Chapter 1 Rebirth
"The salary I just received is only two hundred and twenty-eight and seven. You gave me one hundred and eighty. Where is the rest of the money? Did you lend it to someone else?"
"Wife, Dongzi's family is really in trouble. He worked for a private factory this month, and only half of his basic salary was paid. His mother still has no money for medicine this month..."
"They are in a difficult situation! Why don't you look at yourself! How are we better off than them? Just because your daughter pays for medicine, do we think we are richer than them?"
"Wife..."
"I don't care about that. Either you go and ask for the money now, and don't come back if you can't get it back. Or... or you don't want to live like this!"
"Dongzi's mother saw that it would be half a year soon. Dongzi said he would pay it back..."
"Jian Feng! Don't forget that you still have a wife and children! Last month, I took care of my sister and paid for the rent of the stall. We have a lot of bills at home. Are you a wealthy boss? If you are really a wealthy boss, I will help you if you are kind enough! But you are not!"
“…”
"Speak up, why don't you say anything? Aren't you very right? Mr. Jian, are you the only good person in the world? If I was still working in the factory and still getting paid, I wouldn't say anything, but look, my family has just paid the stall rental fee, and Jian Li will be going to high school in two years and needs money... Why didn't you think about these things when you borrowed money!"
…
The quarrel between the parents was separated by the panda curtain with the inscription "A harmonious family brings prosperity". The evening sunlight filtered through the window frames and sprinkled on the not-so-smooth surface of the cement floor, which looked like it was covered with a layer of oil and was glowing with a greasy light.
In the corner of the room hung a mirror with a crack in the middle. Next to it was a calendar with the faded number July 15, 1995 printed on it, and above it were torn and jagged scraps of paper.
At this moment, outside the yellow door with peeling paint, the parents were arguing until they were hoarse.
Jian Li, however, turned a deaf ear and stared at the mirror and calendar in front of her.
It was clear that just a second ago, she was working overtime in the company.
How come I was reborn back to when I was twelve years old the next second?
She pinched her face tentatively, and after a cry of "ouch", she finally confirmed that she was not dreaming.
She really went back to 1995!
Before she could think about it, her mother Wang Mengmei outside the door had already heard her voice.
Wang Mengmei was already furious at her husband's negative attitude after the argument. When she heard her daughter's voice, she knew she had gotten up, so she slammed the door and left, leaving behind a sentence: "You people with the surname Jian are all bad people!"
Jian Li, who had just woken up and hadn't figured out what happened, was scolded by her mother for no reason. But Jian Li breathed a sigh of relief.
It’s definitely her mother who has the habit of swearing!
In the past few decades, Ms. Wang Mengmei has always used the same method of scolding, whether she was scolding men or daughters.
First they discussed the matter at hand, then they dug up old issues, then turned to personal attacks, and finally they made a final judgment, firmly putting the label of "disappointing" on both the father and daughter.
In the next few days, the whole family will have to live in fear. Jian Li and her father Jian Feng already knew how to deal with the furious Wang Mengmei.
Cook your own meals, wash your own clothes, and don't let Wang Mengmei get involved in the housework. And then you have to understand her signals and don't offend Wang Mengmei.
Generally, if there are no issues of principle involved, Wang Mengmei will be fine in three days, and then she will put on a stern face and scold a few times, such as "even dogs won't eat the rice cooked by you", "what kind of clothes do you wash", "you mop the floor like a blind man", and getting a few scoldings like these means that the storm is finally over.
Sure enough, the yellow door creaked open and a relatively young face poked its head in from outside.
Jian Li was stunned for a moment. She had forgotten what her father looked like when he was young.
She just forgot.
The young father is actually so young.
There is no more fatigue caused by the torture of life later, nor is there that kind of gloomy "stability". The wrinkles between the eyebrows that were once motionless have disappeared, and now everything is smooth sailing.
Jian Li stood there blankly, watching her young father hiding the sadness in his eyes and pretending to be nothing when he called her.
"My dear, your mom has probably gone to your Aunt Lijuan's house. What do you want to eat tonight? Dad will make it for you."
Seeing Jian Li not saying anything, Jian Feng was helpless. Now he still had a familiar good-natured smile on his handsome face.
"I knew you didn't like my cooking... I'll go to the cafeteria and buy something for you. What do you want to eat? Steamed noodles or flower rolls?"
Jian Li was just about to say that she didn't want to eat, but her stomach growled, which was particularly disrespectful to her.
"… Let's steam the noodles."
Jian Feng: "Okay, then Dad will go buy it for you now."
Jian Li watched her father walk away. His back was completely different from what she had imagined.
Over the past twenty years, he watched his father's back bend, so much so that he almost forgot that twenty years ago, his father still had a straight spine...
Jian Li pulled open the desk, sat down and began to sort out her confused thoughts.
The sound of the radio could be vaguely heard outside the window. That familiar voice made the faded memories begin to become vivid.
"As summer is approaching, we must pay attention to fire and sun protection issues inside the factory and keep in mind the principles of safe production... The Cotton Mill Radio Station reports for you."
The weather in July is like a fire, and there is no place to hide from the heat. Taocheng is located in the North China Plain, not near the sea or the river. When it is the hottest time of summer, there is not even a breeze.
Jian Li opened the window and felt the heat wave hitting her face.
The cotton spinning factory was established in the 1960s. At its peak, the number of workers exceeded a thousand, and the atmosphere in the west of the city was more lively than other places. It was undoubtedly the largest factory in the area.
But everyone has their glorious moments. After the most exciting few years, the cotton textile factory soon fell into trouble.
Especially in the 1990s, the cotton textile factory was like an old man in his twilight years. Some people stopped working without pay, bought out their seniority, and left one after another. During this process, Jian Li's mother, Wang Mengmei, retired from the canteen kitchen and became one of the laid-off workers. And Jian Li's father will also become one of them in the future.
Those who have worked in factories for most of their lives never imagined that even state-owned factories would collapse one day. They have been workers for so many years, and now they have become the "blind migrants" without jobs that they used to talk about.
Many people could not accept such a change, and Jian Li's father Jian Feng was one of them.
My father Jian Feng has worked in a cotton textile factory in Taocheng for twenty years, from when he took over the business when he was a teenager until now. He probably never imagined that one day the cotton textile factory would actually go bankrupt.
But this day is not far away.
At the end of the next year, the cotton mill failed to collect payment for a batch of goods shipped to the south, and its funding chain was broken. It struggled to survive for a few months, but eventually collapsed. This marked the end of this state-owned factory.
Jian Li let out a breath slowly.
My father didn't have time to get depressed after he retired. He was burdened with the heavy pressure of life and quickly decided to learn to drive. He spent thousands of dollars on a driver's license, which almost exhausted all the family savings and left him with a lot of debt.
Fortunately, I got my driver's license smoothly. Although I spent money on renting a car and a license, and even mortgaged my house for these things, I still made money by driving a taxi in the 1990s, and I soon saw the money back.
Jian Feng carried a load on his back and did not dare to stop for a moment. Other taxi drivers drove eight or nine hours a day, but he drove fifteen or sixteen hours a day. He even had to eat three meals on the street. During this period, Jian Feng worked so hard that he did not even have time to sleep. He just wanted to make money quickly.
A year later, Jian Feng earned some money from selling sports cars. He quickly paid back the money and released the mortgage on his house.
After two years of such hard work, Jian Feng wanted to buy a car for himself. It was natural. Car rental and licenses were too expensive, and they were getting more expensive every year. Not only were they expensive, but the taxi company staff also needed to be taken care of, and it cost a lot of money to pay favors every year.
For laid-off workers, young men in their prime, who cannot find jobs in factories and have wives and children who cannot go out to work, taxi driving has become a good and accessible job.
Jian Feng discussed with his wife and decided to borrow some more money to buy a taxi of his own.
But this time, Jian Feng did something wrong.
A childhood friend who had grown up with him in a cotton textile factory was now a used car dealer. He introduced a used taxi to him with great kindness.
Although Jian Feng had grown up to be a smart person, he could never have imagined that his childhood friend would try to trick him.
A car with hidden scars and a previous criminal record was sold to him.
In less than three months, the car became stolen property and was confiscated by the government.
…
After that, the Jian family basically never got up again.
The car was gone and the money was nowhere to be found.
Jian Feng's ambition to change the status quo was no longer there after he was betrayed by his childhood friend and encountered many other things, big and small.
And Wang Mengmei didn't let him bring it up again.
In Jane Li's words, her mother is an extremely risk-averse person.
In her eyes, anything that has even the slightest risk should not be done.
Wang Mengmei was frightened by the day of repaying her debts, and also by the treacherous human nature.
She ran a pancake stall and asked Jian Feng to take a job delivering goods to a seasoning distributor.
In the past ten years, Jian Li has never said anything bad about her mother.
Even though her mother intervened in all her life decisions, threatened to commit suicide after the college entrance examination to force her to choose a normal school, and required her to become a teacher after graduation. When Jian Li had been working for a few years, she repeatedly asked her to go home for a blind date...
Jian Li can understand it all.
How many decades can a person have in his life?
My parents' prime years were spent half worrying about the precarious situation of the cotton textile factory and half struggling in society.
It’s not that Wang Mengmei didn’t try, but the result was that the family had to tighten their belts to pay off their debts for ten years. Wang Mengmei gave up and guarded her small family tightly, not daring to take any more risks. Like a mother beast in a storm, she no longer trusted anyone, not even her husband and daughter. In the second half of her life, even though life was getting better, she still clung to the ideas she believed in, chewing the pain in her deliberate poverty alleviation.
It was the most difficult year. My family had to pay off a debt before the New Year and couldn’t even buy meat.
Wang Mengmei could only buy two chicken racks to make soup.
That night, with the crackling sound of firecrackers outside, the chicken drumstick soup in their house tasted salty.
Since his father Jian Feng failed to recover from this setback, he has completely lost his sense of presence at home.
Many nights, Jane Li could hear her father's panting next door.
It was not a sigh, but a kind of depression squeezed out from the chest.
It floats lightly, but the person who is pressed down cannot get up.
And Jian Li herself could not escape the storm at home.
Looking at the chubby face in the mirror and the final exam results of last semester that she had just found from the desk, Jian Li sighed.
A weight of 180 kilograms and a score of 18 on the test paper.
Um……
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