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The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

Photo by Dariusz Grosa from Pexels

Text/ Yo yo deer singing

A Step Closer to Reality | More information was obtained following the publication of "A Preliminary Verification of a Small Restaurant Owner Trapped in Suicide".

On the first day, the owners of the nearby community "Bayview International" gave me feedback on the business status and dining experience of "Gathering Friends" overnight; the next day, some readers and friends continued to visit the area around the hotel, and noticed that many groups of local media also arrived here, including individual creators (praising the dedication of media friends); on the third day, I successively contacted several close friends of the hotel owner to understand the past; on the fourth day, I added to understand the surrounding situation.

Still not fully understood, but this is a sad story for me:

The owner of "Ju Peng Yuan" is named Gu Xinge. As the widely circulated screenshot says, he's divorced. Four years ago, he broke up with his wife. "He loves his wife, and his wife loves him, but neither of them bows to each other in their personality." A close friend of Gu Xinge said to me: "When we broke up, the property was also divided, he got 600,000 yuan, left half of it to his daughter, and brought 300,000 yuan out to start a business." His daughter is still in college. ”

Gu Xinge used to open a hotel, but also like this line, after site selection, preparation, decoration, near the West Third Ring Road near the Ruhe Road opened a "gathering of friends" to continue to start a business. On May 7, 2019, he released his first Douyin video work, which is a set of pictures of the interior of the small shop waiting to greet guests, including 10 tables, a compartment, a kitchen, and the soundtrack is Andy Lau's "Wishing you prosperity". You can feel festive and full of ambition. In the next two and a half years, he released 105 Douyin works, all in this store, or at the door of the store.

The façade rent is 20,600 yuan per month, and he also rents a two-bedroom and one-hall house opposite for the chef (a couple) and waiters to live in.

Gu Xinge has tattoos on his body and is not afraid to display it in public in the video; friends say that he believes in Buddhism and likes to keep birds, and there is a myna in the restaurant who speaks well; guests say that there is a table at the door that does not entertain guests, but has a tea table for drinking tea and drinking every day, and there are goldfish next to it.

However, the operation seems to be getting more and more difficult. Some nearby owners saw that in order to attract business, he brushed an advertisement two hundred meters away", "Eat steamed buns, send beer".

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

In October 2020, Gu Xinge, with a height of 182cm, shaved his hair and changed his head style

The biggest sudden factor is the pandemic. After the Spring Festival in 2020, the city forced the closure of stores, the landlord waived the rent for three and a half months, and then in the waves of the epidemic, the epidemic prevention headquarters banned dine-in, and the Guxing people relied on takeaway to maintain. When the ban is lifted, business will get better, but it will soon be repeated again. In the past two years, he has also encountered floods, road construction and landslides in Zhengzhou. Regarding the impact of these points on the operation, the evaluation of various parties is mixed, and the deviation of the details of the previous widely disseminated screenshot is also here. But the difficulties of the "Gathering Friends" business are certain, because Gu Xinge had to let his old father also help to top the waiter position to reduce labor expenses, while the chef's wife worked part-time in the shop to take care of hygiene.

With the passage of time, the works in Guxing vibrato have become more and more sad. On June 26, 2021, he put on a selfie, voiced by a TV series: "I am very poor now, please do not contact me, I am afraid to open my mouth to borrow money from you, hurt feelings, and when I pay off my debts one day and can eat big meat and drink good wine, what will be the same as before." In the message area of this Douyin video, the first message was "What is the business like?" He replied, "Yes." The person who left the message had the same surname as gu.

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

In fact, this dubbing is most likely his real voice. A good friend of his was annoyed, "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, we gathered in his shop, and I saw that he was obviously thin, so I asked him alone if he was in difficulty." He said it was all right. I actually believed it. ”

At this time, Gu Xinge had spent all his savings and owed an unknown amount of money to the credit card, "the credit card lowered the limit for him, and his capital chain was broken." ”

On July 8, he posted a video of the interior of an empty hotel late at night, with a monologue: "When I am bitter, no one accompanies me, I learn to be patient; when I am busy, no one helps, I learn to die; when I am tired, I learn to die." On July 13, the interior of the empty hotel was still empty, and the soundtrack of the video was: "I am too tired in life, I am so tired, sometimes I want to drink some wine and get myself drunk." On August 10, he released his last video - a late-night restaurant table and chairs, a swimming goldfish, the text is "life is too tired, still have to live", there is no soundtrack, only a sigh of his own, heavy and long.

In September, he bought carbon online. This carbon has no use in restaurants. Today, it seems that the three videos that were finally released to the public are more like the laments that this little boss gave to himself.

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

Gu Xinge's last Douyin video work begins with a fish shoot, "Life is too tired, but still have to live."

At noon on October 14, a supermarket owner received his personal delivery as usual, and at five o'clock in the afternoon, one of his old friends received a call: "Come for a drink?" "Friends can't go over because of overtime work, which makes him regret it to this day." At about 10:30 p.m. that night, Gu Xinge paid the people who supplied the supply one by one on WeChat, all of which were two or three hundred, five or six people, one by one, and finally, transferred all the remaining more than 890 yuan to his daughter who was studying at university.

This is 22:44, the last record of contact with the outside world.

The next morning, the father who lived with him felt strange, because the normal six-and-a-half-o'clock Gu Xinge should get up and start working, but there was no movement at seven o'clock. Opening the door, I found that last night, the doors and windows were stained with tape, the middle of the bedroom was burned with carbon, and Gu Xinge was dead.

He obviously didn't want to destroy the wooden floor. Because he used a stainless steel basin when burning charcoal, the bottom was also raised by more than ten centimeters.

The police came to investigate, ruling out criminal cases. Three suicide notes were left in the room. One was left to the chef couple, expressing gratitude, and also owed more than 10,000 yuan a month in the transfer fee, "after the next life to help again"; a letter to the store landlord, saying that the rent was owed about 10,000 yuan, and the excess money in the transfer fee was left to the parents, "Uncle, in the next life, I will repay your kindness." "There is also a letter left for my brother and sister-in-law, saying that I am sorry for my parents and troublesome for them to bring them back to their hometown."

The body returned to Changge's hometown for burial, and six or seven neighbors also drove to see them off. During the epidemic, he set up five tables outside the store, put a casserole dish, and let everyone take it for free, and each person took a bag. He has an 11-person circle of friends in Zhengzhou, who often gather together, one who died of illness five years ago and now one less. This time, the friends got together and gave him a place to toast, and the brothers went well and rested in peace.

The hotel was liquidated for tens of thousands of yuan, and now a month later, the new owner is renovating.

Over the years, Gu Xinge had no contact with his ex-wife, but a friend said that after his death, a bouquet of flowers was placed in front of the store, which was sent by his ex-wife.

His WeChat is still there, and his personality signature is: "Tianxingjian, a gentleman should be self-reliant." ”

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

It took four days and I still can't know exactly why he committed suicide. One of his friends said that the suicide note did not mention the reason, only thanks and apologies, and did not see anyone in the WeChat chat record who had urged him. "Career failure should be half the factor." I tried to contact his father, but when I learned that his father was old, I didn't dare to bother. White-haired people send black-haired people, and this grief will last a long time.

In the information I have received so far, there is no bad comment about Gu Xinge, he is probably a very ordinary small boss in the city, the smallest kind, who believes in Buddhism, raises fish, raises birds, loves to drink tea, loves to drink, and motivates himself with popular songs. He spent all day in this small restaurant, in fact he could not leave, because outside the kitchen, it was up to him and his father to take care of it.

I don't get any information about him starting a new relationship in these four years, but I guess he probably doesn't have time either. One day he said on TikTok, "Leave work early, is there anyone on the appointment?" But he has almost no "fans", how much ripple can this stone cause? unknown.

Professor Li Qiang of Tsinghua University published a study on "Middle Transition Layer and Middle Marginal Layer" in February 2017. His research group defined annual household incomes of 69,000 to 236,000 as "middle-income households" and found that most of the middle class was in the transitional or marginal middle class. The "middle class marginal" group, which accounts for 73% of the entire middle class, is mostly a permanent urban resident, a group that comes to the big city from the countryside or small towns to operate services.

Fragile and prone to "downward flow", which is characteristic of the "middle edge". From the background information I know so far, he is such a person who hovers on the "middle edge". From a small place to a big city, work hard, be self-motivated, try to create a relatively comfortable environment around you, and get closer to a better life little by little, but first of all, it encounters marriage changes, the foundation of the career is half damaged, and then it encounters the epidemic, in the uncertainty, a middle-aged man is shaking.

Individual industrial and commercial households, small and micro business owners, small and white-collar workers, salesmen, hotel managers, vegetable farmers... People who are hovering on the brink of the middle class, this group of hard-working, blue wisps, they are entrepreneurs, they are the gears of the social machine, they are the lubricant, they are the basic disk, and they are also the silent majority. Yes, it rarely enters the line of sight of public opinion, ordinary as air, as if the wind comes and goes, as if there is no trace.

The vast majority of them are always bravely facing life, even if it is difficult, they will never give up and do not go to extremes. But we can't just ignore them because they never give up. I must say this: this is our common interest - to prevent the downward flow of the "middle class edge", to help the "middle class transition layer" to flow upwards, to make the "middle class" more and more stable, and to consolidate the basic plate of social stability.

The wheels of the times are roaring forward, the progress of society is visible to the naked eye, we sit in the train, calmly, and those who are thrown out of the train, their voices are always speechless.

I don't know how many more stories like Gusinger are scattered in the grass. These days, I listen to many people's stories, but I don't have the heart to verify the details one by one, sometimes I can't even say a word of comfort, all I can do is listen to a word.

Everyone has their own decency. I can probably feel what it's like to be suddenly penniless when a middle-aged man who was once impassioned and dependent on by a family is suddenly penniless; I can probably guess what kind of psychological barriers need to be broken when he finally says it.

"Happy people are all similar, and unhappy people have their own misfortunes." I have selected a few messages that can be made public, prepared for the record, and for the reference of the kings:

The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard
The last days of a small entrepreneurial boss: May those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard

In the last two videos of Gu Xinge's life, fish appear. Birdsong is pitiful, fish injuries are not asked. Most people are more like "fish" than "birds", without words, unable to speak, silently carrying everything.

Yes, most people have difficulties and are accustomed to digesting themselves silently, even in the face of their closest friends. Because everyone is accustomed to not bothering others, such a psychology has been integrated into the genes of ethnic culture, and it is difficult to say that it is not good, because it is a manifestation of civilization; it is also difficult to say that it is good, because it always hides pain.

May the world return to normal as soon as possible, may everyone not become an "island", may those fish that are faintly aching be seen and heard.

20211112 Yo yo deer singing

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