The First Volume of The Most Natural Beautiful Town Secretary Chapter 17: New Year's Day

  February 14th was New Year's Eve in 1991, and a heavy snowfall had been falling all day, wrapping the entire Yanshan County in a silver coat, presenting a beautiful northern landscape.

  Looking out of the window at the snowflakes gently falling down, Tang Yi let out a soft sigh, with some inexplicable melancholy, probably because of loneliness.

  "Director Tang, you're really here, didn't go back home for the New Year?" The office door was pushed open and Liu Jia Shun walked in with a smile.

  The canning factory's matter has long been settled, and in the end, Tang Yi didn't really put Liu Jia Shun in any party group leader position, but instead appointed him as the director of the town construction management service station after discussion at the town party committee. Although it seems like a small government agency, it actually has all the necessary departments, including rural economic service stations, social security offices, land and resources bureaus, family planning service stations, etc., with over a dozen departments in total. Of course, each department has its own leaders, but they don't have many subordinates.

  Liu Jia Shun was extremely grateful to Tang Yi, and after the meeting, he specially sought out Tang Yi to express his thanks. It wasn't until he actually participated in the town committee's meeting that he realized Tang Yi's words carried much more weight than Liu Da Zhong's. He had originally thought that in this chaotic meeting, he would definitely be dismissed by Tang Yi and appointed as the party group leader of a canned food factory. However, Tang Yi didn't do that, instead strongly advocating for him to be reassigned to a new position. When Liu Jia Shun found Tang Yi after the meeting to express his gratitude, Tang Yi simply said, "Your work abilities are still there, I've always been impartial and fair." This left Liu Jia Shun feeling deeply moved and grateful. Now, hearing that Tang Yi would be staying in town for the new year, he hurriedly came to pay his respects.

  Tang Yi smiled wryly: "No, just a few days off, not enough to toss back and forth on the road." His heart was somewhat bitter, home? His mother was far overseas, and his grandfather's place felt somewhat unfamiliar. The villa in Xiangshan didn't feel like home, but rather like a prison.

  "How about that, it's New Year's Eve and you're all alone here. Why don't you come to my house for dinner, I'll get my wife to cook some good dishes!" Just as Liu Jiashun finished speaking, the office door was pushed open again, a blast of cold air rushed in, and Chen Fangyuan's plump body squeezed in, closing the door tightly behind him. He rubbed his frozen hands together, shook off the snowflakes on his body, and smiled at Tang Yi: "Secretary Tang, I'm inviting you to dinner for New Year's Eve... oh? Director Liu is also here?" Only then did he notice Liu Jiashun.

  Liu Jiashun hastily said: "Old Chen, we must have a first come, first served. Secretary Tang was invited by me first, if you want to be arranged, you should also be arranged after me."

  Chen Fang's round face was full of smiles, and she said: "Can't say that, can you? I heard from my family's Ke'er that you've invited Secretary Tang to dinner before. This is my first time as a big girl getting married, so you should give in to me, shouldn't you?"

  Tang Yi laughed: "Alright, alright, it seems like I've become a sweet pastry. Today I'm going to Old Chen's house for dinner, and after the New Year, I'll return the favor and invite you."

  The snow crunched underfoot, the outside wind was sharp as a knife. Chen's house was not far from the town government, it was a neat little courtyard. In recent years, Chen Fangyuan had made some money from his small business, and the yard was well-organized. The iron fence, the cement floor in front of the house was lined with pine trees, and the house itself was not the usual three-room farmhouse, but a six-room bungalow with two floors. The living room was in the east wing of the house, decorated very beautifully, with light yellow tiles, black sofa, brown coffee table, and yellow cabinets. The layout was elegant, and if you took a photo, people would think it was an urban residence.

  Tang Yi sat down on the soft sofa and laughed: "Old Chen, this Caishen (God of Wealth) of Chenjia Village is indeed worthy of its reputation!"

  Chen Fangyuan shook his head repeatedly and said, "In front of Secretary Tang, what's my old Chen's business? Secretary Tang, if you do business, I dare say that you will definitely make a fortune. It's just that your ambition is high and you don't care about small business."

  Chen Fangyuan's face was full of sincere admiration: "Secretary Tang, the pineapple cans are all sold out, your idea is absolutely brilliant! Do you know? The workers in the canning factory are calling you a benefactor behind your back. From now on, I hope you'll guide me well in business matters."

  Tang Yi smiled and waved his hand, but when it came to business, he was far inferior to Chen Fangyuan. He had only seen the marketing strategies of the 21st century and knew that in a few years, the first thing people would pay attention to about a product would be its packaging and advertising. His ideas were more open-minded than Chen Fangyuan's, but it wasn't that he really had any business acumen.

  Chen Ke's mother brought up the fruit platter, ashtray, and melon seed candy platter, smiling: "Secretary Tang, don't be modest with Old Chen. I've never seen my old man admire someone so much before. Don't look at him always smiling, he's actually very proud. In the past, whenever someone was mentioned, he would say they weren't as good as him, but these days, it's all about you, Secretary Tang. You really need to take care of yourself and give my Old Chen more guidance."

  Chen Ke's mother is almost fifty, but Xu Niang is still half old and has a lingering charm. The corners of her eyes and eyebrows are still visible from her beauty in the past. It seems that Chen Ke inherited her genes. Fortunately, Chen Ke doesn't have any resemblance to his father. Tang Yi thought to himself, "Luckily Chen Ke didn't inherit his father's appearance." He smiled and said, "Auntie, don't bother, I'm not good at being polite, it's just like being at home here."

  Chen Ke's mother smiled brightly and said: "That's good, I was just afraid you wouldn't think of this as your own home."

  Tang Yi pointed to a red pagoda mountain and asked casually, "Where's Chen Ke? Why isn't she here?"

  As soon as Chen Ke mentioned, his mother's face turned gloomy, and she sighed: "This child hasn't been able to eat for the past few days. She wanted to take this year's college entrance exam, didn't she? The mock exam a few days ago didn't go well. She's been crying every day."

  Actually, Tang Yi came to the Chen's house also wanting to see Chen Ke. Before New Year's, Chen Ke had taken time off and hadn't been seen since then. For Tang Yi, who was already used to having this little silly girl around him, not seeing her for these few days really made him feel like something was missing.

  Tang Yi knew that her godmother's university was only attended after meeting her adoptive father, it seemed like a few years later, she attended an adult college, but didn't expect that she had already started preparing for the examination to upgrade from vocational school to undergraduate not long after starting work.

  "I'll go take a look at her! It's just a mock exam, isn't it? Is it affecting work? I have to scold her!" Tang Yi said with a stern face. Chen Fangyuan and Chen Ke's mother looked at each other in dismay, both of them were stunned. Only then did they remember that their daughter was his subordinate, especially since she hadn't attended class for the past few days because of the mock exam. The old couple had spoken hastily and caused trouble.

  Under the accompaniment of Chen Ke's mother, she came to Chen Ke's boudoir. The room was decorated elegantly and had a unique fragrance that belonged to girls. Chen Ke lay straight on the bed with her head covered by a red satin quilt, which shook slightly as if she was sobbing quietly.

  Chen Ke's mother said in a worried tone to Tang Yi, "Secretary Tang, why not wait a few days before criticizing her? Look at her now... she probably won't listen anyway..."

  Tang Yi waved his hand and raised his voice: "Chen Ke! Get up!"

  The sobbing in the quilt suddenly stopped, and then the red quilt was lifted up violently. Chen Ke sat up straight, her delicate face covered with tears. Seeing Tang Yi right in front of her, she realized she hadn't misheard. Chen Ke was a bit dazed and stupidly said: "Tang... Secretary Tang, how did you come?"

  The snow-white sweater tightly wrapped around her slender figure, the curve of her chest was beautiful and enticing. Tang Yi's heart skipped a beat, he quickly shifted his gaze away, cleared his throat and said: "Xiao Chen, isn't it just a mock exam? Why are you crying? You're not even working hard, that's secondary, what about your parents? How will they spend the New Year with you crying like this? Can't you let them have a peaceful year?"

  Chen Ke was already resentful, and being scolded by Tang Yi's harsh words at home made her tears fall, and she said angrily: "What's it to you if I cry at home? You're meddling too much! Work, work, I won't do it anymore! Can't I quit?"

  Chen Ke's mother was startled, she never thought her daughter would dare to speak to Tang Yi like that. Actually, it was also Tang Yi's fault, he liked to tease Chen Ke for no reason, and over time, Chen Ke naturally wasn't afraid of him anymore.

  Tang Yi didn't expect to have really irritated her, thinking that the college entrance exam was still quite important in her heart. Scratching his head, Chen Ke's mother gently pulled him: "Tang, Secretary Tang, let's go out first, I'll deal with her later..."

  Tang Yi waved his hand, looking at Chen Ke's pitiful appearance with tears in her eyes, and couldn't help but laugh. He stretched out his hand and said, "Has the mock exam paper been handed out? Which subject did you do poorly on? Let me take a look?"

  Chen Ke wiped away tears, ignoring him. Chen Ke's mother hurried over to open the drawer of the desk and took out a stack of scrolls from inside, handing them to Tang Yi: "Take a look at these."

  Tang Yi flipped through it, and it was a mock test for language and math. The other subjects were okay, but math was 56? "56?" Tang Yi couldn't help but chuckle, his adoptive mother was still a slacker when it came to studying, this was a 150-point test! Chen Ke was so angry that she bit her lip and glared at him, looking like she wanted to bite Tang Yi.

  As he flipped through the math test paper, Tang Yiyue couldn't help but laugh, how could his adoptive mother be so stupid? It seemed like she didn't even understand simple function principles.

  "What are you laughing at! You act like you know everything and are so great!" Chen Ke didn't know how, but from the moment Tang Yi came in, her tears gradually stopped, as if the grievances in her heart were all poured out when she saw Tang Yi, only to see Tang Yi's smile made her even angrier.

  Tang Yi smiled and said: "I don't understand many things, but this study I still understand a bit. Do you know that I was the top scorer in the college entrance examination?" Tang Yi was talking about his previous life.

  "Hmph, stop bragging, your party school and Gaokao are two different things!" Chen Ke rolled her eyes.

  "I took the college entrance exam before I went to party school!" Tang Yi smiled, holding up a math test paper and walking over to Chen Ke's side. He pointed at one of the questions on function symmetry and said with a smile: "Let's just talk about this question, you don't even understand the concept of the range of function values, if you do it like this..." As he spoke, he took up a pen and began to illustrate his explanation on paper. Chen Ke started out looking angry, but gradually turned astonished, and finally slapped her forehead: "Ah, how could I have not thought of that!"

  Tang Yi smiled and said: "The more you hit, the dumber you look."

  Chen Ke gave him a white eye, and then his eyes lit up. His big eyes turned around, and Tang Yi smiled: "I can help you with your lessons, but your attitude needs to change. In the future, don't be rude to me, and when no one is around, call me teacher!"

  "Ah, Secretary Tang, you're really magnanimous! Not only don't you hold it against her, but you're also willing to teach her. This is great, Chen Ke's university education has hope now! Secretary Tang, you're truly a capable person!"

  "Go on, hurry up and cook a few dishes for Secretary Tang?" Chen Ke's mother lovingly scolded Chen Ke, then smiled at Tang Yi and said: "This kid is useless in everything, but cooking is his strong suit."

  Tang Yi smiled and nodded, what more could be said about his godmother's culinary skills?

  Chen Ke got out of bed with a smile, Tang Yi and Chen Ke's mother returned to the living room. Chen Fangyuan heard that Secretary Tang wanted to be Chen Ke's teacher and laughed so hard she couldn't close her mouth, saying "Secretary Tang is really concerned about his subordinates, no wonder he's a model leader."