I guessed Chen Xiaoqiu's mood was probably like that of someone in the twenty-first century hearing that some mountain village had declared the founding of the X Dynasty and was going to carve up the land and become a feudal emperor. The reality was that truly unbelievable people and events like this existed. By the time the media reported on them, the throne might already have passed from father to son, and the dynasty could even be into its second generation. The story of the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau was much the same. Before the Skinny Guy found out about it, none of us knew there were so many complications behind the now-defunct Third Municipal Steel Factory. Once we did, all we could think was how miserable it was.
The century-old Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau had struggled to survive in the twenty-first-century market economy, but it had finally become unable to carry on. The government had completely dismantled it and merged it with factories from other provinces and cities to form the current Fortune 500 company, Minqing Steel. I didn't know whether any remnants of the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau remained in Minqing Steel, but there certainly weren't any left in Workers and Peasants Sixth Village. It had been erased so thoroughly that we had no way to find out who had been assigned houses back then.
Chen Xiaoqiu still seemed doubtful about what the Skinny Guy had said. She was about to say something, but I quickly cut her off.
"Anyway, let's look into Greenleaf first. That's enough about work for now. Let's go eat before it gets too late and all the seats are taken." I asked Chen Xiaoqiu, "What do you feel like eating?"
"Anything's fine." Chen Xiaoqiu didn't bring up work again.
The five of us found a little restaurant. I'd assumed Chen Xiaoqiu wouldn't agree to a place like that, but she turned out to be quite easygoing. She ate neatly and didn't say much. She was hard to get close to, but not difficult to get along with. I couldn't understand how she'd ended up in such a sorry state at the State Taxation Bureau that she'd had to come work at our Demolition Office.
I got an answer to that question the next day.
Chen Xiaoqiu arrived at the office on time, carrying a large paper bag. Like Doraemon, she pulled out a mountain of photocopied documents.
I asked Chen Xiaoqiu, "What's all this?"
"Documents about the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau. I've already gone through some of them. This is a list of personnel from 1859 to 1901. It might be incomplete." Chen Xiaoqiu took out a handwritten list.
The photocopies were all over the place: local gazetteers, writers' notes, and even the official gazettes from that time, all covered in handwritten annotations. Chen Xiaoqiu hadn't just found a list of the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau's personnel—she'd compiled one herself! And she'd done it all overnight!
I sucked in a sharp breath.
The Skinny Guy arrived just then. When he saw the pile, he didn't understand what it was. Once he found out, he frowned. "Didn't you believe what I told you yesterday?"
"No. I just think this is another option. If you don't want to do it, I'll start looking through these records myself. I'll also check the list from that firm." Chen Xiaoqiu answered calmly, with clear reasoning and a sincere look in her eyes.
The Skinny Guy was at a loss for words, but he was a little angry. He plopped down in his chair and opened the list Little Gu had given him. "Fine! You're capable, so you do it! We're narrowing the age range to thirty to forty. We need to look for Ye Qing and Liu Miao, who might have crossed paths."
The age range was based on the present day. Greenleaf had still been working between 2004 and 2015, when they would have been young adults in their twenties. By now, they should be in their thirties or forties. Of course, that was assuming they were still alive.
The thought popped into my head and gave me a start. Then I reconsidered: it wasn't an unreasonable idea. Ordinarily, someone who had been missing for four years could be declared dead. But since we were a government office, we couldn't apply to have an ordinary citizen declared dead without meeting the strict legal requirements. We had to consider the social repercussions.
Chen Xiaoqiu got the list from the Skinny Guy, set the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau documents aside, and focused on work.
Filtering by age was easy; we just had to set a range in the spreadsheet. But even after filtering, there were still several thousand people. We'd gone from looking for a needle in the ocean to looking for one in a lake. The three of them had to find a Ye Qing and a Liu Miao who were connected, then find someone alive who had seen them to confirm their identities. The latter would be easy: even without a client, we could ask Grandpa Wang to identify them.
I saw the two of them working together, more or less peacefully, and let out a small sigh of relief. Fatty and Guo Yujie arrived just then, too.
"We don't have much to do, so we can help you look," Guo Yujie offered.
I didn't object to her making that decision on my behalf.
Fatty was about to cheer when Chen Xiaoqiu spoke up. "There's no need. This task was assigned to me, and I'll complete it on my own."
The Skinny Guy whipped around to look at Chen Xiaoqiu.
She didn't even lift her head, still sorting through Ye Qing and Liu Miao's past one by one.
Guo Yujie didn't think much of it and warmly reached out to pat Chen Xiaoqiu. "Hey, you don't have to be polite. I really don't have anything to do."
I reacted quickly and stopped Guo Yujie's iron palm, though her momentum nearly sent me stumbling.
Chen Xiaoqiu looked at Guo Yujie. "Really, there's no need. I'll finish my own work myself." She sounded like a child insisting on doing things for herself.
"Uh..." Guo Yujie was embarrassed.
"Xiaojie, she said she doesn't need help. Don't go forcing yourself on her. Come help me with a portion." The Skinny Guy spoke gruffly.
"Who said I'd help you? Do it yourself!" Guo Yujie rolled her eyes. "Fatty, give me half of yours."
Fatty nodded repeatedly, smiling like Maitreya Buddha.
The Skinny Guy had no choice but to turn to me.
"Give it here." I sighed and glanced at Chen Xiaoqiu. I was starting to understand why she hadn't been popular at her old workplace.
By noon, I'd learned even more about Chen Xiaoqiu. The four of us couldn't keep up with her even working alone. She'd already sorted out her list and organized everyone's timelines, while the rest of us were only halfway done. Fatty looked sheepish, Guo Yujie praised Chen Xiaoqiu in admiration, and the Skinny Guy kept huffing angrily. As the team leader, I praised Chen Xiaoqiu, compiled the list she'd finished first, and had the software filter it. It found seven pairs of Ye Qing and Liu Miao whose timelines overlapped—not too many.
"Let's start with these fourteen people. Here's what I think: Chen Xiaoqiu can handle more of the records, while the two of you contact these fourteen." I spoke to the other three.
None of them objected.
At lunchtime, we were supposed to eat together, but Chen Xiaoqiu was eager to study the Qingzhou Manufacturing Bureau documents. On her first day at work, she very unsociably refused to join us for a meal. She took a piece of bread out of her bag, poured herself some water, and worked while she ate.
Seeing that, how could the four of us enjoy our lunch? We hurriedly ate and came straight back to work.
I sighed. My chance to leisurely drink tea and read the paper—or rather, look through Greenleaf's files—was gone.
When the workday ended, the Skinny Guy, Fatty, and I headed the same way. The two of them couldn't help complaining.
"Did Chen Xiaoqiu get injected with something? Why's she working so hard?"
"She's taking her job seriously. You two slackers have no right to complain about her," I lectured them.
"You're a slacker too." The Skinny Guy didn't treat me like his team leader at all, and bluntly shot back at me.
"I'm going to start improving myself now. You two should learn from Chen Xiaoqiu's work ethic, too." I kept lecturing them without even blushing.
However, the role model I'd just mentioned called in sick on her second day at work.
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