“Although our Wuming City is not as busy as a big city, it can also be regarded as a beautiful city with fresh air. If you have any difficulties or requirements at work, you can just mention it to us.” Du Zhonghai had a sip of tea, and he smiled kindly.
Shen Chang’an’s gaze fell on the stainless-steel thermos cup in Director Du’s hand. He didn’t know for how long the thermos cup had been used. The luster of the surface of the cup looked a little dull, and there was a layer of brown tea stains at the mouth of the bottle.
It wasn’t that the cup of tea was so interesting that he could only stare at it, but he was afraid that if he moved his gaze a little higher, he would see Director Du’s shiny head. He didn’t want to make the Director think that he liked to look at other people’s shortcomings on the first day he came to work. “Thank you, Director.”
Du Zhonghai nodded with a smile. The young man sitting in front of him was handsome, with white skin and black hair. A pair of eyes hidden behind rimless glasses was curved in a smile. It was a face that girls liked.
“You’re new here. You don’t have to worry too much about your job,” Du Zhonghai said a few more words. Seeing that the young man was smiling and nodding, he was content to let him get familiar with the job.
After Shen Chang’an left, Du Zhonghai sighed. The city was not big, and the People’s Livelihood Service Department was also called the Logistics and Pension Department. It was not clear why Shen Chang’an, a talented student from a big city, had come to work here until he was given a copy of Shen Chang’an’s personal details. It was only then that he realized that there was so much concealed information behind him.
After his parents died in the line of duty, they were worried that the criminals would retaliate against the young Shen Chang’an. The relevant departments changed Chang’an’s name and when he grew up, it was arranged for him to work here. Possibly, it was also to let him live a stable life.
Wuming city had beautiful mountains and clear waters with simple and honest people and no attention from the outside world. It was indeed a good choice to arrange Shen Chang’an here.
After coming out of the Director’s office, Shen Chang’an was warmly received by his colleagues. After introducing himself and greeting each other, Shen Chang’an, dazed, promised his colleagues to get together for dinner at night.
Probably…delicious food created spiritual bonds of communication. Shen Chang’an felt that these colleagues were amiable, and even their Mandarin, which was mixed with the local dialect from time to time, was charming.
With the addition of him, there were five people in the office total. The oldest one was Gao Shujuan, who had permed curly hair. Although she was the Deputy Director of the Department, everyone called her Elder Sister Gao. She spoke in a rather loud voice, but she seemed to be very friendly. The other three colleagues were all young people. Ding Yan and Chen Panpan had just graduated for one or two years and had the unique vigor of young people. The other was Xu Ze. He didn’t talk much, but when he agreed to get together for dinner at night, Shen Chang’an saw that his head had quickly straightened up a degree.
After listening to everyone chatting for half an hour, Shen Chang’an looked at the clean desk with no paper in front of him and asked curiously, “What work do we usually do?”
The office was quiet for a moment, and even Xu Ze, who seemed reserved, dryly coughed uncomfortably.
“That little Shen, our Civil Service Department was just established, and we were transferred here from other positions.” Gao Shujuan’s index finger flicked the curly hair on her forehead. “Our department is called the People’s Livelihood Service Department, and the job, naturally, is to govern and be in the service of everybody’s livelihood.”
Shen Chang’an pushed his glasses, feeling an atmosphere of embarrassment fill the air.
“Anything related to people’s lives is our scope of work.” Ding Yang snickered. “In other words, we are like a brick, and move to where we’re needed.”
“That…that’s quite amazing?” Shen Chang’an was stunned. He barely managed to squeeze out such a sentence, “Then, what is our latest job?”
“To establish a new culture and promote the scientific concept of development.” Xu Ze took out a thick sheet of colourful flyers from the drawer and put it in front of Shen Chang’an. “This is today’s new print. Do you want to see it?”
Shen Chang’an picked up the flyer. The quality of the flyer was not good. It was a bit like a street advertisement with several rows of large bold and black characters.
Worshipping gods and ghosts were not as good as repairing roads. Only with more roads could one get rich.
If you are sick, do not buy holy sacrificial things to the Immortal Young Matron. The hospital will happily treat the disease with medicine.
Fox Immortal, Earth Immortal, and Great Immortal Wong, it’s better to steadily work to make money.
Those words were really simple and crude. Shen Chang’an coughed and put the flyer back to its original position. “Who thought of this slogan?”
Xu Ze looked up. “Me.”
“It’s really well written, catchy, and easy to remember.” Shen Chang’an nodded his head to show that his words were sincere. “It’s very practical.”
Xu Ze looked at him quietly for a few seconds, and then slowly opened his mouth, “I appreciate you very much.”
Shen Chang’an, “Huh?”
Xu Ze, “There aren’t many people who have the level of appreciation you have.”
Shen Chang’an, “Thank…thank you?”
After lunch, Shen Chang’an thought that their job was to go out and hand out flyers, but Ding Yang told him that the two of them were going out to do some field work.
“Wait.” Before leaving the office, Ding Yan took a miniature photo out of the drawer. Shen Chang’an took a quick look and it was actually a portrait of all the great people.1
Seeing Shen Chang’an look at him, Ding Yang paused with the photo in his hand, and took out another one from the drawer, “You…you also want it?”
After taking it out, Ding Yang regretted it. He heard Director Du say that his new colleague was a high achieving student from a big city, but he didn’t know why he had come to work in their department. He only knew that Director Du had worked hard to bring in this talent and had even lost several hairs on his head.
Such a high achieving student, how could he be like himself whose courage was not big enough that he needed the photo of great people to boost his courage.
“Thank you.” Shen Chang’an took the photo and put it away like Ding Yang. “What are we going to do this afternoon?”
“Something happened in Corn Village. The villagers claim that there was a ghost, which made the nearby villages panic. Let’s go see what’s going on to make the villagers feel at ease.” Ding Yang put his cell phone away and took Shen Chang’an to an old van. He turned his head and looked at Shen Chang’an’s clean white shirt, opened the van door, and wiped the passenger seat with a grey coat. “Corn Village is almost 30 kilometers away from here. We’ll go early and return early.”
As soon as his voice fell, he saw that Shen Chang’an was actually sitting in the driver’s seat and he quickly said, “The road over there is not easy to drive on. You sit in peace and let me do it.”
“Oh.” Shen Chang’an looked at the steering wheel, got out of the car, and sat in the passenger seat.
The country road had not been repaired yet, and it was covered in gravel. When the van drove on the road, it made a loud clanging sound. Shen Chang’an couldn’t help but wonder if the van would break down before it reaches the destination.
“Ignorance and superstition bring harm to people.” Ding Yang was used to this kind of country road, his body was shaking in the car while his facial expression didn’t change. “A few years ago, some villagers believed in the words of a swindler, and drank divine water of unknown origin. More than a dozen people were sent to the hospital, but two people didn’t make it and passed.”
“There are also some disgusting hooligans and old swindlers who say that some women have evil spirits and offer to exorcise them. They then take the opportunity to deceive them of money and sex,” Ding Yang sighed in anger. “As long as people are greedy, it is very difficult to get rid of scammers. All we can do is to increase everyone’s vigilance and minimize everyone’s losses.”
“It’s only two or three o’clock in the afternoon. How is it so gloomy out?” Ding Yang had talked most of the way and found that something was wrong. He looked up at the sky. “There may be heavy rain soon.”
Shen Chang’an looked and thick dark clouds covered the sun. The whole sky seemed to be pressing down, which was the precursor of heavy rain. He looked at the mountains on both sides of the road and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose. “If the rain is too heavy, will there be landslides?”
As soon as his voice fell, big drops of rain fell from the sky, making the windshield rattle, and then it was pouring rain.
Ding Yang didn’t dare to drive the car too fast. The windshield wiper kept scraping the windshield, and he couldn’t see the road ahead. He couldn’t help swearing, “The sun is a golden dog.2 When can the weather forecasting department get it right once?”
“Be careful.” Shen Chang’an helped him hold the steering wheel and avoided a large boulder in the middle of the road. He tilted his head to look at Ding Yang and breathed a sigh of relief. “This section of the road is to dangerous. We have to leave here as soon as possible.”
Looking at the large boulder on the side of the road, Ding Yang felt a faint trembling in his heart. With no village ahead and no inn behind, and without people passing by in succession, he and Shen Chang’an probably would have come to a bad end.
“We’ll go back first.” Ding Yang looked at the dark sky. “We’ll go to Corn Village when the rain stops.”
“You should take a break first and let me drive.” Looking at Ding Yang’s trembling hands, Shen Chang’an opened the door and went out. The rain poured on his head and face, and his shirt was clinging to his body.
Ding Yang didn’t dare give the van to Shen Chang’an, but now it was rainy and windy out, and his hands were shaking. He couldn’t drive on this muddy road.
He clenched his teeth and gave the driver’s seat to Shen Chang’an.
“Don’t worry, Brother Yang.” Shen Chang’an sat in the driver’s seat, took off his glasses, and wiped them on his clothes. He smiled brightly at Ding Yang. “My driving skills are not bad.”
Ding Yang wanted to say a few more words, but seeing Shen Chang’an’s smiling eyes, he choked back his words.
He said it so confidently, there should…be no problem?
A few seconds later, Ding Yang found that he was still too naïve. Shen Chang’an’s driving skills indeed did not have a problem, it was that there were too many problems.
“Ahhh!”
“Chang’an, you should sober up. You’re driving a van, not an airplane!”
Although the van was always ridiculed by other car owners as having a God’s brightness3, it was in fact a cheap dilapidated van!
“Brother Yang don’t worry. Trust me, there’s absolutely no problem.” Shen Chang’an turned the steering wheel, and the van made a sharp turn on the winding mountain road. Ding Yang felt as if he was flying in the air.
He looked at Shen Chang’an in despair. At this moment, he felt that the glasses on Shen Chang’an’s nose were shining with a chilling light.
Boom!
A piece of rock fell, and the van dodged the mountainous rock with almost drifting speed. Shen Chang’an grinned at Ding Yang. “Look, I said it’ll be okay.”
Ding Yang trembled and did not dare speak.
Please don’t call me brother in the future. As long as you aren’t the Great Deity of Western Peak4, I would even call you father.
For some reason, Shen Chang’an drove the car very fast, but Ding Yuan felt that they were still circling the mountain road, and the rain never got lighter.
“Brother Yang, it seems that the rain is getting heavier and heavier.” Shen Chang’an frowned, “Would you like me to stop driving so fast?”
“Chang’an, do you feel like this road is … particularly long?” Ding Yang shuddered and his face, which was not small, was pale.
“Is it?” Shen Chang’an raised his eyebrows. “Maybe it’s because you want to go back so much so you have this illusion,” he said, “Don’t worry, when I was driving, I already noted down the road and will not drive the wrong way. It’s really impossible. There is still mobile phone navigation. How about you sleep for a while?”
Ding Yang looked at the dense cypress trees outside the car, and shouted in his heart: No, I don’t want to sleep, I can’t sleep!
///
Translator’s Note:
1. The portraits of the great people just refers to pictures of prominent people either currently or throughout history.
2. Sun is a golden dog refers to a sundog. “It’s a rainbow coloured patch of light that occurs on either side of the sun, and is precursor of bad weather.”
3. God’s brightness is referring to how something is so incredible that it has the brightness/luster of a God. In this context, the others are making fun of the car by saying that it looks incredible, comparable to a God’s light, because it looks so worn down.
4. Great Deity of Western Peak is a Chinese God associated with Metal and Autumn. Ding Yang doesn’t want to meet him because that would mean he’s dead.
fragrantteatranslations.wordpress.com 