I trade in both worlds

A few years ago, when the self-built house reform was not yet implemented, Xu Jianjun returned to Baiping Village, bought a piece of land and built a modern courtyard house, which is the courtyard that Xu Xu walked through.

Baiping Village is too far away from Beijing. Xu Ziqing was born and raised in Beijing and has become accustomed to the prosperity and convenience of the city. He always feels uncomfortable when he returns to the village. Even the milk tea he likes to drink every day is not available here.

So unless her family comes back together during the New Year holidays, she will definitely not come back alone. This time the situation is special. She took an order that required some rural elements, so she came back to take a look, under the pretext of returning to her hometown to find creative inspiration.

Xu Ziqing has loved painting since she was a child. She started taking art classes when she was in kindergarten. Her academic performance was average after she went to school. When she was in the second year of high school, her family began to make plans for her. Her parents wanted her to take the entrance exam for a normal school, but with her grades, she had no hope of getting into a good school, except to become an art teacher in the future.

There are not many schools with art majors in Beijing. The best one is the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, which is of course the best art academy in the country. However, with her grades, it is impossible for her to go to the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts. After Xu Ziqi helped her make various plans, she finally chose the Fine Arts Department of the Normal College.

After setting the goal, Xu Ziqing began to practice painting skills and practiced a lot of questions for nearly two years. Finally, his efforts paid off and he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of the Normal College. Unfortunately, after graduation, he could not even compete for a primary school art teacher, so he could only work as an illustrator in a publishing house, which he did for more than three years.

The boss of the publishing house is an old educated youth who has had a deep obsession with Chinese culture all his life. The books published by the publishing house are mainly traditional literature. Even the children's picture books are adapted from ancient myths and idiom stories. He has always looked down on the various popular online articles and novels.

Therefore, the survival of the publishing house is more difficult than that of ordinary publishing houses. It has basically become a normal situation for publishing houses to default on copyright fees, and they can barely pay the employees' wages. Later, after experiencing three years of the mask period, the survival of the publishing house has become even worse. The boss, who was already heavily in debt, could not even pay the wages.

For the past three years, salaries have been in arrears every month, and Xu Ziqing has not received her full salary for a single month. Because her family conditions are okay, she does not worry about food and accommodation even if she has no income for three years. Unlike other colleagues, they have to pay a large fixed expense every month, such as mortgage, car loan, rent, credit cards, etc. However, no matter how dissatisfied they are with the current situation of the company, they dare not resign at will.

During the mask period, a colleague suggested to the boss that he write online articles, which could also take on some advertising and increase the company's revenue, but was rejected by the boss. Xu Ziqing felt that the company could not survive, so she would do any work that came her way. She did not understand why the boss rejected her.

In recent years, traditional culture has begun to rise, and more and more readers are buying traditional books, which has brought in some income to barely pay wages. Just after the mask period, all walks of life have breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps it was because of this sigh of relief that the boss had health problems and could only recuperate at home.

The big boss was sick, so his son, the young boss, came back from abroad to take on the heavy responsibility. As soon as he took office, the young boss started to create a new website, a new APP, and signed online writers. In just three months, he made the publishing house flourish.

At the same time, Xu Ziqing was transferred from the original mythology group to the online literature group, where she was mainly responsible for drawing covers for various online literature. It was not known whether she was influenced by her previous boss, but she also began to resist the work in the online literature group. However, as an employee, she could only work according to the company's arrangements and could not refuse. Gradually, Xu Ziqing became more and more irritated, and the more she drew, the more disgusted she became.

She always felt that everything she was doing now was not what she wanted. She wanted to draw something meaningful, but she didn't know what was meaningful. At this time, she once again remembered the persistence of her former boss. She used to think that her boss was too old and didn't know how to adapt, but now it was her turn.

She tried to compromise with herself and forced herself to accept the status quo. After all, there was no pressure of survival and she didn't have to bow down for a few dollars. Xu Ziqing found that after the compromise, she became more tired. She was tired of everything in the company and didn't want to do things that she thought were meaningless. When she opened her eyes in the morning, she thought about what reason she could find to ask for leave.

Xu Ziqing began to feel confused and dissatisfied with the current situation. She wanted to change it, but she didn't know how to change it. She seemed unable to see the road ahead and the direction to move forward. After torturing herself for several months, Xu Ziqing decided to start by quitting her job to change the current situation.

After leaving the job, he stayed at home for a few days, eating and sleeping every day. In the first few days after leaving the job, Xu Ziqing felt that lying down was really comfortable. He didn't need to be woken up by the alarm clock, and he didn't need to run to squeeze into the subway. It was a happy thing to be able to lie down for the rest of his life.

After lying in bed for more than ten days, Xu Ziqing began to feel bored and idle and wanted to find a job, so he started holding his mobile phone every day to look at job information and submit his resume.

This time, Xu Ziqing wanted to change her career and no longer work in the publishing industry. She searched the Internet for information about the gaming and film and television industries, and then looked at netizens' comments and predictions about market prospects. Xu Ziqing tried to develop in the film and television industry. Unfortunately, after submitting her resume for more than ten days, she only received two interview notifications, which made her feel particularly frustrated.

At dinner, Grandma Xu saw that she looked unhappy and asked with concern: "Xiaoqing, what's wrong with you? Who wronged you?"

Xu Ziqing shook her head and said frustratedly, "Grandma, I'm not wronged, it's just that it's so hard to find a job now. I've sent out resumes for more than ten days, and I've only received interview notices from two companies so far."

Chen Xiaofen couldn't bear to see her daughter depressed, so she comforted her distressedly: "Xiaoqing, our family has enough food and drink, and your salary is not even enough for the rent. Why are you in such a hurry to find a job? Just take your time. If you can't find one in one month, then look for two months. If you can't find one in two months, then look for half a year. You will always find a suitable job. Don't worry."

"Mom, I'm not anxious." Xu Ziqing swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "I just feel that those recruitments are like robots operating. They just put up information to make up the numbers and have no intention of recruiting people at all."

Xu Ziqi said nonchalantly while picking up food: "Isn't this normal? The overall environment is not good now, and many companies have closed down. HR still has KPIs to assess, which is related to performance-based wages. How can there be performance without recruitment? It has been difficult to find a job in the past two years. Relax and open your own studio if things really don't work out."

Grandpa Xu nodded: "Yes, we are not in a hurry. If you are free, go and help your father run the store."