Power and Wealth

Afternoon.

It was just past two o'clock.

County Party Office.

Su Yan had returned, and everyone looked at him with suspicion. Usually, those on good terms with him would ask what the leader had called him for, but today was different. It was the first day of the new county party secretary’s tenure, and the leadership had already given orders that everyone be alert and attentive. They didn’t even have their chat software open on their computers, so they didn’t ask too many questions.

When Su Yan sat at his desk, he seemed distracted. It felt surreal to him; he had always been someone who had never received the leader’s favor, yet Secretary Dong suddenly named him the county party secretary's secretary. He was genuinely surprised and overwhelmed.

Suddenly, a leader entered.

It was the county office director, Meng Hanmei.

After greeting everyone with a nod, her gaze immediately landed on Su Yan. “Section Chief Su.”

Su Yan quickly stood up, “Director Meng.”

Meng Hanmei smiled warmly, “You’ll be moving to a new office tomorrow, so pack your things. If you can’t manage, I’ll have someone help you.”

Su Yan was taken aback. “Pack up now? That’s fine; I can manage it.”

Meng Hanmei immediately called over a few people. “Xiao Zhou, Xiao Xu, help Section Chief Su pack up his belongings. He’ll be moving to Secretary Dong’s office shortly.”

Ah…

Su Yan was leaving.

To Secretary Dong’s office.

Everyone in the office wasn’t clueless. Upon hearing this, they immediately understood. Secretary Dong had just taken office, and the first thing he would do would be to select a driver and a secretary. Why would a driver need to move to the secretary’s office? Plus, it wasn’t common for a deputy section chief in the secretary department to transition into a driving role for a leader. What about all the drivers in the driver’s team? Although Meng Hanmei didn’t say much, the few key phrases she used had already subtly revealed the news—Su Yan was going to be the secretary of the county party secretary!

What the heck…

What was going on?

Why did the county party secretary choose him?

No one would believe that the county leadership recommended Su Yan, as everyone knew the higher-ups didn’t favor him. If anyone were to recommend someone, it wouldn’t be him. This meant that Su Yan’s new position was directly appointed by County Party Secretary Dong Xuebing. They had heard about the incident with the black car not long ago. It seemed that Section Chief Su and Secretary Dong had shared a car, and that they had even gotten into a scuffle. At the time, they hadn’t thought much of it, but now, it was clear that Secretary Dong’s decision was related to that black car incident. Everyone felt that Su Yan was finally experiencing a turnaround. Perhaps this was what they called luck, something others could only envy.

Meng Hanmei left.

Immediately, several people gathered around enthusiastically.

“Section Chief Su.”

“Congratulations!”

“Section Chief Su, you must treat us to a meal!”

Before long, nearly everyone in the office had come to congratulate him.

Su Yan had decent relationships with his colleagues but didn’t think they were that good. Especially those who hadn’t been very friendly with him before also came over to warmly congratulate him on his promotion, which made Su Yan feel a bit out of place. Nevertheless, he thanked everyone one by one. Since things hadn’t been finalized yet, he didn’t dare say too much; he expressed his gratitude.

Once everything was sorted out, the people called by Meng Hanmei helped Su Yan move his belongings to the outer room of Secretary Dong’s office and chatted with him for a while.

Word spread quickly.

No one expected Secretary Dong to appoint Su Yan as his secretary. Everyone was quite surprised; this truly caught many people off guard.

After work.

Everyone packed up their things and headed home.

There were no secrets in the office. When Su Yan exited the office building, many people in the courtyard greeted him—some acquaintances. In contrast, others were people he didn’t even recognize, clearly folks he had never spoken to before, but they were now all politely saying hello. Su Yan understood the reason behind this change and didn’t let it inflate his ego; he hurried away after responding to a few greetings.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He didn’t go home first.

The first thing Su Yan did was head to a small library in the county town. He browsed for a long time and bought several books, one about the Beijing dialect. Since things were more or less settled, Su Yan needed to prepare for his future work. He felt he had many shortcomings, and to repay Secretary Dong’s trust, he naturally needed to put in extra effort. Su Yan thought it was essential to understand the Beijing dialect because Dong Xuebing was a native of Beijing. Some people say that the Mandarin in Beijing is the best in the country, but Su Yan doesn’t quite agree. While Mandarin is derived from the Beijing dialect and is broadly similar, there are also many differences. People from other regions often have a significant difference between their dialects and Mandarin, so they take formal Mandarin courses in school with a systematic learning process. However, people from Beijing don’t have that; no schools in Beijing teach Mandarin. Therefore, although Mandarin and the Beijing accent share a lot in common, the Mandarin spoken by Beijingers can sometimes be less standard than that of others—especially someone like Dong Xuebing, who grew up in the alleys, where the accent is even stronger.

For instance, “不儿” means “not,” and “我告儿你” means “I tell you.”

Su Yan found the accent relatively unfamiliar; he often couldn’t understand many phrases because Dong Xuebing tended to slur his words. Many characters were replaced directly with their rhyming sounds, and there were certain unique colloquialisms from Beijing that Su Yan couldn’t even analyze the meanings of. Therefore, he felt it was essential to strengthen his learning in this area. Otherwise, if the leader spoke for a long time and Su Yan didn’t understand or grasp some of the meanings, how could he fulfill his role as a secretary? Every word from the leader was incredibly important, and he couldn’t afford to misunderstand even a single word. That was a mistake Su Yan did not want to make.

He never thought of asking the leader to speak more Mandarin.

He couldn’t suggest that unless he genuinely wanted to quit. The only solution was for him to improve himself and learn and adapt to the characteristics of the Beijing dialect. That way, there would be no barriers to communication in the future.

These language barriers in communication are common in many places. No one knows where the newly appointed leader comes from, and leaders are usually older, so their Mandarin isn’t as smooth as that of younger people. Subordinates must adapt to the leaders; it’s unreasonable to expect leaders to cater to their subordinates.