Official Career (Complete Three Volumes)

This is a political novel set in officialdom. Qiao Buqun, director of the comprehensive division of the Taolin municipal government research office, is exceptionally talented and was the obvious choice for director of the government office's comprehensive division, yet he is shunted off to serve as a deputy director in the government office's discipline inspection and supervision office. This is a third-tier division, far from leadership and the core of power, and his career prospects are grim. Qiao Buqun, bookish and proud, had disdained climbing the official ladder, but the realities of life eventually make him realize that a person needs to strive for advancement. On this platform Qiao Buqun works hard and achieves results, and also deftly makes use of certain connections to return to the leadership's attention; before long he is promoted to Party group member and head of the discipline inspection group in the government office...

Qiao Buqun's former colleague at the policy research office and friend Qin Huaihe passes the provincial newspaper exam and becomes a reporter, while Cai Runshen, head of the secretariat division of the policy research office, is highly skilled at scheming and, to everyone's surprise, latches onto Executive Vice Mayor Fu Disheng, a powerful patron. The three young men in officialdom each embark on a different path...

Qiao Buqun continues to strive on his official career. He gains the support of Yuan Mingqing, former secretary-general of the municipal government and later director of the provincial water resources department, as well as that of the provincial Party deputy secretary behind Yuan Mingqing, and step by step becomes deputy director, director, and secretary-general of the government office, finally, amid intricate power struggles conducted without overt display, finding a winding path to become acting mayor of Taolin, a city of ten million people...

After latching onto Fu Disheng, Cai Runshen's career flourishes; he goes down to a county and becomes its Party secretary. He accepts money and sexual bribes from local mine owners, colludes with them, and serves as their protector. In particular, he uses his authority to cover up a coal mine's concealment of an accident, its employment of illegal workers, and even its disregard for human life...

Qin Huaihe performs outstandingly at the provincial newspaper and becomes a famous reporter. During an interview, he discovers from an old beggar the astonishing secrets hidden by a local coal mine, and Cai Runshen, the protector behind the mine, gradually comes to light. Qin Huaihe, full of responsibility and conscience, is indignant and keeps tracking the story; with the assistance of Qiao Buqun and others, he finally brings Cai Runshen down, and Qiao Buqun rises from vice mayor to mayor, reaching the pinnacle of his official career. But soon, an even greater storm in officialdom is about to break...

In this super-length novel, the author uses the raw ecology of office life as the backdrop and Qiao Buqun's turbulent official career as the main thread, objectively and truthfully recreating how high officials and lowly clerks, wealthy merchants, and ordinary people inside and outside the power arena hold different attitudes toward and pursue power, money, and beauty, presenting readers with colorful, vivid, and fascinating pictures of office life and human society that make them cry out in satisfaction.