For many, Taobao has become their best friend. After all, the process cannot be any easier. On a dreary evening, you scroll through the website in your pajamas, tap a couple of buttons and voila; everything you need will shortly arrive right onto your doorstep. The only energetic exertion you face is to get off the couch and fetch your package.
对许多人来说，淘宝已经成为他们最好的朋友。 毕竟，这个过程再简单不过了。 在一个沉悶的夜晚，你穿着睡衣浏览网站，点击几个按钮，瞧；你需要的一切很快就会送到你家门口。 你面临的唯一精力充沛的劳累就是从沙发上下来拿你的包裹。
However, that package does not just appear at your door, as you know. There is a real person who has to deal with bad traffic, bad weather and occasional bad dogs to ensure that the last mile of the delivery process is complete.
然而，如你所知，那个包裹不只是出现在你家门口。 有一个真正的人必须处理糟糕的交通、恶劣的天气和偶尔的坏狗，以确保交付过程的最后一英里完成。
Ming Zhu, or “Skinny Zhu” as his customers call him, is one of thousands of such “last-mile” delivery guys who are in charge of the final process serving apartments in numerous neighbourhoods in Nanjing.
Ming Zhu，或客户称他为“Skinny Zhu”，是数千名“最后一英里”送货员之一，他们负责为南京许多社区的公寓服务的最终流程。
But there is more to Skinny Zhu’s identity. He is also the owner of a second-hand bookstore that has stood still in the heart of a mid-sized community compound by Xuanwu Lake for 12 years.
但Skinny Zhu的身份还有更多。 他还是一家二手书店的老板，该书店在玄武湖旁的中型社区中心地挺立了12年。
Yellow warm lights, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, just you and the books and the rest of the world falls away. If that is the image of a bookstore you had in mind, Skinny Zhu’s is nothing but. A “battlefield” is the more appropriate word I would use to describe it.
温暖的黄色灯光，新鲜冲泡的咖啡的味道，只有你、书籍和世界其他地方都消失了。 如果这就是你心目中的一家书店的形象，那么Skinny Zhu’s就只不过是。 “战场”是我用来描述它的更恰当的词。
In a 60-square-metre storefront jammed into the street, countless packages were piled up on the floor. Skinny Zhu was in the middle of the package hill, sorting through them to then chuck to his wife, a stout woman skilled in scanning package information into a computer; his mum and dad, both with sheer white hair but in very good shape as they bend double to put packages on the scales and load them into a mini van, driven by Zhu’s brother-in-law.
在一个60平方米的店面挤在大街上，无数的包裹堆在地板上。 Skinny Zhu在包裹山中间，整理它们，然后扔给他的妻子，一个擅长将包裹信息扫描到电脑的身材高大的女人；他的妈妈和爸爸，都留着白发，但身材很好，他们弯下腰把包裹放在秤上，并把它们装进一辆由朱的姐夫驾驶的迷你面包车。
The Zhu family are like highly efficient workers along a production line, doing all they can to get the job done. It almost seemed like a crime to interrupt them for a short chat.
朱家就像生产线上高效的工人一样，尽一切可能完成工作。 打断他们进行简短的聊天似乎是一种犯罪。
“Now our main business is shipping service, not selling books. If you want to buy books, why don’t you go to Taobao like everyone else?” Skinny Zhu answered my question like firing bullets in Nanjing dialect, so fast and without even looking up from sorting through the parcels surrounding him.
“现在我们的主要业务是运输服务，而不是销售书籍。 如果你想买书，为什么不像其他人一样去淘宝呢？” Skinny Zhu回答我的问题就像用南京方言开枪一样，如此之快，甚至没有从整理他周围的包裹中抬起头来。
I’ve noticed this is the talking style of the entire Zhu family. Like everyone who makes a living in the delivery business, time is gold as their salary depends on the numbers of packages shipped and delivered per day. They usually get ¥1-2 for every package shipped and delivered.
我注意到这是整个朱家的说话风格。 像每个以送货业务为生的人一样，时间是黄金，因为他们的工资取决于每天发货和交付的包裹数量。 他们通常每个发货和交付的包裹都会得到1-2日元。
“¥300 to ¥400 a day. Maybe more than that. Who’s counting?”, Skinny Zhu said in a snarky tone when I asked him about his daily delivery record. This was one of the busiest times of the year for the family, right before the Chinese New Year Holiday. Working more than 14 hours from 8 am to 10 pm is just a normal day for them to make sure 300 packages arrive on time.
“每天300日元到400日元。 也许不止这些。 谁在数？”当我问他每天的送货记录时，Skinny Zhu用尖刻的语气说。 这是家里一年中最忙的时候之一，就在春节假期之前。 对他们来说，从早上8点到晚上10点工作超过14小时只是正常的一天，以确保300个包裹准时到达。
“This is nothing. Double-eleven is the real nightmare”, Zhu’s wife said. During the “double eleven” online shopping festival last year, the big promotion created more than 50 million packages to deliver; lots of logistic companies worked overtime for an entire month.
“这没什么。 双十一是真正的噩梦，”朱的妻子说。 在去年的「雙十一」網上購物節上，這個大型促銷活動創造了5000多萬個包裹來交付；許多物流公司加班了整整一個月。
It also takes a savvy mind to survive in the delivery rat race. “I’ll first call those who live on the higher floors. It takes time for them to come downstairs. In the meantime I can deliver one or two packages for those who live on first or second floor.” Skinny Zhu is very impressed with his own timing skills.
在送货老鼠赛跑中生存也需要精明的头脑。 “我会先给那些住在高楼层的人打电话。 他们下楼需要时间。 与此同时，我可以给住在一楼或二楼的人送一两个包裹。” Skinny Zhu对自己的时机技巧印象深刻。
He is also proud of his good relationship with his customers. “Most of my customers are nice. They know me as the bookstore guy. ” He can match names to faces and even tell which two people are from the same household when they come to the bookstore to pick up packages.
他还为自己与客户的良好关系感到自豪。 “我的大多数客户都很好。 他们知道我是书店的人。 ”当两个人来书店取包裹时，他可以把名字和脸匹配起来，甚至可以分辨出哪个来自同一个家庭。
“I’ve known him for years. I used to come to his bookstore to buy second-hand books,” said a retired University professor who lives in the neighbourhood. “It used to be a place with a soul.”
“我认识他很多年了。 我曾经去他的书店买二手书，”一位住在附近的退休大学教授说。 “它曾经是一个有灵魂的地方。”
At its height, the bookstore used to be crowded; sometimes with people, always with books, stacked to the ceiling. Books lined up in bookcases. Books spread out on tables. People would come to the bookstore for a treasure hunt or simply enjoy a moment of serenity.
在鼎盛时期，书店曾经很拥挤；有时人山人海，总是有书堆积如山。 书排在书柜里。 书铺在桌子上。 人们会来书店寻宝，或者只是享受片刻的宁静。
But running a book business has never been easy in China. For a long time it was a relatively-low profit gentleman’s game. Over the years, Zhu’s bookstore has increasingly looked less like a bookstore. At first the Zhu family tried to sell children’s dolls on the front counter, but business didn’t look up.
但在中国经营图书业务从来都不容易。 长期以来，这是一个利润相对较低的绅士游戏。 多年来，朱的书店看起来越来越不像书店了。 起初，朱家试图在前台卖儿童娃娃，但生意没有好转。
“We were just thinking about closing down when the logistics guys found us 2 years ago. I asked my husband to give it a shot”, Skinny Zhu’s wife said.
“2年前，当物流人员发现我们时，我们正考虑关闭。 Skinny Zhu的妻子说：“我让我丈夫试一试。”
The logistics companies needed a place nearby for easy pick-ups and someone who knows the neighbourhood inside and out. Skinny Zhu’s bookstore seemed the best choice. It saves shippers the trouble from going to the logistics warehouse, which is in a remote area of the city, and makes it easier for local residents to pick up packages if not at home when they are delivered.
物流公司需要一个附近方便取货的地方，以及一个了解社区内外的人。 Skinny Zhu的书店似乎是最好的选择。 它为托运人省去了位于城市偏远地区的物流仓库的麻烦，并使当地居民在送货时不在家时更容易取走包裹。
“Sometimes people leave their package in my store for days without picking it up. It gives me a headache”, Skinny Zhu complained. But they trust Zhu to keep their packages safe.
“有时人们会把包裹留在我的店里好几天不取走。 Skinny Zhu抱怨道：“这让我头疼。” 但他们相信朱会保护他们的包裹安全。
The bookstore has become crowded again, teeming with customers, none of whom are here for the books. Now the “bookstore” has become nothing but a name.
书店又变得拥挤不堪，挤满了顾客，他们中没有一个人来这里买书。 现在，“书店”只不过是一个名字。
By 2020, China is to become the next delivery empire second only to the United States. The total number of packages are over 14 billion. On holidays, 60 percent more packages than usual are delivered. China’s online shopping users are expected to reach 891 million by 2020 (2.1 times that of 2015) and the total e-commerce market is predicted to reach ¥13.91 trillion.
到2020年，中国将成为仅次于美国的下一个交付帝国。 包裹总数超过140亿。 在节假日，运送的包裹比平时多60%。 预计到2020年，中国的网上购物用户将达到8.91亿（是2015年的2.1倍），预计电子商务市场总额将达到13.91万亿日元。
This means more business for the bookstore. “I’m thinking about making more space for packages”, Skinny Zhu said, giving a quick glance to the few dusty books remaining on his shelves; books such as “How to Make Money Fast and Easy” and “The Secret to Survival in Today’s Business Culture”.
这意味着书店的业务更多。 Skinny Zhu说：“我正在考虑为包裹腾出更多空间。”他快速瞥了一眼书架上剩下的几本尘土飞扬的书；如《如何快速轻松地赚钱》和《当今商业文化中生存的秘诀》等书籍。
The books have said it all, without even uttering a single word.
这些书说明了一切，甚至没有说出一个字。
