The city, the bustling streets, the brilliant neon lights, and the towering skyscrapers are its constituent parts.
Apart from the glamor, the sewers full of garbage, the cockroaches and mice crawling around, the homeless people under the bridge holes, and the wage earners living in slums are also part of the city.
Eighteen-year-old Wang Jiexiang fled her hometown and came to a big city to work.
The only person she knows here is her childhood playmate, Jiang Bingbing. Holding a torn note, Wang Jiexiang found the barber shop where Jiang Bingbing worked. The two hadn't seen each other for many years, she recognized Jiang Bingbing all of a sudden, but she didn't quite recognize her.
Wang Jiexiang was at the door of the barber shop and sat until it closed. Jiang Bingbing, who was off work, went to the food stall with her.
After a few glasses of wine, Jiang Bingbing complained to her: I wash people's hair every day, and my hands are wrinkled to make such a small salary; I share a small apartment with eight people, and the room smells of sweat, and other people's things are rubbish. Her place was taken up, and it was difficult to make room for her to sleep.
Wang Jiexiang listened and heard what she meant.
She's not doing well enough to help her.
After the meal, Jiang Bingbing gave her one hundred yuan to stay in a hotel, but Wang Jiexiang insisted on refusing to accept it.
With the three hundred yuan stolen from grandma, Wang Jiexiang went to the hotel to ask.
She was not willing to spend thirty thirty a day in a hotel. That night, she spent a whole night under the bridge hole, and the next day she made up her mind and rented a small room in the village in the city.
The small house is dilapidated, two hundred and five a month. The landlord felt sorry for her and didn't ask her for a deposit.
It was impossible to go back to her hometown. Wang Jiexiang started looking for a job. After searching for a week, she finally found a job selling oil in a supermarket.
After settling down, she worked hard, returned to her small house after get off work, and finally had a break to breathe.
Wang Jiexiang's first feeling about the city is: winter is too cold.
The house she lives in has only one room, and the toilet and bathroom are all shared. To boil water, wash hair, and wash clothes, they rely on the faucet connected to the outside of the house, and even that faucet is used by several people.
The hot water in the public bathroom is limited, and Wang Jiexiang is not used to going there. She usually uses tap water from the tap when she is not taking a bath. In winter, when she went home to wash her hair, she squatted by the faucet and rinsed it with cold water, screaming while washing.
It's also cold at work.
The supermarket recruited her because there was a peanut oil producer who needed publicity. In the cold weather, Wang Jiexiang had to stand all day at a temporary sales tent set up outside the supermarket.
There are actually two promoters selling oil. The other one besides her is an elder sister surnamed Xu, who was originally a salesperson in a supermarket.
According to the leader's arrangement, the two of them sold oil in the tent in shifts, but Ms. Xu said she was more familiar with the situation inside the supermarket, so she was in charge of the sales inside the supermarket, while Wang Jiexiang went outside to sell.
In order to sell oil better, Ms. Xu also taught her some small selling skills: you can stock up on gifts from manufacturers, and some customers don’t care what you want, so you don’t have to give them. When you come across customers who are more sophisticated and difficult to deal with, you can give gifts, give them more, and build a good relationship with them.
Wang Jiexiang listened to it.
But every time a customer buys oil and she plans to hide the gift, she always feels guilty, as if she took advantage of others. In the end, even if the customer didn't know there was a gift, she would still give it.
As a novice salesperson, Wang Jiexiang's oil sales performance is quite good.
Holding a small trumpet, she said whatever came to her mind, and made up her own promotional slogan for peanut oil.
"Don't miss it when you pass by, peanut oil is on sale."
"Peanut oil, delicious oil, fried skewers, the more oil, the more fragrant."
"Peanut oil, buy it; a lot of oil, a big promotion."
Her Mandarin has a strong accent, and passers-by will be attracted by her cries even if they don't buy oil. The glances cast at her were kind, and they thought she was funny, and some rolled their eyes, feeling ashamed for her.
Wang Jiexiang is ignorant of her own accent and fearless.
Regardless of those shameless people, she only knows that if she can sell oil and have a job, she can survive.
Sister Xu couldn't help sighing when she saw the cold wind blowing in winter, and Wang Jiexiang still had the energy to raise the horn to shout.
"It's good to be young, and you won't be tired at all standing outside for a day."
After hearing this, Wang Jiexiang smiled and didn't say much.
The oil sales went on like this for more than two weeks. Because of a small matter of giving a gift, there was a conflict between her and Sister Xu.
The supermarket was about to close that day, and Wang Jiexiang was packing up the tent when a male customer asked her to buy oil.
She followed the normal procedure and gave him a gift, a small jar of peanut oil.
The male customer asked her to get some more peanut oil. He said he was a relative of Sister Xu.
"The number of gifts provided by the manufacturer is corresponding. A large can of oil will give you a small can of oil. All customers are the same. If you give it to you again, there will be fewer gifts, and someone who buys oil tomorrow will not get a gift." Wang Jiexiang told him in embarrassment. explain.
The man rubbed on for a while, but she still refused to let go.
Looking at the time, Wang Jiexiang said: "If you don't count the money now, you won't be able to buy gas today, and the cash register will be closed soon."
The man had to leave.
After a while, the man who had finished counting the money came out with Sister Xu to look for her.
Sister Xu asked Wang Jiexiang angrily.
"He said he was my relative, why don't you take more gifts?"
"I really don't have anything extra here."
Sister Xu didn't believe her: "Didn't I teach you to stock up?"
Wang Jiexiang was silent.
"My relative came all the way, and I specially asked him to look for you, and see what you've done."
"Sorry." Wang Jiexiang apologized to them.
Sister Xu couldn't let go of her anger, and she was thinking about it.
"Now, the oil he bought is paid for, and there is no discount at all. Girl, I am not talking about you. You came out to work, how can you be so incapable of being a human being? You don't know how to sell, I will teach you by hand. If you don’t learn, have you been doing this for a long time?”
Wang Jiexiang was really depressed, so she gave her a word.
"If you stock up on gifts, ask your relatives to buy them from you, and you give him gifts. Why do you want him to find me?"
Sister Xu's face darkened.
She made a mistake and led her relatives away.
After calling there, Sister Xu never spoke to her again, and even the other salesmen who were close to Sister Xu became lukewarm towards Wang Jiexiang.
Wang Jiexiang approached Sister Xu several times to show her affection, but without exception, her nose was ashamed.
Even so, she didn't ask her to change back to the original shift arrangement arranged by the leader, and she still stood in the small tent outside.
It's not a big deal, is it? Wang Jiexiang thought optimistically: Maybe Ms. Xu is so angry that she will disappear one day.
I don't know if it's because the wind blows too much, or because she shouts too much, but after working for a month, Wang Jiexiang's throat hurts very badly.
She didn't make a new friend, and the only old friend she seldom contacted. She wanted to buy some medicine after get off work, but she didn't even know where the pharmacy was.
All the way home uncomfortable.
There are no street lights near where she lives. Wang Jiexiang is night blind and cannot see clearly at night.
Turning downhill and walking a few steps to her home, she walked forward with weak eyesight and bumped into a person suddenly.
He was squatting on the ground, there was a faucet there, he was probably brushing his teeth or something. Wang Jiexiang bumped into him, took a staggered step, and stepped forward hard to maintain her balance.
Did not step on the floor, stepped on something soft.
Panicked, she took a few more steps forward. This first step was still soft, and she stepped on the hard concrete floor with the second step.
"Yes, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"
Wang Jiexiang steadied the wall, turned her head and spoke to the vague figure.
Shadow didn't answer her, got up from the ground, and entered the room next door to her house.
"Boom!"
The door slams loudly.
The lights in that house turned on, and Wang Jiexiang could see the way.
She stared at the closed door next door for a while, swallowed, and recovered with difficulty.
This neighbor is weird...