YAN SHAO HAO: I had a very strange dream, it was about a battle, kind of like a police story. I was a policeman in the dream, and also a member of the Eighth Route Army. We were at a place that looked like a courtyard house, and the criminals were on the rooftop. Some other policemen and I had to enter the house to save the villagers. When we entered the courtyard, I got shot in my leg. The criminals had a much better position up there on the roof, so I was really worried. In fact the courtyard was a big warehouse, I got into one of the rooms and hid behind the door. I didn’t want to be a loser, though, I was very strong-willed and determined to catch the criminals. So I got out of the room again but they shot me in the arm. The bullets were flying all over the place, one of my colleagues wanted to help me but he couldn’t get to me. I was shot four or fives more times, I could have died already but some spirit inside me told me I should keep going and kill all the criminals, otherwise I wouldn’t stop breathing. So in the end I killed all the criminals and then I could die peacefully. After that I woke up.
    I had this dream a long time ago, at the end of the year 2004, but it made a deep impression on me. I have a strong personality and I’m also somewhat stubborn. When I retired from the army, I wanted to work for a government agency, such as a police or security agency, but I couldn’t get a job there. Then I went to the Pacific Insurance Company, and there I learnt a lot of things and gained a lot of experience. In 2005 I took part in a training course in the Shanxi branch of the company. That was a turning point in my life. It was even tougher than the army, it was a very rigorous training.
    There was one part of the training that made a big impression on me. We went to the district of Wengxi to practise our marketing skills. This training lasted one week, it was in July. We were not allowed to take any money with us and we had to dress in a professional way – shirt, tie and a business suit. It was quite hot, July in the city of Yuncheng can be very hot. So we all had to do our best to finish our mission, no matter what the external conditions were. We were divided into groups. In my group there were 9 people. Each one of us received two insurance cards. We would get 5 RMB for each card that we sold. We were not allowed to have breakfast or lunch, only after selling the insurance cards could we have dinner together. I will always remember the first day of the training. My group sold only two insurance cards, so we had only 10 RMB to buy food for 9 people. We bought some white bread and pickles, and drank the water left over from cooking noodles. That was our dinner. We were all very quiet. This course was all about teamwork and learning to cooperate.