Chapter 365

Being reminded of what Minister Lin had said, Secretary Zhuo no longer had any more doubts in her mind. She fished out money and tickets and said, “Okay. I’ll take them!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Secretary Zhuo had set out just to buy one jacket. Now that she had decided to buy an entire set, she did not have enough fabric tickets with her.Tong Xuelu immediately pulled out a stick of fabric tickets from her military bag and said, “I have some here. Why don’t you take them?”Secretary Zhuo was surprised when she saw the stack of tickets in Tong Xuelu’s hand. “How come you have saved up so many fabric tickets, Manager Tong?”Tong Xuelu, “My boyfriend works at the research center and has higher allotment. He had been mailing them to me and I have been saving them up.”“Oh, I see. Okay, I will borrow them for you for now and pay you back later!”This was the first time that Secretary Zhuo learned that Tong Xuelu had a boyfriend. She immediately felt closer to Tong Xuelu.Tong Xuelu waved her hand. “Don’t mention it. Just take them.”Her generosity made Secretary Zhuo thought even higher of her.After the clothes, the two went to look at shoes.Tong Xuelu picked out a pair of T-strapped shoes.A pair of leather shoes cost 10 yuan. It was considered luxurious. Tong Xuelu was going to buy a pair as well but there was only one pair left and she let Secretary Zhuo had it.Walking out of the department store, Secretary Zhuo held Tong Xuelu’s hand with an appreciative look on her. “Thank you so much, Xuelu.”She did notice that Tong Xuelu also had her eyes on the pair of shoes but she let her had it.She would keep that in mind.“Why don’t I take you to the government-operated restaurant for a meal?”Tong Xuelu chuckled. “I work in one myself. You don’t need to take me out. Oh right, has something been bothering Minister Lin? He seemed to be frowning a lot the last time I saw him.”Secretary Zhuo thrusted her lips out a little. “He was troubled by matters at his in-law’s.”Oh wow!Tong Xuelu was just asking casually. She didn’t think she would really got some gossips out of it.She asked nonchalantly. “Oh yeah? What’s going on?”Secretary Zhuo might have kept a distance from Tong Xuelu before but, after their shopping trip today, Tong Xuelu had already moved up the rank to become a close friend of hers.“Minister Lin’s wife wanted to get her little brother into the Commerce Department. But you know how things are at the Commerce Department. There is no opening unless someone’s leaving. There is not much that Minister Lin could do.”Minister Lin had the authority to transfer others, but not to create new positions.For example, when Minister Lin was recruiting Tong Xuelu to be his secretary, had Tong Xuelu said yes to that, the two of them would be trading positions.That being said, Secretary Zhuo knew nothing about managing a restaurant and was reluctant to make the switch. Luckily, Tong Xuelu had turned down the offer.Tong Xuelu nodded. “Oh, I see. That must have put Minister Lin between a rock and a hard place. Many factories and departments are not hiring right now.”Secretary Zhuo nodded in understanding. “So many students graduate every year but there are only so many positions out there. It would only get more and more difficult in getting a job in the future.”Tong Xuelu knew that that was not true but she agreed with Secretary Zhuo anyway.Tong Xuelu returned to the restaurant after the two had parted ways.She had thought about sharing a portion of the benefit with the Commerce Department in order to entice Minister Lin in allowing her to join the competition.But that was not the best of all ideas.After all, the profits from the beef meatballs and fish balls would have to go through the Commerce Department one way or another. Minister Lin could very well take the profits without a mention of entering the competition and there would be nothing that Tong Xuelu could do about it.Hearing what Secretary Zhuo had said earlier, however. It had given her a new idea.This time she would make Minister Lin hand her the entrance to the competition willingly.