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, ’s Lee Wei.

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.]