Overnight
The fifth single, came a net car. The door opened, the smell of vomit scattered, Wang Zhifa dry heaves a little. He will wipe the car towel tied around his face, cover his mouth and nose, and then to find disposable gloves. Liu Shuxian to hands over the garbage bags, will also wrap the arms. The brother who did not go to college seems brave, he bare hands, in the back seat first look at a few eyes, back to shout them “hurry up thia”.
The driver was far away and stood on the step to watch them.
Spray water, sprinkle cleaner, wipe the body and tires, rinse, wipe dry, wipe the interior of the car, clean up the garbage. This is June 12 at 1 a.m., they opened a roadside car wash stand in Chongqing Jiulongpo District for the 15th day.
Their prep took a week, and the biggest cost was a car wash, 2,300 yuan. This is what they bought online, the physical store to three or four thousand dollars. Water pipe also online purchase of cheap, a red sign placed on the roadside, the top four words are “sincerity”, two bricks pressed feet. A set of old tables and chairs, an iron frame, two plastic buckets, two car wash mops, a few towels, is all the car wash stand.
This is not a busy area, under the bridge, a crossroads, the stall is a valve only occupies three car parking spaces in the open space. Every night, from 21:00 to 5:00 the next day, they wear shorts and slippers, muddy calves, forked legs sitting on the roadside waiting for cars to come. To ward off sleepiness, each person to smoke off half a pack of cigarettes. During the day, there are city police, can not open.
The car washed for nearly 40 minutes, three or four times the usual, the driver paid 50 yuan, the throttle a step away.
Three people breathed a sigh of relief, Wang Zhifa said: Fuck, it’s disgusting. Brother expression is very calm, in the army when planting vegetables, hands and feet have to be fast, he sometimes directly with his hands to grab pig manure fertilization. Wang Zhifa and Liu Shuxian about his own retching just now, began to laugh playfully.
Liu Shuxian is 26, her brother is 28 and Wang Zhifa is 25. They are from a mountain village in Chongqing and are both single-parent families. Two families seem to be hastily scribbled in the formation, Wang Zhifa has two sisters, shortly after his birth, his father fled family planning to hide in the mountains, and passed away in an accident. Liu Shuxian’s mother met her father when she was working in Guangdong and had a child before she was an adult, and they did not receive a marriage license. The father soon had another family, and the siblings grew up living with their mother in a foreign family.
The brother graduated from high school and then did not study, the sister and Wang Zhifa graduated from Chongqing Engineering College. The brother is more able to bear hardships, think less about everything, and his mantra is “do the right thing at the moment”. The idea of opening a car wash stand was proposed by Liu Shuxian, who saw the low cost of car washing when she ran the chauffeur. After Wang Zhifa was invited to cooperate, they began to plan to open a car wash business, they repeatedly said that now is only preliminary research.
After the college entrance exam, Liu Shuxian sold baked gluten in the county, people came and went on the street, Liu Shuxian’s mouth could not open. Wang Zhifa grew up following his mother to sell vegetables, his mother is responsible for weighing, he counted and collected money. In order to avoid mistakes, he wrote the price of vegetables on paper, pressed to the bottom, can not remember to glance at.
After more than a decade of reading, from the bright college classroom back to the dimly lit roadside, they are a little uncomfortable, especially when it comes to facing the outside world.
A friend to take care of business, see Liu Shuxian bent down for him to wipe the car, and immediately cried, “Look what you have become. Liu Shuxian said in a coarse voice: “Cry a ghost, wash and hurry to roll. “In the past, we used to gather for dinner, around the big round table, there is no difference in respect, drinking wine is also flat cup toast, these activities, she has not been there for a long time.
Wang Zhifa and college roommates are the closest, he did not say to them that he was washing cars.
This job has no technical content. A kilometer away, an old couple washed cars for two years. Two people with gray hair, hunched back, a night can wash 50 cars.
The market price is similar, washing cabs for 8 yuan, online cars for 10 yuan, and private cars for 15 yuan. The drivers soon found that these three young people are different, meticulous, slow but clean, and more service-minded. In fact, business has gradually taken off, the number of car washes per night from 2, 5, 9, gradually fixed at 20 to 30.
They know how to promote, a driver to wash the car, praised the quality of their service, they asked each other to help promote, the driver has nearly 4,000 fans shot a video to Shake. When the driver came back, they handed him cigarettes, greeted him with a late-night snack, asked him for improvement ideas, and promised to help him hang publicity ads as a replacement.
The video brought in the local media and learned that two of them were college graduates. Soon, the story was on the Zhihu Hot List and quoted them as saying, “Face is not important, what matters is to fight for your dream”, a topic with 1,600 people There were 1,600 replies and 1.78 million views in the topic, and the two most liked replies were: “Do you think it’s wrong to arrange good jobs for people? ” and “can live a good life is very impressive! “
Liu Shuxian and Wang Zhifa obediently changed the name of their own Shake Sound, hiding the content of their previous lives and posting videos related to car wash stalls on it.
In 2020, China’s birth population will be 12 million and the number of college graduates will be 8.74 million. More and more college students are entering the service industry, for example, there are 170,000 undergraduates among Meituan riders. The driver who gave them the shake-down felt that there was nothing to wash the cars of college students, and he contracted 19 cabs, of which three drivers are college graduates.
Wang Zhifa looked at the comments on Zhihu, even though many praise, they are still on the “waste of educational resources” speech. As we were talking, a driver came to wash the car and asked: “Are you college students working and studying? Wang Zhifa froze for a moment and said yes. This night, they washed a total of 23 cars, earning 270 yuan, 90 yuan per capita, far below the average monthly salary of Chongqing undergraduates.
“Make money.”
Liu Shuxian’s idea is very simple, a house, regardless of size good or bad. She lived in a foreign father’s house when she was a child, and now her siblings rent a house together, and she has always had a sense of wandering. They rented a room in an old industrial area, open the door is a retractable table, two low chairs, a simple cloth closet, Liu Shuxian sleeps on the bed, brother sleeps on the wooden sofa. When they first moved in, the house only had a yellowish tungsten lamp, and Liu Shuxian pulled the wires, installed incandescent lamps, and painted the house. To hang curtains found a knock nails, “swish” off the skin.
Liu Shuxian pulled out a cloth bag from under the sofa, which contained all the information from the university. All kinds of certificates are kept intact, in addition to degree and academic certificates, scholarship certificates, as well as the school required to take the Mandarin grade certificate.
She was a good student in college. At least in her freshman year, she didn’t miss a single class, sat in the first row in class, and didn’t fail any subjects. She tried to join the party and fought for the only target in the class, but was eventually robbed. The incident hit her so hard that she no longer wanted to get ahead, her grades regressed, and she failed one class.
Wang Zhifa freshman delivery to students, sold computers and four-piece bed sets, took over a courier store. In order to talk business, he invited people to drink. The other party proposed to go to the foot bath at night, Wang Zhifa did not dare to go, they sent them into the store, squatting on the side of the road vomit, the result of people fell into the ditch, until six o’clock the next morning to wake up thirsty.
In order to do business to earn money, Wang Zhifa skipped classes, failed, think they get a diploma on the line. Four years down the line, his grades belong to the “tail”, the entire professional 400 people, he ranked more than 300.
They “just want to make money”. This is a private second college, a year of tuition and fees need 15,000 yuan. Family can not support, the two tuition fees rely on loans, living expenses to earn their own, they are always thinking about the immediate livelihood, the development of the external environment does provide many conditions. Wang Zhifa’s roommate, Cheng Yuhang, comes from a well-to-do family and goes through the daily routine of attending classes, watching dramas after school, and going to have fun and fall in love on weekends.
They are willing to emphasize that they are starting a business, but they know very little about what and how to start a business. During his college years, Wang Zhifa did not listen to several lectures, he was impressed by one lecture, because the title was “Employment or Career First”, they did not soak in the library, rarely read books. They don’t read books, and they don’t know the classics of their major, except for shake and weibo, they love to listen to emotional radio programs.
The two of them have been in business for four years, and in 2017, at the back of the school, Liu Shuxian sold squid, and next door came Wang Zhifa, who sold baked sweet potatoes, and after getting acquainted, the two cooperated with another classmate to run a barbecue stall. The stall business is good, each can earn 3,000 yuan per month, for students, this is a significant income, it came in time to quench the thirst, than the profession studied in the future may be clear earnings.
Two young people also do not have the idea of saving or investing money, earn some money, then rush to buy a car, the two spent 30,000 down payment to buy a car. Buy back only to find that car loans and gas prices are also a burden, they had to run substitute driving on weekends and spend more time to earn money to cope.
In the university, no one discouraged them from doing business, but rather considered them capable bosses. They skipped the evening study to sell barbecue, thinking that it would be enough to make a good relationship with the counselor. The teacher knew about them and did not discourage them, but only told Wang Zhifa to take it easy and not to attract the jealousy of his classmates.
The risk of business finally came. Wang Zhifa and a friend to cooperate in opening a barber store, he was squeezed out, hard pitched 40,000 yuan. When everyone is busy writing thesis and looking for a job, Cheng Yuhang remember, then Wang Zhifa will be depressed, rarely go out with roommates again, on the bored smoking. The monthly car loan of 2,900 yuan could not be repaid, and Wang Zhifa kept doing various jobs to earn money.
Wang Zhifa’s self-esteem is strong, he once asked Cheng Yuhang to borrow 2,000 yuan, a month later to pay back. His bottom line is that he can’t involve his family. After the failure of opening a barber store, his mother gave him 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to pay off the debt, which made him feel very difficult.
In the summer after the college entrance exam, Wang Zhifa went to work at a construction site in Tianjin and earned 16,000 yuan in two months, half of which was given to his mother. After going to college, his family initially advised him not to toss and turn, study hard, and then see his business success, they no longer say anything.
Fill out the college volunteer, they decided to be a little hasty.
Liu Shuxian’s college entrance examination results could have been on the public second college, the class teacher repeatedly discouraged her to fill out the school. She guessed that it was the high school to ensure the promotion rate. Wang Zhifa does not remember that he filled in Chongqing Engineering College, the school called him and said you were admitted to our school, he was a little confused, and the acceptance letter was sent.
In these life choices, their families always seem to be absent.
Going with the flow
In 2020, Wang Zhifa graduated from college and went to Tianjin to learn construction wire-fitting under a master. In the middle of summer, he wore a red helmet, sweating, so hot he was dizzy and couldn’t stand still. Not long, he thought it was too hard, plus his girlfriend and the reason for the long distance, back home.
“That deserves you to wash the car. “Liu Shuxian’s brother heard the straight talk. Liu Shuxian thinks she can bear hardship. The second semester of the second year of high school, the senior school organization students to go to the electronics factory internship, the speed of the conveyor belt, Liu Shuxian repeatedly press a nail-sized computer parts every day, the fingers have blood blisters, she cried in pain. Work more than ten hours a day, a small half-year can not see the sun, so also persisted.
But the ability to suffer does not mean that you can find a good job. After graduation, Liu Shuxian went to look for a job in her profession, but after submitting more than 10 resumes, only one interview was invited, and the salary was about 2,000 yuan. In the company’s conference room, the leader was sitting, she was standing, to a circuit diagram, she was asked a lot of professional questions.
Liu Shuxian could not answer, frozen in place, nervous to blush, a voice in the heart said “cool”.
Huang Zhenbao is Liu Shuxian’s high school and college classmate. He has good grades in professional courses, participated in the National Student Electronic Design Competition, won the second prize in Chongqing, is a very high gold competition. The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
Academic discrimination either explicitly or implicitly, key university graduates have the qualifications to pick, college students have high employment rates for their majors, and second-year graduates seem to be in a position where they can’t go up and down. 2020, Chongqing University’s graduate employment rate is close to 95%, with one-third of them flowing to the Fortune 500, and the employment rate of Chongqing Industrial Vocational and Technical College, which belongs to a college or university, stays above 90% year-round in Chongqing , which is known for training skilled workers.
Just graduated, 24-year-old Liu Shuxian failed to find a job, someone called her and said she could provide a small bank loan, she ignored it and borrowed 18,000. The money did not work, five or six platforms called to urge her to pay back the bill, she went around to find friends to borrow money, and as a result, counting the interest, she paid back almost 40,000.
Wang Zhifa’s roommate, there are three people after graduation choose to study, public examinations and examinations career.
Cheng Yuhang is an only child, this well-off family feels that stability is most important, many relatives in the system, life goes smoothly. After graduation, Cheng Yuhang went home to take the civil service exam, two consecutive years without success, his family did not give him too much pressure, tutorials also paid a lot of tuition.
Wang Zhifa’s roommate Tang Yi in Sichuan on a construction project, he felt that here the wages are high, and a month can be five or six days off, he originally wanted to study, because of the time and economic costs gave up.
Liu Shuxian decided to do back to catering. She borrowed more than 100,000 yuan to rent a store, decoration, ready to be their own chef. The store business was fine at first, but after 3 months completely out of pocket. She transferred the store, to no avail. Before the house was due, an epidemic broke out. She went to work as a courier, and as a newcomer was assigned to run remote orders. Switching to another store, it wasn’t long before the company was bought out, resulting in her being laid off.
In order to pay off her debts, she sold the car she bought in college and replaced it with an electric scooter to ride when running valet.
After graduation, they did not show discomfort with going with the flow either. Liu Shuxian’s father never spoke to his siblings on the phone, and his mother felt that her children were a burden and rarely asked questions. As a child, Liu Shuxian was sent to her father’s house by her mother, and she refused to leave, hugging her mother’s leg and crying. The mother later had several partners, one of whom beat her and bruised her body. Later, the mother went into the pyramid scheme, Liu Shuxian was in high school at the time, kneeling down and begging her not to invest any more money, the tens of thousands of dollars, or cut off the mother-daughter relationship with her. The mother said, then I do not want you as a daughter.
Their entrepreneurship also failed to interact with social trends. In 2020, Chongqing issued a document to support college graduates in the incubation platform, the government encourages graduates to start their own businesses and provides various subsidies, which they know nothing about.
Liu Shuxian and Wang Zhifa said they were self-employed and did not have a business plan, so they could not get a small reward from the school for graduates who started their own business. In their senior year, the school offered a compulsory course specifically for entrepreneurship training, teaching the use of PS, CAD and other drawing software.
Looking back on these years, they earned the most money during their college years. They thought about going back to business near the school, but after the epidemic, the school closed its back door, the stores along the street closed down, ash fell on the glass, and weeds covered the steps.
It was late at night, the lights in the residential buildings were out, and only cabs whizzed by. Three people sat at a small round table, lit cigarettes, and set up a dragon’s nest. Wang Zhifa said that he would open a car wash in the future, operating on an assembly line, compressing the time per order to the shortest, attracting franchises, and becoming the world’s first. He said excited, a slap on the table, lush bangs also followed by shaking, “then take the wife’s parents out to travel, does not smell good? “
Liu Shuxian responded with a smile, “you are afraid not to have fantasy disorder oh”, is saying, the water pipe because the quality is too poor “Squeak” a break, the water flew up, Wang Zhifa was instantly drenched.
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