North Entrance of Heping Street.
In front of their apartment building.
Dong Xuebin had taken a taxi from Fifteenth Middle School to the hospital, then another taxi home from the hospital, so he arrived at roughly the same time as Qu Yunxuan and the others, who had taken the bus. As soon as he turned into the residential complex, he saw Mom, Aunt Xu, and the others walking ahead. He called out to them, quickened his pace, and explained, "Mom, Aunt Xuan, I'm really sorry about earlier. Something really came up on my end, and I couldn't get away."
"Xuebin..." Mom hesitated, sighed, but did not ask anything.
At the entrance to the building, Section Chief Xu, who had just returned from work with a briefcase tucked under his arm, approached from the other side. "Just finished the exam? The written test went okay, right?"
"I... I..." Compared to his confident declarations before entering the examination hall, Xiao Dong now looked utterly dejected.
Dong Xuebin found it a little funny, and he felt somewhat satisfied as well.
"Say something!" Section Chief Xu's face darkened. "I already pulled some strings with Customs!"
Aunt Xu's expression was not very pleasant as she tugged at her son. Only then did Xiao Dong stammer, "This year's essay test was too hard, and the questions were especially obscure. They were practically impossible. I think... well, I think I only had some confidence in one question. The others... I probably answered all the others in the wrong direction. I won't get many points. My combined Administrative Aptitude Test and essay scores might not even clear the cutoff line."
Section Chief Xu's face turned grim. "What happened to you? Huh? Didn't you finish preparing? Didn't you say there wouldn't be a problem?"
Xiao Dong was in an awful mood too. "Who knew it would be that difficult? There definitely won't be many people who got it right."
Section Chief Xu snapped, "Don't blame the questions for being hard. You just didn't prepare thoroughly enough!"
"It's not Xiao Dong's fault." Aunt Xu hurriedly defended her son. "The questions really were too obscure. I heard plenty of people saying the same thing outside the exam hall. It wasn't just Xiao Dong; everyone failed. Oh, right, Xiao Ping's Xiao Bin didn't pass either. Xiao Dong did a little better, at least. He got most of the Administrative Aptitude Test questions right."
Dong Xuebin rolled his eyes. Who said I didn't pass?
Section Chief Xu angrily said, "If you can't even clear the interview cutoff, then everything else is pointless!"
Aunt Xu sighed. "Try again next year." Section Chief Xu took two angry breaths, flicked his hand, and turned to head upstairs. Aunt Xu looked at Xiao Dong, then turned to Dong Xuebin's mother. "Registration for this year's National Civil Service Exam will start in a few months. Is your son going to keep taking it?"
Mom gritted her teeth. "...Yes."
Qu Yunxuan patted Dong Xuebin's hand comfortingly. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just take it again next year. What's the big deal?"
Xiao Dong had always gotten excellent grades, yet even he had failed this time. Naturally, Dong Xuebin could not have done any better—that seemed to be everyone's shared assumption.
Xiao Dong shot Dong Xuebin a dark look, then followed Section Chief Xu upstairs.
Dong Xuebin knew Mom and Aunt Xuan assumed he had not done well either. He rubbed his nose but did not explain.
Let them misunderstand. Even if he had passed the written test, he was not one hundred percent certain he could pass the interview. If he told Mom that he had done well on the written test, only to get eliminated in the interview afterward, wouldn't that emotional whiplash send her blood pressure soaring? He would tell them only if he really got in.
After dinner, Dong Xuebin quietly returned to his small room, switched on that battered computer with its nearly three-gigahertz CPU, and began preparing for the interview, searching online for interview questions from previous years.
Five minutes later, after finding nothing, Dong Xuebin gloomily remembered that the agency he had applied to did not even have its own website, much less publish past Civil Service Exam interview questions. There was barely any written information about the agency's name at all.
He had applied to State Security.
The full name of the Ministry of State Security was the Ministry of State Security. It was also part of the police system, under the leadership of the State Council, a Bu Level agency. It had subordinate departments in every region: provinces had State Security Departments, prefecture-level cities had State Security Bureaus, and the Capital City, being the capital and a directly administered municipality, was somewhat special. At the municipal level, it was also called a State Security Bureau rather than a department, though its rank was Zhengting Level. Districts had branch bureaus, which were Zhengchu Level agencies.
When people mentioned the mysterious State Security agency, they might not be unfamiliar with it. It handled intelligence, after all.
But Dong Xuebin had heard that State Security personnel were not all that mysterious. It depended on which department they worked in.
For instance, the administrative department of the Municipal State Security Bureau that he had applied to kept normal work hours, squeezed onto buses, attended class reunions, and could tell others where they worked. None of that was a secret. One of Dong Xuebin's university seniors had joined State Security. He once joked that office workers handling administrative clerical duties had no chance of coming into contact with any information about the intelligence officers below. State Security was not all that great either: they could not drink excessively, could not speak carelessly, and could not casually tell others their home address. There were too many restrictions. Well, the overtime pay was just a little higher than at ordinary government agencies.
Uh, to be honest, it was not as though Dong Xuebin had dreamed of joining the Republic's only publicly acknowledged intelligence agency.
He had only applied out of desperation. There was no helping it—the restrictions imposed by recruiting agencies were simply too numerous.
For example, the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the District Security Supervision Bureau required a professional subject examination in addition to the Administrative Aptitude Test and essay test. Dong Xuebin could barely handle those two exams, so how could he possibly handle a professional exam? He did not even need to consider it and gave up immediately.
For another example, most agencies, such as the Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference and the Municipal Education Commission, required two years of grassroots work experience.
For another, some positions at the Red Cross Society and Bureau of Culture required applicants to be Party members, which shut him out directly.
For another, most agencies such as the District Land and Resources Bureau required a master's or doctoral degree.
Others required accounting certificates, humanities majors, a height of over 180 centimeters, women, and so on.
Dong Xuebin was stunned to discover in the end that the agencies he was eligible to apply to made up less than three percent of the total. A few of those three percent were obscure Street Offices that did not have so many requirements and accepted new graduates, but they only recruited one person each. The competition would obviously be brutal, and Dong Xuebin certainly had no chance.
Thus, feeling utterly discouraged, Dong Xuebin happened upon a speech given by office staff from the Municipal State Security Bureau in a small lecture hall at United University.
It turned out that State Security was recruiting too. As long as an applicant had no obvious physical defects or distinguishing features, had not lived abroad for long periods, and regardless of gender, Party membership, field of study, or work experience, anyone could apply. There was no professional examination either. He had also heard that this Civil Service Exam would recruit four people, which was already very generous compared to other agencies.
Later, Dong Xuebin learned that State Security generally recruited only fresh university graduates.
They had not yet entered society, did not have complicated backgrounds or complicated interpersonal relationships, and were "clean" and "unblemished." That was the kind of person they preferred. On the other hand, if someone had worked outside for two years, they might have gained experience, but State Security was less inclined to recruit such people.
So, after weighing the pros and cons, Dong Xuebin finally persuaded his mother and applied to the Ministry of State Security, where he had the greatest chance of getting in.
Hopefully, everything would go smoothly.
Before you continue