Chapter 26 Section 5: Be a Bar Cleaner

One day, I was reading a book and waiting for customers under the street lamp, when a man in his fifties came over.He was wearing blue trousers, a white gown, and myopia glasses. He was the most common dress of that era, and I couldn't guess his identity. He asked me what book I was reading, and I shyly unfolded the cover. It was a novel called "Lord of the Flies" that I picked up from a second-hand book stand a few days ago. It was written by Golding, the British Nobel Prize winner. masterpiece.The man smiled and said, "Do you understand?" I said, "I had one before, but I lost it later. This is an old book I just bought."

The man was surprised, but he didn't continue talking about Lord of the Flies, he said, "I want to go to the train station, can I go?" It is five or six kilometers away from the railway station. Most people will take a taxi, and no one will take a tricycle.Seeing my hesitation, he said, "It's still early to get on the train. I want to sit in the car and see the scenery along the way." I agreed.My intuition tells me that this fair-faced man in his 50s is not an ordinary person. Sitting on the tricycle, he asked me where I was from, how old I was, and who else was in my family, and I answered honestly.He heard my gasps and said, "Don't worry, it's still early. Take your time."

We drove slowly along the wide road by the river, and there were couples and old people running hand in hand from time to time.Occasionally, a car would speed by, and the rolled up leaves would blow on us. He asked, "What have you done before?" After hesitating for a moment, I talked about my experiences over the years.The experience of these years has been suppressed in my heart, and I have not told anyone.Now that I've told this stranger, this stranger who can't do me any harm, I suddenly feel a lot easier.I let out a long breath, and my heart suddenly became clear. He sat in the tricycle and didn't speak. I heard him sigh, his voice was very soft, like a dead leaf falling.After a while, he said, "What's your contact information?"

I gave him my paging number. We rode for about an hour, and when we arrived at the railway station square, he got off the tricycle and told me, "Don't turn off your pager these days, I will contact you." According to the length of the journey, he should give me 10 yuan, but he gave me 50 yuan.I said I don't have money to find you, I only need 10 yuan.He said don't look for it anymore, it's too difficult for you. This sentence almost brought tears to my eyes. I watched him walk through the station square. There were few passengers in the train station at night. He walked into the waiting hall. He stood at the door and waved to me before walking in.

When I left the train station, I kept thinking about who he was and why he said to contact me.I suddenly regretted that I didn't ask for his mobile phone number. However, if he had a mobile phone, he was a rich man. Would he tell a strange tricycle driver his mobile phone number? The newspaper declared bankruptcy. That day, everyone notified each other and came to the newspaper office together, and saw the court staff pulling the newspaper's equipment onto the truck.The so-called equipment is some old computers and old desks.The staff sealed the door, and the big red seal on the seal was extremely bright and eye-catching.On the wall, a piece of paper fluttered in the wind, on which it was written: "So and so, if you are late for work, you will be deducted 50 yuan; if you have a typo in the layout, you will be deducted 50 yuan..." The newspaper office fell into madness at the final stage. The less money you have, the more you have to deduct everyone's hard-earned money. If you don't have money to send, it doesn't matter. You can deduct as much as you like.This piece of paper shaking in the wind became my last memory of this newspaper.

The truck left with the newspaper's only belongings, and the building erased all traces of the newspaper.Afterwards, other companies will move into this building, but the latecomers may not know that this was once a newspaper office. This newspaper office has experienced ups and downs and joys and sorrows, and a group of passionate young people lived in this building. No one spoke, and everyone had tears in their eyes.Later, some people left silently, while others followed silently.When we came to a fork in the road, someone suggested: "Let's have a meal, and we will leave after the meal, and go our separate ways." Everyone went to a small restaurant silently, and each of them took out the money on his body and pooled it together. More than one hundred yuan, two tables together, fried a few dishes, a large pot of rice.This is our last dinner.

Later, the vast majority of people at this dinner table were never seen again, so I wonder where they are now?Don't know if they are still alive?After so many years, they should all get married and have children. I wish their families a happy life, and wish them a better life and no longer endure poverty. Such is life.A person has to go through many post stations in his life. When you say goodbye to the previous station, you don’t know whether you will come back or see your friends at this station again; when you arrive at the next station, you don’t know the station What is it like, and what kind of friends will you make.

Life is another long train. At the starting point, you will meet many people. They will start this journey with you. At every station, someone will get off the train. You have no way of knowing whether you will meet again in this life. These get off people.You also want to get off, but you don't know which station you will get off at, whether it will be at a city station, a small town station, or a small station in the wild mountains.You also won't know if you get off alone or with someone else. Life is full of too many unpredictable.Life is cruel. I heard that the newspaper office owed tens of millions of yuan to the printing factory, and owed the employees several months' wages. The printing factory took the newspaper office to court, and the court enforced it, taking away all the property of the newspaper office.

I also heard that the advertising company, the investor, collected all the advertising fees for those months into his own pocket. After the newspaper declared bankruptcy, the advertising company also emptied out, and the person in charge absconded with the money. And it is us migrant workers who are suffering. The director asked me: "What are your plans?" I said, "I don't know yet." The director said, "I'm really sorry, I wish I hadn't brought you out." I said, "It's nothing. Life is full of ups and downs. If you don't take me out, how would I know that the south is so prosperous and prosperous."

The director smiled wryly: "I'm going home first, my wife has been waiting at home. I will let you know if I have a good place to go." I nod.I have no wife, no one waiting for me.My home is in the countryside, and my father is sick in bed. Not only will I not be able to help when I go home, but it will also make my parents worry.I have a home, but I can't go back. That night, I drove the director to the train station on a tricycle. We hugged at the entrance and cried.Many people walked past us and craned their necks curiously. They didn't understand why the two big men still hugged each other and cried."Take care, take care," said the director, and walked into the waiting room.

After sending off the director, on the way home, my legs were sore and weak, and I had to sit on the side of the road to rest every time I rode a certain distance.I felt that I had been emptied all of a sudden, and I had no support for me. I can only float in the south.I don't have a job, I don't know where tomorrow's breakfast is, and I don't know where my future is, but I can't tell my parents this, I can't let my parents worry about me.Every time I call home, I will say that I am living a very good life here, so that my parents can rest assured. A few months of life as a tricycle driver made me dark and thin, but my body was very strong, and my pectoralis major was also prominent, making me feel hard in my hands.When the weather is hot, I will be naked, smoking a pack of low-quality cigarettes that cost one yuan, and walk slowly through the street; when I am sleepy, I will sit in the car and fall asleep with my head resting on the railing made of iron bars My voice has also become louder, and I often use rough words to exchange friendly words with other tricycle drivers; my feet are full of strength, and I will ride a tricycle to grab business with others at the fastest speed.I'm also used to other people's indifference and ridicule. When others scold me with bad words, my heart doesn't feel a little disturbed.For a living, I can bear anything.I have completely turned into a tricycle driver. Only sometimes, there will be a bitterness in my heart: what should I do next?Where should we go? One evening, I had just picked up the tricycle and was riding on the street. I hadn’t received an order yet, and suddenly the pager rang. It was an unfamiliar number. I thought it might be a customer who asked me to pull something.Since embarking on the path of a professional tricycle driver, I have also started to distribute business cards. I rode to an IC phone booth and made a call. The call was made, and it turned out to be the man I was sending to the train station on a tricycle that night.I almost forgot about him, he hasn't contacted me for so long, I didn't think he would call me today. He said that he was in a county-level city more than 100 kilometers away from the provincial capital.He asked me if I would like to come to them, and he recommended me to the daily of this county-level city, and a deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper asked me to go for an interview the next day. I said yes. At that time, I hadn’t realized the difference between provincial newspaper offices and county newspaper offices. I thought all newspaper offices across the country were the same.I only got one job that night and went home.I slept in the room with the words "will over everything" on the door, and it was difficult to fall asleep for a long time. I was thinking about what questions would be asked in the interview and how should I answer them.I imagined that I was the deputy editor-in-chief of that newspaper, what would I ask?I took out my scrapbook of work from my bag and read it over and over again.I don't know whether these carefully written works can find a suitable job for myself. Early the next morning, I got on the train to that county-level city, and then came to that newspaper office. The newspaper had a ten-story building, the downstairs floors were their offices, and the upper floors were leased to Amway and several insurance companies.I really didn't expect a county-level newspaper to have such strength.After filling out the information in the lobby, the security guard took me to the deputy editor's office on the third floor. The deputy editor-in-chief's head was barren and bald, like a gourd ladle, shining with the light of wisdom.The head of the deputy editor-in-chief is round and big, pressing on the thin neck like a globe, which makes people worry that it will be crushed at any time.This image is exactly the boss of the underworld that often appears in movies and TV shows.But the deputy editor-in-chief was very kind, with a pleasant smile and modesty. I was really sorry for his mighty head and hairstyle.A pair of short-sighted glasses framed on his stocky nose, looking very funny. The deputy editor-in-chief said: "Curator Zhang has introduced your situation to me. I'll let you take a look today. What do you think of our place?" I was baffled: "Who is Director Zhang?" The deputy editor-in-chief smiled and said, "You don't know yet, he said he used to ride your tricycle." Oh, it turned out that the man in his 50s who asked me to take him to the train station was Director Zhang.The deputy editor said: "He is the curator of our cultural center here." So I talked about the adventure that night, I was reading under the street lamp, I took Curator Zhang to ride along the riverside avenue, and I talked about my situation at that time. The deputy editor-in-chief listened carefully all the time, and then he said sincerely: "Stay here, we are going to revise the page soon, from 4 pages to 8 pages. We need reporters like you." I nod.In fact, I had nowhere to go.At that time, newspaper recruitment was not carried out through computers, and the recruitment methods were also very primitive. One was to post recruitment notices in newspapers, the other was to rely on introductions, and the third was to select from among the people who came to the door. The deputy editor-in-chief took me from the first floor to the third floor of the newspaper office, from the editor-in-chief's office to the interview department.He pointed to an empty desk in the interview department and said, "When you come, sit at this desk." I am deeply moved. At noon that day, the deputy editor-in-chief called the director and deputy director of the interview department to accompany me for dinner. The sumptuous meal made my Adam's apple wriggle involuntarily.I haven't eaten these for a long time. The bright braised pork and chicken nuggets with oily juice caught my eyes like hooks, making my eyes unable to move an inch.But I tried my best to suppress the surging appetite in my heart, and forcibly swallowed the rushing saliva.I thought: We are educated people, we must look like educated people, and we cannot make people laugh. At the dinner table, I only found out that the deputy editor-in-chief's surname is Zhao, and the two directors, the principal's surname is Sun, and the deputy's surname is Wang.The editor-in-chief of this newspaper is concurrently held by one person, and he seldom comes to work. Two days later, I came to work at this county-level newspaper.Thinking back to when I was a civil servant at the county level in the north, I came to a county-level newspaper office in the south as a temporary worker (at that time, newspaper offices rarely signed contracts, and all hired personnel were treated as temporary workers), and I felt that fate really played a joke on me.However, I don’t have anything to pray for now. I only hope that I can make more money, send more money to my family, and make my life stable. I am completely satisfied. The newspaper still has 4 pages for the time being, and the front page is a special page about the activities of the secretary of the municipal party committee and the mayor, where he went, what important speeches he made, and who was accompanying him.The second edition is about department dynamics, which bureau chief presided over which important meetings, and which bureau chief went to the countryside to visit the poor and ask for help.The third edition is a special topic, praising the great achievements of departments and towns.Whether these figures are true or not, I am afraid that only the department leaders know.There is a fee for this page.The fourth page is the main news, which publishes the major international and domestic events of the previous day found from the Internet. This kind of newspaper full of rubbish is published every day, and the speeches of the leaders are important every day, and the meetings of the departments are also important every day.Such a newspaper can be flipped through in less than a minute, and it hurts the brain to read less than three lines.Does anyone buy such a newspaper?Why does the newspaper have such a large economic strength?Not only did they build this ten-story building, but everyone's wages were pretty good. I remembered the days when I was a civil servant in the northern county.At that time, every November, a meeting was held with the participation of all county departments. The content of the meeting was to subscribe to newspapers and periodicals. County-level daily newspapers must be subscribed, and how many subscriptions must be completed. The money can be reimbursed from the county finance.In fact, why are county-level newspapers rich?The reason for being rich is financial allocation and self-generated income.Think about it, with such a business model, it's hard not to be rich. However, in a small county with hundreds of thousands of people, how much news needs to be reported and published every day?The result of this is that in addition to wasting paper and ink, a large amount of waste paper is also produced, which makes the boss of the waste collection station smile. The newspaper office has recruited more than a dozen people this time, but the newspaper has not expanded its edition, and the newcomers are doing nothing all day long.I proposed to Mr. Zhao that I wanted to complete the unannounced visit of the wine trustee.Mr. Zhao was very interested, he said this is the real news.He specially approved 500 yuan for the activity, and let me enter the inside of the liquor store. I shaved a bald head specially, looking at myself in the mirror is completely different from my previous self, my cheeks have grown flesh, and my skin has also turned white. I guess the people in that black bar will not recognize me, How many people do they come into contact with every day, they must have forgotten me long ago.I went back to the provincial capital, ready to break into that black bar to work. Behind the wine holder is a black bar.The black bar and the wine trustee are colluding and sharing the spoils.But how did they divide the spoils? I walked into that bar, there was no change in that bar, there were still some thugs in tiger "overalls" scattered around the bar, they mixed in the crowd coming and going, like sand mixed in millet, want to It is difficult to identify.Inside the bar were still thugs in yellow T-shirts pretending to be waiters.I spoke the Northeast dialect and said that I came to look for a job and had just come to this city from the Northeast. At that time, Uncle Benshan and Fan Weiwei were promoting Northeast Mandarin on TV. People who liked them could speak a few words of Northeast dialect. I was born with language talent, and I could speak a decent dialect after a few days of learning. Disguise real ones.The bartenders speak Northeast dialect, and many thugs in the bar also speak Northeast dialect.Later I learned that the underworld-like industry of wine trust also spread from the Northeast to the whole country. "We don't want people," said a waiter. I said, "I've worked in bars before and played keyboards." The waiter was surprised, he asked: "What is a keyboard player?" I said, "How much money can you earn by waiting for people to drink like you? We bring people in to drink in every corner of our hometown." The waiter said, "Wait." Then he went into a room inside. After a few minutes, a tall man came out with several blue scars on his face.Later, I thought that this man might have been controlled by someone, and he scratched his face a few times with a knife, and then sprinkled blue ink on it, which later became these blue scars. This man is already a member of the underworld. He exudes a kind of evil and murderous aura, which makes people frightened.He is different from our deputy editor-in-chief. Our deputy editor-in-chief just looks like a gangster. Although he looks fierce, he has a kind heart. Blue Scar's eyes were like poisonous snakes, exuding a menacing light, and he asked, "Why did you come to us?" I pretended to be terrified and avoided his eyes. In fact, I was really a little scared at that time. I said, "I went to a few bars, and they didn't want people. I came to see you." Blue Scar asked: "Have you done it before?" I nod. "What did you do?" His eyes pressed hard. "I have worked as a receptionist and as a waiter." "What did you say about the keyboard player just now?" "I've done it too. Now many bars have keyboard players." I said to the blue scar again what I said to the waiter just now. "We are serious businessmen, we don't do these things." Blue Scar said solemnly, "You go." I feel very lost.A waiter sent me to the corridor, and suddenly said: "Brother, leave a phone number and make friends. There are many friends and many roads. If you have a good place, tell your buddies." I want to leave the paging number to He suddenly felt something was wrong again, because the paging number had been left for the bartender.Maybe they have a "record" of how every stupid fish can be contacted. I said, "I don't have a phone." The waiter left me his cell phone number, and he asked me to call him tomorrow, and he said he thought I was a nice person, worth paying for. My heart heats up.In fact, this is their recruitment process, I didn't know it at the time.Their organization is too strict, and if they are not careful, they will be discovered and cause a disaster of death. Coming out of the bar, I wandered aimlessly, it was getting dark, and in order to save money, I checked into a small hotel deep in the alley.Going up the stairs, walking into the door, opening the window, I suddenly saw a person walking by under the window, wearing a "tiger" overalls, and seemed to glance upstairs inadvertently. It wasn't until now that I suddenly realized that I had been followed all the way.If I hadn't made an unannounced visit to this bar and didn't know the "Tiger Suit" logo, I would never have known it anyway, and there were people following me all the way. Did they discover me, did they suspect me. That night, I fastened the door of the room, and I was very nervous when there was any disturbance outside.I originally wanted to change to another hotel, but felt sorry for the tens of dollars.When it was almost midnight, I still couldn't sleep. Later, I asked the boss to change to the downstairs house.If they come to this hotel to look for me, if they go upstairs, they will pass my door, and I will take the opportunity to escape. I spent the night in fear that they never showed up.After lunch, I called the phone number left by the waiter, and I said, "Brother, I really can't find a job. If you have a job, please introduce it to me." The waiter said, "Come here." I was surprised. It turns out that they will reject everyone who comes to find a job, but they will ask you to leave your contact information.Then they follow you, see where you live, who you interact with, and when they feel you are trustworthy, they contact you to come to work.