Just Starting to Work,初出茅庐的故事[Part 12]
A Comedic Adventure in 90s Shenzhen
I remember it was a night when I had just started working in Shenzhen. There were no stars in the sky, and I was squatting in front of a colorful TV at a small shop with some random people, let's call them Joe, Bob, and Dave. We were all engrossed in watching a thrilling Hong Kong cockroach insecticide commercial, when suddenly, I was pulled from behind and dragged to the side of the road. It turned out to be the Settlement Girl!
As I was both shocked and delighted, I asked her what was going on. With a grave expression and a soft voice, she whispered to me about a tremendous job opportunity. Wow, she was impressive! Without even thinking, I agreed right away...
Time is money, and efficiency is life. I was led into a massive queue of people, and being the clueless me in Shenzhen in 1990, I had no idea what stocks were. All I knew was that I would get 20 yuan for waiting in line until dawn, and I was excited beyond words.
Just as the sky revealed the dawn of a new day in the east, a team of urban management officers arrived. The details don't matter, let's get to the point. Because I had forgotten to bring my residence permit, the ID card I was holding for someone else in the queue didn't match my face. Consequently, I was escorted to a nearby police station near Meilin Checkpoint, where I found myself waiting for release in a cell with a murderer on the left and a drunken guy on the right. In the meantime, we all shared our stories and gained some valuable insights.
Mr. Chen, the locksmith, didn't show up that day, but to my pleasant surprise, the Budget Girl came to my rescue. She paid the 50 yuan fine for me and, with a mix of anger and amusement, led me out. Just when I didn't know where to start, the Budget Girl spoke in an admiring tone, saying how amazing I was. It turned out that her best friend, the Settlement Girl, had lied and said that I got arrested to rescue her dad. She claimed that I willingly took the blame for her dad's arrest, leaving me speechless... But as we rode back together on her forever brand bicycle, the sky was indeed very blue, so blue.
Fun fact: Since the early 1990s, the Shenzhen stock market, established with the spirit of "daring to try, daring to venture," has gone through a difficult exploratory period and debates over whether it should be led by socialism or capitalism. After Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour and his statement that socialism can also utilize capitalistic elements, Shenzhen's stock market broke free from ideological constraints.
