Since the Chinese nation lost Premier Zhou, whom the people respect, on 8 January 1976, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, the founder of another republic, on 6 July, and the Tangshan earthquake struck again on 28 July, a huge industrial city, and overnight, more than 200,000 living citizens were buried in the ground, turning them into ghosts and ghosts. Countless lives have been scorned, and countless possessions have been wasted. On September 9, Chairman Mao Zedong, the great leader and mentor, passed away. The death of the three great men one after another means that the Chinese nation has been continuously tormented by lightning and fire.
In the first half of 1977, another strange thing happened across the country, that is, the plant called Arrow Bamboo, which had never been seen for decades, suddenly began to bloom. In the past, there was an old saying: "The pipe bamboo blossoms, and the Zezawa family starves to death[1]". The whole country was suddenly afraid, and the old people said: "The year of adulthood[2] has arrived, and it is time to collect a lot of people[3]." However, there are also many elderly people who say: "Guanzi bamboo will bloom once, bear rice once, and then die together with Guanzi bamboo." For the common people, it is indeed a big year, and they have to shed their skin if they don't die."
When the rice is ripe, it is the time when the countryside is not green. Everyone rushed to the mountains to pick up the rice, and because they felt the novelty, everyone began to cook it into rice and eat it, just like wheat, but it was very rough. Later, some people made it into a glutinous cake, although it was sticky, but it was thicker than the grits. As long as the slightly better farmers stopped eating it, they used it to feed the chickens and ducks. Those difficult peasant families still got the benefits of it, and used it to replace more than ten days of grain, solving a big problem. At that time, I was working as a carpenter in the transportation bureau, and my sister specially sent us some cooked rice and glutinous rice to taste in order to let my father and I try it.
The work of the transportation bureau will take another month or two to complete, and working in that room, which is not afraid of the sun on a sunny day, and is not afraid of rain and drenching, should be considered comfortable. But when I slept with Master Zhou, I heard him say that the automobile team of the Forestry Bureau was going to repair a parking apron and was looking for someone. After listening to this, I thought, most of the people who came out with me, Sidan, Fengwen, Leping, Siqian and others have not found anything to do, why don't I go and wrap it up first, and then call them to do it together, not only did one more project, but also helped these villagers, most of whom were of the same age. Speaking from the bottom of my heart, I don't just do things to get paid for Baotou, and I don't want to make more money by charging Baotou fees, I want to help them out of good intentions.
But when I was young, I made a mistake of principle for the first time in my life. When I signed the "contract" with Captain Chen of the team, I was afraid of trouble to manage the money and accounts, so I didn't think twice and recklessly handed over the advance of food and cash and financial rights to the honest on the surface, but in fact, there were treacherous thoughts hidden in my bones. Because of his youth and carelessness, he left a lot of trouble later.
Because the construction period is summer, although I have not done masonry, but I saw how other masters did it, pounding a parking apron is not strong technical, or easy to operate, that is, first level the ground, and then hit a 10 cm high horizontal pile, separated by a 3 meter X 3 meter telescopic plate, the sand and gravel cement matched, you can pound, grind and polish, release water to maintain health. After calling those idle villagers, everyone is a person who has eaten copper and iron, and under the scorching sun, everyone sweats like rain and complains bitterly, and only wants to complete the project well. At that time, I bought a meal ticket to go to the canteen of the Forestry Bureau to eat rice, pay a food stamp, 1.2 dimes for a meal, three or two rice with vegetables, if you want to add rice, two dimes a pound of rice. At that time, the Forestry Bureau was the fertilizer and water unit of Suining County, and the food in the bureau's staff canteen was still very good. Because of his good food, you have nothing to do with him, and he will not buy a ticket for you to eat.
In the process of production, there are also children in the family who join in. Even the "smashing guy" felt that this made a lot of money, so he came to do it for two days, because he was not in good health and afraid of the sun, so he could only go back to the transportation bureau to do carpentry again. Most of us are seven or eight people, and there are only about ten people at most, and we have to complete a minimum of 3 meters X 3 meters of seven blocks of concrete every day, and after more than ten days of struggle, we finally completed the project. However, the funny thing is that the person who contacted Captain Chen later was Si Qian, and he unconsciously regarded him as a Baotou, and even settled the account with him according to the contract without my knowledge. Since I am the contractor, the tax office requires my tax bill to collect the money from the accounting office of the Forestry Bureau.
What's even more ridiculous is that after I paid the tax and gave him the invoice, I turned my hand at the store and ignored it. Settle the bill, break up, send money and leave, this is the rule of every time you form a side team. Who knew that after he took out the money, his treacherous, cunning, black-hearted, and dead pig's two-sided nature of not being afraid of boiling water was exposed.
I don't know why, I went to buy tools when I started work, and I didn't pay him the remaining 30 yuan in time, so I still had the 30 yuan left in the bag, which is all I got from 15 days of work. According to my rough estimate, each working day should be able to get more than 3 yuan a day, and after deducting taxes and fees, it should be able to net a little more than 3 yuan.
Even I still have 15 or 6 yuan for this bun that he refuses to pay, and most of the others have only borrowed a lot of money in the name of buying meal tickets and cigarettes halfway. Leping doesn't smoke again, and he is afraid of putting the money on his body, so he wants to settle the bill and take the total money home, except for the food expenses of a few yuan, which are still in Si Qian's hands. There are also a dozen or so casual workers who leave in one or two days, and it is estimated that it may be more than 100 yuan to settle everyone's accounts, but less than 200 yuan. But he just insisted on it, and he didn't take out the account, and he only got money if he said that he would deduct money and deduct everything.
At the end of December of that year, everyone also knew that I didn't care about the money, so they came to me and took them to collect the debt, and we went to his house in a group of six or seven people on the 30th. He doesn't reason with you, in a word, he has no money, everyone takes him as a shameless person, a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water, and everyone is superstitious and swears very spiritually at the end of the year, so he has to swear. He was also afraid that many people would be beaten, so he even launched a black-eyed oath without hesitation: "The medicine that gets the money and pays for it." As soon as he swore not to make a tight promise, his wife was already a sick camel[4], and from the second year, her condition was capricious, sometimes severe and sometimes light, and it took five or six years for her illness to improve slightly. It may be the fulfillment of the saying that the person is seeing the sky, and the person is seeing the sky.
Through this incident, I was taught the first lesson in understanding society. I have never experienced and dealt with such a thing alone in the past, and I always feel that society is very beautiful, as simple as me, and so thorough that I don't have a snack. I always think that if I don't take what others have, it is impossible for others to take possession of me. Therefore, I believed in Si Qian's appearance, and I was also confused by his appearance. The project I contracted and handed over the most critical financial power to a hungry wolf, and in the end he swallowed it without even spitting out the bones, which is tantamount to selling people's trust in me and trampling on my life and dignity, which is the most unspeakable sorrow in my life.
Of course, I didn't get paid because I was to blame, and even my friends and even Si Dan volunteered for Si Qian. I paid him the penny for the medicine, and it was a bit of a fire at the city gate, which affected the fish pond. To be honest, this incident will affect my whole life, and I will feel guilty for the rest of my life for those who are not paid. But after this incident, you have to think twice about everything, no matter what you do, you can do it, if you don't handle it well, you just don't get involved, don't do the fish and don't eat it, but get a fishy wicked person. Whether it is a society or an organization, financial rights and human rights are equally important. There is also the need not to be a senseless good person, an honest person, to do what should be done, to talk about what should be said, and to fight for one's own interests.
Just like at noon today, we went to the Wuling Rural Bank to make a deposit. It was noon meal time, the rest of the people were resting, even the lottery machine stopped working, there was only one window for business, everyone did not draw numbers, consciously according to the order to the business window to handle business, I stepped into the business hall, another slightly younger man than me a few steps later into the business hall, I went straight to the upper customer's seat, and he went straight to the window, took out a few cards, asked the upper customer if it was done, that attitude completely ignored the existence of my first arrival. Originally, I was an idler, and it didn't hurt if I was in a good mood to let go, but he ignored my attitude of existence, which angered me, and I immediately put the money and the fold before I left, and I entered the window instead, judging from my actions, although I was older than him, but I was not a master to be messed with, and he looked at me with his eyes, and he could only accept the facts.
People are like this, they must know how to defend their rights and protect themselves. Blindly talk about human feelings, and endure infinitely, when the time comes, not only will you suffer, but you will also be the one who can become people's laughter, because people are good at being bullied, and horses are good at being ridden. It's not your ability to be honest, it's that you're not capable. However, humility and tolerance are the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, and most people still advocate modesty and tolerance, and only a very small number of people will feel a trace of guilt when they are tortured in the depths of their souls, but they will not get a good retribution after all.
2019.4.25. Yuwuling Yuanxibu Street
exegesis
[1] Sawazawa Family: Dialects. Both words are homophonic. In the countryside, children are called Zeze's family.
[2] Da Nian Cheng: dialects. Very difficult, even starving people to death.
[l3] Cao people: dialects. Refers to all living persons.
[4] Sick camel: dialect. A special title for a person who has been suffering from illness for many years and has been cut off from his roots.