Chapter 3 two

joe and his books (1) Joe, the manager of the sales department of the "Guli" clothing company, carried a briefcase and walked through the narrow streets to work in the company.Joe was a small old-fashioned man, somewhere between middle age and old age, well dressed, dust-free shoes, regular shaves and haircuts.His grey-green eyes were often empty, perhaps from distraction, or from a bad temper.He often had crazy thoughts in his mind.He was a great reader, and over the years, he read one book after another, and the various stories got completely mixed up in his head.His memory is the kind of memory that is extremely good at selection and grafting, so his thinking is clear.Often, sitting in his office in City B with a novel hidden under his files, he would make a picture of himself at work.

It looks like I'm actually reading those various stories.Because of his discretion and old-fashionedness, the secret was hidden from his customers for many years.This method of reading enabled him to practice a special method of coherent thinking.He is interrupted countless times by work matters every day, but he can re-enter the flow of the story in a second. Joe's house is on a hill two blocks away from the office. Looking out of the window, he can see a blue sea with seagulls flying there.He was on his way to work at dusk. People in country A get up very late, and there are only black cleaners on the quiet side street.Now Joe heard his own steps in the empty street, hesitantly, looking to the right, his neat hair and tie reflected in the window.Seeing his own clear image, he turned his face a little shyly, and turned his eyes to the ground.

"Good morning!" said Joe. "Good morning! You're still so early." The slender black woman leaned on a broom and watched as Joe pushed past her and walked away gradually.She blinked her wide eyes thoughtfully. Joe entered the office, turned on the lights, made a cup of coffee in the kitchen, and then sat at the table to continue the story of the previous day.The book in front of him is very old, with yellowed pages, which he bought more than 20 years ago.For more than 30 years, Joe has been buying books constantly, and his house by the sea has been filled to the brim.He changed each bed into a large hollow "box" that was floored and filled with books.Since last year, Joe has conceived a grand plan in his mind: re-read the novels and stories he has read in this life, so that all the stories can be connected.In this way, as long as he picks up the book, he can go from one story to another without stopping.And he himself will also be involved and become free from outside interference.After Joe persisted in this way for two months, it really had an effect.For example, he was able to immerse himself in those stories while discussing business with a client (he was the manager of the sales department of a clothing company), turning his face away from time to time to secretly smile.

"Joe, Joe, without you, my company will collapse." The boss said when he met him.The boss is a thin, white-haired man who has just turned 60, and the wrinkles on his face are like ditches. "How did you know that secret? To get a client to like you so much?" He said this almost sadly, while secretly gauging the reaction on Jo's face. "It has something to do with my reading, I suppose," said Jo slowly and carefully. "Reading?!" The boss's eyebrows folded into a herringbone. "By the way, I read a lot of stories." He spoke quickly, and his face began to flush. "Me, I even thought about quitting my job to go to school, really, I'm thinking about it."

"Then my company will suffer. Haven't you made up your mind yet?!" The tone of the boss didn't seem to want to keep him, but it seemed that he just expected him to tell the truth. "No. I have a wife and a child to support." The boss stared at Joe's face for a while, shook his head in disappointment, and waved his hand to indicate that Joe could leave.As Joe walked out of the office, he thought about the meaning of the boss's words, and as he thought about it, he entered a dark tunnel.The boss who has worked with him for many years is obviously a person who understands him. As for the level of this understanding, how he views Joe's life attitude, what kind of expectations he has in his heart, etc., Joe can see from the face of the boss and from him. It is impossible to guess what is in the words.The boss is full of ambiguity, which is in stark contrast to the precise operation of the denim making company.In Joe's impression, the boss rarely asks about the specific affairs of the company. What he cares about is the psychology of the employees and their loyalty to the company.Why, Joe wondered, didn't he expect to work here permanently?This seemed to hurt Jo's self-respect a little, for Joe was a man of great devotion to his work, and had an instinctive talent for getting things right, which he valued himself.Thinking of this, Joe remembered the boss's wife.It was a lively, gaudy middle-aged woman. Joe thought that this Lisa was not good enough for the boss, but the boss always treated her affectionately.Jo thought again of the simple, capable housewife in her own family, and the lovely son who went to boarding high school.Such a comparison seems to suddenly understand the harmonious relationship between the boss and his wife Lisa.But what kind of views and expectations does the boss have for himself?Joe was at a loss on this question.There were times when Joe thought he could even talk to his boss about the novels he'd been reading at work, but every time the words got to his lips he swallowed them back.He is a cautious man, cautious to a little pedantic taste.That time at the hotel party, the boss was drunk, pointed at Joe's nose and said, "Don't think I can't see your heart!" Joe's face turned pale at that time, thinking that life was going to change a lot.In the end, nothing changed, and life continued as before.