3 posts tagged with "Surreal"

When Old Zhao woke up, he found an "invisible bracelet" on his wrist.

Old Wang was the most unremarkable cog in the company machine. In fact, he was more like a piece of gum stuck in a corner, his presence barely noticeable. On the last workday before the Lunar New Year, while everyone else was busy snapping up holiday goods and their phones were constantly ringing, his desk was still occupied by an old desktop computer and a well-worn copy of the "Modern Chinese Dictionary."

Everyone knew that Old Wang didn't like using mobile phones. He still used an old model from ten years ago, his reasoning being, "As long as it can make calls, it's fine." But today was different. The company had suddenly issued a notice requiring all employees to attach a gold sticker to the back of their phones before coming to work tomorrow. This was to demonstrate good wishes for the New Year, and they were to uniformly scan and upload it using a new app. Apparently, this was the boss's new "good luck" ritual for the year.

Old Wang had been feeling like something was off recently. Every morning, he would wake up at exactly 7:30 am, mechanically put on his work uniform, squeeze onto the subway, and then in the office, like a finely tuned machine, he would tap away at his keyboard, processing all sorts of forms and reports. Ever since the company implemented "Qiang Culture," everything had changed.

This so-called "Qiang Culture" was initially just a slogan, plastered in the most visible spot of the company corridor: Your "Qiang" is the company's "Qiang"! Every morning meeting, the leader would repeat this phrase with great passion, as if it could inject everyone with a shot of chicken blood, making them forget about overtime, performance reviews, and that they were still living human beings.