"Sister Xiaoqiu, here's the information you requested." The colleague put a report in front of Liu Qiu and said to her, "A leader from above is coming to inspect today. It's almost eleven o'clock now. Is he not coming?"
"You'd better go back to your post. I'm afraid you'll come here if you just chat." Liu Qiu opened the local network and entered the data into the system. "I won't chat with you anymore. I can't finish this pile of work. I have to work overtime tonight."
"It's boring." The colleague muttered quietly and turned back to his seat. Among the young employees in the office, Liu Qiu had the highest education and the strongest work ability. It was said that the director was preparing to train her as a successor, but another leader felt that Liu Qiu was a woman and could not handle things, so he wanted to train another male colleague. In addition, the male colleague had some connections in his family, so everyone felt sorry for Liu Qiu.
The male colleague looked up and joked, "Why do you want to provoke her? Everyone knows that she is a well-known and motivated person in our department."
The others stared at the male colleague and said nothing. There were more women than men in the department, and they felt a little unfair for Liu Qiu, but they didn't want to offend anyone, so they barely maintained harmony in the office.
The male colleague didn't care about other people's attitudes. He picked up a cup and filled it with water from the water dispenser. "Let me tell you, this time it's not the leaders above who came to inspect, but a big investor. It is said that this big investor is a well-known philanthropic businessman. He has invested in many projects in Xugou City in the past two years. He has relatives living in our Anonymous County, so he came to take a look. The county leaders attach great importance to this matter, so they specially arranged the reception work. The leaders brought him to our department to let us introduce the scientific development plan of agricultural products."
"An investor who can be received by the leader in person must be very powerful." Hearing this gossip, other colleagues were a little surprised. "If we can really let him invest in more projects in our Anonymous County and help the people generate more income, it will be a good thing."
"It's not that easy." The male colleague sneered, "I heard that several neighboring counties have been secretly contacting this investor, trying to lure him to their counties."
"Didn't the investor have relatives in our county?" the colleague whispered, "Compared with other counties, we still have an advantage."
"How much of a difference can a distant relative make?" The male colleague couldn't help but feel proud when he saw that his colleagues were listening to his analysis seriously. "Just wait and see. Don't make any mistakes later. The leaders value this cooperation very much. No matter whether it can be accomplished or not, at least it can't be ruined in our hands."
Liu Qiu listened to the conversation of his colleagues and secretly took out his mobile phone to take a look. Hua Jin sent a message this morning saying that she was already in Yiming County and came to find her in the morning. It was already past eleven o'clock, why hadn't she appeared yet?
"Coming." The male colleague answered a phone call and said to everyone after hanging up, "Everyone, pay attention to your image and remember not to talk nonsense."
Liu Qiu was a little worried about Hua Jin. She hadn't been back to the county town for so many years. Could she have gotten lost? After thinking it over, she sent a message to her, asking her to call her if anything happened and to be careful.
Fanhua: Don’t worry, I’m almost there.
Liu Qiu breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he was okay.
"Liu Qiu, put your phone away." The male colleague saw Liu Qiu still playing with his phone, "Don't affect the image of our department."
"We are all colleagues on an equal footing. When you speak, don't use a commanding tone." Liu Qiu put away his phone and glanced at his male colleague. "I spend less than one-tenth of the time I spend on my phone every day as you do. Why are you so anxious?"
"You..." The male colleague's face turned red due to Liu Qiu's bullying. Just as he was about to retort, he heard the director's voice and various footsteps coming from outside.
"Mr. Pei, Miss Hua, this is the office of our department. In order to be closer to the lives of ordinary people and provide services to younger people, we have recruited several highly educated young people in the past two years. Now they are the backbone of our department." Seeing that Pei Yan and Hua Jin were both very young, the department director specially praised the young people.
"I know that your department has always served the people with a serious and careful attitude." Hua Jin looked at the plaque hanging outside the department, "I have a good friend who I have known for many years. He was evaluated and got a job in this department two years ago."
The accompanying staff were delighted to hear this. They were worried about how to compete with the neighboring counties for people. Now it was a good thing that Miss Hua had a good friend working here.
Everyone praised this as fate, and said how difficult it was to be admitted to this department, and that Miss Hua's friend was a young man with outstanding talents, etc. Looking at the smiling faces of these staff members, Hua Jin thought that in order to attract investment to the local area and make life easier for the people, they also had a hard time.
Hearing the footsteps and conversations getting closer, everyone in the department became a little nervous. When the leaders showed up with the investors, they were all a little surprised. The two investors were a handsome man and a beautiful woman, and looked younger than them. What kind of winners in life are they?
Liu Qiu looked at Hua Jin who was walking in front of him in surprise, thinking that he was seeing things. Why was Hua Jin walking with a group of investors?
Hua Jin met Liu Qiu's eyes and smiled at her.
Hua Jin said that after her friend started working in this department, the accompanying staff secretly observed her expression. They saw her smile at Liu Qiu who was sitting inside. Everyone present didn't understand who her friend was.
The department director said to Liu Qiu, who had not yet recovered from his shock, "Xiao Liu, you are friends with Miss Hua. Come over and tell Miss Hua about our county's agricultural work in the past two years."
Liu Qiu blinked, stood up and walked to Hua Jin, suppressed his curiosity and shock, and took them to visit the exhibition hall upstairs.
The colleagues who stayed behind looked at each other in bewilderment, and it took them a long time to come back to their senses. In order to let the male colleague show his face in front of the leader, the leader had already arranged for him to be the narrator, even though everyone knew that the person who was most familiar with this job was Liu Qiu.
But no one expected that Liu Qiu was actually friends with the investors. This was really surprising. How come they had never heard Liu Qiu mention such a powerful friend?
The exhibition hall of Anonymous County is not as prosperous as that of big cities, and even the equipment lacks a sense of technology. However, Liu Qiu made the boring data interesting and interspersed some small anecdotes about Anonymous County from time to time, which made visitors laugh from time to time.
At the end of the visit, the city leader said to the department director: "Comrade Xiao Liu has outstanding working ability. We must train her well so that she can serve more people."
"The leader is right." The department director turned his head to look at Liu Qiu, and seeing that she was talking to an investor, he did not go over to disturb her.
"Huahua, you gave me a big shock today." Liu Qiu glanced at Pei Yan, who was talking to the leaders a few steps away from them, and whispered, "Is this the boyfriend you mentioned in your circle of friends?"
Hua Jin nodded and whispered in her ear: "I am just pretending to be powerful today. He is the real investor. I am here to give you face."
"Sister, you really did not forget each other in wealth and honor." Liu Qiu sometimes complained to Hua Jin about the bad male colleague in the department when chatting with her on WeChat. "On behalf of the organization, I thank you."
"Thank you so much." Hua Jin pulled Liu Qiu a few steps to the side, "You looked so handsome when you explained the work to us just now, like a queen."
"What can I do? I haven't met the perfect love, so I can only indulge in my career." At this point, Liu Qiu couldn't help but look at Pei Yan a few more times, and after hesitating for a moment, he said, "Is he... good to you?"
She still remembers how miserable Hua Jin looked when she met her on the train. She was already 17 years old, but she was as skinny as a 14 or 15-year-old. Seeing that Hua Jin was getting better and better, but was unwilling to step into Yiming County, Liu Qiu knew that she still hadn't gotten over the depression she had back then.
But Hua Jin who appeared in front of her today seemed to have changed. She became more confident and energetic, like a delicate artificial flower, and finally became a blooming rose, charming and beautiful.
Hua Jin nodded heavily: "Xiao Qiu, he is the one who saved me back then."
"It's him?" Liu Qiu was surprised, then laughed again, "No wonder with your personality, you would show off your affection in the circle of friends." In her impression, Hua Jin was rational and almost indifferent to men. When she first saw Hua Jin posting photos of strange handsome men, she felt something was wrong. So this is how it is.
"Are you with him out of gratitude?" Liu Qiu knew that Hua Jin was always particularly friendly to those who had helped her, so he was afraid that Hua Jin could not tell the difference between gratitude and love.
"No, I love him." Hua Jin shook her head.
Love, this word doesn't seem so difficult to say. Hua Jin looked at Pei Yan not far away and smiled warmly, "Xiao Qiu, I'm very happy now, don't worry."
Perhaps it was because Liu Qiu had seen her most helpless side back then, so even though the age difference between them was not that big, Liu Qiu always treated her like a sister. Hua Jin knew that if she didn't explain clearly, Liu Qiu would not be at ease.
"Life is all about living happily." Liu Qiu is a somewhat idealistic person, so she supports Hua Jin who escaped from an arranged marriage. In order to build her hometown, she gave up a good opportunity to develop in a big city and returned to this small county town. She doesn't care what others think, as long as she is happy.
"Then will you continue to embroider in the future?" Liu Qiu knew clearly that an investor who could be accompanied by the leader in person must be a wealthy man. In front of him, Hua Jin's current career was too insignificant.
"Of course I have to persevere. When my life was at its darkest, it was embroidery that helped me regain my confidence in life little by little." Hua Jin's eyes were firm. "Every stitch and every thread of the embroidery is the hard work of the embroidery artist. As the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage, I will not give up easily."
"Then next time we meet, should I call you Master Hua?" Liu Qiu laughed, "Successor of the Shu Embroidery School?"
"I wouldn't mind if you called me in advance." Hua Jin grinned at Liu Qiu.
"You are young, but you are thicker-skinned than anyone else." Liu Qiu stretched out his hand and pinched her waist, and suddenly smiled, "Master Hua, I wish you can promote Shu embroidery as soon as possible."
Hua Jin held Liu Qiu's hand and said, "I will only stay here for a few days. I will be back next Monday. Please take care of yourself here. Don't forget to take care of yourself because of work."
"I know." Liu Qiu smiled. Although this was Hua Jin's birthplace, she called leaving here "going back." Perhaps for Hua Jin, this place was just a memory, a past, but not her home.
Home is where the heart is.
Liu Qiu turned to look at Pei Yan. Wherever Mr. Pei was, was Hua Jin's home? He hoped that Mr. Pei could cherish this friendship and not let Hua Jin's heart wander and have no place to call home.
In the end, Pei Yan signed some cooperation projects with the local people in Yiming County. Hua Jin didn't know much about this, so she didn't ask too much. On the fourth day in Yiming County, she went to the Ancient Building Protection Street in Yiming County to find the weaver who had amazed countless people.
But when she arrived in front of the wooden building, Hua Jin discovered that the former Shu brocade shop had become a souvenir shop, filled with low-quality handicrafts that were sold in almost every scenic spot.
She casually bought two knots and began to ask the shop owner about the whereabouts of the weaver.
"Are you asking about Aunt Cao?" When the middle-aged shop owner heard Hua Jin mention the words "can weave cloth", he immediately understood, "In this era, there are still few people who buy cloth to make clothes. In the past few years, all the tailors on the street couldn't make it, so the cloth shop couldn't operate. Now this shop is hers, but I rented it. If you want to find her, you can ask her daughter. Her daughter sells twisted dough sticks on the lower street."
"Thank you." Hua Jin thanked the shopkeeper and put the knot she bought into Pei Yan's hand. "Come, let me tie you up."
"Is it childish?" Pei Yan said with disdain, but held Hua Jin's hand and said, "The architectural style here is somewhat similar to the street in Jiangjiu City that we visited before."
"They are all local scenic protection streets. These wooden buildings have a long history." Hua Jin looked up at the red lanterns hanging under the eaves, "Let's go find Aunt Cao's daughter."
After finding the fried dough twist shop the souvenir shop owner mentioned, Hua Jin saw a few customers gathered outside the shop, so she walked over and asked, "Excuse me, is this the shop opened by Aunt Cao's daughter?"
"Who's looking for me?" A voice came from the inner room, and soon a girl came out in a wheelchair.
"Hello, I'm a Shu embroidery artist. I heard that Aunt Cao is good at weaving Shu brocade, so I want to ask her for cooperation." Hua Jin seemed not to notice the girl's leg problem, and her expression was normal. "I don't know if it's convenient for her."
"Shu brocade?" The girl laughed sarcastically. "In this day and age, hand-woven cloth is slow and unprofitable, and it can't be compared to machine-woven cloth with as many patterns. Who would still do this?"
Noticing the other party's somewhat sharp attitude, Hua Jin said: "Machines can indeed do many things that we humans cannot do, but machines cannot do what we humans can do. I hope you can let me meet Aunt Cao."
The mockery on the girl's face faded a little. She turned her head away from Hua Jin and said, "My mother hasn't touched the loom much in recent years. You can go now."
"In half a year, there will be a world-renowned fashion conference. I want more people to know Shu brocade and Shu embroidery and experience the beauty of our traditional culture." Hua Jin said to the girl in her twenties, "When I was a child, I saw Aunt Cao weaving. The Shu brocade she wove was like mist and clouds, very beautiful."
"But such beautiful mist can't even support our lives, what's the use of it?" The girl sneered, "What's the use of it, you say?"
Her mother can weave such beautiful Shu brocade, but her father despises her for not being able to make money. As a woman, why should she weave useless cloth instead of staying at home to take care of the children and the elderly?
Later, his father cheated on his wife, and after the divorce, he went around telling people how useless his mother was, saying that his mother couldn't give birth to a son, couldn't take care of the family, and could only be like a lady in an embroidery building, weaving a bunch of cloth that couldn't be sold.
In those years, almost everyone on the street laughed at her mother, saying that she was destined to be a maid but had the heart of a lady.
Thinking of the past, she glared at Hua Jin fiercely and said, "You don't have to tell me this. I don't care about fashion conferences or traditional culture and art. These have nothing to do with us."
The author has something to say: Huahua Diary: Wherever he is, it is home.
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