[General Affairs Office]

Second update—urgently need Recommendation Tickets.

Monday.

Morning, eight o'clock.

Walking through the cool, pleasant air on his way to report to the Chengxi Branch Bureau, Dong Xuebin thought about the long-term goal he had impulsively set for himself two days ago and felt a little embarrassed. He had barely gotten one foot through the doors of government work, and he was already thinking of becoming a Politburo Member? If Mom or his classmates found out, they would probably laugh themselves to death. Still, Dong Xuebin had not given up on that unrealistic dream. He truly intended to achieve it step by step.

Zixin Road, Chengxi District.

West side of the intersection.

Checking the time, Dong Xuebin saw it was only 8:20, still far from his 9:00 reporting time. He bought a jianbing without a crispy cracker from a roadside cart, then stood behind it in front of a closed pirate bookstore, eating while sheltering from the wind. Dong Xuebin was fairly familiar with this area. The small east gate of Fifteenth Middle School, where he had taken the written civil service exam, was in the alley ahead. Across the crosswalk was the south gate parking lot of Jiangong Hospital, and farther east was the north gate of Taoranting Park.

Just as he finished the jianbing, a bus pulled into the stop across the road.

A highly conspicuous figure got off through the rear door. He was a heavyweight young man about Dong Xuebin's age, six foot three and nearly three hundred pounds. Broad-waisted, thick-necked, with a fierce-looking face full of flesh, he looked rather intimidating. Several office workers nearby took him for a thug and steered clear of him.

After getting off, the tall, fat brute looked around and strode toward Dong Xuebin on his thick legs.

Just as Dong Xuebin thought he had run into a highway robber in broad daylight, the brute suddenly squatted on the steps about three feet away. He reached out and stroked a dirty stray cat curled up in the corner by the bookstore's iron door, then scratched beneath its neck with his fingers. The cat comfortably narrowed its eyes and let out a meow before lowering its little head and licking the young man's hand.

"Are you hungry?" the brute asked in an unusually gentle voice. "What do you want to eat? Big brother will buy it for you."

The cat meowed repeatedly and pawed at him with its little claws.

The brute coaxed it, then hurried to the nearby convenience store and bought a Shuanghui sausage. He peeled it open and fed it to the cat. "Good kitty, eat slowly. Don't choke." His tender behavior was such a stark contrast to his fierce appearance that Dong Xuebin found it a little hard to adjust. This guy was pretty caring.

After killing some time, it was finally 8:50.

Dong Xuebin passed the brute, then turned and headed toward a battered iron gate covered in copper rust. From a distance, he could see two old buildings from the seventies or eighties inside the compound. The iron gate was tightly shut, with only a three-foot opening beside the small reception room on the left. Several people pushing bicycles entered one after another. Dong Xuebin kept feeling that he had come to the wrong place. It was far too different from the office environment he had imagined. There was not even a guard at the entrance. Rather than National Security, this place looked more like a state-owned factory workshop.

There was no sign hanging outside the bare gate.

Dong Xuebin blinked and cautiously followed a middle-aged man pushing an old-fashioned bicycle inside.

"Hey, you, wait." The Receptionist Old Man poked his head out of the window and frowned. "Who are you looking for?"

Dong Xuebin hurriedly said, "Is this the Chengxi Branch Bureau of National Security? I passed the civil service exam this year, and the Political Department told me to report here at nine on Monday morning. My name is Dong Xuebin."

The Receptionist Old Man gave an "oh," picked up the landline, and made a call. More than ten seconds later, he hung up, nodded at Dong Xuebin, and handed him a registration form. "Sign this and go in. The Political Department is at the far end of the second-floor corridor in the Gray Building to the southeast. Go straight there. Don't wander around."

"Okay, thank you."

"You're welcome."

The atmosphere in the compound seemed different from that of ordinary government offices. People in the Capital City liked exchanging pleasantries, and when they met, they would often ask meaningless questions like, "Have you eaten?" "You're here?" "Is your cold better?" "Did you take your son to school?" and so on. But here, colleagues merely nodded silently when they met. At most, they would call someone Director or Bureau Chief upon seeing a superior. There was very little unnecessary conversation.

Gray Building.

Second-floor corridor.

Dong Xuebin spotted a sign for the Political Department on the wall, but there were several small offices inside, and he did not know which one to enter. Just as he hesitated, footsteps sounded behind him. Turning around, he saw that it was the brute from the bus stop. He was National Security too?

"Excuse me." Dong Xuebin asked him, "I'm here to report for civil service work. Which office should I go to?"

The brute froze, then scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm here to report too. I'm looking for the right place myself."

Dong Xuebin gave an "uh." "What a coincidence." A pause fell over them, and both went silent. Dong Xuebin keenly sensed that neither of them was particularly good with words. After clearing his throat, he took the lead. "Oh, right. My name is Dong Xuebin."

The brute smiled honestly. "My name is Sun Zhuang. I just graduated from college. My old dorm mates all called me Zhuangzi."

After shaking hands and exchanging a few polite words, they entered a nearby office together. As it turned out, they had guessed right. A casually dressed clerk inside told them to sit and wait. Only after a middle-aged man who introduced himself as the deputy director of the Political Department entered did they begin processing their paperwork and explaining various rules and precautions.

More than an hour passed.

The deputy director took a sip of tea. "That's roughly it. You've been assigned to the General Affairs Office. I hear they've been rather short-handed lately. Familiarize yourselves with the place for a bit, then come in to work officially tomorrow. As for uniforms, they'll be issued once they're made. Anyway, aside from attending major meetings at the Municipal Bureau, we hardly ever use National Security uniforms, so there's no rush."

With that, he had the clerk take Dong Xuebin and Zhuangzi over to get acquainted.

The General Affairs Department was on the first floor. Its office was a small partitioned area with eight or nine desks inside.

As soon as the Political Department clerk entered, he said, "We have new people. Both are fresh college graduates. Everyone, get acquainted. This is Dong Xuebin, and this is Sun Zhuang."

Dong Xuebin felt that first impressions were very important, so he immediately said modestly, "I've just arrived and don't know any of the rules. I hope you'll all guide me in the future."

Seeing this, Zhuangzi hurriedly said clumsily, "Me too. Please give me plenty of guidance."

The people inside looked them over from head to toe.

One of the girls gave a cheerful giggle. "Don't be so formal. Once you're in the office, we're all family."

The Political Department clerk then pointed out five or six people in the office to Dong Xuebin and Zhuangzi. "Director Zhou went to see a doctor, I think. She doesn't seem to be here. Um, this is Tan Limei, over there are Lao Yan, Guo Panwei, Guo Shunjie, Chang Juan..."

P.S. I urgently need Recommendation Tickets to climb the rankings. Please give me a few more votes, thanks.

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