Chapter 33 (1/2)

“That would be me. What would Chairman Zhao

like to talk about?”

Se Cai said after taking a deep

breath.

He frowned slightly, affected by

Chairman Zhao’s open hostility.

PR Department… It was the PR

Department again!

Se Cai felt confident about his

piece yesterday, he could firmly say that it was the best news he had written

in his career. It had even gotten the approval of someone as experienced as

Station Manager Wei.

So how could it have gone wrong

when it reached the PR Department?

With a raised brow, Se Cai

looked straight at Chairman Zhao and enquired, “If it’s related to the piece, I

would like to request Chairman Zhao to point out what was wrong.”

“What kind of att.i.tude is that?

Fine, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with your script!”

Chairman Zhao slammed the table

and said. He was annoyed that a small reporter like Se Cai would have the

audacity to look at him with a challenge in his eyes.

“First, your piece mentions government

official that is above the county rank so how dare you skip informing the PR

Department before you send it off to province and central news. This is a gross

violation of our department’s rules.”

“Second, you’ve misp.r.o.nounced

the official’s name. Everyone at the county admin refers to him as Commissioner

Xie, do you know how much shame you have brought to our department?”

“Third, we are not supposed to

be so cavalier with news reports on bombs and explosion. With rumors of

terrorist attacks on the rise, do you know how much damage your piece has

caused or is it your original intention to sow public turmoil?”

Chairman Zhao leaned back in his

chair, took a sip of his tea and glared icily at Se Cai.

Xu Jing Song immediately filled

another cup and pa.s.sed it to Chairman Zhao, adding consolingly, “Chairman Zhao,

here, please take another sip of the tea to calm down.”

His status as the Deputy Station

Manager put him as almost equal standing to this Chairman Zhao, but he felt no

harm being a little bit reverential.

His expression changed immediately

as he turned away from Chairman Zhao to face Se Cai. He scolded, “Se Cai,

quickly apologize to Chairman Zhao and I’m sure he’ll forgive you if you’re

willing to suspend yourself to reflect on your mistakes.”

He could barely contain the

smile that was twitching at the corner of his lips.

Yesterday, Se Cai stole his son’s

credit and openly defied him, now he was going to get his just desserts.

“Chairman Zhao… Se Cai is still

new at this so he’s unfamiliar with the inner workings of the system. It’s my

fault for not teaching him so please don’t suspend him, take a cut out of my

salary instead!”

Hai Dong stood up and sighed

apologetically.

Se Cai was deeply grateful towards

Director Bai, he knew Hai Dong couldn’t directly challenge Chairman Zhao so shouldering

part of the blame was already the best he could do.

Director Bai’s action was

especially heartfelt because Se Cai knew Director Bai had been saving to buy

himself a house and to find himself a wife.

Se Cai narrowed his eyes and

read Chairman Zhao’s mind.

This Chairman Zhao obviously

came prepare to pin the blame on Se Cai so chances were, he himself was be particularly

familiar with the rules that Se Cai so-called broke.

“Chairman Zhao, do calm down but

I believe you might have treated me unjustly.”

Se Cai smiled confidently as he

continued at length.

“First, according to your

department’s rules, one could bypa.s.s informing the department if the situation

calls for it. If you don’t believe me, you could refer to Clause 12 of Chapter

3 that was added to the Department Rulebook last year. Furthermore, even if I wanted

to send the script to your department, it wouldn’t have reached any of you

because it’s already over the department’s working hours.”

Se Cai had hit the nail on the

first point. The PR Department was a governmental body, it worked a 9 to 5

schedule. Unlike the people at the Tv Station, no one would have stayed after

5.

“Second, the p.r.o.nunciation for

Commissioner Sai is not wrong. It’s the people from the administration that

have been calling the commissioner wrongly. In fact, I hope Chairman Zhao would

correct them when you return.”

“What, you said it’s wrong so it

must be wrong?”

Chairman Zhao snorted.

In lieu of a reply, Se Cai

removed from his pocket a gilded name card. It was the one given to him by Sai

Wu himself.

Chairman Zhao accepted the name

card with a frown and read aloud from it, “The people’s republic of China State

Department Ministry of Public Safety Vice Department Chief, Sai Wu?”

Commissioner Sai had just been

transferred to his new post so he was still using his old name card.

However that wasn’t the point. The