Little Brother Jia went in and out of Xi'erqi, selling thousands of truckloads of strawberries and getting to know thousands of employees of large factories— they were all in Little Brother's strawberry group. It is these strawberry groups that helped Little Brother Jia to settle down in Beijing, buy a car, and set up a business, and he is more familiar with the city than many big factory people, and he understands the changes in the land of Xi'erqi.
Text | Jiang Ruihua
Edit | Golden turn
Operational | chestnut
It's finally here
Little Brother Jia, 34 years old, sells strawberries in Xi'erqi, and his WeChat avatar is also a strawberry.
Every Monday to Friday, at 12:00 noon, the strawberry avatar will appear on time in more than a dozen WeChat groups, which are crowded with employees of NetEase, Sina, Baidu, and Xiao Jia Ge shouts strawberries and other fruits to arrive at the exact time of Xi'erqi, and then leaves.
But recently, Little Brother Jago has not sent strawberries to Xi'erqi for a week. Everyone in the group was asking, "What's wrong with Little Brother Jago?" When to come? In Xi'erqi, it is almost impossible to find a second mobile vendor, who can have such a high popularity and be remembered by so many employees of large factories.
Little Brother Jago was also anxious, because of the epidemic, he was isolated for a week and sold thousands of boxes of fruit. The day before the unsealing, he began to wait from the evening, waited until the early morning, received the unsealing notice before putting his mind at ease, did not sleep much, and with his relatives at home, spent half the night picking a cart of fruit, filling the trunk of the van, and went straight to Xi'erqi the next day.
After arriving at the parking lot opposite NetEase — the open space is a fixed place for Little Jago to sell fruit — his expression became visibly excited: "They are probably waiting for me." When he stopped the car against the fence in the parking lot, there were indeed forty or fifty employees of the big factory outside the fence, wearing different color badges, and lined up in an orderly manner.
This open space is an excellent location selected by NetEase employees and Xiao Jia Ge, crossing the road is NetEase East Gate, Baidu Park is next to it, and Employees of Tencent and Sina are not far away. Most importantly, there is a gap in the fence, and Little Jago hands out the fruit from the gap, so that the big factory people don't have to go around for hundreds of meters.
At noon on weekdays, there are only about two places in the entire Xi'erqi 100-meter long queue, one is the canteen of the big factory, and the other is Xiao Jia Ge. Passers-by circled around until they saw a van full of fruit: "Hey, I thought I was lining up to do nucleic acid." ”
▲ A large factory employee took a video of the queue and sent it to Little Brother Jia.
The strawberries are almost out of season, and Little Jago only brought more than forty boxes today, and they sold out within a few minutes. A person wearing a polo shirt did not want to wait in line, the wind and fire came in through the side door of the parking lot, such as entering no man's land, picked up a few boxes of lychees and tomatoes from the trunk of Xiao Jia Ge, and then took blueberries and nectarines from the fruit basket on the ground, shuttled freely, filled with two large bags and a dozen boxes of fruits, and threw a sentence at the busy little Jago, "Transfer your money in the group", turn around and leave. "These are all things that I don't have time to buy fruit and stock up on good goods to take home on weekends." Little Jago explains.
In less than half an hour, four or five hundred boxes of fruit were "swept away". Little Brother Jia, who did not come to Xi'erqi for a week, became the most anticipated guest of the big factory. But among these people waiting, few people know the experience of little Jago, who is the most familiar stranger to the people of the big factory.
When he was a teenager, Xiao Jia Ge left his hometown of Henan, followed his relatives to the coast to work, worked in bread factories and garment factories, and came to Beijing 11 years ago, opening didi, setting up stalls, and even collecting rags. Early to appreciate the hardships of life, he did not think about the road ahead, did not know where it would go, only felt that the money was never enough to spend. At that time, he did not expect that 11 years later, he actually took root in Beijing and became the "strawberry brother" of Xi'erqi, and even his young son, who had not yet gone to school, would call out his name, "NetEase East Gate Little Brother Jia".
▲ Someone came late, and Little Jago showed the few boxes of fruit left. Photo / Photo by Jiang Ruihua
Xi'erqi can't do without Little Brother Jia
Little Brother Jia went in and out of Xi'erqi, selling thousands of truckloads of strawberries and getting to know thousands of employees of large factories— they were all in Little Brother's strawberry group. It is these strawberry groups that helped Little Brother Jia to settle down in Beijing, buy a car, and set up a business, and he is more familiar with the city than many big factory people, and he understands the changes in the land of Xi'erqi.
In fact, when he first came to Beijing to sell fruit, Xiao Jia Ge did not choose Xi'erqi as a "stronghold".
At that time, Tencent was still in Tsinghua Science and Technology Park, and NetEase also had an office building in Wudaokou. I can also go to the Tsinghua canteen to eat, the management is not strict, I can do meal cards. "At that time, the place where he set up his stall was the only way for these employees of large factories." After selling for a long time, Little Brother Jia did not raise his head, and when he heard the sound, he could immediately know which old patron was coming. It is also these old patrons who pass on word of mouth to Xiao Jia ge's strawberries and push him all the way from Wudaokou to Xi'erqi.
In 2014, Baidu Science and Technology Park landed in the second phase of Zhongguancun Software Park, "at that time, the NetEase building was not yet built, there was nothing in the yard, the windows and doors were not yet installed, it was the feeling of just laying a good foundation." Subsequently, Sina, Tencent and so on also sat down. Now, standing at the intersection of South Street of Software Park and West Third Road of Software Park, Baidu Science and Technology Park, Sina Building, NetEase Building and Tencent Building stand on all four feet, with Lenovo headquarters in the north and West Software Park Road passing through Software Park West Road, which is a piece of high-tech enterprises and scientific research centers.
Little Jaco's fruit business has risen with the big factories that have "settled" here. Internet companies moved from Wudaokou to Xi'erqi, employees also followed a migration, Xiao Jia Ge sent strawberries to Xi'erqi more and more frequently, and later, he simply moved to Xi'erqi himself.
By 2018, Xiao Jia Ge formed a stable route: every day at about 12:20 to Beyondsoft, around 12:40 to NetEase, in the afternoon to Xueqingyuan, Yimei Home and other communities nearby. If the fruit is not enough to sell, go back to the middle of the package again, busy intervals, occasionally open the WeChat group, the message is always 99+.
Being able to buy fresh fruit anytime, anywhere is not an easy task for the employees of the big factory in Xi'erqi.
It's home to some of China's top companies, but it doesn't generously offer a wealth of living conditions. Around 12:00 noon, almost all the delivery workers will gather at the Brilliant International Mall, which is 400 meters away from the Xi'erqi subway station, which is the takeaway base of Xi'erqi, and then deliver the food to major companies within a radius of 5 kilometers. On the way to deliver food, you can see buildings, street trees and shrubs, but it is difficult to see a small fruit stall.
For a long time, the big factory people in Xi'erqi were labeled as "high income, low consumption" - because there was basically nowhere to spend. Long Yan, who studied for a ph.D. at a scientific research institute in Xi'erqi, felt that to find a place to spend here, the nearest place was Shangdi Hualian, or The shopping mall in Tangjialing - it can't even be called a shopping mall, it feels more like a market. "There is nothing here, only people, on the weekend, even the shadow can not be seen, everyone went to Huilongguan, where there are many Internet employees, more consumption, more abundant." Therefore, almost every few days, Long Yan and his fellow disciples would come to Xiao Jia Ge once and buy more than a dozen boxes of fruit to bring back to the laboratory.
▲ Along Houchangcun Road, there are almost no shops. Photo / Photo by Jiang Ruihua
From 12:00 to 14:00, the most lively time in Xi'erqi is also the golden time for Little Brother Jia to do business. At this time, the big factory people came out in pairs and walked around the boulevard and chatted. Finding a small brother to buy fruit is a kind of time consumption, and it is also a part of the social networking of the big factory.
Wang Guo worked at Baidu for two years, and she was pulled into The "Strawberry 5 Group" of Little Jago by her colleagues. In the past two years, she has watched Xiao Jiage's strawberry group develop all the way to "9 groups", which is not counting the groups she does not know, such as "Peking University Strawberry Group", "Strawberry Strawberry Group", "Shanshui Strawberry Group Purchase Group" and so on.
On weekdays, Wang Guo, like most of the employees of large factories, types the keyboard at the workstation or brainstorms in the conference room. When it comes to the meal, colleagues with good relations go to the canteen together, but there are many topics that can be talked about when queuing up to take meals, and in the long line, it is likely that "the queue has ears". But when she went to little Jagge to queue up to buy fruit, there were far fewer acquaintances, which was one of the few times she and her colleagues could completely relax and chat.
In the simplest way, do the most complex business
Little Brother Jia is a well-deserved "star" of Xi'erqi. Entertainment industry stars go to Sina to sweep the building to take pictures, often only Sina employees are happy, but Xi'erqi came to Xiao Jiage, no matter which big factory employees will be very happy. Even in the wave of layoffs, Little Jago's business is still as stable as Taishan. He is a restrained and not good at expressing himself, but he has some unique methods in starting a business.
Strawberries are delicious, of course, first. Little Jaco doesn't need to say anything, strawberries are his business card. At first, he went to the fields of strawberry growers to collect, and in the past two years, relying on the income from selling fruits in Xi'erqi, Little Jago has built two strawberry bases. "Why do you want to grow your own, or to ensure quality." The preparations for the strawberry sale began at 12 o'clock in the evening, and he and his family bent down in the greenhouse to carefully pick them all night to ensure that the strawberries sold the next day were the freshest and most complete.
Other places sell fruit by the pound, to the little Brother Jia here, on the portion, how much money is a portion, is the most intuitive, the price is higher does not matter, the young people of Xi'erqi like this way, "because they do not have a concept of how many pounds." Broken, unsatisfied, you can change at any time. Once, Wang Guo bought a coconut from Xiao Jia Ge, and after taking it back, he found that he couldn't open it, and Xiao Jia Ge didn't say a word, and the next day he immediately gave her a new one.
Most importantly, little Jago's fruit stall can't find the payment code. He never collected money on the spot, and the big factory people took strawberries from him and would give him money in the group. At the end of each day, he opened the strawberry group on his mobile phone, a long string of red envelopes, and clicked them one by one.
This is a major feature of Little Brother Jia, and it is also in line with the appetite of the big factory people - time is supreme, just like a Baidu employee said: pulling out the mobile phone, squeezing together to scan the code, too much trouble.
Even if he did not receive the transfer sometimes, Xiao Jia Ge would not go to the customer to get the money back, and he gave Xi'erqi 100% trust. "Maybe people forgot to turn it, it is not intentional, even if it is, the quality of employees in large factories is still very high." Again, if someone takes back the fruit and has a bad one, [the money] doesn't have to be turned around. This may explain from one side why other fruit stalls can't sell Little Jago. At most, Little Jago can sell more than 1,000 boxes of fruit a day, and he "does the most complicated business in the simplest way."
▲ At the railing of the NetEase East Gate parking lot, the employees of the big factory are taking the fruit handed out by Xiao Jia Ge from inside. Photo / Photo by Jiang Ruihua
The foam is gone, and the strawberries have to be eaten
In Xi'erqi, Little Brother Jia is extremely familiar with the word "resignation". His circle of friends added hundreds of employees of the big factory, who did not hesitate to share information in the circle of friends.
In the past few years, leaving the company means taking the initiative to leave, doubling the salary, from NetEase to Baidu, and then from Baidu to the headlines, which is the path of many large factories, and there are also complete departures, throwing themselves into the financial circle, and basking in the circle of friends, which is a kind of social currency.
A few years ago, a girl who left Xi'erqi later contacted Xiao Jia Ge several times and asked him if he could go to Guomao to deliver strawberries. From the North Fifth Ring Road to the East Third Ring Road, almost half of beijing, Xiao Jia Ge drove her ordered strawberries to deliver. Just like when the business was done from Wudaokou to Xi'erqi, Strawberry followed the people who left Xi'erqi all the way to Wangjing, Guomao, and even Tongzhou.
But now, affected by the aftershocks of the layoff tide, the departure information that Xiao Jia Ge feels is somewhat bitter.
Occasionally there are employees, will buy fruit when casually said a word, may not come later, and then complain about the company a sentence or two, little Brother Jia just silently listened, occasionally comforted, some time ago, he even witnessed a boy go downstairs to the company to defend his rights.
But all the looking and curiosity ended here, and Xiao Jia Ge kept a delicate distance from the employees of the big factory. "I only know that a lot of people have left, don't ask where they went, just look at the circle of friends, or I will go with it to deliver some fruit, or some of them will not be contacted." What he cares about most is picking the sweetest strawberries, finding the most reliable fruit base to cooperate, and then sending the freshest fruit boxes to Xi'erqi day after day.
▲ Little Jaco is cleaning up the fruit basket. Photo / Photo by Jiang Ruihua
Little Jago recalled the process of picking, packaging and delivering fruits every day, and shook his head, "No matter how hard we work, there is no hard work for them." But he agrees with a simple truth: no matter what line of work you do, you have to hone your competitiveness.
Now, his competitiveness is still there, and the title of "Strawberry Brother" in Xi'erqi is firmly supported by Little Brother Jia. No matter how the situation changes and how the industry shakes, the people who buy strawberries change one batch after another, but someone still comes.
The afternoon in Xi'erqi looks like business as usual. At 2 p.m., the crowd cleared and silence returned to the boulevard. Little Jaco stood by the empty fruit basket and watched everyone return to the beast-like mansions. The big factory man carrying the fruit should have returned to the air-conditioned workstation, pressed the display screen, and began the afternoon work, while Little Jago also closed the trunk and prepared to leave xierqi.
No one watched him leave, and he didn't care.
(Except for Little Brother Jia, the characters involved in the text are pseudonyms; Intern Xinming Wang also contributed to this article)
The article is the original of the daily people, and the infringement must be investigated.