Lao Bi registered the company just as summer was beginning last year.
At first, there was no grand plan behind it. He only felt he had to try doing something.
After all, he could not find a job anyway.
It happened on a muggy Saturday, the kind of day that makes a person feel he can barely keep going. The cigarettes he had been smoking for three years had reached the last one in the pack. Lao Bi was exhausted and half asleep when the phone rang and dragged him awake.
The call was from Brother Long, a former colleague and friend from the days when Lao Bi worked on product-related projects. Brother Long had a client who needed help, and the problem happened to fall right inside the narrow band of things Lao Bi was good at.
It was good news, of course. But Lao Bi did not feel only happy. He was nervous too.
For one thing, he had never gone to a client site for this kind of work. For another, he had no idea how to quote a price. If he asked for too little and still had to stay on site, the job might lose money; in that case, it would be better not to take it at all. But if the price was too high and the client backed out, then a rare chance would be wasted for nothing.
He did not call the client right away. Instead, he called Xiao Na.
When it came to clients, business talk, and negotiation, Xiao Na was the one to ask. Lao Bi was better suited to handling strange technical illnesses that no one else wanted to touch.
Before long, a WeChat group had been set up. The next day, before Lao Bi had fully caught up with what was happening, Xiao Na was already urging him to leave as soon as possible.
The job was to be finished within seven days. The quote included travel expenses.
Lao Bi hurriedly prepared the contract, stamped it, and bought a ticket for the nearest train. By the time he reached the client’s city, it was already completely dark. The client was still waiting for him.
And just like that, the work began.
On the first day, he dealt with a dozen or so of the simplest problems.
On the second day, he started testing.
On the third day, after the tests failed, he began preparing an alternative solution.
On the fourth day, the alternative solution was finished, and he also wrote up the handling report.
That night, Lao Bi walked through the wide, empty streets. There were almost no people around. He breathed in the fresh air of the outskirts in great gulps, and what he breathed out felt like something that had been stuck in his chest for more than a year.
Xiao Na often questioned him in that tone of hers: "Do you always think your talent has gone unrecognized?"
Lao Bi never said much in response. But deep down, with a kind of wounded stubbornness, he did feel exactly that: yes, his talent had gone unrecognized.
On the fifth day, he explained the report to the client’s technical staff and helped the big boss do some debugging. After eating his last meal at the client’s office, he rushed home as if pulled by a rope.
The moment he changed out of his shoes, an invisible weight seemed to settle over him. He dragged his tired body through a little bit of tidying up, barely managed it, and fell asleep.
In the dream, danger was still everywhere. But this time, Lao Bi handled it with ease.
When Xiao Na’s call came in, he felt a looseness he had not felt in a long time.
Maybe the run of bad luck was finally over. The first contract after Lao Bi registered the company had actually been completed.
Whether more chances like this would come later, nobody knew. But at least there was now a beginning.
By habit, I used to write something every June about the national college entrance exam essay prompt, no matter what else was happening that year.
This year I did not keep the habit. It was not because I was busy, and not because I was too lazy to write. I simply sat with it for half the night and still could not come up with anything.
The next day, Teacher He told me that this year’s prompt was abstract enough that not being able to write it only proved I was still a normal person. So I let it go.
What arrived instead, though late, was this unexpected bit of joy.
The contract was not large. The money was only barely enough to cover a little more than a month of living expenses. Even so, it was already a very good start.
As Xiao Na put it, she finally knew how to sell my skills the next time we talked to a client.
We have known each other for three years. All this time, she knew I was technical. But she had never really understood what kind of technical work I actually did.
The clouds overhead are still thick. But at least, somewhere inside them, there is now the faintest trace of hope.