The Pentium Era - South to North

It was almost noon when Jin Lili woke up. Zhang Chen told her that we should go see the billboard, but Liu Ligan said that I was sleepy and needed to take a nap. You go ahead and leave your luggage with me.

Zhang Chen and Jin Lili took off all the bags on their bodies. For so many days, these bags seemed to have grown on them, making them difficult to walk. Now, suddenly, they were empty-handed and finally free, as if they were flying. The feeling is extremely relaxed.

The two people happily walked out of the park gate. When they arrived at the gate, they saw many people buying coconuts, killing them, holding them in their hands, and drinking them with gusto. Jin Lili stepped forward to take a look at their coconut water. It's not milky white, it's exactly the same as the one they bought before. Only then did the two of them realize that this is what coconuts look like.

"Hainan's first dream was shattered." Jin Lili pouted and said, "It turns out that coconut tastes so bad."

"I don't want it to hit my head." Zhang Chen also said.

It is already summer, and the weather in Hainan is very hot. Unlike Jiangnan, the air here is very humid. When you stand under the shade of a tree, you can feel the cool breeze, but when you are under the sun, you will feel cold after just a few steps. The skin peels off due to the sun, especially because of the sea breeze. There is a lot of salt in the air, and the body is sticky. It feels like a snail crawling onto the stove in the middle of the night.

Even after returning to the shade of the tree, the sweat is gone, but the sticky feeling is still there. The biggest desire of people is to let the cold water come from the top of the head. The locals call bathing a shower. It is very appropriate, and it is indeed a shower. Let it cool when you wash it off. Not long after you wash it off, the sticky feeling will come back, and you still need to wash it off again.

The two of them stood in the shade of a small tree on the side of the road. Of course they didn't dare to expect to take a shower. Although the sun was blazing, the open space behind them was full of people. Although the weather was so hot, Zhang Chen felt strange. , many men here are wearing long-sleeved shirts, and the cuffs are buttoned tightly.

Zhang Chen stood and watched for a while and understood. He saw one or two people and couldn't help it. When he unbuttoned the cuffs, the inside was white, but their hands were dark, as if they were wearing A pair of black gloves, especially those coming on bicycles, has this characteristic.

Zhang Chen was shocked again.

In the park, he saw so many college students who had no stable life or job, and he already felt that the island was not as gold-filled as they had felt when they first arrived, but that it had a cruel side, and the island in front of them was not filled with gold. A pair of black glove-like hands told him the hardship of survival.

Zhang Chen took a breath of air-conditioning.

It wasn't until some days passed that Zhang Chen knew that by chance, almost an entire generation of the best young people in this country had gone to Hainan, forming the common memory of Hainan for their generation. With the saying that one hundred thousand college students went to Hainan, it was necessary to I know that in the early 1990s, college students were still a rare species.

And they, "from Zhejiang University and Zhejiang United States", only got into this team at that point in time.

Zhang Chen looked at the crowd behind him. He didn't know how many people there were. They slept in the park at night, and now they were standing here.

"Let's get started." Zhang Chen and Jin Lili said.

"What to start with?" Jin Lili was confused.

"This is the beginning of our job search experience," Zhang Chen said.

"But I'm hungry. I have to eat before I look for a job, right?" Jin Lili said coquettishly.

Zhang Chen looked around. The place where they were standing was a four-way intersection. On the right was Haixiu Road, which they passed in the morning. There were many tall buildings. It was obviously not their world. Directly in front was Shengfu Road, which also looked bright and bright. Not far away, even the provincial government is obviously not their world.

Only on the left side, there is a whole group of low and old houses. From a distance, they still have a Nanyang architectural style, with arcades and high-cornered roofs. They have an exotic feel. They should be the old town of Haicheng.

"Let's go here. There should be a small shop here." Zhang Chen pointed to the narrow street on the left and said to Jin Lili.

The two people walked through the disk in the middle of the four-way intersection and arrived at the old city. Not far away, they saw a pig's trotter restaurant on a high step, which was packed with people.

The two people walked up and saw that the so-called pig's trotter rice was similar to fast food. There were several large earthenware pots placed at the entrance of the store. In such a hot weather, they were still steaming. There were pig's feet, There are large intestines, pork belly, pickled cabbage and tofu, and a kind of sour bamboo shoots that looks like bamboo shoots but smells stinky.

Jin Lili went to take a seat inside, while Zhang Chen ordered food outside. The boss took two large bowls and filled two bowls of rice from the wooden bucket. Zhang Chen pointed and scooped out pig's feet, large intestine and tofu in one bowl, and another The bowl is braised pork trotters and tofu.

Zhang Chen went in with two bowls of rice. Every four-person table inside was crowded with seven or eight people. Jin Lili had already grabbed a stool. The two of them sat down with half a stool and ate sideways. If they were sideways, they would be crowded. To the people on the edge.

Jin Lili was eating the bowl of pig's trotters and braised pork rice. Looking curious, she took a small piece of pig intestine from Zhang Chen's bowl, put it into her mouth, and shouted, "It's delicious, it's delicious."

He reached out and exchanged his bowl of rice with Zhang Chen's. Zhang Chen scolded: "Don't you not eat pig intestines?"

Jin Lili said shamelessly: "Is this pig intestines? I don't know, it's delicious anyway."

The pig's feet were also very crispy, and the braised pork was also very tasty. The rice was steamed in a wooden barrel and was also very chewy. The two of them were very satisfied with the meal. After finishing the meal, they walked to the door. Jin Lili said to bring a portion for the pole. Zhang Chen After talking to the boss, the boss took two foam boxes, one for rice and one for vegetables. They packed them in a plastic bag and gave them to Zhang Chen to carry.

The two people returned to the open space, and someone happened to be holding a ladder to post a new advertisement. A large group of people gathered around it, and then the men dispersed. The woman gathered below and took notes. There was a hotel above. , who was recruiting waiters, Jin Lili was shocked. The starting salary was one thousand two thousand. Looking at the address below, it was Haixiu Road.

"Isn't this Haixiu Road? Zhang Chen, we'll go there right away." Jin Lili shouted.

"Are you going to be a waiter?" Zhang Chen asked.

"Why, can't I still be a waiter?" Jin Lili asked.

It’s not that he can’t be the one, but Zhang Chen feels a little aggrieved. In his impression, the waiters in the hotel are all short, thick, old, or not very smart, so a young and beautiful Jin Lili Isn’t it a bit too wasteful for a girl, a model in Zhang Chen’s oil paintings, to work as a waiter?

"Whatever, it's only one thousand and two dollars. Let's work for a month and then we'll get the money." Jin Lili said.

The two of them followed the address on the advertisement and looked for it. Although it was also Haixiu Road, it was actually not close. The open space was at the beginning of Haixiu Road, and this hotel was at the other end of Haixiu Road, No. 800. , they walked for more than twenty minutes, almost the entire Haixiu Road, before they found the hotel.

When they got here, the two people were startled. They thought they came here early when they saw the advertisement, but they didn't expect that there were already a lot of people here.

At the very edge of the hotel, there is a fire escape that was later added. It also serves as a passage for the hotel office built on the roof. The passage is sealed and has no windows. It leads directly from the first floor to the roof of the third floor. There are 70 or 80 steps of stairs, with paving underneath. The red carpet, with a row of spotlights on top, looks like a time tunnel.

What surprised them was that on both sides of the stairs, there were two girls standing at each step, both of whom had come to apply for jobs. The top one had already entered the hotel office, and the last one was in the awning outside the door on the first floor.

Jin Lili followed the team, rising step by step. Zhang Chen wanted to follow, but was stopped by the security guard at the door of the first floor. Zhang Chen had no choice but to find a corner in the awning and squat down. The sunlight in the parking lot outside was dazzlingly white. Under the waves of heat waves, even the wind blowing from the sea not far away became scalding, and sweat continued to flow.

Zhang Chen moved towards the door. The cold air coming from the corridor above made the temperature here become lower.

Forty or fifty minutes later, Jin Lili came down with a sad look on her face. As soon as Zhang Chen saw this face, he knew there was no good news.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Chen asked.

"People's height requirement is over 1.68 meters, but I'm only 1.65 meters tall." Jin Lili said with a sad face.

"Damn it, being a bad waiter and being taller than 1.68 meters is not a beauty pageant!" Zhang Chen scolded.

"It's a beauty pageant. They said I look okay, but unfortunately I'm not tall enough." Jin Lili said.

"At 1.65 meters, a girl is no longer short. Tan Shuzhen is only 1.63 meters." Zhang Chen said angrily.

"Let's go, let's go, I'm so annoyed." Jin Lili said.

The two walked in silence for a long time before Jin Lili asked: "Do you know who they want to recruit?"

"Who is he? Isn't he a waiter?" Zhang Chen asked curiously.

"He is a waiter in the VIP box. This hotel has twelve VIP boxes with a minimum purchase price of 8,888. After entering, they will need training. They say they need to be able to sing karaoke with the guests and be able to dance." Jin Lili said.

"How much, how much do you say?" Zhang Chen shouted, "Eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight? How much does it cost to have a meal?"

"Huh, I still have the minimum consumption."

"Fuck, then, the salary for the two of us in Yongcheng for a year is not enough to eat half a meal here?"

"Yes, now you know how poor we are, right?" Jin Lili shouted.

The two of them walked for a while, Jin Lili's anger was still not gone, she snorted: "One day, I must come here and eat to my heart's content. Damn it, I want to see these eight thousand What does the eight hundred and eighty-eight box look like?"