The temporary county office building.
Dong Xuebing arrived late for work, around 10 AM. He had been busy with investment promotion for the past few days, which was finally a relief. Dong Xuebing didn’t care much about being late; he wasn’t a machine and hadn’t appropriately rested for almost a month. He needed a break. Others in the yard didn’t find it unusual that Dong Xuebing arrived late because many knew his wife had flown in from afar and might have to leave soon. Unsurprisingly, a couple would want to spend some quality time together, and being an hour or two late to work wasn’t a big deal today.
"Good morning, Secretary Dong."
Several passing cadres and staff greeted him.
Dong Xuebing nodded and asked a county office staff member, "Has Xiao Su arrived? Ask him to come to my office."
The secretary's office is usually outside or nearby the leader’s office, but here, they temporarily rented a row of houses, which didn’t have such conditions. Su Yan, who was serving as the Deputy Director in the county office, went to the county office area when he arrived.
Dong Xuebing went back to his office.
Behind him, many people walking in the yard began chatting together.
"Hey, Old Yu, have you heard?"
"About Secretary Dong's wife."
"I don’t know anything about that."
"Really? I wasn’t qualified to go to the celebration dinner yesterday. Our department didn’t participate in the investment conference. Not in the same system."
"Haha, you’re so unlucky."
"Old Zhou, don’t tease me. Hurry up and tell me."
"Last night, at dinner, Secretary Dong’s wife came. Oh, you can’t even imagine how beautiful she is. I swear, I’ve never seen such a beautiful person before. Haha. You should have been there. Many of us were stunned. Oh, she’s just breathtaking."
"Why would I lie to you?"
"Any photos? Let me see."
"Forget it. Who would dare take photos?"
Several others heard this and joined in the discussion. This is typical in the government offices: rumors about the wives of department heads, secretaries, or county leaders—like Wang’s wife is expecting, Li’s daughter got divorced, Zhang’s wife has vitiligo, Liu’s mother was scammed out of a thousand yuan—usually can’t be hidden in these environments. Everyone’s curious about these things and loves discussing them secretly. Naturally, the story about Dong Xuebing’s wife stunning everyone last night spread quickly. Since Dong Xuebing is the leading figure here, his matters are more closely watched. When Dong Xuebing arrived at work this morning, people were already chatting about it in pairs and groups.
Su Yan knocked and entered, "Secretary."
"Oh, you changed your hairstyle today." Dong Xuebing smiled and looked him up and down.
Su Yan touched his head, a bit embarrassed. "Last night, I got a haircut. I didn’t mean for it to turn out ; they cut it short, almost shaved it."
Dong Xuebing laughed, "It’s good like that."
"By the way, you called me." Su Yan said.
"Hmm, today, comrades from other provinces and cities might visit our county to exchange and investigate the work related to investment promotion. You should prepare at the Investment Bureau," Dong Xuebing said.
Su Yan replied, "I just got the notice too. The Secretary of Xia Xing City from the South seems to lead a team to our city. You didn’t come earlier; I was about to report to you. The city has gone through the procedure and contacted our county office, asking us to be responsible for hosting, welcoming, and cooperating with the Xia Xing City comrades." The formal procedures reveal the increasingly rigid city and county relationship. Usually, if there’s something important, related leaders or heads would directly call the top leader or deputy head, making communication easier and clearer. However, not only Zhang Dongfang but even Dong Xuebing, the county party secretary, sometimes has to find out about tasks and matters from the office rather than directly from above.
The city’s control is evident.
But Dong Xuebing didn’t care; let the city do whatever they want.
Dong Xuebing nodded and asked, "Do they say when they’re arriving?"
"They said around 11 AM." Su Yan glanced at his watch. There was still about an hour."
Dong Xuebing said, "Then hurry up and prepare. Arrange everything—hotel, lunch, nothing too extravagant, but also not too shabby."
Su Yan nodded thoughtfully, "Understood."
After giving these instructions, Dong Xuebing let Su Yan arrange everything. There was no need for extra explanations, like what’s going on with Secretary He or anything about them coming. If they come, they’ll find out themselves. He didn’t need to explain anything to the underlings; if they didn’t know, they didn’t need to know; it wasn’t a big deal.
Outside, suddenly, there was the sound of cars arriving.
Moments later, Su Yan returned, "Secretary, the cars are here."
"Good. Did you inform Director Zhang?" Dong Xuebing got up.
Su Yan nodded, "I called them over there."
Dong Xuebing and his secretary went out and immediately met Deputy Secretary Wei Zhixuan. They nodded to each other and walked towards the yard gate. There were no banners for this welcome because it was just a regular investment exchange, not something grand. Besides, Xia Xing City wasn’t their direct superior. Still, not having banners doesn’t mean it’s not a momentous occasion; the visiting Secretary from the city and possibly city officials accompanying him meant that Dong Xuebing, Zhang Dongfang, and Wei Zhixuan, the top three leaders, would have to welcome them personally.
Everyone gathered in the yard.
Cars from Baohong City slowly parked.
A young man was the first to exit, immediately opening a car door.
Zhang Dongfang didn’t seem very concerned; his expression was calm, or perhaps he seemed distracted. After all, he had been busy for over a month and was mentally exhausted. Yesterday, he drank a lot of celebration wine, so today, many people seem to have an average energy state.
But when the people from the car stepped out, many were alert, even surprised.