Training the Heavens

Chapter 129 Receive the Certificate
Inside, the leader met Gao Jialin very enthusiastically. He chatted with him for about ten minutes and arranged for Ji Jingshuo, a senior reporter who mainly covered economics, to be his teacher. "Xiao Gao, you will follow Old Ji for the time being. He is a well-known reporter in our agency. I am absolutely confident that he will teach you."

"Hello, Teacher Ji. I'll trouble you from now on." Gao Jialin greeted him politely. The other party was a senior reporter with a senior professional title, equivalent to a full professor. In addition to the bonus of being a famous reporter, when he came to the local area, the mayor had to receive him well.

"I have read your article, it is indeed well written, and what is particularly rare is that it is forward-looking. After two years of training, I think you will be able to take over my job." Ji Jingshuo was also very optimistic about Gao Jialin and planned to train him as his successor. Unfortunately, Gao Jialin was afraid that he could not fulfill his wish.

Back in Ji Jingshuo's office, he didn't ask Gao Jialin about his knowledge of the reporter. Instead, he asked a question that sounded unexpected at first, but turned out to be very reasonable upon reflection: "Jialin, how are you feeling? Do you exercise regularly?"

"Not bad. I won the 10,000-meter championship in the school sports meet and reached the standard of a national second-level athlete." Gao Jialin knew very well why he asked this, so he reported the most appropriate result.

In fact, he was running under pressure. Otherwise, his doubled physical fitness would probably break the national record, and the national track and field team would probably snatch it away. How could he still study comfortably in school?

"It's good to be able to run fast! Being a reporter sometimes requires running fast. You can rush there in time when there is news, and you can keep yourself safe when encountering problems." Ji Jingshuo patted Gao Jialin's shoulder and sighed. He has been working as a reporter for so many years, and he has encountered many storms and was in danger several times. If he was not in good health, how could he write articles here quietly?
"From now on, you should get up an hour earlier every day, and we will exercise together as master and disciple. I will teach you some useful things." He didn't want Gao Jialin to get into trouble at such a young age.

Although the job of journalist is glamorous, it is also accompanied by many dangers. The number of investigative journalists has dropped to more than 100 in later generations, which is enough to illustrate the problem. If Wang Wenzhi was not so famous, he would have been beaten up, so he had to have some means to save his life.

Gao Jialin didn't intend to become a journalist exposing society's dark side, but he wouldn't slack off on studying it. Who knew what might happen in the future? For example, he might be planning to interview a company, but then something unfavorable happened there, and people assumed he was there to investigate? He wouldn't be able to explain himself, so he'd just run away.

Ji Jingshuo has been engaged in news reporting for so many years and is indeed quite skilled. Not only does he understand the ins and outs of various industries, he is also very good at observing people's expressions and detecting dangers in time. He even has practiced some very tricky moves, which he taught Gao Jialin without reservation.

Gao Jialin studied very seriously. These things might save his life in the future, so he had to study hard.

I exercise first in the morning and then listen to Ji Jingshuo talk about various methods. When it’s time to go to work, I help him organize information, extract key points, study his past articles, and the professional rules of the journalism industry, etc.

After about two weeks, Gao Jialin had basically gotten the hang of it, and he was also about to embark on his first business trip. As he boarded the train to Hebei, Ji Jingshuo mentioned the purpose of this interview. "Do you know Ma Shengli from the Shijiazhuang Paper Mill? He's just formulated a plan to contract 20 paper mills in 100 provinces. We're going there to interview him."

"I read in the newspaper that now when people talk about enterprise reform, they all say there is Ma Shengli in the north and Bu Xinsheng in the south. These two are well-known reform stars. I have wanted to meet him for a long time." Gao Jialin nodded in response.

Ma Shengli was originally the business section chief of Shijiazhuang Paper Mill. The year Gao Jialin went to college, he posted a big-character poster demanding to contract the paper mill, which was suffering increasing losses. After research, the leaders decided to let him give it a try. As a result, the enterprise created 140 million in profits for the factory in the first year.

After visiting the factory, a Xinhua News Agency reporter reviewed the situation and wrote a lengthy report titled "Ma Shengli, a Good Factory Director Who Always Considers the Interests of the Nation and the People." Major newspapers rushed to reprint the report, catapulting Ma Shengli into national prominence as a reform star. He subsequently received numerous honors, including the titles of "Ma Shengli, a Good Factory Director Who Always Considers the Interests of the Nation and the People" and "A Pioneering Reformer." He was also awarded the May 1st Labor Medal twice, a historic first.

When he arrived in Shijiazhuang, there were so many people who wanted to meet Ma Shengli, including leading cadres from other places who came to learn from him, business leaders who came to ask him to contract their factories, and reporters from various media outlets.

Even if they showed their Xinhua News Agency press credentials, they had to wait until the next day to meet Ma Shengli. After chatting for less than fifteen minutes, they had to leave. A mayor from another place came in and shook hands with Ma Shengli politely.

Ji Jingshuo did not return to Beijing, but continued to look for other people to interview, including ordinary workers in the paper mill, buyers who came to purchase goods, and leaders of foreign companies. After accumulating a large amount of material, he boarded the train back to Beijing.

On the way back, Ji Jingshuo asked, "Jialin, do you think Director Ma's big contracting plan will succeed?"

"I'm not optimistic," Gao Jialin said bluntly. "Objectively speaking, it's very difficult to build a papermaking group spanning multiple provinces across China. Making long-distance calls is difficult, let alone daily management. Furthermore, there are constraints such as transportation and local protectionism."

"Subjectively speaking, Director Ma was a bit overzealous. He only thought about contracting more factories, but didn't think about how to manage them. Many factories have not seen any changes since signing the contract agreements."

Gao Jialin also gave an analogy, "If it were in the military, Director Ma would definitely be a good regimental commander, able to lead the entire regiment to victory. However, if he were to be the commander of an army group, commanding large-scale operations and achieving strategic goals, he would not be able to do so. Now he wants to contract 100 paper mills, which is equivalent to expanding the regiment into an army group. I'm afraid there will be problems."

Ji Jingshuo didn't say it was right or wrong. "Well, when we get back, let's each write an article based on the information we've collected these days. Just treat it as a test for you."

After returning to the capital, the master and apprentice completed their articles one after another. When they exchanged their articles, they found that the direction was generally similar, both reminding big contractors to be cautious, but Ji Jingshuo's article was more subtle and obscure.

"The contracting system is a hot topic in current reform. My article will be published in the public media, so I shouldn't pour too much cold water on it. You can publish this in the internal reference to remind the leadership." Ji Jingshuo was very satisfied with his article. "You've almost mastered everything you need to know. Next, you can try interviewing on a specific topic."

A few days later, Gao Jialin received his own press card, which meant he could conduct interviews independently.

　The next chapter will be posted on time at 5 o'clock, and things should be back to normal from then on.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)