At midnight, at a food stall in Yongqiao District, Suzhou, Anhui Province, a white-haired old man bent over his waist to carry a basket and sold his snacks table by table. The old man's name is Li Xueying, and he is more than 70 years old. Every day, she was always the first to come to the food stall and the last to leave.
The basket contained peanuts, salted duck eggs and steamed corn bread she had made herself. Whether it's windy or rainy, she always rides her worn-out bike out at 6:30 p.m., arrives at the food stall at 7 p.m. on time, and stays busy until 2 or 3 a.m.
She is known to both the owner of the food stall and the diners, and many diners take care of her business:
"As long as she comes and others don't buy her, buy her."
For more than a decade, she repeated this life day after day. For a few hours in the evening, she continued to run. To reduce the number of times she goes to the toilet, she rarely drinks water, hot or cold, so she can't fight every day.
According to her own calculations, she needs to work more than 15 hours a day continuously, except for a little sleep time, but even such a high-intensity work can only bring her 60-70 yuan of income.
Li Xueying's place to live is very simple, less than 20 square meters. This is a grocery store used to store briquettes. The room was piled high with clutter, and in a corner there were some leftovers.
Suzhou is a small city and consumption is not high. With her income, there's reason to say life won't be so difficult. And, at such an age, she should be living a leisurely retirement life at home, with her children and grandchildren around her knees, very happy. But why is she busy at the food stalls in the middle of the night?
It turned out that many years ago, her life was not like this.
Although her husband died early, she had two children who were both doing well academically. After graduation, her eldest daughter stayed in the provincial capital hefei, and the youngest son successfully found a job after graduation. She has two houses at home, retires at home, has a monthly pension of 600 yuan, and her living conditions are very good.
But a few days later, her daughter was diagnosed with cancer, and Li Xueying rushed to Hefei to take care of her daughter, but when she returned to her hometown, she found her son missing.
They told Li Xueying that her son owed them a lot of money and they couldn't find him, so they had to come and ask for money.
Li Xueying took a lot of effort to find her son Wang Kunpeng and learned the whole story from Wang Kunpeng:
"My father died very early. It's not easy for you to mention me and my sister. I want you to live a good life as soon as possible. ”
It turned out that some people in Wang Kunpeng's department were trading stocks. After understanding the situation, he moved his mind. After reading a lot of books about stock trading, he felt he should be able to outperform the stock market.
However, stock trading requires principal, and the family does not have the money to trade stocks for him. So Wang Kunpeng found his relatives and friends, promised them usury, and successfully borrowed money.
She calculated that the retirement salary was 600 yuan per month and 7200 yuan a year. It will take 100 years to pay off this huge debt.
My son suffered a catastrophe that shattered Ang Lee's desire to spend his old age. Although Chinese law stipulates that parents are not obliged to repay the debts of their adult children, Li has not evaded them. Her first thought was to pay off her son's debts.
"It's my son's fault, the loss to others. I have no reason to run away, to run away from hardship, to run away from debt. I should take responsibility for the mistakes my son made. ”
At one point, she couldn't hold on and fainted in the hospital.
When she fainted, the patient's family did not dare to use her again.
In desperation, she thought about when she used to work in the restaurant, saw what the vendors were selling, and she thought she could do it.
So she began to try to cook noodles at home during the day, boil peanuts and salted duck eggs, and sell them at Dai stalls at night.
Gradually, more and more people began to get to know her, knowing that she worked so hard to pay off her son's debts. Some sympathized with her and were willing to give her more money. However, she was stubborn, refused to accept such handouts, and always gave money to others.
It's not uncommon to find money when selling snacks at food stalls. Several times, Lee found a wallet, but each time she did not hesitate to return it to the owner.
She said, "You should give it to someone else." It's their stuff. It's their labor. ”
In the face of an elderly mother, as a son, you don't know if you have considered her situation. For years, your mom has been waiting for you to come back.
She didn't change addresses or move. She knows that even if you don't remember someone else's address, you'll remember your home address.
For an elderly mother who is already old, the biggest wish in this life is to know the news of her son's safety, and sincerely hope that you can return to your mother and start a new life.