I Only Wanted to Be a Low-Level Government Official - Chapter 1: I'm not playing along anymore

When his phone vibrated, Qin Feng was being criticized in the conference room.

“How can the client understand this report? Qin Feng, you’ve been with the company for three years, how come you haven’t improved at all?” Supervisor Jia Meiling slammed the folder on the table, her voice shrill and grating.

The other colleagues in the meeting room kept their heads down and no one spoke.

Sitting next to Jia Meiling, Liu Fang’s lips curled up slightly—this report was originally her responsibility, but she handed it to Qin Feng at 4:30 pm yesterday, saying, “Help me organize it,” and this morning it became Qin Feng’s full responsibility.

Qin Feng stared at the corner of the folder that was stained with coffee, his fingers clenching tightly under the table.

He wanted to say that the data didn’t match at all, that the original files Liu Fang provided were a mess, and that he had only managed to piece together a basic framework by 11 p.m. last night—

But what’s the point of saying it?

This lousy company is small and full of troublemakers; it’s shallow and full of scoundrels.

Jia Meiling prefers someone like Liu Fang who is good at getting things done and knows how to act cute, while he, who just works hard without lifting a finger, always ends up taking the blame.

My phone vibrated again; the caller ID showed an unfamiliar number from Jiangdong City.

“Can’t you hear me?” Jia Meiling raised her voice. “Still looking at your phone?”

“Sorry, something urgent might be coming up.” Qin Feng stood up. “Let me take this.”

“Sit down! The meeting isn’t over yet—”

Qin Feng had already pushed back his chair and walked out.

The corridor was stuffy and filled with printer dust and the smell of cheap coffee all year round.

Qin Feng walked to the fire exit and pressed the answer button.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Comrade Qin Feng?” A steady male voice came from the other end of the phone.

“It’s me.”

“This is the First Cadre Division of the Organization Department of Jiangdong City. Congratulations on passing the civil service recruitment examination. Please report to the Organization Department at 9:00 AM on September 1st, bringing your original ID card, graduation certificate, and photocopies.”

Qin Feng was stunned, his ears ringing.

“Comrade Qin Feng?”

“I…I’m listening.” His throat was dry. “September 1st? Today…today is the 16th.”

“Yes, you have two weeks to prepare. I will send you the specific reporting location via text message later. Please be on time.”

After hanging up the phone, Qin Feng remained holding the phone.

The green emergency light in the fire escape illuminated his somewhat bewildered face.

You passed the exam?

Did you really pass the exam?

At the end of last year, the day Liu Fang snatched his project bonus, he lay in bed with his eyes open in the middle of the night and suddenly thought: I’m not playing with you guys anymore. The next day, he enrolled in a civil service training course.

More than 300 people were competing for one position. He ranked third in the written test, stayed up all night before the interview until he had a nosebleed, and his legs were weak when he came out.

Physical examination, political background check, and then a long wait.

He almost forgot about it and continued working in the office building day after day, making reports, taking the blame, and listening to Jia Meiling say, “Young people need to exercise more.”

Now……

Qin Feng suddenly pushed open the fire escape door, the corridor lights were blinding.

The meeting room door was still closed, but through the glass you could see Jia Meiling gesturing something, her spittle almost spraying onto the person opposite her.

He pushed the door open and went in.

All eyes turned to them.

Jia Meiling’s face turned ashen: “Qin Feng, do you have any respect for discipline?!”

“Supervisor,” Qin Feng interrupted her, his voice surprisingly calm, “I want to resign.”

The meeting room was silent.

Liu Fang was the first to react, and chuckled: “Qin Feng, are you really that hot-tempered? It’s just a couple of words, is it really necessary?”

Jia Meiling looked him up and down as if he were a child throwing a tantrum: “Resign? Think it through. Jobs are hard to find these days. With your educational background, can you find a better one outside?”

Ten minutes ago, these words would have pierced Qin Feng’s heart like a needle.

But now, he just finds it funny.

“I’ve thought it through,” Qin Feng said. “The world is so big, I want to go see it.”

A male colleague couldn’t help but laugh out loud, but quickly suppressed it.

Jia Meiling looked like she’d swallowed a fly: “You…you’re being irresponsible! What about the work we have on hand? What about the project?”

“The report is Liu Fang’s; she knows it best.” Qin Feng looked at Liu Fang, whose smile froze. “I have a few auxiliary tasks to handle; the handover list will be sent to the group in half an hour. None of them are core content; anyone can take them.”

After he finished speaking and turned to leave, Jia Meiling slammed her hand on the table: “Stop! The resignation application needs to go through the process, and I haven’t approved it yet!”

Qin Feng turned around and smiled: “You will approve it.”

He opened the door and walked out, followed by Jia Meiling’s raised voice: “This is outrageous! With this attitude, I wonder what kind of job you can find!”

In the office cubicles, heads rose and then quickly lowered again.

Qin Feng walked back to his workstation—the one next to the toilet, which always smelled bad in the summer.

He started packing his things.

“Qin Feng, are you really leaving?” Old Zhang from the next workstation peeked over and whispered, “Don’t be impulsive, the job market isn’t good this year…”

“No impulsiveness.” Qin Feng stuffed a few books into a cardboard box. “Old Zhang, you have a sensitive stomach, so drink less of the instant coffee from the company; it has too many additives.”

Old Zhang was stunned for a moment, and his eyes suddenly turned a little red.

In this lousy company, it seems like Qin Feng is the only one who remembers that he has a bad stomach.

“Qin Feng!” Liu Fang strode over in her high heels and slammed a stack of documents on his desk. “You can leave if you want, but finish these research papers first!”

The client needs it by Thursday. If it’s not finished, they’ll complain. Can you take responsibility?

In the past, Qin Feng would silently accept the documents at times like this and then stay up until the early hours of the morning.

He pushed the documents back: “What responsibility do I have? You’re the project leader, you’re the research group leader. I’m just a junior assistant, responsible for making you coffee?”

Several colleagues nearby secretly pricked up their ears.

Liu Fang’s face flushed red: “You…you’re just giving up!”

“Yes, I’m just going to give up.” Qin Feng took out a resignation form from the drawer and signed it quickly. “What can you do to me? Deduct my salary? Fire me? Hurry up, I’m waiting.”

Liu Fang was trembling with anger and turned to head towards the supervisor’s office: “Sister Jia! Look at Qin Feng!”

Jia Meiling walked out with a dark face, arms crossed: “Qin Feng, I advise you to calm down. Come back now, apologize, and finish your work, and I’ll pretend you never said you were leaving.”

Qin Feng had already packed his things—actually, there wasn’t much; one cardboard box was enough.

He picked up the box and said, “Supervisor, let me give you a piece of advice. Everyone dies eventually. There are no young or old on the road to the underworld, so why live with such bitterness and hatred every day?”

“Look at you, you have so many more gray hairs lately, is it worth it?”

Jia Meiling subconsciously touched her hair.

“Every day, as soon as the alarm rings, it’s time to squeeze onto the subway, clock in, work overtime, and by the time I get home, the kids are already asleep,” Qin Feng continued. “How much money is enough? When you’re old and lying in a hospital bed, all you’ll remember are reports, meetings, and being scolded. Won’t you feel like you’ve lost out?”

The entire office area was completely silent. Someone secretly gave a thumbs-up under the desk.

Jia Meiling’s lips trembled as she pointed to the door: “Get out! Get out now!”

“Okay.” Qin Feng carried the box out, turning back at the door. “By the way, please approve the resignation process as soon as possible. It’s okay if you don’t approve it, I won’t be coming back on September 1st anyway.”

He took the elevator downstairs and walked out of the office building. The afternoon sun at four o’clock shone down on him.

Qin Feng squinted and stood there for a while.

For the first time in three years, he walked out of this building at this time.

At this time of day, he would usually be staring at his computer screen, his eyes dry, wondering how late he would have to work overtime that night.

My phone vibrated; I received a detailed reporting address from the Organization Department.

It was followed by a note: “Please wear formal attire and arrive on time.”

Qin Feng took a screenshot, his finger hovering over the screen for a long time, but ultimately didn’t post it on his WeChat Moments.

He made a phone call back to his hometown.

It rang seven or eight times before I answered.

“Hello, Mom.”

“Feng, why are you calling at this hour? Aren’t you busy at work?” His mother’s voice was as cautious as ever, as if she was afraid of disturbing him.

“Not busy.” Qin Feng paused. “Mom, I passed the exam. I’m a civil servant in the city.”

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

“Really…really?”

“Okay, I’ll report for duty on September 1st.”

The mother suddenly started crying, not loudly, but in a suppressed, breathless sob.

Qin Feng heard his father anxiously ask from the side, “What’s wrong? What happened?” Then his mother said haltingly, “He passed the exam… Fengwa passed the exam…”

The father snatched the phone, his voice trembling: “Son, you really passed the exam? Which unit? The Agricultural Bureau? Good, good… good!”

Qin Feng’s eyes welled up with tears as he listened to his parents’ incoherent words.

My father was a farmer, and my mother cooked at the town’s primary school. They spent their whole lives working the land, and their greatest pride was that their son got into university.

But he wasted his college entrance exams—years after graduation, he’s still a wage earner, barely making ends meet after paying rent each month, and when he goes home for the Chinese New Year, he can only give his parents a crumpled two thousand yuan.

When asked by neighbors, the parents would always give a vague answer: “They work in an office in the city.”

But other people’s children who pass the civil service exam or get jobs in state-owned enterprises stand tall with pride.

Now, he can finally make them stand tall.

Before hanging up the phone, her mother choked up and said, “Feng, work hard, and be honest and reliable when working for the government…”

“I know,” Qin Feng said. “Once I’ve settled in, I’ll pick you up and bring you to the city for a visit.”

As Qin Feng walked to the subway station carrying the cardboard box, he suddenly felt that the stale air in the subway was much fresher today.

The train carriage was crowded, and a young man was playing short videos on his phone. In the past, he would have been annoyed, but now he just felt… indifferent.

He recalled the day of his interview, when the examiner asked him why he wanted to take the civil service exam.

He said, “I want to find a stable job and work diligently.”

That’s the truth.

He doesn’t have such grand ambitions, he doesn’t want to be a high-ranking official, he just wants stability, he wants to be able to turn off his phone after get off work, and he wants to have security in his old age.

Thirty years old, if I work hard for another thirty years I can retire, that’s great.

As for finding a partner?

never mind.

After several blind dates, the women always demanded a dowry of 300,000 yuan and a house in the city.

He couldn’t afford it, nor did he want to empty his parents’ savings for their funerals.

It’s fine to live alone.

In the evening, Qin Feng cooked a bowl of instant noodles and added an egg.

My phone kept vibrating, and my colleagues’ group chat exploded.

“Qin Feng really left?”

“Awesome! They directly confronted Aunt Jia!”

“I heard he found a better company? Is it true?”

“No way, I haven’t heard of any company hiring…”

“Liu Fang was so angry she smashed a cup in the office, hahaha.”

After reading it, Qin Feng left the group.

A little while later, a notification popped up in the company system: “Your resignation application has been approved.”

He smiled and tossed his phone aside.

For the next two weeks, Qin Feng lived a life with an unprecedented regularity.

I get up early every day to run, and then I read books—not exam materials, but books I genuinely want to read.

Go to the market to buy groceries and learn to cook.

I bought a massage chair for my parents online, using the money I had saved up that I originally wanted to use to buy a new phone.

My father called to say that the massage chair had been delivered and the neighbors had all come to see it.

The smugness in his tone was impossible to hide.

On the evening of August 31st, Qin Feng ironed the suit he had prepared and hung it up.

The gray suit is a very basic style. I bought it three years ago for a job interview, but I’ve never had a chance to wear it.

He stood in front of the narrow mirror in the rented room and tried it out.

It’s okay, but it’s a bit tight around the shoulders.

I gained ten pounds during the three years of working at my desk.

My phone lit up; it was a WeChat message from Liu Fang: “Qin Feng, I heard you really passed the exam? Congratulations! Don’t take any unpleasantness at work to heart.”

Qin Feng didn’t reply; he just deleted it.

He lay down on the bed and stared at the cracks in the ceiling.

Starting tomorrow, he will be a staff member of the Jiangdong City Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

The salary won’t be much higher than it is now, but the five social insurances and one housing fund will be fully paid, the cafeteria will be cheap, and there are supposedly dormitories available.

More importantly, it was a legitimate job.

It’s not shameful to talk about it; it makes my parents proud and puts my mind at ease.

That’s enough.

For an ordinary rural child, that’s enough.

Set the alarm for 6:30.

Before turning off the light, Qin Feng took one last look out the window—the city was always brightly lit at night. He had struggled here for eight years and finally grasped what seemed to be the safest rope.