After putting down the phone, David Carter smiled broadly at Lily Scott and said, “Little Scott, I have an important task for you. This afternoon, the township chief will be going to Nihe Village to inspect the work, and you will accompany him.” At this point, David Carter said with a beaming smile, “Little Scott, make sure to serve the leader well—after all, the township chief personally requested you.”

“Okay.” Lily Scott’s face was full of excitement. Her alluring eyes shot a challenging glance at Jessica James.

Damn it! William Harris thought to himself, now he’d really seen it all.

Main Text

Chapter 3

An Article

The Party and Government General Office is responsible for party affairs, government affairs, united front work, finance, archives, historical records, confidential matters, secrecy, stability maintenance, comprehensive management, as well as various comprehensive agency services and management. Although the list of responsibilities is long, in practice, there isn’t much actual work to do—especially in a township-level government. In fact, no matter where you are, there are only a handful of people who actually get things done; most people just idle away their days in the office.

William Harris was suffering, because he wasn’t one of those who just muddled through—he belonged to the group in the office who actually did the work.

Many people think that working in government means you can get through the day with just a newspaper and a cup of tea. It depends on the person. Maybe most people do live like that, but there’s still a small group who really work hard like oxen, heads down, getting things done. These people are all quite capable, but don’t have much backing. William Harris felt sorry for himself, as he was one of this small group.

“Little William, write a report on the stability maintenance situation for the whole township. The secretary is waiting to use it.” David Carter came back from Secretary Zhang Yang’s office and immediately assigned the task to William Harris. Even though he knew William Harris already had a lot on his plate, David Carter still handed this job to him.

“Okay.” William Harris agreed. He wrote this kind of report all the time, so it didn’t take much effort. The only tricky part was gathering data from each unit and village, which would take others several days. But as someone who actually worked, he was always prepared—he already had all the data on hand.

He turned on his computer and pulled up the various materials he had saved long ago, then started typing away.

In one afternoon, William Harris wrote a report titled “Practical Results in Stability Maintenance Work in Huan Town.” Of course, there was plenty of similar content online, so he borrowed what he could and just added some real, specific data.

“Director, the report is finished. Please take a look.” William Harris handed the report he’d written to David Carter with both hands.

“Leave it here, I’ll take a look.” David Carter was filling out a reimbursement form.

Every few days, David Carter would fill out such forms. Everyone knew these were definitely for the township chief’s or secretary’s hospitality expenses and the like. These things were very confidential, and ordinary people couldn’t find out about them. William Harris often heard talk about office and hospitality expenses being way over budget, but he’d never actually seen how the money was spent.

After a whole day of writing, William Harris finally felt relieved, though his head started to ache again. That brick had hit him hard, and the wound had bled a lot at the time. Fortunately, the doctor said it wasn’t a big problem. Now, William Harris realized the doctor was wrong—he was experiencing aftereffects. Being able to see “official aura” was definitely a sign something was wrong. Of course, William Harris also hoped this aftereffect wouldn’t go away. As long as he could see the “official aura,” he could accept a few side effects.

Having finished the report, William Harris finally relaxed a bit. He took a sip of tea, lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, then leaned back in his chair and looked around at everyone. Little James really was beautiful. In the sunlight, her face glowed with a rosy hue, her skin fair and tinged with red—very attractive.

“Little William, come here for a moment.” Just as he’d taken a few sips of tea, David Carter suddenly called out to William Harris.

Taking a few steps over to David Carter, William Harris asked, “Director, what is it?”

“Little William, I made a few changes. Please rewrite it.” Putting down his pen and taking off his glasses to rub his eyes, David Carter looked as if he’d put a lot of effort into it. “Little William, the sentences I added are very important. With these, the content shows its political nature. You must include them.”

Taking the revised draft from David Carter, William Harris saw that a few stock phrases had been added in several places. In fact, these phrases were already in the earlier version and didn’t really add anything.

You can’t object to changes made by a leader—William Harris knew this well. He respectfully took the draft from David Carter, returned to his seat, made the changes on the computer, printed it out, and quickly handed it back to David Carter.

“Good.”

David Carter looked it over carefully, then took the document and left the office.

As soon as David Carter left, the office immediately became lively, as if it had suddenly come to life. Henry White was the first to stand up and stretch, and Michael Reed drank his water so loudly it made a noise.

Little James stood up and refilled everyone’s cups with hot water.

Old Brooks saw Little James adding hot water for him and nodded, saying, “Little James, not bad!”

Little James smiled and said, “You’re my mentor. There’s a lot I need to learn from you.”

Hearing this, Old Brooks was even more pleased, and he drank his tea with a big smile.