Helping take care of Tang Hongen for a few days wouldn’t be a problem. If Xia Xiaolan knew how to cook, she would have gone without hesitation.

It was like how Liu Yong voluntarily helped Yuan Honggang’s parents at the State Cotton Mill – if you want something, don’t be stingy with your efforts. However, while such actions were normal for Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong as ambitious businesspeople, Liu Fen had previously been just a simple village woman. Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t go so far as to have her mother work as someone’s housekeeper for favors.

Would Liu Fen even be comfortable taking care of Tang Hongen?

Yet flatly refusing seemed too cold-hearted. Tang Hongen had helped without taking any benefits – could the Mayor be bought with just some local specialties? Now he was hospitalized, and this stomach problem seemed quite serious. If they could find suitable help, the high-and-mighty Secretary Peng wouldn’t have approached Xia Xiaolan.

It was out of consideration for herself that Xia Xiaolan let Liu Fen decide.

Liu Fen didn’t know the proper protocols for caring for a leader, but she wouldn’t need to do anything else – just help with cooking.

“I’ll give it a try.”

She just needed to prepare meals and send them to the hospital – she wouldn’t even need to meet Mr. Tang.

However, Liu Fen only knew how to make certain dishes, so she had to steel herself to make Yunan home-style dishes.

Secretary Peng said Tang Hongen needed bland food – just porridge and noodles. Liu Fen felt embarrassed sending such simple dishes.

Yet after two meals, Secretary Peng’s feedback was surprisingly good. Xia Xiaolan found it puzzling – who knew Tang Hongen would enjoy Yunan home cooking? He didn’t have any Yunan accent at all, so he probably wasn’t from there.

Xia Xiaolan was busy running around like a top. She and Liu Yong visited Tang Hongen once in the hospital, but he was resting.

Secretary Peng implied that the leader needed quiet rest, so Xia Xiaolan didn’t dare disturb him again.

While Tang Hongen was hospitalized, Liu Tianquan, whom they’d only briefly met, frequently contacted “Yuan Hui,” taking Liu Yong out to drink several times. Though Liu Yong practically spilled his guts saying he couldn’t handle a project as big as the “Nanhai Hotel,” Liu Tianquan insisted money wasn’t an issue.

“Brother Liu, what’s important is our partnership – one provides money, one provides labor. If we get the Nanhai Hotel project, we’ll split the profits together!”

Liu Yong’s explanations were useless.

If he said he truly had no connection to Tang Hongen, well, Tang Hongen had greeted Xia Xiaolan in front of others.

And now his sister Liu Fen was Tang Hongen’s temporary housekeeper?

What kind of relationship was that?

“Just go along with him for now – as long as we don’t sign any contracts, it’s just talk. Wait until the Nanhai Hotel renovation project opens for bidding to see the specifics.”

For a five-star hotel renovation, not only was Yuan Hui unqualified, but Liu Yong and Xia Xiaolan couldn’t raise enough money either. Even in 1984, renovating a five-star hotel involved millions – even if Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong mortgaged everything to the bank, they couldn’t borrow that much.

Yuan Hui wasn’t even qualified to participate in the bidding.

With Hua Construction Corporation and several Nantong construction units eyeing this fat piece of meat, Yuan Hui couldn’t possibly get lucky as they did with the guesthouse renovation. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t considered the Nanhai Hotel project before – it was completely different from a guesthouse. Liu Yong had no connections for imported building materials, their workers’ skills weren’t up to standard, and they couldn’t get by with Xia Xiaolan’s amateur designs anymore.

She could draw renovation blueprints based on her previous life experience, but she couldn’t handle the ventilation and heating systems for a five-star hotel.

Air conditioning installation at this time was taught in “HVAC Engineering” – it wasn’t like installing home units where you just needed to make a hole in the wall.

Liu Tianquan valued Yuan Hui’s close relationship with Tang Hongen, wanting to use Yuan Hui as a shell to take on the Nanhai Hotel project and share some profits… It sounded like Yuan Hui could get money for nothing.

Xia Xiaolan knew this was exactly what Yuan Hui couldn’t do.

…

Beijing.

Wang Guangping and Ran Shuyu returned to Beijing from the farm. Wang Jianhua was so excited he went to Ha Province to bring his parents back to Beijing.

But he hadn’t figured out the accommodation issue. The Wang family’s previous house had long been taken back by the state. With Wang Guangping’s job not yet settled, naturally, no new housing had been allocated from the new work unit. If Wang Jianhua had thought it through, he should have arranged housing before going to Ha Province.

He and Xia Ziyu could stay in school dormitories – some students stayed during holidays, so they could live in school dorms continuously, but could Wang Guangping and Ran Shuyu squeeze into a dorm too?

Though they looked down on Xia Ziyu, they still had to rely on her now.

Xia Ziyu advanced the money for the guesthouse.

After staying at the guesthouse for a week, Wang Guangping’s new job was finally settled.

The Wang family was all surprised – while the job couldn’t be called bad, it was completely different from what Wang Guangping had expected.

“Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Department?”

Even going to a state-owned enterprise would be better than the Ministry of Education. It was very difficult to achieve results there – if you did achieve results, it meant you were suited for educational work and would get internal promotions… but that was it! This went completely against Wang Guangping’s grand ambitions.

“Old Zhang, isn’t something wrong with this job arrangement?”

Wang Guangping was suspicious, feeling someone must be sabotaging him behind the scenes. As for who – it could only be people he’d offended in the past. Wang Guangping had risen quickly and offended many people during his peak – why else would others have returned to the city while he was forgotten on the Ha Province farm? Wang Guangping knew someone must be blocking his return to Beijing!

Old Zhang was also unclear about the situation. “Initially it wasn’t going to be the Ministry of Education, but while finalizing the job placement, somehow word spread that even under harsh conditions at the farm, you didn’t relax requirements for your son. Jianhua got into a Beijing university from a remote area – they said you had insights into education work.”

Wang Guangping wanted to curse!

What did Jianhua getting into university have to do with him? One was in Ha Province, one in Yunan Province, separated by mountains and rivers with only occasional letters. Wang Guangping himself wasn’t highly educated – how could he remotely control Wang Jianhua’s education?

At this point, he couldn’t oppose the organization’s appointment, so Wang Guangping had to grudgingly go to the Higher Education Department.

Ran Shuyu was quite optimistic: “Doesn’t the Higher Education Department manage universities? This unit is quite good – you can guarantee Jianhua’s future!”

With so many college graduates, where you’re assigned to work makes an absolute difference in the starting point.

Wang Guangping was already 50 this year – how many more years could he work?

Wang Jianhua would be 28 or 29 when graduating from university, clearly several years behind those who started working in their early twenties. But with Wang Guangping in the Higher Education Department, it was different – he could choose a good assignment for Wang Jianhua, making up for those lost years!

With the job settled, housing would naturally be reassigned to Wang Guangping.

When Xia Ziyu heard her future father-in-law would work in the Higher Education Department, she started calculating.

Higher Education Department?

Did Huaqing University fall under their jurisdiction?