Chapter 21 – Troublesome Speech? (2/2)

Actually, Li Qing should be addressed as Chief Li as he was the head of this General Affairs Office. But ‘Chief’ does not sound better than the Director. His rank was Deputy Director. So, everyone addressed him as Director Li. This was one of the unspoken rules in the government sector. The lower levels must address the higher-ups with the best sounding titles.

Suddenly, the office became quiet.

Dong Xuebing looked up from his desk. Speaking of the devil, Deputy Director Li had entered the office.

“Director Li.”

“Good afternoon, Director Li.”

Everyone stood up and greeted Director Li.

“Hi, carry on with your work.” Li Qing waved his hand, gesturing them to return to their work.

Li Qing was very skinny. Like bamboo. The feeling he gave others was cheerful and friendly, unlike Zhou Changchun. Zhou Changchun had a pretentious smile, whereas Li Qing seems more sincere. Li Qing’s family was poor. His daughter had Leukaemia or some other illness. He was in financial difficulties. There were rumors that Tan Limei had wanted to help him raise funds for his daughter’s medical treatment, but Li Qing stopped it for some unknown reasons.

The other end of the main office, Zhou Changchun walked out of his room. “Chief.”

Li Qing, in his 40s, walked over and patted Zhou Changchun’s arm: “Old Zhou, you must take care of your health.:

Zhou Changchun straightened his back and replied: “Thank you Chief for your concerns. I am fine.”

Zhou Changchun was the one person who addressed Li Qing as Chief.

Dong Xuebing had asked his senior Tan Limei about this. There was a lot more to the way Zhou Changchun address Li Qing as ‘Chief”. This was not a mistake. It was to show that he was grateful to Li Qing for letting him oversee the office. If he addressed Li Qing as ‘Director’ like the rest of the people, it would show that he was arrogant and had taken over Li Qing’s role as Chief. This was to imply to Li Qing that he was still the person in charge of General Affairs Office and Zhou Changchun had not forgotten that.

There were too many of such complicated rules there.

Dong Xuebing was still learning about these unspoken rules.

After a while, Li Qing walked past Dong Xuebing, and Dong Xuebing immediately passed his application form to him. Dong Xuebing said some “fake, exaggerated claims” about how much he wanted to enter the CPC, while Li Qing flipped through the pages of the application form. He gave Dong Xuebing some encouraging words and suddenly remembered something. He turned around and pass a document to Zhou Changchun.

“What’s this?” Zhou Changchun took the document from him.

Li Qing rubbed his temple: “Bureau Chief Yang is going to the City’s Bureau office for a meeting. This is the contents of what he is going to say. Put in some effort and write a good speech for Bureau Chief Yang. Don’t mess it up like the previous time. Old Zhou, I will leave this task to you. Don’t let Bureau Chief Yang thinks that our General Affairs Office are all useless.”

“This…… Yes….. We….. We will do this well.” Zhou Changchun reluctantly replied.

Dong Xuebing looked around. When everyone heard that they have to write a speech for Bureau Chief Yang, everyone’s face changed.

Huh?

What’s happening?

Only Dong Xuebing and Zhuang Zhi who did not know what was going on were confused.

What’s so difficult about writing a speech?