It was midnight. Recommendation Tickets urgently needed.
Qu Family.
Living room.
Mom, startled, hurriedly asked, "What happened? What on earth happened?"
Qu Yunxuan froze. "You passed the Civil Servants exam? Weren't your Administrative Aptitude Test and essay scores bad?"
"Well, cough cough, it wasn't that I did badly. You misunderstood. None of you ever asked how I did from beginning to end." Dong Xuebin smiled awkwardly. "Later, I figured the interview still wasn't certain, so I didn't tell you. I didn't want everyone getting happy for nothing. Um, I went out the morning before yesterday, right? That was for the interview. They asked a few questions, and I didn't answer too well. Plus, I was ranked fourth, so I thought I probably wouldn't make it. Who knew they'd call just now and tell me to report to the Chengxi Branch Bureau next Monday. They said I'd been accepted."
Mom grabbed her son's hand, her lips trembling. "You really passed? You're not lying to Mom, are you? You're not lying to Mom?"
Dong Xuebin said, "Heh, how could I dare lie to you?"
Aunt Xu's mouth stiffened. "Could there have been a mistake? You passed the written exam? What score did you get?"
Dong Xuebin looked at the two of them. "My Administrative Aptitude Test and essay scores added up to nearly 130."
"130?" Dongzi sucked in a breath. "You scored 130?"
"Such a good son, such a good son!" Tears streamed down Mom's face. Crying, she excitedly grabbed Qu Yunxuan's hand, not knowing what to say. "Yunxuan, did you hear that? Xuebin passed! Xuebin passed! My son is a Civil Servant!"
"I heard, I heard." Qu Yunxuan wiped away her tears for her. "This is a good thing. Don't cry."
Mom's tears would not stop. "I'm happy. I'm happy."
Qu Yunxuan smiled and knocked Dong Xuebin on the forehead. "You brat, well done! You really made Aunt proud!"
Dong Xuebin's nose stung too, and he forced out a smile.
After crying for a while, Mom finally stopped. Wiping her face, she hurriedly said, "Yunxuan, don't cook lunch today. Come eat at my place. I'll go downstairs in a bit and buy more groceries, then make a proper meal." She turned to Aunt Xu and Xiao Dong. "You and Xiao Dong shouldn't leave either. Come to my place."
Aunt Xu's expression froze, and she forced a smile. "No, I... we have something to do at noon."
Xiao Dong gritted his teeth. "Mom, let's go."
Qu Yunxuan politely said, "Stay a little longer?"
"We have things to do when we get back. You all talk."
Aunt Xu pulled Xiao Dong to his feet. Before leaving, Xiao Dong shot Dong Xuebin a jealous, hateful look. All his usual arrogance was gone as he and Aunt Xu slunk out of Qu Yunxuan's home. It was obvious that Dong Xuebin unexpectedly passing the Civil Servants exam had dealt the mother and son a severe blow.
More than ten minutes after they left, the sound of things being smashed came from upstairs, along with faint shouts.
"Don't hit the child anymore!" That was Aunt Xu's voice. "Stop hitting him!"
"Dad!"
"You little bastard! Even the Dong Family's boy is better than you! I'll beat you to death!" That was Section Chief Xu's furious roar.
"Ah! Ah!"
Listening to Xiao Dong's repeated screams, Dong Xuebin felt immensely satisfied.
At lunch, Mom, giddy with excitement, made an exception and drank two glasses of iced beer. "Xuebin, you really made Mom proud. Whew, in all these years, Mom has never been as happy as she was today. Come, pour me another glass. I have to finish this whole bottle."
Dong Xuebin also felt as though he had finally held his head high. He poured drinks for Mom and Aunt Xuan.
Qu Yunxuan reminded him, "Pour Sister Luan less. Don't let her get drunk."
"It's fine, it's fine." Mom beamed, holding her glass in the air. "Yunxuan, I'll toast you. If it weren't for you running around and helping Xiao Bin these past few days, washing his clothes and cooking for him, he wouldn't have had so much time to study."
Hearing that, Dong Xuebin quickly raised his glass. "Aunt Xuan, thank you."
Qu Yunxuan waved her hands repeatedly. "Sister Luan, Xiao Bin, you're being too formal. Xiao Bin saved my life. What's there to thank each other for between the three of us? Come on, I'm younger, so I should be the one to toast you. Cheers."
Evening.
After seeing Qu Yunxuan off, Mom returned to the small room humming an old song from the eighties and opened her suitcase to pack her things.
Dong Xuebin reluctantly said, "Why leave in such a hurry? Stay another two days."
"School in the countryside is about to start. I'd planned to go back and prepare lessons several days ago, but seeing how you were, Mom was worried and didn't leave." Mom's face was full of relieved smiles. "Now that you've entered a government office, Mom has nothing to worry about here anymore. It's time to go back." Beihe Province was right next to the Capital City, so it was not far, only a three-hour drive.
Dong Xuebin helped his mother carry over two middle-school Chinese textbooks. "Then I'll see you off tomorrow. Be careful on the road."
Mom turned back with a smile. "Don't worry about me. After you enter the office, be more careful yourself. That's the most fiercely competitive place in our country. Our family has neither connections nor money. We're ordinary people. It definitely won't be easy for you to become an official, so it's fine even if you can't become a leader. As long as you're safe and sound, that's better than anything."
Dong Xuebin murmured, "I'll remember that." But he answered somewhat absentmindedly.
If this had been two months ago, Dong Xuebin would have thought that as long as he could find a job paying two thousand a month, marry a woman with a decent face and figure, take out a loan to buy a home, and have a family of his own, that life would have been enough to make him happy. How could he have imagined that two months later, his life would undergo such earthshaking changes? He had actually passed the Civil Servants exam.
Ever since gaining that inexplicable ability, everything seemed to have been moving in a better direction.
Becoming an official? It no longer seemed like an unattainable dream.
How should he walk the road ahead?
What direction should he strive toward from now on?
That night, Dong Xuebin lay on the sofa with his hands behind his head, deep in thought. Since he had the chance to enter the system, and since he possessed such an unbelievable ability as BACK, he felt it was necessary to plan out his life. Under normal circumstances, with Dong Xuebin's utterly ordinary qualifications, after struggling in the system for ten or twenty years, he should have been delighted just to reach the rank of deputy section chief. But now Dong Xuebin had the ability to turn back time. In the contest for power and wealth, surely he could accomplish something?
Should he set his goal at Zhengke Level? A township head, a town head, or the County Bureau Chief?
Reaching Zhengke Level before retiring at sixty? Uh, wasn't that lacking in ambition?
Then Zhengchu Level? Damn, wasn't that overestimating himself? He barely had any chance of becoming a deputy section chief, let alone reaching Zhengchu Level.
But...
Before long, he lowered his hand and slapped his thigh hard. "Decided!"
As for wishes or goals, it was better for them to be a little more "distant." Without considering whether it was feasible, he naturally wanted to rise from clerk to section level, from section level to department level, from department level to bureau level, from bureau level to Bu Level, and from Bu Level to Guo Level... That would be his goal.
He wanted to enter the central government.
Enter the Politburo.
—Dong Xuebin silently made this utterly unreasonable wish in his heart.
P.S. It's midnight. The new week's results are extremely important to us, so Recommendation Tickets are urgently needed. Everyone, please throw in a few more. Many thanks!
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