Li Chu didn't plan to go back to the hospital either, and asked Tian Jun to take them directly home.

He spent the afternoon at home playing with his little grandson, who was already running around everywhere, and it wasn't until five o'clock that he drove to headquarters to pick up his wife and take her home.

Before the meeting was even over, he stood out like a light bulb in the middle of the night in his military uniform.

With nothing else to do, he wandered around the office building, up and down the stairs, and then went to the courtyard to continue wandering around.

It doesn't matter if people know him, but how many people does the headquarters need? And most of them don't know him.

It doesn't matter if you don't know the person, just recognize the epaulettes. These people in the government don't believe that anyone would dare to come here to swindle and cheat.

Now, seeing him is like mice seeing a cat. People who were slacking off and chatting before are now walking around like this, and the entire government compound is as clean as if a dog licked it. Even the slow-moving staff have become more efficient.

He hadn't been wandering around the courtyard for long when Deputy Director Hao from the General Office came running over. When he saw Li Chu wandering around the courtyard with his hands behind his back, he was both amused and exasperated.

A staff member just told him that an unfamiliar leader was wandering around the compound. They didn't know if it was some bigwig coming down to inspect without prior notice, or if he was the kind of person who was very powerful.

Deputy Director Hao immediately became anxious upon hearing this. This was serious; they had to find the person immediately.

The leaders were all in a meeting when this deputy director, having inquired his way up, finally found his way here.

"Director Li, you're just wandering around the yard all the time, and it's really giving our staff quite a fright."

The deputy director invited Li Chu to his office on the first floor and poured him a glass of water.

"Well, I see everyone's busy, and I don't have anything to do, so I might as well take a walk around and get familiar with the area, so I won't be unable to find the door when I come here to do something."

This reason was so compelling that the deputy director rolled his eyes in exasperation.

It's as if you personally ran around doing this for someone else; you must have nothing better to do.

"Director Li, are you here to see the leaders? They're all having a meeting in the auditorium, it should be over soon."

“I’m not going to talk to them. I’m waiting to pick up my wife from get off work. These leaders are so talkative. It’s been a whole day and they still haven’t finished talking.”

This rant is so powerful, the deputy director didn't know how to respond.

But is it really okay for you to pick up your wife before the end of the workday, especially right under the noses of your superiors at headquarters?

"Send someone over to tell my wife I'm here. She doesn't know I'm coming to pick her up. Otherwise, I'll be waiting like an idiot after she leaves."

"Okay, I'll send someone over to tell Director Ding right away."

"You know the person, don't get it wrong."

"My dear Director Li, please rest assured."

How could I not recognize her? There were one or two hundred people in the venue, and there were less than twenty female cadres in total. She looked the youngest, but she also had the highest military rank, so she stood out.

In the morning, there were even people from out of town who came to attend the meeting and thought she was there on behalf of the leader, since she was wearing the leader's clothes.

The man thought to himself, "These people in Beijing are really something. They even dare to send someone to impersonate them at a meeting like this."

The person who was sent by the deputy director to deliver a message to Ding Qiunan had just reached the back door of the conference room and was about to slip in when he was bumped into by a high-ranking leader who had come out to use the restroom and was also about to go in.

"Xiao Liu, what are you planning to do?"

"Uh, hello leader. Deputy Director Hao asked me to come and pass on a message to Director Ding Qiunan."

"What did you say?"

"It's Director Li Chu waiting for her in our Deputy Director Hao's office."

"Hehe! Alright, I'll just tell Comrade Qiu Nan later, you don't need to go in."

Xiao Liu's face turned green. The leader had already pushed open the door and gone in. Now he didn't know whether to leave or go in. He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

Ten minutes after the leader went in, the meeting host announced that the meeting was over and that dinner was ready in the cafeteria, and everyone could go and eat.

Just as the people below the stage began to pack up their things, the high-ranking leader who hadn't left yet took the microphone and spoke.

Is Comrade Ding Qiunan from the main hospital here?

"arrive"

Ding Qiunan, who was tidying up her things, responded loudly, then stood up with a bewildered look on her face.

The previously noisy meeting room quickly quieted down.

"Someone is waiting for you at Deputy Director Hao's place."

"yes"

As the leaders on the podium left, the voices in the conference room gradually grew louder.

"The higher-ups are demanding that cadres be younger, and they're all this young now?"

"Who knows? Maybe they have connections in higher places."

"It's a bit of an exaggeration to say there are more people. At most, they'd only be worth 12 cents if they were placed below."

"What do you think this place is?" The man stamped his foot. "This isn't the grassroots level."

Since everyone's upper limit is different, their ceiling is also different.

Ding Qiunan quickly packed her things, greeted a few other people from Beijing, and walked out of the conference room first, heading towards the office building ahead. She was completely confused at the moment.

When she walked into the lobby on the first floor through the back door of the office building and saw the car parked at the bottom of the steps through the front door, she breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her eyes.

Ding Qiunan stood in the lobby on the first floor and looked around before walking towards Deputy Director Hao's office on the west side.

"You, the meeting is over." The office door wasn't closed, and Li Chu saw her as soon as she reached the door.

"The food at the headquarters canteen is pretty good. Let's go, let's have a meal here today."

"You're really putting on airs. If you're going to ask someone to pass on a message, just ask them to. Why did you have to go to the top leader?"

"What do you mean, 'find a high-ranking leader'?" Li Chu asked, somewhat bewildered. "Didn't Deputy Director Hao send a staff member over?"

[A book-reading app recommended to me by a friend I've known for ten years, Yeguo Reading! It's damn good! I use it to read aloud and listen to books while driving or before bed to pass the time. You can download it here: yeguoyuedu]

"Oh, who cares who delivered the message, as long as I find you, that's all that matters. Come on, come on, I'm starving."

"Aren't you going back to eat?"

“I told my sister that we’d eat at the stove before going back.”

Li Chu was indeed a bit hungry at this moment, so without thinking twice, he told Deputy Director Hao and pushed his wife out.

"Oh dear, I'll walk by myself. What kind of mess is this, with everyone scrambling around in the office building?"

Deputy Director Hao stood in his office watching the couple leave, shaking his head with a smile.

One is a leader who doesn't act like one, and the other is young and doesn't act like one. They're really a pair of in-laws who ended up together.

Are you having a meeting tomorrow?

"Go ahead and hold the meeting, this meeting will last for three days."

"Well, mine takes five days, yours takes three. That's really something."

"By the way, why did your meeting end so early?"