As a veteran of North Drift, moving has become the norm in Beijing – you never know, when, where, and where you'll move in the days to come.
When I first came to Beijing, I lived in the company's dormitory. The dormitory is in a community called Revitalization Garden in Fangshan Doudian Town. Two bedrooms and a living room, colleague A lives in the master bedroom, B lives in the second bedroom, the middle is the bathroom, I am later, living in the living room shelf bed. Next to the shelf bed is a cabinet, the lower floor of the cabinet is a radiator, and the upper floor can be used as a bookcase. Further out of the cupboard, there is the balcony, and the clothes we washed can be dried on the drying rack on the balcony. On the other side of the shelf bed is a refrigerator, and next to the freezer is a semicircular table with buckets of water on it. This desk also made my writing desk, and I could put a notebook on it and write some small articles. It normally takes more than 1 hour to take the bus from the dormitory to the company, because it is winter, we need to get up at 6:30 in the morning, then catch the bus, eat breakfast downstairs in the company, and punch in before 8:30 to go to work. When I got off work to catch the bus, it was dark, and it could be said that I couldn't see the sky at both ends.
It is said that the rent of the dormitory is only 1500 yuan, we only pay 100 yuan per person, and the electricity and water bills (including bottled water) are shared between us. I just lived in the dormitory, did a mess, and now I think about it, I am embarrassed. There was an outlet on the table, it was supposed to be plugged in to the refrigerator and kettle, and I needed to connect a notebook, so I unplugged one. Many days later, colleague B opened the refrigerator and was surprised, and I realized that I was pulling the refrigerator's electricity. B threw a lot of things out, I was very embarrassed at the time, even said sorry, I didn't think... B also kept saying that it was okay. But I knew that the losses had been inflicted on him, and all this was not remedied.
My bedding was bought after I arrived in Beijing, two mattresses (one of which is black heart cotton, relatively thick, bedsided), a quilt, quilt covers, pillows, pillows, slippers, etc., spent more than three hundred yuan, eating (that is, coming back from work at night to eat instant noodles) The bowl is a small stainless steel basin sent when buying drinks.
There are three people in our dormitory, and the time of rest at night is different. I went to bed earlier, at the latest 10:30 into the dreamland, A WeChat chat "work" is generally after 12 o'clock rest, B may play games, sometimes three or four o'clock to rest. And I woke up almost at four o'clock, sat at my desk in my autumn clothes, and turned on the computer to write. At that time, when I came to Beijing, everything felt fresh, I could enter the article, I scribbled on the pen, wrote a thousand words, felt something, thought about it, and left it in the text. Because of our special schedule, we often joke that thieves come to our dormitories without a chance to do it.
At the beginning of April of the following year, I had someone I liked, C, and we decided to find a house near where she worked. The house is in Suzhuang Erli, and others share a room, but also two bedrooms and a living room, our monthly rent is 1400 yuan, bet one to pay six, once almost paid a small ten thousand. The little daughter-in-law named D, who was a year older than my eldest daughter, was a couple of years older than us. They said that they had a pet dog with the people they shared before, which was annoying, so they took the family away (the house was rented by them).
We both went to work separately during the day, and the girl was almost at home during the day. Her husband is a northeasterner, called E, tall, white face is not childish, in the Ping An Insurance Company to work, every day after punching, do not track the customer's words at home to change the pattern of cooking. D is a single-parent child from Mentougou, Beijing, whose mother ran away from home when she was very young, and there was only one father in the family who was a few years older than me. D didn't have a fixed job, and he could hardly find a job for long— like my children, he couldn't stand a little grievance. They have a son, two or three years old, who is managed by his parents in his hometown in the northeast.
D and E both called me big brother, called big sister C, and I was very comfortable listening to it, as if I was several years younger. In addition to the rent, utilities and utilities we two share, gas costs we do not out, because we hardly cook. At that time, we went to pick up C from work at 10:30 every night, and when we met, we would hug, very happy moments. Once, lying in bed, we would discuss the difference between "like" and "love," a very profound pseudo-proposition, but we discussed it philosophically and recorded it.
The third move was in early July, because the landlord of Suzhuang 2li wanted to come back to live, and we had to find a new house. This time the house is in the South Lane Community of West Road, which is very close to Suzhuang Erli, and the straight-line distance is 1000 meters. It's still two bedrooms and one living room, it's still our two families, the difference is that we live in the master bedroom, the reason is that the house is a contract we signed. Because the house is on the top floor, the rent is 2500 yuan, one to pay six, two flat stalls, water and electricity are also two flat stalls, the two children are very good, sometimes they will pay a little more, saying that they are at home a little more during the day.
When I first arrived in Beijing, I thought I could continue to work in this company, and privately thought, it is not bad to work safely and steadily for five or six years, quasi-white-collar workers, the salary is higher than that of my hometown, the working environment is also comfortable, and I also like my favorite writing work. In life, I also met people I liked. What is home? Home is the life of a woman together, a man and a woman live there, and that is home. At that time, I was very satisfied and happy.
However, there are always unexpected things in life. My boss, the 41-year-old man who had told me the first afternoon, "It's windy outside, be safe," died without warning on the morning of May 20. After the boss died, all business came to a standstill. When I returned to Shaanxi on leave in June and returned to Beijing again, the company began to let employees leave in disguise. Design Xiao Li, who has only been in the company for less than three months, the nephew B of the boss lady, and I have aggravated the task, and there is no basic salary if it is not completed. Two young people who didn't have the resources to leave at the end of June, I insisted until the end of July, August 10.
Life suddenly fell into a trough. Cast out the resume, can not find the right job. At the end of August, I went to work at a piano shop in Gaobeidian, Tongzhou, Beijing, and did three astronomical cases, because I was not on the same channel as my boss, and I and another person who entered the company together chose to leave. Back at Suzhuang, I was at a loss. Without C, I would probably have gone back home and returned to my hometown.
Since you can't leave Beijing and can't find a suitable job, then find a different job to do first. Finally, I found a job doing coolies near the house, no weekends, no holidays, and one rest day every month. Work 10 hours a day, there is no rest in between, lunch is eaten in turn, and when working, you can only stand and cannot squat... The only comfort is that the salary is OK, 4500 yuan per month, and you can get 4650 yuan if you don't take a day off. The company manages to eat and live, three meals a day, eat enough in the morning, and have meat dishes at noon. But that's really hard. At that time, I kept telling myself that this was temporary, and I wouldn't continue to do it like this. One day, I'll find the right job I love.
On January 19, before the Spring Festival, C and the child returned to the northeast to apply for an ID card for the child. This distinction has become our difference. When the epidemic broke out that year, I spent a very boring Spring Festival in Beijing alone. In March after the Spring Festival, C returned from the northeast to Chengde, Hebei Province, where his children went to school. This year, the child went to the second year of high school, the second half of the year on the third year of high school, she said, just accompany the child for a year, has not accompanied the child to school, the heart is very guilty. I also understand that she just found a job over there, and I worked here alone. I only hope that the epidemic will pass quickly, and the child will return to Beijing after the college entrance examination.
It's July and our rent is due. E They found a friend's house and I moved again. This time I moved alone, went to "I love my home" to find a house in the same community, next door 8 buildings 5 units 2 floor, three bedrooms and a living room, I am the first household, chose a relatively large second bedroom, there is a cabinet, a table, a corner cabinet, milky white, very much in line with my heart. The rent is 1100 yuan, and the households will share it equally after the water and electricity, and pay one for one. It's just that I have more stuff and occupy the living room and kitchen, and the landlord is a bit unhappy.
Soon, the master bedroom moved back to the original tenant, the man contracted the urban greening project, and the woman worked in a nearby restaurant. Not familiar, there is not much intersection; later the youngest second bedroom moved to a big brother, surnamed Yang, I called him Yang big brother, northeast people, very burly look, tall, very handsome, a look is to be the material of the leader. Unfortunately, his eyes were open, but he couldn't see. Elder Brother Yang said that his eyes could not be cured by medicine now, and there was no way. When chatting, he said that he had also run a cultural company before, and at that time, many people introduced him to the ladies in Beijing, who had cars and houses, and he did not agree. He had a very high opinion of himself and forgot to introduce that Brother Yang was originally in the system in his hometown, and then divorced and came to Beijing to start a business. Has a son in the Northeast.
He said I believed. Because the friends who look for him respect him. Every time a friend came, he bought him a lot of daily necessities, including fruits and vegetables. He was also taken out to banquets and supermarkets. When in the living room, I will ask Brother Yang a lot of questions. Every afternoon after work, when he hears a knock at the door, Brother Yang will come out of his house and chat with me. We talk to each other about our pasts and hobbies, and our views on the current situation and life. He would let me help him buy things online, transfer money from his mobile phone, and let me see his WeChat unread messages and unanswered calls. He said that after the New Year, he returned to the northeast and opened a blind massage point shop in his own house in his hometown, and there was a job to do, so he was not in a hurry. I said, I also want to find the right job, even if the salary is low.
In early October, the leader excused that the weather was cold, we were a few older, for safety, not suitable for front-line work, you can do some logistical work, 8 hours, salary, the minimum standard of 2700 yuan. No company will terminate the employment contract with the employee, but will only find a reason for the employee to leave the employee automatically. I used to hate this job, and at first I just wanted to stick with it for a month or three months. I didn't expect to do it for a year and a month. When you really leave, when you don't have a job, you are actually very disappointed in your heart - Beijing, which is a place where you can't live without a job.
Sitting in the "home" again, once again at a loss. Activate your resume again. Life is like this, when fate closes a window for you, it may open a door for you. Sometimes, bad things turn into good things, but you have to be prepared. In early December, I applied for an editing job at a book company. The company was in Shunyi Houshayu, and my then-station was diagonal, in the northeast corner of Beijing. When I left my first cultural company last year, my counterparts were almost always farther away from where I lived. Now, I am alone in Beijing, without any worries, and I am afraid of the hard work, so I no longer care about the place where I work. After the work was determined, he called Lalala to move from the South Sixth Ring Road in Beijing to the North Sixth Ring Road in Beijing.
The place where I live is helped by colleagues to find, in Shunyi Gaoliying Town, a village called Zhang Xizhuang, private apartment, the third floor, with a bathroom and kitchen, about 15 square meters, monthly rent of 800 yuan, one charge to pay one, electricity is once 1.2 yuan, water and Internet fees are free. Heating supply for 4 months costs 1200 YUAN. It takes 10 minutes to walk from the place of residence to the bus stop, half an hour to take the bus, and 10 minutes to get off the bus to the company. Go to work at 8:30, you need to go out at 7:00 at the latest, that is, the alarm clock needs to be set at 6:30 to get up.
I went to work on December 21, and on the 26th, the epidemic in Beijing rebounded again, and the village where I lived was closed and controlled, and I only had to work from home. On the 28th, the circle of friends sent such a text " So scared! On the 25th, I went to work to hear from my colleagues that the village where we lived was closed, and we could only enter and leave. I decided decisively not to take the bus and walk back. After walking for an hour and a half, I stopped by and bought steamed buns, noodles, potatoes, chicken nuggets, cabbage, peppers, etc. in Xima Middle Street. Sure enough, when I entered the village, I began to queue up for nucleic acid testing. The next day the phone received the result notification: negative! Expected but also relieved. I bought a mountain bike on an online order, prepared to ride a bike at the end of 14 days of home isolation, and never squeezed the bus again, too scared. In the company group, the nucleic acid test results of colleagues are continuously announced, which is fine! In this world, it is best to be a lonely person! ”
During the closure of the village, the community sent daily necessities twice for free, including rice noodles and vegetables, as well as large meat, dish soap and the like; three nucleic acid tests were done. Originally thought to be quarantined at home for 14 days, it was finally unsealed after 21 days. A few days ago, I also found a video of "fish swimming all day long" on Douyin, which was January 23, after the joint efforts of many people! Zhang Xizhuang Village was unsealed. "Let's look up, it's the blue sky. A strong gaze will melt away all disasters. Keep the torch of hope lit. Look, how sunny the sun is... Dreams and missions will inspire us to move forward..."
The Spring Festival of 2021 is the second Spring Festival I have spent in Beijing. Because of the epidemic, I can't leave Beijing, and I am the only one in Beijing to spend the Spring Festival without a New Year's flavor. 18, 19, 20, 21 for four consecutive Spring Festivals, I have never eaten the boxy fruits of my hometown, never ate bean buns and turnip meat stuffed buns, never ate dumplings with buns, never put on big red couplets, never put firecrackers again... I can't remember the taste of the year. Being in a foreign land, that kind of loneliness and helplessness, cold and warm only knows. In fact, sometimes, pressure is the driving force, if there is no pressure, people will not age before aging?
After unsealing, I went to work and my mountain bike came back. Since then, I have been cycling since then. Cycling is a straight-line distance, and if you ride fast, you can get to the company in about 26 minutes. My colleague Old Hu was four years older than me, and the two of us commuted to and from work together. He started riding an electric car, then sold it, and also rode a bike with me, saying that riding a bicycle can alleviate the office disease of sitting at work all the time — pain in the lumbar and cervical spine. We chose to ride to work first because we exercised, and second, during the epidemic period, to reduce the infection of taking the bus. It's just rain or shine, and it's a bit hard.
The company is doing second-hand books, and we mainly do custom books for booksellers. The boss asked us editors not only to edit the text into a book, but also to learn to design the graphic layout, basically able to do the layout of pictures and texts. Anyone who applies for a job basically needs to start from scratch at the boss' place. Whether it is the edited word processing, or the design of the picture selection, the boss will modify it word by word, the picture will be re-selected for consideration, a book needs to be polished repeatedly, and the visual will reach the satisfaction of the boss. Honestly, I learned a lot here, the visible application of id, the accurate use of words; the invisible excellence and professionalism.
Work is not very tired, the salary is not very high, there are double holidays and holidays, although I and Lao Hu because of the double holiday at home there is not much to do, choose Saturday overtime, four days of monthly rest, basically can get more than five thousand a little wage, but think about the previous work, but also relieved. After all, it is my favorite writing work, and I am also handy to do. Meals are made by themselves, the company has a refrigerator and microwave, and lunch can be brought to the company to eat. The pace of work is not very tight, and the salary can basically be received on time, and there is more than enough than the upper and lower. There is a colleague who can talk to his friend Lao Hu, and he feels quite satisfied.
I was going to go back to my hometown on National Day, but later, for some reason, my heart was very hurt, so I decided to go to Tibet to heal my wounds. When I bought the ticket, I told the old nonsense on the other side of my plan and asked him if he could go? Unexpectedly, he said very painfully, go! So we bought train tickets online, took a walk-and-go trip, and got on the train to Lhasa. The train of more than 40 hours enjoyed the different scenery along the way, felt the high anti, and also felt the unparalleled beauty of Lhasa. On the day I went to Lhasa for tourism, every day when I woke up at four o'clock, I would write "Approaching Lhasa" on my mobile phone, writing a total of nine articles, and when I came back, I processed and polished it into more than 17,500 words of long prose and serialized it on a certain platform.
I thought that Shunyi was my home in Beijing, a peaceful life, and a stable job. Less than three years after coming to Beijing, it was already the fourth time I had moved. Rent is not expensive, live freely, work for another four or five years, basically can return to the hometown for the elderly. Suddenly, one day, a phone call came in, stirring up my peaceful life and stirring up the backwaters of my heart. An old friend invited me to work at another company. It was a more appropriate company for which I worked, and the social science literature category was the editing and reviewing, and it was also my area of expertise. The salary is good, the job is suitable, and it is a warm invitation from friends, I went to the company on the next day to visit the field, after the two-way choice, I went to work in the new company on the third day.
This is my fifth move when I have been in Beijing for almost three years. This time I moved back from the northeast of Beijing to the southwest of Beijing where I used to live. In the article "Through Most of Beijing to Work", I wrote: "Working in Beijing too, last year in the south of the city, this year in the north of the city, and now back to the south of the city, you never know where fate will push you in the next second." Cross most of Beijing to work, tired and happy! ”
This time the rented house is along the Yanfang line of the Beijing subway. It takes about an hour to take the subway from Suzhuang Four Station, where I used to live, and from the Fengtai Science and Technology Park where I now work. The company went to work at 9 o'clock, we went out on time at 7:30 to take the subway, and at about 8:40 to the company to punch in to work. The house has floor heating, with kitchen and bathroom, rent 850 yuan, water cost 10 yuan, electricity cost 1 yuan per kwh, internet fee free, one bet to pay one. Only so there is no choice to share a room near the company, one is that the rent is expensive, the second is that they are unwilling to share the kitchen and bathroom with strangers, and the third is that they think that the current apartment rent is cheap, in case there is no job in the future, there is not much pressure to find a job for one or two months.
I bought a shelf for clothes from the Internet, came back from work with a hanging place for clothes, bought a small bookcase, and gave books a place to live. I posted a video of "Fireworks Life" on Douyin, writing that "People are there, home is there!" I like to tidy up my place like home: comfortable, cozy. Home is a place to relieve physical and mental exhaustion, not a place to live simply! Living comfortably, eating at ease, and feeling comfortable should be the effect of home. "Like home, it's never home. In the days of wandering in a foreign land, there is no fixed place to live, and there is only a place for the heart to be temporarily safe, that is, peace of mind.
2021.12.12