Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

During dinner, Lin Yanzhou told Xiaoya about his trip to the Goose Kingdom. He said there was a batch of old ship hulls there, which were cheap and could be modified and reused. The trip would take about a week.

After listening, Xiaoya paused with her chopsticks on the rim of her bowl. She put down her chopsticks, picked up her water glass, took a sip, as if she had gone over the sentence in her mind during that time, and then asked, "Is it from Moscow?"

"From Moscow, the port is on the outskirts of the city, near the Baltic Sea. After finishing our business, we can stay there for a few days."

Xiaoya didn't speak. She looked down at the bowl of soup in front of her, which was still more than half full, and after a long while she finally spoke: "When I was in middle school, I saw a Soviet picture book, and there was a picture of Red Square in it. Later, I also read some other travelogues about the place. I remember one of them was taken in winter, with snow, and the dome of the church was colorful."

After she finished speaking, she lowered her head and took a sip of soup, not continuing the topic, but her tone carried a faint, longing that had been dormant for a long time, which was being reopened.

Xiao Zhou's voice came from the living room: "You guys go ahead, I can stay at school." The scratching sound of the pencil on the paper stopped for a moment. "Several classmates in my class live at school. There are evening self-study sessions and a cafeteria. We can even do our homework together at night."

She paused again, as if thinking about something, "When you go out to play, just bring me something delicious when you come back. I want the kind of chocolate with a hard shell."

Xiaoya turned her head to look in the direction of the living room, her lips twitched, but she didn't laugh out loud.

She turned back to look at Lin Yanzhou: "Then I'll go too. Let's treat it as a belated honeymoon." She said this in a cheerful mood.

Lin Yanzhou slapped his thigh and said, "Then let's get our passports and go!"

The next morning at nine o'clock, the two arrived at the immigration hall. There weren't many people in the hall; three windows were open, and there were five or six people queuing in front of each window.

The queuing machine beeped every now and then. When it was their turn, a woman in her early thirties, wearing a uniform, sat at the window with her hair tied up tightly and a ballpoint pen clipped to her ear.

She took the materials from the table and flipped through them quickly, her fingers moving rapidly as if counting pages. Then she stopped and pushed two sheets of paper back onto the table: "There's no proof of assets, no bank statements, and no copy of the property certificate. According to regulations, the applicant needs to provide supplementary asset verification materials; otherwise, the subsequent visa processing will lack supporting evidence."

"I brought all these materials with me, and I've already submitted them."

The woman at the window glanced at him: "Sir, I've reviewed your documents, and you are indeed missing the necessary asset verification documents. This is a strict requirement. If you don't have them now, we can temporarily hold onto them for you, and you can come back to queue up again after you have submitted the missing documents."

Her tone was unhurried, her finger remaining pressed on the paper. "There aren't too many people today, you should still have time to go back and get it."

The people in line behind took half a step forward and then stopped. Someone glanced at the window and then looked away. The call machine beeped, and the next person jumped to the next window.

Lin Yanzhou stood in front of the counter without moving, nor did he take the documents that had been pushed back. He reached into his coat pocket, took out a bank card, placed it on the counter, and pushed it through the window. The card was a darker color than a regular debit card, with a thin dark red line along the edge.

The woman in the window glanced down at the card, picked it up, and swiped it on the machine. The information on the screen loaded for a few seconds. She stared at the screen for about ten seconds, her brow furrowing slightly. She clicked the mouse twice more, but the content on the screen remained unchanged.

She glanced at the window next door and whispered, "Sister Wang, can you read this card over there?" The staff member at the next window turned to look at the screen and said, "This code isn't standard; I can't read it here either."

"What type of card is this? The system can't read it, so it can't be used here."

Lin Yanzhou's hand was still resting on the edge of the table: "Show it to the person who can make the decision."

The woman in the window glanced at him, picked up the landline beside her, and dialed a number: "Sister Zhang, come here for a moment, there's a card here that the system can't recognize." She waited a few seconds, then added, "It's gray, with a thin dark red line along the edge."

The staff at the nearby windows were a beat slower than usual. Xiaoya stood next to Lin Yanzhou, her gaze shifting from the card to the woman's face through the window, her heart pounding with unease: This Lin Yanzhou was becoming increasingly mysterious.

About three minutes later, a man emerged from the corridor behind the main hall. He was around fifty years old, dressed neatly in a dark uniform, and his pace quickened noticeably, as if he had run from the office.

He walked behind the window, glanced down at the remaining page on the screen, then at the card on the table, and looked up at the staff member inside: "Whose card is this?"

Lin Yanzhou said, "It's mine."

The man glanced at him, asked no further questions, and swiped the card on the machine. This time, the information on the screen loaded quickly. He looked down at it for about five seconds, then placed the card back on the counter: "Your card is a special type. Once used, the city's public security system will automatically send information to the relevant liaison department. This process cannot be done through the regular window today."

He turned to the staff at the window: "Pull up the form for the special channel. The information will be transmitted encrypted. This gentleman's case has already been synchronously verified in the system; no additional asset certificates are needed." He glanced down at his watch, as if confirming the time, "Processed on the spot, certificate issued on the spot."

The staff member at the window paused for a moment on the keyboard, then began typing, rewriting the previously entered information item by item into the new format. She lowered her hand from pushing the materials, and as she typed, she didn't look up in Lin Yanzhou's direction, as if she were confirming in her own way that the boundary line had been redefined.

She didn't deliberately slow down her speech; she simply used that time to complete her part of the procedure according to the new format, and then typed the last few keys on the keyboard.

The printer started spinning, and two receipts were handed out. A blue stamp was placed on the edge of the photo, next to which was a handwritten date, the ink not yet completely dry—it was today's date. The printer next to the window hadn't completely stopped spinning yet; it spat out two more sheets of paper, light yellow paper with a line of small print on the back.

"These are official documents. All verification and production processes have been completed. Sir, you can check the information here and take them away once you confirm everything is correct." The director stood beside him and respectfully handed the two passports onto the table, just in time for Lin Yanzhou to take them. "The passports will be issued today, and you won't need to come back to pick them up later."

Lin Yanzhou took the form and glanced at it. The photo was neatly pasted, the stamp was clear, and the information in each column was consistent with when the form was filled out. The font was a special machine-printed typeface, and the anti-counterfeiting features along the edges reflected slightly under the desk lamp. He handed one of the copies to Xiaoya and put the other into his coat pocket.

The woman in the window remained seated, silent. Her fingers had already left the keyboard, for the bureau chief had glanced at her before turning away, his gaze filled with displeasure. He thought to himself: "Damn it, I almost got myself into big trouble. With someone like that, crushing me is as easy as stepping on an ant."

Lin Yanzhou carefully put away his passport and turned to leave. Xiaoya followed beside him, clutching the new passport in her hand. As she walked down the steps, she looked down, opened the passport, and closed it again, as if to confirm that the stamp was indeed in the correct position.

The sunlight outside the hall was bright, casting a warm glow on the steps. He walked to his parking space, opened the car door, and got into the driver's seat. Before starting the engine, he reached into his coat pocket and took out his passport, examining it once more. The embossed edges gleamed with a fine, matte sheen under the fluorescent lights, like an anchor that had just landed.

Xiaoya sat in the passenger seat, flipped her passport to the first page to look at the photo area, then closed it and put it in her bag: "Is it really possible to take it right now? Am I dreaming? Isn't it supposed to take a week to ten days?"

"real."

"When do we set off?"

"Get ready, arrange Xiaozhou's accommodation, we can book tickets this afternoon, and there's a flight tonight."