One day at the end of 1988, Li Ye was tapping away at his computer in the office when Huang Mengjia suddenly knocked and came in.
"Director Li, could you sign this for me?"
With a grin, Huang Mengjia placed a slip of paper on Li Ye's desk, as cautiously as Li Ye had once asked his superiors for leave in his previous life.
"What am I signing this time?"
Li Ye picked up the slip and took a look. It was an application to use the Small Screening Room at the First Branch Factory.
Li Ye asked curiously, "Why do you need me to sign this? Couldn't you just register directly with the screening room and use it? Haven't you been rehearsing there these past few days?"
To enrich the workers' spare-time lives, the First Branch Factory had screening rooms, one large and one small. The Large Screening Room was the small auditorium, which could cram in several hundred people and show movies.
The Small Screening Room, meanwhile, was only about the size of a classroom. It had just a television and VCR. Sometimes it was used to study important directives, and sometimes to rehearse artistic performances.
New Year's Day was just around the corner. Huang Mengjia had begun preparing performances for the celebration long ago, and only a few days earlier, she had told him that the rehearsals were going smoothly. Why did she suddenly need a signature today?
Li Ye was not the sort of person who squeezed every last drop out of a little bit of authority. Why did such trivial nonsense need his signature?
In his previous life, Li Ye had seen flattering subordinates like that, bringing every chicken-feather matter to their superiors for approval. And that superior had greatly enjoyed the rush of "everything