Wandering in the vast darkness

Yu Wenhao had affixed a sticker to the center console in front of the passenger seat. It displayed his WeChat QR code, his phone number, and a friendly reminder:

"Passengers carrying valuables are welcome to scan the QR code. If you accidentally leave any items on the bus when you get off, you can contact me."

Every time a passenger gets off the bus, Yu Wenhao will check the area where the passenger sat to see if they have left anything behind. If so, he will collect it to prevent it from being picked up by the next passenger and causing unnecessary trouble.

Quite a few passengers actually add him on WeChat. Some of these customers who have added him on WeChat will ask him if he is nearby when they hail a taxi. If he is, they will specify the vehicle when placing an order, and thus become his regular customers.

After the man got on the bus, he saw the sticker, took out his phone, scanned the QR code, and then greeted Yu.

"Your surname is Yu?"

Yu said yes.

"Is it still easy to drive a ride-hailing car these days?" the other person continued to ask.

Yu Wenhao shook his head: "It's not easy to drive. There are too many cars, and the platform is exploiting the drivers too much, making it so that many drivers don't make any money. In order to squeeze out a little profit, they have no choice but to not even dare to turn on the air conditioning in the car. If they want to turn on the air conditioning, they have to tell the passengers in advance and charge them an extra fee for air conditioning."

The man laughed: "You're not going to accept it too, are you?"

"No, no, I didn't mean that," Yu Wenhao quickly said.

The man nodded, paused for a moment, and then asked, "So, what qualifications are needed to drive for a ride-hailing service? I heard the regulations are stricter than before."

"Yes, with more sheep, there will definitely be more people trying to fleece them," Yu Wenhao said. "Now, people need identification, and vehicles need vehicle permits."

"Witnesses and vehicle permits? What does that mean?"

Yu asked him what a witness testimonial and a vehicle permit were, and the other person nodded to indicate that he understood. Then he asked:

"Could you tell me how to apply for these two certificates?"

Yu Wenhao turned to look at him and laughed, "What, boss, you're not trying to steal our jobs, are you?"

The other person laughed and said, "That's possible. Is that okay?"

"Don't joke around," Yu Wenhao said. "If you ask me, with your style, you're either the boss of your own company or a senior executive of a large corporation. How could you possibly be interested in our kind of business?"

The other person seemed surprised, said "Oh," and asked, "How did you know what I do?"

Yu Wenhao said, "I deal with customers every day and have seen countless people. How could I be wrong? Boss, tell me, was my judgment accurate or not?"

"You've got it right," the other person said. "I'm from Alibaba."

"Haha, I told you I was right, I never misjudge people," Yu Wenhao exclaimed triumphantly.

The man sighed, "Unfortunately, it's all in the past now. I was laid off last week, received a severance package, and left."

"You switched jobs yourself, didn't you?" Yu Wen asked with a smile.

The other person shook their head, looking somewhat dejected: "No, really no, I was under immense pressure, how could I dare to change jobs? I was really kicked out, I'm not lying to you."

Yu Wenhao paused for a moment, then said, "It's alright, it's alright. To reach a senior management position at Alibaba, you're already a hero among men. Even if you're not at Alibaba, you can go somewhere else. Someone like you is definitely in high demand."

The man gave a wry smile and remained silent. Yu Wenhao didn't know what else to say, and the two of them remained silent.

After a while, the man asked, "Do you know who I was drinking with just now?"

Yu Wenhao found it amusing. "How would I know who you're drinking with?" Before he could speak, the man answered his own question:

"The headhunter contacted me every few days while I was still employed, trying to poach me, but I always refused. The one who approached me first was the one who swallowed his pride and asked me to come. Guess what he said to me?"

Yu Wenhao shook her head, and the man continued:

"He told me that I was already forty-two, and that the workplace culture had changed drastically. People over forty like me were considered old, and all companies would reject me. Haha, that was a fatal blow to me, clearly telling me that I had no remaining value to him."

"What the heck? Forty is old age? Whose standard is that?" Yu Wenhao exclaimed.

The man smiled wryly: "The standards of employers and bosses are quite high in our industry. There are indeed many bosses who retire in their forties. It's a relatively young industry, and forty-something is indeed old. You can't deny getting old. In my old department, I was the oldest. Sigh, now even I don't know what I can do next."

The man's voice was dejected and helpless. Yu greeted him and offered words of comfort:

"It's alright. As the saying goes, if this place doesn't want me, there are plenty of other places that will. With your high level of expertise, what are you worried about?"

"Talented? Haha."

The man then snorted, "How naive. Oh, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about myself. I used to think I was a talent, with an amazing degree and experience at a big company. I honed my skills there for over ten years. Only after leaving did I realize that for those ten years, I had only turned myself into a useless piece of trash, a complete nobody."

"How is that possible?" Yu Wenhao said.

"This is reality. Let me tell you, if I were a programmer, I might not be in such a bad situation now. I could switch companies and continue writing code. Unfortunately, I used to work in operations. What can an operations person do after leaving the platform? Seriously, if you asked me to go to the civic center to do something, I wouldn't know what to do."

"The bigger the company, the more detailed the division of labor and the stricter the rules. In that position, I was really molded into a cog in the machine, a specialized cog at that. If I left that place, I really wouldn't know anything; I'd just be a piece of scrap metal. If you asked me to go to a small company, let alone be a vice president or anything like that, I'd make a mess of even being an office manager."

"I've even forgotten how to interact with people in society. My original job didn't require me to interact with people at all. The platform had already provided all the conditions I needed, and I just had to follow the steps. I was only doing a very small part of the job. Now, if I have to face something independently, I'll be completely helpless. Honestly, I feel like I'm completely useless."

It was clear that the man had a lot of bitterness in his heart and had suppressed himself for too long. When facing a stranger who greeted him, he began to speak and completely opened up, confiding in the stranger.

Yu Wenhao comforted him, saying, "It's not that bad, really not. You've probably just lost your job and aren't used to it yet. You'll get used to it. Losing your job isn't as terrible as you think."

"As for how many times I've been turned down in the past week or so, do you know? Every time I hit a wall, I confirmed that I really am a piece of trash. If I hadn't been constantly hitting walls, why would I have had the nerve to ask that bastard for drinks? It turns out he used to be the one who had to agree with everything I said. This bastard didn't even let me hit a wall; he just gave me a direct slap in the face!"

As the man spoke, his eyes were fixed blankly out the window. The city's brilliance had begun to fade by this time; the entire city began to dim after midnight.