(March 1998-June 1998)
Some colleagues speculated that I would start a small company or something after I resigned. Actually, they all think too highly of me. It can be said that the idea of starting a company will never come from me. I've had enough of being the head of a state-owned enterprise over the years. When I think of watching the enterprises I manage die one by one during my term of office and I can't save them, when I think of the families of the workers who have lost their economic income and I can't help them, my heart aches faintly. As the saying goes," If you don't have a diamond, don't take on porcelain work." In the real world, I lost the ability to be responsible for the survival of others, so I didn't have the courage to take on such a social role again.
I am also a " utopian " ideologist who hates the evil desire to possess wealth. The nature of market competition was cruel. How many bosses did not rack their brains to scheme against their employees in order to make money? A few of them were no longer deceiving consumers against their conscience. There were a few who didn't rack their brains to evade the state's taxes. Earning money like this requires a good mental fortitude, and I really don't have such mental fortitude. If I force myself to do something, I'll have to close down, so there's no need to start it. People needed money to survive, but not everyone was full of desire for money. My need for money is only for food and clothing. Although he envied the rich, he wasn't jealous of money. Since he had already returned to being a commoner from the "field leader", he might as well fall to the bottom and eliminate all false thoughts. He would be able to easily become a hired worker without any hindrance.
I've always wanted to go to the southern coast to work. Before I resigned, I went to the special economic zone there. In the midst of the factories scattered all over the place and the overwhelming flow of people, I strongly felt the economic boom stirred up by the country's reform and opening up. The lively and fast-paced new living atmosphere made people envious and yearn for it. They wished they could go back to their twenties and live here again. However, when I really could set foot on the train to the south, I felt uneasy. After all, I was not twenty-five years old but fifty years old. At this age, could I still find a suitable job in the coastal area? With many misgivings, he finally gave up the idea of going south for the time being due to lack of courage. He first familiarized himself with the taste of living under a private boss in the local area, and then considered working in the south.
I went to work in a friend's shop in the provincial wholesale market. This friend was my senior brother from the same factory as me 20 years ago (1975).(He was younger than me and entered the factory earlier than me). Later (1982), his parents enjoyed the policy of returning to the city for officials who went to the countryside in 1957. As a child, Jun also had the opportunity to enter a university in the city and became a driver for the school. Because of his frequent contact with the leaders, when the school-run enterprise hired people, the leader promoted Jun to be a small person in charge of the school-run enterprise. At that time, the school-run business had become a trend. Some of them did not do their proper business. Because they were not professionals, most of the school-run businesses were in a state of chaos. At this time, the school-run non-staple food business department could not continue. The school appointed Jun to clean up the stall and offered very low conditions to encourage Jun to privately contract this non-staple food business department that was on the verge of bankruptcy. When Jun saw the contract conditions, he didn't need to pay a single cent of the principal. Instead, he left the tens of thousands of yuan of goods in the store to him as working capital at a lower price than the purchase price. Jun took over this matter. Jun was still a man of fortune. Although he had worked hard to sell the overstocked goods, after selling the overstocked goods, in addition to returning the school's principal, there were still tens of thousands of yuan in profit. At that time (around 1993), those who could earn tens of thousands of yuan were considered rich. From this, Jun also had confidence. His business was growing day by day, and the non-staple food business department that was about to close down had become Jun's cash cow.
Due to the inertia of the relationship between brothers, I still frequently interacted with Jun in the years after he left the factory. Jun was very clear about the changes in my situation. When it was just my idea to resign, he had said that he would let me work in his shop. Now that he saw that I had really resigned, he greeted me again and asked me to work in his shop. I was a little hesitant about Jun's invitation. Although we were brothers in the past, once we worked in his shop, our relationship would become heaven and earth. He was the boss and I was the worker. Can we still interact on equal terms with each other because of our relationship as fellow disciples? This is something I have to consider. But worries are worries. Jun asking me to work in his shop is always true. If I refuse to go, it would be unkind of me. Having just emerged from the "big wall" of a state-owned enterprise that he had been in for 30 years, he was at a loss in the face of the free world. It was a lucky thing to be able to immediately go to his friend's shop to earn a living. So I put aside these concerns and came to work in Jun's shop after the Spring Festival (1988).
There were originally four workers in Jun's shop. The shortest time had been more than two years. The two who had been working in the shop for the longest time had been working in the shop before Jun took over the stall. They had been working in the shop for more than ten years and were considered veterans. To a newcomer like me, they were all "old buddies". In fact, apart from Old Yang who rode the tricycle to deliver the goods, who was over 40 years old (having been in the shop for 10 years), the other three were all young men under 30 years old. The youngest was only in his early 20s. In the past, when I went to the provincial capital to do business, I would find a time to go to Jun's shop. The waiters in Jun's shop were almost all familiar with me. They also knew that I had always been the head of a state-owned enterprise, so every time I went to the shop, they would always politely call me "Boss" or something. Now that I'm a shop assistant, they definitely can't call me "boss" in Jun's shop anymore. Jun had been calling me "Old Bull" for many years, but they were too embarrassed to call me "Old Bull" to my face (probably behind my back). Other than the reason for my past position, the other reason was that I was much older than them. So when I came to work in the shop on the first day, they all called me "Teacher Niu", probably because Jun had greeted them in advance. Seeing them politely call me "teacher" made me very uncomfortable. For more than ten years, I had been called "factory manager","field manager", and "boss". Why did I change to "teacher"? I didn't know that he was calling me. When it comes to the business of the shop, I don't dare to be called "teacher" by them. I just came here and didn't know anything about the business of the shop. I still hoped that they would teach me, so I couldn't let them call me "teacher". I didn't allow them to call me that, and I didn't have any other suitable way to call me that. But I'm also quite conflicted about this.
How should he address Jun? In the past, I always called Jun by his full name, so it was very friendly. Can you still call him by his name? The few "old friends" called him by his full name, including his surname, and changed to "President Jun" in front of him. It was perfectly justifiable to call him "President Jun". He was the boss of this shop, and the market (oh, the whole country was the same) called the boss like this. It was fine for Jun to call me "Old Bull" like before, but it was inappropriate for me to call him "Old Bull" like before, especially when the other workers were in front of me. However, he felt that it was a little funny to call him "President Jun" instead, as if he was "treating him as an outsider" or "fawning". I'm even more conflicted about this than when my old friends called me "Teacher Niu".
This large-scale wholesale market for daily necessities covered a total area of tens of thousands of acres and would be completed in phases. The first phase was completed in 1993, and the group of daily necessities retail and wholesale stores that were naturally formed in the crowded residential area were moved over. In just a few years, the business of this market began to "run hot"(prosperous). At this time (1998), the third phase of construction had already begun. The big market included almost all the goods for food, clothing, and daily use. Merchants from the province and neighboring provinces, counties, and towns all came to this market to buy goods (wholesale goods). Every day, tens of thousands of people entered and exited the market. Every weekend, the number of people who came to the city to shop or go to the market was even more. There were probably more than 100,000 people. From dawn to dusk, the continuous noise in the market was so loud that it made people dizzy. At that time, the state-owned factories were not working anymore, and the craze of thousands of workers (unemployed and laid-off) going to the sea to survive was fully manifested in this market.
Jun's shop was located in the second district of the non-staple food wholesale area (there were many districts). The shop was only a dozen square meters (the market shop area was three meters wide and four meters deep). Although it was small, there were hundreds of non-staple food products inside. The large and small cardboard boxes (commodity packaging boxes) piled up in three layers (the moment the shop opened in the daytime, they would quickly occupy the door to display the goods). It was difficult to turn around inside. The non-staple food area was also crowded with customers (including those who were shopping). Just like the clothing area, it was bustling with activity.
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