Chapter 1 No One Cares_1

June 1, 2017.

Zhongzhou City.

Three o'clock in the afternoon.

The sky is crystal blue.

Tang Qing, his back laden with a black backpack emblazoned with "Daily Loans", weaves in and out between parked vehicles along the roadside. He skillfully tucks his business cards under the windscreen wipers of each car.

At this moment,

sweat has already soaked through his white shirt.

It uncomfortably clings to his skin.

His necktie is done up tight around his neck – in such scorching heat, to the passersby, he comes across as an absolute idiot.

But it's a company requirement.

Even in severe heat, the tie has to stay on and properly fastened – no slack or sloppiness tolerated. It's about building and maintaining a professional corporate image, they said.

For this utterly inhumane rule,

the frontline sales reps in the company vent their anger freely, throwing curses at the company's management. "What a joke! It's blisteringly hot, and they're concerned about maintaining a corporate image? Are you kidding me?"

"You guys sitting in air-conditioned offices, fine, you don't know the struggle. We have different job roles, so no hard feelings."

But to enforce such an unreasonable rule –

it really makes Tang Qing want to curse someone out.

"Daily Loans",

That's right.

Tang Qing is a loan officer at a micro-lending company.

Every day he looks everywhere he can, through all channels, for people who urgently need loans. If he has no customers, handing out business cards on the street is one part of his job, followed by telemarketing.

In such hot weather,

he'd planned to just stay in the office and make phone calls.

But his recently-purchased batch of phone numbers turned out to be a dud.

They had mostly already been called by his competitors or were invalid numbers. So, last night, he threatened the dealer with a bad review to get a new batch of numbers, the dealer promised another batch of numbers for him tonight.

…

Today is Children's Day.

Watching the kids holding their parents' hands, giggling happily as they walk past,

Tang Qing can't help but recall his own childhood.

His June 1st.

Typically, his parents would take him to the park.

Although there were not as many amusement park rides back then as there are now, they were some of the happiest memories of his childhood. Remembering his first roller-coaster ride, his first bumper car ride, his first rowing boat...

His mind wanders.

"Beat it - if you scratch my car, I'll beat you up..."

Just as Tang Qing is about to place a business card on a black Passat, a roar suddenly penetrates his thoughts.

It startles him.

He quickly withdraws his hand.

Having been lost in his memories, he hadn't noticed that there was someone in the car.

When he looks up,

he sees a large man sticking his head out of the car window, fist in the air, shouting at him.

Fortunately, Tang Qing wasn't on the driver's cockpit side.

Otherwise, he might've been punched squarely.

He learned from past experience not to put his flyers on the driver's side. It only invited a face full of spit or a potentially devastating punch.

"Sorry, bro! I'm leaving right away."

Tang Qing quickly replies with a smile.

After working in sales for over a year,

he's encountered enough of this to be used to it.

He's been derided, scorned, and insulted more times than he can count. At first, he lashed out a few times in return.

But after repeatedly getting the worse end of things,

he inevitably became numb to it.

Anyway, a few curses don't leave any physical scars.

Fighting back earns him nothing, and making a scene – picking a fight for the sake of pride – is simply not why he's out here. He's here to earn a living, not to find trouble.

"Scram."

Seeing that Tang Qing is cooperative, the man doesn't further berate him, uttering just a single word before driving away.

Seeing this,

Tang Qing nonchalantly smiles.

And moves onto the next car to continue distributing his cards.

After all, it's his livelihood at stake. Apart from placing cards on cars, he also gives them to passersby. Anyone in the business follows this rule: give cards to men, but not women, not children, and not elderly people.

Occasionally, he runs into potential customers in need and takes the time to explain his services properly, also making sure to get their contact number for follow-ups.

But most of the people he encounters don't take his business card.

Because today is Children's Day,

Tang Qing feels it's not appropriate to disturb celebrating parents.

He decides not to give any cards to those who are with children.

Sometimes, he sees other salespeople's business cards on cars already; he leaves them untouched to avoid potential trouble, assuming that the other person is nearby. He's simply trying to make ends meet and avoid causing unnecessary problems. Everyone's got it tough.

Around half-past four,

after walking five or six streets, the stack of business cards in Tang Qing's hands are gone.

This was the last stack Tang Qing had brought today.

In the morning, he only took 500 cards – he'd bought them in bulk online, and the quality was poor. A stack was 100 cards, tied loosely with a low-quality rubber band, 10,000 cards had cost him only 200 yuan.

If he thinks about it, all he needs is one effective lead from these cards,

and he'd recoup his costs.

Having given out all his business cards, Tang Qing was extremely thirsty.

The large bottle of cool boiled water he'd brought earlier from home was now empty. Therefore, he popped into a nearby shop and bought a chilled bottle of red tea – from "Uni-President," as he felt that Kang Shifu's red tea was not as tasty.

Regardless of the dust and dirt,

Tang Qing casually sits down on the curb under the shade of a tree outside the store and starts to drink heartily.

Although the curb was shaded by a tree,

it didn't seem to make much difference in this heat. Wave after wave of hot air slams against him, along with gusts of unpleasant vehicle exhaust.

With a sigh, Tang Qing ponders,

"Where is the clean air to be found in these big cities?"

After guzzling down most of the bottle of red tea, he finally started to cool down, loosened his tie, pulled his shirt collar to let in some air, wanting the damp shirt not to cling to his skin any longer.