Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Other government agencies also need...
Qu Jiefang came from a humble background. A few years older than Sister Feng, he was nearly forty. Before liberation, he worked as a tenant farmer, barely able to eat enough year-round. When the People's Liberation Army passed through, he joined the army. He learned his trade there, but he didn't follow the troops south. Instead, he stayed in the area and eventually joined a machinery factory. Jiefang was a name he had chosen for himself. He was a cheerful man, and everyone had a good impression of him, though he loved to brag about his military service.
Sister Feng laughed at him, saying he had never been to the battlefield and was just a cook. Qu Jiefang retorted: "So what if he's a cook? He's also a PLA soldier, and PLA soldiers are the cutest people." Then he happily went to the cafeteria with his lunch box.
At this time, the entire personnel department did not have much work to do, as the more important functions were taken over by the office or the political department. However, it also did daily chores. Whenever any department needed people, they would come to the personnel department to borrow people.
As for Su Yan, besides her daily routine of filing, her most important job was writing for various leaders. She'd write, show it to the section chief, who would then revise it. After the revisions, the section chief would show it to the specific leader. After the leader reviewed it, Su Yan would revise it again until the leader was satisfied. Some leaders were very demanding, requiring her to revise it more than a dozen times. This wasn't originally Su Yan's job, but Secretary Su mentioned that Lu Yingzi had university education, so he asked her to write. Su Yan had no talent for such writing; she simply wrote for the People's Daily and internal magazines. She also frequently read Quotations from Chairman Mao and Chairman Mao, and memorized the relevant editorials.
When Su Yan was in school, she heard from seniors from previous years that when writing documents for leaders, one should consider the third or fourth rewrite as if nothing was written, then rewrite it after the seventh or eighth, and be prepared to write it more than ten times. Su Yan felt that her writing was terrible, but everyone assumed she was a college graduate. Even if she didn't know how to write documents at first, after some practice, she would definitely be better than those who hadn't even graduated from junior high or high school.
Su Yan complained bitterly about this, but her colleagues in HR thought she had gotten a great job. Even Uncle Lu, who usually kept quiet, said, "Yingzi, do a good job!"
Su Yan smiled and said, "Uncle Lu, this is a tough job for me!"
Sister Feng came in from outside carrying a pot of tea: "Yingzi, don't treat bean buns as solid food! Do you know that if this written material is well written, it is most likely to be seen by the leaders."
Su Yan smiled and said nothing. She just wanted to find a job to make a living temporarily and didn't want to be seen by any big boss.
Su Yan finished writing the draft and showed it to Director Lin in the office. He signed it, and it was considered approved. When she returned to the personnel department, she saw Sister Wang from the labor union there, talking excitedly. When she saw Su Yan, she said, "Hey, Yingzi, there's a dance at the Friendship Hotel on Saturday night. You have to go!"
Su Yan shook her head. "Director Wang, we have two small children at home, so I really can't leave. Besides, I'm not very good at dancing, so I don't want to embarrass our unit." Su Yan had also attended such a dance party once, but it was with people from her own unit. In this era, people advocated for civility, and even the top leaders in Beijing advocated dancing.
Sister Wang's face darkened. "Yingzi, this isn't a discussion with you. This is a political assignment! It's not just our Jiangzhou Machinery Factory, but other government agencies as well." She added, "Yingzi, remember to wear a skirt. Don't go to our factory dance in work clothes like you did last time."
Su Yan waved her hand. "Director Wang, it's not that I don't want to wear this skirt. I really don't have it. It costs a lot of money to buy a piece of fabric. Even if I go to the mall to buy a ready-made skirt, it will cost at least three or five yuan. You see, this dance is a political task. Can't the unit reimburse me a little?"
Sister Wang came over and hit Su Yan with a smile: "You want reimbursement? You're dreaming." While reminding Su Yan not to miss the time at 8 o'clock in the evening, she also said that she would go and notify other people.
After hearing this, Sister Feng rushed in and advised Su Yan: "Yingzi, you have to go to this dance. Not only must you go, but you must also dress yourself beautifully."
Su Yan didn't understand: "Isn't it just a dance party?"
Sister Feng leaned close to Su Yan's ear and whispered, "This dance isn't just for people from our unit. There are also people from the government and the military, and quite a few cadres. You're still young, and even if you're not in a hurry to get married, you should try to pick one out first. With your talent and looks, it would be a shame to find a worker from our factory."
Su Yan sighed inwardly, but still said perfunctorily, "Okay, thank you Sister Feng for your advice." After work, Su Yan picked up Yan Zi from kindergarten. She had fought with a classmate today and was criticized by the teacher. Su Yan held her hand and asked, "Why did you fight? Did you suffer any loss?"
Yan Zi was unhappy: "He said I was a wild girl without parents, so I hit him on the head with a teacup."
Su Yan comforted her: "Your classmates are still young and don't know right from wrong or kindness. They are wrong and they did something wrong. You are not wrong. But don't fight next time. If you have anything to say, tell the teacher or tell your aunt after school."
Yan Zi cried silently: "Auntie, I miss my mother, I miss my mother!"
Su Yan patted her head and said, "Then when you have a day off on Sunday, let's go see her, okay?"
Yan Zi stopped crying: "Really, Aunt? Will my mother let me go?"
Su Yan didn't say anything. She didn't know either. She had just turned twenty years old and had never raised a child. Her mother had always let her do whatever she wanted.
Xiaogang had already cooked dinner at home. He washed the vegetables and waited for Su Yan to come back and fry them. Su Yan simply fried a plate of sliced meat and black fungus, a plate of green vegetables, and a plate of egg drop soup. The two children ate with relish. Su Yan announced at the dinner table: "Let's go see Mother Swallow on Sunday!" Xiaogang shook his head: "Auntie, I won't go. You guys go! It's better to bring back our rations."
Mother Yan Zi took away the household registration books of both of them, and they had to use the books to collect ten kilograms of food every month. It has been two months, and Xiaogang's elementary school is about to start, but she has no intention of returning the books.
Yan Zi looked at Xiao Gang pitifully and said, "Brother, you should go too. Let's go together."
Xiaogang shook his head and stood up to clean up the dishes: "I'm not going, auntie!"
After dinner and cleaning up, Su Yan taught the two children to read and write. It was not that difficult actually, just a review of the textbook content. As she was teaching, she suddenly remembered that they did not study or take the college entrance examination during that ten-year period. Yan Zi and Xiao Gang were only in their teens at that time, and they were only in their twenties when they started taking the college entrance examination again. She thought it necessary to stock up on several sets of teaching materials so that even if they wanted to study, they would have no teaching materials.
In those days, people worked six days a week, with no such thing as a weekend off. Therefore, Su Yan had to go to work on Saturdays as well. As soon as she arrived at the office, Director Chen from the Party Committee said with a smile, "Hey, Yingzi, come on, our factory has a program for the city's Mid-Autumn Festival gala, and the Party Committee leaders are paying close attention. I've already told your HR department, and we'll be rehearsing tonight."
Su Yan held a stack of materials in her hand and said, "Director Chen, my limbs are not coordinated, and I'm afraid of making a fool of myself!"
Director Chen said, "What's there to be afraid of? If you can't dance or sing well, you have to rehearse! If you know everything by the time you get here, then what's the point of rehearsing? There's still a month until Mid-Autumn Festival, so you have to practice hard!"
Su Yan saw that she couldn't refuse anymore, so she raised the stack of materials in her hand and said, "Director Chen, I will definitely do your job, but I have to work overtime five days a week to write the materials. You have to talk to the leader. I'm rehearsing the show now and really don't have time to work overtime."
Director Chen was in charge of rehearsals and didn't care about anything else. She said, "Okay, I'll go talk to the secretary. Writing materials is office work. You're in the personnel department, so it's not your job."
Su Yan nodded, thinking to herself, rehearsing is much easier than writing materials, and she was happy about it. Then she mentioned the union dance tonight, and asked if you could go and talk to me about it. I won't go to the dance at all, and we'll just start rehearsing tonight.
Director Chen, who was in his fifties, thought for a moment and said, "You should go to the dance. You're young, and it wouldn't hurt to meet more people. Besides, it seems Director Lin from the office personally picked your name. There's no rush for my rehearsal; I still need to invite the teacher."
Yes, everyone thinks this dance is a hot topic!
After work in the afternoon, I took Yan Zi back home and asked the teacher about it. The teacher said embarrassedly, "Aunt Yan Zi, these kids didn't hit anyone, they just talked about it. I've told them not to say that to Yan Zi. But you can only control them for a day or two. On the third day, they will be back to their old ways."
Su Yan thanked the teacher and said, "Please take good care of Yan Zi during this period and don't let her fight."
Su Yan asked Yan Zi, "Auntie has checked the calendar. Next Friday is your birthday. Let's invite your kindergarten classmates to our house to celebrate your birthday, okay?"
Although there were some children who fought with Yan Zi in the kindergarten, there were also some who were on good terms with her. Yan Zi nodded and smiled, "Auntie, but my birthday is according to the lunar calendar, which is next month?"
Su Yan said, "We'll celebrate two birthdays this year, the lunar birthday and the solar birthday. We'll celebrate both!"
Yan Zi still shook her head: "Aunt, but we can't tell others that we are eating braised pork. We don't have extra cornmeal steamed buns when our classmates come. At most, one will be good enough for three people to share."
Su Yan said, "It's okay. This birthday party is just a simple one. I'll invite my classmates over to play. There won't be much to eat, but my aunt gave out some sunflower seeds and peanuts during a meeting at her workplace. You can give them to your classmates when the time comes. Once you get to know each other better, you won't be afraid of your classmates bullying you."
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