Chapter 30: Questioning and Thinking Carefully
Chapter 30: Questioning and Thinking Carefully
"Who asked you to guess what your leader was thinking? Who told you to guess what your leader was thinking like that?"
After hearing Mei Rucheng's words, Wang Zixu felt as if he had opened a refrigerator in the summer and his heart sank.
Mei Rucheng put his hands on the table and stared at Wang Zixu with his wrinkled eyes, his gaze sharp.
Power can sharpen murderous intent. Mei Rucheng has held power for decades, and there is murderous intent in his eyes. Wang Zixu dare not look him in the eye.
Mei Rucheng suddenly slammed the table and said, "Speak? Who told you that?"
A paper clip fell to the floor, making a clanking sound that echoed throughout the office.
Section Chief Liu was sweating, Shen Qingfeng put his hands in his pockets and sneered, Ning Chunyan stood aside with his arms folded, looking left and right with interest.
She didn't know what was going on, but she felt a little gloating.
Who told him to yell?
Wang Zixu whispered, "No one told me. I just thought of it myself."
"Oh." Mei Rucheng nodded slowly, "You thought of it yourself."
He paused for a few seconds, then said:
"Comrade Wang, in administration, the easiest way to excel is to try to figure out the intentions of your superiors; the easiest way to make mistakes is also to try to figure out the intentions of your superiors.
"Swallows never return in spring, green trees bring shade in summer, red leaves and yellow flowers in autumn, lying down to watch plum blossoms in winter, what do you think when you see these four lines?"
Wang Zixu said: "I just think these four sentences are fragments and incomplete."
Mei Rucheng turned to look at Ning Chunyan: "Xiaochun, what do you think?"
Ning Chunyan was stunned and said blankly: "Ah?"
She didn't expect that she would have something to do here.
Mei Rucheng took out a piece of paper, flattened it and placed it on the table. On the paper were the four sentences:
Swallows Don't Return in Spring
Green trees and thick summer
Red leaves and yellow flowers in autumn
Lying down to watch plum blossoms in winter
"Spring, summer, autumn, winter." Ning Chunyan came over to take a look. "It's quite neat, but it's indeed full of fragments."
Mei Rucheng asked: "What is the first line of the poem?"
Ning Chunyan said, "It's the one by Dai Shulun, right? How did you recite it? A pond of mist and rain, cold apricot blossoms?"
"What about the second one?"
"Summer in the Mountain Pavilion."
“The third one.”
"do not know."
Mei Rucheng glanced at Wang Zixu and said, "Tell her."
Wang Zixu said: "Red leaves and yellow flowers are in chaos in autumn, you must remember the white fish and purple crabs. It was written by Su Shi. The name is so long that I forgot it."
Mei Rucheng pretended to be surprised: "How could you forget? I thought you had a photographic memory!"
The prince sweated profusely: "No, I don't have a photographic memory..."
Ning Chunyan blinked, staring at him with his dark eyes, feeling the challenge.
Mei Rucheng waved the manuscript in his hand and said, "I heard that you wrote these three sentences by heart, and didn't look them up online?"
Wang Zixu said: "No."
"These poems span the Tang and Song dynasties. Can you remember them all?"
“The leader also remembers it.”
Mei Rucheng nodded and stared at him with a half-smile on his face.
"Xiaochun, take another look at the fourth sentence." Mei Rucheng said.
Ning Chunyan came over to read: "Lying down to watch the plum blossoms in the white winter moon, I seem to think that the village in front is covered with snow at dusk..."
"Who wrote this?"
Ning Chunyan shook his head: "Forgive my ignorance."
Mei Rucheng looked at Wang Zixu: "Who wrote this?"
Wang Zixu whispered: "I wrote it..."
“You wrote it before?”
“I just wrote it.”
“Just this half?”
"Only half of it." Mei Rucheng finally smiled, as if dark clouds were covering the city, and then a gust of wind blew and all of a sudden the clouds disappeared.
Ning Chunyan recited it twice again, then looked up at Wang Zixu: "Did you really write it? It's not bad."
Wang Zixu lowered his head: "Normally."
He is not being modest. If he says it is just average, then it is really average.
It took no more than 30 seconds in total. How good a poem could you write?
Mei Rucheng looked at Wang Zixu with a half-smile:
"Why do you think the first three sentences are all quotations from ancient poems, but the fourth sentence is different? Why do you think that is?"
Wang Zixu said: "I...haven't thought about it."
"Do you think the leadership really intends for us to complete this poem ourselves?"
"……do not know."
"Why not think about it?"
“I didn’t have time to think about it.”
"You didn't have time to think about these questions, but you had time to think of a poem and write it down?"
Wang Zixu felt a little embarrassed - what Mei Rucheng asked was indeed a question.
Wang Zixu said: "I feel that it is relatively simple to complete this poem."
Mei Rucheng had a strange expression on his face.
Not only did Mei Rucheng have a strange expression, but everyone present also had a strange expression.
Their eyes seemed to be asking: Is it easy?
So Wang Zixu added: "It's easier than trying to figure out the leader's intentions."
"Comrade Xiao Wang," Mei Rucheng said, "I admit that you are quite talented. But, as I said just now, the most difficult thing in administration is to figure out the intentions of your superiors.
"When writing official documents, we must always follow the leadership's intentions as the absolute baseline and avoid any unauthorized self-expression. If we are not careful, we will take great risks. This risk is political risk.
"You have never worked in this unit, you don't understand the leader's thinking, and you have never been responsible for drafting the leader's past articles. How do you know whether the leader is satisfied with what you wrote?"
After a pause, Mei Rucheng lit a cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said, "Do you know why I said this?"
Without waiting for Wang Zixu to answer, he turned around, opened the bookcase behind him, searched for a while, took out a copy of "Xihe Literature and Art", threw it on the table, turned to the title page, pointed at the paper and said, "Come and see for yourself."
Wang Zixu and Ning Chunyan moved over at the same time.
There was a short poem on the title page. Where Mei Rucheng pointed, there was a line of sentences that looked familiar:
Lying down and watching the plum blossoms melting away the winter snow, during the day the fragrance fills the green mountain path.
And in the author's line, it was the leader's own name that was written.
"Lying down to watch the plum blossoms melt away the winter snow, the fragrance fills the green mountain path during the day." Ning Chunyan raised his head, "Did the leader write this himself?"
"Yes. This is a short poem that the leader was invited to publish in Xihe Literature and Art when he first took office. It caused a sensation as soon as it was published and was sung locally for a long time."
"So, this line 'lying down to watch the plum blossoms in winter' is actually a quote from his own poem?"
"Yes. He handed the note to me directly. Because I knew the poem, and he knew I knew it. I thought Xiao Liu knew it too, but he didn't know."
"So," Ning Chunyan said, "since they couldn't find the leader's poem, they simply added this half sentence and handed it over to the leader. Right?"
Mei Rucheng exhaled a puff of smoke, and his face was covered with mist.
"Correct."
Even without looking at his expression, you can feel his speechlessness.
Ning Chunyan covered his mouth and laughed.
"What do you call this? This is a typical case of being too clever for one's own good. Being too clever has led to being too clever for one's own good."
Ning Chunyan looked at Wang Zixu with her bright eyes, a happy light dancing in her black pupils: "If you were just a little bit dumber and asked a question, you wouldn't have to work so hard to write half a poem."
The prince was sweating profusely.
He felt stupid all over. Like a burning garbage can.
Ning Chunyan asked: "What did the senior leader say? Did he criticize you?"
Mei Rucheng glared and said, "If I were criticized, would I still be so relaxed and chat with you guys here?"
Prince Xu thought that this was just a casual chat.
Ning Chunyan asked: "What did the leader say about the poem he wrote?"
"The leader said," Mei Rucheng took a puff of his cigarette, "it's damn well written."
(End of this chapter)