Chen Qi

You only realized it when you got older: sometimes, taking a good shit was something to show off about.

It was 1979, and spring had arrived.

Chen Qi pulled up his pants and walked out of the public toilet in Menkuang Hutong, drawing a circle in contentment.

He had just taken a good, smooth shit and felt wonderful. His nineteen-year-old heart pumped blood through his body with a strong pulse, and the pressure in his abdomen had stirred his still-unopened erectile tissue into action-a feeling he hadn't experienced in ages!

It was nine in the morning.

The workday had already begun, and the hutong was very quiet.

It was a hundred-meter-long, three-meter-wide little alley, tucked inconspicuously inside Dashilar. But thirty years ago, it had been a famous snack street. Fushunzhai's soy-braised beef, Ruibinlou's dalian huoshao, the Kang family's old tofu, Rice Cake Qian, Quick-Boiled Tripe Feng, Steamed Bun Yang, and others had helped make it and Dashilar the most bustling part of the capital.

Chen Qi walked a few steps to the entrance of Courtyard No. 12, where a sign nailed to the gate read: Xinhua Bookstore Dormitory.

Zhang Henshui had once lived there. It had seven inner courtyards from front to back and was exceptionally spacious. Zhang Henshui had spent three years there and written The Golden Powder Family before leaving for Nanjing. The property had changed hands several times and eventually become a dormitory.

Being a dormitory, it was naturally disorderly.

Dozens of households shared the water supply, and makeshift coal sheds and storage rooms stood everywhere. Pots and pans and all manner of odds and ends made a clatter all day long. What people called the warmth of everyday life was a judgment passed from on high, made possible by having money. If you were living in the thick of it yourself, you definitely wouldn't find it beautiful...

Chen Qi couldn't get used to this dump. His parents had both gone to work. He went inside, washed his hands, and rubbed his face, and the mirror bearing a design of The East Is Red reflected the image of a young man.

His hair wasn't parted in the style currently in fashion; it was cut very short, each strand standing up like a spike. His eyes were bright, and his slightly thin lips lent his handsome face a touch of rebellion. He was about 178 centimeters tall, which was very tall for the era.

How tall was that?

Aaron Kwok was about 165 centimeters, Andy Lau 169, and Jacky Cheung 173. Leon Lai, at 179, was genuinely tall. If you thought the other three looked quite tall, that was because they wore special height-increasing insoles in their shoes year-round...

"Chen Qi?"

"Chen Qi?"

Someone suddenly called out from the doorway, and a young woman ran in. She had ear-length hair, apple-like cheeks, and rough skin. She was tall, dressed in an old gray cotton jacket and trousers and wearing black cloth shoes with red soles. Her feet were at least a size 41.

"Why are you still dawdling? Come on, we're going to a meeting!"

"I don't want to go."

He sprawled there lazily, wanting to lie down a little longer.

"If you keep this up, I'm going to criticize you. How did you turn into such a negative, dispirited laggard after returning to the city? Comrade Chen Qi, pull yourself together! Don't give up on yourself because of a temporary hardship. The organization will arrange jobs for us!"

"Comrade Huang Zhanying, don't concern yourself with our revolutionary friendship. Just let me go to ruin..."

"Cut the nonsense. Come on, come on!"

Huang Zhanying had a loud voice and even greater strength. She grabbed him and hauled him up.

Chen Qi had no choice but to put on his coat at a snail's pace and slip on a pair of black cloth shoes with red soles as well.

They each got on a 28-inch bicycle and rode out of the hutong. Looking up, they saw Dashilar coming back to life. After winding through several turns, they reached Zhushikou Street and headed east. The capital of 1979 drifted past them like frames in a series of old photographs.

The sky was gray and hazy. The streets seemed especially wide with so little traffic, and bicycles rode right down the middle without a care. The buildings on either side were low and shabby, with utility poles and wires packed densely among them. The crowds, too, were a sea of dark, muted colors-blue, gray, and army green. Only the police officers' white uniforms added a touch of brightness.

Along both sides of the road, people were planting trees at intervals.

Two years earlier, the United Nations Environment Programme had declared the capital a city on the edge of desertification.

That was true, because the spring sandstorms were terribly severe. Another storm had filled the sky with yellow sand this year, and the Xinhua News Agency had published a special report, "Windblown Sand Closes In on the Capital City." It coincided with the fifth National High-Level Officials' Meeting, so March 12 was designated Arbor Day.

This was the first year, and the whole city was planting poplars. Thus, in the springs that followed, there were not only sandstorms but also clouds of poplar and willow fluff...

The two rode about five kilometers to the east side of the Temple of Heaven, where a building stood:

The Chongwen District Workers' Club!

"So many people?"

"Everyone in this batch of unemployed youth must have come!"

"That's 'youth awaiting employment'!"

"Mm-hmm, awaiting employment, awaiting employment... So they were already inventing new terms back then."

Chen Qi muttered to himself. Before him was a mountain of people and a sea of faces, so packed he couldn't squeeze in. The men and women were all young, each looking more dejected and dressed more dowdily than the next. They glanced around from time to time as they waited for the club to open.

Huang Zhanying was an extrovert who didn't know the meaning of social anxiety. She grabbed a small, skinny young man wearing glasses and asked, "Comrade, we just got here. Have you heard any news?"

"I actually have found out a little..."

He was quite friendly too. Lowering his voice, he said, "I heard our batch is a pilot group. They're trying it out on us first and planning a big push to establish production and service cooperatives."

"Cooperatives? Those are collective work units!"

Huang Zhanying's eyes widened, her already large eyeballs seeming ready to pop out. She lowered her voice too. "That won't do. Collective units pay low wages, have poor conditions, and don't offer any benefits. People even laugh at you."

"Hey, hey, back at my place you were all high and mighty. How come you suddenly got so realistic?" Chen Qi said.

"If it were an official work unit, I'd be willing to clean toilets, but collective units aren't official. Don't laugh at me. You're the same. Could your parents bear that kind of embarrassment?"

"I don't care..."

As they spoke, the crowd began to stir, surging forward in waves. Some people shouted for order. The club had opened its doors.

Huang Zhanying pulled him along as she charged inside like the fierce Zhang Fei, somehow managing not to fall behind. After considerable effort, they made it in. Inside was a two-story hall that could seat a thousand people, with a stage at the front for events and film screenings.

A banner hung across it: "Government Briefing on Solving Employment for Youth Awaiting Jobs!"

The two found seats.

Before long, several officials walked onto the stage, and the meeting began.

At the start of 1979, twenty million people across the country were awaiting employment. More than ten million were sent-down youth, 2.3 million were idle urban workers, and 1.05 million were university and technical-school graduates and demobilized or transferred military personnel... The situation in the capital was particularly daunting: 400,000 young people were awaiting employment, an average of one person for every seven households.

That proportion was terrifying!

Even more terrifying than in the post-pandemic era.

Many people had a stereotypical impression of this period: study hard, graduate from technical school, and you could slaughter everything in your path, with a job assignment guaranteed... True, assignments were guaranteed, but only if there were enough positions to go around.

The movement to send youth to the mountains and countryside had begun in the 1950s. At its core, it was intended to ease the employment pressure brought on by the first baby boom.

After the torrent of people, these sent-down youth returned to the cities, overlapping with the second baby boom and creating another huge pool of young people awaiting employment. They were young and hot-blooded, had no jobs, and idled around the city all day, getting into fights and brawls. They were an extremely destabilizing factor.

That was why arranging jobs was the country's top priority this year.

The officials onstage rambled on, but Chen Qi listened for a while and found that it really came down to three points:

Allow parents to retire early and have their children take over their jobs.

Have government departments and work units take responsibility for a set number of young people awaiting employment. They could hire long-term temporary workers, and were encouraged to have two people do one person's job and five people share three people's portions.

Develop the collectively owned economy, open up more avenues, and loosen employment conditions.

Children inheriting their parents' jobs, temporary workers, slacking off at work, flexible employment... Ah, so this is where it all started!

The service industry nationwide has basically been wrecked. Of course there aren't enough jobs. They've got to restore the service industry!

By the late 1990s came the third baby boom, and then universities expanded enrollment... Later times were simpler after all: livestreaming, food delivery, and ride-hailing, all in one go.

Chen Qi smiled, but thinking of the future made him gloomy again, and he gave a long sigh.

Ah, I lost money on that short drama!

I'm a successful man worth tens of millions, and I've ended up in this lousy hutong emptying chamber pots. Who am I supposed to complain to?

That was right. He was, of course, an outsider to this era.

To be honest, he hadn't wanted to come at all. The future was so much better: there was Wi-Fi, Bilibili, Douyin, food delivery, and high-speed rail. You didn't even have to leave home to hire a prostitute; place an order on your phone and she could fly in from anywhere in the country. Even Xiaomi was making cars, with Lei Jun personally opening the car door for you...

In his previous life, Chen Qi had lived into his forties. He was a veteran internet user who had been slinging bricks online since the BBS era. He'd worked for wages when he was young, then started a business. He was also somebody on Weibo, with more than ten million followers across his short-video accounts. He had invested in films and television dramas, sold products on livestreams, and slept with internet celebrities and cosplayers. He wasn't as well off as those above him, but he was better off than those below, and the main thing was that he didn't have to be someone else's ox or horse.

He had been through his share of rough times and finally made it through the pandemic, but the overall situation was bad. Jia Ling lost some weight and the whole fucking country knew about it.

He made easy money off trash, but other people made it off even worse trash. Not only was it trashier, they had capital backing them.

In short, the big companies had monopolized the market, and it was getting harder and harder for small companies to make money. His A-share investments had sunk, he'd gone all in on short dramas and failed, and, feeling miserable, he'd gone out drinking. When he woke up, he was here.

His parents both worked at Xinhua Bookstore. He had once had a little sister, but she had died young. The original owner of this body had gone to the countryside after graduating from middle school. Huang Zhanying was his comrade-in-arms in the revolution; her parents also worked at Xinhua Bookstore, and they lived in the same compound. She had a younger brother.

After returning to the city, the original owner had taken many exams and failed every one, gloriously becoming a youth awaiting employment.

"Priority must be given to those who are older and have been awaiting employment longer!"

"After today's meeting, neighborhood officials will visit every household and establish production and service cooperatives, ensuring that every young person awaiting employment can take up a job..."

"Please trust the organization, and at the same time change your own thinking. Times are changing-we've even established diplomatic relations with the United States! Besides, no position is higher or lower than another, and no job is noble or humble. Wherever you are, you can contribute to the motherland and add bricks and tiles to the Four Modernizations!"

The official onstage spoke with ringing conviction, while the crowd below looked lost.

"Haah..."

Chen Qi yawned.

(End of chapter)