Chapter 35: The Enthusiastic Crowd

The two of them entered the office building just as the bell for the start of the workday at eight o’clock rang. There was a full-length mirror of Dongfanghong at the entrance of the first floor.

Li Xiangdong looked at himself in the mirror, then followed Hou Jianshe up the stairs to the second floor and arrived at the door of an office.

Hou Jianshe pushed the door open and said, “You go in first and find a stool to sit on. I’ll go and get someone to help you with the procedures.”

“Okay, Uncle Hou. You go ahead and don’t worry about me.”

“What ‘Uncle Hou’? Didn’t you hear the work bell just now? It’s working hours now. You should call me Section Chief Hou. You really have no manners at all!”

After speaking, Hou Jianshe ignored Li Xiangdong and walked towards the large office of the labor and capital department next door.

Tsk, tsk, tsk…

Just a moment ago, he was a good uncle. Now, he’s turned hostile in an instant!

Li Xiangdong snorted to himself and walked into Hou Jianshe’s office.

It was a room of more than thirty square meters. There was a set of desks and chairs, a vertical cabinet, and two large wooden file cabinets.

There was an iron rack at the door with an enamel washbasin on it, and two thermos flasks on the floor next to it.

Li Xiangdong walked over and opened the thermos stopper. Seeing steam coming out, he suddenly felt a little thirsty.

He had been chatting happily with Uncle Hou in the reception office just now, and now he felt his throat was dry.

Li Xiangdong didn’t care about the rules anymore. Anyway, Hou Jianshe had already let him call him Uncle Hou, so it should be fine to drink a cup of his water.

He carried the thermos to the desk, opened the lid of the teacup on the table, poured some hot water to rinse it, and casually splashed the water on the floor. The cement floor didn’t need to be so particular.

The water was full, and it was a bit hot, so he could only drink it later.

He pulled out a chair and sat down. Li Xiangdong waited for about ten minutes. The hardwood chair made his butt hurt. He stood up and moved around, just as he was about to drink some water.

Hou Jianshe walked in with a middle-aged female comrade.

He walked to his desk, saw that the teacup was already filled with water, felt the temperature was just right, glanced at Li Xiangdong, picked up the cup, and drank it all in one gulp.

“You’re a thoughtful kid.”

Li Xiangdong: “…”

Hou Jianshe put down the cup and saw him staring at him blankly, “What are you standing there for? Hurry up and greet Sister Sun.”

“Oh, hello, Sister Sun. My name is Li Xiangdong.”

“Hello to you too, Comrade Xiao Li.”

Sister Sun replied with a smile.

“Sister Sun is an old clerk in the section. She is very skilled in her work. You can just listen to her.”

Section Chief Hou introduced Li Xiangdong and then instructed Sister Sun, “Take Li Xiangdong through the onboarding process.”

“Okay, Section Chief Hou. You can rest assured leaving Comrade Xiao Li with me.”

Sister Sun agreed with a smile and then said to Li Xiangdong, “Comrade Xiao Li, come with me. Let’s go to the office next door.”

“Okay, Sister Sun.”

“Then Section Chief Hou, you can get busy. I’ll go and handle the procedures with Sister Sun first.”

Li Xiangdong greeted Section Chief Hou and then followed Sister Sun out of the office.

“Dongzi, remember what I said. Young people should smoke less. Next time you have good cigarettes, bring them to me quickly. Do you hear me?”

Li Xiangdong hadn’t even reached the door when he heard Hou Jianshe’s voice from behind. He instantly understood the meaning of the words and turned around with a smile, “I know, Section Chief Hou.”

Hou Jianshe saw that he understood the meaning of his words, just smiled, and didn’t say anything more. He waved his hand to signal that he could leave.

After the two of them disappeared from his office door, he picked up the office phone on the table and dialed.

Outside in the corridor.

Sister Sun, who was walking in front, turned to look at Li Xiangdong and said with extra enthusiasm, “Dongzi, are you and Section Chief Hou relatives?”

Hearing Sister Sun’s address to him change from Comrade Xiao Li to Dongzi.

Li Xiangdong twitched the corner of his mouth and didn’t explain anything to Sister Sun.

The words Hou Jianshe said to him as he was leaving were not asking him for a cigarette.

He was a section chief of the labor and capital department. Would he really be short of those two packs of cigarettes?

Those words were meant for Sister Sun to hear, to tell her that Li Xiangdong was his, Hou Jianshe’s, person.

But Li Xiangdong couldn’t explain anything, and he certainly couldn’t admit that he was a relative of Hou Jianshe’s family.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, Sister Sun smiled even more enthusiastically.

“You’re keeping it a secret? Don’t worry, your big sister is not a gossip.”

“Sister Sun, what are you thinking? It’s not that I don’t want to say it. You know my Uncle Hou’s personality, don’t you? During working hours, I can only call him Section Chief Hou, otherwise he’ll give me a long face!”

Hearing Li Xiangdong’s nonsense, Sister Sun actually believed it.

“I understand, I understand. I understand everything you’re saying.”

Li Xiangdong’s face was full of “yes, yes, yes, you’re right” expressions.

But in his heart, he was complaining, “You understand my ass!”

“You understand a hammer!”

Sister Sun led Li Xiangdong to the large office of the labor and capital department with extreme enthusiasm.

“Everyone, quiet down. Let me introduce you. This is Li Xiangdong. From now on, he will be our colleague in the section.”

Sister Sun clapped her hands, and the people in the office who were chatting and laughing instantly fell silent.

They were wondering why Sister Sun was making such a fuss. It was just a new employee reporting for duty. They had seen many of them. Was it necessary to do this?

But on closer inspection, wasn’t this the young man from the reception office?

They had personally seen Uncle Hou chatting very warmly with this young man.

Thinking about it again, Sister Sun was introducing him so formally. They had guessed correctly. This young man was a junior in Section Chief Hou’s family!

Their faces immediately showed enthusiastic and friendly smiles.

“Comrade Li Xiangdong is really a handsome man.”

“Indeed, such a tall man is rare. There are not many in our section!”

“Comrade Xiao Li, are you married? Big sister will introduce you to someone. I guarantee she’s a flower in our passenger transport section.”

“You’re married? You have two children? A boy and a girl, that’s great, really great!”

“Dongzi, you’re really a lucky person!”

Li Xiangdong smiled and nodded in response. These people were overly enthusiastic towards him!

He felt a little overwhelmed. He was just an educated youth who had returned to the city, here to handle the onboarding procedures. It was as if he was the child of some high-ranking leader coming for an inspection!

“Xiao Wang, pour a cup of water for Dongzi.”

“Okay, Sister Sun.”

Sister Sun brought Li Xiangdong to her workstation, instructed the young man sitting to her right, and then pointed to the chair opposite her.

“Dongzi, sit here. Did you bring your household registration book and a one-inch photo?”

“I brought them.”

Li Xiangdong replied, sat down opposite Sister Sun, and took out the household registration book and photo from his cloth bag.

“This is our procedure. Dongzi, don’t think that your big sister is deliberately targeting you.”

After speaking, Sister Sun took Li Xiangdong’s household registration book and looked at it carefully.

Identity verification is done by any unit. It’s not that they believe you just because you bring an introduction letter.

Verifying the information on the household registration book and the introduction letter is only the first step. Later, relevant staff from the unit will go to the subdistrict office to check.

If it’s a unit with stricter requirements, they will also find out all of the employee’s movements from birth to the time they report for duty at the unit.

If it were a unit with even stricter requirements, they would trace all of the employee’s movements from birth until the day they reported for duty.