The programmer and his woman

I grew up in an ordinary working-class family. Due to health reasons, my mother quit her job after giving birth to me and focused on recuperating and taking care of me. The family expenses were therefore almost entirely dependent on my father's meager salary, and life always seemed tight.

However, fate did not seem to be kind to our family. In 1993, the society ushered in a wave of layoffs, and my father unfortunately became one of them. The only economic support of the family collapsed. That year, I had just graduated from junior high school. Facing the difficulties of my family, I resolutely decided to give up the opportunity to continue my studies and chose to go out to work to reduce the burden on my family.

When I expressed this idea to my parents, they were firmly opposed at first. They knew the importance of education and did not want me to give up the path of learning because of life pressure. However, seeing my determined eyes and the actual situation at home, they finally accepted my decision reluctantly.

So, I started to frequently go to the job market, hoping to find a job. However, when I saw the various recruitment information on the recruitment display cabinet, I realized my ignorance and powerlessness. At my age, many employers were worried that I was too young to do the job; more importantly, I had almost no skills or experience, which made me repeatedly hit a wall in the job search process.

Just when I was squatting at the entrance of the job market, an old man came up to me and said, "Brother, I see you've been squatting here for a long time. How come you can't find a job?"

I looked up at the middle-aged man and sighed, "Alas, I have no education and no skills, who would want me?"

At this time, the middle-aged man also squatted next to me: "Hey, I don't have it!"

I immediately perked up when I heard this, grabbed his arm and asked, "Really? Uncle, what kind of job?"

"Hey, hey, hey, don't be anxious. It's true. Let go first. Let go of me first. Why are you so excited?"

He paused and continued, "Handing out flyers, what's up with that? What are you willing to do?"

"Distributing flyers," I was immediately discouraged, "I thought it was a good job," I murmured. Seeing that I didn't seem interested, the middle-aged man said, "Brother, even though this job is not that great, it's better than having no job. If you work hard, you can earn a lot. Besides, you are so young, which formal unit would dare to hire you? Hiring you is like hiring child labor, which is illegal, little brother."

I lowered my head and thought for a while, "Hmm~ yeah, OK, uncle, I'll do it."

"Hey, that's right. Come, I'll write you an address. You can go there early tomorrow morning to report. Look for Boss Li and say that Lao Wang introduced you to distribute flyers."

"Okay, thanks Uncle Wang, I'll report in tomorrow." I felt like I had found a treasure holding the piece of paper with the address on it. Although it was not a serious job, it was my first job in my life, so I was still very happy.

The next day I set out early, riding my broken bicycle which made noise everywhere except the bell, and asked along the way until I finally found a shabby office building.

"Right, room 301 is right here." Ding, ding, ding, ding, I knocked on the door and shouted with all my strength, using the same voice as if I were entering a teacher's office, "Report!"

After a while, someone opened the door for me. Everyone in the room looked at me like I was a fool. I was also shocked by the scene in front of me. This small room was full of people. A thin man behind a desk in the middle of the room asked with a southern accent: "What can I do for you?" "I, I'm here to report. You must be Boss Li, right? Uncle Wang introduced me to distribute flyers." The man smiled knowingly after hearing this: "Okay, come in, and close the door."

I thought I came early enough, but I didn't expect the room to be full of people. There were all kinds of people, young and old, whispering to each other.

"Okay, everyone, be quiet for a moment. I'll go on. As long as we work hard, the company will never lose money. I'm a kind person. We pay everyone a day's salary based on the number of orders issued. The more you work, the more you get, and the less you work, the less you get. There are old people who have worked here for a while, and there are new people who have just arrived. The reason why our team can grow bigger and bigger is because the company keeps its word. Everyone here can also make money. Now I'll talk about the specific work distribution. Xiao Tao, you are still in charge of the East District. The staff remains the same. This time, there are 6,000 posters. They must be handed to everyone. Xiao Tao, you are responsible for supervision. Qiangzi, you are still responsible for the flyers of the surrounding campuses. You can lead the newcomers who came in these few days, Da Liu. This time, there are 2,000 self-adhesive advertisements. You can distribute them to your subordinates and you are responsible for acceptance. Everyone knows what to do, right? OK, go and do your own things."

Seeing that everyone had left the room in groups of three or five, and only six or seven of us were left, we looked at each other, all a little at a loss. I asked, "Mr. Li, this is my first day here, which group do you think I should be with?"

Boss Li looked at us and asked, "Are you all new here today?"

"Yes," everyone answered in unison.

"Okay, then it's you," Boss Li pointed at me and asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Wang Dong."

"Okay, Wang Dong, you will be the team leader. I still have several hundred advertising pages here. Each of you will get 120. Wang Dong, you must not only distribute them but also supervise their implementation. If you don't do well, your salary will be deducted. If you do a good job, you will be the team leader in the future and earn extra income."

"We will send these advertisements to high-end residential areas. Do you know what a high-end residential area is?" asked Boss Li.

“I don’t know,” we replied, shaking our heads.

"Okay," Boss Li took out a piece of paper and said, "I'll write down a few residential areas for you. Look for those residential areas with tall buildings, gatekeepers and security guards. They are all inhabited by wealthy people. You should post your advertisements there. You must post them door to door, from the first floor to the top floor, and put the advertisements in the cracks of their doors. Do you understand?"

"Oh, I see. By the way, Mr. Li, how much do we give for issuing one?" I asked.

"One dime per sheet, and you'll have more than 10 yuan if you hand out all the sheets. Practice with these first, and you'll usually finish handing out the sheets in the morning. If you're quick, you can come to me at noon to get new tasks. I emphasize again that you must hand out the sheets door to door, and I'll send someone to check afterwards." He seemed to remember something, and added, "Oh, and don't take the elevator. The owners there don't like us. If you run into a security guard, be sure to hide the sheets and don't say you're handing out the sheets. Don't lose the sheets, remember?"

"Remembered," we replied in unison.

"Okay, if you have nothing else to do, just go ahead." Boss Li waved his hand and sent us away.

We walked out of the office building together. I looked at the people around me. They were basically of similar age. They introduced their names. I took out the paper written by Boss Li and showed it to everyone. Who of you knows the place on it?

A thin boy wearing glasses pointed to the first place on the paper and shouted, "I know this place. It's nearby. I live not far from here. I can take you there." His name was Hou Wei. Because he was very thin and wore very large glasses with very conspicuous black frames, I always called him 'Glasses' afterwards.

"Okay, Glasses, you lead the way. We'll go here. Let's set off now." We each got on our bikes and rushed towards the residential area.

"We're here, right here, follow me," Glasses shouted.

"Hey~ Hey~ Hey~, stop right there, all of you. Are you the ones who are cursing? Are you residents of this community? Get out, get out, get out.", the community security guard shouted loudly.

"What should we do, Wang Dong? The security guard won't let him in." asked Glasses.

"Hmm~ Let me think about it. How about this, Glasses, you give me your advertisement and I'll help you distribute it. You can still share the proceeds. You will be responsible for attracting the security guards over, and we'll take the opportunity to sneak in. What do you think?" I asked.

Glasses nodded happily and said, "Sure, Dongzi, I'm willing to do it. Just wait and see."

I saw Glasses yelling at the security room: "You stinky gatekeeper, how dare you stop me from going in? I'll show you how I climb over the wall to get in."

As he said that, he ran towards the wall with a guardrail on the side, pretending to jump over it. The security guard got angry when he saw him, thinking, "You dare to provoke me, I will catch you and beat you up." The security guard chased him, shouting as he ran, "Stop right there, you little bastard."

Seeing the opportunity, we quickly slipped in along the wall. "Hurry, hurry, everyone, listen to me. We will each go to two buildings, and gather outside the gate of the community after the distribution."

I thought to myself, I must not mess up my first job. So I carefully stuffed the advertisements into each store one by one. I didn't expect that crawling on the stairs would be so tiring. I was out of breath after handing out only 100 advertisements. Now I really regret taking the glasses order. There is still half of it left. Just when I was about to stuff the advertisement page into the crack of the door, the door happened to open, which scared me and the old man.

"Hey, you're cursing with what you have in your hand?" The old man quickly snatched it away. "Okay, you're the one who posted the flyers. You're the one who posted the flyers in the building these days. You're also the one who posted the flyers all over the door. I spent a lot of time with my knife to cut them off. I finally caught you this time. Don't try to run away today. You can't. I'm going to send you to the police now, lock you up, and keep a close eye on you."

At this time, the aunt who lived upstairs heard the noise and came down.

"Oh, Uncle Liu, you are yelling and cursing! I can hear it upstairs."

"I was just about to go out for a walk this morning, and when I opened the door I caught a man posting flyers." The old man grabbed my hand and said, "Come on, come downstairs with me, I'll take you to the security room."

"Oh, you are the ones who lack great virtue. You have pasted the door of the corridor in a mess, and the stickers are so strong that they can't be removed. I should arrest you and teach you a lesson. Come on, your son will help your uncle Liu to send this kid to the security room."

I knew things were not going well, so I quickly begged for mercy, saying, "Uncle, Madam, please don't send me to the security office. This is my first time. I didn't post those advertisements you mentioned. This is my first day at work."

"Yes, everyone we caught said it was their first time. Don't, don't waste your words on me." After that, the old man stopped listening to my explanation. The two of them grabbed my clothes and sent me to the security room. As soon as I entered the security room, I saw the security uncle apologizing to another owner: "Yes, yes, yes, you are right. We made mistakes at work and let these criminals take advantage of the situation. We will strengthen management in the future and this kind of thing will not happen again."

"Hey~ this is our team leader," the yellow-haired man pointed at me and shouted, "He was the one who led me to do this. If you want to detain him, go ahead. This matter really has nothing to do with me."

Hey, I'm so angry. Huangmao is so disloyal. He betrayed his colleagues before anything happened.

"Well, all the owners please go back first. We will take care of this matter." The security guard assured the owner and turned to us and said, "You two follow me into the inner room."

I glared at the yellow-haired man and walked in with him. At this time, I saw the yellow-haired man actually took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, handed it to the security uncle respectfully, and said attentively: "Uncle, you see, this is my first offense and I was instructed by others. You see, our leaders are here, can you let me go?"

"You are quite sensible boy." Upon hearing that there was a chance, Huang Mao immediately handed over the remaining half pack of cigarettes: "Uncle, keep it for yourself."

"Don't try to play tricks on me. I'm mainly considering your attitude of admitting your mistakes. I'm not the main culprit so I'm letting you go this time. You're different from him. He's your leader and he can't leave. You can leave now and don't come here again."

"Okay, sure, sure. I'm leaving now." The yellow-haired guy said as he retreated towards the door.