Chapter 25
When Bai Hewei arrived at the district government to pick up the documents, he discovered it was actually a disciplinary notice regarding a certain cadre, along with a self-inspection and rectification form required for all units.
Over the years, as various information networks and filing systems were perfected, quite a few scandals had come to light.
Some leading cadres had gaps in their academic credentials or had outright faked them, resulting in them being stripped of their status overnight and expelled from both the party and public office. Others had taken up temporary posts in violation of regulations, leading to their grassroots experience being invalidated and their positions directly revoked. There were also those whose documents were incomplete, and because too much time had passed, they couldn’t provide proof, forcing them to endlessly prove their legitimacy while writing rectification explanations. And of course, there were those who relied on their parents’ connections to draw ghost salaries, who were immediately disciplined upon discovery. It was truly a full spectrum of offenses.
The sheer volume of these cases and the swiftness of the disciplinary actions made Bai Hewei suspect that the financial department simply couldn’t afford to sustain so many cadres anymore. Thus, a massive wave of purges targeting regulatory violations could simultaneously free up a mountain of permanent posts while reducing the financial burden.
Truth be told, Bai Hewei’s speculation wasn’t entirely baseless.
Since the Day of Awakening, examples of nations plunging into decline due to conflicts between Evolvers and ordinary citizens were all too common, which in turn severely impacted international trade.
Why were young people nowadays so fanatically obsessed with passing the civil service and public institution exams? Because the current economic environment was even worse than before the Day of Awakening. Many foreign trade enterprises were barely surviving, and companies focusing on the domestic market found it even harder to stay afloat. Add to that the fact that Evolvers were revolutionizing various industries, the job market was so abysmal it could make grown men weep in silence—just talking about it was enough to bring people to tears.
Under these circumstances, the government system naturally had to launch drastic reforms to better alleviate the pressure.
On one hand, in response to the demands of ordinary citizens, the procedures and documentation reviews for Evolvers were several times stricter than for ordinary people. On the other hand, in response to the Evolvers’ demands for equal treatment, ordinary cadres were subjected to retroactive investigations spanning twenty years, with all non-compliant individuals comprehensively purged.
The good news was that those relying on connections for ghost salaries or engaging in illicit operations had indeed dwindled, and permanent posts had opened up.
The bad news was that the competition had skyrocketed to astronomical levels, making the intensity of the exams the highest in the world!
Did people think their country was the only one obsessed with civil service exams? Not at all. In any nation that still managed to maintain normal operations, passing the civil service exam had become the absolute top priority. Just by opening a short-video app on one’s phone, one could see countless scenes of civil service exam fever in other countries.
Seeing the names on the documents, Bai Hewei felt a lingering sense of dread.
He remembered that one of those leaders had even come to their unit for an inspection before, forcing them to work overtime for several days.
Who could have expected that he would be stripped of his post just like that for faking his credentials and violating resume regulations?
Fortunately, he was just a contract worker right now and wouldn’t be dragged into such matters for the time being.
After picking up the documents, Bai Hewei drove straight home, refusing to delay for even a second.
Before he even got out of the car, a WeChat message popped up.
It was the Exam God!
Bai Hewei’s eyes lit up.
Since their last conversation ended, the Great Master hadn’t really reached out to him.
Bai Hewei figured the man had definitely been stunned by the sheer stupidity of his previous Essay. Now that the Great Master was reaching out, he must have realized that Bai Hewei wasn’t actually that terrible after all.
wz1: Shared a link: [One Hour to Master and Organize Current Political Hot Topics]
wz1: Shared a link: [Understand Historical Five-Year Plans Through One Chart]
…
In a single breath, the Great Master shared several video courses with him.
wz1: The provincial public institution joint exam will take place in mid-to-late July. Your Essay went off-topic last time because you confused “Cultural Confidence” with “Cultural Tourism.” This means your understanding of these terms is not thorough enough, and your fundamentals are lacking. It would be best to clearly distinguish all these terms first to avoid forcing inapplicable templates again. That essay you wrote was like Cinderella’s stepsisters slicing off their own heels just to squeeze into the glass slipper—completely incongruous.
When Will I Pass the Civil Service Exam: …Okay, thank you, Great Master. I will definitely study them hard.
Being called out like that made Bai Hewei feel a bit guilty.
But it wasn’t entirely his fault.
Every year, and even every month, various new terms popped up, constantly being subdivided. If your internet speed was just a tiny bit slow, you wouldn’t even know what people were talking about. And even when used in official materials, they were basically just abbreviations. Who could possibly understand the exact definitions of all these terms? Getting the general gist was good enough.
However, considering his Essay had indeed veered wildly off-topic, Bai Hewei nodded to himself, resolving to watch those video tutorials properly.
The exam in mid-to-late July was approaching quite fast, but he still had to take his annual leave to visit the capital.
Thinking of this, Bai Hewei sent another message to An Tingyu, hoping the Special Operations Department could give him a confirmed date so he could apply for leave early and get the trip to the capital over with.
Upon seeing the message, An Tingyu couldn’t reply directly. Instead, she took a screenshot and sent it to Huo Ling, asking him for a confirmed date.
How was she qualified to know when Director Yuan intended to meet Bai Hewei?
Seeing the screenshot, Huo Ling didn’t hesitate for a second. He forwarded it straight to their elusive Regional Director, telling him to report it to Director Yuan.
About ten minutes later, the Regional Director’s reply came through.
Huo Ling took one look, felt a wave of shock, and forwarded the message directly to An Tingyu, telling her to relay it to Bai Hewei.
After waiting for a long time, An Tingyu finally received the Regional Director’s exact, unedited words forwarded by Huo Ling. She was so furious she wanted to smash Huo Ling’s dog head in.
You’re way too half-assed! You could have at least changed the pronouns!
Director Huo Ling: Huo Ling, Director Yuan will return to the capital in seven days. However, while attending an international conference, a representative of a so-called natural resource conservation organization publicly spread rumors that we force Evolvers to plant trees in the desert while simultaneously allowing Forbidden Zones within the desert to expand. If you all can resolve this issue, Director Yuan’s return date might be bumped up slightly.
Reading the completely unedited message, An Tingyu had to search through several news articles and press releases before finally understanding what was going on.
It turned out that in previous years, their country would usually be experiencing either sandstorms or typhoons around this time. However, over the past two years, these phenomena had significantly decreased. The reason was that their nation’s Evolvers would detect climate anomalies in advance, planting trees in the desert and dispersing typhoons along the coast. Supplemented by technological assistance, they neutralized these natural disasters preemptively.
However, these natural disasters were formed naturally. Even if they were dispersed by Evolvers, they would inevitably re-gather and strike elsewhere.
Consequently, certain organizations started spinning narratives, claiming that China was leveraging its status as a major world power to damage the interests of other nations. They demanded that China bear the responsibility of a major power by selflessly “donating” these Evolvers capable of mitigating natural disasters, supplemented by food and funds to assist those countries affected by the disasters. Especially for a certain nation that relied on herding for its livelihood, they demanded China selflessly help them replant trees and provide financial support.
To beg for someone’s help while simultaneously expecting them to kneel—the demands made by the other party sounded like pure lunacy.
During the press conference, Director Yuan had responded directly with a single sentence: “We do not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations.”
And that was the end of that.
But the trouble was, the citizens and even the Evolvers of the nation championed by that nature conservation organization had actually been incited. Lately, they had been causing quite a few incidents near the border, which was incredibly annoying.
For the Regional Director to bring this issue up, he undoubtedly wanted to test Bai Hewei’s attitude and capabilities.
An Tingyu wasn’t about to play along. She immediately called Huo Ling.
She was afraid that if she didn’t ask clearly enough and something went wrong, she wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences.
“Director Huo, what is the meaning of the message the Regional Director sent? Are we supposed to have Bai Hewei resolve the desertification issue at the border, or resolve the people at the border using the desert as an excuse?”
“Both. It depends on what Bai Hewei chooses,” Huo Ling’s words were deliberately ambiguous. “As for Bai Hewei’s situation, those at the top who should know already know, and those who shouldn’t know likely know by now as well. Now that Director Yuan wants to meet him, many people actually hold opposing views because they believe the current Bai Hewei is not stable enough.”
“Not stable enough? Does Bai Hewei have to go become the boss of some Evolver syndicate to be considered stable?” An Tingyu retorted sarcastically. “Is there something wrong with the brains of those opposing him?”
“There’s nothing wrong with their brains; they just stand on a different side. The friction between Evolvers and ordinary citizens isn’t actually that deep. Ordinary citizens didn’t have much to begin with, and Evolvers have no interest in competing with them. In reality, what we Evolvers are seizing are the interests of the bourgeois class. Whether it’s our Special Operations Department or other Evolvers, the territories we encroach upon belong to those established elite circles.”
As a newly established department, the Special Operations Department had directly carved away authority from numerous other bureaus, practically leaping to become the leader among all government organs. With its own independent system for personnel and funding, and reporting directly to the central government, it didn’t have to bow to anyone. Naturally, this touched upon the vested interests of many people.
Including the current sweeping campaign to purge non-compliant personnel from the establishment—fundamentally, it was because the Special Operations Department had already occupied a massive chunk of the permanent posts.
If one truly calculated it, the people who hated Evolvers the most weren’t actually the ordinary citizens, but the wealthy and powerful among them.
An Evolver, provided they awakened an sufficiently useful ability, could match decades of accumulation by those wealthy individuals all on their own.
The emergence of a single hair-loss treatment ability could wipe out the entire “hair transplant” medical aesthetics industry overnight, completely removing all so-called “hair loss treatment” medications from pharmacy shelves.
“They are happy that a world’s strongest like Bai Hewei belongs to our country, yet they worry that Bai Hewei will push Evolvers even further, damaging their interests. Furthermore, even within the nation, not everyone is of one mind. There are always those who want to collude with foreign entities,” Huo Ling chuckled softly. “However, they agreed to Director Yuan meeting Bai Hewei under one condition, and the justification was very legitimate: they want to see exactly what Bai Hewei’s ability is.”
“What does that mean?” An Tingyu was a bit bewildered.
Did all these leaders have to talk in such circles? Round and round they went, leaving her completely dizzy.
Just say it straight!
If he didn’t explain, who could possibly figure out what he actually meant?
“The most formidable Evolver currently in the nation bordering us is a sensory-type. He can allegedly bypass ability grades to comprehend all information regarding an Evolver. However, whether that’s actually true remains questionable. Wen Zhiyi said that’s likely just disguised information, and his true ability shouldn’t be that. ” Huo Ling said evenly. “They want to borrow the hands of that Evolver to figure out exactly what Bai Hewei’s ability is. For certain individuals, if they cannot accurately ascertain Bai Hewei’s ability, they will never be at ease.”
An Tingyu hesitated for a long while. “So we’re really letting Bai Hewei go? The fact that no one knows his ability information is actually a good thing.”
“Wen Zhiyi said he can go,” Huo Ling sighed as well. “If he never finds out what his own ability is, Bai Hewei’s heart will never truly settle. Of course, the Research Institute also proposed that Bai Hewei could undergo a comprehensive physical examination with them, which could also deduce his ability profile. If he agrees, Bai Hewei wouldn’t have to go to the border. You can present both options to Bai Hewei directly and let him choose.”
Otherwise, he would have cast a veto vote long ago.
The people over at the Research Institute practically drooled over Bai Hewei’s photos every day, dreaming of giving him a full-body examination.
“Alright, I understand,” An Tingyu groaned inwardly, realizing that this thankless, offensive task had fallen onto her shoulders again.
But having served as the Office Director for so many years, An Tingyu wasn’t entirely incompetent.
Considering Bai Hewei’s specific circumstances, An Tingyu thought for a moment and called over a subordinate from the Special Operations Department, planning to enlist his help.
After dinner, An Tingyu brought her subordinate along to meet Bai Hewei at a cafe.
Treating it as a post-dinner stroll, Bai Hewei showed up without hesitation.
The cafe was nearing closing time, so naturally, it was largely empty.
“…So that’s the general situation. Currently, the Research Institute hasn’t conducted a comprehensive physical exam on you, so it’s very difficult to determine what your ability is. If you’re willing to go to the Research Institute for a checkup, the Institute will handle everything else for you,” An Tingyu explained the entire sequence of events clearly.
“Ahem. I feel like the Research Institute is a bit too stifling,” Bai Hewei was somewhat tempted. He didn’t know what his own ability was either, so figuring it out wouldn’t be a bad thing.
However, undergoing a comprehensive physical exam sounded like an absolute invasion of privacy.
He had heard from other Evolvers that when those researchers conducted a comprehensive exam, they were thorough to the extreme. They would even spread your buttocks to check for hemorrhoids—an act of pure social death.
If you scrolled through the Evolvers’ forums right now, you could still see countless tearful, blood-soaked rants posted by Evolvers who had undergone the exam.
They described it as: “Lying on the examination bed at the Research Institute strips you of more dignity than a pig waiting to be slaughtered on a butcher’s block.”
It wasn’t that Bai Hewei doubted the professional ethics of those researchers; it was primarily his pride and sense of shame acting up.
“If I go to the border, what about my job?” Bai Hewei felt a bit melancholic. “I was planning to use my annual leave to go to Beijing.”
“That’s simple.” An Tingyu waved her hand, gesturing for her subordinate to step forward.
“This is an operative from our Special Operations Department. His ability is [Injury Transfer], allowing him to temporarily transfer someone else’s physical injuries onto himself for a short period,” An Tingyu smiled. “Tomorrow morning on your way to work, you can choose to walk instead of drive. Then, you can accidentally step on a missing manhole cover and fracture your leg. Following that, you can apply for work-related injury leave. This won’t consume your annual leave days, nor will it deduct from your performance bonus. As for all your expenses and expenditures at the border, we will reimburse everything. You can just treat it as an early vacation.”
