Chapter 495 Encouraging the Laggards? (Bug Fixing): Those Who Can Lie Down Are Living in a Happy Era
Director Zeng of the e-commerce center was stunned and blurted out, "Then what are we responsible for?"
After all that, it seems like it has nothing to do with them anymore.
Wang Xiao smiled warmly and looked extremely sincere: "It would be really kind of you to trouble you to provide information on the relevant manufacturers and to make contact."
Director Zeng's expression softened somewhat. After all, he was a cadre from a ministry, truly skilled at managing his expressions; now it even looked like he was smiling slightly: "So, which manufacturers' information do you need?"
Strictly speaking, this isn't actually the responsibility of the e-commerce center. But since they're leading this project, they can naturally find other departments to handle it.
Wang Xiao made a direct request: "A factory with good profits and popular products."
Director Zeng was stunned: "A factory with good profits?"
Their original plan was to have the factory send people to learn, and whoever learned well and passed the assessment would be responsible for having their factory's products sold on the website.
This is essentially the same as performance evaluation, which naturally motivates factory workers to study hard. Only by studying well can they reap the rewards.
But what Mr. Wang said made things completely different.
Their purpose in engaging in e-commerce and circumventing export quotas through online shopping is to save state-owned enterprises that are going bankrupt due to overcapacity and unsold goods, isn't it?
Factories that are doing well are thriving; they don't need to ask for help.
Wang Xiao explained with a smile: "Popular products are of good quality and have a good reputation after going online, which easily creates positive feedback and makes them sell better and better. In addition, factories with good performance have their own unique management methods, ensuring continuous production and a stable supply of goods."
Director Zeng frowned subconsciously: "So you're just going to ignore the factories that have stopped operating? These factories have a large number of laid-off workers."
History clearly tells everyone that, throughout history and across the world, mass unemployment is a dangerous sign. Failing to address their employment issues can easily lead to chaos.
The previous crackdowns were all because there were too many unemployed people who could cause trouble even when there was none.
With a smile, Wang Xiao said earnestly, "These profitable factories, with more orders, naturally need to expand their production scale and recruit more workers. It's better to do what you know than what you don't. Factories prefer to hire skilled workers, which can save a lot of training time and costs. This way, laid-off workers can find new employment."
Director Zeng wanted to say something more, but Premier Hong made the final decision: "Since that's the case, then you should divide the work and cooperate to finalize the e-commerce platform as soon as possible, select the right products, and launch sales online as soon as possible."
As he spoke, the leader glanced at his watch and then stood up.
It's obvious I don't have time to waste with them here.
As soon as the senior leader left, the meeting host checked the time and immediately called out to everyone, "Let's eat."
The general direction has been set, but there are many issues to consider in order to implement it. We might not even be able to finish discussing them all today.
Everyone understood the situation and, without saying a word, followed them to the cafeteria.
Wow, I'm really lucky today. I didn't expect that the cafeteria's five-dish-and-one-soup buffet would include a dish of stir-fried preserved eggs with chili peppers.
This is the perfect dish to eat with rice! Wang Xiao immediately scooped some up for himself and used it to mix with his rice.
It smells good! It really smells good!
Yang Tao had thought the boss would discuss with them how to integrate the website with e-commerce platforms, but the boss didn't mention it at all. Instead, after silently finishing half a bowl of rice, he remembered her and called her name: "Yang Tao, you'll go to my website later."
Yang Tao was taken aback, then nodded instinctively, without even having a chance to ask any questions.
Her boss had already turned around and started talking to Zhang Tao, the person in charge of Wobuy.com: "Mr. Zhang, I'm very satisfied with your work, and you'll continue to be in charge of technical support. But you are indeed a bit weak in sales and website feature expansion. The industry is developing too fast now, and the number of users is exploding. I can't wait for you to grow any further; I have to find someone to help you."
She pointed to Yang Tao, "Manager Yang used to work at the Trade City, and later she was in charge of the Beijing business. You all had contact with her when I bought the website for listing in the US. She's quite familiar with sales, so she'll be in charge from now on."
Without saying a word, Zhang Tao immediately shook hands with Yang Tao to express his welcome: "We've been waiting for a master to come and save our lives."
He dared not have any ideas.
The boss even brought them in front of the Prime Minister, which shows just how big the website project is and how much importance it receives.
Moreover, the website's market value is now approaching 18 billion US dollars, which makes him extremely nervous, fearing that he might squander the precious 18 billion US dollars if he makes a careless move.
This is incredible! 18 billion US dollars! Just thinking about it makes my heart tremble.
If someone could share the responsibility with him, he would at least feel more at ease.
After arranging the personnel transfers, Wang Xiao buried himself in eating.
After finishing a bowl of rice, she didn't stop, but continued drinking soup.
The mutton offal soup was indeed delicious, piping hot and savory. Although there was chili oil, Wang Xiao unusually didn't add it, and just drank the original flavor of the mutton offal soup.
The milky white soup, sprinkled with bright green garlic leaves, looks incredibly tempting.
After finishing half a bowl of soup, she was feeling quite satisfied when Director Zeng came around with his rice bowl, sat down directly, and without any formalities, got straight to the point: "President Wang, I need to talk to you about the selection of this factory."
They weren't asking questions, they were making demands directly. Could Wang Xiao refuse and say, "Can we talk about this after we have a meal?"
Obviously not.
So she could only nod and say, "Please go ahead."
"It would be best to get this factory back to production as soon as possible. These workers have lived their whole lives at the factory, and if they have the opportunity to return to work, they should do so as quickly as possible."
After Director Zeng finished expressing his opinion, he asked Wang Xiao, "Don't you agree?"
Wang Xiao held the soup spoon, smiled, and remained silent.
Director Zeng pressed on, saying, "We should still help struggling enterprises; after all, we're a socialist family. We can't let the good get better and the bad get worse. We have to lend a hand in critical moments. The way of Heaven is to take from those who have more than enough and give to those who have less than enough; the way of man is to take from those who have less than enough and give to those who have more than enough."
Wang Xiao put down his soup spoon and said calmly, "So you mean that because the factories are not doing well and can't continue operating, they have to close down, so the government should give them more opportunities, right?"
Director Zeng did not deny it: "It is necessary to help those in need."
Their initial plan to select vendors to join the website through training was based on the prediction that the more difficult the situation, the more desperately the company would try to seize this opportunity.
Instead of sentencing them to death like we are doing now, leaving them no chance to recover.
Wang Xiao nodded: "I understand. From now on, all companies can just sit idly by. No matter how badly they perform, the government will eventually bail them out. Everyone can just wait to be fed."
Director Zeng dared not admit it: "That's not how it works."
Wang Xiao smiled and said clearly, "That's how it's done."
Director Zeng choked, his brows furrowing: "Then what about your product selection?"
“How do shopping malls select products in daily life? That’s how they select products online.” Wang Xiao’s smile remained unchanged, even her eyes were curved, but her voice was clear: “Online shopping is not inferior to physical shopping, and the requirements are no lower.”
Socialist shopping malls have no obligation to support factory development, so how come capitalist online shopping suddenly has this task?
Everyone should just do their job and take care of their own interests.
Director Zeng quickly emphasized, "Of course we can't be inferior to others."
In fact, although the international mainstream now believes that online shopping products are invisible and intangible, their quality is questionable, and it is difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake products, it does not mean that the product quality is directly poor.
Wang Xiao still smiled: "It's precisely because people have doubts about the quality of products purchased online that we need to put even more effort into this aspect. In real life, if we buy a poor-quality product in a shopping mall, the impact is limited to us and our families. But the internet is different. The speed and reach of information online are too fast; good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast. We really can't afford to be careless in our product selection. After all—"
Her smile deepened. "Abroad, 'Made in China' has always been considered a synonym for cheap, rough, inferior, and outdated. We must not perpetuate this stereotype."
Director Zeng seemed thoughtful, neither refuting her nor saying anything in agreement.
After he finished eating and left with his tray, just as everyone else was about to leave the cafeteria, Zhang Tao whispered, "Boss, I'm worried it will be difficult to push forward the work later."
How should I put it? He could clearly sense that Director Zeng was unhappy.
It's not that people will deliberately make things difficult for you if they're unhappy. They're leaders, after all, and their character isn't that bad.
But once you've dealt with government officials, you'll find that if they're unhappy, everything you do afterwards will feel like there's sand in your shoes, constantly rubbing against you and making you uncomfortable.
Wang Xiao shook his head and said softly, "Maybe he just needs to adapt. It takes time to go from government-led enterprise development to government-served enterprise development."
Once she calmed down, she could understand Director Zeng.
There was a saying in the 1980s that the government was like a mother-in-law to businesses. During the planned economy era, the government was indeed responsible for the production and sales of enterprises. This has become a ingrained way of thinking.
Local officials treat local businesses like their own children.
What normal parent doesn't want the best for their child? When they see their child struggling, they'll try every possible way to help them, hoping their child will have a better future.
However, a market economy cannot operate in this way; it must be based on efficiency.
Resuming operations at a closed factory takes longer and product quality is not guaranteed—because machines require maintenance and workers need to relearn how to operate the equipment.
Therefore, it must be abandoned.
Zhang Tao sighed, "How long will it take him to adjust?"
The internet is booming and evolving rapidly; this is a crucial period for aggressively acquiring and retaining customers. They must quickly expand their business and cannot afford to stop. Otherwise, the market will soon be taken over by others.
Wang Xiao's attitude remained unchanged: "Don't worry about it. We'll assign someone to follow up on what needs to be done, and the rest can just do what they need to do."
Zhang Tao was a little anxious: "If we can't keep up with this, all the other work on the project will come to a standstill."
If we can't even finalize the manufacturers, how can we then investigate, select products, and arrange for them to be listed?
Wang Xiao smiled meaningfully and said, "Are we short of supplies?"
Zhang Tao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that they didn't lack anything.
Compared to other shopping websites, the biggest advantage of "WoBuy" is that it has a large number of offline physical stores.
Neither Amazon, eBay, nor any other shopping website has this inherent advantage. These websites are essentially building a large online shopping mall; they need to attract merchants and get sellers to join in order to continue doing business.
But "WoBuy.com" is different; it has a large number of sellers.
Whether it's the International Trade City in Liangjiang Province in China, the electronics markets in Shanghai and Beijing, the container markets in Moscow and Bucharest, the Huaxia Trade City in Cape Town, or even the "Enoyu" chain stores in Japan, there are plenty of ready-made sellers.
Behind these sellers are factories.
How could "WoBuy.com" lack goods? There are plenty of manufacturers trying to get their products into the commercial system of the trade city.
Wang Xiao smiled and said, "So let's get moving, time waits for no one."
She won't wait for anyone.
At the Spring Festival Gala, she was indeed swept up in the passion after watching a skit depicting the lives of laid-off workers.
But today is already the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and more than a week is enough time for her to calm down.
Everyone should perform their duties and do their job well, instead of overstepping their bounds and taking on obligations for others.
Instead of wasting time and energy on the latter and getting yourself into trouble, it's better to do your best in the former.
As the saying goes, an active buyer's market will inevitably stimulate the development of the seller's market.
Goods don't appear out of thin air; they still require factory production. The prosperity of a shopping mall is inevitably supported by rows of factories with roaring machines.
As for which factory it is, that's not that important.
Which factory shouldn't have orders? Shouldn't it generate profits? Shouldn't it employ a large number of workers?
The afternoon meeting proceeded as planned, and Director Zeng did not raise any further issues. Everyone continued to discuss the details of implementation.
The meeting moderators secretly breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that if the two sides started arguing, the work would be impossible to continue.
In fact, he was overthinking it.
Anyway, I don't plan to argue with anyone on my website. You can say whatever you want. At most, you can say what you want, and I'll do what I want.
Frankly speaking, they don't expect the government to do anything for them when it comes to international trade via the internet.
Export tax rebates and subsidies are impossible; they simply won't work at the policy level. All national export incentive policies revolve around legal, compliant, and formally documented general trade.
The purpose of small parcels is to circumvent export quota restrictions, so they naturally cannot enjoy these preferential policies.
Since they couldn't rely on them, what were they talking about all afternoon?
We discussed facilitating customs clearance, seeking policy support, and exploring more efficient customs clearance processes to reduce the time parcels were held up.
When discussing foreign exchange management, there needs to be a more flexible management approach for small-amount foreign exchange receipts in cross-border e-commerce, making it easier for companies to repatriate payments to China.
Regarding market development support, the government has implemented various policies to encourage exports, including establishing special fiscal subsidies for export loans and arranging interest subsidies for closed-end export tax rebate loans. (Note ①)
The essence is to expand export volume, improve economic efficiency, and stimulate national economic development.
Small-value parcel exports through websites essentially serve the same purpose. Due to regulations, they cannot enjoy export tax rebates. Are there any related subsidies, such as the "SME International Market Development Fund," to help with overseas market promotion and the construction of supporting facilities for overseas websites?
In addition, any shopping website, just like a shopping mall, must have top-quality products and a rich supply of goods.
Besides selling export quota-restricted goods via small parcels, the website also sells non-quota-restricted goods, such as some small appliances, which are exported to overseas warehouses or partners through normal customs declaration as bulk goods.
These goods should then be eligible for export tax rebates as normal.
These include access to financing support from financial institutions, insurance for overseas accounts receivable, export performance rewards, and subsidies for booth fees at overseas exhibitions—no policy benefit should be missed.
By the end, even the host felt his ears were hurting from listening.
A businessman is a businessman after all; he is meticulous and calculates everything clearly.
It wasn't until nightfall that everyone reached a preliminary agreement.
The host checked the time and extended an invitation: "Mr. Wang, how about we have another meal at the cafeteria tonight?"
Wang Xiao smiled and shook his head: "Thank you for your kindness, but I need to go out for some fresh air. If I stay any longer, my head will explode. You guys are really amazing."
The host thought to himself, "You're just trying to turn the tables on me."
Who's really in a bind? We're the ones whose heads are literally about to explode.
The conversation was packed with information, and we couldn't afford to relax even for a moment.
Wang Xiao left the meeting room and entered the courtyard. Looking up, she saw a half-moon in the sky and took a deep breath—oh my god, it smells like the classroom all over the place. She had to get out of there.
Unfortunately, the flavor of class can never be escaped.
As the boss, Wang Xiao also had to arrange for everyone to continue working overtime: "Recruitment, increase recruitment efforts. We need a large number of customer service personnel who are proficient in foreign languages, mainly English, but also French, Japanese, and Russian."
Without online customer service, business simply cannot continue.
Yang Tao was already in character and immediately nodded in agreement: "I'll arrange it right away. Are there any requirements for the source of the recruits? For example, should we give priority to laid-off workers? Some of the factory technicians can still speak English."
It's a bit embarrassing to say, but theoretically speaking, these people are skilled and educated, and after leaving the factory, they should find it relatively easy to find new jobs.
But that's not the case.
Human society has its own set of operating rules, and the rate at which knowledge depreciates always surpasses the rate at which physical strength depreciates.
In this phase of rapid social change, a technician's lifetime of learning may become irrelevant within a few years.
While the physical strength of an ordinary worker is declining, its value remains relatively stable in basic fields such as construction, transportation, and sanitation.
Therefore, when ordinary workers are laid off, they lose a job, but their common physical labor remains in demand in the labor market. However, educated technical personnel lose not only their jobs, but also the entire industrial system, their knowledge value, and their professional identity upon which they depend for survival.
Yang Tao herself is a university graduate, and by today's standards, she would be considered an intellectual. People are always prone to empathizing with those who share similar backgrounds. Seeing her former university graduates fall to rock bottom overnight, it was hard for her not to feel a pang of sadness.
Wang Xiao nodded: "Okay, you must be proficient in a foreign language. If you're not proficient now, find a way to learn it. You can only be hired once you've mastered it."
She might provide rice and oil for poverty alleviation, but she would never offer jobs.
If someone who is not competent for their job is brought in, it will drag down the entire team.
"However, the recruitment of English-speaking talent is mainly focused on South Africa. There are many people there who are fluent in English, making communication easier, and the time difference with Europe is small, so services are also smoother."
Wang Xiao emphasized, "You can't keep people working day and night, otherwise their health will easily collapse. Someone needs to be online 24 hours a day, so you need to make sure you can manage that yourself."
She then turned to Zhang Tao and instructed him, "You need to write a program to list all the frequently asked questions. Customers can select the corresponding question, and the program will answer it automatically. This will save on manpower and communication costs."
Zhang Tao quickly nodded in agreement.
Then, along the way, everyone was discussing the subsequent recruitment efforts.
Sigh, any business that wants to grow and thrive needs to hire people.
Moreover, when you walk down the street normally, you feel like there are people everywhere; but when you're recruiting, you find that, oh dear, why are there so many people missing everywhere? Where have all the talents gone?
If you want your shopping website to grow and become successful, the most basic thing you need is a technology and product team.
Website architects and engineers are responsible for building stable and scalable e-commerce platforms. You need to be proficient in Java, PHP, and Perl. You also need to be skilled in Oracle and SQL Server database management.
Front-end developers and UI/UX designers are also indispensable. In this era where internet speeds are as slow as an ant crawling, it is crucial to be able to design pages that load quickly and are easy to use.
Wang Xiao reminded them: "You need to hire more people to specifically analyze user behavior and sales data, using big data to guide product selection and marketing strategies."
Zhang Tao nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, we really need to do this."
China's long-standing planned economy has resulted in a seller's market being more prevalent than a buyer's market, which is why the habit of conducting customer research has not yet been cultivated.
Internationally, these are basic requirements; no one dares to stock goods without conducting research.
He then remembered another issue: "We also need to continue recruiting cybersecurity engineers. With increased website traffic and more products, it's easy for the site to be attacked."
Wang Xiao nodded with a smile: "Then you'd better do it well, otherwise we're using what's supposedly the Soviet Union's top military secrecy technology. If we get easily attacked by hackers, we'll lose face, and the stock price won't hold up either."
Everyone laughed.
After laughing, everyone continued counting on their fingers which positions they still needed to recruit.
Having technology alone is not enough; logistics and management teams are also crucial.
They need to find global supply chain management experts who are familiar with international trade rules and have a deep understanding of quotas, rules of origin, and tariff systems. These experts also need to be skilled in logistics route optimization, able to design and manage complex logistics networks, and connect with large manufacturing enterprises for quality control and order consolidation.
Everyone was excitedly making their requests at first, but then Zhang Tao blurted out, "My god, is this even human? Even three heads and six arms wouldn't be enough!"
Everyone then felt guilty; where could they find such a talent?
Wang Xiao smiled and pointed them in the right direction: "Try to find someone within the system to help you. They're the ones who are familiar with these systems. There's a massive layoff of workers now, and even the 'iron rice bowl' isn't secure anymore. Some technically skilled officials are looking for better opportunities. Look around and see if you can find anyone you can use."
Yang Tao felt this was within her job scope, so she quickly nodded: "Okay, let's go look for it."
Customs affairs specialists need to be familiar with the customs regulations and standards of various countries to ensure that parcels can be cleared smoothly. Such people also need to be found within the system.
As you can continue listing, positions such as international trade legal advisors, business analysts, and risk control experts are all in demand.
Add to that a huge customer service and marketing team, and a financial payments team; if you count it all, wow! It feels like they'd need to hire tens of thousands of people in total.
It's comparable to a large enterprise, the kind of investment project that any country or local government would be vying to secure.
Zhang Tao turned to Zhou Liang and said in a serious tone, "A market value of 17 billion US dollars is not too high at all. Manager Zhou, keep it up, otherwise we won't have enough money to burn with so many people."
Zhou Liang was both amused and exasperated: "Where am I supposed to get the fuel for the stock price issue?"
However, he suspects that the announcement of the website's large-scale recruitment drive may further stimulate the stock price increase.
Online platforms are so magical; the more you do offline, the more people trust your online platform.
Ultimately, stock prices always depend on investors' trust.
Zhang Tao groaned again: "Recruiting so many people is a real headache."
Suddenly, it felt like there were so many talented people I didn't know where to look for.
He even doubted whether he could really find it.
Because the internet is a novelty for most people on Earth, and online shopping is even more novel, schools don't specifically train people to do this.
Zhou Liang then thought of another question: "Boss, will we be the ones selling the goods from now on?"
From a theoretical perspective, having the website control the entire process can indeed ensure quality control and improve efficiency in the early stages.
However, online shopping malls and offline shopping malls are two different things. No matter how big the latter is, even if it becomes a whole city and you need a month to browse from beginning to end, it still has its limitations and spatial constraints.
Online platforms are different; they can expand infinitely and continue to grow indefinitely.
When a website has tens of thousands of stores, you can still meet its operational requirements by hiring a large number of staff.
But when it has more than 100,000 or even a million stores, do you really need to hire so many people to manage so many stores?
When will this finally end?
Moreover, if this continues, efficiency will decrease and staffing will become redundant.
By then, they will have become state-owned enterprises that need to be optimized.
Wang Xiao nodded with a smile: "You're right, that's a problem. So we need to gradually encourage private individuals and manufacturers to open their own online stores."
"Seeing how well we operate, how high our sales volume is, and how much we sell, smart people will naturally be tempted and will actively join the ranks of opening stores. Whether it's an individual or a factory, everyone can open their own store."
She spread her hands and began to pat herself on the back, "I really gave the factory a chance. Nowadays, most people in China don't actively seek out online shopping and don't understand how it works. We proactively sent them information and showed them how to sell on online platforms. If they still can't learn it, then there's nothing we can do."
Everyone nodded vigorously, showering the boss with flattery.
Yes, yes, that's right, our boss is a modern-day Lei Feng, with a warm and kind heart.
Xiao Gao and Xiao Zhao almost burst out laughing on the spot. The boss can be really funny sometimes. Even though she knows that others are flattering her, she is still very happy and overjoyed.
Zhou Liang thought for a moment, then asked again, "So their payment method is also to give us all the money first, and then we settle the payment with the seller?"
Wang Xiao nodded: "Yes, let's do it this way, just like the shopping mall model."
Zhou Liang laughed: "That's great! We can deposit the money and earn interest, that'll be a good amount of money too."
Although banks lowered interest rates several times last year, the current interest rate is still 1.44%, and the three-month rate is 2.79%.
Even a tiny mosquito is still meat.
If you buy US Treasury bonds, you can get more than 5% interest.
Well, and given this trend, and following the Fed's usual practice, it's very likely that it will choose to raise interest rates later in order to curb the overheated economy.
See, isn't the interest income higher again?
Zhang Tao suddenly realized: "That seems to be true. Hey, Manager Yang, did you do it this way before?"
Yang Tao laughed beside him, not answering his question directly, but giving an ambiguous answer: "In the retail industry, turnover is the biggest factor."
You see other people selling their stuff so cheaply and think they're not making any money at all. But they seem to be thriving, their lives seem to be getting better and better. How do they manage to survive?
I didn't know anything about starfruit before.
Later, Yang Tao took charge of the business in Beijing and spent more than a year in the United States, where she broadened her horizons considerably.
With a single sales receipt, you can use it to secure a mortgage loan from a bank, and then reinvest the resulting cash flow.
For example, if you use this money to buy a piece of land, you'll make money when its value appreciates.
Look how tempting the real estate market is! At the end of 1997, Hong Kong property prices plummeted, but now they're soaring again.
There are countless ways to make money, and financial tools are constantly emerging.
No wonder people have been tricked by financial crises so many times, yet they still can't shake off this charming little devil that is finance.
As dusk settles in Beijing, the cold wind whistles against the billboards, making a thumping sound.
On the evening of the eighth day of the first lunar month, the wind was biting cold, and the streets were as bustling as they were during the day, with even fewer pedestrians.
Wang Xiao looked up and saw a dark mass. At first, he thought it was dwarf holly and wondered why dwarf holly was planted here.
As the car drew closer, she realized that what she saw were not clumps of tree shadows, but rather individual figures.
Under the overpass at Chongwenmen, groups of people, mostly in their forties or fifties, were standing or squatting. Some were wearing heavy cotton-padded coats, while others wore military overcoats, all with their hands tucked into their sleeves.
It was so cold that people would occasionally stomp their feet in small circles to ward off the chill.
Yang Tao has lived in Beijing for several years. Although she spent more than a year in the United States, she knows more about Beijing than others.
Seeing this, she sighed: "This is a spontaneous labor market. Laid-off people come here to look for work. It used to be mainly people from Beijing, but now people from the surrounding areas, including the Northeast, also come here to look for work."
Beijing is a big city, the capital. From any perspective, there are more job opportunities here.
But obviously, it's more of a relative term. If jobs were easy to find, there wouldn't be so many people waiting around so late at night.
The manager wearing a red armband came over and urged, "Alright, alright, go back now. Come back tomorrow. It's so late, who's going to come looking for someone?"
However, those who hadn't found work were unwilling to leave, pleading, "Please don't worry about us, just let us stand here. If we don't get any work today, I don't have money to stay in a hotel, and I can't even sleep in an air-raid shelter."
Others chimed in, "That's right. If we can't find work today, we won't even have breakfast tomorrow."
The streetlights illuminated their faces, each one etched with deep wrinkles by the cold wind and anxiety. Everyone strained to open their eyes, but their eyes were filled with exhaustion.
The small cardboard signs in front of them read "bricklayer", "electrician", "can repair", "cook and babysit", "must do any kind of physical work".
They were all in a position to be chosen by anyone.
Zhang Tao suddenly blurted out, "If only they could do the work we want."
They're having trouble finding workers here, while under the streetlights over there are people who can't find jobs.
The world is such a strange place. Even though there are still so many people, their needs are not matched.
Zhou Liang glanced at him and sighed, "By the time they become the kind of people we want, they won't be able to find jobs anymore."
An inexplicable sense of crisis permeated everyone's hearts.
Perhaps just ten or twenty years ago, these job seekers, struggling to find employment, were just as sought-after by companies as the talent they are looking for today.
But time is so cruel. When the tides of the times sweep in, you don't even have time to react before you are swept into the deep sea, powerless to struggle.
Wang Xiao remembered a particularly popular term from before he transmigrated: "lying flat".
At the time, their university professors scoffed, saying that being able to lie flat was a stroke of luck, a benefit of the times.
If you've truly experienced the era of mass layoffs, you'll know that if you want to lie down and do nothing, you can only sleep on the street and freeze to death in the dead of winter.
The times are truly amazing.
Decades later, everyone says that this was an era full of opportunities, the era in which it was easiest to achieve upward social mobility.
But once you're actually living in this era, you'll clearly see that for most people, it's a rather difficult time.
Social transformation is indeed cruel and harsh.
Just like the cold wind on a winter night in Beijing.
"Let's buy them some hot food." Wang Xiao looked away. "Let's go."
There's nothing more she can do; she can only do her own thing.
————————!!————————
Note ①: This references the "Several Provisions on Encouraging Foreign Trade Exports" issued by the Fujian Provincial People's Government (Minzheng [1998] No. 17).
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
