Dante was never a fan of modern office buildings.

When Li Wei was still working in Zhongguancun, one Saturday, Shang Yiming made an appointment with him to wait for him to finish working overtime in the morning and the two of them would go to play basketball together in the afternoon. That was the first time Shang Yiming went to the building where Li Wei and their company were located, he arrived much early, and Li Wei must not have finished his work, so he did not send a text message to disturb, but wandered through the stairs on the lower floors for more than an hour. After Li Wei finished speaking, he took the elevator down and met him in the lobby on the first floor, and saw that he had been waiting for a long time, and hurriedly said: "I'm sorry, Yiming, I've been here for a long time, right?" Shang Yiming didn't feel the slightest impatience with the boring waiting itself, and complained to Li Wei when he left the building: "Working in this kind of building, where can I stimulate creativity and inspiration? Even if it is stimulated, I am afraid it will be distorted." If I'm here, inspiration is also erased. Li Wei replied with a helpless smile: "Who said we need inspiration and creativity?"

Shang Yiming's dislike for these office buildings is not an aesthetic judgment of their area and shape, but from the state and feeling, that is, the state and feeling of people living in this modern building and unconsciously being deeply affected by their structure.

Although a lot of glass is treated so that you can't see the inside from the outside, there are people coming and going outside the building, and there are many devices, and a pair of naked and electronic eyes blink like stars, and the only obstacle between them and you is a piece of glass, they can't see you through the glass, but when you look at them through the glass, it is difficult to completely escape the illusion of being watched by them.

The tall skeleton of steel highlights the aggressive majesty, and the shiny marble paved with a single color reflects the soft light, but they all seem to have a hard, cold aura from the inside, which permeates every corridor of the building as it extends, cooling the atmosphere of the public space in the building.

Such a huge office building is filled with people every day - often including weekends - and people come and go every moment of the day. But in addition to commuting time, individuals - if they can take care of their own feelings here - will inevitably feel lonely. Most of the time, you'll only have a small area of the building that you have, and that's the seats you spend eight hours or more on your part, except for eating, going to the bathroom, and occasionally going out. You are held to your seat, and there are other seats next to each other with other people sitting on them, but the mechanical and brief verbal communication with them cannot free your mind from your seat. For about a third of the day, you're mostly talking to your seat, and you're not talking to it, but you're throwing your whole heart into it, and the people in the other seats are the same, even if it's just a baffle away from you. You are like a row of marionettes, strung together by a thread, each acting under the control of the thread connected to you. This is a commonplace form of modern division of labor, which is most fully used in office buildings, and of course in today's workplace environment, this is normal, but it is also normal to feel lonely because of it.

The above is the shadow of the office building in Shang Yiming's mind, but the most unbearable thing about the place where Li Wei works is the height of each floor. Shang Yiming's height is less than 1. Standing 80 meters in the narrow corridor, the dusty ceiling seemed to weigh down his head, and this situation of his head rising to the sky made him feel depressed, as if he was compressed in a can. Shang Yiming lives in an old courtyard house, and the longest-serving unit, the publishing house, is also "stationed" in the old building. The ceiling of such an old house is more than 3 meters from the ground, and Shang Yiming is used to it, and he is not used to encountering the ceiling that is pressed to the top of his head. However, according to his observations, this feeling of depression in the sky is not unique to him. He noticed the many people passing by in the corridor, they were of different heights, but they all subconsciously lowered their heads, including Li Wei. Li Wei also mentioned to him that few editors in their company could persist here for more than three years, and Li Wei became anxious and often talked to him about quarreling with Xiaoping again, which also started when he worked in this office building.

Unfortunately, today, Dante is interviewing for a new job, in an office building with his head above him.

He had checked on the Internet in advance, and this place was located outside the Fifth Ring Road in the northwest. With the acceleration of urbanization in the region from the late 90s to the first decade of this century, a new residential and commercial buildings have sprung up, crowding the widened streets. An hour earlier than the agreed time, I came downstairs to take a look, and sure enough, this "Hongye Building" is in the front row of a community, sandwiched between a Holiday Inn and a high-end restaurant. The entrance to the building was open, and Dante walked in, feeling the ceiling press down on his head again. "Hey, as expected. He didn't know if the words he blurted out were self-deprecating or self-consoling.

After leaving the publishing house, he interviewed a number of companies, some of them in this kind of canned building. Although the environment was not the only factor, he did not end up hiring.

Today's situation is different, he has to get the job, even if he is a snoopy marionette in a cold office building "above the sky". "When you come to this kind of ghost place, it's normal to have mental problems, and it's not normal if you don't have problems. Looking at the house numbers on the first floor, Dante muttered and got into the elevator. He remembered the hospital magazine with which he had terminated his labor relationship for more than half a year, and several feelings came to his mind for a while.

The walls on the first floor are clearly marked, and with only two tenants on the seventh floor, it was easy to find the door he was knocking on. "This is it. The two glass doors of 702 opened inward, and Dante stood outside the door and saw the words posted on the wide front desk: "Sincerity, Love Volunteer Rescue Service Center." ”

"Hello, I'm here for an interview. As the front desk was empty, Dante walked straight in, found the desk closest to the front desk and greeted a girl sitting there. "Oh, you're interviewing, aren't you?" The girl, who was busy sketching on a registration form, put down her pen and said politely, "Come this way." ”

The girl led him to what appeared to be a reception room: "You sit here for a while, and I'll talk to the teacher in charge of the interview." "Okay, thank you. ”

There were two other people in the reception room, apparently also for the interview. One was a young man under 20 years old, like a college student, and the other was a woman in uniform, perhaps who had come to apply for a job as a receptionist. Dante ignored them, not even greeting them with a glance. Ahead of me, he thought.

Entering the aid center, Dante's eyes kept rolling. He soon found that the place was quite large, and it actually occupied two rooms, 702 and 703, but there were very few people, making the huge office area seem a little empty. They are short of people, so I have a better chance of success. Otherwise, I don't really have an advantage in grabbing a spot or two with others. Dante couldn't help but glance at the young man.