"People are snobbish in the past, who knows that heroes are white." This is Tan Chao’s favorite sentence, which is written on a common bookmark. "I earn money by myself, pursue my ideals by myself, and care what others think?"
The express delivery piled up in the hills, the ringing of the telephone one after another, and the teachers and students who came to pick up the parcel in a hurry … … If you don’t observe it deliberately, many guests won’t find that the express outlet in the corner of Yantai University’s comprehensive store is slightly different from other places.
There is no map of the city, no reports for sending and receiving express delivery, and even the chat software for contacting business is not on. The computer on the table behind the shelf is playing the open English class of Stanford University. Students who come to pick up the courier can’t help but take a look inside to make sure that their eyes are not spent — — Is this what the courier brother saw?
The owner of the computer is Tan Chao, the owner of the express outlet, a 32-year-old strong man from Shandong. After first frost, the seaside in Yantai was so cold that Tan Chao only wore a light coat, and the house was so busy outside. He quickly lifted boxes of heavy items and ran back to the house, every step seemed to hit the ground. But when you put down these boxes and stack them, your hands and feet are a little gentle.
Tan Chao has two identities, which belong to day and night.
When all the day’s express delivery is finished and the beautiful sunset glow burns on the horizon, he closes the shop and goes home. Turn on the computer, plunge into the literature pile, find the information of Northeast Asia in the thick history of the Nine Classics and Three Histories, and explore the relationship between ancient Korea, Mongolia and the Central Plains after hundreds of years.
Another identity of Tan Chao is a Bo Er graduate student in the history department of Yanbian University.
"I think he can do it. He has tenacity."
"What’s the number?" Every student who comes to Tan Chao’s shop to pick up a piece must answer this question first.
“26711。” As long as you quote a string of numbers, Tan Chao can find someone’s package in 10 seconds.
Different from other courier receiving and dispatching points, Tan Chao has his own set of numbers: "26" means today is the 26th, and the last three digits represent the position of the parcel on the shelf. Within 100, there are big pieces piled up outside the door. 101-200 are on the shelf in the first row on the left, and 201-300 are packed in the big box on the right. The express delivery of the previous day is all in the back row.
Ba gun scans, signs and confirms, tears off the electronic face sheet, and then puts the sheet together in one go. "Elder brother, does your zha want to come out so numbered? Awesome! " Han Yanan, a sophomore who just came to the store for a part-time job, swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"I have reviewed international relations for four years, and I can’t even handle the relationship of so many hundreds of express delivery?" Tan Chao Hongliang’s voice no longer cares about recounting his master’s shameful past: he applied for graduate studies in Tsinghua University four times, but failed to get in for four years in a row.
Tsinghua’s original intention is to be a university teacher. In the rural county of his hometown, the most respected job is holding a pointer and having a stable salary, which is what parents expect of him. As soon as he graduated, Tan Chao decided on the direction of his efforts when other students were hesitant: "Postgraduate entrance examination can’t take two years in one year, and two years can’t take three years!"
This heroism is supported by economic conditions. Full-time review has never appeared in Tan Chao’s mind. He declined the family’s subsidy for living expenses. "Can you ask for money from your family after graduation?" Men must stand on their own feet! "
Just like that, Tan Chao, an undergraduate graduate of the journalism department of Yantai University, plunged into the society with his dream of Tsinghua.
Society didn’t give him a tender embrace. In the first three years, he did all the part-time jobs that could spare time to study. Real estate agents, university security guards, and even waste products were not collected less. When a house was not sold for two months, Tan Chao realized that he had become the most fragile balance in the social chain: "It is not so easy to get involved in any line of work, especially a fresh graduate without any connections and background."
The work is not smooth, and the review also makes him feel "the body is hollowed out." Working during the day and reading at night, this kind of intensity is easy to say and think about, but when I come home after a busy day, the whole person wants to become a piece of chewing gum and can’t paste it on the bed. But he can’t help it, so he has to start reviewing after washing his face. "It’s normal to sleep only for three or four hours, and it’s also happened all night." At the beginning, the grandiloquence that he had released became a boast. For three years in a row, he failed to pass the written examination of the postgraduate exam of international relations in Tsinghua University.
Fortunately, his family is very supportive. "If you can’t pass the exam, take your time and wait until you pass the exam." Cao Chengcheng, his girlfriend at that time and his wife now, has been with him all the time: "I just thought he could make it. He is tenacious."
From courier brother to master elder brother, from delivery to shopkeeper.
Doing express delivery started in 2010. Without proper transportation and familiarity with the road, he can deliver 30 pieces a day, which is his best achievement. At least one day, he didn’t send off two pieces:
The new tricycle I bought with all my savings trampled on my foot and rubbed against the cars on the roadside. He didn’t run away. Call the reserved phone to contact the owner. The honest reward is to compensate 2700 yuan for the repair, which makes him "almost at the end of his tether". Pushing a broken-down tricycle for several hours delayed the customer’s receipt and was swept over.
Sending a piece can earn a dollar and fifty cents, and Tan Chao, who "reads sage books" every day, will be a little discouraged. Seeing that the courier brothers at other outlets can send dozens of pieces, he began to ponder. After investigating the market in Yantai, Tan Chao found that students rely more and more on online shopping: "There are more and more small pieces, a nail clipper or a mobile phone case are bought online, which shows that the market for students will grow." He thought, if there is a fixed agent point for students to help themselves, wouldn’t the efficiency be improved a lot?
Liu Lina, the owner of the general store, never thought that a doctor would be admitted to her store. Before, she liked this young man who often came to buy things or send express delivery. "Polite and enthusiastic." Once she couldn’t reach the box that was too tall on the shelf, and Tan Chao, who was 1.85 meters tall, reached out and helped to move it down. Know Tan Chao looking for a facade, Liu Lina word to give up a corner of the space. You don’t need to buy tables, chairs, shelves and even scales. "Just take them directly."
Taking advantage of the geographical position, Tan Chao did not forget to give full play to his professional advantages. In the future, before each door-to-door delivery, he will send a short message: "Hello, your express mail has arrived, and you can pick it up at ZTO Express on the side of Yantai University’s comprehensive store." At the entrance of the general store, an express advertisement was also hung. Over time, the students who sent the mail were surprised to find that there was a set of "Xiao Xiurong sprinting 8000 questions" on the desk of the courier.
"After graduating from undergraduate course, I will send a courier. What can we do in the future?" The students in the nearby dormitory knew his experience and began to call him "big brother". The postgraduate students who came to the general store to buy things would also stop respectfully and ask the courier for advice on the review of English politics for postgraduate entrance examination.
The turning point appeared in 2011. Tan Chao, who was totally humiliated by the "bottom" manual labor and Yantai sea breeze, finally entered the interview in Tsinghua. At the moment when I found the score line online, Tan Chao felt a sudden jump in his heart. "The blood on my body stopped flowing." During that time, he was finally willing to give up his job and concentrate on preparing for the interview. "As soon as I am admitted, I will quit and go to school in Beijing."
"double 11 told me that the express delivery industry has a future."
On the day when the interview results came out, Cao Chengcheng remembered very clearly. After returning home, Tan Chao, who has always been able to chat and talk, was expressionless, didn’t eat, and didn’t talk, just lying in bed looking at the ceiling. Her heart thumped and she didn’t sleep well all night.
"That’s really despair," Tan Chao now thinks about it, and will evaluate himself at that time with "I don’t know how little". "It’s actually very painful to accept the fact that some things can’t be achieved no matter how hard you try. But once you figure it out and lower your expectations, things will be much easier. "
The next day, Tan Chao, who understood it, got up early to work as usual. Since he couldn’t get into Tsinghua, he was transferred to the history department of Tobacco University to "save the country by curve".
So, in the second year after obtaining the agency right of ZTO Express outlets, Tan Chao became a graduate student majoring in minority history in Yantai University. He was busy with class, so Cao Chengcheng simply quit his job to help look after the shop. That year’s Double Eleven was the first "business peak" they ushered in. On November 13th, Tan Chao obviously felt different: "The volume of express mail was more than twice as much as usual, and I didn’t care much about eating that day." After 10 o’clock in the evening, Tan Chao smelled a business opportunity in the hot air from the only instant noodles that day. "This industry can and will develop."
The industry is developing faster than Tan Chao imagined, doubling almost every year. More and more parcels are delivered, and the delivery is getting better and better. By this year, the four phone numbers on Tan Chao’s business card have been frequently exploded, and it has become a daily routine to send and receive more than a thousand pieces of express delivery every day. The income is enough to liberate Cao Chengcheng and hire others to help him.
"The martial arts in the world are only fast and unbreakable." Tan Chao has long discovered the similarities between sending a courier and doing news: "The most important thing is timeliness." A courier has to pass through the student’s hands three times before it reaches him. Re-coding facilitates placement and search, mass texting omits the time of telephone communication, and Tan Chao’s express delivery point is as orderly as his doctoral thesis index page. He roughly counted himself. From 2010 to now, he has handled more than 600,000 express delivery, "much more than the number of pages I have turned over."
In the eyes of Wang Keping, a doctoral supervisor in the history department of Yanbian University, Tan Chao, who was the first in the comprehensive examination of politics in the academic year, "has a good quality." What he doesn’t know is that this student who occasionally disappears for a few days in November will secretly buy a discounted ticket back to Yantai, "from getting off the plane to getting on the plane."
"Not this year," said Tan Chao’s three notebooks on his desk, one for keeping daily accounts, the other for handling chores and the other for arranging part-time students’ after-school time. "This year, I recruited more than 20 part-time students. When there is no class before and after the Double Eleven, let them all come!" (Han Yi)
