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

The Qinghua District government compound was newly built last year. It's a seven-story frame building with gray and white ceramic tiles on the exterior walls. An electric retractable gate stands at the entrance, and two uniformed security guards sit in the guardhouse. In the middle of the compound is a flower bed with several neatly trimmed cycads, and orderly parking spaces are marked on the cement ground.

Chen Tao, the deputy director of the government office who accompanied him, stood on the steps, looked up at the red plaque with the words "Serve the People" on the roof, and clicked his tongue.

"Just look at this compound, and you'll know that Qinghua District is developing at a really fast pace."

Yang Fan nodded, turning his gaze away from the words on the rooftop and looking across the street at the newly topped-out commercial buildings, where tower cranes were still slowly turning.

"The Han River has always been at the forefront of reform and development." Yang Fan patted the pancake crumbs off his hands.

"Jinghai, Ningchuan, and Pingzhou are the three major powers along the Han River. It will take time for Ninghe to catch up."

After having their documents checked, the group crossed the courtyard.

The reception room was located on the east side of the second floor. Led by a receptionist in the lobby, Yang Fan and his three companions took their seats.

Soon, a man in his forties strode out, followed by two young cadres in their twenties, both carrying briefcases and with their leather shoes polished to a shine.

The leader had a square face and thick eyebrows that looked like they had been painted with ink. When his gaze fell on Yang Fan, he was first taken aback, and then the corners of his mouth turned up.

He took two quick steps, and his hand was already outstretched.

"County Magistrate Yang? You mean County Magistrate Yang from Ninghe County, right?" His voice wasn't loud, but it was firm, and each word fell heavily.

"I am Meng Dehai from the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Qinghua District. I will be receiving you this time."

Meng Dehai!

He held that dry, rough hand and stared at the square face in front of him.

The old man in the TV series from my past life, the one who covered his face and cried in the police station office because of his son-in-law's embezzlement and his daughter's affairs—he's still young now!

His mind was in turmoil, but his face remained expressionless. Yang Fan smiled and shook his hand twice, with just the right amount of force.

"Secretary Meng, this is Yang Fan. We arranged to come here for training before the holiday, and I'm really sorry to trouble you this time."

Meng Dehai released his grip and stepped aside.

"County Chief Yang is a young man of great promise. When I was your age, I was still running errands in the townships. Come in, please come in—this is Director Sun from our district's Information Office, and this is Section Chief Liu from the district's Investment Promotion Bureau."

"We've all been too busy. Several county heads in charge of the economy are busy, so I had to come and receive County Head Yang. Please forgive me."

"No, no!"

The two sides shook hands and exchanged pleasantries before taking their seats on the sofa in the living room.

The waiter brought out the tea, and the ceramic bowl was printed with the words "Qinghua District People's Government" in red.

"County Chief Yang, shall we go directly to the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) base station, or should we check with the telecom operator first?"

Yang Fan shrugged and laughed.

"Secretary Meng, you're too kind. We'll follow your lead and do as you say."

Meng Dehai put down the jar.

"Then let's go to the Municipal Telecom Bureau first. It just so happens that the leaders of Pingzhou City are also there for an inspection today, and the operators are quite well prepared."

He glanced at his watch. "This morning I inspected base station deployment and backend management at the telecommunications bureau, and this afternoon I'm going to the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) terminal production base. What does County Chief Yang think?"

"That's for the best." Yang Fan stood up. "We came here to be students."

Meng Dehai also stood up, beckoned over his Santana, and personally opened the car door for Yang Fan.

The car drove out of the district government compound and headed east along the seaside avenue.

Yang Fan saw the newly built container terminal in the distance, where gantry cranes were unloading containers from a cargo ship, and the sounds of port machinery could still be heard from afar. Several GG signs by the roadside bore the words "Jinghai Economic and Technological Development Zone - Hotbed for Investment," with a cluster of new factory buildings rising from the ground in the background.

The municipal telecommunications bureau building is located on Haibin 2nd Road. The six-story building has a blue-green glass curtain wall, and a row of cars are parked in front of it.

As soon as Yang Fan got off the bus, the door of a minibus next to him opened. A middle-aged man, nearly fifty years old, with graying temples, straight back, and vigorous spirit, stepped out.

When Meng Dehai saw the man, his eyes lit up, and he quickly went to greet him, bowing slightly. "Mayor Song."

Song Jianshan simply nodded, then turned and called out to the car, "Mayor Zhang, slow down."

Another person got out of the car. He was slightly shorter than Song Jianshan and wore silver-rimmed glasses. He was Zhang Wen, the mayor of Pingzhou City.

Song Jianshan and Zhang Wen walked side by side into the building, talking as they went. Zhang Wen listened, occasionally nodding and occasionally turning his head to ask a question.

Meng Dehai jogged back. "County Chief Yang, that was Song Jianshan, the mayor of Jinghai City, and the other was Zhang Wen, the mayor of Pingzhou City. Pingzhou attaches great importance to this inspection, so Mayor Song personally came to accompany us. We'll have a working lunch with them at the Telecom Bureau's canteen at noon."

Yang Fan nodded, his gaze following the two figures as they disappeared through the revolving door. He turned his head and asked, "District Chief Meng, who is the current Party Secretary of Pingzhou?"

"Secretary of Pingzhou? Secretary Pei Yihong, huh?" Meng Dehai paused, then lowered his voice. "Pingzhou has developed rapidly in the past two years, which is inseparable from his efforts. What, does County Head Yang have acquaintances in Pingzhou?"

"No," Yang Fan smiled. "I just wanted to get some information."

He turned his gaze back and silently counted a number in his mind—three!

name.

hurricane.

I am in control of my destiny.

However, I always feel that one of these dramas doesn't quite deserve to be ranked alongside the other two.

Yang Fan glanced at Meng Dehai, who was whispering something to him. This was the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Qinghua District. Could he be considered a key figure in the future?

Ding Yizhen, who fled abroad, was a full-fledged department-level official!

Yang Fan suppressed his laughter, dusted off his trousers, and followed Meng Dehai through the revolving door of the telecommunications bureau.

There were already quite a few people standing in the hall. The two inspection teams together numbered nearly twenty people, forming a semicircle around the exhibition area.

In the center of the exhibition hall is a huge sand table with a map of Jinghai city, densely covered with small red and blue flags.

Next to the sand table is an enlarged diagram of the internal structure of the base station's main equipment. Further out are several rows of display cases containing base station motherboards, antenna arrays, and different models of PHS handheld terminals.

The guide was a young woman in her early twenties, with a ponytail, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, and holding a stainless steel telescopic pointer in her hand.

She stood in front of the sand table, cleared her throat, and her voice echoed through the hall via the wireless megaphone on her chest.

"Distinguished leaders, today I will introduce the operation of the Jinghai City PHS wireless local phone system. First, let's talk about base station deployment—the first phase of 300 base stations has been installed and debugged throughout the city, covering the main commercial areas, administrative centers, and transportation hubs in the urban area."

She pressed the remote control, and the CRT monitor on the wall lit up, displaying a signal coverage heatmap. Red represented strong signals, and blue represented weak signals. The city center was a large area of ​​red, expanding outwards, the red turning orange, the orange turning yellow, until only a few scattered blue dots remained at the edge of the suburbs.

"This is a measured signal heat map. As you can see, in areas where the base station density reaches more than 20 per square kilometer, the indoor call quality is basically up to the standard of wired telephone."

Zhang Wen stood in the first row, pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses, put his hands behind his back, and scanned the heat map with his eyes.

"Young man, let me ask you a question—at what floor did you measure the 'indoor call quality meets the standard'? With a concrete shear wall blocking the view, how could it still meet the standard above the seventh floor?"

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Yang Fan leaned against the display case, tapping his fingers lightly on his knee. This Mayor Zhang had done his homework. He wasn't asking about the general "coverage," but directly addressing the fatal flaw of PHS technology—the 1.9GHz signal's ability to penetrate walls is inherently poor, and signal attenuation in high-rise buildings is exponential.

The reason why Xiaolingtong was later cursed by users as "balcony phone" is precisely because of this.

He suddenly felt like laughing.

The PHS phone, which everyone called "Weiweikao," required you to go to the balcony to make a call. The signal was intermittent, and you couldn't hear it if you moved even slightly.

There's a joke from later generations that saying answering a phone call is like fishing; you only catch a complete sentence if you're lucky.

The guide's knuckles, gripping the pointer, were slightly white, but his voice remained steady.

"Mayor Zhang's question was very professional. According to our first phase of measurement data, the indoor signal coverage rate of brick-concrete residential buildings with seven floors or less reached 92%."

"High-rise buildings with seven or more floors do indeed experience signal attenuation. After the second phase of base station encryption, it is expected to improve the signal strength to over 85%. The operator's technical team will provide a detailed report on the specific technical parameters later."

Zhang Wen pursed his lips slightly, wrote a few words in his notebook, and didn't ask any further questions.

Looking at Zhang Wen's profile, Yang Fan thought to himself that this man was not just there for show.

None of the officials in the three major Han River officials are pushovers, especially since this one's boss is Pei Yihong!