Courtyard House: A Great Musician! Red Songs Resound Worldwide

"I'd like to treat you to a meal to show my appreciation for your whole family's support..."

Upon hearing this, Cao Guangyi's eyes lit up.

"Can I bring my family along? My kids really want to see you..."

Uh... Li Chaoyang suddenly realized he might have said something wrong....

Chapter Twenty-Two: Xiao Song's Strangeness, Li Chaoyang Lowers His Stance

Li Chaoyang finally managed to escape from Cao Guangyi, a long-time fan who held a high position of power in the factory.

His staff finally finished cleaning up the first floor and went back upstairs to prepare for the meeting.

Of course, he still gave an affirmative answer to Cao Guangyi's question.

And the time has been set...

I just blurted out that polite remark without thinking.

In fact, Li Chaoyang knew he had made a foolish mistake as soon as he said those words.

These days, no one, regardless of who they are, will refuse an invitation to dinner.

Back in that big office...

Seeing everyone holding notebooks and pens, looking all serious as they waited for him.

Li Chaoyang thought to himself that these people were finally less excited than before.

He secretly counted the heads and found that all fourteen people had arrived, but he did not see Xu Damao.

Just as I was thinking this, I discovered that Xiao Song was also mixed in with the people in the publicity department...

Li Chaoyang smiled and shook his head, reminding him, "Xiao Song, this is our publicity department meeting."

"What are you doing mixed up in here in the personnel department...?"

"Section Chief Li, our director sent me to help out in the Publicity Department. Until you or our director let me go back... I should be temporarily part of the Publicity Department, so I need to attend this meeting." This young girl even started to give Li Chaoyang a long list of reasons and arguments.

Li Chaoyang noticed that everyone was clearly trying hard to suppress their laughter when the girl said that...

"Oh...I see. Well, Xiao Song, your mission is complete. You can go back now."

"Ah..." Xiao Song immediately looked disappointed. "Section Chief Li, why are you like this?"

"They only use people when they need them, and discard them when they don't... I spent the whole morning cleaning for your propaganda department."

"But now they're kicking me out..." Xiao Song lowered her head, looking aggrieved.

But Li Chaoyang remained unmoved: "Alright, Xiao Song, go back and tell your Director Li first."

"Just tell her I'm very grateful for her help today, and that I'll go over to thank her in person after I'm done here."

"Huh?" Xiao Song looked up again, his face no longer showing any sign of grievance. "Really, Section Chief Li?"

“Then I’ll go back now… I’ll definitely tell our Director Li so she can wait for you to come and thank us in person.”

The girl walked away with a look of delight on her face...

This sight immediately made everyone laugh.

Actually, everyone understands that the girl stayed until now just to have a few more words with Section Chief Li.

While she was helping everyone clean up, she kept mentioning Section Chief Li.

Everyone thought that this young lady probably had her eye on their Section Chief Li.

The few female staff members in the propaganda department, in particular, were convinced that this must be the case.

After all, Section Chief Li is not only talented, but also tall, handsome, and well-built...

Li Chaoyang smiled at everyone, and the atmosphere immediately became more relaxed.

He walked directly to the middle of the office and pulled over a chair at random.

Seeing this, everyone followed suit and quickly sat in a circle to prepare for the meeting.

Li Chaoyang glanced at everyone and got straight to the point: "I see that almost everyone has arrived. Let's have a short meeting to discuss the main work direction of our publicity department going forward."

But before he could finish speaking, someone raised their hand.

Li Chaoyang glanced at the short man with a dark complexion and asked, "Comrade, is there something you want to say?"

"Hello, Section Chief, I am Zhang Chaohua from the film projection team."

"I wanted to inform you that Comrade Xu Damao from our film projection team has requested leave,"

"You took leave?" Li Chaoyang knew that Xu Damao was the one who was absent, but upon hearing that he had taken leave, he still asked, "What's the reason?"

"His wife said when she arrived that he might have slipped and fallen on his way back from the countryside and gotten a minor injury..."

"Oh...I see." Li Chaoyang frowned upon hearing this. He knew perfectly well why Xu Damao was injured. But he couldn't very well tell everyone here that he was the one who injured Xu Damao...

After thinking for a moment, he said, "Then go back and check how serious the injury is, and whether you need help."

"Yes, Section Chief." Zhang Chaohua nodded and sat down...

Li Chaoyang then asked, "Are there any other people who haven't arrived yet?"

The young man who came from the factory office noticed that Li Chaoyang was looking at him when he asked the question, so he stood up and answered.

"Section Chief...most of the staff are here, but...two other deputy section chiefs are missing."

"Okay, I understand." Li Chaoyang gestured for him to sit down.

"Let's not wait for those who haven't arrived yet, let's begin."

"Next, I would like to ask each of you to introduce the main tasks currently being handled by your respective departments."

"I'm new here, so I need to get to know everyone before I can arrange your next steps."

“Let’s start with you…” Li Chaoyang pointed to the young man who had just sat down.

Seeing that he was about to stand up again, Li Chaoyang waved his hand. "Sit down and talk, sit down and talk..."

"Today is just a brief meeting to introduce everyone and have a discussion."

"There's no need for everyone to be so tense."

"Besides, we'll be working in the same department from now on. This kind of work is tiring for you, and it's tiring for me too..."

"Relax, everyone. Please stop treating me like some important person or a great musician."

"In the end, I'm just a college graduate who just graduated this year."

"It was just a twist of fate that I became your superior; in terms of work experience..."

"I still have a lot to learn from you all." Li Chaoyang adopted a humble attitude, not considering himself some great figure. Moreover, he had previously considered that while things were relatively stable for the next two years, he needed to unite his subordinates... After all, historically, the propaganda departments were notorious for their problems...

It's always better to plan ahead just in case.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Meeting in Progress – Reopening the Cultural Center and Library?

Everyone seemed relieved when Li Chaoyang lowered his stance.

In fact, some of the people present did not admire or like Li Chaoyang as much as they appeared.

Even two of the most senior employees harbored some resentment towards Li Chaoyang, who had become a leader at such a young age.

However, after the person from the factory office who came earlier recounted what had happened in the factory office to everyone.

This has led everyone to have a different opinion about Li Chaoyang, the new section chief.

To be honest, these people in the propaganda department have been living a very frugal life for the past year or so.

Although the salary hasn't decreased, the various benefits during holidays have been reduced by almost nothing.

The reason given was that the propaganda department's work was ineffective... and it made no contribution to the steel rolling mill's production.

So for more than a year, they watched as workers in other departments and workshops received large and small packages of benefits every holiday, while they only received a pitiful amount.

Everyone harbored resentment about this, and some even suspected that Director Liu was embezzling and misappropriating funds.

Previously, their various departments were like a disorganized mess, each doing its own thing in different corners of this huge steel rolling mill.

Even among the dozen or so people in this department, several haven't seen each other in over a year.

Moreover, it was from the film projection team and the radio station.

This makes it impossible for everyone to work together to confront Director Liu...

The new section chief, Li Chaoyang, has arrived, and he's immediately clashed with Director Liu...

To be honest, by a twist of fate, everyone has a glimmer of hope for changing the status quo.

Furthermore, Section Chief Li's opening remarks were marked by a completely different, humble attitude compared to that of Director Liu before.

The effect is indeed very good; even those two old hands have changed their minds.

So for the next half hour or so, the atmosphere became very harmonious.

The thirteen people present each gave a brief introduction of themselves.

The team leaders or station managers of each department also introduced their current work.