Power and Wealth

Power and Wealth

Chapter 10 – Joy and Sorrow

North Heping Street.

In front of an apartment building.

Dong Xuebing had takena cab to the Cancer Hospital and then took a taxiback home. He returned at about the same time as Qu Yunxuan and the others.They had taken public transport and the time taken to reach home was longer. Asthe taxi turned towards his residential area, Dong Xuebing saw his mother, Mrs. Xu, andthe others walking in front. He immediately alightsand walked over to explain himself: “Mum, Aunt Xuan, I’m sorry. I had somethingurgent to do and had rushed off.

“Xuebing......” His mother said his name and then stoppedtalking and sighed.

At the hallway, Section Chief Xu who had just returned fromwork, walked over with a briefcase. “You finished the test? How is the essaytest?”

“I...... I......” Xiao Dong was a different person from thismorning. He no longer has that cocky, arrogant look.

Dong Xuebing wanted to laugh out.

“Tell me!” Section Chief Xu pulled a long face. “I had madearrangements with the Customsdepartment.”

Mrs. Xu looked at his son. Xiao Dong mumbled: “The essayquestions were tough. I don’t thinkanyone can answer these questions. I am only confident of getting one questionright. The rest...... The rest of the questions should be wrong...... I don’t think Iwill be able to pass with my overall scores.”

Section Chief Xu shouted: “What have you been doing? Didn’tyou prepare for this test? Didn’t you keep telling me that you will pass thistest without any problem?”

Xiao Dong was in despair. “I also did not expect thequestions to be so difficult. I don’t think the other candidates are able toanswer them too.”

Section Chief Xu continued: “Stop telling me that thequestions are difficult. You are the one who did not work hard.”

“Don’t blame Xiao Dong.” Mrs. Xu helped to speak up for herson: “The questions were really too difficult. I heard many people outside thetest venue complaining about it. Not only XiaoDong, I think everyone will fail this test. Oh, Xiao Ping’s son, Xiao Bing hadtaken the test too. He will also fail the test. At least our Xiao Dong didbetter than him. His multiple-choice test will get almost full marks.”

Dong Xuebing rolled his eyes. Who’s the one who told youthat I will fail this test?

Section Chief Xu replied angrily: “If the overall scorecannot reach the minimum passing mark, he can’t even qualify for theinterview.”

Mrs. Xu sighed: “He can try again next year.” Section ChiefXu turned and went upstairs. Mrs. Xu looked at Xiao Dong and then turned toDong Xuebing’s mother: “The National entry exams for the Civil Servant is in afew months. Is your son going to tryagain?”

Dong Xuebing’s mother replied: “Yes......”

Qu Yunxuan patted Dong Xuebing’s hand. “Don’t give yourselftoo much pressure. You can just take the test again next year.”

Xiao Dong had always been good with his studies. If he can’teven pass the test, Dong Xuebing should not be doing well either. This was whateveryone was thinking.

Xiao Dong glared at Dong Xuebing and followed Section ChiefXu upstairs.

Dong Xuebing knew that Qu Yunxuan and his mother thoughtthat he did not do well for the tell. He rubbed his nose but did not try toexplain.

Just let them misunderstand. Even if he had passed the written test, hewas also not confident of passing theinterview. What if he told his mother that he had done well for the written test, andhe failed the interview later? His mothermight not be able to handle this roller coaster ride. She had high bloodpressure, and this might affect her health. Dong Xuebing intends to tell themthe truth after he had passed the interview.

After dinner, Dong Xuebing returned to his room and power uphis old Pentium 3 CPU. He needs to prepare himself for the interview bysearching for the past few years’ interview questions on the internet.

5 minutes later, Dong Xuebing could not get any results fromthe internet. He remembered that the department he was applying did not evenhave its own website, let alone past year interview questions. There was notmuch information about the department either.

The department Dong Xuebing applied was State Security.

The full name of State Security was the Ministry of State Security. It is an agencyunder the jurisdiction of the State Council and considered a policingdepartment. This department was a Provincial-Ministerial level department andhad subsidiaries in all regions. In the provinces, the office was called the State Security Department. In the PrefectureCities, it was called the State SecurityBureau.

As Beijing was the capital and a municipality directly underthe Central Government, the State Security office,there was slightly different. It still reports to the Ministry of StateSecurity and was also called State Security Bureau. But Beijing State SecurityBureau was Bureau-Director level. TheBranch Bureaus in the different zones of Beijing were Deputy-Bureau-Directorlevel.

The State Security department was a mysterious department.However, everyone knew what this department does. It collects intel.

But Dong Xuebing heard from someone that not all people fromthe State Security department were mysterious. It depends on the departmentthey were working in.

For instance, the office Dong Xuebing applied for, was the State Security Bureau’s Administrative Office.The people working there will have regularoffice hours, and they need to squeezethe morning peak hour buses. They are also allowedto attend gatherings and tell others where they are working. It wasnothing confidential. One of Dong Xuebing’s senior in his university wasworking in the State Security. He often jokes that the people who sit in the office doing administrative workslike him have no chance to access to theconfidential reports from the intel officers. There was nothing good aboutworking in the State Security. They were not allowed to drink or tell otherswhat they were doing. They cannot reveal to others where their families werestaying and had many more restrictions. The only good thing was that theirovertime pay was slightly higher than other departments.

To be honest, it was not Dong Xuebing’s choice to apply forthis department.

He had no other choices. There were too many restrictionsimposed on the candidates when applying for the various department.

For example, the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Safetysupervision bureau, etc. requires the candidates to not only pass the AAT andWritten Essay test. The candidates need to passone more test. Dong Xuebing was already struggling with two tests. How can hecope with one more professional test? He gave up on applying these departmentswithout thinking.

The Municipal Political Consultative Conference, Municipalcommission of education and other bigger departments requires at least 2 years of working experiences.

Some departments like the Red Cross and Ministry of Culturerequires the candidate to be a Communist Party member.

Some departments like Land and Resources Bureau requires the candidate to have at leasta Master or Doctorate.

Some departments require Accounting certification, heightabove 180 cm, female only, etc.

Dong Xuebing realized that the positions he could apply were less than 3% of all the positions. Some of these positions were inrural areas where the requirements were not so strict. Even fresh graduates canapply. But there was only one vacancy. Competingwith other candidates for that one vacancy would be tough. Dong Xuebingknew he will not stand a chance.

When Dong Xuebing had almost given up hope, he coincidentallyoverheard someone from the City’s State Security speaking to someone.

The State Security was also recruiting, and as long as the candidate had no physicaldefects and did not stay overseas for a prolonged period, anyone can apply. Itwas not limited to male or female, a partymember, work experiences, etc. The department was going to recruit 4candidates. Compared to other departments, this was a lot.

Later, Dong Xuebing found out that the State Security would usually recruit fresh grads.

This was because fresh grads were not corrupted by society, complicated backgrounds andrelationships. They were considered ‘Clean.’Those people who had 2 years working experiences, will not be recruited by theState Security.

This was why Dong Xuebing convinced his mother to let himapply for the position in the State Security. This was the only position withthe highest possibility of hiring him.

Let’s hope that everything will go as planned.

Translator’snotes: The hardest part of this novel was to find the correct name for thevarious departments, ranks, etc. of the Chinese Government. It was morecomplicated than I thought.

StateSecurity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_State_Security_(China)

CommunistParty of China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China

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