Li Ye had heard a saying in his previous life—this world was nothing but a makeshift troupe.
The saying was used to mock certain small countries whose governments could not be brought into the light. Many people said that the administrative team of a county-level city on the mainland could handle the jobs of prime ministers, premiers, ministers, and the like in those countries.
But after Li Ye came to this world, the people he encountered—Teacher Ke, the Head Factory Director, even Wen Leyu—all displayed formidable methods and deep cunning.
So after Li Ye began working, he had always held people like Niu Hongzhang, Ma Zhaoxian, Shang Bin, and Cong Jinhong in awe.
After all, their ranks were not low—some were even above the top leader of a county-level city. Their schemes and methods surely could not be ordinary.
Yet as he grew older and his understanding deepened, he suddenly realized that these people, too, were a mixed bag. Some were indeed impressive, like the former Head Factory Director, but others were nothing of the sort.
Take Cong Jinhong, for instance.
The methods she was using now were just like those clever college students decades later who, after suffering some grievance, would ask their counselor, "Where's the tallest building on campus? What are the odds of surviving a jump?"
Cong Jinhong was already at this rank. How could she still be on the same level as some clever college student?
Well, first, college students decades later lived in an age of information explosion, unlike the seventies and eighties, when experience relied entirely on family teaching and personal fumbling.
Second, there was Cong Jinhong's own problem.
Li Ye had carefully looked into Cong Jinhong's background. She had been a technical secondary school student in the sixties. After starting work, her performance