Volume One, Chapter Five: Joining the Company, Dumbfounded

Back home, the stakes for a typical game of mahjong would be ten or twenty, and even at cards, a hundred or two felt like a significant amount. But here, I realized that what we played back home was nothing more than child's play.

Ah Long casually placed a bet of nine thousand. If it were me, I wouldn't have dared—or perhaps, I simply couldn't bear to part with the money. Yet, looking at Ah Long, he remained perfectly calm, as if the outcome meant nothing to him. After two tense minutes of waiting, the cards were revealed; Long had won. In the blink of an eye, he had cleared over nine thousand. My heart raced at the sight; the money seemed to come so easily, so quickly.

"Here, take this. I know you're short on cash, so use this as living expenses for now." Ah Long tossed a portion of the winnings my way—about five thousand or so. Since I was indeed strapped for cash, I didn't stand on ceremony; I smiled, took the money, and tucked it into my pocket.

I expected Ah Long to stop while he was ahead, having made several thousand so quickly, but he didn't. Instead, he bet his entire stake of over ten thousand. This time, his luck failed him, and he was wiped out.

"Let's go," he said, his tone indifferent as he walked toward the door.

Following behind him and watching his back, I knew that I could no longer look at this old classmate the same way I once did. In the past, I had harbored a subconscious sense of superiority, thinking of my university degree compared to his lack of a middle school diploma. But now, I realized that Ah Long, having spent a year forging his path in Northern Myanmar, was on a level far beyond mine. Ten thousand yuan, which would be two or three months' salary for an ordinary office worker, meant nothing to him. His nonchalance didn't seem faked.

On the way back to the dormitory, I couldn't help but ask if he didn't feel a sting of regret after losing so much. He chuckled and replied, "A lot? It's just pocket change. Last year, I lost two hundred thousand in a single hand, and it didn't bother me at all."

"Money is just too easy to make here. You'll soon see that when earning money feels like picking it up off the ground, it becomes nothing more than paper."

In that moment, I understood that the life of the wealthy is truly beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. It was no wonder some children of the rich could spend a year’s income of a normal family on a single meal—to them, money really isn't money. And who wouldn't want to live that kind of life?

My anticipation for life here only grew. Back at the dorm, Ah Long checked the time and asked, "Dongzi, do you want to get some sleep? I need to head to the office to oversee things. If you're not tired, you can come along and take a look."

The barrage of revelations had left me too stimulated to sleep. Furthermore, I was curious about what kind of projects his company actually handled, so I said, "I'm not tired. Let's go to the office."

After waiting at the dormitory exit for two minutes, he pulled up in a 570. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy, wishing that I, too, could one day be as free with my money and drive a luxury car. On the way, Ah Long briefly introduced me to the work schedule and the company. We ate at the cafeteria outside the office before eleven, started work promptly at eleven, broke for food at five, returned at seven, and finished at eleven at night.

His company was a subsidiary of a larger group. There were currently nine such companies within the group, and they were still expanding. Ah Long told me that to make real money, one had to establish a company; only then could you get a larger share of the profits. As a regular employee, earning a million required a lot of luck. With good fortune, one might make three or four hundred thousand a month, or even more. Without it, the stable average was usually around thirty to fifty thousand.

I understood his implication—he wanted me to start a company like him and become a boss to earn more, offering to help me. But I didn't have that ambition yet. On the way here last night, I had searched online and done a lot of thinking. The internet said that things legal abroad weren't necessarily immune to prosecution back home. Some people who committed crimes overseas still faced consequences upon returning to China. While I didn't fully grasp what Ah Long's company did, I knew it wasn't straightforward, and the long-term risks were unpredictable.

Before I understood the situation, I had fantasized about making a million to pay off my debts, buy a house, and get a car. But knowing that the work might be illegal back home and carried significant risks, I lowered my goal. I just wanted to earn two hundred thousand to clear my debts. I told myself that once the debt was paid, I would leave immediately and never get tangled up here again.

Mengbo wasn't large; it was only two kilometers from the dorm to the office. The car finally pulled into a large courtyard surrounded by two-story buildings that looked somewhat like villas. Ah Long led me to a corner of the courtyard, where an iron staircase led directly to the second floor. At the entrance, there was a table manned by two local soldiers, sidearms strapped to their waists.

After Ah Long presented an identification card, he led me inside. There were doors on both the left and right. I snuck a peek inside and saw rows of desks where young people about my age were busy with their phones. As if sensing my curiosity, Ah Long explained, "Those are other companies. Ours is at the very back."

We walked to the end and Ah Long pushed open a door, revealing a large office of about five hundred square meters. Inside, there were over twenty desks, some packed with people, others occupied by only one or two. In total, there were about sixty or seventy people; the company felt quite substantial. Each person had several phones in front of them—at least three or four, sometimes as many as eight or nine. Many of them focused their gaze on me, making me feel subconsciously nervous.

"Ah Long, is this the brother you mentioned earlier?"

The question came from a man in his thirties sitting in a chair by the door with his feet propped up on the desk. He looked incredibly arrogant, unlike everyone else who was sitting properly and working their phones. My intuition told me he held a high position.

Ah Long nodded with a smile. "That's him. This is my brother, a university graduate, very knowledgeable. If you run into problems in the future, you can come to him." He turned to me and introduced, "Ah Dong, this is Brother Hai."

When Ah Long had asked me to choose an alias, I had settled on "Ah Dong." Usually, a nickname is derived from one's formal name, but my nickname had nothing to do with mine. Back home, few people knew my formal name, but everyone knew "Dongzi." Taking the alias "Ah Dong" felt fitting.

I nodded with a smile and greeted him as "Brother Hai." Hai reached into a bag beside him, pulled out a pack of green cigarettes, and tossed them to me. "Brother, have a smoke."

The brand was Hehua; I had never seen them before.

Ah Long didn't linger with Hai, instead leading me to the desks at the very back of the office. He asked one of the men, "Ah Gou, how much have we brought in so far?"

"Brother Long, we've brought in one hundred thousand so far."

Ah Long nodded, pulled up a chair for me, and pointed to the desks nearby. "Ah Dong, these are my employees. That's Shanjie, and that one is..."

As Ah Long finished the introductions, I couldn't help but be stunned.