Chapter 28 Ruan Xiaofen's Third Time Travel
My consciousness was awakened by a strong smell of cheap face cream and a damp, musty odor.
Chu Yanxi suddenly opened her eyes, her vision filled with a mottled, yellowed ceiling stained with water. Beneath her was a hard, uncomfortable wooden bed, covered with a thin, faded, and worn-out sheet. The air was stuffy and sticky, a mixture of sweat, foot odor, cheap cosmetics, and a faint scent of disinfectant, making it hard for the fastidious Chu Yanxi to breathe.
All around me were the low whispers of the female workers, their accents coming from all over the country, buzzing like countless flies, filled with anxiety and unease.
"...Have you heard? Workshop Three is laying off people again, and this time there are even more openings!"
"That's right, Sister Wang cried all night yesterday. Her family is counting on her meager salary to support her child's schooling."
"How are we supposed to live like this? We've been owed wages for two months, and the cafeteria's food is just boiled tofu and stir-fried cabbage every day, without even a drop of oil."
"Sigh, what can we do? We're just temporary workers, with no connections or backgrounds. We can be fired anytime we want."
"I heard that someone in the factory next door stole a new fabric sample from the workshop, intending to sell it outside. He was caught red-handed, fired, and is being sent to the police station, accused of being a commercial spy."
"Laid off", "layoffs", "unpaid wages", "commercial espionage" - these words entered Chu Yanxi's mind. At the same time, fragments of this body's memories also rushed in, causing Chu Yanxi's brain to throb with pain.
I've time-traveled again!
Chu Yanxi quickly pieced together the flood of fragmented memories. She had traveled back to 1998, a time of painful reform for state-owned enterprises, and she was a female worker at the Hongxing Textile Factory, a textile factory experiencing declining profits and widespread anxiety.
The good news is that her name is also Chu Yanxi. After graduating from technical school, she went to work in a factory and did not become a victimized woman in the book "Breaking the Cocoon".
The bad news is that she is now in a cramped eight-person dormitory, where young female workers like her come from rural areas or small towns.
Chu Yanxi's "home" in this world is located in a low, dilapidated tenement building on the edge of the factory area. Two rooms are crammed with her, a taciturn father who always smells of machine oil and cigarettes, and a frail mother who worries about daily necessities.
Her father, Chu Jianguo, was a veteran fitter at the Hongxing Factory, an eighth-grade worker, and a key technical member of the factory, a source of pride for his entire life. Now, that pride has crumbled in the face of rumors of "layoffs and reassignments," turning into a deeper silence and occasional suppressed roars after drinking.
A scene flashed before Chu Yanxi's eyes: the conversation between her parents and herself last night.
At the dinner table, the father's eyes were filled with mixed emotions, a mixture of hope that she would stabilize the family and a helpless reluctance to let her repeat his fate: "Xiaoxi, be clever in the workshop. Don't be like your father, who just buries himself in work all his life."
Chu Yanxi hummed in agreement.
Chu Jianguo took a swig of cheap, bulk liquor, his voice hoarse: "In this day and age, honest people suffer."
Chu Yanxi's mother, Wang Guifen, carefully added rice to her bowl, her brow furrowed with worry: "Say less and let the child eat in peace. Her father, should we give the workshop director a gift so he won't make things difficult for Xixi?"
This scene tells Chu Yanxi that she has a home in this world, but this home is now shrouded in gloom due to the impact of the wave of layoffs.
Chu Yanxi opened her eyes without making a sound and observed her surroundings.
The dormitory was cramped and narrow, containing four rusty bunk beds. Outdated posters of Hong Kong and Taiwanese celebrities covered the walls, and basins, thermos flasks, and bulging woven bags were piled in the corners. Most of the female workers looked haggard, their eyes filled with uncertainty about the future and anxiety about survival.
Which story is this?
Who is the protagonist of this story?
As Chu Yanxi pondered, she compared the background and plot of the book "Breaking the Cocoon" with the actual events, and her gaze finally settled on the figure curled up on the lower bunk opposite her.
She was a girl who looked younger than her actual age, named Ruan Xiaofen, no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, from a more remote mountainous area. At this moment, she was facing away from everyone, her shoulders trembling slightly, her hand tightly clutching a crumpled piece of paper, her knuckles white from the force.
By the dim light of the streetlights outside the window, Chu Yanxi's sharp eyes caught the faint red seal on the paper, along with the words "Jiangcheng First People's Hospital," "Payment Notice," and "Surgery Fee."
Chu Yanxi's heart sank suddenly.
It's always like this.
Like Qiao Zhaoran and Chunni, this is a tragic story in the documentary novel "Breaking the Cocoon," except that this time it happened in 1998.
Ruan Xiaofen is the protagonist of this story.
The words in "Breaking the Cocoon" record her life.
Ruan Xiaofen, 22 years old, was a female worker in the trial spinning workshop of Hongxing Textile Factory. In the wave of state-owned enterprise reform that swept the country in 1998, she was as insignificant as countless blades of grass. Her fate is a typical example of the victims at the bottom of that era of drastic transformation.
Archival records show that Ruan Xiaofen's family background was quite diverse. Her mother came from the most remote mountainous region of Yunling in the province. At the young age of eighteen, she was married off by her parents to Ruan Dacheng, a thirty-year-old widower with two sons, for a dowry of one hundred yuan. She raised her two sons with great difficulty and gave birth to Ruan Xiaofen, but received no respect in return. Ruan Dacheng was domineering, arrogant, stingy, and selfish, caring only about his two sons from his previous marriage and showing no regard for his daughter, Ruan Xiaofen.
Growing up in such an environment, Ruan Xiaofen was determined to protect her mother. At the age of sixteen, she passed the recruitment exam and entered the Hongxing Textile Factory.
She only had a high school education, but her fingers were exceptionally dexterous, and she possessed an almost instinctive understanding of textile technology, especially excelling in the weaving of the highly difficult "chiffon satin," which was essential for the factory's survival at the time. The experienced workers in the workshop praised her as "a hard worker with exceptional skills," and she was one of the few young workers who could fully master the entire set of techniques, from raw material proportions to loom parameter adjustments.
However, her skilled work did not save her from the brutal "layoff and reassignment" process. When rumors spread that the third batch of layoffs was about to be announced, the air in the workshop froze. At that time, Ruan Xiaofen's mother, suffering from kidney failure, had been transferred from the county hospital to Jiangcheng First People's Hospital, and the hospital had repeatedly issued notices urging payment of medical fees.
According to interviews with her roommates, Ruan Xiaofen was "like a lost soul" during that period, "unable to sleep night after night, secretly biting her blanket and crying." The immense economic pressure and the fear of impending unemployment were like two nooses, suffocating her. Just then, a purchasing agent who ran a rural textile factory contacted her privately through an intermediary, promising a one-time "information fee" of three thousand yuan if she could provide the complete process parameters and operating tips for the Hongxing Factory's "chiffon satin."
This was a cruel choice: on one side was her critically ill mother and her family on the verge of collapse; on the other were clear factory rules and vague legal boundaries. Torn between the instinct for survival and moral conviction, this young female worker, with little education and a weak sense of law, ultimately succumbed to despair.
According to the case file, on the evening of October 23, 1998, Ruan Xiaofen took advantage of the night shift to inventory materials and sneaked into the technical department's archives, attempting to copy key parameters. She was caught red-handed by factory security personnel who had been lying in wait. Caught red-handed, the evidence was conclusive. The factory initially classified it as "stealing core technical secrets by abusing her position" and considered transferring the case to the public security authorities for "infringement of trade secrets." When the news spread, public opinion was in uproar, and the once taciturn "technical expert" instantly became a "spy" condemned by everyone.
During her detention and investigation, Ruan Xiaofen received news of her mother's death in the factory's security isolation room. According to the guards at the time, she "did not cry out, but just sat there blankly, her eyes like they were dead." In the early hours of the next day, she took advantage of a break from her guards while going to the toilet and climbed the abandoned 35-meter-high water tower in the factory area.
Early in the morning, some workers found her standing on the edge of the tower, her thin work clothes fluttering in the autumn wind. Some cried out in alarm, others tried to persuade her, but it was all too late. Under the watchful eyes of factory leaders and security personnel who rushed to the scene, this young woman, who had just turned twenty-two, jumped like a leaf blown by the wind.
The autopsy report showed several old scratches of varying depths on the inside of the deceased's wrists. The forensic doctor deduced that the deceased had been in a state of extreme depression and anxiety for a long period before his death.
The case of Ruan Xiaofen was hastily concluded with an "accidental fall," and no one was held accountable for their management responsibilities. Like a pebble thrown into a lake, it only caused a few ripples at the Hongxing Factory before quickly disappearing into the clamor of a larger wave of layoffs. No one remembers that she once used her skillful hands to weave the most beautiful chiffon in the entire factory.
This passage left Chu Yanxi speechless for a long time.
Swept up in the tide of the times, the death of Ruan Xiaofen, a female worker, did not attract much attention. However, the author of the book wrote this story and added this sentence at the end of the story.
Was Ruan Xiaofen's death a personal tragedy or a tragedy of the times?
When ordinary people encounter tremendous changes in the times, where should they go?
Just then, the creaking, peeling wooden door of the dormitory was pushed open. A young man with neat short hair and a handsome face, wearing faded blue overalls, stood in the doorway, holding a brown paper folder in his hand.
"Everyone, please be quiet," the man's voice was gentle, with an effort to soothe people, but it couldn't hide a trace of fatigue. "The factory union wants to know about everyone's recent work and family situation. Please come here to register."
Chu Yanxi's gaze met his in the air.
Lu Zhe is an officer in the factory's labor union.
Their eyes met briefly, but they both recognized each other. A hint of joy flashed in Lu Zhe's eyes—the pleasure of meeting an old friend in a foreign land; Chu Yanxi's slightly cold gray eyes also brightened. A factory union officer? Lu Zhe's identity was quite useful.
Lu Zhe's gaze swept across the entire dormitory seemingly unintentionally, and he began to inquire about the situation of the female workers one by one.
Everyone had heard that the third batch of layoffs would be announced, and the union officials who came to inquire were mostly there because of this list. The female workers were all anxious, looking at each other and starting to chatter about their difficulties—some were newly pregnant, some had young children at home, and others had parents with poor health and younger siblings in urgent need of money for school.
In order to avoid losing their jobs, no one was willing to back down. As they talked, the few who were quick-witted started arguing.
"Which woman doesn't get pregnant? Getting pregnant is a good time to take a break."
"At least you guys have men to support you, but I'm all alone. How am I supposed to survive if I lose my job?"
"Officer Lu, you must report my situation to the leadership and ask them to take care of me. I have two children, and my mother-in-law has a chronic illness and needs medication every day. If I lose my job, where will my family go?"
...
They were all young women with clear, loud voices, and for a moment the noise made Lu Zhe's head spin. He quickly waved his hand and said, "Stop arguing! One at a time."
The girls finally calmed down.
Seeing Ruan Xiaofen sitting on the edge of the bed, pale-faced and silent, Lu Zhe went over and asked softly, "Ruan Xiaofen, is that right? Are you having any problems?"
Ruan Xiaofen looked at the girl in her dormitory, her heart heavy. She was tongue-tied and didn't know how to express her pain or how to gain the factory's sympathy. She just said in a tearful voice, "My mother, my mother is sick and needs money. I can't be laid off, I can't be laid off."
After saying that, she didn't even dare to look up at Lu Zhe, her thin shoulders hunching even tighter.
Each had their own difficulties. Lu Zhe sighed, wrote a few words in his notebook, and then asked the other female workers one by one, recording their situations in detail.
Finally, he turned his gaze to Chu Yanxi: "Comrade Chu, what about you?"
Chu Yanxi thought for a moment and chose to tell the truth: "My dad and I are both workers in this textile factory. The factory can't just lay us both off, can it?"
Lu Zhe nodded and closed his notebook: "If you have any difficulties, be sure to report them to the union in a timely manner. The factory will try its best to find a solution. The more difficult the times, the more you should trust the organization."
Lu Zhe offered a few more words of comfort before turning and leaving the dormitory. The moment the door closed, the murmurs in the dormitory resumed, but Chu Yanxi quietly analyzed the situation.
Hongxing Textile Factory is on the verge of bankruptcy, facing wage arrears and fears of layoffs. In this situation, a young female worker whose mother is seriously ill and desperately needs money has access to "new fabric patterns" and "process drawings" representing advanced technology and market value in the workshop. When private enterprises, eager to acquire this information, offer monetary incentives, can she resist?
The tragic ending in the book "Breaking the Cocoon" resurfaced in Chu Yanxi's mind: Xiao Fen was caught red-handed while trying to steal technical data. In her humiliation, fear, and despair, she received the devastating news that her mother had died despite all efforts to save her... In the end, this young girl, abandoned by both the times and fate, chose to jump off the factory's tallest water tower, ending her short and tragic life.
This is not simply a personal tragedy, but a tragedy of an era, a microcosm of the fate of individuals powerless to adapt to change during a period of economic transformation.
Chu Yanxi's heart clenched.
This time, she is not just fighting against a specific perpetrator, but against the structural dilemma brought about by the changes of the times.
How can we truly save Xiaofen? How can we give her a new way to live before she's driven to despair?
Chu Yanxi stood up and walked out of the noisy dormitory. She knew that Lu Zhe would definitely be waiting outside.
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