Recently, busy with moving, I’ve been a little fidgety. And a thing happened today made me more irritated. This afternoon, I made a phone call to my network company, which I had thought was renowned and creditworthy, trying to request a network relocation service. Once the call was put through, there was a sweet greeting on the line. Then I told her clearly what I requested. But she promoted relocation packages on the ground of “new preferences for relocation.” I insisted that I only wanted to relocate my network and didn’t want any other packages. However, she responded to me that it was all right, but the preference I was enjoying was going to be terminated, for there wasn’t that favorable service in my new location. For a while, I stumbled. And then, I came to myself and told her that this service had one-year grace period, and it would be due in nine months. When she heard that, her voice changed from sweet to serious. She said that the preference was not on my contract, so the price of my network would be changed back to the original price after it was moved to a new location. At that time, I had a strong feeling of “being ripped off.” In indignation, I said to her, “If so, I’m going to switch network company.” Hearing that, she softened her tone a little, saying that she would help me contact the “relevant department.” But I refused.
Putting the phone down, I felt quite strange, “I phoned the Relocation Services Department just now. Why was it the Customer Service Department that got my call?” Then, I tried the live chat of that company. Once again, I was fooled. I talked to them for quite a while, but to little avail. At the end, I just dropped the work in my hand and sat down for some rest. I couldn’t help but sigh: We might be enticed into paying for more everywhere. Only in different degrees. When we go to a bank, we might be talked into purchasing funds. Going to a supermarket, we might be enticed into buying many unnecessary items on credit. In markets, we might go on a shopping spree when seeing the sales such as “Buy One Get One 50% Off.” We go to a Barbershop for haircut and might leave there with our hair permed. Even when we go to the church, we might be recommended with a lot of products…. Ay, I didn’t expect that there are also a lot of such things in these free and democratic countries. So, in both eastern and western countries, people are centered on money, with a heavy burden for earning money. The poor are liable to harbor deeper hatred. Such are people in modern society! People of the ancient times made conscience money, cheating neither the young nor the old, and never charging different prices for the same good. But gradually, people have a stronger and stronger desire for money. What do they do to get more money? They first learn to play some tricks, which is commonly called “deception!” At the beginning, they might feel accused in their conscience. But later, as they earn more and more money by deception, they have less and less conscience. Such a vicious cycle is repeated again and again. And they even cheat in a more and more reasonable and skillful manner. Till today, people want money so desperately, thinking that “money is everything.” Everyone lives by this fallacy, and people all over the world, no matter in which country, live this way in spite of themselves: Only care about money! At this point, I thought of a scene of people from all walks of life chasing money, which I came across in a musical drama. That is true to life and has touched me a lot.
