Chapter 3

From the entrance of Shan'er Hutong to the east, it's no more than two hundred meters to Qianmen Street.

On the east side of the road where the Dabeizhao Photo Studio and the post office, which are still temporarily named as "New Beijing," are located, is the bus stop for the 202 and 203 routes that Ning Weimin needs to take.

Coincidentally, Ning Weimin had just walked out of the hutong entrance.

He noticed a bus shaped like a loaf of bread coming from the south side of the road.

Without hesitation, he started running.

By the time he reached the bus stop, the blue "Skoda" had just arrived.

Sure enough, the number on the sign at the front of the bus was "203."

Since it was the first bus of the day, there weren't many people on board.

Apart from Ning Weimin, no one else was waiting at the bus stop.

If he had been a bit later, he might have missed it.

His quick decision made him very pleased.

He showed his monthly ticket and found a seat by the window.

To be honest, there wasn't much to see in the capital city at this hour of the morning.

Even the most famous core commercial area, Qianmen Street, was no exception.

People's lifestyles were extremely simple, and public facilities were very backward.

There were no convenience stores, neon lights, display screens, or pedestrian overpasses on the street.

The electrical wiring was exposed, like a spider web, connected by wooden utility poles in the air.

The crosswalks were so rough that they looked like lines drawn for children to play hopscotch, and the traffic lights were much simpler than in later times.

Even the roads were narrow, with a four-lane street considered wide.

Through the dirty bus windows, only the street lamps flickered with a weak light, like fireflies.

As for the shops lining the street,

except for the Xidamachang Night Market, which had been transformed from the old Zhengyang Building and was still open to serve the train station passengers, showing a dim yellow light that symbolized welcome,

all other shops had their doors and windows tightly shut, with wooden shutters hanging, standing silently in the darkness.

It was hard to even see the names of the shops.

Even the grand Qianmen Gate, before dawn, appeared lifeless and dull, like a grayish-blue silhouette.

Although it was the capital of the 1980s, it looked more like the capital of the late Qing Dynasty or early Republic of China.

Only when the 203 bus passed the Great Leader Memorial Hall, the People's Heroes Monument, and Tiananmen Square, and turned onto Chang'an Street, did it show the grandeur of the capital of the new society.

The roads here were wide and well-organized, the street lamps always bright, the trees on both sides tall, and the Soviet-style buildings standing tall, making the core of the capital look extremely solemn and majestic.

As the sky gradually brightened and the "East Is Red" music played from the Beijing Railway Station, various motor vehicles finally appeared.

Volga, Da Jiefang, 212 Jeeps, tricycles...

Plus the scattered people riding bicycles to work early and the tricycle drivers, who were the main force of urban transportation, pulling goods on flatbed tricycles,

the most famous street in the country suddenly came to life.

Unfortunately, such a lively and impressive scene was limited to the route from Tiananmen to the Friendship Store.

When Ning Weimin got off at the Wangfujing intersection, transferred to the Dàyīlù bus, and passed Yonganli, it was all over again.

Because the Jianguomen Interchange had just been completed.

In the Jianguomen area, except for a few buildings, it was a vast open space.

This was the boundary between the city and the countryside in this era.

Once you crossed this point, you were out of the city, with no buffer zone of urban-rural integration.

To see buildings on a large scale, you had to wait until the bus reached Dabeiyao.

And the now-famous CBD area was still the industrial base of the capital.

There were no high-rise buildings, only self-contained factory zones, like closed small kingdoms.

But even here, it was not Ning Weimin's final destination.

After getting off the bus, he had to take another suburban long-distance bus, the 304, for five stops, and then walk another kilometer.

Because his destination was actually the largest open-air landfill in the eastern suburbs of the capital.

His job was to make a living by scavenging.

This explained why he had to get up so early to travel.

It was not only because of the long distance but also because he was afraid of being questioned by his neighbors.

Even his work equipment was packed in a large bag, for fear of being seen.

It might be hard to believe, but this somewhat embarrassing choice

was actually Ning Weimin's only and best option at the moment.

Not because of anything else, but because of the limitations of the era.

Ning Weimin's understanding of this era was entirely derived from films, TV shows, rebirth novels, and his imagination.

He believed he had the social skills and qualities honed by life experiences, the golden finger of time travel, and a head full of ideas to turn stones into gold.

He thought that in such a golden age full of opportunities, making a fortune by finding a loophole would be a matter of minutes.

Even if he missed the last chance for non-graduates to take the university entrance exam in 1979, he should still be able to live a decent life.

Unfortunately, imagination is just imagination.

As someone who lacked sufficient understanding of this era,

Ning Weimin could not accurately gauge the extent of the limitations of this unfamiliar time.

He inevitably made the mistake of being overly optimistic.

Yes, the place names and landmarks

were gradually reverting to their old names and brands.

"East Wind Market" was renamed "Dong'an Market," and "Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant" restored its "Quanjude" sign.

Young people even wore fashionable bell-bottom pants, and girls got their hair curled.

These were clear signals of the positive changes about to happen in life.

But, to be honest, these were only surface changes.

The true internal changes would take a very slow and difficult process.

In reality, since the reform had just begun, the social environment still followed the rules of the planned economy.

There was no space for Ning Weimin to make a big splash and write his own legend.

The old forces and ideas were still deeply rooted in people's minds.

First, there were no legal individual traders in this era.

There were people doing small trades, even daring enough to push carts to Tiananmen Square to sell radishes openly.

But one thing: don't run into the "office" people.

Otherwise, you'd be in trouble, with your goods confiscated, seized, and fined.

Dealing in food coupons, industrial coupons, and foreign exchange coupons was also happening,

but the penalties were even more severe, as it involved the fundamental economic interests of the state, falling into the category of criminal offenses.

If caught, it wasn't just a few days in jail; it would be at least two years.

Wanting to be a scalper at hospitals or train stations was also out of the question.

In this era, the ticket system was strictly enforced, limiting the movement of outsiders.

Hospitals in the capital still primarily served local residents, and it wasn't hard to get an appointment.

The three-part form system for medical treatment meant no one was willing to pay for an expert appointment.

Business travelers were almost all on official business and had to use letters of introduction to buy train tickets.

Who would buy expensive tickets? Even if they did, they couldn't get reimbursed.

The only feasible option in this regard might be reselling movie tickets or performance tickets.

But this was both low-profit and a bit late.

Theaters and cinemas already had their territories divided by various groups.

These people were not to be trifled with.

If an outsider tried to get involved, the lightest punishment would be a beating, and the worst could be a serious injury.

As for stamps, no one regulated them, and private transactions were very active.

Unfortunately, most stamp collectors traded stamps for stamps, exchanging the ones they didn't have.

At this time, stamp collecting was still a pure hobby.

There were few instances of people paying a high price for rare stamps.

What was particularly frustrating was that the Monkey Stamp had already been issued.

Those whole sheets of "Golden Monkey" stamps were lying in the post office counters, ignored by everyone.

For Ning Weimin, who had nothing in his pocket, it was a torment to see them but not be able to get them.

It was a kind of heart-wrenching pain.

To put it bluntly, it was like being blind. If you were born blind, it would be fine.

You wouldn't know what red or green was, and you wouldn't suffer.

But it was worse if you became blind halfway through life.

You knew how bright red was and how fresh green was.

It was a feeling of wanting to bang your head against the wall.

Of course, because of this, Ning Weimin decided to look for a job as a second choice.

He thought that to buy Monkey Stamps, finding a job temporarily was not a bad idea.

Even if it was a temporary job, even if the monthly salary was only a dozen or so yuan,

as long as he could save enough after expenses to buy two whole sheets of stamps each month.

A whole sheet was worth 1.5 to 1.8 million, so working for a month would be like saving 3 million. It was worth it.

Unfortunately, this compromise didn't work either.

The vegetable wholesale station outside Yongdingmen had once hired loaders.

The street committee had recommended Ning Weimin for the job.

But when they saw his Peking Opera actor-like appearance, they turned him down.

They thought he was too thin and weak, and he wouldn't be as good as a woman at the job.

After that, Ning Weimin received no further news about job opportunities.

To put it bluntly, under the immense employment pressure of 17 million returning educated youth,

even jobs like crematorium workers, street cleaners, and latrine cleaners were competitive.

For someone like Ning Weimin, who had struggled to find a job even when his mother was alive, it was even harder now that he was rootless.

Thus, Ning Weimin found himself with no outlet for his energy.

His grand plans for the future were almost suffocating him.

After much thought, to catch the "lucky" Monkey Stamps,

it seemed that scavenging was the only way out.