Chapter 92: Chapter 41: The Shock of Family and Relatives (Vote for monthly tickets, subscribe, and collect)_2
"Hey, my year-end bonus was 500 bucks more. Did you guys get any extra?" Wang Yong asked suspiciously.
"I also got an extra 500 bucks."
Luo Fei explained, "That 500 bucks is from the police team. Zhao Donglai said that in the past, everyone wasn’t very satisfied with the New Year’s goods prepared by the team, so this year they decided to give money directly to everyone to buy their own stuff, and the team won’t distribute New Year’s goods."
"So that’s how it is. Well, that’s good too. Last year, the team handed out cured sausages and the taste was something my family couldn’t handle at all. We ended up feeding it all to our dog, and it got a lot fatter," Zhaocheng nodded in agreement.
"That’s the reasoning, but without those New Year’s goods, it feels like something’s missing!" Wang Yong said.
"Isn’t there still the New Year’s goods from the office? New Year’s goods are just for show; real money is the true deal."
At five o’clock in the afternoon, everyone in Luo Fei’s Section Three of the office left after finishing their work and packed up the New Year’s goods from the office before leaving.
Walking slowly towards home, Luo Fei was thinking about the greetings for the upcoming New Year in his mind.
Once you enter society, New Year greetings on festive occasions are essential. The quantity of gifts isn’t important, but sincerity is what matters.
The first person he definitely needed to visit was Zhao Donglai, and then Zhou Weimin, Zhang Haiyang, and Yang Su also needed to be greeted. As for the police department director Wucheng, Luo Fei felt uncertain.
Logically, Wucheng is like Luo Fei’s benefactor and mentor, but Luo Fei is still at a very low rank, and he usually hasn’t had much interaction with Director Wu. If he goes to greet him rashly, it might even be misunderstood, which wouldn’t be nice.
Thinking it over, Luo Fei decided to ask Zhao Donglai for advice later.
Aside from work-related greetings, he basically didn’t have to think about his relatives, just his uncle and second aunt’s families. Luo Fei felt that his father’s side seemed not to have any contact at all, but he didn’t know or want to inquire into the reasons.
As he thought, Luo Fei had already arrived at his doorstep.
Luo Fei pressed the doorbell.
The sound of little footsteps running, from the sound Luo Fei knew it was Xiaoxiao coming to open the door.
"Brother, you’re back?" Xiaoxiao opened the door, her little face filled with a happy smile.
"Where’s Mom? She’s not home?" Luo Fei walked in, glanced around, and didn’t see Wu Yan, so he asked.
"Mom went with second aunt and Luo Hao to buy native chickens," Xiaoxiao answered.
"Buying native chickens?" Luo Fei showed a puzzled expression.
Xiaoxiao earnestly said, "Yes, this morning Mom and I went to buy groceries. We originally planned to buy native chickens and fish, but there were too many people buying native chickens, so they were all sold out quickly, and we couldn’t get any. Mom only bought a fish and some pork. Just now, second aunt came and said she knows a farm behind the mountain that specializes in selling native chickens, so Mom followed her."
"Brother, are these the gifts from your Criminal Investigation Team?" Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up as she stared at the two gift bags in Luo Fei’s hands.
"Yeah, here you go. It seems like there are fruits and some candies inside. You can take them and eat them yourself." Luo Fei nodded and handed the two boxes of New Year’s goods to Xiaoxiao.
"Brother treats me the best." Xiaoxiao smiled as soon as she heard there were fruits and candies inside.
Luo Fei smiled and then said, "I’ll go change clothes first, then we’ll cook the rice, and when Mom comes back, we can start cooking."
To be honest, Luo Fei can also cook rice and meals, but the taste is pretty average. It’s just barely edible and not delicious, so he rarely cooked.
"I can cook rice; I’ll do it, I’ll do it." As soon as she heard Luo Fei talking about cooking rice, Xiaoxiao volunteered, eagerly placing the gift box on the coffee table and running to the kitchen to cook.
At six o’clock in the evening, Wu Yan, Wu Xiaohui, and Luo Hao returned with three native chickens.
"Ah, if I had known the price of native chickens would be so high during the Spring Festival, I would have bought a couple to keep," Wu Yan regretted loudly upon entering the house. Usually, native chickens only cost a little over 20 bucks a kilogram, but now during the Spring Festival, they’ve risen to 30 bucks, which made Wu Yan feel remorseful.
"Yeah, if we’d known the price would be so outrageous during the Spring Festival, we might have bought some native chickens and kept them. Selling them during the festivities could have made us a profit!" Second aunt Wu Yan also showed a disappointed expression.
"It’s the Spring Festival, everything is expensive, so it’s normal for native chicken prices to be a bit high," Luo Fei laughed and tried to comfort them.
"By the way, Xiaofei, what New Year’s goods did your Criminal Investigation Team give out?" Wu Xiaohui asked Luo Fei.
Luo Fei answered, "We only received some fruits and candies from the office, and the team didn’t give out New Year’s goods. Instead, they gave us 800 bucks to buy our own."
"Gee, the benefits for government workers are really good, just directly giving 800 bucks. Unlike your second uncle working at the power company, which supposedly is a state-owned enterprise, the year-end bonus was just a bit of cured meat and some fruit, barely worth 100 bucks, stingy and not much better than our bracelet factory," second aunt said indignantly, and then continued to ask, "Xiaofei, did your year-end bonus come through? Did you get ten thousand?"
"Sixty thousand bucks," Luo Fei replied honestly. He really wasn’t trying to show off, but since second aunt asked, he couldn’t not say.
"What? Sixty thousand bucks?" Wu Xiaohui’s mouth dropped open in shock, and nearby Wu Yan was equally stunned by Luo Fei’s mention of a 60,000 bonus.
"Wow, brother, you are so incredible." Xiaoxiao looked at Luo Fei with admiration.
"Sixty thousand bucks, Xiaofei, are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?" Wu Xiaohui asked again, still in disbelief.
Luo Fei shook his head and said, "The bonus is already deposited on my card. It’s 60,000 bucks. Mainly since our Criminal Investigation Team did well this year, so the year-end bonuses were quite high."
"Oh my, your bonuses are too much. I heard before that bonuses for government workers at the tax bureau were high, around forty or fifty thousand, but didn’t expect your team to be even higher," Wu Xiaohui remained in disbelief.
Luo Fei just laughed; indeed, in a small county like this, a 60,000 bonus is quite surprising, and then he said, "By the way, since second aunt is here, I have some news to tell you. Recently, the captain of our Criminal Investigation Team’s third squad resigned because of family issues. Our leadership noticed my diligence and capability at work, so they promoted me to temporarily lead the third squad as squad captain. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, so I want to invite uncle’s family and second aunt’s family over for a reunion dinner to celebrate."
"In other words, Xiaofei, you got a promotion?" This time second aunt was even more shocked, more so than hearing about the 60,000-year-end bonus.
Wu Xiaohui’s husband Zhao Changfa works at the power company, barely on the inside, so she’s well aware of how difficult it is to get promoted without connections. After all, there’s only one job for each person. Zhao Changfa has worked there for over twenty years now but hasn’t climbed up to a department head, due to his lack of background and competence. Every chance he’s had has been grabbed by someone else.
But Luo Fei has graduated less than a year ago, first transferring from the local police station to the Criminal Investigation Team, and now getting a promotion in the influential department as the third squad captain. Almost instantly, the relatively quick-minded Wu Xiaohui realized her nephew is on the way up.
"Brother, are you now a leader?" Xiaoxiao asked with delight. Kids always have a certain admiration for being a leader, thinking it’s a prestigious thing.
Wu Yan looked at Luo Fei with concern. She was a bit overwhelmed. She never imagined her son could become an official in any capacity. Although Luo Fei just mentioned being promoted to squad captain, it still counts as being in power, right?