Chapter 49: What a Genius!

Hou San led the two of them through the crowd from the side, arriving at the east side of the building. This was the entrance and exit for train station staff, right next to the station’s police station, which was under the jurisdiction of the Beijing Railway Public Security Bureau.

Opening the door and going inside, they entered the work area. This was where the train station employees usually rested and changed shifts.

A corridor was lined with offices on both sides, each door adorned with a small wooden sign with black text on a white background.

The water supply group and the crew group of the passenger transport section were not together. Li Xiangdong had Hou San accompany Ah Zhe to the crew group to report.

He himself walked to the door of the water supply group office, knocked, and hearing no response, he pushed the door open to look inside.

“How come there’s no one here?”

Li Xiangdong muttered to himself and walked in.

The office was over fifty square meters, with a simple layout.

By the door against the wall was a double-layered wooden shelf. Water cups were placed on the top shelf, and lunch boxes were on the bottom. Next to the shelf, there were several thermoses on the floor.

In the middle, there was only one large communal desk, surrounded by about ten chairs placed haphazardly. On each of the two side walls, there were two wooden file cabinets.

The innermost wall was entirely covered with individual lockers.

Li Xiangdong walked to the desk, put his cloth bag on it, and pulled out a chair to sit down.

Just then, Hou San walked in and called out, “Brother Dong, how come you’re the only one in the office?”

Li Xiangdong smiled, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Hou San scratched his head, “The others all have train assignments, but our group leader should be here.”

He placed the empty tea caddy on the desk, “Brother Dong, you sit and rest for a bit. I’ll go see if our group leader is in the office next door.”

A short while later, Hou San returned with a rather sturdy-looking man. The man was about thirty years old, had a natural air of authority, and his work uniform was very neat, without a single wrinkle.

“Brother Dong, this is our water supply group’s Leader Liu.”

After the introduction, Hou San winked at him, “My eldest brother-in-law, a real one. Brother Dong, you didn’t expect that, did you?”

“Let me tell you, Brother Dong, my eldest sister and second sister are both ticket sellers at Beijing Railway Station. My second brother-in-law is a railway police officer at the station’s police station and is about to be promoted to deputy chief.”

One, a group leader of the passenger transport section’s water supply group, and the other, a railway police officer about to be promoted to deputy police chief. It seemed Hou Jianshe had tilted all his resources towards his two sons-in-law.

This fool Hou San was really lucky. Although he himself was unpromising, with people looking after him, he could comfortably coast through to retirement.

Li Xiangdong listened to Hou San’s boasting with a smile on his face, but his heart was almost overflowing with sourness!

“Ahem.”

Group Leader Liu coughed twice, “You must be Comrade Li Xiangdong, right? Welcome to our water supply group family. If you have any difficulties at work in the future, you can tell me directly.”

Li Xiangdong took two steps forward and extended his hand, “Thank you for your care, Group Leader Liu. I’ll definitely be troubling you in the future. You can just call me Dongzi.”

Group Leader Liu nodded and shook his hand, “There are still empty lockers. You can choose one for yourself.”

He took out two keys from his pocket. One was an ordinary key, and the other was a small iron rod the size of a finger, with two “teeth” welded onto it.

“This is the key for the train. Keep it with you and don’t lose it. If you find your key is missing, report it to the train conductor on the train. If you lose it outside, come find me.”

Li Xiangdong took the keys and nodded emphatically.

Group Leader Liu patted his shoulder, “Don’t be nervous. It’s just a universal key for the train. Just be mindful of it.”

He pointed to the hat on his own head and said again, “Also, you need to remember to dress neatly. Wear your hat during work hours from now on.”

Hearing this, Li Xiangdong quickly took the hat out of his pocket and put it on his head.

Hou San, being his usual sloppy self, didn’t take it seriously until his brother-in-law, Group Leader Liu, shot him a look. Only then did he reluctantly pull the hat out of his pants pocket and casually place it on his head.

Group Leader Liu walked over to Hou San, reached out to adjust his hat, and continued, “The only two new recruits for our water supply group this time are you and Hou San. Dongzi, since you just reported for duty, you still need to get on a train to familiarize yourself with the work. Tomorrow, you two will follow a train to Tianjin.”

Li Xiangdong said, “Got it, Group Leader Liu.”

Group Leader Liu turned to Hou San and instructed, “San’er, you’ve been on a train before, so you know what to pay attention to on the road. Tomorrow, go out and teach Dongzi well.”

“Alright, brother-in-law, I got it.”

Hou San was very excited. He never thought he would one day get to be a “master,” even if it was just a temporary one, he was happy.

“Brother-in-law, what time is our train to Tianjin tomorrow?”

Group Leader Liu took out the schedule from his pocket, looked at it, and said, “The 10:30 AM train. This time is mainly for Dongzi to get familiar with the work, so the schedule is very relaxed. You two can stay overnight in Tianjin and come back on the 2:00 PM train the next day.”

The two nodded to show they understood.

Hou San sidled up to Group Leader Liu and said fawningly, “Brother-in-law, where did you put your tea? Can I have some?”

Group Leader Liu was puzzled, “Can you get used to my tea?”

Hou San retorted, “Who says I can’t get used to it?”

“Then go get it from my locker yourself.”

Group Leader Liu handed the locker key to Hou San, “Remember to put the lid back on for me. The tea won’t taste good if it gets damp.”

Hou San took the key and said impatiently, “I know, I know.”

Group Leader Liu smiled helplessly. He had no way of dealing with this little brother-in-law of his. “Remember to take Dongzi out to get familiar with the place later. I have some things to do, so I won’t accompany you two.”

Li Xiangdong said, “Group Leader Liu, you go ahead and get busy. I’ll ask Hou San if there’s anything I don’t understand.”

“Alright, if you don’t understand something, just ask him. He can also tell you what you need to bring for the train trip tomorrow.”

Group Leader Liu glanced at Hou San and then walked out.

Hou San followed and closed the door. Holding the key, he ran to his brother-in-law’s locker, opened it, and took out a tea caddy.

He returned to the desk and poured all of his brother-in-law’s tea into his father’s empty tea caddy.

Li Xiangdong looked at him as if he were looking at an idiot, “What were you thinking? Can’t your dad tell the difference between Tieguanyin and low-grade jasmine tea?”

“My dad has been drinking tea for decades, how could he not tell the difference!”

Hou San patted his brother-in-law’s tea caddy until not a single speck of the low-grade jasmine tea was left. Only then did he put the empty box back in his brother-in-law’s locker.

Li Xiangdong was speechless, “You know your dad can tell the difference, so what’s the point of this whole act? Why don’t I just give you back that bag of Tieguanyin? The way you’re acting is making me feel a little uneasy.”

“Brother Dong, I said I’d give it to you, I don’t want it back.”

Hou San first refused Li Xiangdong’s kind offer, then said triumphantly, “I have a reason for doing this. My brother-in-law’s favorite is Zhang Yiyuan’s low-grade jasmine tea.”

“If my dad sees that his tea has turned into low-grade jasmine tea, he’ll definitely think my brother-in-law swapped his tea. That way, it has nothing to do with me.”

Li Xiangdong: “…”

ps: Brothers and sisters, move your little hands, let’s have a wave of love-powered generation~