Some time ago, I went back to Beijing.
I lived in Beijing for fifteen years, and after moving to Shanghai, every time I returned to Beijing, I stayed in a long-term rental hotel apartment by a partner company. The apartment uses a code lock, my process is to determine whether the apartment has a schedule in the near future, book tickets, pack luggage, get on the car, get off, go straight to the apartment, tap the password, "ding", the lock is opened.
On this business trip, the process is still the same.
As an avid time management enthusiast, I am obsessed with arranging things and events, times and times.
I booked a high-speed train ticket from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and arrived at Beijing South Railway Station at 11:18 p.m. My plan is to pick up my children from school at 4 p.m. on Fridays, have dinner at 5 p.m., take a taxi at 5:30 p.m., get to Hongqiao at 6:30 p.m., and enter Beijing South Railway Station at 11 o'clock. There is no traffic jam at night, I am sure that I can open the door of the apartment located in Dongzhimen within half an hour, and if it goes well, at zero o'clock, I will be able to sleep. At noon the next day, I made an appointment, and there was an event in the afternoon, and everything came in time.
That said, at eleven o'clock in the night, I was in the underground parking lot of the South Railway Station, holding a mobile phone, and the driver of the Didi Express confirmed each other's location, and after ten minutes, I finally picked up.
The music in the car flows, outside the car window, Happiness Road, Taoran Building, Yongding Gate... Empty streets, familiar buildings, all the way smooth, the wind is fast, I can't help but open the window, the wind of late autumn in Beijing, like a photograph of flower dew, slightly cool, fragrant.
At eleven fifty, arrive at your destination. Carrying my suitcase, I walked over three gray steps, past the glass revolving door, and there was only a sixty-something uncle in a light black cotton jacket at the front desk of the apartment, who was guarding it as if it were a decoration. I pressed the number "8" in the empty elevator room, whiskers, doors open, passages carpeted, and the four wheels of the box rubbed against the carpet, making a dull "hissing" sound.
At this point, the time is eleven fifty-five.
I stopped at the door of Room 812 and straightened the box. I held out my right index finger and tapped on the passcode lock, the first number had no sound, the second one didn't, I pressed six numbers in total, I pressed six times, thirty-six silent touches, thirty-six times always black.
Finished.
The passcode lock is broken.
Do I knock the door open, or do I pull the lock down? I glanced at my phone, thirty-six touches were yesterday, and the clock was pointing to 00:50.
I dialed Zhao's mobile phone and shut it down.
I sent him WeChat and didn't reply. Afterwards, Zhao told me that his phone had set a sleep mode and automatically blocked all messages at eleven o'clock in the evening.
The most urgent thing is to open the door, otherwise I will have to sleep on the street. I held the lever of the box, leaned on the 812 door and took a deep breath of thirty mouthfuls, decided to go downstairs, find the concierge uncle, see if the apartment property has maintenance personnel, can help.
"I'm sorry, today is my third day at work." Uncle said to me apologetically.
"Then who can I find?" I stood at the front desk and asked anxiously.
"You ask me, who do I ask?" Uncle hit the nail on the head.
"You know the phone number at your headquarters?" I decided to ask someone else.
"I'm sorry, today is my third day at work." Uncle came back around again.
"Who is your leader?"
"We are leading this point must be sleeping, and it is tomorrow to ask."
"There's not a single maintenance master on the night shift?" I don't forgive.
Uncle scratched his cheeks and wiped his face, and it was clear that he was also thinking bitterly, and suddenly, he slapped his head on the door, "Aha! I remember! ”
"What?!" I took a step forward.
"Turn left out of the door," Uncle pulled me to the back door of the first floor of the apartment, a row of floor-to-ceiling windows is a dark street, "go to the basement, go down two floors, walk a few hundred meters, you can see a small door, shout 'is there a person named Lao Zhang', he may fix the lock." ”
"Possibly?" I was stunned, muttered and repeated, and then looked out the window at the darkness, feeling that I was following the instructions, and there was a road of no return ahead.
"No thanks."
"Really not going?"
"I really don't go." I waved my hand desperately, my eyes a little wet, not moved.
Now, Uncle wrapped his thin black cotton jacket tightly, and made a vacant seat for me at the front desk. In the dim light, he seemed to be concerned to reassure me, the property at six thirty people went to work, and the clock opposite me showed that there were still six hours before six thirty.
I didn't have a cotton jacket, and on the late autumn night in Beijing, the dew was patted more, and my body gradually became cold. I sat in the front desk and made four phone calls to give my four friends in Beijing, Qian, Sun, Li and Zhou.
Qian, Sun Busyyin, Li, and Zhou's telephone assistants repeatedly prompted me, "Is there anything I need to convey?" ”
After a while, Qian called me back, I described my embarrassment, he said, he is currently in Huairou intensive training, I interrupted him, "go back and make a date again", from Huairou to Dongzhimen, the toss is about six hours I sat at the front desk. The child's cry came from the other end of Sun's phone, and I could only answer it and hang up quickly. Lee got up the next morning and asked me, "Were you looking for me last night?" Zhou ignored me, and after a few days I found out that the night was in a hurry, I dialed the wrong one, I don't know whose dream I disturbed...
My husband answered my phone at the first time, but he was far away in Shanghai. As soon as he "fed" came out, I cried, and Uncle once again wrapped his black cotton jacket tightly. I turned on hands-free, "What are you crying?" Cry what to cry? My husband is like an automatic repeater, the uncle is two meters away and frequently nods, I briefly said the thing again, my husband's voice conveyed his inexplicable: "Shouldn't you quickly find a hotel to stay?" ”
Nonsense, after asking Zhao Qiansun Li unsuccessfully, I have booked the nearest hotel to me. Fortunately, for fifteen years, my work and life have always revolved around dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen, and the surrounding environment, including the distance of each hotel, is clean, tidy and safe, and I am very familiar with it. Fortunately, my mobile phone is full of electricity, and my ID card, cash, and bank card are all in my pocket.
"Then what else are you crying?" My husband was puzzled, "Hurry up and check in, hurry up and go to bed, get up tomorrow and talk about it!" ”
I cried even more fiercely, of course I knew to check in, my taxi was coming soon, "I cried because I couldn't think straight, everything was planned in advance, how could I be so embarrassed?" ”
"That's a good question, you arrived at the station so late, are you in a hurry?" If you can't open the lock during the day, there won't be a situation where the sky is called unconscious! ”
Useless is the husband. I angrily snapped off my phone.
Out of the glass turnaround door, down the steps, ask the driver to open the trunk, open and close the door, turn, turn again, dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen, door can be a bird, a flyover and a flyover, the bridge is uninhabited, more than one o'clock in the morning, I lie on the chaoyangmen all season white bed, my husband's voice appeared again, "Is the problem solved?" "I was as good as I was at work, and I was exhausted when I was finished reporting.
Lying down, my mind was clear.
I opened the public review, search for the nearest lock repair master, the mobile phone screen pops up no less than ten 24-hour door-to-door unlock, if I just in the front desk can think of this trick, not to come to the hotel, why I just can't remember this trick? Because it is cold and sleepy and aggrieved.
About one who comes to the door at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, push it backwards, I must get up at eight o'clock. Suppose, half-past nine, the locks can be fixed, I have to take a hot shower, change my clothes, go out at half past ten, and go to the north at half past eleven? If the first show is late, will you still be able to catch up with the second event at 2 p.m.?
In the process of constantly counting time, I fell into a deep sleep.
I was woken up by various tones, and people I didn't contact last night responded to me frequently early in the morning.
Li's voice is the most resonant, while comforting and saying similar experience, "One year, I traveled back to Beijing from Hainan, at two o'clock at night to the West Railway Station, it was raining heavily outside, I touched my pocket, the key was lost, I used the last phone to contact my sister who lived with me, she turned off, and soon, my mobile phone was also turned off... I could only lie on the bench at the station for one night. ”
Zhao's phone is the most valuable, he said, the guy in charge of our hotel apartment on the floor lives on the 8th floor, he went to see, the password lock is not broken, just no electricity, change a battery on the line, no battery, connect to the charging treasure, charge for a while, you can open the door.
"So simple?" I sat up.
"Yes, just because it's too late. Otherwise, I'll be online all the time, I'm not there, the person in charge of management, the door is also open, ready to find problems, ready to solve. ”
So I went back to the hotel apartment, the sun sprinkled on my face, on the box, sprinkled on the front desk, like a dream. I pressed the elevator, let the box sizzle on the carpet, sure enough, ahead, the property guy with a smile, waiting for me at the door, he changed the battery, when I entered the password, I felt back in civilized society.
It was now 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, a full two hours earlier than the time it had planned to enter the apartment. I spent an hour reviewing last night's wretchedness, and the conclusion was—
Things and things, times and times, must we be tightly sewn together? No, be sure to leave a blank space and leave plenty of time to deal with accidents.
Yes, unexpectedly. I believe that no matter how cooked the place, there will be accidents. In case of accidents, there is nothing to do except life and death, and it is worth saving time for the sake of saving time. I will no longer have "don't want to delay anything" and "late at night to enter the door, early in the morning" time management obsessive-compulsive disorder. Because, late at night is never a good time to ask for help, even Prince Charming, will not have a response, in the dark night in time to arrive.
Don't get yourself in trouble.