At 3 o'clock in the morning, outside Beijing's East Fifth Ring Road, Ah Cheng pushed open the taxi door. A burst of cold air hit his face, and he shrank his neck involuntarily.
He hasn't closed his eyes since he squeezed the subway to go out in the morning rush hour at 8 o'clock in the morning.
In 19 hours, he did several "jobs": producer of radio programs, stand-up show performer, and live director of comedy performances.
These are "power generation for love", and the wages are less than half of what they used to be.
He used to be a standard Internet employee.
In June 2022, amidst the wave of Internet layoffs, Ah Cheng also "graduated" to catch up with the wave.
At that time, he hadn't thought of the dilemma he would face in the second half of the year-he had contacted nearly 1,000 positions, but did not receive an offer.
The setbacks plunged him into unprecedented self-doubt.
Looking back on 2022, Ah Cheng's keyword is "transformation".
He has survived a wave of unemployment around the world, found a passion in the art industry, and found love.
Ah Cheng no longer blindly longs for the distant future, but is more willing to keep his feet on the ground, speak well on talk shows, learn comedy performances, and restore his income to the previous level.
suddenly "graduation"
Notified on Friday, resigned on Monday
On Friday, June 24, 2022, at 9:45 am, Ah Cheng walked into the office.
His daily habits are breakfast, schedule planning, lunch, going to work, and leaving get off work on time.
But today, before he had time to make plans, he received a WeChat notification from the department head: "Come to the sofa area, the boss of the business group is looking for you."
Ah Cheng subconsciously thought: This is layoffs.
A Cheng works for an Internet company in Beijing, providing agent operation services for a leading e-commerce company.
This year, the company went through two rounds of layoffs successively, and he was lucky enough to escape, so he put down his vigilance and prepared to live in peace.
Unexpectedly, this day still came.
He walked to the sofa area at the front desk, and the leader gave him two choices: to work overtime in another department, or to "graduate", and the decision had to be made on the same day.
The conversation lasted only 15 minutes, and Ah Cheng was momentarily stunned.
Explosion, collapse, discomfort, abandonment, these emotions flashed by quickly.
He returned to his work station and said to his colleagues in a calm tone: "The company is going to lay off employees, lay me off." He saw the surprised expression of his colleagues.
"I'm out of work." He texted his girlfriend while taking the elevator downstairs.
He dared not make a phone call, fearing that he would lose control of his emotions.
He thought of a lawyer friend.
The two didn't know each other well, but he trusted each other inexplicably, so he made a voice call.
On the phone, he fully stated the incident, listened to the other party's suggestions, and then came up with the answer: the best solution is to take the compensation and leave.
Even if you switch to another department, there will be other excuses for layoffs later.
After 30 minutes, he returned to the office, sat on the desk, and looked back inadvertently—the desk that was originally full was suddenly vacant, and some colleagues had packed up their things and left.
He was stunned and puzzled: How did everyone walk so fast?
Ah Cheng was not much slower than everyone else.
On the next Monday, he interviewed another department. The leader asked for overtime work. Ah Cheng euphemistically expressed that he hoped to complete daily work as efficiently as possible and avoid overtime work. The two parties broke up unhappy.
Around 15:00, Ah Cheng received the notification.
After signing the compensation contract, initiating resignation procedures online, and clocking in after get off work, the resignation process is over.
Within the company, Ah Cheng has a nickname - "the number one anti-involvement person".
When he gets off work, he always shows up at the elevator entrance on time.
Colleagues in other departments have heard of him, even if they don't know him.
At 18:30, Ah Cheng walked into the elevator as usual.
The only difference is that the usual small satchel is replaced by a backpack.
The bag contained his few belongings: toys bought at a low price inside, and two notebooks.
In the evening, he and his friends had dinner at a barbecue restaurant to celebrate receiving 30,000 yuan in resignation compensation.
At that time, Ah Cheng hadn't thought of the next difficulty.
Hit the wall repeatedly
There are only 10 interviews for thousands of positions
Ah Cheng's confidence in job hunting comes from a glamorous Internet resume.
In 2018, he graduated from a university in a provincial capital city in Northeast China, and accidentally entered a leading Internet company.
At the end of the 6-month probationary period, the big leader called: "An opportunity, the rank will be promoted, and the salary will be increased by 80%. Would you like to go?" It was Sunday, and he was working overtime in the office, and his lunch was Malatang and fried skewers.
When he received the call, he forgot to chew the food in his mouth, and he replied almost without thinking: "Go!"
When his classmates had a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, he already had an annual salary of 200,000 yuan.
With the increase in wages, his imagination of the future is also expanding: he was promoted to director at the age of 35, and started a business at the age of 40. In the future, he will definitely be able to earn millions of dollars a year.
In 2021, he came to Beijing and after interviewing with many well-known Internet companies, he entered the platform where he is currently working.
In March 2022, Ah Cheng was keenly aware of possible layoffs within the company, and had also made preparations for job-hopping.
At that time, several small companies took the initiative to contact him, and a leading Internet company offered a good monthly salary of 22,000 yuan.
HR told him after a while that the entire line of business had been cut.
Although the industry environment is turbulent, Ah Cheng still believes that he will be able to find a good job with his resume.
Unexpectedly, the development of things completely exceeded his expectations. Three months after "graduation", he has not received any offer.
Every morning when he wakes up, the first thing he does is to turn on his phone and check if anyone has responded to yesterday's resume.
After breakfast, he will spend another two hours browsing job listings and submitting resumes.
If there is a reply, communicate further with the recruiter.
From July to August, he contacted nearly 1,000 positions in the Internet and cultural industries, and the response rate was only about one-tenth, and only about 10 interviews were conducted.
On the recruitment website page, most of the resume delivery statuses only show "delivered", while some have not been read back.
In the repeated submission of resumes, he fell into a strong self-doubt: "Maybe I'm just not good at it now."
The anxiety of job hunting makes Ah Cheng think about how to make money almost all the time.
During the epidemic, he sometimes read books and played games.
On the 27-inch computer screen, the heroes are fighting in full swing, but in his mind, he thinks: I am playing Genting Fight well, and I will know in advance every time the version is updated, can I do live broadcast of the game?
When he learned that a friend in the same situation was going to deliver food, he was also moved, but he got into a tangle-Internet people work for resumes, will this affect my job hunting and salary in the future?
After the income was reduced, Ah Cheng's life became "non-essential consumption".
On Double 11 the year he just graduated, he bought 4 pieces of clothing, a Switch, and a watch, which cost a total of 5,000 yuan; last year on Double 11, he bought socks, detergent, etc., which cost 200 yuan.
He describes himself: now very "at home".
Back to the talk show
Write the experience into Duan Zibo, the audience laughs
Ah Cheng's mentality slowly changed in October last year.
During a dinner with a group of four friends, he suddenly discovered that three of them were unemployed; during the interview, the boss of the company told him that a friend who had worked as a director hadn’t found a job for more than half a year; among the talk show actors, Some people left their jobs in the financial industry, and some of them even worked on large recruitment platforms.
"It turns out that I'm not the only one who has this difficulty." Ah Cheng thought to himself.
He is no longer obsessed with delivering resumes, but on the open-mic stage of talk shows.
"If this way doesn't work, then go another way."
"I want to talk about something adult. It's an offline (performance) now. Since we're here, we have to listen to something different from the online (performance)..." In a bar in Nanluoguxiang, under the small stage There were twenty or so young audience members, and Ah Cheng on the stage deliberately slowed down his speech, emphasizing the word "adult" with an accent.
When someone thought they would hear some "nasty jokes", Ah Cheng changed the subject and said casually: "I recently lost my job, this is too adult, and I was laid off." Hearing this, The audience in the audience couldn't help laughing out loud.
hard work
Although the income is cut in half, it is fun
In fact, Ah Cheng came into contact with the talk show in May 2021 at the suggestion of a friend.
But at that time, he would be nervous when he was on stage, and his performance was always not right, and even his colleagues were sweating for him.
Unexpectedly, after Dachang "graduated", the talk show suddenly went smoothly.
He said that from May to September 2021, he gave fifty or sixty lectures, but the effect was not as good as the first three lectures last year.
Ah Cheng felt that he had obviously worked harder in writing jokes last year.
He went out to work during the day, and went home at night to write jokes until two or three in the morning. Sometimes he couldn't think of a joke for an entire hour.
At the end of a certain performance, he stood at the door and watched the audience leave.
A couple walked at the end. When they passed by him, the girl smiled and said to him: "You are more funny this week than last week! I can't get tired of hearing the same thing!" It's a lot lighter.
He went to pick up his girlfriend from get off work, and he was too embarrassed to say too much in front of other people present, and he couldn't wait to share the joy until the two got in a taxi.
"I think I found the value of doing comedy."
In October last year, Ah Cheng accompanied his girlfriend, who is a comedian, to the theater to rehearse and participate in the first tour of the Beijing Railway Station of a large-scale comedy performance.
Two hours before the opening, he was temporarily assigned as the stage manager by the on-site director. At that time, he was so nervous that his palms were sweating.
His girlfriend performed on stage, while he directed the lighting and sound effects in the background with a walkie-talkie.
Watching the performance end, he felt that his tears were almost coming out of his eyes.
Ah Cheng is busier than before.
He was doing several jobs at the same time, operating talk show clubs, radio director, on-site director, and talk show actor. He sometimes only slept six hours in two days when he was busy.
Although his income is halved, he enjoys it.
"I like art, and I hope to have the opportunity to work in the art industry in the future."
Harvest love
The boss "sends" his girlfriend to complete the closed loop of layoffs
A large part of Ah Cheng's talk show jokes are related to his girlfriend.
He joked: "Every time I lose my job, I get a love. It feels like the boss sent them to get my money back. Layoffs can also close the loop."
In 2022, after being with his current girlfriend Yueming for less than two months, he suffered layoffs again.
The sweetness of the love between Ah Cheng and Yue Ming is comparable to a romance novel, and it spreads in the talk show circle.
They were originally roommates who lived together for half a year. One cooks, one washes dishes, eats together, occasionally chats, and goes back to their rooms separately. Later, the "relationship suddenly changed", and it only took four days from flirting to confirming the relationship.
Both Ah Cheng and Yue Ming have experienced bad relationships.
They didn't believe in love or marriage, they didn't have any expectations for these, and they weren't ideal lovers for each other.
But when two sad people meet, they unexpectedly get in sync.
When they went out to socialize together, the two felt tired at almost the same moment, and they knew that the other wanted to go home with just one look.
They can always know each other's emotional points, and sometimes they can know each other's thoughts without even talking.
Yueming said that their love is like "rescuing each other", pulling each other out of the previous quagmire.
The two sometimes go to open mics together, and Yueming sits in the audience watching Ah Cheng's performance, and then replays together after he is off the stage.
Ah Cheng often went to rehearse with Yueming and help with the dialogue of the play. He was so busy that he didn't go home until two or three o'clock in the morning.
At that time, there were no hurrying pedestrians on the street, no noisy and speeding cars, and the world was so quiet that it seemed that only the two of them were left.
The residents in the community had already turned off the lights and slept peacefully. In the darkness, the dim yellow street lamps illuminated the path, and the cold wind poured into the layers of clothes.
They sang, chased, and fought in the cold winter night, and their hearts were full and warm.
(Participants in this article are all pseudonyms)
Text/Reporter Chen Jing Coordinator/Lin Yan Zhang Bin
Photo provided by the interviewee