My 18 years old, in the nightclub as a male model

1

At the end of October 2015, at the age of 27, I once again became a “northern drifter”.

When I applied for a job as a waiter in a nightclub on Gongtixi Road in Beijing, the supervisor who interviewed me hesitated for half a minute and pointed to my slab inch and said, “Your hair, you must take care of it before you go to work tomorrow.” He said, he also pointed to the boy sitting next to him: “Look at his hair, this is in line with the requirements of our nightclub waiter.”

The boy’s name is Li Kang, his milk gray hair into a bullet head, nose, sunny and handsome, dressed trendy, with a pair of Nike feet, and I, too, to apply for the waiter.

This evening, Li Kang and I were assigned to the same dormitory, 10 square meters of the size of the room, placed 3 iron beds. When packing up the beds, Li Kang moved four cardboard boxes about 40 centimeters long and wide, placed at the bottom of the bed, quite mysterious.

Almost finished, I went with Li Kang to the nearby market to buy household goods. On the way to talk, I learned that he is an Anhui Fuyang, only 18 years old, before learning hairdressing, but also in the beauty salon did sales.

There are many stores selling quilts, sheets and towels in the underground mall, so I was ready to buy some and go back to the dormitory, but Li Kang stopped me and said, “Let’s shop around again, compare the prices, so that we can bargain.”

Li Kang took me through the mall, stopping at each store, he would first feel the fabric, then ask the price, and then shop the next. After about half an hour of shopping, he walked into a slightly larger store and asked, “Boss, how much is this comforter?”

“It’s a down comforter, 280.”

“I just asked several people, they only want 100.”

“They are fake down, filled with cotton wool, this is real, don’t believe me, feel it.”

Li Kang touched it and said, “You are also fake, 80 to sell?”

The vendor looked bitter: “80 I have lost money, the minimum 100.”

Li Kang pointed to me: “We both buy, if the price is cheap, I then introduce our dormitory people to come, there are more than 20 it.”

The vendor pretended to look difficult, but his mouth promised.

Then, Li Kang in this store to buy the same thing, will cut the price to death, until the vendor said decisively not to sell, he will stop. When we both finished purchasing, he also asked the vendor to send a sheet, the vendor some helpless: “boy, you are so handsome, wearing or Nike, poor this money?”

Li Kang did not answer.

On the way back, I asked him: “You are so young, buy things will bargain?”

“I’m not stupid, the savings still have to save.”

2

In order to work in the lobby of the nightclub – where you get tips from the customers – the waiters had to work for a month in the “mobile department” where the drinks were delivered, and we newcomers had to memorize the names of the drinks, the prices, the notes on serving the customers, the personnel structure, etc. During this time, the salary was only a base salary.

The rule of the nightclub was that whenever managers above the manager level passed by the bar, the waiters had to greet them with a loud voice: “Good evening, Mr. X!” The supervisor will be directly beside us to assess, any voice is not loud or greeting is not timely, will be criticized. In the dim light, I often misidentified people, very embarrassing, while Li Kang only less than three days, the night store management remembered all the people.

I asked him the secret, he told me: when he saw those “total” people come, he tried to write down their faces and surnames, and when they left, he would ask the director of these people in charge of the specific matters in the nightclub. Later, when greeting the “total” people, Li Kang would also add some lines, “Brother, you’re dressed so handsome today! Or, “Sister, the dress you’re wearing today really shows off your figure!”

There is a Buddhist shrine near the “mobile department”, and the “chiefs” would come to offer incense every day before they went to work. Whenever this time, Li Kang will “just happen” to stand on the side and talk to them, when the right time to pull out the lighter to light the incense, the action is natural and smooth, without deliberate.

One night, the supervisor asked me and Li Kang to go to the lobby to clean up the cups, we were busy, suddenly, the general manager of the nightclub came over with a few friends. The general manager thought we were the waiters in the lobby and asked us to bring the wine list to order wine.

Li Kang hurriedly brought over the wine list, half squatting beside the main guest so that he could read it first, and then attached to the general manager’s ear and said something covertly. After the general manager simply returned his words, Li Kang nimbly ordered some affordable drinks for the guest, and naturally took out a lighter and lit a cigarette for the guest of honor. The guest of honor took out a tip of 200 yuan to give to Li Kang, but he didn’t accept it, saying “I should”, but the guest of honor asked him to take it.

On the way back, I asked Li Kang, “What did you say to the general manager?”

“I asked the general manager whether to order more expensive drinks or relatively cheap ones – so that I could know whether the relationship between the general manager and the guest was a friend or a customer.”

I then understood the reason why when the main guest gave Li Kang a tip, he looked at the general manager, which was asking for the general manager’s opinion.

After that, Li Kang took the initiative to get together with the supervisors of the “service department” and often brought meals to them. Half a month after the internship, the general manager even praised him in the staff meeting, and the manager of the service department then made an exception and transferred him to work in the lobby earlier.

3

After a month of “internship”, I also passed the test and joined the lobby as a waiter. According to the usual practice, the manager of the “service department” would assign a “master” to the newcomer who had just entered the lobby, and the newcomer would be taken by the “master” to serve the customers together for one month before he could The newcomer will be taken by the “master” to serve the customers together, and only after a month can the “master” work alone.

Li Kang, who entered the lobby half a month before us, suddenly proposed to the manager in a meeting that he wanted to change a senior waiter who could earn 20,000 tips a month to be his “master”, and the manager agreed.

I later realized that Li Kang’s move is not only to make more money, or looking for a backer: a small nightclub, in fact, is an enlarged field of fame and fortune, the waiters are divided into two or three factions for the benefit of newcomers, if they stand in the wrong line, not only can not earn much tips, but also be squeezed by older employees.

Since then, Li Kang has earned more and more tips, and even created the myth of earning thousands of tips for three consecutive nights – of course, I understand the way he serves his guests.

Once, I was next to the card table served by Li Kang. Li Kang’s guests were several women. He stood behind the main guest and kept massaging her shoulders and whispering in her ear, she waved her hand and Li Kang took out a paper fan and gently fanned her. Another guest gestured for Li Kang to pour her a drink. Li Kang made an OK gesture, but did not move immediately, but continued to stand behind the main guest and fan her.

After receiving a tip of 800 RMB from the host of his booth, Li Kang came back to my booth, asked me who was the guest of honor, and then repeated what he had done before: first toasting a glass of wine to the guest of honor, then feeding him a piece of fruit, then massaging his shoulder, taking out a paper fan to fan the guest of honor, and even taking out a paper towel to wipe his shoes.

Unexpectedly, Li Kang got another 200 yuan tip, he handed me 100 yuan, attached to my ear and said, “You can’t serve guests like this, learn from me, you must make the guests embarrassed, they have face, only then will they pay the tip.”

At that time, I was very stubborn and thought that as long as I served the guests on the table well and “moistened things”, I could naturally get a tip, but I often returned empty-handed. I was very resistant to Li Kang’s pompous way of service, and I couldn’t muster up the courage to learn.

Li Kang saw that I did not say anything, and then attached to my ear and said: “Are you stupid? We are waiters, we have to earn money, we are not volunteers, and the store does not let us ask for tips in front of the customers, so if we don’t serve the customers like me, how can we earn tips?”

But I always feel that this is not right, slowly, the relationship between me and Li Kang more and more subtle, his circle is the manager and senior waiters, while I in the nightclub seems out of place. Then later, we both met occasionally and stopped talking.

4

After two months of waitressing, I suddenly heard the news that Li Kang was moving to the “male model department”. I couldn’t believe it, so I asked for confirmation in person. Under the ambiguous lights of the nightclub, Li Kang answered me with an indifferent face: “What’s wrong with being a ‘male model’? It is just to accompany female customers to drink some wine and chat for a while? In this era, as long as the money is fast, anything will do.”

At night before going to work, Li Kang sat on his bed and looked at the mirror to trace his eyebrows, another roommate teased him: “Li Kang, will you be available by then?”

Li Kang laughed: “If the girl is good-looking, I’m sure to introduce ah.”

“You are a man, where did you learn how to do makeup?”

“I worked as a salesman in a beauty salon for two years before, what is a makeup? Look at my nose, I have had a nose job! In this day and age, it’s all about looks. I have to go to the barber store to clean up later.”

In the nightclubs at that time, “male models” and “ladies” (paid female escorts) work the same nature, but the treatment is not the same. The “ladies” are in high demand, some can accompany three crop of customers in one night. The female customers who come to the nightclub to spend less, “big sister” (rich guests) is even less, and female customers generally do not actively seek “male models”, then the “male model department” manager must personally The manager of the “male model department” must personally sell.

One night, a few days later, I was standing by the card table serving two women in their 40s when the manager of the “male model department” came over and gave the guests a toast, then sat on the sofa and asked if they needed a “male model”. The customer waved his hand, the manager was not discouraged, and persuaded a long time, the customer finally reluctantly agreed.

Shortly after, two “male models” came over and stood opposite the guest for the guest to choose. The guest shook his head and said “too mature. Then the manager changed two more over, the guests feel that the dress is too exaggerated.

After a few changes, Li Kang was chosen by one of the guests.

Li Kang was sitting on the card seat, attached to the guest’s ear and kept talking about something, which made the guest laugh. After chatting with the guest for a while, Li Kang played poker with the guest again. When the guest won, Li Kang applauded and then urged the guest to take a big sip of wine; when the guest lost, Li Kang showed an aggrieved look and took a big sip of wine himself.

When the guest went to the bathroom, Li Kang picked out a piece of watermelon in the fruit plate and used a toothpick to pick it into the shape of a peach heart, and when the guest returned to the card table, he picked up the watermelon and handed it to the guest’s mouth, who was a little hesitant but opened his mouth to eat it.

That day, when the guests left, bought two bottles of champagne for Li Kang – “male models” to accompany the guests unlike the “beauty” as a direct credit card or cash tip, but the guests need to “male models” to buy champagne in the name of 600 yuan per bottle.

My 18 years old, in the nightclub as a male model
This month’s payday, Li Kang bought three pairs of Nike shoes online in one breath, the new style, a pair of at least a thousand dollars. When the shoes arrived at the dormitory, Li Kang washed his feet, put on new socks and carefully unpacked them to try them on. He walked around the room, taking a few pictures of one pair of shoes, then went to try another pair. After trying them all, he put the shoes into the shoe box, then dragged out the cardboard box under the bed and carefully put the shoe box in it.

Then, Li Kang dragged out another cardboard box, which was full of Nike shoe boxes. He opened them one by one, picked up the shoes, and when there was dust or dirt, he used paper towels with some water to wipe them once.

A roommate asked him curiously, “Why do you buy so many Nike shoes?”

Li Kang did not answer.

Not long after, he bought another Hermes belt and an iPhone 6S phone that had just been released.

Li Kang continues to be a “male model”. Every night before going to work, he will elaborately make up and dress up, and then go to the nearby barber store to spend 30 yuan the whole hair. The “male model” and the “beauty” as well, pay attention to the appearance of positioning, some of the practice of a muscle, quite masculine, and some, like Li Kang, take the “boy” route –Of course, they must be handsome.

5

A rare day off, I slept until 11:00 pm. People who work in nightclubs have little entertainment on their days off other than going to nightclubs and drinking – when we wake up, it’s usually night time and most of the city’s attractions are closed.

I got up and washed up, ready to go downstairs to buy a fast food. Li Kang, who was resting in bed, also woke up and asked me to bring one for him, and a few beers on the way.

When I returned to the dorm after buying food, Li Kang was already up. He opened a beer, took a sip, and suddenly said: “Tang, you, you are not suitable to work in the nightclub, you are too honest. After working in a nightclub for a few months, you haven’t earned much money, have you?”

I nodded with a bitter smile – at that time I was the least earned waiter in the nightclub, a month’s base salary plus tips only about 2,500 yuan, while in the nightclub sweeping the floor of the aunt, a month also 3000 yuan.

“Then why don’t you think about changing it?”

I didn’t know how to answer, so I asked back, “Then why did you change your career to be a ‘male model’?”

I don’t know how the words touched Li Kang, he said he wanted to talk to me tonight, finished, and ordered take-out with his phone, and after the courier delivered a few dishes and a few bottles of wine, he slowly told his story.

Li Kang was born in the countryside, and when he was 4 years old, his mother took advantage of the night to flee her poor home. His father had to go out to work in order to provide for his two children, leaving Li Kang and his brother in the care of two relatives, who were not well received by their snobbish elders. During the years when Li Kang was in elementary school, he was kicked out by several relatives for “disobedience” and “like to fight. Li Kang knew what it was like to be a stranger, “they were a family, I was an outsider, not comfortable”.

When he was in the sixth grade, Li Kang was sent to the home of a distant uncle. The uncle was selling buns in front of the school and got up at 3 a.m. every day to knead the dough, dropping it with a “pop” sound and cursing under his breath. Li Kang, even if he was stupid, understood his uncle’s intentions, so he had to get up and run to him to do the job silently. After school, Li Kang also had to do chores – although his aunt and uncle did not open their mouths to make him do them, Li Kang noticed that if he did the chores every day, his aunt and uncle’s face would be soothed, otherwise they would pull a long face.

Students in the class always talked behind his back, saying that Li Kang’s mother had run away with someone and that he was a motherless wild child. When Li Kang heard this, he picked up a small stone on the side of the road and smashed it hard against his classmates. Several classmates threw him to the ground and surrounded him with punches and kicks. When Li Kang limped home and complained to his uncle, he thought his uncle would go to school to give him an explanation, but instead he scolded him for not studying hard at school and fighting every day.

With chronic sleep deprivation and bitterness in his heart, Li Kang’s grades slowly got worse and worse.

When he reached junior high school, his father returned to the countryside from the city to farm. At that time, the classmates took wearing Nike shoes as a fashion, so Li Kang wanted a pair, he naively thought that as long as he could wear Nike, he and everyone else would be equal and could play together.

He mentioned to his father about buying shoes, and he scolded him for not knowing what to do. So one night, Li Kang stole 500 yuan from his father and went alone by car to the Nike store in the city. Faced with a wide range of shoes, he was excited, but had some guilt in his heart: his father was just a farmer and did not earn much money in a year, so 500 yuan was not a small amount for his family.

Li Kang hesitated for a long time, but walked out of the store. In the roadside store, he found a lot of Nike shoes on the shelves, and asked the price, only 80 yuan. The boss told him, “This is out of size, absolutely genuine”.

Li Kang bit the bullet and still bought a pair.

Back home, because of stealing money, Li Kang was beaten by his father, but looking at the Nike shoes in his hand, he felt it was worth it.

The next day, Li Kang wore the shoes to school, the shoes, although the style is inconspicuous, but still got a lot of students chase stick, until a classmate said, “You this shoe is fake, Nike simply does not have this style.”

This time, Li Kang seemed to become a joke, after class there are always many students around him to see the shoes, he was embarrassed, just like when he was a child, classmates scolded him for not having a mother.

After that, Li Kang never went to school again. His father felt that his grades were already bad, so he stopped forcing him to study.

6

After dropping out of school, Li Kang stayed at home for a few months and followed his relatives to Beijing, where he learned to cut hair in a barbershop.

There was a female apprentice in the store who was very pretty, and Li Kang had a secret feeling, but he didn’t dare to talk to her, so he wrote a letter of confession, but the girl refused, “She said she was still young and didn’t want to find a boyfriend. I was furious and called to ask her, she finally told me that it was because I was not handsome”.

For the first time, Li Kang felt the importance of “face value”. He began to care about his own image, often in the barber store to read fashion magazines, research what kind of face shape with what kind of hair and dress.

The barber store business is not good, the store manager introduced an incentive mechanism, said that all can be with the customer to sell the annual card and wash products, apprentices also have a commission. Li Kang also wanted to earn more money, but he grew up introverted, not used to talking with strangers, not to mention to sell products.

He was at a loss until the store manager talked to him, saying that if he couldn’t sell three annual cards in a month, he would be fired.

“If people don’t change, they will be eliminated by society, there is no way out.” Li Kang did not have a degree, he did not know what else to do when he left the barber store, as for going back home to the countryside – “I’m not going back, the place is too poor, there is no future.”

On the night he was called to talk by the store manager, Li Kang spent half a month’s salary and invited the store manager and several hair stylists out to dinner. At the dinner table, the manager taught him some techniques to sell the annual card: seize the time to wash the hair, chat with the female customer, praise her good skin, or wear clothes that complement the body, etc.. In short, do not talk about the hair at first, when you are about to finish washing your hair, only then mention the card intentionally or unintentionally, so that customers feel natural, and embarrassed to refuse.

Li Kang then tried to follow the store manager’s teachings. When he washed a female customer’s hair, she complimented him on his good looks in public, which surprised him, so he complimented the customer on his beautiful eyes. Then later, some female customers would name him to wash their hair every time they came for a haircut. Slowly, Li Kang lively up, a month can sell a lot of annual card.

Once, when Li Kang was selling the annual card to a female customer, the customer complimented him on his knowledge of sales and said, “Why don’t you go with me to do beauty sales, and you can get several times the current salary. Li Kang thought about it, think hairdresser really do not earn much money, and hard, so agreed.

The sales of beauty salon is different from barber store, need to take the initiative to pull people on the street. At that time, Li Kang has learned to “package” himself, he “hands-on”, first in the beauty salon nose, but also moved the chin, and then in the sales to customers directly “to say He would first praise the girl’s beauty, and only then would he say “if I had a nose”, “a little more chin”, “it would be perfect”. “would be more perfect”.

“The girl heard although not immediately with me to go to the beauty salon surgery, but the heart will certainly think about. I then smoothly leave contact information to maintain the relationship, after a short time, they will half push and half come.” Speaking of this, Li Kang is a little smug.

Li Kang in the beauty salon is very hard, also pulled a lot of customers, but the salary in the sales staff is only medium – sales managers in the allocation of resources, often to their own cronies more, like Li Kang such newcomers can get fewer resources – which makes Li Kang realize that just bury their heads in the money is not feasible, but also to befriend their bosses, otherwise no more hard work can not earn money.

Taking advantage of the sales manager’s birthday, Li Kang gritted his teeth and bought a very expensive cake, and also sent a red packet of 888 yuan. The manager was so happy that he pulled Li Kang and called him a brother at the wine table. After that, whenever the sales manager had good resources, he would give it to Li Kang, and Li Kang would take part of his salary every month to “honor” the manager in order to maintain the relationship.

Li Kang and the sales manager got closer and closer, just like the manager’s little brother. In this way, many of the old employees who were hurt by the interests of the staff began to be quite critical of Li Kang. At first, there is a manager to cover him, most of his colleagues dare not speak, and then dislike Li Kang more people, the manager can not offend the public anger, it is not good to say anything.

After two years of working in the salon, Li Kang was marginalized and had to leave.

Speaking to me here, Li Kang’s face has tears, he said he learned his lesson, so he could do as well as he could in the nightclub.

7

“So you became a ‘male model’ just to make money?”

Li Kang wiped his tears: “Yes, I just want to make money. I know there are some waiters talking about me behind my back, I don’t care, they can never understand the meaning of ‘poor and afraid’.”

When working in the beauty salon, Li Kang went home for New Year’s Eve, and when his classmates gathered, he would deliberately wear the latest model of Nike shoes. The classmates would no longer look down on him and would even flatter him. This makes Li Kang very useful: “Some students even said that after graduation to join me in Beijing. I can’t go back to my old life of poverty.”

“Then why did you buy so many Nike shoes?”

“I don’t know why, I just can’t help it, I know I can’t wear them all. This feeling you may not understand, buy, the heart is very solid.”

“In fact, when you earn money, you are fully equipped to do what you want to do.”

Li Kang told me that he likes to draw and wants to be a clothing designer. I asked him to show me the paintings, he was a little hesitant, but still took out a pile from under the pillow. The top one was a drawing of some flowers and a dress pattern – indeed, it wasn’t very good, the lines were stiff and awkward.

He pointed to a few oval buttons in a blouse style: “Look at the pattern on the buttons, does it look like a mother’s hand? Don’t you feel happy when the mother holds her son in her arms?”

I suggested that Li Kang try to submit his sketches to some clothing companies to see if he could apply for a position as a clothing designer’s assistant. But Li Kang was not very enthusiastic: “It’s impossible for a person with no education like me to succeed in anything.”

“My education is also very low, and my writing can occasionally be published in the newspaper.” I encouraged him.

Later, Li Kang put together some drawings and wrote an earnest letter of introduction, saying that he could bear hardships, and that he could do without the salary as long as the company could give him a position of assistant fashion designer, and that he would study seriously and would certainly not let the company down. Then, he put the drawing together with the letter to the headquarters of a domestic clothing company.

“If you apply for the job, will you quit your job as a ‘male model’?”

“As long as the job application is successful, I will leave the same day.”

Li Kang’s job was getting better and better, and occasionally he served customers in my card table, and he would ask for tips from them, and I was afraid that he would get drunk, and I would pour iced tea into his glass behind his back (because the color was basically the same as the wine).

Early one morning, a video was wildly circulated in the workplace circle, a nightclub drink sales because of drunkenness, suddenly died suddenly while eating in a breakfast restaurant.

Li Kang lamented, “Do you think that like me, who has to drink so much wine with customers every day, will it happen one day?”

I didn’t know how to answer him, but just asked, “Have you still not received a reply to the resume you submitted?”

Li Kang shook his head.

8

Early one morning, two male customers in their 30s came to the adjacent table. They didn’t order “Beauty”, but two “male models”, among which was Li Kang. Li Kang wanted to refuse, but the manager of the “male model department” whispered something in his ear, so he reluctantly sat next to one of the male customers.

After drinking for a while, one of the male guests pulled out a tissue, then asked the waiter to bring the color, four men played a game of “licking the tissue” – the loser of the game of color, to use their lips or tongue to lick the other’s mouth on the tissue over. The tissue paper is getting less and less, and finally Li Kang’s mouth is left with only two centimeters of paper, the male guests lost, sticking out their tongues directly to Li Kang’s mouth to lick the paper over.

This is a classic flirting game in nightclubs, only the participants are all male, but rarely seen. The waiter at the lead table whispered in my ear, “These two men must be gay.”

They continue to play the game, encounter the “male model” lips on the tissue less, the male customers will be excited to lips up. And if the male guests on the lips of the tissue less, Li Kang and another “male model” glass will be poured full, let them drink a full cup.

Soon Li Kang could not stand up, stood up to go to the bathroom, two steps out and began to fall to the east. I hurriedly held him up and went into the bathroom, where he held the sink and threw up all at once. I advised Li Kang not to go back, but he said, “If I don’t go back, the tip will be gone and all that wine will be wasted.

I had to help him back to the card table again and watch a few of them continue to play games. At 5:00 in the morning, there were only a few tables left in the club, and Li Kang was lying on the sofa talking with the customers, so I had to clean up the card table first, thinking that I would help Li Kang back to the dormitory when I got off work later.

However, when I came back after taking out the garbage, the adjacent booth was empty.

That day, Li Kang did not return to the dormitory until the evening, no one knows what happened that day, I asked him, he also refused to say. He was lying alone in bed with his eyes closed, not knowing whether he was asleep or not. His face was made up to cover up some pimples, but it still showed a childish childishness.

It didn’t take long for me to leave my job, and until now Li Kang is still working as a “male model”. As for his dream of being a fashion designer, I asked him several times, and he said that it had long been gone.