KC | Chapter 42

Chapter 42 “Thank you.”

After failing in the face-to-face visit to the key person in Gulin, Chen Xi was frustrated and sprawled on the bed scrolling short videos. Successful people could make full use of fragmented time and absorb knowledge from short video platforms, while Chen Xi was making full use of whole stretches of time to waste them, learning game guides, renovation guides, travel guides, and more from all sorts of entertainment bloggers… except for games, he did not have money to tackle any of the other projects.

The platform had labeled Chen Xi as a “business elite,” and often pushed sales courses, chicken soup for the soul, sales celebrity interviews, and more to him… Chen Xi was drawn in by the short video content and, on impulse, bought Positioning and The Bottom Logic.

Today the books had just arrived, and Chen Xi had already seen a book recommendation in another video. Looking at the unopened courier package with the books thrown in the corner, he fell into deep thought.

The video was very fittingly playing: “Impulse spending refers to purchasing behavior that customers carry out without prior planning or awareness, prompted by outside factors…”

“Unconscious behavior, huh.” Chen Xi swiped away the short video, tossed the phone into the blanket, rolled over to look at the ceiling, his eyes vacant.

Recently, there seemed to have been a lot of unconscious behavior. Unconsciously spending, but producing nothing.

Using a credit card was like going whoring, once there was a first time, there would be countless times after that, impossible to stop. Traveling to Glacier Valley, buying suits, buying milk tea, buying books…

His WeChat rang. It was a message from Wang Xin.

「王大心：I’m holding my wedding at Yonghe Restaurant on 8.27, bro, come give me your support!」

An invitation link was attached.

The two of them had been classmates for four years, with a deep friendship. They had kept in touch for three years after work, and usually told each other everything. Chen Xi had told Wang Xin about how he had a crush on his boss, and Wang Xin had also told Chen Xi about the hardships in his marriage.

Wang Xin’s partner was a college classmate. The woman’s family had long refused to agree to the marriage because he could not come up with the down payment for a house. After working for three years, with housing prices rising step by step, it was all thanks to the recent drop in housing prices, plus the fact that the girl had secretly given Wang Xin money, that their seven-year long-distance love run had finally borne fruit.

As the saying went, “when a man reaches maturity, he should marry; when a woman reaches maturity, she should be married off,” but now it was “a grown man is a bachelor, a grown woman is single.” Love without an economic foundation could not walk into the palace of marriage, and the prince and princess in fairy tales were all lies. Among Chen Xi’s colleagues, classmates, and friends of similar age, there were hardly any who were holding weddings, let alone having children.

For newly graduated young people, the average salary in Yucheng was 3-4K. After insurance deductions, getting 40K a year in hand would already be considered pretty good. Dating required going on dates, right? A movie for two was 100 yuan, a meal 200 yuan, a room 200 yuan, and one date cost at least 500 yuan. At the very least, there had to be two dates a month, and 1,000 yuan would be gone. If holidays came around, they would also need to buy the other person some gifts, and without 15K-20K a year, you could not afford to date at all. For young people earning 30K-40K a year to cough up half their money for love, at that point they would start wondering whether they wanted bread or love.

Single men and women of marriageable age were not unwilling to get married and have children, it was just that the financial burden was too heavy. Being able to support yourself without asking your family for money already made you a good man, where would there be spare money to spend on a partner.

A lot of couples who had been wildly in love at university would, after starting work, slowly drift into talking about marriage and then break up. After splitting up, they would not be willing to be alone, so they would go find the next one, over and over again. Over time, what was there left to talk about true feelings? The point of dating was to satisfy physical needs, and the even more shameless ones simply skipped that step and asked people to go to bed with them.

Chen Xi clicked open the link, looked at his old classmate’s wedding photos, and sincerely wished them happiness.

「晨曦：Alright, definitely coming!」

Luckily, his credit card still had some room this month. The less money people had to spend, the more they spent, and what they feared came anyway.

Chen Xi’s credit card had been applied for when he first started work. Back then, he had gotten the card to buy a nonstick pan, and had never imagined that one day he would frequently be swiping a credit card. After spending, Chen Xi felt no excitement, only unease, the unease of fearing that he would not be able to sign key clients, get eliminated by Lanhai’s evaluation, and be unable to pay back what he owed.

The August nights were still muggy and hot, but Chen Xi kept covering himself with a thick blanket, because the thin summer blanket was too light and could not give him a sense of security.

After graduating from university, Chen Xi had gone back to Fushi and stayed for a while. His mother was frugal in daily life, buying fruit and milk that were close to expiry, squeezing one yuan into two halves to spend, so of course she did not agree to him renting a place outside. His mother told him to “find a job and then live on your own.” Today she had Chen Xi buying groceries, tomorrow she had him help a neighbor carry bags of rice, the day after tomorrow she called him to play mahjong and fill out a table… Chen Xi stayed at home for half a month and really could not stand his mother’s nagging, so he said, “I found a job in Yucheng.”

The future was a gray, dim sky. The freshly graduated Chen Xi was like a bird just broken out of its shell, full of expectation and unease before flapping its wings. He settled in Yucheng alone and forced himself to learn independence. Over these past few years at work, Chen Xi had always shared good news but not bad. When he was happy, he could not find anyone to share it with, and when he was sad, he would not talk to anyone. The feelings between Chen Xi and his classmates and friends grew fainter and fainter. He sealed himself off and gradually became disconnected from society.

Chen Xi never showed his unease to the outside world, always keeping an optimistic, sunny image. When he had just started working, he would occasionally miss the company of his family. As his life experience grew, he gradually understood that only he himself could give himself a sense of security.

“If I were strong enough, then no one would be able to hurt me.”

Since the book had already been bought, then he might as well read it.

The last time Chen Xi had bought books was when he was in primary school. When he ran into classes he did not like listening to, he either slept or read cultivation novels written by “Tomato Potato.” In junior high and high school, schoolwork was tight so he rarely read books. In college, he often used phone apps in the middle of the night to read web novels. This was the first time he was reading a hardcore knowledge-type book.

Chen Xi compared the cover designs of the two books, tore open the red-covered one that better matched his current situation, and prioritized reading the concept that had the greatest influence on American marketing in history (1), Positioning.

In order not to let himself fall asleep while reading, Chen Xi opened the book and walked barefoot around the floor while reading it, showing quite a bit of the determination of hanging his head from a beam and stabbing his thigh with an awl.

The book talked about “the reasons why merely satisfying needs could not win users, and how to enter the user’s mind.” The primary condition for winning the user’s mind was building a brand, and the prerequisite for building a brand was forming a memorable point.

For example, “No gifts during the New Year, only Naobaijin for gifts” used large-scale advertising coverage to make consumers form a memory of these two ad slogans; then, through different media, in the form of sound, images, animation, and more, it strengthened consumer recognition; finally, it bound the category to the New Year, so that as long as it was New Year, consumers would think of Naobaijin and form brand recognition in their minds.

An advertiser first had to have a clear understanding of their own product, find the right market positioning, and lock onto the target group. Then, combined with the product and the target audience, they would plan an advertising slogan that was easy to spread and memorable. Using differentiated marketing ideas to open up the market, precisely reach the target group, and achieve revenue.

A company was like that, and so was a person.

Lin Yiran’s external image had already formed a brand through decades of spread. In order to stabilize that brand, he was starving himself and not eating.

He was really ruthless with himself.

Thinking of Lin Yiran, Chen Xi instantly lost the interest to keep reading.

He did not want to have any more entanglement with Lin Yiran, but when he was at work he would unconsciously pay attention to Lin Yiran, when negotiating with the client he would think of Lin Yiran, and even while reading he would think of Lin Yiran…

The closeness of the office, the low whispers in the elevator hall, the on-and-off distance in the mountains and pavilions of Shanshui Pavilion, the half-bottle of mineral water, the interlocked hands, the damp and sticky lighter… every time he came into contact with Lin Yiran, Chen Xi’s heartbeat would go off rhythm. While rejecting it, there was also secret anticipation mixed in, and the immoral emotion, like a mess of wild weeds, grew crazily and recklessly in the bottom of his heart.

He was filling up his life.

He had to make him get lost out of his life.

Lin Yiran could skip eating in order to maintain his outer image, and Chen Xi could brainwash and hypnotize himself in order not to sink in. In a sense, both of them were ruthless enough toward themselves.

Before, he had vowed with certainty to promise Lin Yiran, “As long as I get the development rights, I will definitely sign with Gulin,” and had almost set aside all his work to stay in Gulin for more than half a month, doing a lot of homework related to the renovation industry, only to find that Xu Dongxu simply did not give him any chance to talk and directly rejected everything.

He could not sign the key client, his relationship with Lin Yiran was unclear, he wanted to resign but had no money, his credit card was in debt, his career, feelings, and life were all a complete mess, and he had not accomplished a single thing he wanted to do… Why was he so useless!

His phone rang again. Chen Xi did not want to look at the message, but he was also afraid that the client might suddenly have something urgent. That damned drive for his career would not let him rest for even a moment.

Chen Xi accepted his fate and clicked on WeChat. It was from Pan Jie, a message from the roll-up door client signed last month.

「潘杰：Manager Chen, the state-owned enterprise purchaser saw Xinxin Door Industry’s information on the advertising platform and invited us to take part in the bidding. The tender was opened today, and we won! Thank you!」

Chen Xi thought of that shabby roll-up door factory, thought of the old man standing under the scorching sun making doors, thought of Pan Jie taking out the only 20,000 yuan in cash he had, thought of his dark skin, rough hands, and eyes flashing with hope.

At this moment, he was extremely glad about the decision he had made back then. He had not let the client down. Using professionalism to formulate a reasonable ad placement plan, using the most precise form of advertising placement, he had revived a door factory that was about to go bankrupt.

「晨曦：Brother Pan, no need to be polite. Wish Xinxin Door Industry money rolling in day after day, and business booming.」

In this noisy and complicated society, interests oppressed life, and human nature became distorted.

The ignorant youth wanted to soar to success and wanted something grand and intense. After being polished by time, unrealistic fantasies fell apart. Being able not to drift with the current was already a blessing in misfortune, and how hard was it to stay true to one’s original intention?

Chen Xi did not know where tomorrow was, how far the future was, or how long this road would be. At this moment, he only knew, I am a good salesman, I did the right thing.

The meaning of doing sales was not how much money you made, nor how amazing a deal you closed, but bringing value to the client.

Even if life was full of all kinds of unhappiness, even if emotions were full of hardship and twists, someone had seen his effort and recognized his value.

Hot tears fell in the chat window, and Chen Xi locked the screen and wiped his phone.

The client’s insignificant thanks, like sparks in the dark night, turned into the driving force for moving forward. The wandering soul found comfort, and endless warmth surged up from the bottom of his heart.

Many years later, when Chen Xi thought back again on this difficult time, if it had not been for this word of thanks, he might already have given up.

Author’s note:

(1) The inscription on the frontispiece of Positioning