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After the New Year, Li Hao was extremely busy. On the seventh day of the new year, the county held a work conference to deploy tasks for the entire year. This year, Yurou County aimed to advance several key projects to break down barriers between the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries and extend the industrial chain.
Lin Xiao was also busy, as the entire province was undergoing a style rectification. The Organization Department, in accordance with the central documents, needed to formulate an annual plan for organizational and cadre work as well as semester work arrangements. As a key personnel assigned to assist, Lin Xiao often worked overtime until after ten at night.
The two busy individuals sometimes went days without contacting each other, which made Lin Xiao feel less pressure. She never called him; partly because she didn’t want to, and partly because she truly didn’t know when he would be free to take a call. In fact, Lin Xiao wasn’t sure how to navigate a romantic relationship.
She had seen Shang Wenjuan in love; it seemed too clingy for her. She couldn’t imagine Li Hao doing those things like Du Hao did, nor could she mimic Shang Wenjuan’s sweet talk. Occasionally, Li Hao would remember he had a girlfriend and send her a text asking if she was busy with work or telling her to rest early. Lin Xiao usually replied with a simple “Okay, you too.”
One night, after returning home from work, Lin Xiao’s phone rang. She thought it was the Director asking her to revise some materials again. Reluctantly, she took ten seconds before picking up the phone. When she saw who was calling, she hesitated even more. However, two years of being a secretary had instilled a certain obedience in her, so she answered with a reluctant “Hello?”
Li Hao had drunk a bit too much that night but not excessively so. Remembering Hangover Pills, he suddenly thought of Lin Xiao. “Are you still awake?” he asked.
“I just got off work,” Lin Xiao replied, sensing silence on the other end. “Did you drink too much?”
“Not really, about seven or eight liang,” Li Hao replied uncertainly. He didn’t know what else to say. “Do you miss me?”
Lin Xiao felt as if struck by lightning; she was at a loss for words. She said no, realizing that such an answer might not be ideal for couples. Yet she hadn’t completely stopped thinking about him either. Saying that she missed him felt impossible.
Hearing her silence made Li Hao unexpectedly happy. It felt good; without longing, there were no burdens. He enjoyed this kind of interaction—light and pressure-free. Longing was too painful; he had experienced that before.
“Then you should get some sleep,” Li Hao said before hanging up and falling into a deep slumber.
Lin Xiao was exhausted; the phone call was just an interruption in her tiring day.
“Lin Xiao, the Publicity Department just retired Director Wang; do you remember?” Zhu from the Retirement Office for Veteran Cadres asked.
“Of course I remember! Before the New Year, didn’t you organize a tea party? He performed a segment of Tai Chi for everyone; that was him, right?” Lin Xiao recalled the tea party from before the New Year and found it amusing.
It was indeed him. Zhu saw that she remembered and felt that this matter would be easy to handle. His son, Jianxing, was working and had graduated with a master's degree this year. Would she like to meet him?
Lin Xiao hadn’t expected that Zhu would come all the way to her office just to introduce a potential match. In the bureaucracy, there were many unspoken rules about matchmaking. For men, the criteria included family background, ability, character, and appearance. For women, the standards were family background, appearance, character, and then ability.
Character was a vague concept; as long as no scandals arose, no one could truly judge it. Women who entered the Provincial Organization Department had already been vetted for their abilities, so their futures were unlikely to be bleak. Lin Xiao certainly had the looks.
At a tea party before the New Year, when Director Wang's son came to pick him up, Lin Xiao had just finished tidying up the venue with her colleagues from the retirement office. While directing him in the hallway, he fell for her at first sight. After the Spring Festival, Director Wang visited the office several times, secretly observing and inquiring about Lin Xiao, which led him to ask Zhu for an introduction.
Initially, Director Wang was somewhat reluctant when his son mentioned Lin Xiao. She was just a girl from a rural background and seemed of no benefit to his son's future. Moreover, she had a younger brother and came from a single-parent family; it was uncertain if she would have to support her family in the future.
That was Director Wang's perspective; in reality, no one had introduced Lin Xiao to anyone either. The Organization Department held personnel files on officials that were confidential but inevitably scrutinized during political reviews. Everyone knew each other's circumstances.
Unable to withstand his son's urging any longer, Director Wang reconsidered. Lin Xiao was a rural girl; marrying into their family would make it easier to manage her. After all, her brother was also studying; he had heard that she had even bought an apartment herself—she was indeed a capable young woman.
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