Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 478 Mascot

thorough?

What do you mean by "thoroughly"?

Although Chen Fan's intelligence is now as high as 15 points, it is clear that the problem He Qingsheng is talking about has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather with interpersonal relationships and social skills.

However, with his guidance, Chen Fan now vaguely understood what this "thorough understanding" meant.

He Qingsheng glanced at Chen Fan and saw the thoughtful look on his face. He couldn't help but chuckle. "Yesterday, Lao Guo said you had a mistake, but I didn't take it seriously. I didn't expect it to be true."

He turned to look at Chen Fan and asked with a light laugh, "You're staying in Lujiawan and refusing to leave. Even if the health department transfers you there, you only agree to be listed as a nominal employee. These choices were all your original intentions. You really didn't have any other calculations?"

Chen Fan tilted his head and coughed lightly, looking completely at ease. "I'm just not used to going to unfamiliar places. What kind of scheme could I possibly have?"

He Qingsheng stared at him blankly for several seconds. When he came to his senses, he suddenly pointed at him, then turned around, sat up straight, and said softly, "It seems you really did stumble upon this by accident."

He picked up his teacup, took a sip of water, put the cup down, and reached for a cigarette. Chen Fan immediately handed him his own Magnolia cigarette with a filter.

He Qingsheng paused for a moment, took the cigarette and looked at it. "Heh, it has a filter, that's good."

Chen Fan lit one for himself and said with a smile, "Chairman He, I have a suggestion. If cigarettes are included as a member benefit in the future, could you please issue them with filters?"

He Qingsheng lit a cigarette and exhaled a smoke ring. "Hmph, I wish I could too. With a filter, who would want to smoke a mouthful of tobacco?"

At this point, he suddenly paused, looking at the cigarette in his hand, his eyes becoming somewhat dazed. "You know, for a long time in the past, many veteran writers couldn't even get a leaf to smoke, let alone a cigarette with a mouthful of tobacco."

Take Shao Quanlin, for example. For a while, his cigarettes were confiscated. When his craving hit, he had no choice but to lie on his bed, close his eyes tightly, furrow his brow, and pretend to hold a cigarette between his right index and middle fingers, taking a puff, then flicking it off, pretending to smoke.

Chen Fan stared blankly, "This works?"

He Qingsheng didn't look at him, and continued talking, "He endured day after day, but in the end, he still couldn't make it through."

He turned to look at Chen Fan, a smile on his face, but his eyes were slightly red. "And there's Guo Xiaochuan. Back when we were working in Xianning, he shared a room with Lin Shaogang. He had neurasthenia and liver disease at that time."

According to Lin Shaogang, Guo Xiaochuan would swallow a handful of red and yellow pills every night, then crawl into bed and light a cigarette, often burning a black hole in the blanket.

What a pity...

He Qingsheng exhaled a long breath, staring blankly ahead. "Guo Xiaochuan had won the victory, but he didn't have time to celebrate. He had lit a cigarette before going to bed, but fell asleep before the cigarette butt went out, and the cigarette butt ignited the quilt."

那一天是76年10月17日晚，57岁的他葬身火海，熏黑的手表上，指针停在了8点20分。”

Chen Fan sat on the sofa, a cigarette between his fingers. In the swirling smoke, he seemed to see faces flashing by.

Zhao Shuli, Shao Quanlin, Yang Shuo, Hou Jinjing, Lao She...

Even those who survived often underwent a significant personality change.

Liu Baiyu was originally arrogant and disliked everyone, even Ba Jin had to give way to him, but later he became approachable, humble and gentle.

Ye Junjian, who doesn't particularly like traveling abroad, had to visit more than 100 countries and regions despite his full head of white hair because he was invited by so many foreign affairs agencies.

And Zhou Yang, Feng Mu...

Chen Fan suddenly realized that perhaps the capital conference two months from now would be just as uneventful as today's. Directly classifying the rebuilt cooperation agreements as service organizations would mean they would never again enjoy the same glory they had 20 years ago.

The most beautiful scenery is found on the most dangerous peaks, but the wind is also strong at the summit!

Those seasoned and weathered bigwigs no longer have the desire to fight for power and profit; they're already happy enough to live a peaceful life in their own little corner of the world.

Of course, even if we set aside those administrative powers, the reorganized Writers' Association is still a behemoth. The resources that can be mobilized through the Writers' Association are absolutely incomparable to those of working alone.

Even if you have dozens of best-selling books in your hands, you will still encounter obstacles everywhere if you don't join the Writers' Association.

This is the power of the system, and it is also the fundamental reason why Chen Fan, even though he was very confident in winning the market, had to align himself with the Writers' Association as soon as possible.

Having a powerful backer and not having one makes a world of difference.

After a while, He Qingsheng came to his senses, took out a handkerchief to wipe his face, shook his head and smiled, "I was thinking about some things from the past, please excuse my rudeness."

Chen Fan simply smiled and shook his head without saying a word.

There's no need to speak at this point.

He Qingsheng didn't seem to care. He coughed twice and continued, "You probably never thought that things would turn out this way by accident."

What I want to say is that your current situation is the best possible outcome. If one day you want a change, if you don't want to stay in the countryside anymore, please don't go to the health center, or any machinery factory or cotton mill. Come to the Writers' Association.”

Chen Fan's eyes darted around slightly, and he tentatively asked, "You mean there are many rules in the government office?"

He Qingsheng pointed at him and laughed, "Not bad, you understand immediately."

He flicked off his cigarette ash and said seriously, "Although your job is in the health department, in reality, you haven't integrated into this unit at all."

No organization is a shallow pool; it contains various undercurrents and reefs that cannot be seen from the outside. Once you enter, you need to find a backer and cling to a powerful figure, otherwise you will be seen as an eccentric 'outlier'.

On the contrary, nowadays, no matter which unit you're in, you haven't really gone deep inside. You're just hanging around in name only, without any contact with the core interests of the unit.

In this way, you can be more flexible and command respect from all factions.

As he spoke, he turned and stared intently at Chen Fan, then smiled and said, "Have you always thought everyone around you was a good person, and that there wasn't a single bad person in your life?"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly twice, but still didn't say anything.

He Qingsheng coughed twice, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, waved to Chen Fan who offered him a cigarette, and took out a pack of filtered Platinum Dragon cigarettes from his pocket. "Try this. It's a good cigarette from Wuhan. It's 7 cents a pack, the same price as Zhonghua."

Chen Fan took the cigarette and looked at it; he had never seen this kind of cigarette before.

Shouldn't the best cigarettes in Wuhan be Yellow Crane Tower?
What he didn't know was that Huanghelou was founded in 1928, but it had stopped production for a time due to poor sales. Today, the high-end cigarettes in Wuhan are the "Dragon" series. In addition, there are "Bridge" brand cigarettes produced to commemorate the completion and opening of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, and "Swimming" brand cigarettes produced to commemorate Mr. Li's crossing of the Yangtze River.

As for Huanghelou cigarettes, production will not resume until April 1983.

Chen Fan threw away the half-smoked Magnolia cigarette, lit a Platinum Dragon cigarette, and a rich aroma filled his mouth.

Is this supposed to be Han-style cigarettes? It's so strong! It's completely different from the delicate and elegant Han-style cigarettes of later generations.

He Qingsheng looked at him and laughed, "Don't you like it?" Chen Fan nodded, "If you're going to offer me this kind of cigarette, then forget it, I'll give you mine."

"You think beautifully."

He Qingsheng snorted and said arrogantly, "Which branch would dare to use top-grade cigarettes as employee benefits? A filtered Peony cigarette or your Magnolia cigarette would be more than enough."

Chen Fan clicked his tongue. What's so great about not being able to offer top-grade cigarettes?
He Qingsheng took a couple of puffs and said, "After talking to Lao Guo about your situation yesterday, I suddenly had an idea."

Chen Fan's eyes darted around slightly, then he raised an eyebrow. "You don't mean to make me the director of the European and American branch of the External Relations Department, do you?"

He waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "No, no, I can't do it, I can't do this."

"hehe."

He Qingsheng glanced at him and laughed, "Aren't you doing a pretty good job as the deputy section chief of the health department, and the health consultant for the machinery factory and the cotton mill?"

Chen Fan's face fell. "Chairman He, how can this be the same? As you just said, I'm just a figurehead at the unit; I don't participate in any of the unit's affairs at all. My main work is still in Lujiawan. Those two advisors are just for show."

Then look at this European and American branch. Those are positions that require handling specific tasks. Once you take that position, you have to get the work done.

Forget about qualifications and experience, just a list to assign tasks…

At this moment, He Qingsheng suddenly interrupted him, "Do you think our Jiangnan Writers Association has any exchanges with European and American countries?"

Chen Fan was taken aback. "Uh, even if it's not there now, it doesn't mean it won't be in the future, right?"

Strictly speaking, let alone the Jiangnan Writers Association, the European and American branches of the National Writers Association are probably just empty shells.

Having just survived the bitter cold of winter, are you still not done with your adventures? Do you all think you're too lucky to live and want to run off to Europe and America?
As mentioned earlier, this External Liaison Department is newly established. Before the Writers Association was dissolved, there was also an External Liaison Department. So how did that come about?
First, there was a Foreign Literature Committee, which was responsible for communication and liaison with foreign writers.

Later, about 58 years later, Asian and African writers suddenly became active on the international stage and established an organization called the Permanent Bureau of Asian and African Writers.

At their request, the Writers Association established the China Writers Liaison Committee, with Mao Dun as chairman, Liu Baiyu as vice chairman, and Yang Shuo as secretary-general.

Look, back then, almost all of the Writers Association's foreign affairs activities revolved around Asian and African writers.

Europe and America?

Sorry, we're not familiar with each other!
In this situation, what is the significance of establishing the European and American branch of the Writers' Association's External Liaison Department? Chen Fan was a little confused.

He Qingsheng took a sip of tea and a puff of his cigarette before slowly saying, "If there's something later, we'll talk about it later."

Hearing this, Chen Fan now understood, and looked at He Qingsheng thoughtfully, "Am I just a mascot, something to look good on?"

He Qingsheng smiled slightly and nodded, "Indeed."

Chen Fan was still unwilling, "Since it's a mascot, why not just find anyone? Why do you have to find me?"

He Qingsheng coughed twice and said, "The main problem is that the qualified people are not very willing, and the other candidates currently available are not quite qualified."

Chen Fan's eyes darted around slightly. "You mean, none of the 22 writers want this position?"

He Qingsheng looked slightly embarrassed, but quickly recovered and said earnestly, "Don't blame them. They've been bitten by a snake once and are now afraid of ropes for ten years. The Asia-Africa branch is an old tradition, so it's understandable for people to work there. But this Europe-America branch is a new thing, and everyone is afraid!"

Chen Fan blinked. "Am I not afraid?"

He Qingsheng looked at him and said, "You don't need to be afraid! Why? First of all, you're young, and they say you have connections with foreign countries..."

Chen Fan interrupted him, "What you're saying is outdated. The current policy is that having overseas connections is an honor. Hua Shuai just said that last month, and all the grassroots units are promoting it. Anyone who has overseas connections should contact them immediately and get them to send money."

He Qingsheng coughed twice. "Let's not even mention the overseas connections. In short, you're not even in the provincial capital. Even if there's a problem with this department, it won't be your fault. At most, you'll just get a few words of criticism."

Furthermore, this Eurasia branch was established to improve the organizational structure. In reality, there may be virtually nothing to do, so please don't feel pressured.

Chen Fan still didn't want to accept the offer, even though he knew that at most another year, once the Americans became friends with them, this European and American branch would immediately become a popular institution. If there weren't two or three overseas exchange trips a month, it would be considered that the Writers' Association was too inefficient and that the writers were too noble to go.

But his goal was simple: he wanted to use the Writers' Association's name as a protective shield, so that if he really did anything...

Seeing that Chen Fan still refused to give in, He Qingsheng gritted his teeth and used his trump card: "The Provincial Writers Association is a department-level unit, and the External Liaison Department is a division-level unit. If you are willing to serve as the director of the European and American branch, then you will be a deputy division-level cadre."

Chen Fan's eyes widened instantly, and he said hesitantly, "Um, Chairman He, I'm only a deputy section chief right now..."

Seeing Chen Fan immediately change his stance, He Qingsheng seemed to have figured out the trick to dealing with this young comrade.

He gave him a strange look. Isn't it said that young people are hot-blooded and easy to fool? How come this guy is like a seasoned veteran, not releasing the hawk until he sees the rabbit?

On the surface, he remained calm and said seriously, "Although you are only a deputy section chief, everyone can clearly see your achievements in your field of work. Moreover, according to the transfer rules, transferring your organizational affiliation to the Provincial Writers Association is, in principle, a promotion."

Chen Fan was taken aback. "Do we need to adjust our relationships?"

He hadn't considered that without the health department's sign, some places might not be as convenient.

He Qingsheng waved his hand and smiled, "I understand your concerns, but I've discussed it with Lao Guo and Secretary-General Xu, and your transfer shouldn't be too difficult."

He looked at Chen Fan meaningfully and smiled, "After all, you've already used up your greatest contribution to the Yunhu Health Department, so they won't keep bothering you. I'll talk to the leaders of the Health Department later and give your department a heads-up; it shouldn't be a problem."

As he spoke, he leaned back and said, "At worst, we'll just let you continue to hold a nominal position as an advisor in the health department. Anyway, outsiders don't know the inside story, so it won't have any impact."

"Once your transfer procedures are completed, I'll bring it up again at the meeting and use an emergency appointment to promote you to deputy director level, which would be perfect for the position of director of the European and American branch."

Chen Fan thought about it for a moment. If he really didn't have to work and was just on temporary assignment, it seemed that apart from having an extra income, it wouldn't have any impact on him.
He asked in a low voice, "Is it really just a nominal position with no work to do?"

He Qingsheng coughed again, "We can't say we don't have to work. We should just tell people that you're doing fieldwork in rural areas and that you're handling work remotely."

Chen Fan nodded in realization. "I understand."

Chairman He has had a tough time, going from playing the emotional card and talking about those veteran writers to offering incentives like a deputy director-level position.

Well, as someone who values ​​relationships, it wouldn't be right to refuse again.

He then looked up and laughed, "Then I'll do it!"

(End of this chapter)