Step into Gentleness 2

(II)
Upon arriving at the office, there was still fifteen minutes before the start of the workday. Qiming first made himself a cup of tea; the hot water had been boiled by the cleaning staff that morning. The newspaper wouldn't arrive until later, so he glanced at his schedule and thought about the tasks he needed to complete.
According to the schedule, at 9:30 a.m., Vice Mayor Lü, who was in charge of urban construction and management, was to inspect several drainage points in the city. Due to several days of heavy rain last week, several low-lying sections of the city were severely flooded, drawing strong complaints from residents. Furthermore, the city's evening newspaper had published a follow-up report, focusing on urban infrastructure construction, which caught Vice Mayor Lü's attention, leading to today's inspection. Yesterday afternoon, Director Liu Changgeng had specifically come to invite Qiming to attend as well.
Qiming had never been interested in the city's evening newspaper; its news always seemed to be published after everyone else's, truly deserving of the name "evening paper." Even its reports on some of the city's key issues were always superficial and ultimately fizzled out. This time, he didn't know how he woke up, and he specifically chose to cause trouble over their particular issue; it was really strange.
Just as he was pondering this, his phone rang. He looked and saw it was Du Lin calling.
"You're really early, you bastard. You just got into the office and the phone came in. It's rare for you to get up this early." Qi Ming started cursing before Du Lin could even speak. The two were not only roommates in college but also inseparable best friends, and they were used to teasing each other.
"Hehe, our Qi Ming can swear now. It seems working in the government really trains people!" Du Lin had always thought that Qi Ming's decision to work in the government after graduating from college was a mistake, so he took every opportunity to make fun of him. "Alright,
alright, spit it out, stop talking nonsense," just as he was answering the phone, Xiao Li from the office brought in today's newspaper. Qi Ming gestured for him to close the door when he left and picked up the evening paper to flip through it. A news item on the front page immediately caught Qi Ming's eye: Relevant functional departments failed in their duties, and citizens trapped by floods complained bitterly! Another report about last week's flooding in the city, and it even made the front page!
"Hello, hello, hello... Qiming, hello, are you still there?" Qiming was so engrossed in reading the newspaper that he forgot he was still on the phone with Dulin. "I'm here. What's up? I have work to do."
"Damn it, you're starting to talk to me like an official." Dulin couldn't resist teasing him first. "It's about dinner tonight. I just wanted to let you know. I invited an extra friend, someone I met while studying abroad. She's a beauty!"
"Alright, alright, stop bragging. If you really had a beautiful girlfriend, He Ya would have given you a hard time by now!" Qiming couldn't help but laugh as he spoke. Saying He Ya was beautiful wasn't an exaggeration, but he really didn't believe Dulin had any beautiful girlfriends. In college, Dulin was a bookworm who blushed whenever he saw a girl and stuttered when he spoke. He didn't know how Dulin had managed to win He Ya over.
"Hahaha, you don't believe me now? This beauty is He Ya's classmate, and she's the one who introduced me to her," Du Lin laughed smugly on the other end of the phone. "Alright, alright, I won't keep you from serving the people any longer. Be on time with Yu Han after work, bye." He hung up.
After putting down the phone, Qi Ming picked up the newspaper and carefully read the front-page article again. The author seemed to have put in a lot of effort to write this article, conducting investigations into the total drainage volume of several drainage pumping stations in the city and the city's average annual rainfall. They even seemed to have a thorough understanding of the operation of the pumping stations, pointing out problems such as aging equipment, insufficient maintenance funds, and the fact that the total drainage volume was based on meteorological data from more than ten years ago. They argued that the urban flooding was not a natural disaster but a man-made one, caused by the dereliction of duty or inaction of the government's urban construction department.
Qiming had never seen such a sharp and incisive writing style in the evening paper, and it even directly criticized the government departments for their inadequate work, causing difficulties for citizens' travel. Although the criticism was directed at his own department, he couldn't help but admire the author's ability to gather such detailed firsthand information. He carefully looked at the author; the byline was Qin Wen, a reporter for this newspaper—a name that didn't reveal gender or personality, perhaps even a pseudonym. The
subsequent leadership inspection was as usual. Participants gathered at the municipal government building and boarded a Coaster bus, preceded by a police car. Qiming sometimes couldn't understand what level of leader deserved such a police escort. Whenever he accompanied leaders on inspections, there was always a police car in front. Sometimes he heard leaders criticizing staff for arranging police cars, but it was clear that while they criticized, if there were no police cars, the leaders wouldn't be happy.
Qiming habitually sat in the last row. Before he was even settled, Wu Yaming, the secretary of Vice Mayor Lü, sat down next to him. They were university alumni; Wu Yaming would graduate a few years later, and the two had a good relationship.
"Why aren't you staying by the leader's side taking notes on important speeches? What are you doing in the back?" Qiming asked him in a low voice.
Wu Yaming gestured forward with his mouth, then leaned close to Qiming's ear and whispered even softer, "Didn't you see someone's already sitting in my seat? It's Qin Wen, the up-and-coming reporter from the Evening News! Vice Mayor Lü specially invited her to attend."
Qin Wen? Isn't that the author of the article I read this morning? Qiming had been wondering what kind of person this reporter was, but he didn't expect to see her just over an hour later, and a young woman at that—it was somewhat unexpected.
During the inspection, Qin Wen was very active. It was clear that Vice Mayor Lü was quite pleased to have a young and beautiful woman by his side; his usually stern face unconsciously softened into a smile, which he maintained throughout. Qin Wen was truly remarkable. She talked about urban construction the whole time, providing data and opinions, and occasionally citing foreign urban management theories for comparison, which made Qiming and the other professionals in urban construction and management look at her with newfound respect.
What kind of woman was she? Qiming couldn't help but make wild guesses in his mind, while also observing her closely. She looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with fair skin and short hair that was clearly well-groomed. Her height, when she occasionally stood next to Qiming, was just up to his mouth, about 163 or 164 centimeters. She seemed to exercise regularly, with a very well-proportioned and healthy figure. Her clothes appeared appropriate on the surface—a casual light-colored jacket unbuttoned, over which was a bright V-neck fleece top, jeans, and dress shoes. However, based on Qiming's experience shopping with his wife, he could immediately tell that this outfit was definitely not mass-produced; it was most likely from the New Century Department Store, a place not easily accessible to the average working-class person. What
intrigued Qiming most was Qin Wen's familiarity with urban development and the viewpoints and theories she possessed. If it were a reporter who had been covering urban construction for years, they would certainly have some understanding of this work, but it's impossible for them to know as much as she does, let alone the theory. Besides, Old Chen Qiming, a reporter from the evening paper who also covers this area, is quite familiar with it, though he hasn't been seen much lately.
While a large group of people were inspecting a drainage point, Qiming sidled up to Wu Yaming, nudged him, and whispered, "Is she really a reporter? She doesn't seem like one."
"Hehe, you underestimate her, don't you?" Wu Yaming looked at Qiming with feigned mystery and ambiguity. "What, you've got your eye on her? Want me to play matchmaker?"
"You fucking think I'm some kind of womanizer, getting horny every time I see a woman?" Qiming lightly punched Wu Yaming. "I'm just wondering how a woman knows so much about our field."
“This isn’t your average woman,” Wu Yaming said, seemingly quite knowledgeable about Qin Wen. “A friend of mine who works at the evening paper told me that after graduating from university, she went straight to England, got a master’s degree in urban management, and then spent two years traveling around several European countries—what we’d call an internship here—before coming back to the evening paper, specifically to cover urban construction.”
So that’s how it is! Qiming nodded thoughtfully, a strange feeling stirring within him, a mix of admiration and envy. Compared to his peers, Qiming had always been quite proud of his achievements in the officialdom over the past few years, especially with his promising future. But seeing this girl before him, living so freely, doing whatever she wanted, and then thinking about his own years of being cautious, stifled, and endlessly attending meetings in the government office, he suddenly felt a sense of loss.
Throughout the inspection, Qiming didn't exchange a single word with Qin Wen, and they rarely even made eye contact. But something about this girl touched Qiming, making him constantly search for her with his eyes and pay attention to every word she said.

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