An Eye for News Chapter 34
In walked a woman with a sharp
ponytail, carrying a printed canvas bag and trailing a bohemian-style dress.
The woman in the eye-catching
attire was none other than the reporter that Se Cai rescued,
However, her get-up was indeed
too casual, she looked like she was going to the beach. If she worked at County
S Tv Station, Manager Wei would have ordered her to go back and change.
“Lee Wei? What is she doing
here?”
Se Cai tried to catch Manager
Wei’s eyes for an explanation but as Lee Wei walked in, Manager Wei lowered his
head and moved out of her way.
“You are… Superintendent Lee
from the province station’s information channel? I’m County S PR Department’s
Xiao Zhao, glad to make your acquaintance!”
Chairman Zhao got up in a hurry,
bowed and offered his hand.
“It’s Vice Superintendent Lee, I
don’t want people to say I purposely misled them of my position. Plus, I prefer
others to recognize me as a reporter not a pencil pusher.”
Lee Wei said meaningfully. To
stress her point, she let Chairman Zhao’s outstretched hand hanged awkwardly in
mid-air.
“Lee Wei looks at most to be in
her 28, and she’s already a Vice Superintendent?”
The thought drifted into Se Cai’s
mind. No wonder Manager Wei had to go meet her even though the County PR
Department’s Chairman Zhao had announced his arrival.
Se Cai knew a thing or two about
the province station’s internal structure, other than its main channel, it had
many sub channels, among them were the news channel, legal channel and
information channel.
Province X Tv Station was one of
those rare stations whose leaders had great executive power. The station
manager held state level executive power, while his or her deputy would be the
auxiliary. The superintendents of these sub channels held executive power of
varying degree, ranging from deputy state to deputy county.
Lee Wei was only a deputy county
civil servant but that was already impressive enough.
There was probably not another
under 30 deputy county government worker like herself.
In the entire County S, there
weren’t many that held higher ranking than her.
Se Cai laughed speechlessly
thinking back to the way he had treated her yesterday, a.s.suming she was just a
lowly reporter like himself.
“Nice to see you again, Se Cai.
I did say I would come to gather the suicide news material from you, didn’t I?”
Lee Wei smiled at Se Cai and
offered her hand.
“Yes… Vice Superintendent Lee.”
Se Cai hurriedly shook her hand.
After her warm greeting with Se
Cai, Lee Wai sauntered to the conference table and flung her bag over a chair. Her
demeanor had hardened considerably.
“I overheard from outside the
door, the suicide news from the commercial building can’t be broadcasted because
it would cause public dismay, and reporter Se Cai here was to be suspended
because he’s the one responsible for it, am I right?”
Before anyone could answer, Lee
Wei smiled cryptically at Chairman Zhao, adding, “It just so happens that our
station also reported on that news and I’m the main reporter, so does this mean
I have to get suspended too, Chairman Zhao?”
The air in the room froze.
“Of… of course not. I’m sure the
province station has better news sensitivity than our small department does.”
Chairman Zhao stuttered. He was
given a taste of his own medicine. Never would he have thought the criticism he
leveled at Se Cai would be reflected at the province station as well.
“If that’s the case, then
Reporter Se did nothing wrong right? Using one’s own personal favor to block a
news that could get up to the central station just to spite the colleague working
under the same station, I’ve not seen something as ludicrous as that in my
entire life.”
Lee Wei drawled and the face of
Manager Wei beside her darkened.
He held his composure but
leveled a fiery stare at Xu Jing Song.
As the station manager, he was
familiar with his worker’s loyalty. He knew who would be willing to put
personal grievances above the whole station’s wellbeing.
The station too suffered a loss
from its news being blocked on its way to the central station.
“Our department has reacted rashly
in this particular instance, I will reflect this to our leader.”
Chairman Zhao added woefully.
He wondered why would Lee Wei be
willing to stand up for a small reporter like Se Cai. Then he remembered in the
news, a reporter was taken hostage. Could it be that the reporter was Lee Wei?
The new article was vague about
the reporter’s ident.i.ty but based on today’s development, it had to be her.
“d.a.m.n, why didn’t anyone tell me
the reporter Se Cai saved was Lee Wei?”
Chairman Zhao grumbled
internally. If he had known Lee Wei owed Se Cai such a big favor, he wouldn’t
have been dumb enough to take on this task.
Lee Wei ignored Chairman Zhao’s
inner turmoil and stood up to stretch lazily.
“Alright, now that this case is
closed, Se Cai, I’m going to need those materials.”
She slapped Se Cai on his
shoulder before carrying her bag and walked out the door.
“O…okay.”
Se Cai said somewhat dumbly. He
picked his reporter ID and made to follow.
Manager Wei caught him by his
arm and whispered, “Xiao Se, nicely done there. Why didn’t you tell me the
reporter you saved yesterday was her?”
“I know she’s a reporter from
the province station, but I really didn’t know she had such an impressive
background! Who would have thought a young woman like her has a similar executive
ranking as Commissioner Sai!”
Se Cai whispered in return,
disbelief coursing through his voice.
“Never mind, because now you
know.”
Manager Wei pushed Se Cai towards
the door but not before adding, “I believe she has a good impression of you.
She’s here today just for you so I’ll give you a special day off but remember
to keep our guest of honor happy and satisfied!”
Se Cai was still digesting what
Manager Wei meant by ‘happy and satisfied’ when he was forced out the door.
“Wait… don’t tell me Manager Wei
wants me to surrender my body?”
“Alright, all the material’s
inside here.”
Se Cai took out the USB and
pa.s.sed it to Lee Wei.
“You’re done so fast?”
Lee Wei exclaimed as she looked
at her silver CK watch.
“All my material is already in
my hard-disk so I only needed to copy them.”
Se Cai smiled. His computer science background compelled him
to keep his digital data in a structured order. His biggest pet peeve was an
unused folder clogging his window.
“It’s still early. The special
on County S is almost done, we’re only lacking a few street shots.”
Lee Wei pulled her bag and added
as an afterthought, “Actually, I haven’t really walked around this place even
though I’ve been here for almost a week.”
“A small place like County S
pales in comparison to the province city but I understand the need to take the
street shots… How about this, I’ll help you take some using our equipment since
you doesn’t seem to have yours.”
Se Cai offered. Manager Wei did
order him to keep Lee Wei happy and satisfied. Plus, that was the least he
could do because Lee Wei did practically save his entire career.
Using Lee Wei’s name, Se Cai
commissioned a car, a Sony EX1R camera and a tripod stand.
“Superintendent Lee, I must
thank you again. It is because of you that the people at the station allow me
to take this mobile that is usually reserved for Manager Wei!”
Se Cai joked. After a whole
morning together, Se Cai realized even though Lee Wei was a high ranking
personnel, she didn’t act like one. She talked easily with him and everyone
else.
“Stop calling me superintendent,
use Sister Wei instead.”
Lee Wei feigned offense before
breaking out in laughter, “To tell the truth, most of the times I don’t feel like
a superintendent, I’m still that happy-go-lucky reporter.”
Se Cai wanted to enquire how did
she reach such a position at her young age but he felt that was an insensitive
subject to broach so he changed the topic.
“Thank you again for arriving at
my aid earlier today if not I’m sure my fate would end up worse than being
suspended,” Se Cai said.
“Since no one is around, I’ll
let you in on a secret.”
Lee Wei continued in a serious
tone, “I was ready to leave yesterday but Sai Wu came to me before I managed to
do so. He knew w.a.n.g Run Fa would mean you harm so he asked me to lend you my
aid.”
“What? It was him who approached
you?”
Se Cai stopped the car by the
side of the road and exclaimed in shock.
But how could this be? Even
though Sai Wu did owe him a favor but how could he have known w.a.n.g Run Fa was
out to get him that day?
[I should have done this earlier but here is glossary for
the Chinese government’s executive structure, it’ll help understand the story
better. Nation > Province > State > County > Munic.i.p.al, and each
comes with a main and a deputy, ie. Deputy State > Main County, so on and so
forth. Media workers in China are part of the government so they fit into this
structure as well. Here are the positions of the characters mentioned in the
story thus far: Lee Wei, Sai Wu = Deputy County; Chairman Zhao, Xu Jing Song,
Manager Wei = Munic.i.p.al. It’s unfortunate that the place name and these
position name overlaps but I’ll try to be as clear as I can be.]