In September 2021, Hurricane Ada swept across the southern United States, triggering massive power outages in the United States and turning many homeless people into refugees ever since. After the flood waters receded, in a basement, municipal officials found the bodies of a family of three.
The family of three, all of whom were of Chinese descent, had been dead for days when they were lifted out of the basement by the municipal personnel. They have no relatives in the United States, and only hubei compatriots will come forward to help them cremate and send the bones back to China.
The protagonist of this story is called Leng Hongsheng, who was once the president of the Wuhan Design Institute. According to common sense, such a person should have a very decent life in China, but why did he end up dying in a foreign country? This is a story that makes people strangle and sigh, and it also makes people sigh that foreign countries are really not a paradise.
Leng Hongsheng was born in Liaoning, from a young age to eat and drink, smart and clever he was soon admitted to the university, and after graduation into the Wuhan water conservancy department to work. In the 1970s, the college entrance examination had just been restored, and the country did not have so many high-tech talents, and he was gradually reused because he had a university diploma, and was transferred to the Yangtze River Basin Office, which was responsible for the planning of water conservancy facilities.
In those days, if you could become a construction engineer, it was very respectable. Wuhan's urban construction has entered the fast lane after the reform and opening up, so construction engineers are definitely a rare shortage.
Soon, he entered the Wuhan Architectural Design Institute. Because of his hard work and high skill, Leng Hongsheng soon became the dean of the design institute, with a high salary and generous treatment, and he met his wife Shen Aihua at this time, and the two soon married. At that time, Shi Aihua was only 20 years old, but Leng Hongsheng was already in his fifties.
Within a few years, Leng Hongsheng's daughter was born, and the family lived a very happy life.
In the 1990s, Leng Hongsheng retreated to the second line and was no longer responsible for the work of the front line. Work suddenly became idle, and Leng Hongsheng began to like painting. His paintings were very popular among the old cadres and were often sent to the Calligraphy and Painting Association for exhibition. Such a life can be said to be the retirement life that many people yearn for.
But at this time, Leng Hongsheng suddenly changed his temperament.
In the 1990s, even cadres could only live in the tube building assigned by the unit, and they could have refrigerators and televisions at home, which was the life of a superior person. But Leng Hongsheng does not think so, he often sees the United States on TV and movies, coinciding with the wave of immigration in the 90s, he has always wanted to live abroad. He believes that if he can settle in the United States, it will be the greatest luck.
So he began to go through the immigration procedures, but he had no money, he was not a young man, and he was also a party member, so how could the Americans accept him? But Leng Hongsheng still had a mind to go to the United States.
Soon, he issued himself a tourist visa to visit New York, USA. But when he arrived in the United States, he went straight to the U.S. Immigration Department, claiming that he had been severely persecuted and hoped to apply for asylum. At that time, the United States still attached great importance to ideology, so it did not hesitate to accept Leng Hongsheng, and arranged for many reporters to interview him.
Soon, he became a celebrity in the American Chinese circles, many anti-societies invited him to give speeches, and even joined the so-called Global Artists Association, which is also a famous pheasant organization, as long as they pay dollars, anyone can enter, there is no real talent and practical artists in this, all are all kinds of reactionaries.
However, Leng Hongsheng is still a thoughtful determination, finding these people is like finding his own family, so in the years when he first came to the United States, Leng Hongsheng lived very comfortably. The U.S. government would pay him some fees, and many anti-society would invite him to dinner. With his crazy smear of the motherland, he also received subsidies from the CIA.
But as U.S. policy changed and the so-called dean of design was always the same, no matter what, the Americans stopped providing him with allowances.
Leng Hongsheng, who suddenly lost his source of livelihood, was stupid, and he wanted to be an architect at first, but he was old and did not have any really famous buildings to do, and he could not find a job as an architect. So he thought of selling paintings for a living, after all, a retired old cadre like himself would be too humiliated if he went to a restaurant to wipe the dishes.
But to be honest, Leng Hongsheng's painting looks left and right, which is what it is, which can only be regarded as a relatively high level among amateur players. As an international metropolis, where will there be a market for the paintings of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Cold Red Army? So he had to go to the street next to Times Square to set up a stall with the homeless to paint portraits of others to make money. Such a painting costs only ten dollars, and not every day people ask him to paint a portrait.
There is no doubt that his life in the United States began to be very unsatisfactory, and what made him feel even more unbalanced was that his life was all supported by his wife's retirement salary, year after year, he found that the domestic retirement salary has been rising, but he chose to pretend to be stupid at this time, he was unwilling to return to China to admit his mistakes, he only wanted to live the life in his mind.
He has been bragging to his relatives at home that he is doing well abroad, while also urging his wife and children to come to the United States with him. All along, he did not have formal U.S. health insurance and Social Security.
In such a life, he is not entitled to live in a nursing home in the United States. At this time, his daughter also suffered from autism, so Leng Hongsheng urged his daughter to hurry to the United States, saying that the United States has developed medical care and can quickly cure her daughter's illness.
But he did not know that medical care in the United States can only be enjoyed by medical insurance, and people without medical insurance will have to spend sky-high medical expenses. Leng Hongsheng himself was almost unable to get by, so how could he have the money to treat his daughter? However, Leng Hongsheng's wife still sold the house and came to the United States with her daughter.
After they came to the United States, they found that they had been deceived by Leng Hongsheng. The money from the sale of the house will soon run out, but the husband is not willing to return to China, and the wife will naturally not be able to go back on her own.
He doesn't know English and has no retirement salary, so he has to rummage through the garbage cans in the streets and alleys and live by picking up garbage. Collecting garbage in the United States is still a rather oily thing, so Shen Aihua can only drag Leng Hongsheng to walk around the streets and alleys to find trash cans.
The former director of the design institute, a senior intellectual, was reduced to a tramp on the streets of the United States, and he and his wife went around picking up garbage to live. But thanks to Shen Aihua's efforts, they still had a little savings, and the three of them rented a basement. In this 20-square-meter cold and damp basement, a family of three is crowded here, accompanied by rats.
But Leng Hongsheng was very satisfied, for him, being able to find a place to live was much more stable than before. He even boasted to friends at home that it was better to live in a basement in the United States than at home. But in fact, they live in an environment of rats, people living together, wives and daughters are sick for three days, and such a day can be said to be simply not human.
In the slums they rent, there is no so-called municipal maintenance at all, so the waterproofing measures are basically zero. During the torrential rain brought by the hurricane, the basement was flooded with rainwater. Their family is actually a black household in the United States, there is no chance to escape, and naturally no one will pay attention to these three Chinese. Only when the flood waters receded did the municipal staff inspect the drainage system that they suddenly found that there were three people in the basement.
At this point, Leng Hongsheng's story is completely over. You can say that this story is a tragedy, or you can say that this story is a farce, but this story finally has a sad ending.
Leng Hongsheng's encounter shows us very profoundly that the United States is by no means a paradise in the eyes of the vast majority of people. It's a place where the law of the jungle is a matter of survival of the fittest, and more importantly, white people here are always on top and look down on any minority. Otherwise, why do blacks and Mexicans rise up every year to protest the injustices they have suffered?
Leng Hongsheng has always been unable to drill this bull's horn tip, he believes that he is a high-level intellectual, and when he goes abroad, he will definitely be treated better than at home. He couldn't believe or believe that China would develop so rapidly in recent years. His jealousy of the country and the anesthesia of himself completely distorted his personality. Until his death, he stubbornly believed that the moon in a foreign country was rounder than the domestic one.
There is no doubt that Leng Hongsheng is sad. He went from the revered retired dean to the rat-eaten corpse in the basement, perhaps with only a single thought. Perhaps many people say that the more you go abroad, the more patriotic you are, and this is exactly the truth. Leng Hongsheng's story warns us that cherishing our current life is no better place in the world than at home.