Morning.
At work.
In his own office.
Dong Xuebin leaned back in his chair with his legs propped on the desk, watching a movie on his computer with his eyelids drooping, looking utterly unprofessional.
Five minutes...
Ten minutes...
Twenty minutes...
Unable to take it any longer, Dong Xuebin lowered his legs and sat forward, shutting off the movie. He lit a cigarette, took a few drags, and sipped some tea. His whole body felt itchy and uncomfortable; nothing felt right. It was too dull, too boring, too idle. When he had first started working here, Dong Xuebin had found it relaxing. He watched movies and listened to music every day, enjoying the rare leisure, and it had felt wonderful. But now he had relaxed too much. He had just returned from a trip as well, and watching movies and spacing out no longer felt leisurely—it felt like every day lasted a year. There was nothing for him to do. Dong Xuebin was already close to losing it.
Keep a low profile?
Keep my ass low-profile!
If I keep lying low, I'm going to die!
Dong Xuebin took a breath and, unable to sit still, paced around the room with his hands clasped behind his back. He walked more than a dozen laps before finally tiring himself out and sitting down to rest.
Maybe I should do some work?
But what work could I do?
There were only those insignificant documents, with practically nothing worth doing. Even if he handled them, there would be no real meaning to it. The work that truly got him fired up was doing practical things for ordinary people. In the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, that meant investigating disciplinary violations among lower-level officials. But the Eighth Office Second Division generally dealt with leaders at the