Restart life

Chapter 356 0343 [A Masterpiece for the Working Class]

Back in 2008, the term "code monkey" didn't exist yet; people usually referred to themselves as "programmers."

跟大家印象中的普遍高薪不同，今年1月份出炉的《2007年中国IT人员现状分析报告》显示：2007年中国IT人员的月薪，主要集中在2000—3999元区间，占整个IT从业群体的31.7%。

Another 23.2% of IT professionals earn less than 1999 yuan per month!
Those with a monthly income of over 8000 yuan account for only 12% of the industry group.

Hou Hongtao graduated from a second-tier university, which was a decent start for him. He earned 2000 yuan a month right after graduation, and his salary increased to 4500 yuan within three years, during which he also changed jobs once.

This salary level, including the year-end double pay and performance bonus, puts you in the middle-income group in Shanghai.

Unfortunately, there will never be a Saturday.

I'm often called in to work overtime on Sundays, and they don't even pay me overtime!
Forget about the five social insurances and one housing fund; the company only pays for three, and there's no housing fund at all. This is already considered a "conscientious company"; some companies can't even pay for the three social insurances.

Hou Hongtao loved watching anime in middle school, and then became addicted to online games in college. Now he's so tired every day that he doesn't want to move, and only plays games occasionally on Sundays.

He was drawn to "Summer of Little Monsters" through the "Future Era" forum. He was drawn in by the original creative team behind the game and animation, and heard that Chen Guiliang even served as the screenwriter.

The art style has a traditional Chinese ink painting feel, which makes Hou Hongtao feel very comfortable, reminding him of the domestic animated films he watched when he was a child.

He thought they would tell some story about the four travelers on their journey to the West.

To everyone's surprise, the story unfolds from the perspective of a little demon, whose mission is to help capture Tang Sanzang.

"My grass!"

The very first scene was enough to make Hou Hongtao lose his composure.

The little monsters were tasked with making a thousand arrows. The protagonist, a little pig monster, discovered that the arrows were impractical for combat, so he used his ingenuity to pluck feathers from a crow monster to improve them.

During the inspection, the leader, Black Bear Spirit, remarked, "Are you teaching me how to do things?"

Instead of receiving a reward, they were punished, and the pig demon's research results were destroyed.

This reminded Hou Hongtao of his own work experience. He had once taken it upon himself to act proactively, believing it would earn him recognition, promotion, and a raise. Instead, he was harshly reprimanded by his team leader, which infuriated him and led him to decide to leave his first company.

In the second plot, an old pot that had accumulated grease for over a hundred years was cleaned spotlessly by two little monsters in a single day.

The third plot involves two little monsters chopping a thousand catties of firewood in a single day.

In the fourth plot, after much difficulty, they managed to steal a thousand catties of firewood. However, a higher-level demon said that the king wanted to roast Tang Sanzang and eat him, and that such low-grade firewood would affect the taste.

Therefore, all the hard work of washing pots and chopping wood was in vain, and all the results of the effort were instantly wasted.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Hou Hongtao had completely immersed himself in the role of that little pig demon.

"This project must be finished by next Monday! Don't tell me it's too late; don't you know you should work overtime if there's not enough time?"

"The supervisor said the plan needs to be changed, and the previous plan is invalid. I know you're almost finished, but there's nothing I can do. The higher-ups said it has to be redone."

Damn, exactly the same.

Looking at the bald pig demon and crow monster on the screen, Hou Hongtao couldn't help but touch his own receding hairline.

During a break from his work trip down the mountain, the little pig demon took Baozi home to visit his mother and younger siblings. This reminded him of returning home for the Lunar New Year, seeing his parents' increasingly aged faces, and their incessant nagging.

This animated film shouldn't be called "Summer of Little Monsters," it should be renamed "The Heartache of Working People"!
When the silhouettes of the four pilgrims appeared on the horizon, Hou Hongtao's eyes inexplicably welled up with tears.

It's really inexplicable.

So many scenes in the story that alluded to reality made him think of his own situation, but he didn't cry. When Sun Wukong and his disciples appeared, they were just blurry silhouettes, and their specific appearances were not clearly visible, but he couldn't stop his tears from flowing.

Wang Chenyu took his film to an international exhibition, but the judges had no interest in the footage and even thought the shots were somewhat drawn out and long.

For Chinese viewers, however, this scene was an emotional breaking point!

It contains extremely complex elements.

It can evoke memories of childhood for Chinese audiences, allowing them to reminisce about the carefree days of their youth and escape from the adult world in an instant.

It was as if I saw the hero from my childhood appear and rescue me from my current miserable life.

It's also a kind of encouragement, encouraging myself in reality to overcome difficulties and strive to grow from an ordinary worker into a hero of life.

The movie ended, and the lights came on.

There was silence in the screening room at first, then a loud round of applause erupted.

Chen Guiliang, acting as a guest host, asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Brilliant!"

A group of working people shouted their hearts out.

Chen Guiliang said, "Let the director say a few words."

Wang Chenyu took the microphone and went on stage: "Our group has been persevering for several years. But unfortunately, the domestic animation industry is in a slump, and most of the time we can only do outsourcing to barely make ends meet. I am grateful to Mr. Chen Guiliang for injecting funds into the company and providing such a great story idea... We are all little monsters in life, wanting to become heroes, wanting to escape ordinariness, but suffering from the setbacks of reality... I believe that as long as we persist in our dreams, we will be able to achieve them one day..."

"come on!"

"Well done, director!"

"..."

The creative team members each gave their presentations, and Chen Guiliang listened with relative satisfaction.

Two or three of these self-important individuals discussed compromise. They said they couldn't continue focusing on self-promotion, ruining the film, and then shifting blame. Everything should revolve around collaborative efforts to create a better work.

There were fewer than ten media outlets present, and none of them were top-tier media.

The reporters were incredibly excited, vying to ask about the behind-the-scenes stories, the more dire the situation the creators described, the better. They had already planned their reports: the premiere of *Kung Fu Panda* was a star-studded affair with a huge media presence, while *Summer of the Little Monsters* was deserted and utterly disappointing. This revealed the appalling state of Chinese animation, showing that Chinese animators were persevering solely on their dreams. But hard work always pays off; the audience was moved to tears…

Next, we'll interact with the audience.

A young man stood up and said, "At the end of the story, the Great Sage gave the little pig demon three hairs, but the little pig demon told the crow monster that he only had two. The missing hair must have been used by the little pig demon to save his friend, the crow monster!"

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "This friend is very observant. Here's a little pig demon T-shirt for you."

Many viewers suddenly realized that the crow monster was probably seriously injured or dead, and only became lively again thanks to the Great Sage's hair.

Another audience member was chosen, and he took the microphone, saying, "What angers me the most is when the Crow Monster was captured by Lord Wolf. The Black Bear Spirit was like my supervisor; he gave nonsensical orders that went wrong, but then pushed me out to take the blame while he was busy clearing himself of any responsibility. Damn it, I am that Crow Monster!"

Chen Guiliang said, “I have two companies under my management, and we have set up a dedicated president’s email address. Even junior employees can send me an email every month to report various problems in the company, make their own requests and suggestions. I will definitely take appropriate action against company executives who are frequently complained about by employees. Of course, there are some phenomena that I will not intervene in, because employees’ perspectives on issues may be very one-sided.”

As the company's workforce grew, Chen Guiliang only personally replied to a few emails each month. The rest were automated replies in a standardized format, simply indicating that he had already read them.

Chen Guiliang will warn those who make baseless accusations over trivial matters.

If a manager is complained about by one or two employees, Chen Guiliang won't intervene. He believes that conflicts are normal, and haphazard interference would prevent management from getting things done.

The fact that many people reported the same problem indicates that there is indeed a problem, which is why Chen Guiliang began to investigate and deal with it.

Chen Guiliang learned this management style of listening to the opinions of grassroots employees from Dong Ge.

During JD.com's early and mid-stages of development, Richard Liu (Liu Qiangdong) would regularly communicate with frontline employees, including delivery drivers, to solicit their suggestions and make corrections to major issues.

But as JD.com grew to a certain scale, it's estimated that Dongzi (Liu Qiangdong) didn't have the time for that anymore, and thus gradually became disconnected from the company's grassroots level. It even spiraled out of control!

The audience member asked, "Mr. Chen, is your company still hiring?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "We recruit people regularly or irregularly every year. Just keep an eye on the job postings online. I won't interfere with the recruitment process; it's handled jointly by the department that needs the staff and the HR department."

Even those audience members who weren't selected asked loudly, "Mr. Chen, does your company pay for social insurance and housing fund?"

Chen Guiliang replied, "These weren't available at the beginning of the business. Gradually, we added the three social insurances and one housing fund, and now the five social insurances and one housing fund are common."

"I rely on!"

Hou Hongtao, whose company only helps pay for three types of insurance, is extremely envious of the benefits offered by ByteDance and Youke.

He wanted to change jobs, but he was afraid that he was not capable enough and that Chen Guiliang's company would not hire him.

The audience continued to speak enthusiastically.

The person in charge of film acquisitions at Shanghai TV station, who was invited to watch the film, was quite conflicted about it.

They knew it was a good film, but it was too adult-oriented.

TV stations buy cartoons, but they mainly target the preschool market, and young children can't understand the deeper meanings. These things definitely won't attract kids as much as action-packed cartoons.

You have to lower the price.

Then take it back and break it down, dividing the 30-minute animated short into episodes of a few minutes each and showing them to the children.

The first client was Tudou.com, which bought the exclusive online streaming rights.

However, as word spread, pirated copies quickly appeared on other websites, prompting Tudou.com to send out dozens of lawyer's letters in one go.

At this time, the mainstream channels for distributing pirated content were resource websites and download software. It was impossible to sue them; if you did, they would claim it was uploaded by users, and they would immediately delete the resources. However, there were simply too many users uploading these resources.

Breaking Boundaries Animation didn't spend much on advertising; several media outlets proactively helped cover the event. Because the film involved Chen Guiliang and "Future Era," it quickly garnered attention on a small scale, followed by a surge of enthusiastic support from fans.

It became popular on Renren, HaiNei, Tudou, and then spread to other video websites, forums, and Tieba.

Pirated downloads have surged.

"The best Journey to the West fan fiction since Wukong. Without a doubt."

"When the Great Sage appeared, I fucking cried."

"I cried when the little pig demon came home."

"Chen Shiyi is really neglecting his duties. He said he was going to make mobile phones a while ago, but then he got into a fight with the Southern Media Group. Now he's even writing scripts for animated films. When will the sixth volume of 'Those Things About the Ming Dynasty' be published?"

"Chen Shiyi: Don't rush, I'm still writing the outline."

"This guy is so busy running his company that people have almost forgotten he used to be a writer. I have to say, he's really talented. His first screenplay was a masterpiece like 'Summer of Little Monsters'."

"..."

Southeastern Sichuan, the city next to Chen Guiliang's hometown.

A disheveled young man has been tinkering with animation at home for three years and four months. His personal animated short film will be completed in another four or five months.

He often stopped to download pirated anime from websites.

He also frequently watches programs like "Lecture Room," and he has consumed quite a bit of Professor Yu Dan's inspirational wisdom.

A young man logged onto the anime website and found many users discussing "Summer of Little Monsters." Out of curiosity, he opened eMule and downloaded a pirated copy.

After watching the film, the young people were quite excited and became more motivated.

He started going to forums and online communities, browsing more posts. That's how he learned about a guy named Chen Guiliang, whose hometown was in the city next to his own, and who frequently invested in young people with dreams.

After I finish "Hit a Big Watermelon", I'll go to Beijing to find Chen Guiliang!
The young man secretly made up his mind.

If Chen Guiliang hadn't appeared, the young man, after finishing "The Big Watermelon," would have used all his savings to go to Chengdu and try every means to get to know Liu Wenzhang.

Liu Wenzhang is the producer of the "Ne Zha" series.

(End of this chapter)