Hothead

By Ma Jinglei

Chen has a bad temper and to add to it, she’s a bit of a hothead. She works as a manager at a company and always finds these little things to latch on to because before she understands the entirety of what’s going on,she’d start to cuss people out. The few people that work under her are often left at a total loss.

We all know about her temper,and at heart she’s not a bad person, but the thing is, her husband is the county mayor.Nobody dares to mess with her.

Today, Chen was as peaceful as a barrel of gunpowder all day long, without the hint of explosion. She spent the whole morning quietly flipping through the paper. When all of a sudden,we heard a loud scream, “Wah!”and she was left lying face up on the sofa.

A bunch of us working nearby were all shocked. We ran in surrounding her, pinching and poking at her trying to bring her back to consciousness.

Quickly, she came to, opening her eyes and sobbing wildly.

At once, we all asked her what happened.

“My, Wang Changyuan, died on the job, how can I possibly go on?” Chen was crying, pointing at the newspaper, “Look, there was a report of a car accident, the three people in the minibus all died…This morning Wang Changyuan said that the three of them were going to go to the countryside,”she moaned, “the paper says, the identities of the deceased have already been confirmed…”

Li took a look and said, “Chen,this is yesterday’s paper.”

Chen immediately stopped sobbing, “It can’t be, Wang Changyuan was fine this morning.Who’s starting these rumors?”

We picked up the paper and looked at the report: There was an accident on some section of some road where a semi-trailer truck collided with a minibus. The three passengers of the minibus were all killed, and the identities of the deceased have already been confirmed. The county mayor Wang Changyuan….

Chen was pointing right at that spot saying, “Look, isn’t the name written there Wang Changyuan?Who’s putting out this fake news?”

Everyone looked at the paper and burst into laughter. Li said,“Chen, you’ve got to calm down.Look closer, what it really says is:county mayor Wang Changyuan,vice county mayor Liao Xikun and police chief Liu Bingtian gave the matter their top priority acting as first responders to direct and deal with the onsite work.”◆

(FromNew Morning Post,January 4, 2018. Translation:Sam Bowden)

陈姐脾气火爆，性子又急，在单位当个小领导，逮住个小事，没弄明白原委，就开始训人，手下的几个人，经常被她弄得摸不着头脑。

大家知道她有这个脾气，看她人还不坏，最重要的是，她丈夫是本县县长，就都不和她计较。

这天，陈姐的火药桶一直很平静，没有任何爆炸的迹象，一上午，她都在安安静静地翻着报纸。突然，只听她“哇”的大叫一声，仰头倒在沙发上。

周围的几个同事被惊到了，赶紧围过来掐人中、捏胳膊掐腿。

很快，陈姐缓上一口气，睁开眼睛，放声大哭。

大家忙问她这是怎么了。

“我家王长远殉职了，我可怎么活啊。”陈姐指着报纸哭道，“你们看吧，上面登了一起车祸，小型客车里的三人，全部死亡……今天早上，王长远就说，他们三个要下乡去，呜呜呜，报上写着，死者身份已经确认……”

小李一看，说：“陈姐，这是昨天的报纸。”

陈姐立刻停止号啕：“不对啊，今天早上，王长远还好好的，这是谁造谣？”

大家拿起报纸，只见上面有一则消息：某某国道某某路段发生一起交通事故，一辆半挂货车和一辆小型客车相撞，乘坐小型客车的三人全部身亡，死者身份已经确认。县长王长远……

陈姐用手指点在那里，说：“你们看，后面的名字不是王长远吗？这是谁报的假新闻？”

大家一看，大笑起来。小李说：“陈姐，你太性急了。你看仔细喽，后面写的是：县长王长远、副县长廖锡坤、公安局局长刘炳田高度重视，第一时间赶赴现场，指挥处置工作。”◆