn't break through the barrier and pick her lychees.

The minor official met her gaze.

The woman in pink was very pretty, but she looked as cold and aloof as ice, which was somewhat frightening.

The clerk subconsciously looked away and asked in a trembling voice, "May I ask which deity the fairy is from, and what her title is? My prefect wishes to personally go and pay homage to her."

He Qinglan listened to him stammer out those words, but didn't make things difficult for him.

She took out a flask of wine that had just come out of the cellar from the winery from her system space and tossed it to the clerk, watching him frantically try to catch it.

“Tell Xu Dongyang that I am Anling, He Qinglan.”

The woman in pink disappeared after she finished speaking.

Just like the countless lychees that were originally hanging on the tree, they disappeared into thin air.

The official stared in the direction she had just been, instinctively clutching the wine jug in his arms.

He thought he should hurry to the prefectural government to report to the prefect and tell him everything he had seen.

but……

"He Qinglan?"

Who is this deity? I've never heard of him before.

Does the prefect know this deity?

He Qinglan returned to Anling County with a bountiful harvest of strawberries and lychees.

The medals and prizes for the finals of the Games were awarded by the goddess.

Amidst the expectant and excited gazes of the crowd, He Qinglan stood on the podium to receive the award.

She said, "Everyone did a great job this time and achieved excellent results. Congratulations!"

The crowd cheered.

"It's okay if you didn't get a ranking. There are wins and losses in competition. Just keep trying next time."

The crowd continued to cheer.

Some athletes and ordinary people in the audience had been eating the food bestowed by the goddess for a year and a half, but this was the first time they had seen the goddess in person.

They were overjoyed, their eyes burning as they stared at the goddess, trying to memorize her image.

Liu Jing deftly took out the black pen she had received from her friend who had won third prize, as well as a piece of white paper she had prepared beforehand. She patted the young man who had come with her and said, "Quick, squat down and be my table."

The young man raised an eyebrow. "We agreed that you would draw one for me when we got back."

The goddess forbade the establishment of temples and the erection of statues of deities in various places, but she did not say that portraits were forbidden.

Liu Jing nodded, "Don't worry, don't worry."

The young man squatted down, revealing his broad back.

Liu Jing placed the white paper on the platform and, while watching the goddess on the stage, began to draw with a fine black pen.

After my friend got the black pen back, they tried it out. The pen writes very fine characters and doesn't need to be dried, making it very easy to use.

She drew a portrait of her friend with a black pen, which her friend liked very much. Her friend suggested that they come to Anling together for the finals, "We can draw a portrait of the goddess, and use it as a reference when we get back, and then you can draw one with a brush."

Liu Jing was tempted.

On stage, Gu Lanying, as the host, read out the list of award winners.

"Third place in the relay race: Anling Prince Jian, He Jiaojiao, Li Qiuping, and Zhao Youcai."

The four people whose names were called squeezed out of the crowd and ran quickly onto the stage. They greeted the goddess and Gu Lanying, and then happily waved to the crowd below the stage.

Gu Lanying then read out the names of the second and first place winners.

Soon, 12 award winners stood on the stage.

People from the publicity department acted as ceremonial staff and presented the medal.

He Qinglan presented medals and prizes to each of the winners in turn:

First place: A box of lychees (30 pieces), a box of strawberries (30 pieces), and a 4-inch mini cake.

Second place: A box of lychees and a box of strawberries.

Third place: A box of lychees.

The audience: "..."

His gaze was intense.

Those are lychees, lychees that ripen out of season!

And strawberries, I've never even heard of this fruit before. What does it taste like?

He Qinglan, bathed in the gazes of the people, remained silent.

She said, "After awarding the prizes to the winners, each person will receive a lychee and a strawberry."

The cheers from the crowd surged like waves.

Cheng Hui and the others backstage had already heard from the goddess that she would give everyone fruit after the competition.

"Because the quantity is limited, each person can only receive one," He Qinglan said.

Cheng Hui asked, "Is Anling County enough, with hundreds of thousands of people?"

He Qinglan thought for a moment, then said, "That's enough."

She has a strawberry farm the size of a football field, 10 acres!

There is also a mountain of lychee trees.

Cheng Hui laughed, "Thanks to the goddess, we can also taste fresh fruit!"