Chapter Eleven: Recruiting Soldiers and Buying Horses

  The meeting dispersed, and Wei Ju led Fei Chai to the office. Although it was a converted conference room, it looked like a real office, with all the necessary furniture, including a desk, chairs, sofa, and water dispenser. At first, Fei Chai didn't notice anyone when he entered, but after a few seconds, an old man emerged from behind a desk in the corner of the room. He was dressed simply, as if he were not from this era, with a pair of blue sleeve protectors on his arms that had faded to white in many places due to repeated washing, and several patches near the elbow. His face was even more striking, with deep wrinkles all over, and when he walked, he stooped forward, making him look like he was over sixty years old, which wasn't an exaggeration at all.

  Wei Ju Chao said with a wave of his hand: "Old Zheng, hurry up, this is your Director Fei."

  Lao Zheng lowered his voice and said calmly: "We met at the plenary session."

  Wei Ju smiled and turned to Fei Chai: "Old Zheng is a veteran of our bureau, he came even earlier than me."

  Fei Chai had always respected his seniors, and upon hearing this, he immediately stretched out his hand to shake hands with Old Zheng. He felt that Old Zheng's hand was both rough and icy cold, just like a migrant worker's hand.

  It's clear that although Wei Ju is all smiles when facing Old Zheng, she absolutely looks down on him in her heart.

  After greeting Old Zheng, Director Wei personally opened the glass door and said: "Xiao Fei, take a look at this place. Although it's separated, it's still usable for work. You can use it first, and we'll rearrange the office later."

  Fei Chai said a word, how can he be worthy of it, and then pushed Wei Ju to see who would enter the office first. After that, they went in. Looking inside, the conditions were not bad either. There was a computer on the desk, and even an independent air conditioner was installed. He nodded and said: "It's good, it's good. Compared to my tent and simple house in the wild team, it's simply paradise."

  Wei Ju also smiled and said: "Xiao Fei, you're young and talented, work hard, the future belongs to you young people."

  The two men chatted for a few more sentences, and then Wei Ju excused himself, saying he had another meeting in the city. After he left, Fei Chai closed the glass door, sat down in the large boss chair, turned around twice, let out a long sigh, patted his hands on the armrests, and muttered to himself: "A dead fish turns over, good times have finally arrived." He was feeling delighted at this moment, with a sense of pride and satisfaction.

  Not enough, the phone on the table rang, picked it up and listened, it was Zhu Yajun calling. Zhu Yajun asked with a smile: "How is it, are you still satisfied with the office environment? Time is tight, no time to decorate, the air conditioner is also old."

  Wei Chai listened and subconsciously took a glance at the air conditioner, only to see that it was spotlessly clean, without any signs of aging, and said: "It's pretty good, warm and cozy, and not too noisy."

  "Use it for now, if there's anything missing just tell Shen Xing directly. If you feel uncomfortable telling him, then tell me. One sentence: I have what you need, take it if you want."

  Fei Chai just opened with a joke: "Then I'll be the one to take care of you, Bureau Chief, will you let me?"

  Zhu Yajun burst out laughing and said, "You're not bad at all. With your talent, becoming a deputy director in charge of business is a piece of cake. However, when it comes to administrative work, you can't compare with me."

  "That's true." Fei Chai felt that Zhu Ya Jun's words were indeed reasonable.

  Zhu Yajun also said: "You first set up the team, computers, printers, fax machines and so on. The bureau has also ordered a batch, which will arrive next week. Priority is given to you for use. As for personnel... ...now there's only Old Zheng in your place... If you think he's old... technology can't keep up with us, let's adjust slowly, don't rush, after all, it's the original from the bureau, and his family life is also difficult, we can't..."

  Fei Chai understood his meaning and said: "That's it, and as the old saying goes, having an elderly person at home is like having a treasure. The elderly are all experienced and have their own advantages."

  "Alright, you just make do with it for now. Same thing I said before, we'll adjust gradually. I've got something else to attend to, so I'm hanging up first."

  He put down the phone, got up from his seat and walked to the wall to open the bookcase. It was empty inside. He thought about which books he should bring to the office. Just then, someone knocked on the glass door and someone shouted: "Director Fei, are you there?"

  Fay heard it and knew it was Zhang Peng's voice, so he hurriedly said: "Come in."

  Zhang Peng pushed open the door and came in, slightly bowing his head and saying: "Director Fei, I've come to report for duty."

  "Your movements are quite fast."

  Zheng Peng also smiled and said: "That's right, I've been looking forward to doing business for many years. If there's an opportunity, wouldn't I want to hurry up?"

  Fei Chai said: "Hehe, it seems you're more impatient than me. Look at those tables outside, sit wherever you want. Hmm... take a look and see what's missing, make a list... Alright, from now on, whenever someone new comes here, you'll be in charge of counting what office supplies are needed, and we'll go to the office together to pick them up."

  Zhang Peng stood up straight and said: "Guaranteed to complete the task."

  Fei Chai smiled and said: "Look at you, coming here to be a soldier."

  Zhang Peng also smiled with a "heh heh" and after laughing said: "There's still something else." He said, taking two car keys out of his pocket and lightly placing them on the office desk, saying: "The bureau gave us two cars, one is four-wheel drive, they say it's for running around in counties and towns later, and the other is a Bluebird for official business use, what do you think..."

  Fei Chai pushed the two keys forward with his hand for about two or three inches before saying: "After four-wheel drive, we'll use it to go down to the countryside. It's too fuel-consuming in normal times, so let's not move it. But to maintain the condition of the car, we must make sure it can be driven at any time. You were originally a professional driver for the bureau, and you're also an expert in this area, so I'll have you take charge of managing these two cars."

  Zhang Peng's face lit up with joy as he listened, and he reached out to take the key, putting it back into his pocket before bidding farewell and heading out to find a desk.

  Although there was a glass door separating them, it wasn't soundproof. Before long, Zhang Peng's voice could be heard from outside saying, "Dongzi is here."

  The latter just hummed and then someone knocked on Fei Chai's glass door.

  Fei Chai shouted "come in", and a thin young man with short hair, a strange head shape, wearing thick, tea-colored glasses, a pointed chin, and sloping shoulders walked in, saying: "Director Fei, I brought the personnel file for you." His voice was slightly hoarse.

  She said this while her hands were empty, then pulled out a U-disk from her pocket. It was only then that Fei Chai realized he hadn't turned on the computer yet, and quickly did so, taking the U-disk from her. The young man added, "All the information for everyone except mid-level cadres is in there; copy it and return it to me, I still need to use it. Originally I wanted to send it to you through the internal network, but yours isn't connected yet."

  Fei Chai smiled and said "Wait a minute, I'll wait for the machine to start. You sit down."

  The young man didn't hesitate and sat down on the sofa. Fei Chai asked again: "Would you like some water?"

  The young man waved his hand and said, "No need, I have tea brewed in my office."

  Fei Chai saw that he spoke in a cold tone, knowing that it was not easy to talk to him, so she stopped talking and quietly waited for the computer to start up, copied the information from the U disk, then took it out and said "thank you" to the young man. At this time, his tone had become much colder, purely polite.

  "You're welcome." The young man responded with equal politeness and left with the U-disk.

  Next, Fei Cha started to open files for himself. However, anyone in the selection process has their own biases. Fei Cha first looked up Zhang Peng because Zhang Peng was actually sent by Zhu Ya Jun, although Fei Cha wasn't interested in the infighting within the organization and didn't think Zhu Ya Jun would harm him. He mainly wanted to see if Zhang Peng was as capable as he claimed. After checking, it turned out that Zhang Peng graduated from a well-known geological technical school, which has since been upgraded to a university. Unfortunately, Zhang Peng was among the last batch of junior college graduates, so sometimes being held back can have its advantages. This school has a good reputation in the geological field, and half a year after graduation, students are usually appointed as technicians. Since Zhang Peng graduated from this school, his abilities should be decent.

  Next, Fei Cha investigated Old Zheng, Zheng Ruo Song. It would have been better if he hadn't investigated, but after investigating, he was shocked to find that this bureau really hid dragons and tigers. Zheng Ruo Song's past experience was somewhat similar to his own, both having worked in the wilderness team for decades, except that he had spent even more time in the wilderness than Fei Cha, not returning to the bureau until he was over 40 years old. Moreover, before that, he had participated in many major national-level projects and won numerous awards. However, after returning to the bureau, it seemed as if he had vanished into thin air, with no achievements whatsoever.

  "This is all a waste of human resources." Fei Chai sighed and continued to search, but didn't know where to start. He could only flip through one by one. Suddenly, he flipped to a person who looked familiar. After thinking for a moment, he realized it was the young man who had delivered the documents earlier. It seemed that Zhang Peng had called him Dongzi. So, Fei Chai took a closer look and couldn't help but laugh at his own mistake. Because the person's name was Wu Dongci, being misheard as Dongzi was nothing, but what was ridiculous was that in the gender column, it was clearly filled out as female. Fei Chai carefully recalled the person's appearance, but couldn't think of how they could be a woman. So, he opened the glass door and saw Zhang Peng wiping the table, asking: "Little Zhang, wasn't the one who delivered the documents earlier named Wu Dongci?"

  Zhang Peng nodded and said, "Yes, that's right, we usually call him Dongzi."

  "Oh." Fei Chai asked again "Is he male or female?"

  Zhang Peng almost laughed out loud: "So you didn't notice either, he...". Zhang Peng said, turning his head to glance outside the door before continuing: "Physically speaking, she's probably a woman, but I just can't see it. But don't say that in front of her face, or else..." He shook his head and made a fearful expression.

  Fei Chai smiled and said: "So that's how it is." He then closed the door again and returned to his seat, continuing to read through the files.

  Wu Dongzi's resume is very impressive, and he is also a rare geological talent. It's just that for some reason, such a talented geologist is doing administrative work in the political arena, what a waste! With this, Fei Chai decided to pull Wu Dongzi, who is like a manly woman, under his wing as well.

  As I continued to look, one by one, my head started spinning, and before I knew it, the time was almost noon. So I did a quick search again and selected two more people. One of them was named Qian Xiaoan, a bespectacled young man who was only 25 years old, graduated from the Geology College, and had just started working for over a year. He was at an age where he was full of energy and eager to make a name for himself, and on top of that, he was also proficient in computer programming as a hobby. The other one I selected was an ugly girl named Jin Yan. From her photo, she had dark skin, a flat nose bridge, thick lips, and a triangular face shape. However, this is a selection of hands, not a beauty pageant. Judging from her resume, Jin Yan seemed to be a very talented person, and having her under my wing would definitely be a great help.

  Having chosen the right people, Fei Chai suddenly felt that he was now in his prime, with a team of old, middle-aged and young talents, with experience and skills, it's time to show off his skills.