Chapter 5 Provincial Office

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  Yuehe County Office in Chengdu is located at Yuehe Hotel, 17 Chunjiang Road, Nanjing District.

  The hotel was funded by the government of Xunhe County and is divided into a main building and an auxiliary building. The main building has seven floors, consisting of the hotel and restaurant, while the auxiliary building has five floors, which were previously used as offices, meeting rooms and staff dormitories for the county's provincial liaison office.

  Yang Jie and Liu Fei got off the bus at Chunjiang Road Station and walked all the way to Huohe Hotel.

  After inquiring with the front desk staff of the main building, he walked into the backyard from the side gate of the main building and had just entered the lobby of the annex when Zhou Dequan came down from upstairs.

  Yang Jie and Liu Fei rushed up to greet him, and Zhou Dequan, seeing the two carrying gifts, smiled and said: "Little Yang, I didn't expect you to come over so quickly, aren't there still two days left?"

  "Director, isn't this to come over early and get familiar with the environment, so as to quickly get into work and make new achievements for our county's investment promotion?" Yang Jie knew that Zhou Dequan was a cadre from the Secretary's system, plus they were both from the County Party Committee Office, so they were all their own people, therefore he didn't stand on ceremony with Zhou Dequan either.

  "You're quite the talker, aren't you? Don't worry about work for now, I'm sure you're exhausted from the long bus ride. Let me take you to a restaurant to grab something to eat first, and then Manager Zheng will arrange your accommodations later."

  Zhou Dequan told Yang Jie and Liu Fei to put the gifts in the security room at the entrance of the main hall first, and then took the two to the front main building.

  Rongcheng Hehua Hotel is under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Office, and has no affiliation with Hehua Hotel in Hehua County. Except for the manager who is a staff member from Hehua County, all other employees are externally hired and have no direct relationship with the Provincial Office.

  "Lao Zheng, two new colleagues have arrived at the provincial office. This is Yang Jie, an officer from the Foreign Affairs Department, and this is Liu Fei, a member of the Foreign Affairs Department. They were both seconded from the county committee office to the provincial office and are in charge of foreign investment promotion work." Zhou Dequan brought Yang Jie and Liu Fei to the hotel lobby, called out Hotel Manager Zheng Xiaohang, and warmly introduced the two people behind him.

  "Hurry up and get the kitchen to make a few dishes, entertain them well, and then you arrange their accommodation. I'm in a hurry to meet an old classmate, they're all yours." After instructing Zheng Xiaohang, Zhou Dequan looked at Yang Jie and said: "I've made an appointment with a high school classmate who is now working at the Provincial Party School, he only has time on weekends, I've made an appointment with him, I have to rush over. If you have anything, just look for Old Zheng, he's the hotel manager, the big housekeeper of the provincial office."

  "Director, you're so busy and yet you took the time to bring us here, thank you so much! You go ahead and attend to your business!" Yang Jie smiled and thanked Zhou Dequan after which Zhou Dequan smiled and nodded, quickly walking out of the dining hall.

  "Director Yang, Comrade Liu, welcome! I am Hotel Manager Zheng Xiaohang, you can just call me Old Zheng. If you have any problems with your daily life in the future, just come to me directly!" Zheng Xiaohang said as he led Yang Jie and Liu Fei into a small private room inside the dining hall, picking up the menu on the table and handing it to them.

  "Colleagues at the provincial office all eat in the hotel, with a regular meal allowance of 10 yuan per person per meal, and 5 yuan for breakfast. Today is your first day reporting for duty, so this meal is on me, Old Zheng. Just order whatever you like, don't be polite."

  "Old Zheng, from now on just call me Little Yang, we both ate something on the train, just eat a little bit, if there's too much it will be wasted." Yang Jie smiled and took a look at the menu, casually ordering Eight Treasures Chicken and Jade Radish.

  Liu Fei is a dancer, and in order to maintain her figure, she has always eaten less. After seeing Yang Jie ordering, she casually ordered a seaweed and dragon bone soup. Seeing that neither Yang Jie nor Liu Fei were going to order anymore, Zheng Xiaohang smiled and nodded, saying: "Alright! I'll notify the kitchen to make it right away, you guys just wait for a moment, I'll go arrange your dormitory first."

  "The environment of the provincial office is not bad, and Old Zheng looks okay too. After the dormitory arrangement is done, shall we go buy some daily necessities together?" Yang Jie saw that the decoration of the hotel restaurant was elegant and tasteful, and the annex building in the backyard looked very good as well. He felt very satisfied with the hardware conditions here.

  "Alright! Let's talk after dinner! I don't know if there are any shops around here, you can ask Old Zheng later." Liu Fei was also very satisfied with the environment of the provincial government office, at least it was much better than she had imagined. After all, this was where county leaders stayed when they came to the province, so how could the environment be bad?

  The chef's craftsmanship in the restaurant is very good, with a mix of meat and vegetables that are not only colorful but also delicious, and the soup is also cooked very well. After finishing dinner, Zheng Xiaohang appeared at the private room, "Is the food to your liking? The dormitory has been prepared, I'll take you there first, if you're not satisfied, I'll change it for you."

  "The chef's craftsmanship is not bad, the dishes are very well done, thank you Old Zheng!" Yang Jie heard this and smiled as he stood up, also not being too polite. Together with Liu Fei, they followed Zheng Xiaohang out of the main building's back door to the hotel's backyard, then into the annex building. After that, Yang Jie went to the security room and took out all the gifts.

  The annex building is mainly the office and dormitory of the provincial government, with small and large conference rooms, reception room, guest room, security room on the first floor. The second floor is the office of the director, deputy director and each group of the provincial government. The third and fourth floors are dormitories.

  The fifth floor was the former hotel staff dormitory. After the liaison office was changed to a provincial office, the hotel staff no longer lived there. Now it has been converted into an activity room with fitness equipment, table tennis, ping-pong and card tables. When you have free time, you can go upstairs to relax. Zheng Xiaohang took Yang Jie and Liu Fei on a tour from the first floor to the fourth floor.

  "You guys arrived a bit late, the dormitory on the third floor is already fully occupied, so we can only arrange for you to stay on the fourth floor." The three of them came to the fourth floor, Zheng Xiaohang walked to the door of the two adjacent dormitories on the right side of the staircase, took out two sets of keys and handed them over to Yang Jie, "The annex faces north and south, this side is east-facing, in the afternoon the sun can't shine in, it's relatively cool in summer, you guys can allocate yourselves, take a look at which dormitory you like!"

  Yang Jie took the key and opened the doors of two dormitories. The decoration of the dormitory was similar to that of a hotel, with a spacious area of about 30 square meters per room, each with its own bathroom.

  The room is carpeted with thick and solid carpets, and equipped with standard hotel facilities such as wardrobe, TV cabinet, bedside table, writing desk, small round table, and two low solid wood rest chairs.

  There is a 25-inch color TV on the TV cabinet, a ceiling fan on the ceiling, and a telephone on the bedside table. On the 1.8-meter bed, there are white hotel bedding. Upon entering, there is an approximately 8-square-meter bathroom with a bathtub and flush toilet.

  The hardware conditions are similar to those of the main building's hotel suite, except that there is no air conditioning. The vice-building is not far from the Chunjiang River, and standing in front of the window of the dormitory, you can see the beautiful scenery of the Chunjiang River. In front of the gate is a large corridor enclosed by aluminum alloy glass windows, through which you can see the entire parking lot outside.

  The two dormitories are almost identical except for the direction of the bedside and toilet.

  Yang Jie let Liu Fei choose first, after Liu Fei chose the innermost room, Yang Jie handed her the key to that dormitory. "Old Zheng, are only Liu Fei and I living on the fourth floor?"

  "Isn't the county bureau going to arrange for a comrade to be stationed in the provincial office to take charge of security work? When he comes, he will also live on the fourth floor. This is not a school, and there's no distinction between male and female floors in the dormitory building. Besides, you're all unmarried, what are you afraid of?" Zheng Xiaohang saw Yang Jie ask this and knew what Yang Jie was worried about, so he joked with him.

  "Go! I'm upright and proper, not afraid of what others say. Does anyone know if there are any shops around here? We want to go buy some daily necessities." Yang Jie saw Zheng Xiaohang saying this and didn't think much of it either. In Yunhe County, he had lived with two female students in the same dormitory, now living on the same floor as a female colleague, naturally even less afraid of gossip.

  "Turn right out of the hotel, and within less than 100 meters, there is a large supermarket. If you want to buy something, you can go there to buy it, the price is cheap and the goods are complete." Zheng Xiaohang followed Yang Jie into his dormitory, closed the door, pointed at a table posted on the back of the door, and introduced to Yang Jie: "This table has the dining time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Just go to the cafeteria when it's time."

  "Your office is on the second floor, and there are signs for each group on the door. On Monday after you report, the director will give you the key to the office. The dormitory phone can only dial internal extensions and receive calls, but cannot make external calls. If you need to call back to Hebei, you can do so from the office. If there's nothing else, I'll head back to the main building now. If you have any questions, feel free to come find me anytime."

  "Thank you, Old Zheng." After Yang Jie sent Zheng Xiaohang out of the dormitory, he took the laundry to the washroom opposite a set of lockers and hung some clean clothes on the clothes rack in the locker.

  I took a look at the meal schedule posted on the back of the door. Breakfast is from 7:30 to 8:00, lunch is from 12:00 to 13:30, and dinner is from 18:00 to 19:00. Below the schedule are some phone numbers, including the hotel switchboard, various offices, and dormitory phones, all clearly listed.