Having grown up in the mountains, Lushan people are accustomed to seeing different places as different mountains. If they see the rows of high-rise buildings as dense trees, and Minsheng West Road as bushes, the East China Sea is actually a forest, made of cement and steel bars.
A forest of steel.
Walking along the alley of Minsheng West Road, I spent five yuan at the newsstand at the intersection to buy a map of the East China Sea. I had seen rough maps hand-drawn by old hunters before, but this map was obviously much more complicated.
I couldn't understand many of the markings. I compared the map with the surrounding objects and studied it for more than half an hour before I finally got a rough idea.
Find Minsheng West Road on the map. It is the old town of Luohu Street and the most backward place in Baihui District. Lu Shanmin also found several such places in other areas on the map. Walking out of Minsheng West Road and stepping into Minsheng East Road, it is completely
It is a different world. There are high-rise buildings, cars, shopping malls and office buildings everywhere. The roads and sidewalks are cleaner than those at home on Minsheng West Road. The pedestrians on the road are also dressed more fashionably and cleanly, and you can hardly see the people in the alleys.
A greasy stall hawker.
Lu Shanmin is like a hunter who plunges into the deep mountains and forests, observing everything around him with his eyes. Pedestrians on the road are in a hurry. Some people are talking on their mobile phones while walking, some are nodding and bowing to their mobile phones with smiles, and some are smiling.
People were looking at their mobile phones with sullen expressions and angry faces. Their expressions were richer than those in the movies I watched in the village before.
From time to time, people looked at Lu Shanmin strangely along the way. The look was like looking at animals in the zoo. At first, Lu Shanmin didn't know why, but later he found out that it was because of his clothes and the two fashionably dressed girls.
He took two pictures of Lu Shanmin with his mobile phone and said, "Handsome guy, are you filming a TV series? You are too into it." Lu Shanmin smiled and continued walking forward. This area is where he will often go in the future.
He wanted to understand everything here as quickly as possible.
Along the way, I saw several shops facing the street with recruitment advertisements posted at the door, but I didn't go in because the recruitment requirements were too far for Lu Shanmin. One of the shops selling mobile phones had the lowest requirements, but they also had to graduate from high school.
For Lu Shanmin, who only went to elementary school, when he saw these recruitment advertisements, there were only four words in his eyes: 'no entry'.
This is a very lively city, but Lu Shanmin can't feel any heat in his heart. He always feels that there is an invisible glass wall surrounding his body, isolating himself from everything around him, and he looks so out of place. He can't help but think of Bai Ling.
, she is also in Donghai now. She is a college student at Donghai University. Maybe only people like her can truly integrate into this city.
Unknowingly, he walked to a tall building and looked up. The building was so tall that the top could not be seen. There were a few big words in the center of the building, "Wanhui Center". Lu Shanmin looked at the map. This should be the Parkway District.
The most prosperous place.
Walking into the 'Wanhui Center', one's eyes are filled with dazzling displays. The palace in ancient times was probably not so prosperous, Lu Shanmin thought in his heart. Lu Shanmin's dress still attracted the attention of many people, and he ignored those people's pointing.
He strolled through various stores. He originally wanted to buy a less dazzling piece of clothing. After looking around, he found that the cheapest clothes cost over a thousand yuan. Lu Shanmin pinched the two hundred yuan left in his pocket.
I really don’t understand how it could be so ridiculously expensive for just a piece of cloth to keep warm.
After walking all morning, my stomach was already growling. When I walked to the restaurant area on the third floor, the whole floor was filled with fragrance. My stomach growled even more unsatisfactorily. After shopping around, I found the cheapest bowl.
A bowl of noodles cost dozens of yuan. In the end, I had to let my stomach growl in protest.
After walking out of Wanhui Center and sitting on the steps, Lu Shanmin had to re-examine this steel forest. This is indeed a forest different from other forests. In other forests, with the skills of hunters, even if there is no one around,
You can't go hungry. In this steel forest, even if there are people around you, even if you can find delicious food everywhere, if you don't have money, you have to go hungry.
After walking around the prosperous areas of Baihui District, Lu Shanmin deeply understood what cousin Chen Kun said: "There is gold everywhere in the East China Sea, but it has nothing to do with you." Looking at the map, Lu Shanmin directly skipped those prosperous areas.
, his eyes turned back to Minsheng West Road, Luohu Street, maybe there would be his own place there.
I still had some uneaten dry food left on the train, which was dried and pickled wild boar meat. It came from Yaozi Mountain, but now it was thousands of miles away in the East China Sea, and I could barely fill my stomach with boiled water in the kettle.
, began to walk towards Minsheng West Road. It was a cluster of low old buildings. Last night I only saw a small corner. Now when I walked in, I saw narrow lanes intertwining with each other like streets in rural fields. In the alleys
Various small shops are sparsely opened for consumption by people living in this area. There are grocery stores selling daily necessities, barber shops with only two or three square meters, hardware stores, restaurants, and even some
We visited several of the bars Bai Ling mentioned earlier, but they were closed at the moment and would probably not open until evening.
Just like when he was walking in the mountains looking for prey, Lu Shanmin walked forward slowly and carefully observed every shop. After walking for about half an hour, he stopped in front of a grocery store selling hardware. This shop had a special business.
Well, the boss is a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. He is sweating profusely and keeps running around the shelves. He is very busy. The four or five people waiting in front of the counter keep urging. Lu Shanmin is quiet.
Standing there, it was like lying quietly in the grass in the mountains, waiting for prey to approach the trap. After waiting for more than half an hour, the wave of customers gradually dispersed, and the boss finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at the counter.
I drank a pot of tea and lit a cigarette leisurely.
"Hello, boss." Lu Shanmin walked closer.
The grocery store owner looked up at Lu Shanmin and looked around. The middle-aged man was also an outsider, but he had opened a store in this alley for more than ten years. He had seen too many different kinds of people over the years. Lu Shanmin looked like a dirtbag.
With his rustic dress and the words "Hello, boss", people who really want to buy things will not talk to him so politely, and they will know what this person wants to do.
The grocery store owner blew out a smoke ring and waved his hand impatiently, "We have no shortage of people here, so hurry up and leave."
Lu Shanmin did not give up and said seriously: "Boss, I see that you are very busy here. It is too hard for you to work all alone. I can do anything and I am willing to endure hardship. Why don't you let me try?"
The grocery store owner didn't have the slightest sympathy for the outsiders in front of him, even though he was the same when he arrived in the East China Sea. He glanced at Lu Shanmin and asked, "What have you done before?"
"I was a hunter."
The grocery store owner was stunned for a moment, then smiled, as if he had heard a funny joke, and shook his head: "Young man, I advise you to go back to where you came from as soon as possible. There are no prey for you in this city. Look at you."
The way you look, it’s almost as if you’ve become someone else’s prey.”
Lu Shanmin smiled politely, turned and left without saying anything.
I walked around several nearby alleys for an afternoon and entered a few shops, but the results were similar to those of grocery stores. It was getting dark. Although the flow of people on the road did not decrease but showed signs of increasing, but for someone who grew up in the mountains,
For many people, getting dark means it’s time to go home.
Back at the rental house, Zhang Li and Huang Mei were cooking in the kitchen. Chen Kun looked a little ugly, sitting on the sofa and chewing a cigarette. The ashtray on the coffee table was already full of cigarette butts.
Zhang Li walked out of the kitchen and nodded to Lu Shanmin, "Wash your hands and eat."
Four people gathered around the coffee table, with a plate of fried potatoes, a plate of fried cabbage, and a pot of radish soup.
Chen Kun put down his bowl and chopsticks angrily after taking two bites, "We came to the East China Sea to become monks and nuns. We won't even see a piece of meat in a day."
Zhang Li said calmly, "Vegetables here are more expensive than meat back home. Just the way we eat it, plus oil, salt, firewood and rice, it costs more than 100 yuan a day. Now we can't survive for a month with the remaining money."
.”
Huang Mei also pursed her lips and said gloomily, "What kind of world is this? Dozens of people are robbing a clerk who earns three thousand yuan a month, including several graduate students. When did college students become so worthless?"
Zhang Li was not as optimistic as Chen Kun thought from the beginning. Donghai, the most prosperous metropolis in the country, attracts a large influx of college students from all over the country every year. It is difficult to stand out here. But she did not expect it at all.
So bad.
Today, the three of them went to a job fair in the talent market, only to discover that the reality is even crueler than they imagined. Throughout the job fair, there were countless graduates from 985 and 211 universities, including graduate students, doctoral students, and even many returnees.
, when they saw other people’s resumes, the three of them were embarrassed to take out their own resumes. In many companies, the minimum threshold for units is 985, 211, or graduate students. I am an undergraduate from a second university in a prefecture-level city, and others are not even willing to submit their resumes.
There are also a few companies that do not have such high requirements, but such positions often require dozens or hundreds of people to compete for each position. The three of them walked around the job fair for a day, but found nothing.
The four of them had an unusually quiet meal, and there was a strong sense of uneasiness in the air. Even Chen Kun, who was usually confident, had a worried look on his face. Lu Shanmin did not have too much worry. In his opinion,
, If you can’t find a job today, you will continue to look for it tomorrow. If you can’t find it tomorrow, you will continue to look for it the day after tomorrow. In such a big city, you will always find a way to survive.