Human Resources

“The four newcomers have all been arranged. They are in Room 106, Building 7.” Xiao Zishan looked into his folder and pretended to look at the document. In fact, he could remember this information even without the file. This was just a chronic ailment left over after years of being a white-collar worker.

“Meng Xian, 25 years old. He has lived abroad, good at English, studied finance and accounting.”

“Pan Feng, 28 years old, unemployed. Claims to have been a sales representative for fast-moving consumer products.^[1] Single.”

“Cha Wuchu, 24 years old. Technician in a pharmaceutical factory. Single.”

“Tian Jiujiu, 27. Technician in the Hydraulic Engineering Design Institute of X City, X Province. Majored in plumbing and drainage. Single.”

“Good. Except for one piece of rubbish, they are all useful professionals.” Wei Aiwen slapped the table happily and provocatively glanced at Xiao Zishan.^[2]

Xiao Zishan of course knew the implied insult. In his heart, he despised this noisy guy. But he didn’t show his contempt nor argue back. He knew very well that he didn’t really belong in this room, even if he was just joining in on some cards.

The other people nodded silently, and Xiao Zishan continued: “I’ve had a casual chat with all of them as well. They are all very enthusiastic about time travel and are determined.”

This so-called chat was the first review of new members by the Executive Committee. Through this chat they could roughly find out the basic details and personality of newcomers. They could also judge if they had a collaborative spirit and good emotional intelligence. Through these factors the Committee could see if they would be a good fit to their unprecedented adventure.

“Meng Xian, extremely fond of light weapons, has practised shooting moving targets for several years at an athletics institute. He seemed very interested in guns.”

“Pan Feng, spoke very little, and was relatively introverted. His hobbies are gardening, literature, and history. He is very familiar with sales of FMCG. He has an accounting certificate.”

“Tian Jiujiu…”

After briefly introducing his impressions and opinions of these newcomers, Xiao Zishan also presented the Executive Committee with a list of personal belongings these people had brought.

“I have written a basic introduction and will hand that over to the Internal Affairs Team tonight, along with their registration forms. They’ll conduct the next step of evaluation and review. They’ve already arranged for one person to go and live with them.”

“Who did they pick?” Wen Desi asked.

“That I’m not sure about. Everything after my part was handled by Internal Affairs.” Xiao Zishan spread his hands, “Should I go ask them later?”

Wen Desi, Ma Qianzhu, and Xiao Zishan exchanged looks for a moment. “No need.”

“Well in that case, as of now, we have 476 people officially registered.”

Since people started gathering half a year ago, new people had come to the base almost every week. All of them underwent the same induction process as Meng Xian and the others.

Of the 2,106 people who had enthusiastically discussed and replied to the wormhole time travel post, less than 800 joined the subsequent Skype chat group. Less than 500 people actually came to the base in person and stayed.

“Did many people leave?”

“About 50 people in total so far. These 476 remaining are those who are determined to participate in the crossing.” Xiao Zishan looked at his list, “There should be about 50 more people in the next two weeks. They should be the last.”

“1000 has turned into 500,” Wei Aiwen sighed, “That’s so few. When everyone was talking about it they were all so brave. But when it comes to do it for real, they all turn into fucking pussies.”^[3]

The others remained silent. It was quite a conundrum whether it would be better to have more people or fewer people. To the Executive Committee members who were in the room, it seemed a little better to have fewer people. After all, more people means more opinions and more contradictions. On the balance of things, although the preparations were supervised by the Executive Committee, the Committee wasn’t really picked by popularity. Everyone so far had obeyed the arrangements of the Committee just because they were strangers to a strange place. When everyone got familiar with each other there was no way to guarantee that something weird wouldn’t happen.

“It is better to have a leaner organisation.” Ma Qianzhu laughed.

“Speaking of which, we have talents in all fields. I don’t think we’ve missed anything.” Xiao Zishan said with satisfaction. “It’s just that we have very few women. Most of the women are just coming with their husbands or boyfriends, and not many are single.”

“That’s natural. Most of the men who’ve come are bachelors after all.” Wen Desi shifted his neck. “Who would come here to do this if they had a family and dependents…”

Wei Aiwen said: “Women are just trouble. All they do is nag all day.”

“Then don’t ask us for a wife in the future. We’re not in charge of that.”

“Don’t want one anyway. I can get as many little lolis as I want there. One will massage my back, one will massage my waist, and another one will…”

Xi Yazhou interrupted him impatiently: “My god, you’re such a pervert. All that comes out of that mouth of yours is this shit. No woman on earth would ever want to be with you!”

“It doesn’t matter. Ah, little Wei Aiwen, the talents of Brokeback Mountain^[4] in the Great Ming are very high-quality, and they only play with capable people like you…

“Shut up, you’re the one from Brokeback, your whole family is!” The young man got angry. The Committee members had developed a habit of teasing this irascible Wei Aiwen.

“By the way, I have a question for the Executive Committee.” Xiao Zishan said seriously, “It’s about foreigners.”

“Foreigners? No! We can’t have any, they’ll only bring trouble for us in the future.”

“I am also against foreigners. ‘Those who are not my kind must have different hearts’.” He quoted.^[5]

“This is a bit special.” Xiao Zishan pushed on.

“Don’t tell me she’s a medic who fought in the Iraq War and won medals. If she is, then I’ll consider it.”

“No…but she’s the girlfriend of a certain applicant.” Xiao Zishan pulled out a document from the folder and read it aloud. “Ding Ding, male, 32 years old, Han ethnicity, a reporter for a large media conglomerate. His foreign girlfriend is called Pan Pan? She seems to be an American.”^[6]

“Damn, a foreign girl.” Wei Aiwen leaned over, “Photos? You got any photos?”

“You pervert, she’s someone’s girlfriend. What are you excited for? Sit back down.”

“We need to investigate! Maybe she’s an American spy.” Wei Aiwen danced happily, “They must have been instructed by the FBI to infiltrate our ranks, in order to prevent us from changing history!”

“Little Wei, do you even know what the FBI does?” The know-it-all Luo Duo reminded him of the mistake.

“It’s just an American spy agency that’s also responsible for protecting the president!”

“...That’s so wrong.”

“Do you want to interrogate her?” Zhong Lishi teased.

“I will do my duty faithfully!” The young man promised sincerely. Zhong Lishi, who was just joking around, saw that Wei Aiwen was completely serious and didn’t know how to continue teasing.

Wen Desi nodded: “I personally agree with letting her in. After all, she is a family member. If she wants to come then we’ll bring her along. Even if she is loyal to the US,” Wen Desi eyed Wei Aiwen scathingly, “after all, she has nowhere to be loyal to on the other side.”

“OK. I’ll go confirm with him. Speaking of which, we don’t have any people who work in the media yet. These two will be pretty useful talents in the future.”

“We need people from all professions, including even ordinary people.” Wen Desi emphasised, “Be careful when receiving people. Don’t be too enthusiastic towards STEM professionals, and don’t be too cold to those who are not. All things should be done in moderation.”

“I know, I know, we must build unity.”

---

Meng Xian lay on the iron-framed bed in the dormitory, staring at the big luggage bag lying on the bunk above him.

It was very quiet outside, and he could even hear the sounds of someone watching an adult film upstairs. Muffled moans and grunts passed through the ceiling.

The enthusiasm that carried him all the way here fizzled out. What took its place was an insoluble panic.

What’s wrong with me…Did I go crazy? I quit my job in the US and ran all the way here to a rural town in Guangdong. What am I doing? Change my destiny? Remake history?

Meng Xian liked to read wish-fulfilment novels, and had also fantasised about travelling through time, to stand atop China, and start a harem. But he knew that that was all just a fictional story.

Once he went through that wormhole, he would truly disappear from this world. It was as if he was dying.

He would leave behind his parents, relatives, friends, a future wife…of course, he didn’t even have a girlfriend yet, let alone a wife, but still! If he didn’t fly all the way here, he should still have a decent shot at getting one…

As all these thoughts drifted through his mind, the urge to quit came over Meng Xian, and he sat up abruptly on the bed. He saw that Ye Yuming was also lying in a sleepless daze on the bed next to him. Ye Yuming had moved into the dormitory before he got here.

“What’s wrong? Can’t sleep?” Ye Yuming threw a cigarette over.

“I don’t smoke…” Meng Xian put it aside.

“Then forget it, I stopped smoking as well. Why don’t you go play some games?”

“I can’t get myself in the mood.” Meng Xian sighed, “I don’t know when we’ll leave.” This wasn’t truly what made him anxious at heart, but it was also somewhat true—If they really just went and crossed over immediately, he’d be ready, but now that all he was doing was waiting, the trepidation ate at his resolve.

“Are you truly looking forward to D-Day?”

“You’re not?”

“I’m not sure…I’m still a little sceptical.” Ye Yuming sniffed the cigarette. “If it weren’t for my trust in Wen Desi and Ma Qianzhu, and also the others…” He paused, “Otherwise I’d be afraid it was all a scam.”

“It can’t be, right?” Meng Xian’s faith was a little shaken.

“I also don’t think so. That’s why I came here. But it’s really hard to say what will happen once we travel across.”

“Hasn’t Chief Wen led people across many times?”

“But we have so many people and so many things. What if the wormhole explodes? What if something goes wrong after we cross over…” Ye Yuming’s face was very solemn. “If you die, you die. There’s no LOAD button in real life.”

“Maybe we’ll transmigrate back here instead.” Pan Feng, who had been silently reading a book in his bed, suddenly spoke up.

“Hahaha, you’re quite something.” Ye Yuming and Meng Xian both laughed.

Pan Feng dropped the book and sat up: “According to usual rules of time travel, doesn’t it usually happen by being struck by lightning, hit by a car, or drowning? So logically, if you die over there, you should be resurrected back here.”

“If there really is a Spatio-temporal Management Bureau, the moment you die you should go and apply for resurrection ASAP.” Meng Xian laughed for a while, feeling relieved. “Xiao Pan, you said you worked in sales; what did you sell?”

“Ah…whatever, I’m not afraid of you laughing at me. My longest stint was selling sanitary napkins.”

Several people in the dormitory burst into chuckles. Cha Wuchu patted the edge of his bed and said: “You’re bullshitting. You, selling sanitary napkins? Which girl dared to buy them…?”

Pan Feng picked up the cigarette that Meng Xian had thrown aside. “Do you mind?”

“No, go ahead.” Ye Yuming lit the cigarette for Pan Feng, and then another for himself.

Pen Feng took a puff. “We sold directly to wholesalers. It had nothing to do with girls. FMCG is getting harder and harder these days. There are more and more competitors, customers are more and more arrogant, and corporate requirements are getting higher and higher. Only the pay hasn’t budged up even a bit…”

A silence lulled in the room as each thought of their own situations.

“Do you think that this whole time travel business is trustworthy?” Ye Yuming asked.

Pan Feng looked at him and the edge of his mouth curled into a slight grin.

“Why would it not be? Unless Chief Wen is mentally ill, why would he do all this otherwise? To scam money? Then the scale of his scam is so big that even he himself fell for it.”

“Do you really want to cross?” Ye Yuming followed up immediately.

“Sure, why not?” Pan Feng flicked some ash off his cigarette. “Look at me now. I am one of the working poor. I did everything I should have. I went to university. I got a job. I worked my butt off for my boss. But after so many years, I only just earn enough to pay for the meal on the next day. I even have to set aside money in case I get sick! If I get married and buy a house, I’d just become a slave to the mortgage. If I complain about my wage to management, they tell me to go swim across the Pacific Ocean just to earn a few extra cents.” He smiled bitterly at the people around the room.

“Brothers, do you know what it means to take a risk? I have been a timid and well-behaved citizen ever since I was born. But my life so far has been so pointless. Why should I keep going on like this? I’ve come here with a hope for something new. I’ve come here to take a leap of faith.”

The dormitory fell silent. These words resonated with a chord in everyone’s heart. Ye Yuming just smiled. He leaned back and continued typing the report he was drafting for the Internal Affairs Team.

---

1. FCMGG, a category of consumer goods ↩︎

2. Damn bro no need to do him dirty like that 😭. The implication is of course that STEM people are superior to humanities background. ↩︎

3. In the published book they actually have 1000 people. ↩︎

4. Meaning homosexuals ↩︎

5. This is a quote from the Zuozhuan. The ‘kind’ part literally means ‘clan’. ↩︎

6. These names are 💀 ↩︎