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

Yang Fan held the microphone, a smile already playing on his lips.

"Teacher, I was just kidding. I could tell you were talking about an old man as soon as I heard your voice."

Su Huaishan snorted on the other end of the phone: "You little brat, you're getting a bit cocky, huh? Why don't you just say you're Yang Fan from the Provincial Party Committee?"

"It was bound to happen sooner or later!"

Su Huaishan burst into laughter, the sound so loud it made Yang Fan move the receiver away half an inch. "Good lad, you've got ambition!"

After laughing, Su Huaishan changed the subject: "Alright, you really don't know how to give me a call unless it's absolutely necessary. I only found out about this service-oriented government concept of yours because your senior brother Liu told me about it."

"Here's what you're doing," Su Huaishan said calmly, "if you're not on duty this Saturday or Sunday, bring your materials and come explain your service-oriented government concept to this old man. Your senior brother Liu is also very curious, and he's free on the weekend, so you can all take a break."

"Okay, okay, teacher. I'll take some time these next few days to refine this idea and report back to you then."

"Okay, it's settled then. It'll be at my place. Come early this Saturday morning, before nine o'clock."

"must."

Saturday. Yang Fan got up before dawn and went through the materials he had prepared again—the visitor flow data for the harvest festival, the year-on-year increase in sales of mountain delicacies, the tourist satisfaction survey, the complaint handling log, the duty roster for the leaders on duty, and the implementation status.

He also wrote a lengthy draft of his own ideas on the concept of a service-oriented government, which was more than ten pages long and went through no less than five revisions.

Yang Fan took the first bus at 6 a.m. and when he arrived at Su Huaishan's doorstep, he checked his watch—8:50 a.m.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door.

The door opened.

The one who opened the door was my senior, Liu Xiangdong.

"Oh, it's Secretary Yang." Liu Xiangdong joked.

"Senior brother, what you're doing..."

"Alright, come in quickly, the teachers are all here!" Liu Xiangdong stepped aside to let him in.

Yang Fan changed his shoes and walked into the living room.

Su Huaishan sat on the sofa, and opposite him sat a man in his early fifties on a single sofa—wearing black-rimmed glasses and with his hair neatly combed.

Yang Fan recognized him at a glance.

Fang Yizhou, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Handong University, is a leading authority in China on government governance models. Yang Fan audited his classes when he was a student there, and he never expected that Su Huaishan would invite him as well.

Su Huaishan saw Yang Fan, waved, and pointed to the empty single sofa.

"Please sit down, don't be shy. We invited Comrade Yang here today to give us a lesson."

Yang Fan had just sat down when he stood up again: "Teacher, what you're saying—"

"Sit down, sit down," Su Huaishan gestured.

"According to Xiao Liu, ever since you proposed that government officials should treat themselves as the logistics support for tourists and established the concept of a service-oriented government."

"Your GDP growth, which had been slowing down, has broken through again. Today, please give a systematic explanation of what the concept of a service-oriented government is and how you are specifically implementing it in Qingping."

Fang Yizhou adjusted his glasses but remained silent. His gaze lingered on Yang Fan for a moment, revealing no emotion.

Yang Fan opened his briefcase and placed the documents one by one on the coffee table.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Su Huaishan picked up his teacup and leaned back on the sofa.

"Let's start from the beginning—how did this idea come about?"

Yang Fan recounted what happened on the day of the harvest festival. Tourists and villagers got into an argument, so he went to the scene, bowed, apologized, took responsibility, and immediately decided to make improvements. When he mentioned that he said "It's not your fault" in front of everyone, Fang Yizhou's eyebrows raised slightly.

"After this incident, I raised a point of view at the township party committee meeting," Yang Fan said.

"For thousands of years, officials have seemed born to be high above others. Whether they are honest officials or capable ministers, they all harbor ambitions to govern the world, but how many of them have truly humbled themselves and listened to what the common people have to say?"

"Our traditional governance model is essentially 'making decisions on behalf of the people'," Yang Fan continued.

"The government decides what the people need for them and then provides it according to its own understanding. But the problem is that there is often a gap between the government's understanding of 'needs' and the 'needs' that the people actually want."

Fang Yizhou spoke up: "Then what's the difference between your proposed service-oriented government and 'making decisions on behalf of the people'?"

"The key difference is that the government doesn't give you whatever it thinks you need, but rather it provides what you need. The government is not a manager, but a service provider. The people come to 'order' food, and the government is responsible for 'serving' it."

Fang Yizhou picked up his teacup, but didn't drink it, and put it down again.

"That analogy—" he paused, "is interesting! But you need to be clear: a service-oriented government and its concept aren't just slogans. It's a complete mechanism. How did you implement it in Qingping?"

Yang Fan extracted the data report for the harvest festival from the materials.

"The first step is to encourage people to speak up. When locals come to Qingping and feel something is wrong, they should speak up on the spot. As long as their opinions are reasonable, we will change them on the spot until no one has anything to say. Tourist complaints—no matter what the issue—must be followed up to the very end by the first person who receives the complaint! Whoever shirks responsibility will be held accountable."

"The second step is to quantify the services. I set up six notice boards in the picking area, with the complaint hotline number directly provided by the Party and Government Office. The picking area and the breeding area are separated by warning tape, and directional signs are placed at the intersections. This ensures that publicity and guidance are in place, reducing the occurrence of problems."

"The third step is to force internal reforms. The duty roster system has been solidified—standing committee members are on duty on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. On weekdays, deputy township heads and heads of various departments take turns on duty. Issues raised by tourists are handled immediately if the person with authority has it, and if the person without authority does not have it, it is immediately reported. Issues are not allowed to remain unresolved overnight."

"Initially, it was only implemented in the picking areas, but later it was expanded to the township committees and township governments."

Fang Yizhou tapped his fingers twice on the sofa armrest.

"Xiao Yang, what you're saying is essentially about restructuring the power operation logic within the government—shifting the power operation from one centered on control to one centered on service process reengineering. Right?"

Yang Fan's eyes lit up.

Fang Yizhou's concept of "process reengineering" was a cutting-edge concept in the Western public administration field in the mid-1990s.

The things he promoted in Qingping—the first-contact responsibility system, time-limited completion, and the solidification of the duty leader system—were essentially a reengineering of the most basic government processes. He just didn't use that term; instead, he used a more down-to-earth way of saying it.

"Professor Fang is right!"

"What do ordinary people fear most when they come to the government to handle affairs? It's not the bad attitude of the officials, it's their shirking of responsibility." Yang Fan leaned forward.

"They keep passing the buck from one department to another, from today to tomorrow. You have to go to the same place three or four times for the same thing, but the problem is still the same, and nothing is resolved."

"What I implemented in Qingping was the first-response responsibility system—the first person to receive a question must follow it from beginning to end. First-response responsibility doesn't mean you're responsible for answering the question, it means you're responsible for seeing it through to the end."

"Another requirement is a time limit for processing. If it can be done on the spot, do it immediately. If coordination is needed, give a response on the same day. If a request for instructions is needed, give a result within three days. If there is no response after the time limit, it is considered as approval. The people cannot wait. If a matter is delayed for half a year, even the best policy will turn into public resentment."

"This forces every cadre to go from 'pushing things away' to 'taking on things'." Fang Yizhou took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with the corner of his clothes.

"Yes—the faster the problem is resolved, the more willing he is to come back to you. The fact that he's willing to talk shows that he still believes we can change. When he stops talking, that's when you're truly heartbroken."

"But if you put all the pressure on the cadres, can they handle it?" Fang Yizhou put his glasses back on.

"I can handle it." Yang Fan picked up his enamel mug and took a sip. "Because the pressure isn't one-way."

"When the duty officer system was first implemented, there was considerable resistance." Yang Fan put down the enamel mug.

"The Standing Committee members can't rest on weekends, who doesn't have some complaints? But after a month of operation, no one complained anymore."

Fang Yizhou took off his glasses. "Why?"

"I've also tied my interests to it. The township party committee set a rule—how many complaints cadres handle, how many problems they solve, and what the feedback from tourists and villagers is during their shifts in the picking area are all recorded and included in the annual performance evaluation."

"Those who excel in performance reviews will be given priority for promotion and awards. You're not just serving the people; you're building your own career path. Every well-done task is a stepping stone for your future advancement."

Liu Xiangdong smiled and said, "That's a pretty good trick."

"Actually, this process is only quite stressful in the early stages. After it has been running for a while, the leaders on duty can treat their weekends as a vacation because there are no problems, or very few problems."

"Go on—how did you distill the concept of a service-oriented government?"

Yang Fan opened the dozen or so-and-a-half-page draft.

These words were not spoken spontaneously—he had been thinking about this issue almost every day during his months in Qingping.

The theoretical framework of a service-oriented government originates from the practice in Qingping.

Looking at the information, Yang Fan continued.

"When a government transforms from a manager to a service provider, the entire governance ecosystem changes—officials shift from 'it's better to do less' to 'handle issues today without delay.'"

"The public has shifted from 'ignoring the government' to 'trusting the government,' and economic development has shifted from 'relying on resources' to 'relying on the environment.' The core driving force behind this change is rebuilding the people's trust in the government!"