Sticky Notes

Driven by the special campaign, Chengdong Logistics Park took the lead in restoring the system of having employee representatives attend safety production meetings, and regularly invited front-line forklift operators and porters to participate in the park management's safety production meetings.

At the first regular meeting, a forklift operator named Meng Qinghai was elected as the employee representative. He walked into the meeting room wearing a brand-new work uniform, sat in the first row by the window, and held a piece of sticky paper covered with writing. On it were suggestions he and his colleagues had written after discussing for two days: the warehouse lights were too dim at night, and the blind spots were too large when the forklift was reversing. He suggested that reflective guide signs be placed on the floor of the shelving area.

The water heater in the workers' shed has been broken for several months and no one has repaired it. The night shift workers can't even get a sip of hot water after they get off work. Some people are secretly using electric blankets in the workers' shed, which poses a fire hazard. It is recommended that the park purchase a batch of warm bedding and provide centralized heating to reduce the safety risks of using high-power electrical appliances at night.

Manager Luo noted down these suggestions one by one in the meeting minutes and immediately decided to solve the problems of water heaters and reflective guide signs first, and to purchase thermal blankets before the next drop in temperature.

After the meeting, Lao Luo walked up to Meng Qinghai and told him that he would invite him to every safety meeting from now on. Not only him, but any forklift operator could raise their ideas at the meeting.

Meng Qinghai nodded several times, carefully folded the note and put it in his pocket. As he turned to leave the meeting room, several coworkers waiting at the door surrounded him, asking him all sorts of questions. He said something that made everyone laugh:

"Manager Luo said the water heater will be repaired this week, so we can take hot showers after get off work."

One of his coworkers laughed and slapped him on the back, while another took out his phone and said he needed to tell his wife at home, "We can have seats in the meeting room now."

On the afternoon of the day the special operation summary meeting ended, Jiang Ruolan was organizing materials in her office when Zhao Rui knocked on the door and came in, holding a kraft paper envelope in his hand, with a rare relaxed expression on his face.

He placed the envelope on the table and said it was a letter from Luo Xiaodong in Guizhou. The boy had learned to be a bricklayer after arriving at the construction site and could now build walls independently. The foreman said he was skilled and hardworking, and planned to give him a raise next month.

Jiang Ruolan opened the envelope; inside was a folded letter and a photograph.

In the photo, Luo Xiaodong is wearing work clothes and standing in front of a building under construction. A bucket of cement is placed at his feet. His tanned face has a restrained yet bright smile. The curve of his mouth is completely different from when he was rescued.

In the letter, he wrote in neat, tidy handwriting:

"Director Jiang, Officer Zhao, hello. I'm currently learning bricklaying at a construction site back in my hometown. My master says I'm progressing quickly and will be a fully trained apprentice in six months. My mother's health has improved a lot, and my father can walk again. I send money home every month, not much, but it's money I earned myself. Thank you for rescuing me from that place and helping me find a job. I want to get a technical certificate and then go work in a big city."

On the last line of the letter, he wrote a sentence in a different colored pen—

"I will never be fooled again. I know that when signing a contract, I should check the official seal and make sure the work location and salary match the job posting. If they don't match, I shouldn't trust it. I've remembered all of this, and I'll never forget it. I've also told the young people in my village who have just come out to work to be more vigilant and not to believe the false promises of those shady employment agencies like I did before."

Jiang Ruolan folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, then asked Zhao Rui to post the photo on the case wall of the special task force.

Zhao Rui took the envelope and responded. As he turned to leave, he suddenly stopped, took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table—it was a fruit candy. The wrapper was transparent and the candy itself was orange. It was the cheapest kind of fruit candy sold by the bunch at corner stores.

He said that He Qiusheng asked him to pass it on.

While in detention, He Qiusheng heard that the review conclusion of He Qiulan's fall case had been officially announced, the original characterization of the fall as an accident had been corrected according to law, and the relevant responsible persons involved had also been punished accordingly.

He remained silent for a long time in the visiting room, then took the candy out of his prison uniform pocket and said it was the kind of candy his sister loved to eat when she was little. Every time he cried, she would take one out of her pocket and put it in his mouth.

He said he would never taste the candy she gave him again in his life, but he wanted Director Jiang to know that the justice she had sought for his sister made him feel for the first time in his life that the word "law" was not empty.

After Zhao Rui finished speaking, he picked up the candy, placed it on Jiang Ruolan's desk, and turned to leave the office.

Jiang Ruolan stared at the orange fruit candy in silence for a long while.

The sun was shining brightly outside the window, the leaves of the sycamore tree rustled in the wind, and a few sparrows hopped and pecked at food on the branches.

She put the candy in the drawer, next to Bai Xiujuan's jade Buddha pendant photo and Gong Jiafu's honest smile by the forklift.

Then she picked up the landline and dialed Lu Zheng's number, asking him to send over the latest investigation notices transferred from the provincial department.

Lu Zheng asked if there was a new case. She said yes, but this time it wasn't about organized crime, drugs, domestic violence, or smuggling—it was a cross-provincial telecommunications fraud gang that impersonated law enforcement officials to defraud elderly people of their retirement savings. They had recently moved to Yi'an.

She added in her mind: It's those people who are caught up in the black market again, only this time the scammers are using telephone lines instead of iron pipes and bulldozers.

She wanted to personally expose these scams one by one, just as she had once torn apart the protective umbrella of those evil forces.

Lu Zheng said on the other end that he had prepared all the materials and would be there soon.

Jiang Ruolan put down the phone, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes for a while.

The sycamore leaves outside the window were still rustling. She slowly peeled open the fruit candy and put it in her mouth. It was orange-flavored and very sweet...

Jiang Ruolan stayed in Yi'an for three winters, when a blizzard, the worst in a decade, struck.

The meteorological observatory issued a red alert two days in advance, and all primary and secondary schools in the city suspended classes, highways were closed, and all long-distance passenger transport was suspended.

Several branches of the sycamore trees in the city bureau's courtyard were broken by the weight of the snow. Old Sun, the gatekeeper, tied the remaining thick branches with rope, muttering, "This snow is even heavier than the year Shen Wangshan fell from power."

Jiang Ruolan was reviewing documents in her office. The radiator was burning hot, and a thick layer of frost had formed on the windowpane. The wind outside sounded like a pack of wild dogs howling.

Several documents were spread out on the table. On top was a summary of year-end public security data submitted by the Chengdong Police Station, along with a dynamic management table of key personnel in the jurisdiction.

She turned to the last page of the control form, and her gaze lingered on a name.

..............