The Spring Festival of "Original People": Visiting relatives becomes visiting fellow villagers

"The flow of the city is too frequent, and people are in love"

The Spring Festival of "Original People": Visiting relatives becomes visiting fellow villagers

Reporter Liu Xiaoyan

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Visiting relatives and friends is a necessary activity during the Spring Festival, for migrant workers who stay in the city to work hard, relatives and friends in their hometown can only rely on mobile phones to contact, but there are also "relatives" in the city who can take a walk. Fellow villagers and families bring solace to their frequent mobility and heavy work, and younger migrant workers look forward to the reunion of the Spring Festival to spark some romantic sparks.

At 6:30 p.m. on January 31 Chinese New Year's Eve, Liu Yan, a delivery man who was on the delivery road, received a WeChat message from Shu Feng, a fellow fellow worker in Beijing, agreeing to go to Liu Yan's rental house to eat hot pot after work on the third day of the Chinese New Year on February 3. Liu Yan, who saw the news, laughed happily, and the light of the mobile phone screen illuminated the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, and also illuminated his life during the Chinese New Year in Beijing.

Visiting relatives and friends is an essential activity during the Spring Festival. Many migrant workers still choose to be the "original people" of the local New Year this year. For them, relatives and friends in their hometown can only rely on mobile phones to contact, and most of the relatives and friends who walk around the city are fellow villagers.

"Feel like home away from home with your fellow countrymen"

After Shu Feng sent a message to Liu Yan, he also specifically told him that he didn't need to buy anything, they could bring ready-made. According to Liu Yan, this is because the other two small children work in supermarkets, and they can buy a lot of discounted meat and vegetables after work, and the beer is responsible for Shu Feng, who delivers the courier. "I was still afraid that the dishes were not enough, and I went to buy more than 100 yuan of kebabs, and I had to eat them all from my hometown!" Liu Yan said.

Usually, he did not leave work until 9 o'clock, and it was rare that he stopped taking orders at 7:30 p.m. on the third day of junior high school. After the 4 people arrived, they immediately got busy. Washing vegetables, cutting meat, boiling water, setting the table, as the hot pot soup gets more and more boiling, the atmosphere of reunion becomes stronger and stronger.

Although everyone is in Beijing, the distance is only 3 kilometers, but usually busy with their own work, some also work two jobs, it is generally difficult to get together. "We didn't drink much that night, but we talked a lot, such as how much money we made this year, what happened in our hometown, whether the children listened... It's just a blind talk, but there are endless words. "It wasn't until 1 a.m. that the gathering of old friends ended.

"We grew up together, and that night was like eating and chatting together in our hometown, and we slept very soundly that night." Speaking of this, Liu Yan's tone became brisk, and some tears were also sandwiched in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Fellow countrymen are words that many migrant workers cannot avoid. It was also the villagers of the neighboring villages who brought Liu Yan from Xiangfen County, Linfen, Shanxi to Beijing 6 years ago. After coming to Beijing, he directly joined the takeaway team where his hometown was located, responsible for orders for 3 kilometers near Hepingli in Beijing's Dongcheng District.

I don't have the time or energy to expand my social circle

In the 6 years of takeaway career, Liu Yan worked almost every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and most of the days off every week were used to run singles, gradually changing from a novice to a veteran. In 2019, the old brother who took Liu Yan into the city was getting older and older, and his body was a bit overwhelmed, so he returned to his hometown with more than 200,000 yuan saved by saving money. The only people who went out to earn money together and are still in Beijing are the only 3 small people who eat hot pot with Liu Yan.

Busy work, on the one hand, makes Liu Yan have no time to expand his social circle, on the other hand, he is less willing to spend energy on social. According to him, the peak of food delivery by takeaway workers is concentrated in three time periods: 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning, 10:30 to 1:30 in the afternoon, and 5:30 to 7:30 in the afternoon. "Every day I came back to wash up and lie in bed and play with my phone for a while, I am now in my 40s, and I don't have enough rest to work the next day."

In the past 6 years, the members of the delivery team have also been constantly changing, but the communication between them is limited to chatting in the gap between the delivery orders. Liu Yan told reporters, "The flow of the city is too frequent, people are in love, and it is difficult to have any contact as soon as people leave." During this period, he alone moved 8 times, and it was unlikely that he would maintain a stable relationship with his neighbors.

Compared with Liu Yan, who needs to deliver meals often outside, Luo Chun, a 55-year-old cleaner, has much smaller activity space. She and her husband, from Renxian Town, Liangping District, Chongqing, are in charge of cleaning the two floors of a company's dormitory area, and the couple also lives in the dormitory area. Every morning at 6 a.m., the two men clean the hallways, bathrooms, and kitchens before the employees get up, and remove trash cans, at least three times a day.

Due to the repeated epidemic situation at the end of the year, Luo Chun and his wife stayed according to the arrangement. Chinese New Year's Eve night, Luo Chun returned to the small room with the cooked dumplings, turned on the TV that could only be searched for two stations, and watched the Spring Festival Gala with her husband.

This room is also the main range of activities for the couple. Luo Chun said: "Usually do not dare to go far, at most go to the nearby vegetable market to buy vegetables or around the community, mainly worried that employees need to open the lock or move things can not find anyone." On the other hand, she also believes that she speaks the Chongqing dialect, chats with others for fear that the other party will not understand, and her husband, who has been accompanying her, has become her most reliable reliance in the city.

"Harvest" loved ones in the city

Some people have lovers in the city, and some people are also looking forward to meeting love in the city, su Yujie is the latter. The 20-year-old from Huarong County, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, followed her cousin to Beijing to work after graduating from high school in 2020. At that time, my cousin asked her hometown in Beijing to contact a Hunan restaurant in Xicheng District, and Su Yujie became a waiter after successfully applying.

Although it is the first time to go out to work, fortunately, most of the restaurants are Hunan compatriots, and Su Yujie has received a lot of attention from everyone. "I didn't speak Mandarin well at first, but my boss arranged for me to be a cashier for a period of time to practice slowly, and everyone told me how to do it little by little."

After gradually adapting to work, Su Yujie began to have more exploration of urban life, and when the weekly shift was off, she would ask other colleagues in the restaurant to go out and around, "The Drum Tower walked for half an hour, and then took a car to climb over the Great Wall." Su Yujie's cheerful "Xiang Meizi" personality made the restaurant's chef Bai Wei have a good feeling for her.

Bai Wei's intentions, Su Yujie is not unaware, she also thinks in her heart that the other party knows how to take care of people and works diligently. During the Spring Festival, the boss gave everyone a two-day holiday, and Su Yujie took the initiative to ask Bai Wei to go to see a movie, "After watching the movie, we walked around casually, as if we were naturally together." Speaking of this, Su Yujie was still a little blushing and shy: "This Spring Festival is more special for me, it can be said that I have gained another relative." ”

Liu Yan also gradually understood that the experience of young people in the city was already somewhat different from theirs. At the end of 2019, he took his 15-year-old son to Beijing and helped find a job as an apprentice in a barbershop. "My son's work place is in Chaoyang District, the company manages accommodation, usually we are both busy with each other, fortunately in the past two years he has done a good job, do not need me to worry about it." Liu Yan said.

On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, Liu Yan deliberately found an authentic shabu-shabu lamb shop and ate a reunion dinner with his son. Interestingly, the son, who usually never asks his father for money, took the initiative to ask for 200 yuan on this day. "Well, children, I still want to put some pressure on the old money in the New Year." Liu Yan said frankly, "It is good to be able to get together during the Spring Festival."

(At the request of the interviewees, some pseudonyms)

Source: Workers Daily