Lin Fan rode his small electric scooter to the back of a mall, where he had arranged to et Zhao Jiayi. He asked Zhao Jiayi to drive over.
Behind the mall, in front of him was a road. Lin Fan parked the electric scooter by the roadside and sat on it waiting.
Suddenly, a loud commotion erupted, and a group of young n and won appeared, waiting at the mall's back entrance. Seeing this scene gave Lin Fan a familiar feeling, as if they were a group of celebrity fans. Soon, a row of security guards appeared to maintain order at the scene.
Which star is coming to the mall for an event this ti? The celebrity hasn't arrived yet, but the fans are already here. Lin Fan rembered a small-ti celebrity under Wei Jiansheng's company who caused a roadblock during an event and was intensely criticized.
This ti, the celebrity seems to be a bit more low-key, not entering through the mall's main entrance and disrupting the mall's normal order but coming in from the back door, seeming slightly classier.
"Brother, can I borrow a lighter?"
Beside him, a delivery guy in a blue uniform pulled up next to Lin Fan on his own delivery scooter.
He had a cigarette hanging from his mouth and, realizing he hadn't brought a lighter, wanted to borrow one from Lin Fan.
Lin Fan apologized, "Sorry, I don't smoke, I don't have a lighter."
The delivery guy took the cigarette out of his mouth, and said helplessly, "Alright then."
Like Lin Fan, he parked his scooter and sat there, watching the crazed fans in front of them absentmindedly.
"Dude, you have ti to spare, not doing deliveries?" Lin Fan remarked casually.
The delivery guy gazed up at the sky and sighed, "Spare what ti? Been running around all morning, just taking a small break for a smoke, then it's lunchti peak again. I'll continue then."
Lin Fan said, "Sounds like you have a lot of orders, how's it going?"
The delivery guy replied, "Don't even ntion it, orders aren't many, just tough to deliver. The prices are constantly being squeezed."
Lin Fan gave a knowing sigh, "What do you an?"
The delivery guy said, "There are just so many people now, the food delivery industry is getting more competitive. There used to be good tis when you could make money easily, but because of that more people started doing deliveries. This led to too many monks and not enough gruel, so the platforms are squeezing prices. Used to be 7 or 8 yuan per order, now it's down to 4 or 5, or even 3 yuan sotis. Damn it, 3 yuan is what you'd toss to a beggar."
The delivery guy started venting, "In this situation, it's hard to get good orders. You have to take whatever you get. I just delivered to a building with no elevator, dragging twenty kilos of stuff up seven floors, almost couldn't catch my breath."
Lin Fan listened and felt quite empathetic.
He used to be a delivery person too; if not for the system, his situation wouldn't be much better than this delivery guy's.
"Hang on a mont." Lin Fan said, jumping off his scooter and running across the street to a small shop, and quickly ca back, handing a newly bought lighter to the delivery guy, "Here's a light."
The delivery guy was taken aback. Did Lin Fan specifically go across just to buy him a lighter?
"Thanks a lot." The delivery guy took the lighter and lit his cigarette, taking a deep drag, finally showing a relaxed expression.
Lin Fan said, "Give one too."
The delivery guy handed Lin Fan a cigarette and lit it for him, returning the lighter out of habit, then curiously asked, "Aren't you a non-smoker?"
Lin Fan smiled, "I'll smoke with you. Keep the lighter; I don't need it. This way you won't need to ask others for a light later."
The delivery guy thought Lin Fan was quite a character and laughed, "Bro, what do you do?"
Lin Fan said, "I used to do deliveries too, switched professions now."
The delivery guy gave an understanding nod and a hearty laugh, "Oh I see, eting a fellow courier explains the sense of familiarity. Changing jobs is good; at this rate, I'd want to change too, but don't know what to do next. Delivering isn't easy now, there's this term recently, what's it called."
Lin Fan said, "Involution."
The delivery guy agreed, "Yes, involution. Speaking of this, the food delivery industry is quite fierce. I've heard these platforms are really sneaky, using big data to trap us riders."
Lin Fan said, "I know, when I used to do deliveries I noticed. For example, an order from Ring Road to Sports West used to have 50 minutes allocated. We riders, to take more orders, found shortcuts, saving down to 40 minutes. This got caught by the platform's big data, so next ti they shortened the delivery ti. This result forced other riders to take shortcuts to make up for the reduced ti. It's like the platform pushing us to take shortcuts, and each ti another discovers a quicker route, the delivery ti is further compressed, forcing all to rush more, leading to this involution among couriers."
Hearing Lin Fan's analysis, the delivery guy slapped his thigh in frustration, "So that's why! I've been saying, why are so delivery tis getting so damn short, and prices keep getting squeezed. Used to make 200 for 30 orders, now have to do 40."
Lin Fan said, "200 a day, no rest for a month, still only 6000 yuan."
The delivery guy agreed, "Exactly, yesterday I only made 208. Took a few days off earlier for so family matters, this month hardly will hit 6000, just over 5000 maybe. With this salary, I can forget about buying a house in Yun City in this life."
As he spoke, the delivery guy took a deep drag of his cigarette, burning it down to the filter, and exhaled a smoke ring, snuffing out the butt, and looked at the crowd of fans.
"Being a star is so much better. Don't need acting skills, don't need to sing or dance well, just have a bunch of brain-dead fans throwing money at you, supported by capital, making money while lying down. That soone, wasn't earning 2.08 million a day? I make 208 in a day, now that's a difference!"
The delivery guy spoke sarcastically, with a hint of bitterness in his laughter.
Lin Fan nodded, "2.08 million a day is indeed quite an exaggeration."
That said, Lin Fan thought that from a market perspective, it's reasonable for celebrities to earn more than ordinary people. A star with box office draw could generate billions in ticket sales, and taking millions as a fee makes sense market-wise.
Of course, excluding money laundering. So celebrities sign dual contracts, openly getting one fee, secretly another, that's money laundering, illegal. For instance, so star got fined 800 million due to dual contracts.
The dirtiness of the entertainnt industry is sothing ordinary people cannot imagine.
But these were thoughts Lin Fan didn't need to share with the delivery guy, who was, after all, just a bit envious of stars.
At this mont, a nearly new van pulled up. This wasn't an ordinary van; judging by the brand, it was a Lexus, starting at least at a million yuan.
The van stopped, and a young lady stepped out in a white dress. Her looks weren't extraordinarily beautiful, but she was adorned in luxury, her dress alone worth tens of thousands.
This young lady, Lin Fan didn't recognize.
"Eh?" The delivery guy was slightly surprised, "I know her, she's the daughter of a wealthy family from Jiangnan!"
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