Official title: Refused to stay at the university, started his career in a rural town.

Qi Tongwei has been staying at Yantaishan for almost a month.

It's called a judicial office, but it's actually just two mud-brick houses next to the town government, one for offices and one for living quarters.

Half of the door to the office was missing; it was held together with wire, and it rattled loudly when the wind blew.

The window of the inhabited room was missing a pane of glass and covered with plastic sheeting. At night, the mountain wind blew in, and the plastic sheeting billowed up like a sail.

On his first day at the station, Director Liu Dehai sat behind his desk, holding an enamel mug and scrutinizing him.

"Qi Tongwei? A graduate student in the Department of Political Science and Law at Handong University?"

"Yes."

"You were also the student council president?"

"Yes."

Liu Dehai put the jar down. "With your resume, you'd be qualified for the provincial inspection commission, so what are you doing here in Yantaishan?"

Qi Tongwei didn't answer; he didn't want to talk about that woman at all! It was his shame, his stubbornness! He believed he could defy fate!

Liu Dehai didn't ask any more questions. He stuffed Qi Tongwei's letter of assignment into the drawer and pulled out an official document from the table, handing it over.

"Your official position is with the judicial office, but your actual job title is pending approval from the county bureau. Just keep doing this for now, and we'll see what happens once it's approved."

Qi Tongwei took the document and glanced at it.

The notice reads: "Proposed appointment as a staff member of the Judicial Office of Yantaishan Town, pending approval from the County Bureau of Justice."

Clerk!

He served as the vice president of the student union at Handong University for less than two years, and before graduation, his senior, Yang Fan, appointed him to succeed him as president.

An outstanding graduate, a member of the Communist Party, and ranked first in the Department of Political Science and Law.

According to past practice, with his resume, it would be normal for him to be assigned to the provincial procuratorate or the provincial high court, or at the very least, he could stay in the city and start as a deputy section chief.

Now he's been kicked to Yantai Mountain, and he hasn't even been appointed as a deputy section chief; he's just a staff member whose position is "pending approval."

He carefully folded the document and put it in his pocket.

"Officer Liu, where do I live?"

Liu Dehai pointed to the next room.

"Clean up that room yourself."

Qi Tongwei turned and left. Liu Dehai watched his retreating figure, picked up the enamel mug, put it down again, and shook his head.

Life on Yantai Mountain was getting harder and harder each day.

The workload of the judicial office is neither too much nor too little.

The east neighbor lost a chicken, the west neighbor took half a row of land, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law quarreled, brothers divided the family property, all of these are trivial matters.

Qi Tongwei rode the old bicycle from the institute every day, bouncing back and forth on the mountain roads.

Nobody takes him seriously at all!

He went to the village to mediate a dispute, and the party involved squatted on the doorstep smoking, glancing at him sideways.

Who are you?

"From the judicial office."

"The judicial office? Where's Lao Liu?"

"Director Liu has something to attend to, I'll handle it."

"You?" The man looked him up and down, then stubbed out his cigarette. "Fine, what do you say we do?"

He spoke, and the man listened without nodding or shaking his head, then stood up and dusted off his pants. "I'll talk to Old Liu."

gone.

After running around all day, he returned to his mud-brick house at night, sat on his wooden bed, and stared blankly at the old newspapers on the wall.

The newspaper carried news from Handong Province, including an article that commended outstanding grassroots cadres throughout the province.

He glanced at it, turned the newspaper over, and then turned it back after a while. He didn't recognize anyone on the list of award recipients.

He pasted the newspaper back onto the wall and pressed down on the edges with his finger.

He couldn't sleep! He got up, pulled out the dispatch letter, and looked at it again.

"Intended to be appointed as a staff member of the Judicial Office of Yantaishan Town, pending approval from the County Bureau of Justice."

Pending approval! It's been almost a month, where's the approval? He called the county bureau.

The person who answered the phone said "it's in process" and then hung up.

He put down the letter of assignment and walked to the window.

The plastic sheet was billowing in the mountain wind, and the moonlight shone through, turning the dust on the plastic sheet into a blurry, bright patch.

He wanted to write a letter to Chen Yang, so he unfolded the letter paper, wrote a few words, and then tore it up. He wrote again, and tore it up again. Finally, he put down his pen, crumpled the letter paper into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

What are you saying? That he's doing well at Yantaishan? That the "approval" is coming down soon? That Liu Dehai is actually taking good care of him?

Ha ha!

He kicked the trash can into the corner, sat back on the bed, and listened to the chirping of insects outside the window.

That afternoon, Qi Tongwei squatted in the sun at the entrance of the judicial office.

They say they're sunbathing, but there's really nothing to do.

Liu Dehai went to a meeting in the county, so he was the only one left in the office.

He sat on the threshold, leaning against the door frame, squinting at the mountain opposite.

Autumn comes early to Yantai Mountain. The trees on the mountain have already begun to shed their leaves, which are spread layer by layer on the dirt road, and then blown up and fall again by the wind.

A tractor sputtered past, and the black smoke billowing from the chimney dissipated in the wind.

He was thinking about something.

When he graduated, his senior Yang Fan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Tongwei, you will most likely go into the political and legal field in the future."

The political and legal system is full of temptations and traps. Procedural justice is the bottom line, and you should never do anything that crosses that line.

He laughed and said at the time that his senior brother was too serious, but now that he thinks about it, his senior brother was right.

But right now he doesn't even have the chance to cross the line; he hasn't even stepped into the "political and legal system" yet.

What right does a clerk in a judicial office, who can't even get the salary of a deputy section chief, have to talk about "procedural justice"? Who provides him with the procedures? Who provides him with justice?

He threw the stone in his hand, which hit the earthen wall opposite, bounced, and rolled into the grass.

"Qi Tongwei! Is Qi Tongwei here?"

Old Sun, the gatekeeper, ran over from the other end of the courtyard, holding a letter in his hand. "A letter for you! From the provincial capital!"

Qi Tongwei stood up, took the letter. The envelope was addressed to "Qi Tongwei, Judicial Office," and the sender was Yang Fan.

He tore open the envelope. A thick stack of paper, densely covered with writing.

Tongwei: It is as if we are meeting in person.

I heard from Professor Li about your assigned destination: Yantaishan Judicial Office.

Qi Tongwei leaned against the door frame and read on.

In his letter, Yang Fan didn't talk about any grand principles. He wrote about how when he first arrived in Qingping, the township party secretary, Lao Ma, gave him the cold shoulder, how he put him in charge of agriculture, and how he told him, "Qingping Township has lost eight college graduate cadres in nine years, and you are the ninth."

He recounted his first visit to a village, where a fruit farmer named Wang Dashan was squatting at the edge of the field smoking a pipe. Wang Dashan asked him, "Who are you?" He replied that he was the newly arrived deputy township head. Wang Dashan said, "The last deputy township head who came lasted three months and then left. He didn't even recognize all the dogs in the village."

He wrote that he used his own money to buy paper bags and asked Wang Dashan to try planting them. Wang Dashan said, "What if you're a liar?"

Three months later, Wang Dashan tore open the bagged apples and left them for two days. After they had colored, the surface of the fruit was as smooth as a mirror and shiny red.

Wang Dashan turned and ran, shouting "It's done! It's done!" as he ran. That night, he found an approval document on his desk promoting the bagging technology throughout the township.

The text describes an old tea garden in Nangezhuang where century-old tea trees are nearly killed by weeds and vines.

The text describes how Professor Song Huaiyuan braved the rain to climb the mountain, stood in front of the old tea trees for a long time, and finally said, "If this tea is properly processed, its quality will not be bad."

The story goes that Old Geng, the village secretary, led the villagers up the mountain to clear the tea garden, and the sounds of hoes and sickles echoed all day long.

When the first batch of sprouts from this spring was stir-fried, Professor Song took a bite, remained silent for a long time, and then said, "It's done."

He wrote about how, unable to sell his mountain produce, he squatted in the courtyard of the township government and drew on the ground with a twig, coming up with the idea of ​​an announcement over a loudspeaker: "Qingping Mountain Delicacies Factory has gone bankrupt." He also wrote about how Wang Dashan, his face flushed, shouted at the Ningzhou farmers' market all day until his voice was hoarse, and he sold most of his goods.

That night, when I wrote about it, Old Geng, the Party Secretary, was squatting at the warehouse door counting money. He counted it three times, and his hands were shaking.

Zhao Wendong from Hengtong Group came, reviewed the tea plantation evaluation report, and signed an investment agreement for 60 million yuan.

It is written that Ma Zemin said at the meeting, "The county will not treat those who have made contributions unfairly."

The story is about Ma Liangchen, the old Party Secretary who had been in Qingping for almost ten years. He had made achievements in Qingping, but because of his age, he was not eligible for promotion. However, the organization had already spoken to him, and he was to be transferred to the County Agriculture Bureau as its director to enjoy a peaceful retirement.

"Tongwei, you probably can't imagine how poor Qingping is, even though you're at Handong University. When I first went there, the average income was less than 200 yuan, and eight college graduate cadres left in nine years. Now Hengtong has invested 60 million yuan, and Secretary Ma is going to transfer to the county. I, Yang Fan, have been in Qingping for less than two years, and I've gone from being disbelieved to being trusted, from working alone to working with a group of people. I don't have any secrets; I just immerse myself in the work and get each little thing done."

"I don't know how Yantaishan compares to Qingping. But the tougher the place, the more tangible the results. Nobody wants to go to tough places, so if you go and achieve something, you'll be unique!"

"You are a fine talent, a product of Handong University. Your alma mater will not forget you! Your alumni will not forget you either!"

"What you need to do now isn't thinking about how to leave, but how to put down roots in Yantaishan, find your direction, settle down and work hard, and get through these next few years. If you get through that, no one can stop you!"

"Senior brother, we're waiting for you! Yang Fan from Handong University!"

At the end of the letter, Yang Fan added a small note: "P.S.: Qingping apples have had another bumper harvest this year. I'm enclosing a box with this letter; please try some. The fruit from those three pilot trees on Wang Dashan's trees has now been bagged in all 2,000 mu of orchards throughout the township. When you have something presentable to show for yourself at Yantai Mountain, remember to send some to your senior brother."

Qi Tongwei finished reading the letter. He held the letter in his hand for a long time.

Old Sun, the gatekeeper, poked his head out. "Little Qi, what does the letter say?"

Qi Tongwei folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. "It's nothing. It's from my senior brother."

"From Handong University?"

"Um."

Old Sun clicked his tongue twice. "Handong University, a top university. Your senior is in the provincial capital?"

"In Qingping Township."

"Qingping?" Old Sun thought for a moment, "The Qingping in Anyang County?"

"right."

"I heard that place used to be dirt poor, but it's turned its fortunes around recently!" Old Sun clicked his tongue again. "I wonder when our wretched place will ever develop?"

"Yes, my senior said that as long as we settle down and work hard, we will all succeed!"