Coming back to reality, she opened one eye and looked down at her toes.
After taking some medicine and lying in bed for two hours, Pipi felt much better. Finishing off the draft, she grabbed her bag and, despite her grandma's fussing, took the subway back to the office.
She met Wei Qingtan in the elevator, a reporter from the Ministry of Political Affairs and Literature.
"Thanks to the organisation's care, I've transferred back to the Ministry of Political Affairs. Pipi, I am looking for some help. Could you come to my office and sit down?"
In addition to envying the journalist's career, Pippi also envied the journalists' lifestyle. She didn't have to know much about it to feel that being a reporter was really a perfect job. She was naturally curious and liked stories, but even with curiosity, one could only hear the kind of interesting stories that people would not normally tell you if you were a reporter.
"Sure!"
Wei Qingtan was one meter and seventy-nine centimeters tall. Being so big, people who didn't know better might assume that she was a basketball player. However, the normally-healthy Wei Qingtan was currently pregnant and her face was green, but she was still energetic. "Pipi, this is for you!" she said.
She took out a small box from her bag and handed it to Pipi, who opened it and saw that it contained a beautiful turquoise bracelet.
"Oh, this... is this for real? Was this expensive?" Although the relationship between Qingtan and Pipi was one of the strongest amongst the reporters, Qingtan was always busy outside and they didn't have too many opportunities to interact. They were not really close enough to be giving gifts to each other.
"Of course it's free. I have several. Do you remember when I wrote that report about the fact that there's a good gem mine nearby, but there's no processing factory to process what it produces?"
"I remember."
"The province paid attention to the report and gave the factory a hefty loan."
"Oh, a bribe?" Pipi asked with a knowing smile.
"Consider it a souvenir for when you leave. It's half the price to get it from the source compared to buying from a jeweler."
"Thanks. Was there any other reason you were looking for me?"
"Yeah... didn't you say that you wanted to be a reporter?"
"Yes!" Pipi replied enthusiastically. She could sense that something good was coming.
"Ah, well, recently the government has not been promoting traditional culture. I have an interesting interviewee and I want to have a special release, but this person is very mysterious. I hear that he's never seen a reporter and has refused every interview. I have friends who work for other papers, and all of them have been met with closed doors."
"Couldn't you try interviewing people around him first? Like his colleagues, classmates, family members, and so on."
Pipi remembered this tactic being discussed in her class last week and she felt proud of herself for coming up with professional ideas.
"I have already done some peripheral interviews." Qintan took out a folder from the table with a few thin sheets of paper and a tape nestled inside. "Information on him is hard to pin down."