King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

As soon as he entered the room, the engineer slumped over the sink and vomited violently.

The towels and bath towels on the sink were splattered with vomit.

After he had vomited most of it, Zhan Yiling helped him to the bedside, settled him in, and then went back to her own room to get a clean towel to replace the dirty ones.

Then I boiled some water, poured out a few cups, and left them to cool on the table.

Looking around and seeing that there was nothing else to tidy up, I went out and closed the door.

Zhan Yiling went downstairs to the front desk and asked for a few clean towels.

Just as I was about to go back to my room, I saw Lao Yang carrying a bag and walking into the guesthouse with his head down.

Old Yang also saw Zhan Yiling, hesitated for a moment, and forced a smile.

Zhan Yiling quickly greeted him, "Mr. Yang, are you here to see someone?"

Old Yang replied in a muffled voice, "I'm not looking for anyone, I'm staying here."

Zhan Yiling exclaimed in surprise, "Oh? You're staying at a guesthouse too?"

"Yes, we've been living here for over a year."

As Old Yang went upstairs, he said, "I'm here on temporary assignment from Beijing; my home isn't here."

Zhan Yiling couldn't help but glance at the things in Lao Yang's hands, and casually asked, "What did you buy?"

"Roast chicken. I can barely eat anything when I eat with them, and I always have to come back and eat more."

Suddenly, Zhan Yiling had an idea: "Mr. Yang, if you don't mind, may I join in the fun? I wasn't full either."

Old Yang glanced at Zhan Yiling and nodded with a smile.

Old Yang's room was at the end of the corridor in the guesthouse; it was a suite.

Zhan Yiling stood in the living room and looked around, saying, "It's really spacious, two or three times bigger than a standard room."

"This is nothing. If you saw the houses where local officials at the division level live, this would be far inferior."

Old Yang set out cups, plates, and bowls on the table and poured the roast chicken onto a plate.

He then took out a bottle of Yanghe Daqu liquor from the cabinet. "Would you like some? This is all I have."

Zhan Yiling readily agreed, "Sure."

Old Yang asked worriedly, "I didn't drink much just now, but you seem to have drunk quite a bit. Are you sure you can still drink?"

Zhan Yiling chuckled: "I just threw up."

Old Yang glanced at Zhan Yiling again and smiled knowingly: "Just call me Old Yang, don't call me 'Mr.', it feels really awkward."

"I'm not sure how to address you, because Director Yan calls you Lao Yang, so I'm worried you might not like it."

Old Yang looked at Zhan Yiling: "Why?"

"It seems like you two don't get along."

"If I were to deal with someone like him..."

Old Yang filled two wine cups, "You wouldn't dare come to my room this late to drink with me, would you?"

"That's right, I think you're not one of them. What's that idiom again? Oh right, 'a crane standing out from the crowd'."

Zhan Yiling picked up her wine cup. "I could tell at the table just now that you were quite lonely and frustrated."

Old Yang and Zhan Yiling clinked glasses and drank it all in one gulp.

He picked up another chicken leg, placed it on Zhan Yiling's plate, sighed, and said, "Just bear with it a little longer; I should be going back to Beijing in less than a year."

"What unit did you work for in Beijing before?"

"Not the original one, it's still there now, the Mechanical and Electrical Department."

"So, what are you responsible for at Jiangji Group...?"

"Responsible for... staying put."

Old Yang gave a wry smile. "I'm a deputy section chief in the cadre ranks of the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry."

"When the organization was selecting candidates for temporary assignments for training, I hesitated... Should I go to a local government department or a company?"

"Later I thought that I could better utilize my professional expertise in a company, so I didn't go to be a deputy county head or deputy secretary-general, but instead came to Jiangji as deputy chief engineer."

"I was originally planning to go back in two years at most, and keep to myself and avoid any conflict with them."

"I never expected things to turn out like this. Everyone dislikes me. I've truly become a figurehead, completely sidelined."

"Did you do something to offend them? Or did they feel that you looked down on them? I feel like those people are quite sensitive."

"I had my doubts at first. I've always been very careful in this regard and kept a low profile. I've never dared to act like a Beijing official. But I later realized that it wasn't the problem."

"I don't know who spread the rumor, or whether it was intentional or just hearsay, but they said I plan to stay in Jiangji and bring all my relatives from my hometown in Shandong Province over."

"The most credible rumor is that I want to be the director of the Information and Automation Department and oust that guy surnamed Yan. Isn't that nonsense?"

"I'm aiming to get promoted to section chief or deputy director in the ministry. Who wants to waste time with them in this remote mountain village?"

"As a result, the guy surnamed Yan treated me like his mortal enemy, and the others were afraid that I wouldn't be able to squeeze him out, so they tried to squeeze out one of them, and they all started to compete with me."

"Sigh, these days feel like an eternity."

Zhan Yiling couldn't tell if it was because Lao Yang had been drinking, or because she was going to be a stranger to him in a couple of days, that he suddenly opened up so much about his feelings...

Feeling somewhat touched, I said sympathetically, "I can see that they don't respect you enough."

"It's more than just disrespect."

Old Yang gave another bitter smile. "That guy surnamed Yan seizes every opportunity to mock and humiliate me."

"He knew I was from Shandong Province, and he also knew that people from Shandong Province greatly admired Wu Song."

"The ridiculous riddle he told me at the banquet was just a way of disgusting me by making Wu Song sound disgusting."

"And they also said that he didn't even get to be a worker-peasant-soldier student, which means that I was the one who managed to get a worker-peasant-soldier student, and that I had a diploma but was actually ignorant and incompetent."

"What's wrong with worker-peasant-soldier students? Although they can't compare to those from the regular system, they're still better than a vocational school graduate, right?"

Zhan Yiling poured wine and served meat, seemingly having no other way to comfort Lao Yang.

Old Yang slammed his wine cup on the table: "Miss Zhan..."

"Please just call me Zhan Yiling, don't call me 'Miss,' it's awkward."

"Zhan...Yiling, to be honest, we're both in the same boat, we've both ended up in the wrong place, we deserve to suffer..."

Zhan Yiling thought that Lao Yang was referring to the harassment she had experienced at the banquet earlier...

He nonchalantly replied, "As a salesperson, I can't avoid those kinds of situations."

"You're bound to encounter people like that sometime. Over the years, I've gotten used to it and just don't take it to heart."

Old Yang waved his hands repeatedly: "I wasn't talking about that. I meant you shouldn't have come to Jiangxi Airport. It was a wasted trip."

"It's one thing for you personally to have brought shame upon yourself, but it's even more shameful for your company to have been played by them."

Zhan Yiling was immediately startled and quickly asked, "You mean... the Jiangji project has already been decided internally?"

"Is it absolutely impossible for them to choose IBM? Are they just trying to drag us into this?"

Old Yang nodded vigorously: "IBM is famous and has influence."

"The fact that they brought you in to bid proves that this project is of a high standard; even IBM is involved."

"Then they'll reject you all, proving their evaluation criteria are too strict, even IBM isn't qualified. That's your fate."