Now that I've settled down, the next few days will be spent attending various job fairs. I hope to find a job that can support myself. To say that the pressure is huge would be an understatement. The other day, when I dressed up nicely and arrived at a job fair, I was immediately stunned. There were just too many people, it could be described as "a sea of people", each one dressed more nicely than me, holding thick diplomas and certificates, handing out their resumes to the recruitment companies' tables with the familiarity of a mailman. Suddenly, I had an urge to tear up the ten thin resumes I brought with me.

  But I endured it, because if I still can't find a job now, it's really hard to say, at least I have to be able to support myself first, and then think about whether to eat meat or drink porridge after finding a stable income.

  Thinking back to when I first entered university, I was really naive. I thought that after graduating from university, I would naturally find a job that suited my interests and then work from 9 to 5 with all the benefits like five insurances and one housing fund prepared for me. And then I'd do nothing but slack off every day and become a department head or something. After that, I'd spend my days flirting with female subordinates for fun.

  But now I realize that all of this can only be a dream, the competition in society is too great. There will always be university graduates who cannot find work. Let's talk about twenty years ago, after graduating from university, it was really not a worry, good units were scrambling to recruit you. But twenty years later, hundreds of thousands of university graduates are almost begging for food on the streets. In this era of high yields of rice, university graduates have also become rampant.

  To put it bluntly, half a year ago, I was reading the newspaper in my dormitory and saw a news report about three university graduates who ended up scooping feces after graduation. At that time, I thought it was unbelievable and thought that even if things didn't go well, it wouldn't be that bad. But now I realize that I'm not far from scooping feces either.

  Distant dreams must be built on an economic foundation, otherwise no matter how many dreams you have, they are all in vain. Just like me, I actually had a lot of dreams. When I was young, my dream was to become the President of the country, but later when I grew up, I found that my major didn't match. So my first dream ended in abortion.

  My second dream is to be a poet, in junior high school I was particularly infatuated with Xu Zhimo, so I vowed that after graduation I would become a romantic poet, but now that graduation is really approaching, my current dream is just to become a romantic boss.

  In order to have meat to eat, my poet dream was also declared bankrupt. In fact, the poet's wind and the boss's wind are essentially different. The poet's wind is one thing, and the boss's wind is another.

  Between these two winds, which one would you choose? I'd choose the latter.

  Thinking back to the past, when I was in junior high school, looking at my older cousin's brother who graduated, someone asked him what he had been busy with recently, and he said "finding a job". At that time, in my eyes, the profession of 'job hunting' seemed particularly cool and social.

  But now when it's my turn to find a job, I realize that looking for jobs everywhere is actually not cool at all, but rather quite embarrassing.

  So I had to swallow my pride and squeeze into the crowd, looking around to see if I could find a company that would hire me. Since I majored in graphic design, I first came to those smaller advertising decoration companies' recruitment desks, with a flattering smile, asking them what their recruitment conditions were and how the company's treatment was.

  Because there were too many people in line, the person from the advertising decoration company asked about my education and then directly told me that the company is currently recruiting experienced workers. If a student like you who has just graduated wants to be recruited, it can only be considered as an internship at our company. During the internship, meals are not provided, and the monthly salary is 150 yuan.

  I got angry as soon as I heard it, thinking what's the point of just being an intern? Looking down on me just because I've just graduated. If I go to work for you guys, after working hard for a month, you'd only give me 150 yuan.

  To know I earn 150 yuan a month in Harbin, even if I eat feces every day at the public toilet, it's not enough.

  To hell with him, I'm not going to waste any more words on him. I glanced at him and tossed my resume onto the thick stack of resumes on his desk. I stood up, lifted my butt, and walked away. But after taking only two steps, I turned back, looked at that old fart's ugly face, and casually took my resume back.

  I have to make do with just ten copies now and must learn to conserve resources.

  After a busy morning, I walked into a small noodle shop with my head down, ordered a bowl of noodles to fill my stomach. The noodle shop was quite shabby, and even during lunchtime, there were only a few people. I was the only one in the noodle shop, just after I sat down, a woman in her 40s or 50s came over, first poured me a cup of hot water, then asked: "Young man, what noodles do you want to eat? We can make anything here."

  I gazed at the dirty table in the noodle shop, where a disposable chopstick seemed to have already accumulated a layer of dust. I thought to myself, "Forget it, now is not the time to be picky about cleanliness." As long as I could fill my stomach, that was good enough. So I said to her, "Give me a bowl of spicy noodles, make the noodles thin and add more bean sprouts."

  The aunt listened to me and then shouted towards the kitchen: "Old man, give this young fellow a bowl of noodles, make them thin."

  I almost choked when I heard her say that. This is too disgusting, can't even let people eat?

  But I looked at this aunt who was already quite old, so I didn't bother to argue with her. I sat down on the stool dejectedly, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and thought to myself that smoking would calm me down, but in fact, it just made me more anxious.

  After a whole morning, I still haven't found a job. Those companies asked about my situation and basically had the same attitude. They seemed to categorize applicants into three levels, and I clearly belonged to the lower level. They all told me to go for an internship, and one company only offered 50 yuan per month for the internship.

  The more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm on fire. It's as if something is stuck in my chest, making me feel extremely weak. Since I was feeling terrible, I suddenly had a craving for alcohol and told the woman: "Auntie, bring me three more bottles of beer and two small dishes of whatever snacks you have."

  Before long, the aunt brought over two small plates of dishes, one plate of fried tofu threads and one plate of celery with peanuts. Then she took out three bottles of Harbin beer and asked if I wanted to open them all? I nodded my head.

  I picked up a relatively clean glass from the table, wiped it roughly with a paper towel, and poured in the beer.

  I downed a glass of beer in one gulp, and suddenly felt refreshed. I let out a burp, and my mood improved a lot. I picked up a piece of dried tofu with chopsticks and put it in my mouth, and to be honest, the flavor was pretty good.

  Not long after, a middle-aged uncle brought up a bowl of noodles and placed it on the table with a smile, saying: "It's very hot, eat slowly." I looked at this oily and spicy noodle dish, which smelled very good. However, when I took a bite, I was immediately stunned - this was too delicious! I really didn't expect that such a small and shabby store could make such delicious noodles. I swear, this is the best-tasting noodle dish I've ever had since childhood.

  I couldn't believe it, using chopsticks to stir the bottom of the noodle bowl, thinking that there wouldn't be a big cigarette in this noodle, or how could it smell so good? But turning around and thinking about it, this is simply impossible, because a bowl of noodles costs five yuan, putting a big cigarette inside would not even cover the cost.

  I wolfed down my food, and since I was the only customer in the store, the owner and his wife sat down at a small table next to me to rest. I noticed that they both had smiling faces, but I didn't know why. The old man, who was probably over 50 years old, had a short flat head with some white hair. He smiled and asked me: "Young man, how's the noodles in my house?"

  At this time, I had already forgotten to drink and was focusing on eating the noodles. I almost drank all the soup. I wiped my mouth and replied: "It's really delicious, Uncle, you're so skilled at cooking."

  He chuckled and said to me: "That's necessary, haha."

  I was full at this time, so I poured a beer and chatted with the old man. I asked him: "Uncle, your noodles are so delicious, why are there so few people eating here?"

  He still had that expression, smiling and saying to me: "Actually, being a person is just like making noodles. You can't just look at the surface. From the outside, my small shop looks shabby, of course no one comes in to eat. But they don't know, only those who come in to eat will discover the deliciousness of these noodles. This is the secret to my noodle-making, my noodles are only for people with fate."

  After listening to what he said, I think this uncle is quite interesting and seems to have a philosophical tone. But thinking carefully, it's really the case. Looking at the cities now, everything relies on packaging. Those tall hotels in the city are decorated grandly, but the food inside doesn't know how to taste. When I was in college, I also went to several big restaurants, but those dishes made by so-called national-level chefs were far inferior to a bowl of ordinary noodles in this small broken noodle shop.

  People are indeed a vain animal, often going to high-end restaurants just to satisfy their own vanity, unaware that no matter how delicious the food in the restaurant is, it's not as good as the food at home, yet they still insist on pretending to be big shots. Thinking about it, it's really quite ridiculous. This distorted social atmosphere.

  And the noodles I ate brought me a sense of home. Just like when I was young and sick, my grandmother would make me noodle soup that tasted just like this. Thinking about it, I couldn't help but miss home again.

  I said to the old man: "Uncle, I didn't expect your words to be so profound, it really broadened my horizons. Come and have a drink with me."

  That uncle was also very generous and didn't decline, he just smiled and sat down across from me, then said to his wife, "Stir-fry a couple more dishes, I'll have a good drink with the young man," then turned to me and said, "Today's a happy day, Uncle's treating."

  She nodded and went to the kitchen, I said embarrassedly: "No way, uncle, you're not easy doing business either, how can we let you treat us?"

  The old man smiled and said to me, "Young man, it's fate that we meet. To be honest, neither of us expects to make money from this noodle shop, we just do it for fun. Let's not say anything more, let's drink."

  So we started drinking, but when I chatted with this uncle, I found that what he said was so philosophical, basically every sentence had a deep meaning, and I couldn't help but admire him.

  After a while, the aunt smiled and brought out two more dishes from the kitchen, one was stir-fried wood ear mushrooms and the other was dry-braised pork ribs. She put the dishes on the table and sat down with us to chat.

  These two dishes are surprisingly delicious, I admire the craftsmanship of these two mouths, but in my heart, I am more admiring their wisdom. They have a very elegant feeling in my eyes. I didn't expect that accidentally coming to this small noodle shop would bring unexpected gains.

  That uncle asked me if I had any worries, as I seemed to be in a bad mood just now.

  Two bottles of wine down the hatch, and I'm feeling a bit tipsy. I let out a bitter laugh and told this uncle about my current predicament - having graduated from university only to be faced with unemployment.

  The old man held his beer, smiled and sized me up. He seemed to pay special attention to the fingernails on my little finger, perhaps he was wondering why a young man in his twenties would grow such long fingernails.

  He lit a cigarette, then smiled at me and said: "Young man, don't be discouraged. This is something everyone has to go through. I advise you not to hang yourself on one tree. Have you considered doing work that isn't your specialty?"

  I smiled wryly and replied to him: "Uncle, I won't hide it from you, now as long as I have a job that can make ends meet, I'm satisfied."

  The old man smiled again after hearing what I said, and pulled out a business card from his pocket and handed it to me. He said: "This is my friend's store, he is currently recruiting people, if you are willing, you can go find him."

  Wow, really? I thought I was always unlucky, but today I suddenly had a turn of good fortune. Can such a great thing actually happen to me?

  I took the business card with a mixture of trust and doubt, looked at the name of the store, and was stunned.