The Fourth Disaster Begins at the Dawn of the Millennium

Chapter 22 you are fired!

3151 words

At this time, there are already 2000 players in the game, with about players in each of the two birth points in China and the United States. For the players who are most likely to fight in this game, although they really want to come to China to show their skills, after looking at the system recommendation, they still choose the American region where they can "shoot as much as they want"; as for players who choose other routes, more of them choose to come to Northeast China, where the game experience is obviously richer than that in the American region. After all, in Northeast China, there is a state-owned enterprise with more than employees, a supermarket, an affiliated hospital and an affiliated school waiting for players to "practice".

The first few players who entered the production workshop were hired by Chen Gong as "Safety Production Managers" and "Quality Inspection Managers", and their tasks in the game were to patrol the entire production line, including material cutting, stamping, welding, turning, coating and other links. Only when the workers of the entire production line did a good job according to the prescribed actions and made sure the production safety and product quality were done well, could these players who patrolled the workshop receive the "S-level task reward". The task was very demanding for these players. If a few workers did not strictly follow the established procedures, the task reward would drop to B, C or even fail directly in the blink of an eye.

Therefore, according to the law of pressure transmission, if the task requires strictness from the players, then these players’ strict requirements on the workers will have to be “added layer by layer”!

In the stamping workshop, the machines make rumbling sounds, and the air is filled with the smell of metal and waves of heat. The workers in the workshop are busy at their respective posts, and sweat keeps dripping down their cheeks. The huge stamping machines and welding equipment appear particularly majestic in this environment full of steel, as if they are the masters of this area.

The player, who was wearing the same dark blue overalls as the ordinary workers, walked back and forth in the workshop, supervising the workers' operations and the safety of the equipment. As he walked, he prayed that the workers would not cause trouble, especially when the production task was about to end today. He hoped that the workers would not make irregular operations at the last minute and drop the task reward from "S" to "C"...

However, a scene that makes players' blood pressure rise still appeared. The progress bar on the screen, which represents the quality of today's production management, began to drop from the original "perfect" state of 100%. In the blink of an eye, it was 99%, 98%...93%, 92%.

"Fuck!"

The character controlled by the player rushed to the assembly line that made his blood pressure rise. He saw a team leader who was about 40 years old and had a burly figure, "chatting and laughing" with several other workers. Of course, just chatting and laughing was not that serious. The more important thing was that the player found that these guys actually took off the protective gloves and goggles equipped with them. Without those things, if they were hit by flying metal...

"What the hell are these NPCs doing?" The player in front of the screen was furious. His S-level reward!!! He controlled the game character and rushed to the team leader, asking in a serious voice why the workers didn't wear full sets of protective equipment? Why, as a team leader, he not only failed to urge the workers to take safety precautions, but also failed to lead by example.

The team leader took a look at the player character who was wearing the same blue overalls as himself, the only difference being a red armband on his arm. He thought that the other person was just a young man who had just joined the factory, not a dispatched person from Universal Group (new player, new face, never seen before). He smiled indifferently: "What's the problem? Everyone used to do this in the factory, we are used to it, wearing those things will make it inconvenient to work."

"What do you mean it's no big deal? Work safety is the top priority. Without protective equipment, how can the safety of workers be guaranteed?"

The team leader's expression gradually turned from a smile to a stiff one. He waved his hand impatiently: "Dude, you are taking this too seriously, aren't you? We are all trying to improve efficiency. Besides, the workers have no objection."

(“But you’re affecting my chances of getting the quest reward!” the player in front of the screen yelled)

"Improve efficiency? Your illegal operation will sooner or later kill the entire production line. Workers who don't wear protective equipment are playing with their own lives! Once a safety accident occurs, the entire production line must be stopped for rectification! As a team leader, you actually ignored the safety production system set by the factory!" The player didn't say anything more, and took off their work badges one by one in a lightning speed. The team leader and the workers were surprised and stood there staring at the player.

The team leader's face also became serious, but he still said stubbornly: "Brother, you are taking this too far, aren't you? We are also considering the production tasks of the factory. You can't always use the rules and regulations to pressure us. Brother, I... I was wrong, can't I change it..."

Perhaps it was because their work badges were torn off that the team leader and these workers suddenly recalled the bad memories of being laid off in the past. When they thought about being fired by the factory and having to starve again for their family's life that had just gotten back on track, the team leader, who had just been nonchalant, immediately softened his tone and attitude, and the same went for the workers around him, who didn't even dare to breathe.

The character controlled by the player shouted at them: "I don't know who gave you the courage to act so brutally... I am doing this for your safety, I hope you can understand. Well, your group will not be on duty today. You should get off your workstations first. The workshop will re-evaluate you. You can return to your posts after passing the assessment. If you fail the assessment, then..."

When they heard that they were not laid off immediately and that there was still a chance to return to their workstations, the team leader and the workers hurriedly agreed and followed the player out of the workshop.

Other groups in the same workshop witnessed the whole process of the removal of their badges. Even though those people have left, they are still frightened. This kind of thing would not be a big deal in the past. At that time, the safety officers in the factory would rather stay in the office and sleep every day, and the quality inspectors did not take quality inspection seriously. Everyone was in a state of "making do with it". Everyone did not know what arrangements were made for those people whose badges were removed. Were they laid off? Or... These workers who wore protective equipment honestly were glad that they did not take the easy way out, otherwise they would be the ones who were taken out today.

There are not only "safety managers" patrolling the workshop to ensure that every detail meets safety standards, but also quality inspectors played by players conduct inspections at each process. Only after the product of the previous process is accepted, the team leader and quality inspector of the next process will sign and send it to the next process for further processing.

..............

"It's like this in state-owned enterprises. Workers just need to sweat on the assembly line, but leaders sitting in the office have a lot more to consider."

After entering the 90s, the gap between the leaders of state-owned enterprises, whose autonomy was gradually expanded, and the workers became increasingly larger. This was not only reflected in their treatment, but also in the most fatal issue of "layoffs". The leaders of state-owned enterprises could unilaterally announce that the workers should be fired, and no matter how loudly the workers shouted "You are laid off" to the leaders, there was nothing they could do because the power was on their side.

But now, the personnel appointment power of this joint venture that produces pressure cookers has fallen into the hands of the foreign company Huanyu Group. At the beginning, the middle management (the main senior leaders had already found connections and slipped to other state-owned enterprises before the reform) was not fired, just because they did not want to cause chaos in the factory on the first day of work. But as the players had more manpower and understood the factory's account books and production and sales processes, Chen Gong, as the chairman, began to invite the managers of the original state-owned enterprises in the joint venture one by one.

"You are the head of the union, right? Hello, come on, tell me what the main work of your union is... organizing choirs, distributing daily necessities, placing retired leaders... Is this what the union does? Oh, every state-owned enterprise used to be like this, but this won't happen in our joint venture. I don't see the point of keeping such a union in our joint venture. If you can't come up with a satisfactory union reform plan within three days, you will be fired, oh, laid off..."

"You are the deputy director of the office. Let me see what your job is...Playing ball with the leaders? I don't need someone to play ball with me. Are you interested in being a physical education teacher in the school affiliated with our factory and playing ball with the children?"

"You are in charge of the political work... Well, what do you usually do? Writing materials? I don't need so many pens... Doing party and mass work, oh, that's good too, what do you do specifically?... Don't you just 'use meetings to implement meetings, use documents to implement documents'? Our joint venture factory doesn't need so many second-hand people..."

Compared with the bottom-line policy provided for the workers, the chairman is very rude to these managers. Basically, as long as they cannot explain the reasonable necessity of themselves and their departments, they will be fired. Then the position will be filled by the players first, and then a group of qualified managers will be hired from outside or competed within the factory.

Everyone says that state-owned enterprises have too many people and need to lay off employees. So instead of laying off the workers who truly create wealth, it would be better to fire those leaders who only do things for show and engage in formalism.

In the words of Chairman Chen Gong, "Those who conduct political training don't really teach Marxism-Leninism, and those who run trade unions don't protect workers' rights. If they really protect workers' rights and teach the truth about Marxism-Leninism, I would admire them and would definitely give them a place. But you are just making up stories... What's the use of these fake things?"

Chapter 23: Farming requires technology

In addition to firing people, the third major thing the newly appointed chairman did was to set up a small "R&D center" in the state-owned enterprise.

This operation is familiar to most players who have played business simulation or war strategy games. It is nothing more than "climbing up technology". If you don't "climb up technology", you will definitely not be able to play in the later stages of the game. Once the other party's quality advantage comes up, you will definitely not be able to beat them with ordinary quantity advantages. However, this operation is difficult to understand for many workers in state-owned enterprises.

Perhaps it is because for too long, everyone has been accustomed to importing advanced production lines from outside at high prices, so many people subconsciously ignore what to do if they are strangled by technology? Anyway, the previous state-owned enterprise management did not consider these things, they just wanted to make quick money. It is quite similar to the style of those people who said "it is better to buy than to make, and it is better to rent than to buy"...

Therefore, Chen Gong convened a second workers' congress. This time, he not only adopted the statement that "the long-term development of the enterprise is closely linked to the fate of everyone", but also brought out the glorious tradition of the factory. Chen Gong said:

"Looking back at the history of our factory, we actually had our first R&D center decades ago. It used to be a few ordinary bungalows near Zhongjie Street. In this small workshop, dozens of skilled craftsmen worked day and night to develop China's first pressure cooker in just over three months, filling a gap in China's cookware industry. This is the miracle created by our great workers! Now, we just want to take back the honor that once belonged to our factory, become the technology leader in the cookware industry, and make our factory great again!"

An old worker who entered the factory as an apprentice when he was young still remembers the things at that time. At that time, they imitated the British pressure cooker, but the equipment at that time was too simple, and the cast pots either had bubbles or sand holes. If they were not up to standard, they had to be recast. He used to push dozens of cast aluminum pots every day with a wheelbarrow, running back and forth from the die-casting factory to the aluminum products factory, and he couldn't count how many times he went back and forth. At that time, the cast aluminum pot body was uneven, so the lathe workers first used a lathe, and then manually polished it with coarse and fine sandpaper. Some of the workers had half of their fingernails worn off.

An engineer who is about to retire recalled the scene of technical research in those days. The most difficult problem to solve was the sealing problem of the pressure cooker. The sealing rubber ring of the pressure cooker must be able to "seal" the pressure in the pot without leaking. At that time, everyone worked day and night, repeatedly tested, and studied the rubber formula with the technicians of the rubber factory, repeatedly improved the thickness of the rubber ring, and finally solved the sealing problem of the pressure cooker. After that, these technical research personnel solved the problem of cutting the teeth of the pot body and the lid, and successively overcame many technical difficulties. Before being put on the market, the pressure cooker developed by the factory passed a series of rigorous tests, and was finally put on the market, becoming a household name national brand.

If someone else (such as the former factory leader) were to do this kind of agitation, the workers would most likely not take it seriously. They would put on airs and brag on stage, but off stage they would just want to put more money in their pockets. They would say that the development of the factory is all "implemented" by holding meetings and writing documents. We have seen many people like this who say one thing in front of you and another behind your back.

But the new chairman is different.

The "network" involving more than a dozen joint ventures across the country, and the chairman of the board of directors did not want to receive 1000 million RMB of "comfortable money" every year, but chose to choose the more difficult and tiring way of starting a new business. (Player: "Only 1000 million RMB a year to buy us off? To destroy our reputation as players? Do you underestimate the revenue capacity of us combat players?")

The original management shouted slogans loudly, saying that they would work hard with the employees and share the joys and sorrows when the factory was not doing well. In fact, the leaders could use the company car for personal use every day, eat and drink as much as they wanted, and even get the factory to reimburse their expenses for going to the bar. They could also buy a big house outside and raise "little canaries" in the big house. The workers could only live in a small house with a few family members and eat coarse food... But our new chairman, oh, including those sent by the Universal Group, a group of big men, actually slept in the office every day and went to the cafeteria to eat every day.

An old employee asked the chairman why he came to the cafeteria to eat every day. The chairman said: "It costs money to eat outside. I don't have to pay for eating in the cafeteria. Only a fool would eat outside........."

For players, it doesn't matter whether the game character eats a full banquet or two meats and one vegetable. It doesn't affect the game. Anyway, eating is just to eliminate the "hunger" debuff, as long as you don't eat dry food every day (get the "unbalanced nutrition" debuff after a period of time) or eat the kind of rotten and expired food (get the "vomiting and diarrhea" debuff).

In the workers' view, regardless of the specific abilities of our chairman, at least he is not corrupt and has truly shared the joys and sorrows with the workers. He is much better than many of the past leaders who were idle and did nothing. Such a leader said, "We want to make our factory great again!" Then let's do it!

Then, just as some highly skilled engineers were “sharpening their knives” and preparing to show the spirit of the older generation of technical experts to overcome difficulties and work with our new leaders to make our factory great again, the chairman said to them:

"Our factory has lagged behind those up-and-coming companies by many steps. As the saying goes, one step slow leads to all the steps slow. If we keep catching up on the original track, we will get half the result with twice the effort. What I mean is that we have to come up with a product that can 'strike down the dimension', a smart cooker (primary version of smart cooker). Don't think that this kind of product I'm talking about can't be produced or sold. The Chinese market is so huge. After the millennium, the demand for such smart products in the Chinese and even the world's cooker and home appliance markets will definitely increase."

In fact, what Chen Gong proposed is just the simplest "smart cooker". For example, the simplest function "cooking rice" is to use the segmented intelligent heating control program in the chip to subdivide the heating program into: rapid heating stage, high temperature water absorption stage, rapid heating cooking stage, etc., according to the actual needs of cooking nutritious rice, so that the cooking temperature is more accurate, the rice tastes better, and the nutrition is more sufficient. It requires microcontrollers, electronic control components, LED displays, sensor technology, etc.

Obviously, the existing technical personnel in the factory cannot take on the new wave of "climbing the technology ladder". In this case, Universal Group will once again play its "multinational company" and "abundant cash flow" characteristics. First, arrange players who specialize in "production" to participate in it; second, use US dollars to tap talents from international and local areas. For example, in China, many top students from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University and Jiaotong University who are engaged in technology may prefer to go to the south to make money, but if Universal Group pays them in US dollars, they will surely be happy to come here to work hard and devote themselves to scientific research.

Chapter 24 Recruiting Talents

"Climbing the technology ladder" is a costly, laborious and troublesome thing, but it is a must for enterprises and businesses to choose to develop in the right way. But just investing a lot of money is not enough. You also need people, and a team of talents who are willing to do scientific research, not impetuous, innovative, capable and responsible.

As for the core employees of the Universal Group - the players, those who have chosen the "production" development path have found that the experience gained from daily production is increasingly unable to meet the needs of upgrading.

But innovation and invention are different. The game suggests that if a "production system" player participates in a scientific research team of the Universal Group, becomes one of it, and does actual work, once the team invents something new and valuable, the player as a member of the team can also share an objective number of experience points and additional specialized skill points. Even if he is just doing auxiliary work in scientific research, the income is much higher than ordinary production with no technical content.

Therefore, the "production-oriented" players on both the Chinese and American sides are absolutely most concerned about recruiting talents. They urgently need a team that truly engages in scientific research. Even if they are just "assisting" the NPCs, the benefits will be huge.

..............

Sunlight shines through the windows of the Career Services Center at the University of California, Berkeley, onto the wooden floor. The glass door of the lobby is pushed open, and a tall, burly man walks in. He is wearing a well-tailored dark gray suit, with sharp features on his face. The sound of his leather shoes hitting the floor is particularly clear in the silent lobby. The man walks straight to the front desk. At this time, the front desk staff has just turned on the computer. When they look up suddenly, they see a "suit thug" has walked to the front desk, and the staff immediately smiles professionally.

"Hello, how can I help you?

"Hello, I am the HR manager sent by Universal Group. We hope to arrange a recruitment presentation at your school. Here is our company information."

The front desk staff was very experienced in this matter. She took the materials handed over by the man, including company registration documents, legal compliance documents, and "customer recommendation letters" provided by the Los Angeles City Government and a local government in China.

"Please wait a moment. Let me check for you... Oh? You have acquired a company in China?"

"Yes, our boss values ​​the potential of the Chinese market very much and acquired a large enterprise with 2,000 employees in China."

In addition to the most basic documents that can prove the qualifications of one's own company, it is actually not difficult to get the so-called customer recommendation letters. For example, the recommendation letter from the Los Angeles City Government was obtained in exchange for the "Los Angeles Car Modification King" donating dozens of police patrol cars to the city government (after all, there are many patrol cars that have been beaten to pieces by players).

As for the recommendation letter from China, it is not difficult to get one. Not to mention that Universal Group has directly and indirectly helped to solve so many employment problems, the considerable amount of tax it provides every year has solved the salary of many public officials. It is definitely the "breadwinner".

After a preliminary review of the materials, the front desk staff looked up and said, "Sir, after my inspection, there should be no problem. However, the Career Service Center may need more time to conduct a detailed verification. Please leave a business card. After we have verified it, we will immediately invite your company to hold a recruitment seminar. At that time, please bring the recruitment plan and promotional materials..."

Compared with many large companies that have reached cooperation with UC Berkeley, the so-called Oneworld Group's position in the industry, annual net profit, and company size and volume are not worth mentioning. However, in the United States, there are many small companies that have achieved leapfrog development in a short period of time. This is also one of the core narratives of the "American Dream". Small people become big people through hard work, and small companies become big companies through hard work. At least, judging from the development momentum of Oneworld Group, it is very much like an "antelope enterprise" (high-growth startup company). Perhaps in the near future, Oneworld Group will also become one of the "gold medal employers" of UC Berkeley graduates.

.....................

When this "suit thug" came to UC Berkeley again, the school had already verified all the information and found it to be true. The head of the Career Services Center called to invite the HR manager of Universal Group to come to the school to recruit people, saying, "No matter what kind of talent you want to recruit, you can find it at UC Berkeley, and it will be absolutely first-rate."

The other party can make such a bold statement because the University of California, Berkeley has the confidence to do so. It is known as the academic leader in the engineering and technology community in the United States together with Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, materials engineers and other science and engineering talents that Universal Group wants to recruit happen to fit the strengths of the University of California, Berkeley in science and engineering.

For the outstanding graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, or those who have various connections, they have received many offers before they leave school. At this time, the United States is in a period of rapid development, and large companies are still willing to spend money to hire these highly educated talents. Steven, who sat in the auditorium with a backpack, was one of these people. He already had offers from two large companies, Texas Instruments and General Electric. According to the current development trend of the United States, he could become a worker in such a large company, and his future was bright.

But this did not stop Steven from coming to this small company's presentation. Steven also saw several classmates who, like him, had received offers from several companies but still chose to take a look. For no other reason, the main reason was that the salary offered by this company was really higher than that of ordinary large companies. When the presentation time came, after the students sat down, the "suit thug" on the stage picked up the microphone and said:

"Hello everyone, I am a representative sent by the Human Resources Department of Universal Group to give a presentation. I am very happy to be here at the University of California, Berkeley today to share our company philosophy and recruitment information with you..."

The salary offered by Universal Group is undoubtedly excellent. Even compared with old companies such as Texas Instruments and General Electric, the salary it offers is still generous. However, apart from this, the jobs offered by Universal Group are very unattractive in other aspects. Its location is in China. In the eyes of many American students at this time, China is undoubtedly a backward place. If it is a short-term business trip, they are still willing to "endure it". However, this position obviously requires the employee to stay in China for a long time to engage in scientific research and development. If it is a long-term job, then these "proud sons of heaven" must consider the work and living environment.

So, a student raised his hand and asked, "Will our work location be in Beijing or Shanghai?" If the representative of the human resources department answered "YES", then many students present would still want to take this offer. After all, they have heard of these two big cities and know that if they work in such an international city, their life will not be worse than in the United States.

But the HR representative replied: "No, the job location is not there, but in Northeast China..."

Oh, that was really not attractive, especially when the representative of Universal Group showed many photos of factories and local cities. Many students had completely lost interest in the offer, but Steven suddenly became a little more interested in Universal Group. Because others saw a sense of desolation and depression in the photos, but Steven saw a sense of familiarity.

Because Steven comes from the "Rust Belt" of the United States, he is a child from a typical blue-collar working family.

Chapter 25: Visiting "Corporate Culture"

3147 words

After the recruitment fair, only a few students submitted their resumes. The "suit thug" controlled by the player randomly flipped through a few resumes at the front. The scores given by the game to these resumes (combining the applicant's own excellence and career suitability) were only around 60-70 points, and none of them were above 95 points (which can be understood as not drawing an "SSR"), which was discouraging, until the player turned to the last resume and saw an SSR with a score of 97, then he was overjoyed.

"This trip was not in vain! I must get in touch with this student immediately, and if necessary..."

"gentlemen?"

"Ah you are?"

"I am the student you want to contact......"

Standing in front of the "suit thug" is a boy with slightly curly hair, glasses, and acne on his face. He is wearing the most ordinary hoodie, khaki pants, and sneakers, with a large backpack on his back. He looks ordinary and does not look like a campus celebrity. But it is this guy who has become an SSR that players cannot miss.

As usual, the HR manager began to ask Steven why he wanted to work at Universal Group. Steven rolled his eyes and replied, "Sir, you need to recruit people, and I need a job to support myself and pay off my student loan. It's that simple. Oh, by the way, do you remember that you just shared your corporate culture on the stage? Well, many companies emphasize their social responsibility, but I heard something different from your presentation. Sir, this is what I am interested in your company, but I want to see it in person to see if it is true. Let me go to your company in Los Angeles to take a look, how about it?"

“OK, Seeing is believing”

..................

"What the hell? Corporate culture? What kind of culture do we have?"

"Assassination culture!"

"Bank robbery and money-in-transit culture!"

“American Iai culture!”

"Are these things really suitable for a little science and technology geek to watch?"

“Maybe people like this kind of…”

"Well, except for the illegal ones, let him watch whatever he wants."

"Are you kidding me? Besides those things that are illegal... Apart from those things that are illegal, what else can we show?"

Players are discussing this latest temporary plot mission. A 97-rated "SSR" NPC is coming to visit the US branch of Universal Group. But the problem is that the US branch has no decent office space, let alone factories or workshops, except for a "Los Angeles Car Modification King". Moreover, if they want to see the operation of the company, what are the players going to show? Pull this "SSR" to join a "standard bank robbery mission?"

The mission description did not give players more hints, and there was no one in the player community who was in the system and could design tour routes. So, the players were too lazy to spend more time thinking about it. Apart from not taking this SSR to do anything illegal, everything else was up to them!

The University of California, Berkeley is located in Berkeley near San Francisco, which is in the same state of California as Los Angeles. The two are not far apart. When Steve received the preferential conditions of "reimbursement of round-trip transportation and accommodation expenses" provided by One World Group, he immediately set off for Los Angeles. Even if he did not end up joining One World Group, it would be nice to treat it as a trip.

After leaving the airport, Steve hailed a taxi and prepared to go to the Los Angeles headquarters of Oneworld Group. When Steve told the driver that he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and was going to the destination for a job interview, the taxi driver was obviously stunned for a moment and muttered quietly: "Fuck, are the requirements for recruiting people at the Los Angeles Car Modification King so high now?"

The palm trees on both sides of the street stood tall, and the leaves swayed gently in the breeze, making a rustling sound. The air was filled with a light ocean scent, which was refreshing. The yellow taxi drove through the busy streets, with the windows half open, and the morning breeze blew into the car, bringing a cool breeze. Steve's hair was a little messy because of the wind. He looked out of the window from time to time and saw the endless flow of cars on the road, people busy shuttling through various corners of the city, and those fashionable young people on the street, some riding skateboards, some walking leisurely with their dogs, as if everyone was enjoying the sunshine and vitality of the city.

This is completely different from Steve's hometown, where the sky is often gloomy and the gray clouds make people feel breathless. The factory buildings on both sides of the street have long been rusted. The steel behemoths that were once proud of are now only broken walls and ruins. The wind blows, bringing up gusts of dust, as if even the air is filled with the smell of rust. Most of the windows are covered with thick dust, and the signs in front of the doors are mostly faded and shaky. The railroad tracks are overgrown with weeds, and the huge chimneys stand there quietly like lifeless behemoths. Occasionally, a few crows fly by, making shrill cries, breaking the brief silence.

When the taxi arrived at "Los Angeles Car Modifications", Steve's first reaction was that he had come to the wrong place. However, he saw the logo of One World Group at "Los Angeles Car Modifications" and saw the staff of One World Group who had been waiting for him there.

"Steve, an electrical engineering and automation student at UC Berkeley."

"It's me, so......"

"Aren't you here to see our corporate culture? To see our corporate culture, you can't just look at our company's building. That's just the shell of the company. Come with me."

.............

Steve was taken to a local community middle school. Based on his first impression, Steve believed that it was neither a private middle school full of rich people, nor an elite public middle school full of high rollers. It was more like the most common type Steve had seen in his hometown, that is, a poor community school with rampant prostitution, gambling and drugs. But what was surprising was that although this school was quite poor, there didn't seem to be all kinds of mess on the road, and the hygiene was well maintained.

“Is this school your property?”