Chapter 87

When Lin Tao returned to the guesthouse, the young comrade had already prepared hot water for her. When he saw Lin Tao coming in, he handed her the kettle and said, "Sister-in-law, the hot water is ready. Take it upstairs."

"Thank you." Lin Tao smiled at the young comrade.

This young comrade looked to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old. Outside, people of his age could not go to college because of school closures, so they either went to work in the countryside or ran around wearing red armbands. He was not like those people who worked in a guesthouse and was a smart guy.

Lin Tao felt that such a person would have a good future if he encountered an opportunity in the future.

The meeting lasted from the afternoon until five o'clock. Lin Tao was a little tired. After having dinner at the state-owned hotel, she walked for more than half an hour to digest the food and then decided to go to bed and rest early.

But now lying on the bed, without Yueyue and Li Chengxi by her side, Lin Tao felt a little uncomfortable.

I still remember when they first moved into the guesthouse, Lin Tao initially complained that the bed was too small. How could three people sleep on it?

Now she was the only one sleeping in the bed, and Lin Tao missed the time when they were a family of three, huddled together so tightly, it was very crowded, but her heart was filled.

With thoughts of her family, Lin Tao fell asleep.

The meeting of the next day started at ten o'clock in the morning. Lin Tao got up at eight o'clock and went to the state-owned hotel to eat first. She came early and there were steamed buns, so she ordered one.

Just after the order was served, a woman in her thirties or forties came over with a lot of luggage. She packed neatly and spoke crisply. She ordered a steamed bun like Lin Tao.

There were not many seats in the state-owned hotel, so Lin Tao and her elder sister shared a table.

The two were eating their own steamed buns. Lin Tao saw her elder sister dip them in vinegar and chili. The elder sister smiled at her and said, "It tastes better with some vinegar and chili. Why don't you try it?"

In Xiangcheng, people also eat xiaolongbao with chili peppers, but they never dip it in vinegar.

Lin Tao smiled at her elder sister and said, "Thank you. I'll give it a try, too."

She took a small plate and poured some vinegar on it like her elder sister did, added some chili peppers, picked up a small steamed bun, dipped it in the sauce, and put it into her mouth.

When you open the bun skin, the soup inside will overflow, mixed with the slight sourness of aged vinegar and the slight spiciness of chili, which makes the taste even better.

"How is it? Not bad, right?" The elder sister spoke with a northern accent, so she must be a local.

Lin Tao nodded: "It's delicious."

After they finished eating their steamed buns, they were ready to leave. When the eldest sister stood up, a bag of luggage fell from her hand. She had a lot of luggage on her and it was difficult to carry it. Seeing this, Lin Tao hurriedly helped to pick it up and held it in her hand.

Lin Tao asked, "Big sister, where are you going? If it's convenient for you, I'll give you a ride."

"Nothing." The elder sister said, and then said, "I'm going to take bus No. 8 to the Education Bureau because I have a meeting to attend."

Lin Tao suddenly realized that this elder sister was also here for a meeting. Seeing how neat and efficient this elder sister was, she must be someone else. She turned out to be the principal of the school.

Lin Tao said, "What a coincidence! I also have to go to the Education Bureau for a meeting. But the meeting seems to have started yesterday. Did something delay you on the way?"

"Well, I was on a business trip before, and the train was delayed, so I arrived late." said the eldest sister.

Lin Tao nodded and said, "It's okay though. I've written down the key points of yesterday's meeting. I'll give you the notes later. You can copy them and take them back. You'll be able to understand them."

The eldest sister smiled and said nothing.

The two got on the bus and there were seats available, so they sat next to each other and chatted about other things.

The eldest sister asked Lin Tao which school she was from and how she became the principal at such a young age.

Lin Tao was quite embarrassed and explained that she was not the principal, but just a teacher. She was a teacher at Shengshan Primary School. Their school was busy building a junior high school recently, and the principal was too busy to come, so he sent her to attend the meeting and convey the spirit of the meeting when she returned.

After getting off the bus, Lin Tao still helped her elder sister with her luggage. The two walked to the gate of the Education Bureau. Lin Tao showed the guard her letter of introduction like she did yesterday. However, the guard took a look at the letter of introduction and said, "No, you can't go in like this. You have to show the principal's certificate."

Lin Tao frowned and said in confusion: "But I'm not the principal. Our principal had other things to do, so he specially appointed me to come to the meeting. It's all written on the letter of introduction, and it has our principal's signature. Besides, didn't you let me in yesterday?"

You didn't ask for a certificate from the principal yesterday, why do you suddenly ask for it today?

And when she went to the meeting yesterday, she learned from others that she was not the only teacher assigned to attend the meeting this time. Could it be that they were not allowed to enter?

Or is it just directed at her?

Lin Tao's mind popped up Fan Jianshu's name, and she felt that this was most likely something that Fan Jianshu had done. Because he had spoken to her yesterday, but she had ignored him?

It seems like his style. On the surface, he appears to be nonchalant and doesn't take anything seriously, but in fact, he is narrow-minded and very vindictive. He is simply a hypocrite.

Lin Tao was so angry that her face flushed. She had to attend this meeting. She hadn't finished talking about the important part last night. And it was clear that Fan Jianshu was deliberately making things difficult for her.

Lin Tao is usually gentle, but deep down she is not the kind of person who allows herself to be bullied.

The guard said, "Yesterday was yesterday. Yesterday, we let you in because we hadn't received any notification from above. Today, no matter what we say, we won't let you in."

Fishing in troubled waters? How could she be considered fishing in troubled waters just because she came to attend a meeting normally?

Lin Tao's expression changed and she said, "Notified? Okay, then tell me who notified you? Call that person out. I want to confront him face to face."

Is it Fan Jianshu? She is not afraid of him.

The guard didn't say anything. At this moment, the older sister took Lin Tao's letter of introduction and took a look at it. She said to Lin Tao, "It's okay. I've read your letter of introduction. There's no problem. Come in with me."

The guard's arrogance subsided a lot when he saw her, but he still said, "Director Wei, this is... this is what Deputy Director Fan told us. Deputy Director Fan said that this meeting is important and we need to check it carefully. The letter of introduction is not enough."

Director Wei?

Lin Tao glanced at the elder sister. She thought that the elder sister was here for the meeting like her, and that she was the principal of a school. But it turned out that she was the director of the Education Bureau?

Director Wei held the letter of introduction and pointed at it, saying, "Don't worry about what Deputy Director Fan says. I'm the director and he has to listen to me. I said, just check the letter of introduction. It has the seal of Shengshan Primary School and the signature of the principal. There can't be any mistakes."

The security guard was speechless after being rebuked by Director Wei and had to let him in.

Lin Tao and Director Wei walked into the Education Bureau together, and then she said with emotion: "So you are the director, Director Wei, thank you so much today."

"No need to thank me. There is no such rule. You can come to the meeting with the letter of introduction." Director Wei said. She walked into the director's office, put her luggage in first, and introduced herself, "My name is Wei Yingzi, what's yours, sister?"

"Yingzi, the heroic Yingzi?" Seeing Wei Yingzi nod, Lin Tao smiled and said, "This name really suits you, Director Wei."

He is efficient and heroic in his work.

"My last name is Lin, which means Lin with two trees, and my given name is Tao, which means peach." Lin Tao introduced herself.

Wei Yingzi nodded and said to her, "Okay, Lin Tao, when the time comes, let's go to the conference room for the meeting."

When Lin Tao arrived at the meeting room, she found that several teachers who had come to the meeting on behalf of the principal like her yesterday had all come in. It seemed that she was right in her guess, and Fan Jianshu was indeed deliberately setting a trap for her.

Wei Yingzi nodded to Lin Tao and said, "There's an empty seat, go sit there."

That was where Lin Tao sat yesterday. Everyone sat in their original seats. Lin Tao nodded to Wei Yingzi and sat down.

He noticed that when Fan Jianshu saw her and Wei Yingzi walking into the conference room together, the smile on his face froze and his expression looked a little ugly.

Wei Yingzi walked over to Fan Jianshu, removed the name on Fan Jianshu's desk, and put her own name on it, saying, "Deputy Director Fan, the train I took yesterday was delayed, so I had to trouble you to attend the meeting for me. Now that I'm here, I won't bother you anymore."

Wei Yingzi's words were quite polite.

However, Fan Jianshu was almost "driven" off the stage in front of so many people, and the title of "Deputy Director Fan" has always been a taboo for him.

The word "deputy" indicates that Wei Yingzi is the top leader. As long as Wei Yingzi is in the Education Bureau, all important matters will be handled by Wei Yingzi. Only when Wei Yingzi is not around can he take over.

Fan Jianshu's face froze, and he said with a fake smile, "Yes, yes, yesterday when I saw you didn't come back, I told Xiao Zhao that I was worried that something might happen to you. I'm glad you're back. OK, I'll sit downstairs and listen, you sit here."

Having said that, Fan Jianshu stepped down from the podium.

Wei Yingzi ignored Fan Jianshu and patted the seat where Fan Jianshu had sat. To others, this action seemed insignificant, as patting the dust off the seat was a habit for some people.

But Lin Tao could see that Wei Yingzi really disliked Fan Jianshu, and her action showed her dislike for Fan Jianshu.

Sure enough, when Fan Jianshu saw Wei Yingzi's action, his face turned ugly.

This meeting was very important. Every school sent a representative and no one was absent, so all the seats below were filled.

Fan Jianshu could only find a chair at random and move it to the back to sit.

Unexpectedly, the chair had been broken for a long time, so it was placed in the corner. The screw of one of the legs of the chair had fallen off and was not installed. As soon as Fan Jianshu sat on it, he fell on his back.

He usually pretended to be a decent person, but now he fell down in a very funny way. The principal and teachers present couldn't help laughing when they saw him. But laughing in front of Fan Jianshu seemed inappropriate, and some people were so embarrassed that their faces turned red.

Only Lin Tao curled her lips. When she saw Fan Jianshu fall like this, she just wanted to laugh and didn't try to hide it.

The leader on the stage frowned and said, "Xiao Fan, please go out and do something else. Director Wei will preside over this meeting."

The important thing now is to hold a meeting. He said, "Director Wei went to Beijing for a meeting this time and brought us new policies and educational guidelines. Let's listen to Director Wei's speech."

Wei Yingzi took over the leader's words and repeated at the meeting the important policies and educational guidelines she had heard during her visit to Beijing, and also gave her own interpretation of the meeting.

For a moment, the conference room was filled with the sound of notes being taken and occasional nodding of agreement.

Compared to Wei Yingzi, Fan Jianshu was like a dog that had fled in panic. What was even more ridiculous was that when he fell, his pants were accidentally scratched by the sharp edges of the chair, and he was still covering his butt when he walked.

Wei Yingzi lived up to her name, doing her job efficiently and effectively, and conveyed important information in brief words. After the meeting, the teachers packed up their things and left one after another.

Lin Tao was not in a hurry. She wanted to say hello to Wei Yingzi before leaving.

Wei Yingzi was sorting out her own documents. The female colleague who had been chatting with Fan Jianshu about dinner took the documents in her hand and was about to leave, but was stopped by Wei Yingzi: "Xiao Zhao, what are you doing in such a hurry?"

Xiao Zhao said, "Director, Director Fan asked me to help him deliver these materials to his office after the meeting..."

Wei Yingzi glanced at Xiao Zhao, as if she could see through her thoughts at a glance, and said sternly: "Are you my secretary or Fan Jianshu's secretary? Forget it, I think you would rather be Fan Jianshu's secretary, I will transfer you there immediately."

Little Zhao was so scared that he almost cried, and quickly put the information back: "No, Director, I don't have it, then I won't go to deliver it..."

Lin Tao was waiting for Wei Yingzi outside. Seeing this scene, she admired Wei Yingzi even more. On the first day after returning from a business trip, she knocked two people at the same time. As expected, she was efficient and heroic.

Lin Tao admires and likes women like Wei Yingzi. Just like Yang Aidang, in Lin Tao's view, they are all people worth learning from and worthy of admiration.

Wei Yingzi walked out of the conference room, but she didn't expect Lin Tao to still be there. She put away her stern expression towards the female secretary, smiled at Lin Tao, and asked, "You haven't left yet?"

Lin Tao said to her, "I thought I'd say hello to you before I left."

Wei Yingzi patted her on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Next time you come to the Education Bureau, remember to come see me."

The two talked for a few more words, and Wei Yingzi also said a few other things to Lin Tao about this meeting. These were her own opinions, and Lin Tao benefited a lot from them.

Finally, she realized that the time was almost up and if she dawdled any longer she would miss the boat, so she left.