Based on a true story.
It was already four o'clock in the morning, the dark night was so silent that people were afraid, through the glass I faintly saw a red dot flashing, it was Old Zhao smoking, and the dozens of cigarette butts scattered on the ground showed that he had been sitting in the store for a long time. He opened himself a bottle of wine, a sip of wine and a cigarette, a handful of bitter tears.
Three years ago, Lao Zhao used his hometown house as collateral to borrow money from the bank, borrowed money from friends, and came to the city to open this home-cooked restaurant. At that time, he was full of enthusiasm and hoped that he could make a career so that he could bring his wife and children to enjoy the blessings together. The location of the restaurant is actually very good, the intersection of the two roads, surrounded by a dense area of residential areas, the flow of people is not a problem at all. Coupled with the fact that the dishes of the old Zhao family are cheap and affordable, clean and hygienic, the taste is good, the old Zhao is also practical, always treating every customer warmly, the business of the restaurant at the beginning is very prosperous, and the peak period hired one or twenty clerks is still busy. Old Zhao calculated that according to this situation, he could pay off the arrears in less than a year, and soon he could pay off the down payment of the house and bring his family over.
Although getting up early and greedy, hard work and fatigue are self-evident, old Zhao is very happy, happiness is overflowing on his face, and this middle-aged man who left his hometown in his early forties to work hard finally saw the hope of life.
However, life has a lot more to do with us. The good times did not last long, and Old Zhao ushered in the first blow. The subway was about to be built at the intersection of the restaurant, and the surrounding roads were quickly sealed off, leaving only the doorway of each store. When the road is blocked, people can't come over, the fence is blocked, and the signboard can't be seen. The business of the restaurant began to be affected. Old Zhao is very anxious, and the surrounding merchants are also very anxious, and they reflect the situation to the municipal government together, hoping to get a proper solution.
After much communication, it was agreed to leave a pedestrian passageway for pedestrians to pass. Although it cannot be completely solved, at least it can ensure normal business. Many old customers are still willing to take care of the business of the restaurant, but they have lost a lot of new customers, even if no matter how much publicity, Lao Zhao even learned to send vibrato to drain the flow, but the effect is still very small. Inconvenient transportation, construction noise, poor environment, most people do not want to bother to come to eat, restaurants are blocked every day, sunlight can not come in, if you want to open, you must turn on the lights day and night, which invisibly also increases the operating costs. But there is no way, the subway construction announcement shows that at least two years of construction period. Lao Zhao had to dismiss some employees and ensure revenue through various takeaway platforms.
After insisting on it for about half a year, although it can't be as popular as it was at the beginning, the restaurant still doesn't lose money, and there is still a small surplus. Old Zhao didn't want to give up, he felt that as long as he held on, the road was clear. But who knows, bigger blows followed. On the 29th day of the lunar month, Old Zhao has returned to his hometown to reunite with his family, and is ready to regroup and do a big job in the past year.
When the news of the lockdown came, he still couldn't believe it, but when he saw the railings pulled up by the community and the repeated broadcasts, he had to believe the facts in front of him, the epidemic came, and the national closed-loop management came. I don't know how long I have to stay at home, Lao Zhao doesn't want to delay the business, and hopes to leave home immediately, even if it is to live in a restaurant. But people in the community say nothing and don't let you go, telling him to be responsible for himself and others, and even if you let you go, the city you want to go to will not let you in. Life is far more important than money.
In the days of home isolation, Old Zhao was anxious every day, although he understood that defeating the epidemic was a tough battle in the country, he could not add chaos to society, but it fell on him as a small common man, and it was the most important thing to survive, after all, chai rice oil and salt, children going to school, the elderly seeing a doctor, and so many arrears, which all need money.
A month later, some areas were unsealed, and Lao Zhao rushed back to the restaurant non-stop, but those who returned to the local area from other places still needed to self-isolate for 14 days at their place of residence, and the employees in the store did not return, and those who returned were also in quarantine. Old Zhao had to stay at home and continue to wait, but also always pay attention to the epidemic information, to see what kind of policies the government introduced, what impact on the merchants, old Zhao was vaguely worried, feeling that the impact of this business will not be a star and a half loss.
Every day the news will broadcast the situation of the epidemic situation across the country, watching a group of medical staff, on-duty personnel, volunteers risking their lives to go to the front line, Lao Zhao's heart is also sour, he also hopes to contribute, but helpless on the one hand, he really does not have the ability, on the other hand, he also needs to support his family. In addition to touching, there are also heartache, some people have lost their lives due to the epidemic, whenever they see such news, old Zhao sighs and tells himself that he must not fall, there are old people, there are loving wives, there are lovely sons, he is the top pillar of the whole family.
After the end of the quarantine, the closure of the whole city has improved, and most areas have been lifted. However, for the catering industry, only take-out is allowed, not dine-in. Lao Zhao's worries have been fulfilled, although the takeaway platform has been arranged, but the impact of the epidemic has not been waved from people's hearts, and the flow of people eating out is very small. Even many young people who usually rely on takeaways, white-collar workers in office buildings, would rather bring their own meals, and even eat instant noodles rather than eat outside.
Just insisted on a month, high labor costs and rents make Lao Zhao a little unsupportable, although the government has introduced a lot of burden reduction policies, but they are all aimed at enterprises, like them such private merchants, and have not been alleviated. On the one hand, he had to dismiss several employees, on the other hand, he consulted with the landlord to see if he could reduce the rent, and on the other hand, he tried to communicate with the bank to postpone the loan. Multi-faceted communication can only make Old Zhao breathe, if there is no business to come to the door, this restaurant may really not be able to open.
His parents are old and sickly, and they need to take medicine all year round. In order to take care of her son, who is still in junior high school, his wife can only do some odd jobs to supplement the family, and whatever happens in the family is also the wife alone. Old Zhao turned white with sorrow.
Just so panicked, tightly put together for more than half a year, although the epidemic eased, but the business did not improve. The rent loan can no longer be delayed, and the creditor asks three times a day when to repay the money, after all, in this special period, everyone is not happy, but they do not want their money to drift. Old Zhao demolished the east wall to supplement the west wall, which can solve the problem for a while, but cannot solve the fundamental problem. Watching his wife wash her face with tears all day, Old Zhao really couldn't bear it in his heart, and he regretted a little that he had made a desperate bet to come to this city to fight a battle, and now there was not even a way back. He had come to make money, but now his whole family was suffering with him.
Old Zhao consulted with his wife to handle the divorce, the previous debts were borrowed by him alone, the restaurant had nothing to do with his wife, and after the divorce, he repaid it alone, so that the creditors went to him. The wife naturally disagreed, to share the hardships with Old Zhao, how could the husband and wife for more than ten years leave him alone at this time. But Lao Zhao said that the child is the key moment, can not let him be affected, they apply for divorce, from the legal level, the debt has nothing to do with you, let the wife live alone with the child, he still has to pay maintenance every month. The situation improved, and they remarried. Unable to stand Lao Zhao's insistence, his wife finally agreed, and after they went through the divorce procedures, Lao Zhao gave his wife and children the only assets in the family, and then sent a message to his friends who borrowed money: "Brothers, please, thank you, give me a little more time."
The road construction in front of the door is far away, and the epidemic has been repeated, and the store will be closed for rectification or no dine-in is allowed at any time, so it is so difficult to get to June of the following year. Only in his early forties, the exhaustion of more than a year has made Old Zhao look more than ten years old, after all, this store has invested all his belongings, and the pressure of the economy has made him unable to stand up straight, even if he is optimistic, he can't withstand such a long toss.
If road construction is the beginning of tragedy and the epidemic is the intensification of tragedy, then that rainstorm is the last straw that crushed Lao Zhao and the final song of tragedy.
The heavy rain on July 20 began to fall the day before and showed no signs of stopping until the afternoon of the next day. Old Zhao, as usual, stuck in the store, and there were only two chefs and two waiters left in the two-story two-to-three-hundred-square-meter storefront. The rain that day was exceptionally heavy and long, and Old Zhao was just thinking that there might be no business at night. However, it was not until more than six o'clock in the evening that the news on the Internet came out. In many places, the rainwater has been submerged to the position of the wheels of the motor vehicle, where the car stays in the culvert, the driver has abandoned the car to flee, the government has called on the people to find a safe position near themselves to stay, do not move, a number of subway stations poured rainwater, has been stopped, and even a line of passengers have been trapped in the subway car, waiting for rescue, the rain will flood them and so on.
Seeing that the heavy rain outside the door had spread up the steps, it was too late to think about it, and Lao Zhao quickly organized the staff to block the door with everything that could block the rain, and then transferred the valuables to the second floor or a high shelf. But the rainstorm came too hard, and before they could pack up, the rain began to spread into the store. After all, it has not rained so much here for many years, and naturally no flood control materials have been prepared.
Soon the rain did not reach people's calves, old Zhao beckoned employees to go to the second floor to avoid, since they could not come to the guests, they could not go, let's eat dinner first. Before waiting for the meal to finish, only to listen to the "boom", like the sound of where it collapsed, everyone was frightened, carefully looked at the second floor for a while, just looked at the first floor, at this time the rain had flooded to the face of the stool, old Zhao waded through the water to the door, less than a meter away from the door, suddenly a cliff, fortunately supported the table did not fall. Old Zhao felt that the ground was not flat, looked out, heavens, it turned out that the door had collapsed, it seemed to have collapsed to the bottom of the store. Now they couldn't do anything, so they went back to the second floor and waited. Within a few minutes, the store suddenly lost power, not only their shop, but also the surrounding area seemed to be plunged into deep darkness, only to hear the storm outside and the cries and cries in the rainstorm.
Old Zhao and the employees stayed in the store overnight, and it was not until dawn the next day that the rain was lighter. Looking around, the situation was even worse than they had seen last night, with the sewer pipes on the second floor bursting and spreading all the way down the walls, suffering nearly every wall. Not to mention the first floor, the tables and chairs and cabinets are all soaked in water, and the ceiling is dripping. The kitchen kitchen utensils were even more baptized, and the freezers were also filled with water, and all the electricity was cut off. The employees quickly cleaned up, and Old Zhao looked at the mess in this room and fell into deep contemplation, and his mood at the moment was called "despair".
After the inventory was completed, the employees all went back to rest, and Old Zhao calculated that repairing it might need about two hundred thousand. Old Zhao silently lit a cigarette, and the boy had tears that did not flick, but at this time he could not control himself and shed tears. Back in the rental house, Old Zhao looked at the information on the Internet, some people were soaked in the car, some people were trapped, some people were missing, and even some people had left, this rainstorm, is a disaster.
The surrounding communities have been cut off from water and electricity, and even out of gas, and the old Zhao shop has only lost power. The next day, he called the employees and made nearly a hundred box lunches with only leftover ingredients. The road at the door for pedestrians to pass has collapsed, and it is difficult for people to come over. They took the box lunch out and loaded it into the van where Old Zhao usually pulled the goods. It turned out that Lao Zhao wanted to deliver food to the rescue teams and volunteers. Looking at Lao Zhao's behavior, the clerks were also very excited, and they said that as long as there was a need, they were willing to contribute.
That night, Lao Zhao gathered the clerks together again, ate a meal, and ate well, when he suddenly announced that the store could not continue to operate and was ready to close. Everyone is very silent, but the heart is also very clear, the reality is very cruel, experienced the road construction and the blow of the epidemic, this has not eased up, the rainstorm has washed away the store, there is not enough funds, it is really difficult to support. Old Zhao paid the clerks and dismissed them.
It was already four o'clock in the morning, and Old Zhao sat alone in the shop for nearly eight hours. He looked back on the process of opening the store in the past three years and cried bitterly. The arrears are less than two million, but the only house in the family has been mortgaged by him, and the money that can be borrowed has been borrowed, and then the operation continues, it is only more and more indebted. It was almost dawn, he looked at the photos of his wife and children on his mobile phone, stepped on the cigarette butts, and finally resolutely went to a private room on the second floor, where a basin of carbon had been prepared, and the door and window seams also let him tape in advance, which became a secret room with insufficient oxygen.
This man, unable to hold on, finally lit the charcoal fire.
Old Zhao's body was found three days later, because his wife had not been able to contact him for two consecutive days, and he was really worried and ran from his hometown. On the table in the private room was a suicide note:
Yun Yun, son, I'm sorry. Mom and Dad, forgive your son's filial piety.
I couldn't stand it.
I think when I die, you won't have to pay off your debts. Let outsiders spurn me and hate me.
The car that pulled the goods to XX, it is a little money.
The last three hundred pieces of my WeChat have been transferred to my son, hoping that he can study hard, don't be like his father, and achieve nothing.
Old Zhao was gone, but there were still more people living on. The ups and downs of life, the thorns of the road, for most of us, are innumerable. Maybe everyone has experienced a difficult situation, and coming out is hope, and not being able to come out is despair. At the time of writing, I was also experiencing the anxiety of financial stress and couldn't sleep all night. Some people may say that you are not working hard enough, you are not strong enough, everyone will encounter suffering, and they cannot all choose to escape. I agree, but I'm tired. In this world, there are many people who are born as the end of others, and ordinary people can only struggle in the smorgasbord of life.
May each of us be redeemed in times of despair, whether we can save ourselves or him.
This city that has experienced multiple tribulations is called "Zhengzhou", and may my hometown be strong.
The image comes from the Internet
