Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the following days, Guo Caiying disappeared in Zhang Lisheng’s life without a trace. The last contact they had was a phone call at 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening.
The meeting that was supposed to happen on Friday kept being delayed, and after two weeks, the girl finally met Zhang Lisheng in a hurry, but it was to bid goodbye before her departure. It turned out that the deputy director in charge of the Central and South America Affairs in her department was found to have violated a discipline when he became the ambassador for Argentina last time. Because of this, he was temporarily suspended, and his work was handed over to Guo Caiying.
Anyone who knew about the rules of the officialdom of the Chinese state knew that this was just a ‘cover-up.’ Those who had been suspended from duty would never be reinstated ever again.
The reason why the temporary takeover person was prefixed with the word ‘temporary’ was that the lack of qualifications. As long as that person could accumulate a passable achievement, he would soon be able to take over the position of the former person in a logical course.
Therefore, the delegation work of a friendly visit to the seven nations in America—Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala and so on—that had been in place since the former deputy director had already completed the preparatory work in advance and was naturally handed over to Guo Caiying.
In the early morning, the sun ripped through the mist and scattered its ray onto the Earth. In the Beijing hotel’s spacious and elegant lobby lounge area, a beautiful girl who appeared to be in her early twenties anxiously looked at her watch and hesitated for a moment before walking quickly to a comfortable, large round sofa to whisper, “Bureau Director Guo, it’s almost time now. Look…”
This sentence was quite ‘artistic.’ Although ‘department’ and ‘provincial department’ had the same level, the only difference was that one of them was a central ministry while the other one was a provincial department. However, to ordinary people, the word ‘Director’ was a rather strange term while ‘Bureau Director’ represented a high-ranking position.
With just a smart change of the title, although the Chinese guests who were sitting around the sofa could be said as successful people in various fields, when they intuitively looked at the young woman who was wearing plain gray professional suit with a short, ordinary hair at the length of her ears, along with a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses sitting on her nose, they could not help but be taken aback by shock.
A person who could sit on such a ‘position’ at such an age must be bound to have a very profound background even in the capital of China that housed many undiscovered talents. It was natural to look in awe at such a lofty and prominent person.
Sensing the subtle changes in the surrounding atmosphere, Guo Caiying frowned and said, “Little Li, I merely took over the work of Director Liu temporarily; you shouldn’t call me that.”
“Yes, yes, yes, Director Guo, I won’t do that again.” When the beautiful girl who had just graduated from college in less than half a year and was lucky enough to get a job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for less than three months saw that her sucking up that she had learned from her surrounding had resulted in a reverse effect instead, colors crept upon her face as she replied, “But the plane is going to take off in less than an hour, you, you…”
“Just one criticism, and you’re already red with tears? You can’t be so sensitive while doing diplomatic work. Go call Mr. Song and ask him to drive the car over. I’ll leave immediately,” Guo Caiying looked at the secretary that had just been recently assigned to her who was close to tears now and said helplessly.
Having a young age was both an advantage and a disadvantage. At the very least, the employee she was assigned to had not been as what she would like to have. Although her appointment had not been officially announced, the girl’s administrative level had been promoted to that of the Deputy Bureau Director. According to the ‘Regulations of the Party and Government Cadres,’ she now had the qualification to have a full-time secretary.
However, since Guo Caiying was a child, her parents had always been busy with work, so she was sent to elementary school before she was even five years old. Right now, she was very young among the other officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so according to the convention of how the secretary should be younger than the official, she could only choose her secretary from those who had just graduated from the university. In the end, she picked the best person available, but she was not too satisfied with the way the secretary worked.
Upon hearing the instructions of the leader, the beautiful girl held back her tears and nodded, “Yes,” before turning around to walk away.
When Zhang Lisheng saw her disappearing back and Guo Caiying whom he had not seen for more than ten days and had completely changed her own fashion style, he smiled and said, “Senior Sister, we didn’t see each other for only half a month, but how come you suddenly have such a great title now?”
‘Division-Head level’ and ‘Bureau-Director level’ were the watersheds of ordinary officials and senior cadres in the Chinese bureaucratic system. These two were worlds apart, especially in the central ministries; a mayor could still be said as a person who passed on the message, but the cadres in departmental level could already be regarded as a small character in the national affairs, so of course, its weight was utterly different.
After the change of status, under the imperceptible guidance of the big environment, a person would inevitably have many subtle changes in a concise period, particularly Guo Caiying, who was born in the third generation of the ‘red family,’ would naturally be more imperceptibly influenced by what she saw and heard and would have a sense of propriety.
“I have already presided over China’s diplomatic work on Central America, so of course, I can no longer act like I did last time…” Upon hearing Zhang Lisheng’s question, Guo Caiying swallowed and answered in a whisper. When she saw that the young man wearing shorts and a T-shirt in front had a disapproving look on, she smiled wryly, shook her head, and stood up, “Ah, forget it, you won’t understand anyway even if I tell you. In short, this is the rule of the ‘institution.’ I just need to follow it. I have to leave now, Junior Brother. My visit to the Central and South America this time is expected to take at least ten days. I’m afraid your ‘matter’ will have to be delayed for a while.”
“It’s alright, Senior Sister. We can always settle it next time if we can’t settle it this time. There’s no hurry.”
“Do you want to leave China?” When Guo Caiying heard the meaning implied in the young man’s tone, she asked in shock.
“I have been away from the US for almost a month now. If there’s still no result in the investment in the Kunlun World, then I should go back too, but no matter what, I need to say goodbye to you first,” Zhang Lisheng replied with a smile.
“Junior Brother, the overseas calls in the small countries in Central America are very unsafe, so let’s stop contacting these few days,” Since there was another chance for them to meet again, the girl nodded without concern. “I’ll see you ten days later. Please don’t send me. I don’t like the feeling of having a last farewell.”
Then, she turned and walked away.
After looking at Guo Caiying’s figure disappearing outside the hotel, the young man was suddenly overcome with dejection. Shaking his head hard, he began to fell into deep contemplation.
The trip to China this time had been not as fruitful. He first thought that it would be very natural and comfortable for him to meet with the future leaders of China, but now, it seemed that this was something not realizable within the foreseeable future.
If he asked Guo Caiying a favor directly, it should not be hard for him to meet her father, but the young man knew that the outcome would often be counterproductive if such matter was carried out deliberately. Not only that, but it was hard for him to find an excuse, so he had never made such a request before from the beginning.
“Looks like it’s much more difficult for me to create an opportunity to inadvertently run into China’s leaders compared to the President of the United States. I must make progress through other aspects. Oh, that’s right, Senior Sister has once said before that the government placed the Gate of Witchcraft in an important position now, so maybe I can try to contact them…” Leaning against the soft back of the sofa, Zhang Lisheng muttered to himself. However, when he recalled the feeble and abominable manner of the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples who were unpromising but always liked to have internal conflict, he could not help but dismiss the idea.
He could not come up with any result, no matter how he pondered over it. In the end, the young man decided that since it would only be two weeks at most, he would just wait quietly in Beijing Hotel until the girl came back since he could hear the prayers of hundreds of thousands of believers in the distant foreign world behind the space and that he would instantly sense it if something really happened to the Wizard Li Island.
Now that Zhang Lisheng had made up his mind, he who no longer had any worry snapped back to reality. When he thought that he still had two weeks of idle time, he hesitated a little and took out his phone to dial a number.
A few seconds later, a busy tone of ‘du du du…’ resonated as always from the telephone receiver. Frowning, the young man muttered, “What kind of research topic is that for her to need two weeks to summarize…” before putting his phone away helplessly.
The number that he dialed belonged to Tao Lulu. Ever since they parted ways in Beijing 3rd Ring over ten days ago, the girl texted her telling him that the summarizing of her research topic had been much more troublesome than expected, so her supervisor had asked her to put down everything so that she could go all out and because of this, she had no choice but to only contact Zhang Lisheng after everything was done. Ever since then, there was no more news from her.
However, Zhang Lisheng was also a biologist. He knew that no matter what kind of field an excellent scholar was from, once he entered the research state of a ‘major subject,’ it was not surprising for that person to cut off his communication for a long time. Thus, he did not think about it too much after muttering and did not try to call Tao Lulu in the days to come.
Time passed by slowly. The members of the returning delegation from the US business community had already returned to China one by one, some with fruitful results while some returned dejectedly empty-handed. Zhang Lisheng had been staying in the Beijing Hotel and would never get tired of going to the suburbs, or to the Great Wall, again and again in the day time, soaking in the unyielding will of the ancient Chinese people.
At night, he would stay in the bathroom of the hotel room, listening to the intoxicating prayers and praises of hundreds of millions of believers of the Wizard Li tribe separated by the world’s barrier. Just like this, eleven days passed by unknowingly.
Around 9 am this day, Zhang Lisheng had breakfast at the restaurant and took an elevator to the hotel lobby leisurely. When he was walking out and passing the front desk, an innocent-looking young girl suddenly blocked him.
