7:30 AM. Yang Yi got up and washed.
He pulled open a drawer, rummaged through the clutter, and fished out four coins. He headed out.
8:56 AM. Clocked in.
Yang Yi let out a long sigh of relief; he wasn't late today.
As he tidied his desk, he noticed the paper cup from yesterday didn't look too dirty. He filled it with hot water and kept using it.
Brother Miao checked in on the progress of the "out-of-home" print ad. Yang Yi opened his QQ.
"Yingying, send me the revised file once it's ready. We need to confirm it and get it printed today."
Yingying's profile picture was a "Tuxedo" cat (black with white paws). Whether she was online or not, the icon stayed black and white...
Maolin and A-man hadn't shown up all morning. They had mysteriously vanished from their desks for the entire day yesterday; were they going to pull a disappearing act again today?
In any case, by the time Yang Yi had finished dinner and returned last night, the bosses were already gone. When Yang Yi clocked out, Maolin was still working overtime.
Yingying dropped a file on QQ without saying a single word. Based on the filename, Yang Yi knew the visuals were ready, but her attitude gave off a distinct "take it or leave it" vibe.
"Brother Miao, the visuals are done."
"Did she make all the changes the client asked for?" Brother Miao leaned in and gestured for Yang Yi to open the file. "Next time, check it yourself first. Tell me only after you're sure it's right."
"Copy it onto a USB for me. I'll send it to the client for confirmation." After scanning the design, Brother Miao was satisfied.
Yang Yi stood there, frozen. Brother Miao instantly read the room, reached into his bag, and handed over a USB drive.
"There's a print shop downstairs. Print a copy today and take it to the client's office for a signature," Brother Miao said, picking up his laptop. "I'm in meetings all day. Can you handle going there alone?"
"No problem. Just give me the address and the contact's phone number."
Getting a signature seemed simple enough. What Yang Yi was actually worried about was whether Maolin would show up this morning. His entire food budget was tied up in Maolin's card.
"Did you take the morning off?" Sitting at his desk, Yang Yi finally couldn't hold back and sent a text to Maolin.
No reply. As lunchtime approached, Yang Yi realized his badge was empty, Brother Miao was stuck in the conference room, and there wasn't a single person nearby he could talk to.
I'll just wander around. Skipping one meal won't kill me.
Yang Yi stood up and headed downstairs, exiting the International Trade Center. He walked toward a snack street lined with quick bites: roasted wheat cakes, sausages, roujiamo (meat burgers)...
All along the way, the two coins in his pocket clinked against each other. The sound felt familiar to Yang Yi, though he couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before.
When he reached the subway station, a beggar was kneeling on the ground, shaking a bowl. The coins inside jingled rhythmically, though the sound was far more robust than the one in Yang Yi's pocket.
He glanced at the change in the beggar's bowl—probably about a dozen yuan. The man was effectively ten times wealthier than Yang Yi right now.
Under the beggar's intense gaze, Yang Yi fished the coins out of his pants pocket, tucked them into the breast pocket of his suit, and walked away. His ears were much quieter now.
In the afternoon, Brother Miao was still in the meeting room, but his QQ icon started flashing.
"The client sent some small feedback at noon. I saw you were out, so I went straight to Pan Ying to have it changed."
"It's not a big change. Once the revision is sent to you this afternoon, just put it on the USB and go print the proof."
"They just want the darkness of the red curtain background lowered a bit to make the product in the center pop more. Everything else stays the same."
Yang Yi opened the morning's draft, looked at it, and closed it again.
Then he opened the project materials Brother Miao had sent yesterday and continued reading.
Beitong Advertising was primarily responsible for a client's offline ad design and "going live" (chujie). For instance, with the current draft, they had to print a proof for the client to sign and confirm before sending it to the factory for mass production. The finished products would then be posted in various sizes at subway stations, bus stops, and other public spaces.
This was the core business of an advertising agency: urban poster advertising.
Other services had gradually emerged with the rise of the internet, involving platforms like Weibo and forums. The agency was responsible for maintaining the client's homepages, running regular fan campaigns, and offering product discounts to increase followers and orders.
Brother Miao had said that Beitong was a "traditional" ad agency. Compared to their business model, Yang Yi's previous employer, Tianchen, leaned more toward being a PR firm.
Yang Yi tried to memorize every word Brother Miao said. In the past, no one had ever shared so much "insider knowledge" with him.
The tuxedo cat icon flashed in the bottom right corner. Yingying's revision was ready.
Again, she just dropped the file without a word.
"Did it come through?" Brother Miao emerged from the conference room and walked toward Yang Yi.
"Just now." Yang Yi stood up.
"Then get moving. Use my USB to copy it."
Yang Yi plugged in the drive. While the file was copying, he clicked to take a look.
"Brother Miao, it hasn't been changed. Isn't this the same version from this morning?"
Brother Miao leaned down to get a closer look.
"Look at the curtain. They said to make it darker, right? It looks exactly the same to me."
Brother Miao squinted, bending over to stare for a moment before straightening up. "Ask Yingying if she actually changed it."
Yang Yi opened the chat box. "Yingying, did the file get changed? It looks identical to the morning version."
Brother Miao stood by, waiting for the reply.
"Wrong file. Use this one." This was Yingying's first actual sentence to Yang Yi on QQ.
The two confirmed it again. Brother Miao patted Yang Yi on the shoulder, satisfied. "Take a taxi there. I'll send you the address and contact info. It's quite a trip. Once you get the signature, just head straight home. You don't need to come back to clock out."
"The print shop is the one on the first floor, right?"
"Yeah. Tell them it's for the Financial Division and just put it on the account. Tomorrow, fill out an 'off-site duty' form so the system won't mark you as leaving early."
An off-site duty form? He'd never filled one out before. I'll deal with it tomorrow.