Qin Guan’s roommates did not want to keep watching the show. They were bored and wanted to leave, but suddenly they backed up when they saw several people carrying a drum kit, a keyboard and two speakers to the stage.
The performers were all well-dressed, and the lead singer was in olive green, looking like a soldier about to sing a military song.
After they tuned up, the performers played the electric guitar as an opening prelude, and the auditorium instantly became vibrant. The lead singer said, “Hello everyone! This is Eggs Laid by the Red Flag.”
“The sudden opening is actually not abrupt
Now is the time and we know what to do
The red flag is still fluttering without direction
The revolution is still alive, and the old chaps are getting more active…”
The lead singer had a hoarse voice as if he’d been smoking too much. It actually made him sound like the perfect rock and roll singer.
The boys in the audience were cheering. Hands held high, they followed the rhythm and started to rock together.
Qin Guan and his roommates stood up as well. Liu Xiaoyang even jumped onto his chair. When the song was finished, the audience was fully pumped up.
Rock and roll was a code those days. Everyone had a soldier in their heart. People would fight hard for their dreams and future with indomitable will.
It had grown colder at the end of October. Qin Guan put on his jacket and set off for his first official tutoring class with Huang Jiajia. At 6:30 p.m., he showed up at the door of Huang Jiajia’s home. When he walked into the house and saw Huang Jiajia sitting by her desk, he was shocked.
Her hair was not red anymore. Instead, it was black and shiny, dangling down her shoulders in two braids. She was not wearing any makeup either. This was the first time Qin Guan had seen Huang Jiajia with no makeup on. He recalled the first time he had seen her. She’d had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and her dark, dense eyelashes had looked like two tiny brushes. Her lips had been painted thick and red, making her look totally flamboyant. Yet now she was wearing a long pink T-shirt with a round collar and a pair of brown overalls. She looked like a good girl and a studious student.
Qin Guan did not say anything. Giving her an encouraging smile, he opened the textbook and started the class at an appropriate speed, “Here it means… Yes, call by value from here.”
During the whole class, Huang Jiajia listened to Qin Guan carefully without any complaints.
When Qin Guan finished the class for the day, Huang Jiajia grimaced and said, “Mr. Qin, what did you think of my performance today? I’ll work even harder.”
Qin Guan was glad. This would help him make money much more easily. He had 4 hours of class a week and he would get paid 50 yuan per hour, so every month he would make 800 yuan just by tutoring Huang Jiajia.
Qin Guan did not show his joy. As he walked out of the house, he told Huang Jiajia, “You need to keep it up. One good performance doesn’t mean anything. Perseverance is what’s important.” Then he closed the door and left. He was quite busy. He had a kebab appointment with Wang Lei, and the next morning they would go to the China World Mall.
Beijing had been expanding gradually with economic growth. Business areas were various systems formed amid that expansion, and Wangfujin and Xidan were among the earliest ones in Beijing. The China World Mall was an emerging, vibrant business area that had become the home of many new industries and fashionable brands, such as Motorola and IBM.
Qin Guan and Wang Lei were currently at the foot of the China World Towers, the very center of the China World Mall. The two boys had seen the ad of a company on the CUFE billboard, and that was why they had come here. The ad had been different than the rest, which was why it had aroused their interest.
Qin Guan and Wang Lei took the elevator to the consulting company on the 10th floor. The receptionist led them to a meeting room, where they saw a lot of people their age. Qin Guan believed they were also students applying for the part-time job.
When everyone was seated, a supervisor came into the room and handed out material to each of the young students.
The business of the consulting company was quite interesting. It helped retailers and traders of fast moving consumer goods find part-timers and sales promotion staff. It also did market research for some companies. This kind of business met the demands of foreign companies entering the Chinese market, thus consulting companies had become quite popular at the time. The company Qin Guan had visited was one of the oldest and the best in Beijing.
Qin Guan and Wang Lei read the material carefully. The positions included supermarket promotion specialists for sodas and snacks, and staff for a wine shop. Qin Guan noticed that these jobs were all on weekends, from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. in the morning and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the afternoon. Wages would be paid daily in accordance with the standard rules, and the payment for the sales promotion staff was 50 yuan per day. The wine shop staff would get a daily payment of 100 yuan. Of course, those employees were required to have a good image and figure. There would also be an interview for the job.
Qin Guan pursed his lips. The wine shop staff was the highest paying position among the three, although the payment was only as much as his tutoring fees. Half a loaf of bread was better than none though after all, so he decided to go to that interview. Wang Lei asked the supervisor, and he unexpectedly got a part-time job as a telephone researcher. From that day on and every weekend, he would work in the company as a telephone salesperson.
When the two boys walked out of the meeting room, Qin Guan told Wang Lei curiously, “You have a sharp mind for business. Why are you studying accounting?”
Pushing his glasses up, Wang Lei asked back, “You are so handsome, why do you study at CUFE?”
They both laughed. They parted at the corridor when Wang Lei was taken by the supervisor to the office of the telephone sales personnel. Qin Guan and several girls were taken to another office, where the interview would take place. Qin Guan was the only boy in the group. Curious about why a boy would apply for that position, the girls chatted and laughed among themselves. Qin Guan felt helpless. “Fine, I know this is something new, but you shouldn’t stare at me like I’m a monkey. Yes, I mean you. Don’t point your fingers at me!”
Qin Guan was feeling quite awkward when the door suddenly opened. Three elegant interviewers took a seat at the table. Qin Guan applied for the promotion position of Grand Bateau, a kind of middle-end wine imported from France.
The promotion staff would serve the wine at exhibitions around Beijing. It was not cost-effective for exhibitors to hire professional models for the promotion, so the wine agent had come up with the idea of picking several college students for the job.
The last interviewees had not impressed the interviewers. They thought college students had no working experience and their age did not match the maturity of the wine.
The Chinese name of the wine was Longchuan. A general had made that particular wine for Napoleon, his leader during the Napoleonic Era. The wine was not expensive, but it had a dignity and elegance to it, so it was usually hard for college students with no experience to convey its connotation.
The interviewers seemed a little bored. In low spirits, they said, “Next.”
It was Qin Guan’s turn. When he stepped forward, the interviewers sat up instantly. Although they did not know about Qin Guan’s temperament, they were all captivated by his face.
They asked him some basic questions, including his college and age, and Qin Guan took his time in answering every single one, not showing any nervousness.
The interviewers exchanged a look and told Qin Guan to move two steps forward. They noticed that he was neither overbearing nor servile. They nodded and told him, “Good. Take this blank resume, go to the third room on the left and give it to the director of the exhibition.”
Qin Guan took the blank resume and bid the interviewers goodbye with a nod before pushing the door open and leaving the interview room. When he opened the door of the third room on the left, he saw a big glass wine table in the center with several goblets and two bottles of open Bateau on it.
There were already several tall fair ladies standing orderly by the desk next to the glass table. At the other end of the room, an old frowning tailor with a tape around his neck was measuring the size of a woman.
An assistant with freckles standing by the door saw Qin Guan walk into the room with a blank resume. She had a bundle of pens in her hand, and she handed one to Qin Guan. Pointing at a small round table at the corner of the room, she told him, “Yes, second round of interviews. Fill in the resume over there and then give it to me. I’ll give you a number tag. Then you can go to the desk and wait for the final interview with the sales director.”
Qin Guan moved the pen around in his hand. He was surprised to find that there was a third round of interviews after this one. “The final round? Why is this so complicated? It’s a part-time job after all,” he told the assistant.
The assistant’s face turned quite serious. It seemed as if this was an important task to her as she explained to Qin Guan, “We’re recruiting short-term part-timers because we don’t have much time to prepare. We have no choice. Vinexpo China is next week, followed by the China International Wine and Spirits Exhibition. They’re both well-known exhibitions in China. We have to take this seriously.”