Chapter 436: Director Liu Takes Office

A fleet of tugboats sailed slowly along the coastline, the lead tug spewing thick black smoke. This was the regular tugboat fleet plying the route between Qiongshan and Lingao. The barges were loaded with various agricultural products, minerals, and building materials from Qiongshan bound for Lingao.

At the rear of the fleet was a passenger barge, carrying travelers between the two places. Although it was ridiculously slow by the Elders’ standards, for the natives, whose boat travel was entirely dependent on the weather, it was incredibly fast.

But today, there were no native passengers on the passenger barge. The entire vessel had been chartered by Liu Xiang, the director of the Qiongshan County Office. He was returning to Lingao with his family to report on his work and, incidentally, to take up a new post.

A month ago, the General Office had sent a “first birthday gift” for Liu Xiang’s daughter—due to his busy work schedule, both his daughter’s full moon celebration and her first birthday party had been held at the Qiongshan County Office. The gift also contained some other things: a small set of two documents from the Great Library, one titled “A Historical Study of the Satsuma Domain’s Forcing of the Ryukyu’s Shang Dynasty to Pay Tribute and Become a Vassal to Japan,” and the other, “Historical Materials on the 17th Century Vietnamese Civil War.” The larger set was the “Compilation of Local Conditions in Guangzhou Prefecture,” compiled by several departments. Seeing these, and connecting them with the recent developments in the “two journals and one newspaper,” Liu Xiang knew that a job transfer was coming.

Regarding the job transfer, both the Organization Department and Liu Muzhou of the Civil Affairs People’s Committee had spoken with him during his last trip back to Lingao to report on his work. First, they asked if he had any intention of being transferred: “to take on greater responsibility.” Then, they discussed his years of governance experience in Qiongzhou and his views on local administrative affairs.

Although Liu Xiang had never worked in a government agency, he understood the term “organizational assessment.” Especially since Ming Lang had spoken with him personally, the implication of a transfer was very strong.

After he expressed his “willingness to accept the organization’s test,” a deputy director descended upon Qiongshan County. Along with him, his originally stretched team of naturalized cadres was fully reinforced. Not only were all the vacant positions filled, but deputy positions were also added.

Such a luxurious local administrative cadre configuration, besides the Senate’s capital, “Lingao,” no other county seat could enjoy. Liu Xiang, while “overwhelmed by the favor,” knew that his days of leaving Qiongshan County were numbered.

He was not very satisfied with his work in Qiongshan over the past few years. Although Qiongshan County, being the prefectural seat, had been developed early, had a large population, a good agricultural environment, and ample water resources, and was listed as a “demonstration county,” the Planning Commission and the Central Government Council had invested a lot here, and were generous in terms of funding, personnel, and equipment. If there was any “above-scale industry” in the whole of Hainan besides Lingao and Sanya, Qiongshan County was the only one.

Since the current county administration still followed a system of full financial allocation from the central government, there was very little he, the director of the Qiongshan County Office, could do. Almost everything had to be approved by the central government, and many matters were managed vertically by various central ministries and commissions. If it weren’t for the fact that this was a “demonstration county” with a significant policy preference, he would hardly be able to get anything done. He was probably just like the officials of the past, mainly managing the collection of grain taxes. After all, even trying cases was now under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary’s circuit court.

“If it weren’t for the drama in Lingao, I guess the Executive Committee wouldn’t have made up its mind,” Liu Xiang said, smoking a cigar on the poop deck, facing the sea breeze. “A little chaos, and all the different forces come out of the woodwork. Now, we have no choice but to conquer the mainland. The situation is pushing people forward.”

He was roughly aware of the changing situation in Lingao. The noses of the dispatched Elders were very keen. Besides various publications, private letters between Elders were the most convenient channel for exchanging information. So he knew not only about the recent establishment of the Senate committees, the Youth League, the systemic reform, and so on, but also a little about the various inside stories.

“It’s all because they have too much time on their hands!” Liu Xiang threw his cigar butt into the sea. A few years ago, Liu Xiang had said that the root of all contradictions in the Senate was that the ruling area was too small, with too many carrots and too few holes. Although everyone had a job now, for a large number of Elders who came with the mentality of “being a superior person after transmigrating,” their power and status were not enough. In other words, they were not busy enough. After all, everyone’s pursuit was the superstructure.

With the conclusion of Operation Engine, the lower levels of the existing institutions were rapidly filled out, and the entire state machine began to run faster and faster. No matter how much of a homebody or how lazy an Elder was, they were still modern people—or rather, future people—who had been tempered by a truly bureaucratic society. They were all pulled out of their dormitories and from behind their laptops to fill the key parts of this state machine. Everyone was dizzy with work. Those who really lacked practical experience were sent to various departments to be the deputy in charge of something, which was in fact an administrative intern. When they got the hang of it, there would be a new appointment.

For example, the current deputy director who was preparing to take over from Liu Xiang was a former “soy sauce” Elder who had long been in various departments as a deputy director. After getting tired of being an administrator and a teacher, he took the initiative to request a transfer to a local post with the ideal of being a local official. And so he came—after Liu Xiang coordinated with him, he was put in charge of the autumn harvest, which was a good bit of labor.

“That’s why they say labor is the best way to reform a person!” Liu Xiang thought of the spirit of the former “soy sauce” Elder after the handover was completed, and felt another wave of emotion—power really does train a person.

“Why am I thinking about that guy!” Standing on the poop deck, looking at the familiar coastline gradually receding, Liu Xiang couldn’t help but curse himself. That coastline, if he remembered correctly, should be Haidian Island, where the Haidian campus of Hainan University would be in the future. The forestry processing base that Liu Xiang had lobbied for was built there. The mouth of the Nandu River was like the Nile, divided into two channels, one large and one small, by a central sandbar at the mouth of the river. The island was next to the small channel on the west. The bundled logs coming down from the upper reaches could be brought ashore from the small channel and transported directly to the processing plant. The processed timber was then directly loaded onto ships at the small pier on the island and shipped out.

Originally, this factory had been understaffed since its establishment. The workers had to do multiple jobs at the same time, such as log drivers, laborers, carpenters, etc. The operating efficiency and labor intensity were both very high—after all, the disaster relief that year had taken away a lot of manpower from Qiong Prefecture. The labor shortage only began to ease after Operation Engine began. Now, this timber processing base was already thriving and flourishing.

On the other side of the riverbank, the sound of machinery rumbled, and red brick chimneys were spewing thick smoke. This was another major project he had brought in: a brick and tile factory. The raw materials used were the leftovers from the coal washing plant, such as coal gangue.

“I’m really going to miss it!” Liu Xiang said softly to the sea breeze as the coastline completely disappeared from view.

“Ba-baaaa,” a familiar sweet and crisp voice. He knew it was his little girl.

“Why did you bring the child up here! The wind is strong, and it’s not safe! You’re not even holding her hand!” Liu Xiang turned around and got angry—Guo Ling’er had brought their daughter up to the poop deck, but the little girl was not being held by her. Instead, she was walking towards Liu Xiang with her arms outstretched, calling “dada” as she went. Liu Xiang immediately ran over and picked up his precious daughter.

“You know your baby! It would be great if I could hold her! I ran all over the second deck just to feed her. I finally stuffed the last piece of fish into her mouth, and she didn’t even drink her soup, she just wanted to find her daddy,” Guo Ling’er complained with a wronged look on her face.

After having a baby—although it was a daughter, it was clear that her master and husband doted on this little treasure—Guo Ling’er’s confidence seemed to have grown a lot, and she dared to grumble a few words in front of Liu Xiang. In fact, Liu Xiang quite liked the confident Guo Ling’er now. The old her was just like an obedient Persian cat, more like a pet than a wife.

Dodging his daughter’s demonic claws reaching for his glasses and hair, he skillfully untied her bib and smock. The little bit of emotion in Liu Xiang’s heart had long since disappeared.

“Call me daddy,” Liu Xiang began his “daily quest: tease the daughter” mode.

“Dada…” Liu Xiang was hit by the sweet and cute sound.

“Where’s mommy? Where’s mommy?”

“Wooo…” Liu Xiang was melted by the cute little claws.

“Call me mommy!”

“Dada…” Liu Xiang entered the “recognizes no one but daddy” state, his mood maxed out, and he started laughing.

“This girl, when she was breastfeeding, she called ‘mommy’ all day long. After she was weaned, she only calls ‘daddy’!” Guo Ling’er complained, reaching out to take the child. Judging from the girl’s usual “habits,” she was due for a timely rain soon after eating.

“You’re doing it on purpose. You know she always calls you, but you keep asking her to call mommy.”

“Hahahaha,” Liu Xiang was still laughing. He supported Guo Ling’er with one hand and held the handrail of the stairs with the other as he went down to the cabin.

After teasing the little girl for a while longer, he saw her starting to rub her eyes. Liu Xiang held his daughter in his arms and kissed her, asking, “Be a good girl and go to sleep with mommy, okay?” The daughter was in a daze for a while, then answered in a milky voice, “Ha… oh…” and then threw herself at Guo Ling’er.

“See, when she’s sleepy, she only wants you, not me. Look at how jealous you are!” After his daily teasing of Guo Ling’er, Liu Xiang waved his hand, signaling her to take the girl to bed.

Liu Xiang didn’t have the habit of taking a nap. He tended to sleep very deeply when he did. He had tried taking a nap after lunch a few times and found that he would always sleep until five or six o’clock, which disrupted his daily rhythm, so he simply gave up on naps. Now that the little girl was not clinging to him and making a fuss, Liu Xiang took out the “gift” materials again and spread them on his desk.

“Vietnam, Ryukyu, Guangzhou, where to go?” Liu Xiang had been struggling with this for a long time.