The young man also noticed Fang Qingye not far away and walked over with a smile to greet him.
“Yezi, off work?”
“Yeah, Da Hai, still busy?” Fang Qingye replied with a smile.
“I can’t compare to you. You bankers wear clean uniforms, surrounded by beauties. Not like us with all our messy business—sometimes we even get cursed behind our backs.” The young man called Da Hai sighed.
“Nonsense, you brought this on yourself! Your dad got you a position but you refused it, insisting on becoming a Chengguan!” Fang Qingye retorted bluntly.
“Heh heh… I like it!”
This Da Hai’s full name was Song Da Hai, Fang Qingye’s childhood friend. They had grown up together and were as close as brothers.
He had another identity—the second son of Song Qingdong, known as the richest man in Nanxin.
To be honest, Song Da Hai was quite a character. His grades in school were poor, and he didn’t even finish high school before his father pulled strings to send him to the military. Instead of choosing a comfortable post, he insisted on joining a field army unit in Xinjiang!
After serving for several years, he was discharged and returned to the county town. According to policy at the time, the government arranged jobs for veterans.
With his father’s influence, he could have picked any department—Personnel Bureau, Urban Construction Bureau, Water Resources Bureau—but he turned them all down and joined the Chengguan team instead.
As he put it: “I’m used to being wild, can’t sit still in an office. I just like roaming around outside all day.”
His father was furious, feeling too embarrassed by this, and told him to just stay home—of course, he couldn’t let him into the family company either, afraid he’d wreck it.
“Just stay at home—can’t I support you?!”
But he actually refused, saying, “I’m young and capable—how can I mooch off my parents? I want to contribute to society!”
When his father heard this, he nearly had a heart attack from anger and finally washed his hands of the matter. “Do whatever you want.”
So, Song Da Hai started driving his newly bought BMW X5 to work at the Chengguan team! He seemed quite happy working with his colleagues all day, even though his 2000-yuan monthly salary wasn’t even enough to cover his gas money…
Fang Qingye saw that Song Da Hai was working and didn’t want to disturb him. After exchanging a few words, he was about to leave but was stopped by his friend.
“Hey, want to get hot pot after work? There’s a new place on Jinhua Road called Chongqing Courtyard—pretty good flavor. Let’s go try it, my treat!” Song Da Hai said.
“Sure, I don’t have anything going on tonight anyway,” Fang Qingye agreed readily.
“Bring a couple of pretty girls from your bank. Can you invite that Chen Meimei? Get her to come.” Song Da Hai grinned and made another request.
“Why should I invite her… Da Hai, don’t tell me you’ve taken a liking to her?” Fang Qingye countered.
“Nothing like that,” Song Da Hai quickly denied. “Didn’t I say your bank has lots of pretty girls? That Chen Meimei is especially beautiful. Not like our Chengguan team—mostly guys, and the few women we have are dinosaurs.”
“Chen Meimei probably won’t have time. She’s been assigned to assist the investigation team from the city,” Fang Qingye told him truthfully.
“The city investigation team—are they looking into the Tenglong Industry deposit theft case?” Song Da Hai lowered his voice.
This time it was Fang Qingye’s turn to be surprised.
“You’ve even heard about that?”
“Heh… Nanxin is such a small place. Any little stir gets around the whole city.” Song Da Hai wore an expression that said “you’re making a fuss over nothing—so provincial.”
“My dad said it last night. After hearing some news, he immediately called the company’s financial director to check if there were any issues with our company’s accounts. Twenty million is no small amount after all.”
“That’s true,” Fang Qingye nodded.
“How could this happen? Could there be a mole in your bank?” Song Da Hai wore an expression like Sherlock Holmes solving a case.
“Hey, don’t talk nonsense. Can’t you see they’re investigating right now?” Fang Qingye retorted impatiently.
“Alright, I won’t say anymore. I need to get back to work. You go find a spot first, I’ll join you after work. Don’t forget.”
Seeing Song Da Hai about to leave, Fang Qingye quickly asked: “Should we invite Liu Dong?”
“He’s been as busy as a spinning top lately, writing things day and night. Probably won’t have time.”
Fang Qingye was surprised to hear this: “He’s just a cadre at the Aging Committee. How much material could he possibly have to write? Is he going to read it to the elderly folks?”
“You didn’t know? He was just seconded to the County Party Committee’s Propaganda Department last week. He’s busy writing some news propaganda pieces.”
So that’s it!
Song Da Hai replied and immediately strode away, shouting at the old man selling strawberries: “Old man, no more chit-chat. You said strawberries don’t sell well elsewhere, right? Fine then, I’ll buy all these strawberries! Take the money and go home quickly! Move aside!”
As he spoke, he pulled out his wallet from his pocket.
Damn.
He really is loaded.
Fang Qingye sighed to himself and rode away on his scooter.
Liu Dong was another one of his buddies.
Unlike Song Da Hai who had been in the same elementary school class with him, Liu Dong came from a rural family and only transferred to the county town for middle school. He became desk mates with Song Da Hai, and the three grew close.
After being admitted to Huijing Normal University through the college entrance exam, Liu Dong originally wanted to become a teacher. But later he passed the civil service exam and entered the County Civil Affairs Bureau, only to be assigned to its subordinate unit, the Aging Committee.
It was a rather quiet department with little to do all day. Liu Dong jokingly said he’d spend his life dealing with old folks.
Liu Dong was the kind of somewhat romantic literary youth – he enjoyed writing and had real talent. In his spare time, he submitted articles to “Jinghai Daily,” with several pieces being published. This probably caught the attention of the Propaganda Department leadership, who recruited him to write news propaganda materials.
Of course, working in the Propaganda Department offered much better prospects than the Aging Committee.
When he returned home, neither his father nor mother had come back yet.
His father Fang Jianwen probably had social engagements.
Although Chengguan Middle School was just a junior high school, it was one of Nanxin County’s established institutions with exceptionally high teaching quality, making it the top choice for parents during the elementary to junior high transition.
Despite current regulations explicitly prohibiting key classes in elementary and junior high schools, various places still grouped outstanding teachers into certain classes to improve graduation rates – creating de facto key classes without the name.
Chengguan Middle School had two such classes each year, naturally making parents compete fiercely for them.
How to get into these key classes?
Principal Fang Jianwen played the decisive role.
Therefore, Fang Jianwen had quite frequent social engagements, especially during the critical annual transition period from elementary to junior high. His phone would ring constantly all day, with people seeking connections and backdoor approaches streaming in endlessly. Fang Qingye remembered how every year around August during summer vacation, his father would take his mother on “vacation trips” to other places to hide out for a while.
There was no other way – too many people asked for favors, but there were only about a hundred spots across two classes. They couldn’t possibly give them all to people with connections, could they?
So Fang Qingye had grown accustomed to his father frequently being absent for meals.
Mom Zhang Meili was an ordinary elementary school teacher, so she naturally had very few social engagements. But nowadays, besides teaching, teachers also had to attend various training sessions, meetings, and party-building activities, so she usually didn’t get home until after six in the evening.
Fang Qingye was already used to it.
Back in his bedroom, he took off his bank uniform, changed into a jacket and jeans, put on his sneakers, and wrote a note which he left on the living room coffee table, telling his mom he wouldn’t be home for dinner. Then he went downstairs, hopped on his scooter, and headed straight for Jinhua Road.
Sure enough, he found a hot pot restaurant called “Chongqing Courtyard.” The decor was quite upscale, and since it had recently opened, all dishes were 12% off, so the place was relatively crowded today.
The two didn’t need a private room, so Fang Qingye found an empty seat in the main hall, ordered a Yuan Yang Pot (Divided Hot Pot), selected a few dishes, and brewed a pot of tea while waiting for Song Da Hai to arrive.
A few minutes past six, Fang Qingye looked out the window and saw a white BMW speeding over and parking right in front of the hot pot restaurant. Song Da Hai got out of the car, still wearing his Chengguan (Urban Management Officers) uniform, and carrying a plastic bag in his hand.
As soon as he saw him enter the restaurant, Fang Qingye waved him over. Song Da Hai walked over, plopped down in the seat opposite, and casually placed the plastic bag on the table.
Inside were strawberries.