Let there be a misunderstanding, then. Even though he passed the written exam, he really wasn’t one hundred percent sure he’d get through the interview. If he told his mom that he did well on the written test but then failed the interview, the emotional rollercoaster would just send her blood pressure skyrocketing, wouldn’t it? Better to wait until he actually got in before telling them!

After dinner, Alan Cooper quietly returned to his small room, turned on that old computer with a Pentium III CPU, and began preparing for the interview, searching online for past interview questions.

Five minutes later, after fruitless searching, Alan Cooper remembered with frustration that the government agency he applied to didn’t even have its own website, let alone publish past civil service interview questions. There was barely any written information about the agency’s name at all.

He had applied for the Ministry of State Security.

The full name of the Ministry of State Security is the 国家安全部, which is also part of the police system, under the leadership of the State Council, a ministerial-level institution. It has subordinate departments in every region: at the provincial level, there’s the State Security Department; at the prefecture-level city, there’s the State Security Bureau. Since the capital is a municipality directly under the central government, it’s a bit special—at the city level, it’s also called the State Security Bureau, not a department, but its rank is still at the department level. At the district level, it’s called a sub-bureau, which is at the division level.

When it comes to this mysterious agency, the Ministry of State Security, most people are probably not unfamiliar with it—it’s the intelligence agency, after all.

However, Alan Cooper had heard that people in the Ministry of State Security weren’t all that mysterious; it depended on the department.

For example, the city-level administrative department he applied for had regular office hours, took the bus, attended class reunions, and could even tell others where they worked—none of that was a secret. A college senior of Alan Cooper’s had gotten into the Ministry of State Security and once joked that those working administrative desk jobs in the office never had a chance to come into contact with any information from the intelligence personnel. There wasn’t anything particularly great about the Ministry of State Security: you couldn’t drink too much, couldn’t talk nonsense, couldn’t casually tell people your home address, and there were too many restrictions. Well, the only perk was that the overtime pay was a bit higher than in other government agencies.

Uh, to be honest, it wasn’t that Alan Cooper was especially drawn to the only intelligence agency officially recognized by the Republic.

He was forced to apply—there was no other way, as the restrictions for the recruiting agencies were just too many.

For example, the city public security bureau or a district safety supervision bureau required, in addition to the two written tests (administrative aptitude and essay), a specialized subject exam. Alan Cooper couldn’t even handle the first two, let alone the specialized one. So, he didn’t even consider it and gave up right away.

Then, for most agencies like the city political consultative conference or the city education committee, there was a requirement of two years of grassroots work experience.

Or, for some positions in the Red Cross or the Bureau of Culture, only party members could apply, which ruled him out immediately.

Or, for most positions in the district land resources sub-bureau and similar agencies, the educational requirement was a master’s or doctorate.

There were also positions that required an accounting certificate, or only accepted liberal arts majors, or required a height of over 180 cm, or were only for women, and so on and so forth.

In the end, Alan Cooper was shocked to discover that the agencies he was eligible to apply for made up less than three percent of the total. Among that three percent, the few less popular subdistrict offices didn’t have so many requirements and would accept fresh graduates, but they only hired one person each. It was easy to imagine how fierce the competition would be—Alan Cooper definitely didn’t stand a chance.

So, feeling disheartened, Alan Cooper happened to sit in on a talk given by staff from the city’s State Security Bureau at a small lecture hall at United University.

It turned out that the Ministry of State Security was also recruiting. As long as you didn’t have any obvious physical defects or distinguishing features, hadn’t lived abroad for a long time, regardless of gender, party membership, major, or work experience, and with no specialized subject exam, anyone could apply. And it was said that this time, the civil service recruitment quota was four people, which was already quite generous compared to other agencies.

Later, Alan Cooper found out that the Ministry of State Security generally only recruited fresh university graduates.

Because they hadn’t yet been exposed to society, had no complicated background or relationships, and were considered “clean” and “pure.” That’s exactly what the agency liked. On the other hand, if you’d already worked outside for two years, even if you had experience, the Ministry of State Security actually preferred not to hire people like that.

So, after weighing the pros and cons, Alan Cooper finally convinced his mother and applied for the Ministry of State Security, where he had the highest chance of success.

Hopefully, everything would go smoothly.

Chapter 11【Interview!】

One day...

Two days...

Three days...

In the blink of an eye, quite a few days had passed.

Because the BACK ability had played an irreplaceable and crucial role during the written exam for the civil service in the capital, Alan Cooper, having tasted its benefits, hadn’t wasted his daily ability these days. Instead, he tried and studied it from every angle. He planned to rely on turning back time to change his current impoverished life, so naturally, he had to research and familiarize himself with this BACK ability as much as possible.

After many experiments, the results were mixed.

The results were: First, in normal conversation, there was no need to avoid words like “return,” “back,” or “BACK.” Even if he said or thought of them, as long as it wasn’t too deliberate, time wouldn’t change. Only when Alan Cooper consciously guided himself to want to turn back time, and then silently recited words like “BACK,” “return,” or “back” on that basis, would time actually start to flow backward.