Dance to the rhythm: The City of Grand Elegance. Beijing Edition

Author: Zao Lin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Remember that someone once said that a butterfly's gentle flutter of wings could cause a storm. Perhaps, the world is mysterious to such an extent. Strangers passing by each other might just intertwine their destinies. An accidental glance back, and their paths cross instantly. The scales of the butterfly begin to dance wildly in the wind. The story attempts to depict the inclusive cultural characteristics of Beijing through the perspectives of two women, an outsider and a local, blending cultures. At the same time, it candidly portrays the growth of women in the modern Beijing city. Sales have nothing to do with education; it's just manual labor because you have to stand for six or seven hours straight. Standing with legs aching and numb while smiling and persuading customers you occasionally catch a glimpse of—that's reaching the ninth level of skill. Ye Yang only has 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 when she returned 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 west-facing window that only let in a little light during dusk. The room had three sets of bunk beds and a two-drawer desk as its only furniture. Six girls in their early twenties, like six vibrant flowers, were lonely in such a damp and dark place. Ye Yang told herself to endure it. Waking up in the middle of the night, she occasionally walked outside to the public phone booth to make a long-distance call to her family in Guizhou. The phone was always answered by her mother, who said, "If you can't take it, just come back." Ye Yang quickly smiled and said, "It's fine, it's fine, 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 and 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 fluently as soon as possible. But fluency in speech does not equal good character. A girl fluent in Beijing dialect threw the health products she had bought in front of Ye Yang, speaking maliciously in the voice she longed for, as if she were an angel. Her boyfriend didn't even hesitate to slap Ye Yang without knowing the situation. On Ye Yang's face, which had never even been hit by her mother, a red mark immediately appeared. The duty manager came over and demanded that Ye Yang apologize and compensate the customer for the loss. Ye Yang bit her lips and, amidst the curious gazes of the crowd gathered to watch the spectacle, took off her uniform and threw it into the hands of the duty manager. If it hadn't been for encountering Sister Kang, Ye Yang might have left then and there. Who knows? The direction of fate is always full of twists and turns. The story of how Ye Yang met Sister Kang 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 crowd with their big and small bags, unsure where to start building her dreams of this city, 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 and grabbed the boy's hand. The boy was holding a woman's phone. In the woman's surprised and astonished expression, the boy threw the phone and ran off. Ye Yang picked up the phone and gave it back to the woman. The woman—Sister Kang—walked a few steps ahead, turned back, and looked at Ye Yang, whose expression was still bewildered. "You're not from Beijing?" Sister Kang asked. "Mm, no," Ye Yang replied. "Looking for a job?" Sister Kang continued to ask. "Mm, looking," Ye Yang said stiffly. "What have you done before?…" "Sold health products," Ye Yang casually mentioned a few brands. Sister Kang nodded, "My company is looking for people. Want to come?" Ye Yang ended up at "Xin Cheng." Later, she learned that Sister Kang was actually from "Xin Cheng."