Seizing Shifts and Power? (Leave Notice)

The day after Li Ye returned, the company issued a notice calling for a meeting of all cadres.

As a newly promoted deputy section chief, Li Ye naturally had to attend. But when he followed his master, Old Ding, out of the Supply Department, he found that not only was Wu Qingyi going to the meeting, but his colleague Yue Lingshan had also followed along with a little notebook in hand.

Only then did Li Ye realize that these "cadres" were not the management positions he had imagined, but an identity label.

Why had technical secondary school graduates been so sought after in the 1980s, with competition even fiercer than for university and junior college students?

Because technical secondary school graduates were also state cadres. They entered the workforce several years earlier and thus held a head start in the seniority-based race for promotion.

Take Li Ye's office, for example. Yue Lingshan and Zheng Jiemin had both graduated from technical secondary school. If Li Ye had not entered the picture, the two of them would have been the Supply Department's first- and second-priority candidates for grooming, with first claim to promotion as deputy section chiefs.

When they reached the auditorium for the meeting, Li Ye discovered that the company had several hundred cadres. That showed just how thickly talent was gathered here.

Li Ye and Old Ding had only just found seats when a commotion suddenly broke out in the auditorium.

"Hey, hey, hey, look! That Manager Chen from Hong Kong is here, and his female secretary came too."

"Let me see, let me see. It really is her! That woman is gorgeous—the more you look at her, the prettier she gets. She looks like a movie star."

Li Ye looked up and saw "Manager Chen" and his female secretary