Dance to the rhythm: The Grand City · Beijing Volume: The Grand City · Beijing Volume

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Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: It has been said that a butterfly's gentle flutter of wings can trigger a storm. Perhaps, the world is truly as mysterious as that. A stranger passing by might unexpectedly intertwine with your fate. An accidental glance back, and trajectories cross in an instant. The butterfly's scales begin to dance wildly in the wind.
The story attempts to depict the inclusive cultural characteristics of Beijing through the perspectives of two women—a foreigner and a local—portraying the cultural fusion. At the same time, it candidly describes the growth of women in the modern Beijing metropolis. Sales work has nothing to do with education; it's just manual labor, requiring you to stand for six or seven hours straight. Standing with legs aching and numb while maintaining a pleasant demeanor to persuade occasional passersby—that is the ninth level of skill.
Ye Yang only had a high school education and thought this job was quite good, so she never dared to complain, just doing it nervously, earning a base salary plus commissions. Every day, returning to the dormitory provided by the manufacturer, she felt her waist was about to break, only having the strength to lie on the bed and gasp for breath. The dormitory was a half-basement, with a western-facing window that only let in a sliver of light during dusk. The room had three sets of bunk beds and a two-drawer desk—those were the only furnishings. Six girls in their twenties, like six vibrant flowers, were lonely in such a damp and dim place.
Ye Yang told herself to endure it. Waking up in the middle of the night, she occasionally stepped outside to the public phone booth to make a long-distance call to her family in Guizhou. Her mother always answered. "If you can't take it, just come back," she said. Ye Yang quickly smiled and replied, "It's fine, nothing's wrong. I'm doing well now."
After her six-month salary was settled, Ye Yang had 680 yuan. She kept the money in her pocket until it got warm, then ran to the wholesale market behind the shopping mall to buy a radio. Among her colleagues' new cosmetics and clothes, the small silver-gray radio stood out. She followed the radio to learn Mandarin, correcting her pronunciation word by word, hoping to speak the language perfectly as soon as possible.
But perfection in speech does not equate to good character. A girl fluent in Beijing dialect threw the health products she had purchased in front of Ye Yang, speaking maliciously in the voice she longed for, as if she were an angel. Her boyfriend, even more so, slapped Ye Yang without hesitation. On Ye Yang's face, which had never even been struck by her mother, a red mark instantly appeared. The duty manager came over, demanding Ye Yang apologize and compensate the customer.
Ye Yang bit her lip, standing amidst the curious onlookers, took off her uniform, and tossed it into the manager's hands. If it hadn't been for Kang Jie, Ye Yang might have left that day. Who knows? The direction of fate is always unpredictable.
The story of how Ye Yang met Kang Jie was quite dramatic. At the time, Ye Yang was standing on an overpass outside the shopping mall, dragging her luggage, staring blankly at the bustling crowds with their bags of belongings, unsure where to start building her dreams of Beijing. Suddenly, a dirty boy was lurking in the crowd, his small hand seemingly carelessly reaching into a woman's purse.
"Thief!" Ye Yang instinctively shouted, grabbing the boy's hand. In the woman's shocked and surprised expression, the boy dropped the phone and ran off. Ye Yang picked up the phone and returned it to her.
The woman—Kang Jie—walked a few steps ahead, then turned back to look at Ye Yang, who had a vacant expression. "You're not from Beijing?" Kang Jie asked.
"Mm, no," Ye Yang replied.
"Looking for a job?" Kang Jie continued.
"Mm, yes," Ye Yang said stiffly.
"What did you used to do?…‘Sell health products," Ye Yang casually mentioned a few brands. Kang Jie nodded, "My company is hiring. Want to come?"
Ye Yang ended up at "Xincheng." Later, she learned that Kang Jie was actually the owner of "Xincheng."