"You're already a model worker, and now they're putting you on such a pedestal. You need to be careful about what you say and do from now on," Gu Xiaoxia said, her initial happiness giving way to worry. Although she had lived through that earlier era too, she had been young then and had not felt its impact deeply.
Only after joining the Education Bureau and studying a great many documents had her awareness gradually grown, giving her a different understanding of certain things.
Being a model worker came with all kinds of advantages, but it also had drawbacks. Everyone watched you, and even the slightest mistake could be magnified endlessly. Jealous people would seize on those mistakes and refuse to let go, while troublemakers would take every opportunity to ruin your reputation.
After all, nobody was perfect. These people were exemplary in one particular area, not saints, and naturally they could make mistakes and have shortcomings, but other people did not care.
Once someone was held up as a model in these times, others expected them to be perfect, outstanding in every respect.
Otherwise, they did not deserve to be a model.
"Don't worry." Li Long smiled. "I know. The higher they lift you, the harder you can fall. But I don't care about that. It was something other people gave me in the first place. If I don't care, they won't have anything to hold over me-"
He did not finish, but Gu Xiaoxia understood. Li Long was not the sort of moral exemplar commonly seen these days. Those models could be pressured, but Li Long could not.
He did not care about it. Becoming a model worker had been an accident, and losing the title would cost him nothing. As long as he did not break the