Time passed painfully slowly.
And because we had to keep our heads bent over our work all the time, by the end of the morning my back and waist were aching badly.
Fortunately, we were allowed to talk while we worked.
We just had to keep our voices low whenever Miss Zhao was around. If we got too loud, she would immediately shout at us.
But whenever she went out, we could talk loudly—even sing.
A-Xiang told me that during overtime at night, we could sing as loudly as we wanted even when Miss Zhao was there.
As she said this, a look of satisfaction flickered across her big eyes.
At long last, noon arrived.
When the lunch bell finally rang, we rushed out of the workshop like caged animals suddenly set free.
Because my foot hurt, I fell behind.
As I watched the others hurry ahead, I noticed that several of them, like me, had difficulty walking.
The bowls and chopsticks I used for meals were the ones I had brought from home, so I didn't need to buy new ones.
The older workers also kept their bowls and chopsticks in the dormitory.
Since they left them outside their luggage, they could simply grab their bowls on the way out and head straight to the canteen.
They were much faster than I was.
The canteen was on the first floor, directly beneath our dormitory.
It wasn't very large, and we had to line up outside to get our food.
The kitchen workers wore filthy white uniforms and served the dishes through a window.
After receiving our dishes, we carried our bowls over to a large metal container and helped ourselves to as much rice as we wanted.
I was at the very back of the line and had to wait a long time before I finally got my food.
There was only one dish, and there wasn't much of it.
By the time I returned to the dormitory, everyone else had already started eating.
I slept on an upper bunk, and two girls were already sitting on the lower bunk beneath me.
I had no idea where I was supposed to sit when suddenly A-Xiang called to me from another lower bunk.
It turned out that she was in the same dormitory as me.
I was delighted and sat down beside her.
As she ate, she praised the day's food.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
What was so good about it?
It was nothing more than chili peppers stir-fried with pork lard scraps.
The scraps had been rendered until they were blackish-yellow. There wasn't a trace of oil left in them.
And there were only four or five tiny pieces in each person's bowl.
The peppers weren't spicy at all.
They had thick skins and hardly any flavor.
I learned that these were what people called cai jiao—sweet peppers.
They had apparently only been tossed briefly in the wok.
When I bit into one, it still made a loud crunch.
How was anyone supposed to eat that?
In desperation, I pulled out the pickled vegetables I had brought from home.
The moment several of the girls saw them, they crowded around me.
They sniffed enthusiastically and exclaimed:
“Oh! That smells so good!”
I had no choice but to be polite.
“Come on, let's eat together.”
The girls immediately attacked the food as if I had just given them an official order.
Their chopsticks flew.
Soon girls from other rooms heard about the food and came running over.
Some of them didn't even bother asking.
Their chopsticks simply reached straight into my bowl.
Watching half of my pickled vegetables disappear in no time broke my heart.
It felt as though their chopsticks weren't picking at the pickled vegetables at all.
They were picking at my heart.
When they finished, they all praised me for being generous.
I could only swallow my frustration in silence.
One girl, still chewing my pickled vegetables, said through her mouthful:
“It's so good. I think they sell this kind outside too.”
A-Xiang had been unhappy the whole time watching everyone eat my food.
Hearing this, she snapped:
“Then why don't you buy some yourself?”
The girl gave a couple of sheepish laughs.
“Because it's expensive! One packet costs 1.80 yuan. Who can afford that? I'm not some rich lady!”
Another girl chimed in:
“Actually, we could buy vegetables and pickle them ourselves. It wouldn't cost much. But then we'd have to buy a jar and everything else, and that costs quite a bit too.”
Her comment prompted the others to join in.
As they ate, they began discussing how pickled vegetables were made in their respective hometowns.
Their faces were bright with excitement.
For a while, the dormitory felt almost warm and cheerful.
I never imagined that a simple dish of pickled vegetables could make them so happy.
In the afternoon, I worked a little faster.
A-Xiang kept praising me for being quick, and even the experienced workers sitting at my table agreed.
The truth was, I wasn't naturally fast.
It was just that while connecting the tiny metal pieces, my mind was quick enough to figure out the little tricks hidden inside what looked like a very simple task.
I was new, so everyone was curious about me.
I never told them that I had been admitted to university but hadn't gone.
Even so, they knew I had finished high school, and they were quite envious of me.
Then one girl with a palm-sized birthmark on her face said coldly:
“So what if you're a high-school graduate? I'm a university graduate myself. Besides, you're still a cripple.”
She had barely spoken all day.
But when she said the word “cripple,” she deliberately raised her voice.
Several people turned to look at us.
Among them was a young man whose legs were also not quite right.
I was so ashamed that I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.
In a low voice, I tried to explain:
“I'm not a cripple. I just injured the sole of my foot. That's why I walk like this.”
She gave a cold laugh.
“You say you're not a cripple, and we're supposed to believe you? What if I say this thing on my face is just rouge I put on deliberately? Would you believe me?”
My face burned instantly.
I was shaking with anger.
A-Xiang discreetly nudged me with her elbow, so I forced myself to endure it.
Strangely enough, although the girl's words were so ridiculous, everyone else acted as if they hadn't heard a thing.
They all suddenly became very interested in looking elsewhere and talking about other things.
Only later did I learn that the girl really was a university graduate.
Apparently she had even attended a prestigious university.
But because of the large birthmark on her face, the more established factories outside wouldn't even let her work as an ordinary employee.
Perhaps she carried a great deal of resentment inside her.
Whatever the reason, her words were always sharp and cruel.
Once, when a kitchen worker gave her too little food, she dumped the entire dish onto the worker's face.
After that, everyone kept their distance from her.
Most of the people who came to this factory were either fresh from their hometowns or had been unable to find work elsewhere for one reason or another.
A-Xiang was the only exception.
Her boyfriend was one of the three young men operating the machines in the room.
Operating those three machines required no special skill. The work was very simple.
In Dongguan, however, it was extremely difficult for young men without any particular skills to find work.
Without someone to recommend you, it was hard even to get through a factory gate.
Her boyfriend could earn more than 500 yuan a month here.
If he left this factory, he would have a hard time finding another job.
The work of connecting watchband links was simple and not particularly tiring.
But after doing it for hours on end, it became unbelievably monotonous and tedious.
Talking with so many people made it a little easier to bear, but it couldn't change the fundamental nature of the work.
It was still dull.
By the time we finished for the day, I had connected another seven strips.
That meant I had made twelve in total.
An experienced worker who had been there for more than a year did the calculations for me.
At my current speed, she said, I should have no trouble earning 180 yuan in my first month.
One hundred and eighty yuan.
It was pitifully little.
But many new workers could make only 150 yuan at most during their first month.
I gave a bitter smile.
My heart felt heavy.
For dinner, we had mung bean sprouts.
They were still practically oil-free and salt-free, but at least they tasted better than the half-cooked sweet peppers from lunch.
That evening, I didn't bring out my pickled vegetables.
Following A-Xiang's advice, the two of us each took a small amount and quickly hid it away.
The other girls were clearly disappointed.
They weren't nearly as warm toward me as they had been at lunchtime.
Dinner break was the same as lunch—only one hour.
Our food cost two yuan a day.
So when Miss Zhao told me that the factory “provided food and accommodation,” that wasn't entirely true.
The so-called “free food” actually meant that 60 yuan would be deducted from our wages every month.
I asked A-Xiang:
“If the factory doesn't give us anything for free, why did they make me pay a 30-yuan deposit?”
A-Xiang gave me a helpless look.
“That's for half a month's food. If you leave before you've worked here for half a month, you won't get any wages. When you leave, that 30 yuan becomes payment for the food you ate during those two weeks.”
I was even more confused.
“But after working for half a month, I would definitely have earned more than 30 yuan. Why do they still have to deduct that 30 yuan from me? That's not fair.”
A-Xiang rolled her eyes at me impatiently.
“Fair or not, that's the factory's rule! You've read so many books. How can you not understand something this simple?”
评论
发表评论