In a restaurant, you can run into all kinds of people. That’s just how daily life is—welcoming and sending off guests, fat ones, thin ones, handsome, beautiful, ugly, dignified, sleazy, a thousand faces, each different. Having grown up in the restaurant, after enough time, as soon as someone walks in, you can tell at a glance who’s here to show off with money, who’s here to freeload, who’s an official eating on reimbursement, who’s just passing through and doesn’t care about quality. Not many people actually leave a lasting impression! Today was a bit unexpected—not because of how much money was made, but because that graceful figure in a white dress kept lingering in my mind. Every frown and smile, almond-shaped eyes, delicate brows... wow, even prettier than my mom!

James Brooks smiled, a genuine smile from the heart. Good food is common, but beauties are rare! If this had been a few years ago in high school, running into such a beauty, James Brooks would probably have whistled and tried to flirt, shamelessly going up to strike a conversation—even if it meant getting a few dirty looks or being spat at, it wouldn’t have mattered! If it had been during college, it would have been even crazier—maybe racking his brains thinking how to get to know her, how to get her number, how to plan a date...

But now, it’s all very calm. A woman like that, wearing things worth as much as the restaurant’s best equipment, sitting in a car worth as much as this old place—she’s in a class way out of my reach!

The reckless years are over—graduated, unemployed. Not only has he become realistic about life, but also about beauties. The feeling of inferiority has only grown stronger. A beauty like that is just like the civil service job or the respectable position he longs for now—no matter how much he wants it, it’s out of reach!

Work, work...

Those people just now carried the air of the big city! That was the kind of life James Brooks once experienced, but only as a bystander in college, and even now it’s still out of reach! He once thought he’d become one of them, but the moment he graduated, issues like household registration, job, salary, bonus, car, house—all things he’d never considered in college—suddenly appeared overnight. That’s when he realized he was completely unprepared and still had nothing.

After graduation, those with ability started their own businesses, those with connections found jobs early, and even those with neither but a bit of money stayed in the provincial capital. As for himself, he wandered around the city like a headless fly for months! It wasn’t that he didn’t want to stay, or wasn’t willing to stay—he even tried to find a few jobs. But his diploma was barely passable, from a third-tier college. It was called a bachelor’s degree, but really it just had the name of some university with “Branch No. X” tacked on the end, which was a letdown. Before graduation, employers set up recruitment tables on campus—big companies, big enterprises, China Mobile, China Netcom, Sinopec, the steel mill, coal transport—these big companies only recruited first- and second-tier graduates. Third-tier graduates were simply ignored by recruiters. Occasionally, some unknown small companies would take them, but mostly for selling knockoff products!

James Brooks actually hoped to find a more respectable job, and he really did find one once. When Southern Telecom set up a branch in the north, he ran around for two months, barely got familiar with the business, and as soon as the company was fully set up, the top positions were already decided, the middle managers were poached from elsewhere, and the bottom was filled with drifters like James Brooks. He was given the title of business manager, but things only got worse. When the new business hall opened, James Brooks was thrown into the cashier’s desk! And that was only because he was good-looking—otherwise, he’d have to go out and do sales, and if he didn’t meet his targets, even his salary would be at risk!

Put yourself in others’ shoes—everyone is born of a mother and father; but compare salaries, and you don’t even feel human!

In a fit of anger, James Brooks packed up and went back home! It wasn’t that he couldn’t take the hardship, but he couldn’t stand the disdain—nodding and bowing to the boss every day, bowing and nodding to customers! If he could earn three to five thousand a month as a white-collar worker, maybe it’d be worth it, but for just over a thousand, how could he not lose his self-respect?

Wulong County may be small, but at least you don’t have to wake up every day and check if there’s still money in your pocket, or worry about whether you’ll have food today; you don’t have to wait day and night for payday, or worry that one day you’ll walk into the company and be told you’re fired, or have to move every few days like a rat... Even without a job, even just working as a busboy here, James Brooks still feels life is not without its comforts—it suits his lazy nature!

From thinking about the beauty, his mind wandered to the city, from city life to college days, from college days back to his own fate, and then to his current life. James Brooks started wolfing down his food with a bit of ferocity. The big bowls in his hometown are different—square mouth, round bottom. He finished a big bowl in no time, then looked up to see his dad, Samuel Brooks, staring at him in surprise: “Little James, what’s up with you today? I’ve never seen you eat this much!”

“Dad, your cooking is especially good today!... I’m on duty tonight, so I won’t be able to help you.” James Brooks smiled as he put down his bowl and chopsticks.

“Go ahead! Come home early.”

His dad didn’t even look up, just added more firewood to the stove. After a few more hours, the soup pot for the evening would be ready!

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