The wedding was held in the county town as scheduled. My master was the witness that day. After three rounds of drinks, he pulled me over while I was toasting him and said with tears in his eyes, "Hongjun, you are about to graduate. You are getting married today. This is a double happiness. I am really happy for you. My two apprentices have become a couple. This is the happiest thing in my life, Fu Hongjun."
With tears in my eyes, I said to Master, "Once a teacher, always a father. I will never forget the kindness you have shown me."
He shook his head, pointed at the tip of my nose and said, "Guan Hongjun, am I that old? What do you mean by father for life? We want to be brothers for life."
After that we hugged each other tightly.
This is my most vivid memory of my wedding day.
Fu Hongjun is the brother I admire most in my life, and Fu is the friend I am most grateful to in my life. Without him, I would never be able to get out of the darkest moment of my life, and would struggle in the quagmire of humbleness all my life.
After the wedding, I willingly submitted to the arrangement of fate and began an ordinary life of cooking and cooking.
Not long after Zhang Fangfang and I finished our apprenticeship, she stroked her growing belly and looked forward to our bright future.
She said that after we both finished our apprenticeships, our salary increased by more than 100 yuan each, so that we could provide better conditions for our unborn child.
I was not as optimistic as she was, because I had a sense that a storm was coming that would affect everyone.
I smelled something different from the reports in the news media.
The reform of state-owned enterprises is imperative. If we do not change the current situation of rigid system, outdated mechanism, waste of resources and heavy burden, the enterprises will lose in the increasingly fierce market competition.
But reform will always require someone to pay a price and make sacrifices.
Soon, the factory held a mobilization meeting to reduce staff and increase efficiency, and at the same time announced the first list of layoffs.
Zhang Fangfang and I had just graduated as apprentices, so we were naturally classified as non-technical backbones and skilled workers, and were honored to be on the big red list.
How ridiculous it is that a list concerning everyone's future and livelihood was announced on a festive red paper.
This was like a bolt from the blue for Zhang Fangfang and I. Both of us quit our jobs, which meant we no longer had a stable source of income.
Looking at her crying on the bed, I felt extremely complicated.
I'm not afraid of being laid off. I even hope that this factory will be closed down soon. By then, those people who bully others all day long will no longer have the qualifications to act so arrogantly.
I was also afraid of being fired. If I was fired, I would become an unemployed vagrant. Although I still had a labor relationship with the factory on the surface, no one would care whether I was alive or dead.
The next day, my master called me and asked me to go to the workshop.
I found him in the locker room, gathering his belongings.
I asked curiously, "Master, what is this for?"
The master smiled and said to me calmly, "I'm leaving my post."
I said, "Why not? You are the technical master of the whole factory. It is not your turn."
The master stopped what he was doing, looked at me and said, "I took the initiative to ask for you to be replaced."
I widened my eyes in surprise, and then couldn't help crying, "Master, Master's wife's factory has a long vacation, how are you going to make a living if you leave your job?"
My master came over and wiped my tears, and comforted me: "Your sister-in-law is still paying for my living expenses. I took the initiative to quit my job not only because of you, but mainly because I am not happy with my job. Look at what the factory has become under their management. I want to go out and work on my own."
I said firmly, "Master, I will go with you."
He shook his head. "Not yet. I don't know if it's a dead end or a way out. You need a stable income now."
I said that enterprise restructuring is the general trend. After the first batch of people came to Xiagang, there will be the second and third batches. It will be a matter of time.
He smiled approvingly.
Then I started complaining and scolded all the factory leaders as "bad guys" one by one.
The master placed his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and said earnestly, "Hongjun, don't learn to complain. Complaining won't solve any problems."
He pushed me onto the chair and sat next to me.
Then he said to me, "Hongjun, have you ever thought about this: if you were in the position of a factory leader, would you be able to change the problem of poor corporate management and the resignation of corporate employees?"
I shook my head. I'm not being humble. I just don't think I have the strength to do it.
“So, this is not a question of good or bad people. It can even be said that this is not a question of people at all. Look forward, everything will be fine. Master believes in you.”
He gave me a firm look, picked up his backpack and strode out.
Looking at his tall back, I was still immersed in the lingering words he said.
Some time later, when I took up a leadership position, I suddenly had an epiphany and came to a profound realization. I also understood the profound meaning of the phrase "put power in the cage of status."
My master helped me when I was in desperate situation, and I got the opportunity to continue working in the factory.
Zhang Fangfang was really retired, and she sighed every day in her small room of less than 40 square meters. Sometimes she would stare at the birds on the branches of the tree outside the window, and would watch for a long time.
She became slovenly and forgetful, and the light in her eyes gradually disappeared.
So I tried to comfort her in every way, saying that quitting the job would be a good thing for her, as it would give her the opportunity to stay at home and take care of her baby.
She didn't appreciate my kindness at all, and pointed at my nose and scolded me, "Guan Hongjun, don't cry wolf. If it weren't for the master's help, you would be an unemployed vagrant now. I want to keep the baby? Why should I keep the baby? I might as well get rid of this burden now."
Seeing that I kept silent, she did not think that I was tolerating her, but thought that I was confronting her with silence.
Then she began to cry heartbreakingly and beat her stomach with her fists.
She cried and shouted, "Guan Hongjun, you are a filthy rascal. You acted like a rascal in school and you acted like a rascal with me in the factory. You were having fun lying on my belly and I have to suffer like this."
At this time, her hair was disheveled, and she no longer looked as neat and neat as she had been when she was my "senior sister". Of course, I could no longer see the admiration and adoration she once had for me in her eyes. Instead, there was only disgust and hatred.
What changed her in such a short time? I don't know. I can't guess.
I remembered what my grandmother said when I was a child: "If you don't know who is wrong, then you are wrong."
It seems that this is all my fault.
I stood in the small space in the room and began to slap myself frantically with my palms.
The slapping sound startled her. She looked up at me, her eyes changing from resentment to surprise, and then from surprise to heartache.
She jumped out of bed, grabbed my hand, snuggled into my arms, and started crying.
That night, she pestered me to do that thing. I couldn't resist, so I had to satisfy her quietly.
Listening to her soft snoring, I looked at the waning moon outside the window, without any emotional surges, but surprisingly calm.
In the face of survival, I chose to live in humbleness and compromise. Life is like a glass of clear water, and I don't expect brown sugar or white sugar to be dissolved in it.
After hearing my experience, Tang Xiaomei said that a poor wife has many worries, and Zhang Fangfang was a poor person. She just wanted a self-reliant and comfortable life. But the great era shattered her dream.