Chapter 49: The Sky Has Fallen

Are ordinary people destined to remain ordinary their entire lives? For the most part, yes. Yet even the most ordinary person, when looking back upon their life in their twilight years, will harbor regrets—regrets over the few fleeting chances they had to defy fate and rewrite their destiny, yet failed to seize.

"Back then, if I had only done such and such, now I would..."
"Back then, I had a golden opportunity; if not for certain reasons, I ought to have been..."
"Ah, in my youth... things wouldn't have turned out this way now..."

The reason ordinary people remain ordinary is simply their inability to grasp opportunities. When an opportunity finally arrives, they are either blind to it, or paralyzed by a fear of the unfamiliar and the unknown change it brings.

Li Xiuyuan was different. Having spent more than a decade in the countryside in his past life, let alone facing the intensifying pressure and crisis brought by Qu Hui in the office right now, even without such a crisis, Li Xiuyuan was determined to seize every single opportunity to climb upward.

The changing of the top leadership at the county government was a prime opportunity. If the new county magistrate were promoted from the position of deputy magistrate, they would naturally bring along their previous correspondents or secretaries.

Take the current Deputy Magistrate Gu, for instance; his secretary was Wu Yiyi. Of course, they were called correspondents at that time, though in reality, they performed the duties of a secretary—it was entirely the same thing.

It was merely a matter of official titles: sub-county-level cadres were not officially authorized to have a designated secretary, so their personnel files were kept under the county government office while they served as correspondents in name only.

The newly parachuted county magistrate, however, would be different. There was a high probability they would not bring their own correspondent along. The reasons were simple: first, the rank of county magistrate was full county-level, which was still a tier below the level where one could bring their own entourage upon taking office.

Secondly, who would want to remain a secretary forever? One becomes a secretary to smooth the path for their future advancement, not to spend one's days pouring tea and carrying bags for a superior.

Li Xiuyuan had even opened up the county committee standing committee directory to verify once more that none of the standing committee members were named Yun Yangchang. That confirmed it beyond a doubt: this Magistrate Yun Yangchang had arrived as a parachuted appointment, with no other possibility.

In his past life, it seemed Yun Yangchang was transferred away shortly after completing the pilot project for the new socialist countryside village. Li Xiuyuan hadn't paid much attention to the specifics while stuck in the countryside back then, but regardless of the details, Li Xiuyuan understood one thing crystal clear: this was unequivocally his chance. Relying on others is never as reliable as relying on oneself. If he could become the county magistrate's secretary, then forget about Qu Hui; even Pang Zhifeng would have to treat him with three parts respect.

Before Li Xiuyuan could ponder any further, Wang Zhitao tapped him on the arm from beside him.

"Let's go, let's go grab a smoke."

Li Xiuyuan nodded and followed Wang Zhitao outside, intending to head toward the end of the corridor, but Wang Zhitao pulled him down the stairs instead.

They headed to the parking lot at the back of the administrative building.

"Brother Wang, did we really have to run all the way down here just for a cigarette?" Li Xiuyuan asked with a smile.

"Didn't you go out with Wu Yiyi yesterday?" Wang Zhitao's very first sentence startled Li Xiuyuan. Had he been spotted yesterday?

Outwardly, however, he maintained a calm expression and replied, "What? Of course not! Don't talk nonsense."

"Really not?" Wang Zhitao looked at him suspiciously.

Hearing this, Li Xiuyuan realized Wang Zhitao wasn't entirely certain either, so he immediately nodded with conviction and said, "Really no."

Only then did Wang Zhitao nod. "Must have been my mistake then. As I was leaving work yesterday, I happened to notice Wu Yiyi's car parked by the side of the road, and someone getting into it looked a lot like your silhouette."

Li Xiuyuan smiled with an unruffled demeanor. "Brother Wang, working in the county government office is a waste of your talents. You ought to join the public security bureau; within three years, you'd be the deputy director of criminal investigation."

"Ha, actually, I've harbored a dream of becoming a police officer since I was a kid..."

The two chatted idly for a while. Once they finished smoking, Wang Zhitao lowered his voice and said, "I picked up some gossip yesterday. Word has it that the director of the coal bureau hasn't shown his face in days."

"The coal bureau?" Li Xiuyuan frowned. Huangyuan County was considered a resource-based city, and the coal industry served as a pillar of the county's economy. For the director of the coal bureau—a position of immense power and influence—to vanish without a trace for several days was extraordinary.

"Anything else?"

"I don't know anything beyond that. The atmosphere is extremely tense right now, and nobody dares to spread rumors indiscriminately. Especially in an outfit like ours, we must be even more cautious with our words and actions, proceeding with care until we weather this phase."

As Wang Zhitao spoke, his sentiment was virtually identical to what Wu Yiyi had expressed yesterday: stability. When the situation was unclear, doing nothing was the absolute best course of action—at the very least, to avoid implicating oneself.

Li Xiuyuan nodded. He certainly had no intention of getting involved in the affairs of the county's top leaders. Besides, having just started work, he wouldn't even be able to get involved if he wanted to. Outsiders might assume he had some connection to Luo Yi, but in truth, there was no connection whatsoever; it had merely been a favor of convenience that would never splash back onto him. What he needed to prepare for right now was capturing the next opportunity.

Once the new county magistrate arrived, how could he manage to become the new magistrate's secretary?

"Ah, a storm is about to break, and heaven only knows what kind of turmoil it's going to whip up," Wang Zhitao said, grinding out his cigarette butt with a sigh.

Li Xiuyuan nodded in apparent agreement, but inwardly, he wished the storm would rage even more fiercely. Without wind and waves, how could an opportunity ever arise?

Back in the office, Li Xiuyuan gazed at the documents concerning the construction of the new rural pilot village and let his thoughts churn. With a newly parachuted county magistrate arriving, who knew how many people were eyeing the position of magistrate's secretary?

Why should he be the one to secure the post? He needed distinct advantages of his own; relying on someone else for an introduction simply wouldn't work. Wu Yiyi could do it because she had connections, but he had none.

The only person of note, Luo Yi, might currently be caught in the eye of the storm, up to his neck in trouble with an uncertain fate. Besides, Luo Yi had made it clear beforehand that he would only offer a single, veiled gesture of assistance.

Lacking powerful connections, he had to rely on other strengths to make the new county magistrate value him. This file on the new rural pilot village construction was precisely his opportunity.

Once Yun Yangchang arrived, he would personally spearhead the initiation of the new rural pilot village project, which demonstrated how much importance he attached to this work. Therefore, Li Xiuyuan needed to pour his efforts into this very initiative and package himself as an expert in the field. Conveniently, no one else was paying attention to this work right now, and Qu Hui had handed the task of copying and circulating these documents directly to him.

Whatever he brought up in the future would be well-founded and thoroughly reasoned.

Having made up his mind, Li Xiuyuan spent the next few days deeply immersed in studying the matter of the new rural pilot village.

On Wednesday, June 15th, Li Xiuyuan went out for a while in the morning to get a document stamped by the audit bureau. He returned to the office at around eleven o'clock, figuring he still had a bit of time before lunch to polish the draft proposal he had written over the past two days regarding the construction of the new rural pilot village.

As soon as he stepped back into the office, however, he sensed that the atmosphere was somewhat abnormal.

Inside the general affairs section, everyone appeared to be busy with their respective tasks at a glance, yet it was painfully obvious they were entirely distracted, periodically glancing down to type text messages on their phones.

Their eyes darted about evasively, occasionally exchanging furtive glances with one another. The tension in the air was palpable.

Before Li Xiuyuan could even sit down and ask what was going on, his phone buzzed with an incoming text message sent by Wang Zhitao.

"The sky has fallen! Half an hour ago, Magistrate Zheng was hauled away directly by the municipal discipline inspection commission while presiding over the county's industrial promotion conference!!!"