Repeated epidemics have brought many groups that are not usually concerned by the public to the center of the media and public opinion, such as truck drivers.
According to relevant agencies, there are 30 million truck drivers in China.
Eighty percent of them are farmers, and more than half have two children and shoulder the responsibility of supporting the elderly on both sides. Roughly estimated, they bear the livelihood of nearly 150 million rural people, and they are the basis and guarantee for the efficient circulation and operation of the entire large domestic market in China.
The car is a means of making a living, but also the whole life.
Taking the car as a home, eating and sleeping in the wind, is the norm; occupational diseases are plagued, social attention is not high, it is the status quo; but this does not affect their optimism, open-mindedness, enthusiasm, a wide range of interests, and even romanticism.
You may not have thought that this group of seemingly rough, dark, straight-forward driver masters are not only rich in experience, but also very interesting.
In the winter of 2019, the film crew spent two months filming the "sports car life" of three truck drivers.
They are of different ages, experiences and personalities. In addition to experiencing the hardships and even dangers of sports cars, the film crew deeply felt the cuteness of the driver masters and the practical "wisdom of life" accumulated over the years.
So there was this series: Life on Wheels.
Poet driver is Sheng Xuerong's more well-known name in the circle of truck drivers.
Lao Sheng from Zhangye, Gansu Province, has been running a sports car for some years. At first, I drove a semi-trailer, and then in order to make more money, I turned to a board truck.
Sheng Xuerong is a bit famous in the truck circles of the country, first, because he wrote poetry and published poetry collections; second, because he was brave and resourceful, he once used a stone to recover a malicious debt.
In the first episode of "Life on Wheels", we came to know him together.
(Click to watch the full video)
"I am more advocating freedom."
Being a truck driver is Sheng Xuerong's own choice. At first, he ran from Gansu to Guangdong, mainly pulling vegetables; later, because his son was admitted to a university in Chengdu, he changed the route from Gansu to Sichuan, "convenient for children".
(Lao Sheng and son)
When he was filming, because his son happened to have something to stay in Xinjiang, Lao Sheng deliberately adjusted the route and went to Xinjiang.
"It's very hard to do this, but it's free and it can go wherever it wants, so it keeps going."
It's not ordinary bitterness.
Most of the time, sitting in the car during the day, sleeping in the car at night, and eating meals are often solved on the spot. Although the threshold for doing this work is low, it is often looked down upon, but in lao Sheng's eyes, "we can't choose our origin, and the profession is only a difference in the social division of labor." I am diligent and earnest, and if I do my job well, I will not be inferior to anyone, nor worse than anyone."
"After years of running on the road, the heart will be more lonely." 」
Friends are mostly car buddies, they are on the road, and the routes are different, so there is very little time to get together; less time to get together with relatives at home, and the time spent at home in a year does not add up to more than a month. Although his wife chose to follow the car from a very early age, there were always some words that she could not understand, a sense of loneliness that she could not understand, and Lao Sheng felt that she needed an exit.
"No one will fully understand you, so if you have some words and some thoughts in your heart, you can only write it down." 」
(Lao Sheng recorded his own words casually on the side of the road)
Lao Sheng only had a Chinese in his early years, and his family's economic conditions were not good in the early years, so he dropped out of school very early to find a livelihood and earn money.
But he has always liked literature since he was a student, just began to write in the book to see for himself, and then he had a mobile phone, and slowly he would post what he wrote on the Internet.
"I've also written novels, and I like literature, but I always feel like it." Speaking of his eventual choice to focus on writing poetry, he added: "Especially like our sports car, there is not so much time."
It's too hard to write a novel, and poetry is better. It's short and less laborious, but it can be very straightforward. If you have a little feeling and thought in your heart, you can write.
Sometimes the inspiration comes at once, but when you can't write, you first use the mobile phone to record it in voice, a few words, a very smooth feeling. When there is spare time, then process it, and you can send it to the riders to share.
Therefore, it is often where to go, when there is a feeling and hair, three or three poems jump out of the circle of friends.
(Lao Sheng's circle of friends are all verses)
Everyone is a big business, and they are similar in the hearts of the outside, so some ideas are easy to resonate.
In 2018, Sheng Xuerong's poem "Mid-Autumn Night Reflections" was included in the first collection of literary works created by the truck driver group in China, "Beautiful Hearts on the Highway".
Raise a glass of wine from another country
Look at the pass of your hometown
I vaguely saw my mother leaning on the door and looking into her eyes
The smoker in my father's hand flickered on and off
The smoke filled the melancholy of a garment with water
The autumn moon overflowing with countless acacias
—— "Mid-Autumn Night Reflections"
"Man should live with his own thoughts. My feet may be stuck in the dirt, but my heart can be on the clouds. In this way, life may be very bitter, but my heart will not be bitter."
Most people who can write poetry are romantic. And the romance of the poet Lao Sheng was given to his lover.
At that time, the sisters of the same village married a neighbor who was still Xiaosheng at the time. As soon as they came and went, the two of them met.
When asked about the pursuit of "means" at that time, Lao Sheng, who was almost 50 years old, was a little shy.
"Chased, chased."
At that time, there was no mobile phone, and it was not convenient to go to each other's homes, although the two were not far away, but they were separated by a deep river, and the road was also very difficult to walk. "So our communication is to write a letter."
(Lao Sheng and his wife)
Xiao Sheng wrote letters to the girls he liked, one by one, "My literary style is very good, and even if I read those letters now, they will not be bad."
When Lao Sheng said this, he had been sitting silently looking at his lover and smiled shyly. You can see that the smile is very contented and happy.
"I just don't write it now." After getting married, I never wrote it again," the eldest sister, who had not spoken, complained happily.
But when asked if he still wanted to receive the love letter written by Lao Sheng, the big sister who looked slightly older than the woman of the same age because of the perennial car showed the shyness of a little girl.
"Of course I want to, but it's important to drive and get by."
(Lao Sheng and his wife who eat and rest in the car)
Because he wanted to take more care of Lao Sheng and take care of each other, although it was hard to follow the car, Sheng Xuerong's lover still chose to run a car with him. "Even if I talk to him on the road and get him stuttering, I am at ease."
As a truck driver, the threshold is actually not high.
In the words of Lao Sheng, "You don't need too high a culture, nor do you need any academic qualifications, anyway, as long as you have sound limbs, can endure hardships, and learn a driving book, you can do it."
However, to be a qualified truck driver, Sheng Xuerong has his own set of standards.
"You have to be a good person with quality, so that you can be a good driver." Being a person first, and then doing things is the criterion of Lao Sheng.
So sports cars have been encountering all kinds of bad things for so many years, "cheating, stealing, and even robbing", and he has his own set of coping and handling methods. What he relishes most is the experience of maliciously defaulting on freight bills.
(Lao Sheng at the gas station)
That time it was from Lanzhou to Urumqi, "said that after unloading the goods, I would pay the freight, and as a result, I didn't give it for several months." Lao Sheng heard that the other party was addicted to gambling and owed a lot of debts, so he intercepted the freight of the truck drivers to "fill the hole".
But the family has other businesses in operation, not to the point of "running out of mountains and rivers", so Lao Sheng decides that he must find a way to get his hard-earned money back.
"Playing a rogue at the beginning, crying poor with me" Recalling the scene at that time, Lao Sheng was quite self-satisfied. The urging was in the office of the other party at the freight station, "I saw a stone on his desk, and I suddenly had a bottom in my heart."
Lao Sheng, who usually studies stones a little, has a plan at the moment, taking advantage of the other party's efforts to "perform", pick up the stones and run outside. While showing the other drivers who were loading and unloading trucks, telling them that the stone was worth a lot of money and that he had paid for it himself, he continued to run outside, shouting that he would throw the stone into the river at the intersection to relieve his resentment.
The boss was in a hurry, chasing and persuading at the same time. "Finally, pay me back the money you owe me."
Lao Sheng is also famous in the circle of car friends because of this "legendary" salary seeking experience.
Today, Sheng Xuerong still drives his huge plate truck through the road, and his old partner, the introverted, little talking, and big sister who lives with the little girl in her heart, has also been following the car.
I hope they are all safe. I also hope that the epidemic will pass quickly, so that the 30 million truck drivers across the country can smoothly, safely and happily transport their truckloads of goods to the destination and exchange them for money to support their families.
-END-
Written by / A Bear
Design / Liu Dandan, drinking sheep soup
Typography / Jin Ziqi