Text/Nanxi
Editor/Sydney King
In the inconspicuous gray distribution box in the stairwell, there is a huge parallel world: ammeters, voltmeters, red, green, yellow, blue and white lights, load monitors, cables, busbars, countless large and small switches, resistor converter sensors......
The indicator light flashed regularly, everything was running in an orderly manner, and suddenly there was a "snap" -
The electricity was cut off.
Source: Nanfeng Window, Master Wang
As an electrician who has been in the industry for 18 years, Wang Jianxing often receives calls from customers at this time, and hurriedly drags the toolbox and sets off. In the video, he usually wears a gray-blue overalls and holds a red electric pen, running around the streets and alleys to solve electricity problems.
Frankly speaking, Wang's video is too obscure for a liberal arts student like me, who has been hovering at the passing grade in high school physics for a long time, and can even have a hypnotic effect. Although he will explain in detail in narration, the technical terms, the maze of wires, and the undulating volt numbers all make my CPU seriously overloaded as a layman.
But this is the kind of video that has gained nearly 8 million fans on Douyin, and the number of likes on each video is as high as tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. From the elderly to the children, from financial students to construction site plasterers, they all watched with relish.
This aroused my curiosity - why did such a boring circuit overhaul video attract so many onlookers?
After reading a few issues with a skeptical attitude, I gradually understood that in the circuit world, each letter or combination of letters represents an instrument, which is as complex as a spell but maintains the light and heat of a city and the basic safety of people. And for every specific person and family, with electricity, there is light. The seemingly ordinary Wang Jianxing sent his professional skills, philosophy and life experience to all corners of the city by sharing Douyin videos, charging countless strangers.
The logic of life behind a wire
Answering the phone, repairing the circuit, shooting and cutting videos are Wang Jianxing's daily life.
From the end of 2019 to this year, the ordinary electrician in Chengyang District, Qingdao, Shandong Province, often posted repair videos on Douyin, and gained more than 7 million followers as a result. Videos can be long or short, and so is his work—simple problems can be solved in half an hour, while complex problems can be solved all day long from morning to night.
Circuit overhaul usually starts with "solving the case".
"The neighbor's house opposite was renovated and smashed the wall, our house tripped 14 times a day, the kitchen jumped after the laundry room, and the upstairs jumped after the downstairs, what is going on?" One day, Wang Jianxing received a strange circuit fault report, and the customer on the opposite side was anxious. Wang Jianxing immediately rushed to the scene, first found the reason for the customer's home, tested the wires one by one, and after confirming that there was no problem, he came to the neighbor's house.
In front of the distribution box on the first floor of the neighbor's house, he walked all the way along the wires, first removed the zero wire and the bottom line, and tested the screw eyes one by one, no problem. According to the map, he measured from the first floor to the second floor, and finally found that the distribution box on the second floor of the neighbor was leaking, and the zero line of fire was reversed, resulting in tripping. Wang Jianxing put the ground wire back in place and solved the circuit problems of the two at the same time.
That's a relatively simple question. Some time ago, he also took over an incurable disease - a resident's smart door lock was ignited and leaked, and the fault was repaired for more than a year, and 10 waves of maintenance personnel were found to have failed to solve the case.
When Wang Jianxing arrived with an orange-gray toolbox, engineers, strong and weak electricity masters, property masters, and smart home engineers were gathering at the door. The smart lock originally had a live function, and the entrance light in the hallway would automatically light up after unlocking, but now it is discharged and ignited, and a 5-volt DC power supply in the door lock has been measured to have more than 100 volts. The front and rear center consoles also burned three pieces.
Where does the leakage come from? Is there any way to get rid of it?
Wang Jianxing repeatedly measured and found that the circuit board of the door lock was grounded, and the positive and negative grounding was normal. Then you have to find a way to discharge more than 100 volts. The power block was supposed to input 220 volts of alternating current and output 5 volts of direct current, and there was voltage when the grounding wire was not grounded. He connected the negative pole of the direct current to a ground wire and pressed it on the grounding bar. In this operation, all the voltages are normal, and the induction electricity of more than 100 volts is gone. A small wire solves a big problem that has plagued a room of people for a year.
In life, there are traces of reasons behind every faulty wire, which is the underlying logic of the power world. For example, a 200-volt wire that was supposed to have measured more than 400 volts of electricity turned out to be implicated in a leakage from a water pump outside the house. The rod motor in the vegetable greenhouse does not move or rotate, the boss thinks that the motor is stuck and is ready to change the machine, Wang Jianxing found that it is because of the lack of phase of a local wire, and the current is not smooth. There is a family whose monthly electricity bill is as high as more than 800 kilowatt-hours, so they deliberately changed their house, and found Wang Jianxing to check before moving, only to find that it was caused by the overload of the four people who took a bath every day and the electric water heater was overloaded.
Almost every circuit failure means an unknown and uncontrollable safety risk. Therefore, Wang Jianxing often takes the trouble to tell people to pay attention to electricity safety in videos.
In one video, a puppy is electrocuted while lying on its side on the ground. Wang Jianxing explained that there were several dogs at that time, and the other dogs were so electric that they ran away, but they could not escape.
The puppy was not wearing shoes, and there were broken electrical wires in the ground where it passed, and after the rain, the ground was flooded, and an electric shock occurred. Wang Jianxing came to the puppy, and as soon as he took out the electric pen, there was a wild noise. Looking at it again, there is more than 100 volts on the ground, and the further you go, the higher the voltage number. He hurriedly followed the cable and found the switch, which was again not installed. This means that this could have been a preventable death.
These electrical safety accidents always make Wang Jian feel concerned.
In October last year, he received an order in which the water heater of the householder's house tripped as soon as it was turned on, and he "always felt numb" in the house. Wang Jian omitted the head of the household's house and tested the zero, ground, and fire lines in groups. It was found that the ground wire of this house was connected to the kitchen circuit, and the circuit was more than 200 volts. In order to find the source, he unplugged the home one by one for testing, and dismantled the bottom line of the kitchen for several rounds. Until I found that an empty row in an inconspicuous corner of the entrance was plugged in with a leaking electricity, and there was a platinum necklace that had been burned out - it turned out that the child had wrapped the necklace in it while playing, causing a short circuit in the kitchen circuit.
The problem seemed to have been solved, but Wang Jianxing always felt that the matter was not over, so he continued to plug in the kettle and water heater to test repeatedly, and found that after eliminating this small fault, the voltage was still unstable. And when he went to the electric control room to check, he was surprised to find that the ground wires of many people, including this one, had been pinched off.
If this problem continues to be buried deeply, the entire building may be discharged by the gas pipeline, causing gas leakage. And when the electricity and small sparks are touched, they will explode.
Starting from a water heater, the potential safety hazards for the whole building are eliminated, which is the most fulfilling part of Wang Jianxing's job, "I hope everyone can see this, in addition to following the case, you can also learn some circuit safety knowledge." ”
From Poor Apprentice to "Sherlock Holmes the Electrician"
On the mobile phone side, netizens like to follow Wang Jianxing to investigate the case. Follow him to open the circuit world hidden in the concrete wall, walk through it to find loopholes, peel back the cocoon, and investigate step by step. They called him "the Sherlock Holmes of the electricians".
"Serious circuit failures are often caused by high gold content. This sentence often appears in the hot comment area. Wang Jiansheng explained that this means that there are often complex reasons behind complex circuit failures, which require some time, energy, and even money to explore.
Netizens followed Wang Jianxing to sort out the problems behind the circuit, and a problem was solved, and their pressure seemed to be gone, and they were in a happy mood. Even if you can't read or understand, you're still immersed in it.
But Wang Jianxing said that he has not yet adapted to the identity of an Internet celebrity. For the power industry, for those fans who follow him, this "Sherlock Holmes" who worked all the way from a poor apprentice is in awe. When the media comes to interview, he will also take a step back, "What are you interviewing me for?" In his opinion, the news page should be given to those who have made great contributions to the country, and he is just a small ordinary electrician. Facing the camera, he is used to keeping his head down, and sometimes he is so nervous that he is speechless.
Many years ago, Wang Jianxing was a poor apprentice. He was born in the countryside, his family was poor, and he relied on his father to go door-to-door to find money from people in the village to borrow money to complete the secondary school. In order to make a living for his family, he studied oil painting when he was young, worked as a waiter, and repeated mechanical labor day and night on the factory assembly line. Later, he taught himself electricity, starting from serving tea and pouring water for his master, to becoming the electrician he was envious of at the beginning. After a few more years, in order to make a living, he chose to come out and work alone.
Only by doing more can you earn more. At the beginning, Wang Jiansheng did all kinds of work - factory electricity, home wiring, door-to-door installation of water heaters, and even 20 yuan to repair a toilet and door-to-door installation of water heaters. He takes all the leftover work that others don't want to do.
Over time, he gradually honed his skills in the electrician track. Every time he goes out on the scene, he thinks about doing something slightly better than others, and he is also a little more down-to-earth.
There are often unspoken rules in the electrician repair industry. Some peers will leave a little fault tail when repairing, so that there may be a next door-to-door business. But Wang Jianxing has always done one order and only earned one order, and if he wants to repair, he will try not to leave a tail. Some peers say that he is "axis", but he just sticks to his principles. As a result, everyone threw him the intractable and intractable diseases that were difficult to solve, and his skills became more and more proficient in the process.
At the same time, he also learned to shoot videos, cut videos, and post these on Douyin, "I hope fans can learn electrician knowledge through my videos." Wang Jianxing hopes that with his own efforts, people "mention that there is a Master Wang in Chengyang, and when it comes to Chengyang, they will feel that it is down-to-earth and reliable." ”
Over the years, he has steadily output video content, focusing on telling the story of power failures, and the cover picture and video title are the most simple style - a mobile phone lens is lit against wires and screws, the meter is measured one by one, and the meter makes a crisp sound when touched.
Some Qingdao citizens are worried that as a Douyin Internet celebrity, Wang Jianxing's fees may be very expensive. But on the contrary, the price of his repairs is sometimes even cheaper than the market price. When he didn't help, he would even waive the fee - one morning in mid-April, Wang Jianxing ran a 70-kilometer round trip to a construction site. The machine of the small package foreman was broken, and he was in a hurry to find an electrician to repair it, and when he saw that the motor was burning, he had to buy a new motor to install it, so he simply did not charge, "I couldn't help completely, so I was embarrassed to accept it." ”
Today, he has a small team of four. He set a rule for the team, the fee should be fair, and if it fails to solve the problem, he will not need money. In his opinion, the reputation accumulated for the signboard of "Chengyang Electrician" in recent years is the most important, and the reputation cannot be ruined just for a little maintenance fee.
In the eyes of his family and friends, Wang Jianxing is a typical I person, who rarely takes the initiative to drink, sing, and chat with friends, and his life seems monotonous and repetitive. But Wang Jianxing feels that if he can immerse himself in the power world he loves, it will not be boring.
"The master really tried to teach me"
With love and curiosity, it doesn't seem to burn out, and that's true for any job. On Douyin, in addition to Wang Jianxing, there are also a group of popular blue-collar bloggers who share videos of repairing electrical appliances and troubleshooting power failures on a daily basis.
Their willingness to endure hardships and study deeply is becoming more and more scarce and therefore especially precious in today's impetuous society.
Wang Jianxing, who is now the top self-media in the power industry, said that he has never given up learning, and his work allows him to constantly update and iterate his knowledge reserves. He remembers that when he first entered the industry, his mobile phones were all black and white with buttons, and there were no video learning materials, so he went to the bookstall to buy the textbooks eliminated by the technical school to study by himself. Until now, when he encounters a case he doesn't understand, he will quickly flip through the old books and analyze it in his mind over and over again in combination with theories.
In the past few years since he became an Internet celebrity, people have continued to add Wang Jianxing's WeChat friends, and he has added more than 20,000 friends to his address book. Out-of-town fans asked him for help, he couldn't go to the scene, but as soon as he saw the message, he would volunteer to reply. This has invisibly increased his workload - in addition to work and posting videos, he also has to reply to a large number of messages, and he is often busy until after 12 o'clock in the middle of the night before going to bed.
For nearly five years, he has continued to share, which is as stable as a normal electric current, which makes fans feel at ease. Some people will watch his video repeatedly, "the first time I watched it, the second time I watched it, the third or fourth time I watched the barrage, and the fifth or sixth time I watched the comment area".
At first, Wang Jianxing thought that the fans were all peers or students from electronic technical schools. Later, he found that there were also senior engineers from the State Grid and workers from all walks of life, including well-dressed white-collar workers.
"The master really tried to teach me", this slightly self-deprecating phrase often appears in the comments and barrage sections. When I mentioned this comment to Wang Jianxing, he said seriously, "Actually, I just want the church, so that ordinary people can understand it." ”
"Figuring out the truth in a mess of wires is like finding some kind of hope in a messy life that gives me energy. A fan of Wang Jianxing said. She is a white-collar worker in the company and rarely deals with blue-collar workers, but through the video, she followed Wang Jianxing to troubleshoot the problem, and became her "decompression electronic mustard" after commuting to the subway every morning and eight nights, and working at the desk in the crowded lattice room for a day. Seeing Wang Jianxing sort out the problem along the wire, she also "troubleshooting, feeling comfortable".
There are also "post-00s" who draw strength from Wang Jianxing's experience. A young man who was unemployed at home asked Wang Jianxing in the live broadcast room how he could learn electrician from scratch. At a time when employment pressure is extremely high, he wants to learn one more trade in order to have one more way to make a living. Some technical school teachers put Wang Jianxing's video in the classroom to analyze and teach, and truly present the abstract theoretical knowledge in the books. There are also women who live alone who have never touched light bulbs and distribution boxes before, and through his videos, they learn some circuit repairs and unlock their new skills.
Not long ago, a 4-year-old boy visited Wang Jianxing's studio with his parents. Children don't usually play games, but they watch Wang Jianxing's videos immersively like they are obsessed, fiddle with electrical instruments, and say a lot of professional terms. After the video was released, it attracted a wave of "echoes" from parents. They said that their children also regarded Wang Jianxing as an idol and wanted to see him. In the world of children, ordinary electricians can also become superheroes.
"I'm not an idol, I want my children to start with electricity, but I don't have to be an electrician in the future. Every time Wang Jianxing said this, he would be mistaken for looking down on the electrician industry. But he explained that he just wanted the kids to do something greater and more worthwhile, not just in a small circuit.
As for himself, he will set off again when the sun rises, and continue to level up and fight monsters in the parallel world behind the distribution box.