Chapter Thirty-Two A Thread of Enlightenment

  Tang Yi stayed in the hospital for nearly a month before returning to the town. During this time, Xiao Yue was criticized several times by the municipal party committee. After Xiao Yue submitted Tang Yi's article to the city party newspaper, it was unclear what happened next, but the provincial labor newspaper reprinted it, which pushed Xiao Yue and Tang Yi to the forefront of public opinion. The provincial and municipal newspapers stirred up a wave of debate on "Xiao and Tang's views on bourgeois liberalization", with readers sending in letters expressing their outrage. Even the People's Daily published an article by a commentator criticizing certain grassroots leaders for being out of touch with reality, having a narrow perspective, and making incorrect estimates and slandering the good situation of reform and opening up.

  Tang Yi's hospitalization had shielded him from a lot of trouble, and when he was discharged, Chen Da and a nervous Qi Jie sneaked into his room. Chen Da whispered in Tang Yi's ear, "Your sister asked me to tell you something: take good care of yourself." Every day, Qi Jie would send over the soup she had cooked through Chen Da, and Tang Yi would also ask Chen Da to pass on messages, telling her that it was okay for her to visit him openly. However, Qi Jie never showed up. When Tang Yi heard Qi Jie's simple yet meaningful words of encouragement, he felt a mix of shame and gratitude. He thought to himself, what if he really did marry her? Although marrying a nominal widow would definitely be unacceptable to his family and would lead to gossip in official circles, did he really want her to hide behind the scenes for the rest of her life?

  Chen Da said: "That rascal was beaten by me until he spat blood, damn it, in the detention center I also got through with him, no good fruit to eat."

  Tang Yixin's mind was not here, nodding his head without a word. He was thinking about the newspaper in his heart, guessing that his discharge would be another storm. Sure enough, it didn't take long after he left the hospital, Tang Yixin was called to the county by a phone call, and in the county magistrate's office, Cheng Jianjun severely criticized Tang Yixin without leaving any face, saying he was undisciplined, arrogant, and had made all the mistakes that a young person should have.

  Cheng Jun finally ordered Tang Yi to go back and write a self-criticism, and temporarily handed over the town's work to Liu Dazhong for processing. When he figured it out, he would continue to carry out his work.

  Tang Yi also knew that his and Xiao Yue's joint signature would be seen by Cheng Jianjun as a sign that he had already chosen a camp, and it seemed that he wanted to torment himself to death. Recently, he had been making waves and was already a hot young cadre in the county. Since he stood on the opposing side, Cheng Jianjun naturally went all out to attack him.

  Tang Yi was scolded for over an hour, and when he left the office, he happened to run into Old Lady Liu from the office. Old Lady Liu looked around cautiously, then pulled Tang Yi aside and whispered: "Young man, it's a good thing you got scolded, just don't take it too much to heart."

  Tang Yi smiled and said he wouldn't, then jokingly said that if all else fails, he could be her typist, and asked her to take him in at that time.

  Seeing Tang Yi still being so optimistic, Liu Dama finally felt at ease. However, she didn't dare to talk to Tang Yi much and hastily returned to the office. Even so, Tang Yi still gained a bit of insight. Who says office politics doesn't have any human touch? People like Liu Dama, who are her age, still have a lot of sympathy in them.

  Tang Yi had just left the door when the phone on Cheng Jianjun's desk rang. He picked up the phone and it was his classmate who worked as an editor at the Provincial Labor Daily, thanking him for his help with a smile.

  Tang Yi's article was promoted to the provincial newspaper by Cheng Jianjun. When he saw that Xiang Yan and Tang Yi had published articles under their own names in Yangshan Daily, Cheng Jianjun immediately turned cold.

  As for Tang Yi, he was originally in a conciliatory attitude. After all, he came from the Central Party School, and who knows what kind of background he has behind him. Another thing is that after observing him for several months, he can see that Tang Yi is a talented person, not only is he good at his work, but also handles interpersonal relationships well. Both he and Xiao Yue seem to have a pretty good impression of him.

  And let's talk about Liu Dazhong from Chenjiadun. Originally, this stubborn old man and Tang Yishui were like fire and water, which was the most headache for the county committee. Because Liu Dazhong never cared about struggle strategies, he would immediately show his displeasure to whoever he didn't like, and he wouldn't cooperate with work. Moreover, in just over a year, he would retire, and the county couldn't discipline him at this time. Who knew that in just a few months, Liu Dazhong suddenly became Tang Yishui's loyal supporter? At county committee meetings, he always spoke on behalf of Tang Yishui, not allowing other town party committee members to say a word. This made the county committee leadership laugh and cry at the same time, while Cheng Jianjun looked up to Tang Yishui even more.

  It was because Cheng Jianjun thought that Tang Yi was a personal talent, and the reform thinking was also in line with his own, so he could cultivate him as his arm. However, just when Tang Yi suddenly got together with Xiao Yue, Cheng Jianjun even felt a sense of betrayal, so he decided to strangle this fledgling threat in the cradle.

  After reading Xiao Yue and Tang Yi's articles, Cheng Jianjun was overjoyed. He couldn't believe that the old guy would be so impulsive, and this little guy was also so immature to write such an article. He immediately realized that the opportunity to strike Xiao Yue and Tang Yi was right in front of him, and in order to expand the impact of the article, he asked his old classmate from the provincial newspaper for help.

  "On the phone, that old classmate laughed and said: 'Jianjun, this article was a great effort on my part, I had to persuade the editor-in-chief to get it published. You must treat me to a few good drinks.'"

  Jingjian Cheng nodded slightly, a good seedling, unfortunately, did not follow the same path as himself.

  ……

  The night fell, but it was sweltering. Tang Yi took a few cool showers, but couldn't wash away the annoyance in his heart. He turned on the TV and listlessly watched "The Legendary Twins". The show that had once carried his childhood martial arts dreams now seemed somewhat childish to him. The character portrayal was vivid, though. The future film emperor Tony Leung Chiu-wai was then just showing off his skills for the first time, one of the Five Tigers of Hong Kong's TVB, several levels above the stars of later generations who were all about hype. But Tang Yi couldn't help but feel like laughing at the martial arts design.

  Just now, Liu Dazhong brought a bottle of wine over and drank with himself, comforting himself in every possible way, saying: "Don't be discouraged, the county has wronged you, but I, Liu Dazhong, have not wronged you. In the future, you will continue to hold meetings and express your opinions as before. All the reforms in our town are led by you. If you give up, I, old Liu, will be left with nothing to do. Whoever should take charge will take charge, and I'll see who dares to fart!"

  Recalling Liu Dazhong's sympathetic and enthusiastic words, Tang Yi sighed, perhaps the leaders of the town were all thinking the same way, his political career had just begun, but it had already come to an end.

  But Liu Dazhong was one way to himself, and the others in the town were another. Especially those who had been flattering him, they immediately changed their faces and spoke to him without the fawning of the past, as if they couldn't wait to draw a clear line with him.

  Tang Yi had a bit of insight, if he didn't cultivate his own loyal followers, but instead focused solely on work like now, it would be very difficult to gain others' trust and support through his work abilities. If he encountered setbacks, no one would come to help him out, and not being kicked while he was down already counted as a favor. Looking at the situation now, even Chen Fangyuan spoke to him with caution, without the warmth of the past, it was clear what others thought.

  Only by binding the people you need to your own chariot and forming your own system can you have a solid foundation for future struggles, where every individual is just a pawn on the chessboard, controlled by you, allowing you to deploy them at will, sacrificing or advancing as needed, this is the true art of officialdom.

  Fortunately, this time it wasn't a real mistake, otherwise I'm afraid I would have been doomed. Looking at the calendar, August 15th, in a few days, the conservative forces of the Soviet Union will launch a coup, attempting to overthrow the reformist Secretary General Gorbachev's position, and then Yeltsin will take advantage of the situation to expand his influence, competing with Gorbachev, and the Soviet Empire will collapse.

  But Tang Yi also had some worries, what if everything he experienced was just an illusion? Or if the trajectory of history didn't follow its original course, then what would happen to him?

  "Knock, knock, knock" sounded outside the dormitory door. Tang Yi said loudly, "Come in." The door was pushed open gently, and Chen Ke's small face turned bright red as she slowly walked in. She wore tight white jeans, a cute doll-like t-shirt, and her little feet in thick-soled sandals were painted with light red nail polish, adding to her cuteness and temptation.

  Tang Yi asked strangely: "How did you come?"

  Chen Ke spoke with a stutter, "I, I... I came to borrow the desk, I want to write something, it's too crowded at home..." Without waiting for Tang Yi to speak, she quickly ran to the desk, plopped herself down in the chair, and sat down forcefully twice, as if afraid that Tang Yi would chase her away.

  Tang Yi was taken aback and laughed, saying: "It's getting late, no one will see you home at this hour!"

  Chen Ke seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, saying: "Don't worry, you sleep, I'll finish writing and go back myself." As he spoke, he pulled over a few pages of draft paper from Tang Yi's desk, picked up his pen, and with a worried expression, started writing something.

  Tang Yi looked at her with a smile, and he also found that this secretary was a bit incompetent. Asking her to write something often seemed like giving her a big problem to test her, and it was really unknown how she would cultivate her writing skills in the future.

  "Secretary Tang, your illness isn't serious, is it?" Chen Ke choked back for half a day before finally managing to squeeze out a sentence. Tang Yi, who was watching the "Hei Ha" fighting on TV, casually replied: "Who knows? The doctor said I still need to take care of myself."

  Chen Ke looked at Tang Yi with sympathy, how could this be good? Originally the envied newcomer in the official circle, overnight, his life and career had suffered a fatal blow, what could he do to help him?

  "Secretary Tang, my dad asked me to pass on a message to you. He didn't mean to neglect you, he wants you to step down... That's what my dad said, I think you're not someone who would give up easily..." Chen Ke hurriedly explained as soon as she mentioned stepping down, fearing that Tang Yi would misunderstand.

  Tang Yi smiled and said: "Go on."

  "He wants to take advantage of the canning factory's prosperity and make more money from it. I guess after you step down, he won't be able to continue contracting the canning factory. He thought that when the time comes, he could invest in business with you." Chen Ke added: "This is what he said, but if I were to say, you will definitely become a big official like the county party secretary in the future."

  Tang Yi smiled and nodded: "Then I'll borrow your auspicious words, is there anything else?"

  "There's still...there's still..." Chen Ke's pale face flushed with two red clouds, "You, your illness doesn't need to be rushed, I'll help you think of a way."

  "Ah?" Tang Yi was taken aback, but then Chen Ke said: "I, I've gone to the big city, and will help you pay more attention."

  Tang Yi didn't understand what she was saying, so he just hummed and nodded in response. He wasn't in the mood to tease her now, partly because there were many things he needed to consider, and partly because he was afraid that Chen Ke might have some ideas about him. After chatting for a few sentences, he drove away the unwilling Chen Ke.

  It was already August 19th, but the Soviet coup had not occurred. For an entire day, Tang Yi stared at the TV, and it wasn't until the early hours of the next morning that he realized this world seemed to have deviated from the one he had experienced before.