Qi Tongwei did not pick up on Zhong Xiao'ai's remark.
Instead, he retorted, "If you don't even know, how would anyone else?"
Zhong Xiao'ai hadn't expected Qi Tongwei to fire back like that, but what he said wasn't entirely unreasonable.
What surprised her even more was that Qi Tongwei seemed completely indifferent to Hou Liangping.
She could feel her face turning hot, as if her little scheme had been seen right through by Qi Tongwei.
In truth, she had a specific purpose in probing Qi Tongwei for his attitude toward Hou Liangping.
She wanted to indirectly gauge whether his words were aimed specifically at Hou Liangping.
After all, Hou Liangping had always treated her very well, and she had no intention of breaking up with him anytime soon.
Qi Tongwei saw right through these little maneuvers... She was still far too green.
Give her a few more years to grow, and she wouldn't resort to such naive tricks.
Qi Tongwei didn't dwell on the matter any longer.
He walked straight past, leaving Zhong Xiao'ai standing there in a daze...
For some reason...
Zhong Xiao'ai suddenly thought: "There is an air of detached maturity about Qi Tongwei."
Coupled with his already handsome appearance, it was an absolute multiplier when it came to female attraction.
Qi Tongwei went straight to the bus station and bought a ticket, getting ready to return to work.
At this time in Handong's rural areas, some of the better places had paved cement roads, while others still had dirt tracks where the ground had simply been dug up and covered with a layer of gravel.
All the way back, Qi Tongwei was carsick to the point of almost vomiting.
The ride was far too bumpy, and his rear end simply couldn't take much more of it.
Before long, Qi Tongwei returned to the department where he was seconded—the Yantai City Narcotics Control Brigade.
Upon returning to the office, Qi Tongwei was met with none of the enthusiastic hero's welcome one might imagine.
Everyone was busy with their own work, and nobody paid him the slightest attention, as if he had been completely marginalized.
At that moment, Liu Jun, a fellow comrade-in-arms who had gone on missions with him, quietly whispered, "Brother Qi, sometimes you just have to accept your lot in life in this society. Don't take it to heart if anything happens later..."
The moment he heard this, Qi Tongwei knew there must be something fishy going on behind the scenes.
He pulled Liu Jun away from the office into a quiet corner, handed him a cigarette, and asked, "What's this all about, Brother Jun? Fill me in."
Liu Jun took a drag, blew out a long plume of smoke, and looked at Qi Tongwei: "Brother Qi, we all know how hard you've worked. But who told you that you have no one backing you up at the top? This time, the commendation came down from the provincial level, but the captain used the excuse that you're only seconded here to brush your merit under the rug. Otherwise, you definitely would have been able to stay in the city this time..."
Qi Tongwei took a drag of his cigarette as well, thinking: To think that a hero's title won't even secure you a spot in a city narcotics team, let alone a transfer to Beijing.
Qi Tongwei said, "It's fine, I know about it now!"
Seeing Qi Tongwei, Liu Jun assumed he was just putting on a brave face.
As a comrade-in-arms, he patted him on the shoulder and told Qi Tongwei to have some time to himself.
Watching Liu Jun walk away, a whirlwind of mixed emotions washed over Qi Tongwei...
Heroes are merely figureheads pushed forward by the powerful and influential, just to make ordinary people work themselves to death and to keep the interests of the powerful secure.
In this era, the media was nowhere near as developed as in later generations; who would ever know that a hero had emerged from a mountain backwater?
Logically speaking, a graduate student like Qi Tongwei should have started directly at the deputy section chief rank.
Being seconded here as a deputy captain, if he could stay, it would pretty much resolve his path to the full section chief rank...
Yet looking at it now, things were far from simple.
Moreover, the time for his secondment was almost up.
He would probably have to return to that judicial office up in the mountains and serve as deputy director once again...
Which was also at the deputy section chief rank...
Before Qi Tongwei could finish his thoughts, someone called out: "Qi Tongwei, the captain wants to see you."
Could these people really not wait even a single moment?
Qi Tongwei figured that since he had just arrived at the unit, being summoned right now could only mean one thing.
Qi Tongwei walked into the captain's office and saw a plump, big-bellied middle-aged man sitting inside.
Relying on his memory, Qi Tongwei instantly recognized him as Wang Xianhai, the head of their Narcotics Control Detachment.
With a physique that bloated, wouldn't he just drop dead from exhaustion if he went out on a mission?
Of course, as a deputy division-level cadre, he didn't need to go out on missions; his job was just to issue orders.
The moment he saw Qi Tongwei enter, Wang Xianhai narrowed his eyes and said, "Is that Tongwei? You're finally back. You're the heroic figure of our narcotics brigade!"
Qi Tongwei offered a polite, perfunctory remark: "That's only thanks to your sound leadership, Captain, that the mission could be successfully completed!"
Wang Xianhai still felt that Qi Tongwei was relatively sensible—highly educated and capable, someone who should have been promoted long ago.
Yet a year ago, he had heard that someone higher up had put in a word, making it so that Qi Tongwei could not be promoted.
This person had apparently offended a major provincial leader. While Wang Xianhai didn't know if the rumor was true, there was an old saying in official circles: "Better to do nothing than to do wrong..."
In any case, Qi Tongwei was just a farm boy; if he had offended someone, well, he had offended someone.
There was nothing Qi Tongwei could do about it anyway...
If the rumors were true, and since he had no blood relation to Qi Tongwei, he certainly wasn't going to gamble his own future on the line...
Yet now, Qi Tongwei had gone and performed a major service.
If he stayed in the unit, it was inevitable he would rack up other achievements, and if Wang Xianhai kept suppressing him then, he worried about the gossip.
Either way, he was just seconded here; he could just go back from whence he came. Wang Xianhai wasn't stupid enough to pick up this hot potato.
Wang Xianhai said, "Tongwei! Logically speaking, since you've made a great contribution, the detachment should promote you."
Knowing this was coming, Qi Tongwei thought to himself: Cut the beating around the bush and get straight to the "however."
Sure enough, Wang Xianhai's pivot arrived right on cue: "But you also know that the detachment's staff quota is actually over capacity, and no positions are opening up anytime soon."
"How about this—you go back to your judicial office for a while, and when a vacancy opens up, I'll have you transferred back."
"Put your mind at ease. As long as a young person is willing to work hard and put in solid effort, there will be plenty of opportunities ahead."
Qi Tongwei inwardly muttered to himself: "Wanting to play the whore while setting up a monument to chastity—there's no such thing as having it both ways!"
Furious at the thought, Qi Tongwei spoke up directly: "I heard that the deputy captain of the Second Team is up for promotion soon? Besides, from what I understand, the narcotics department has always been short-staffed!"
Wang Xianhai hadn't expected Qi Tongwei to lay his cards on the table so bluntly.
"That deputy captain has worked himself to the bone, and dragging things out indefinitely isn't a solution either. As for the narcotics department being short-staffed, there are policies in place now requiring all units and departments to streamline redundant personnel as soon as possible."
Wang Xianhai continued, "Tongwei! You haven't reached this position yet, so you don't understand how difficult it is. Both palms and the back of the hand are made of flesh; some comrades are bound to get the short end of the stick."
Hearing this made Qi Tongwei's blood boil: "The short end of the stick, getting the short end of the stick every single day! Wang Li from the Second Team isn't your nephew, is he? Of course you wouldn't let your own nephew get the short end of the stick."
Yet he kept all of these thoughts buried deep inside...
He couldn't even be bothered to continue arguing with the hypocritical Wang Xianhai.
He turned and walked straight out of the office.
Accustomed to being surrounded by flattery and bootlicking in the brigade, how could Wang Xianhai tolerate someone like Qi Tongwei? Wouldn't that undermine his authority?
He immediately summoned a subordinate and told him to file the paperwork to have Qi Tongwei transferred back to his original unit as soon as possible.
Wang Xianhai thought: Who do you think you are, Qi Tongwei? Just because you did a good job, you've forgotten your place! I'll make sure you can't even stay here a moment longer.
Wang Xianhai directly stripped Qi Tongwei of all recent duties, effectively marginalizing him completely...
Qi Tongwei had a rough few days; he spent his time at the unit with nothing to do.
People around the office generally didn't dare speak to Qi Tongwei, as everyone knew he had offended someone he shouldn't have.
The only ones who dared to chat with him about work over those few days were a few old-timers nearing retirement.
They felt a certain sympathy for Qi Tongwei's plight and advised him to accept his fate, telling him that having nothing to do wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Qi Tongwei merely laughed it off with them each time. Since he happened to have some idle time on his hands those days, he decided to start writing a book.
In his previous life, he had read Those Things About the Ming Dynasty several times and listened to audio versions of it too; he could completely rely on his memory to write it out bit by bit.
Qi Tongwei didn't have much money of his own. While he could have tried playing the stock market, he lacked the capital, so he had no choice but to borrow the wisdom of later generations and write a book first.
Only, Qi Tongwei harbored doubts: Would publishing in this era yield the same impact it did later?
Soon, Qi Tongwei had the first volume more or less finished, and right around then, his transfer order came down—he was heading back to that judicial office!
After all this time, Qi Tongwei still hadn't received any news from his teacher.
He was planning to use this book he had written to let his teacher review it and, by the way, ask him about the transfer.