December 25, 2016.
To make taking work easier, I registered a company.
The Tiexi District service hall sits at the far end of Beiyi Road. It took several bus transfers to get there. The snow by the roadside hadn't melted yet, heaped grey and dirty. Three or four trips in a row — each time, one document short; I'd get it and come back. Only when everything was in order did the paperwork go through.
The day I picked up the business license, I walked out of the hall, passed under the Beiyi Road overpass, and had a bowl of rice noodles across the street.
After eating I went back to the intersection to wait for the bus. Three or five other people waited alongside me. The bus took coins; I'd checked every pocket — none. I ran to a corner shop, handed over a five-yuan note, and got a single coin in change.
That's how the company started. No ceremony.