96 years old, 30 years of stall, adhere to the years without price increases. Because of these labels, Zhang Yuzhen, an old man who sells vegetable buns in the streets of Zhengzhou, has caught fire. Some people drove luxury cars to taste the 6 yuan vegetable bun; some people flew from Harbin to Zhengzhou on business, specially vacated a day to wait for Zhang Yuzhen; others opened four cell phones live, and “family “Introduce Zhang Yuzhen’s stall ……
April 13, late at night on the streets of Zhengzhou, Zhang Yuzhen let everyone down – she disappeared. 14, the author went to Zhengzhou on business and came to the streets where Zhang Yuzhen set up her stall. The surrounding vendors said that two days ago, the police persuaded the people surrounding Zhang Yuzhen to leave.
Later the author contacted the grandmother Zhang, she said she was tired, “tired, very tired, standing there for 5 hours, can not stand”. The author asked after her life story, after her business, exhaustion and melancholy, but she hurriedly hung up the phone and said, “Everyone is very good to me, but there are some things you can not imagine, girl. “
- After disappearing
April 14, 23:00, the second night Zhang Yuzhen disappeared into the streets.
That intersection where she used to set up her stall, the stores were mostly closed and the street was dimly lit. This street is near the junction of Jinshui District and Huizi District, near a subway line under construction.
The road is wide, cabs pass by from time to time, chauffeurs gather at the intersection, and from a distance, it looks no different from tens of millions of Chinese city intersections.
The only difference is that one question rings out over and over again in front of one night stall: “Is the grandmother with the stall coming? “
The couple are friends of Zhang Yuzhen, who runs five night snack stalls at the intersection, next door to Zhang’s vegetable bun stall. for more than 10 years, they have been setting up stalls together and looking after each other.
“Fried noodles, fried yet? ” yells Dong Abo while putting noodles and vegetarian balls into the pot to simmer, and running to another stall to fish out the mao beans and peanuts from the brine, pile them on a large round plate and hand them to diners.
“Hey, where’s that old granny? ” asked a local diner in front of the stall. Tonight, he and his friend came out for a walk and took a long detour to get here just to get a look at Zhang Yuzhen.
Uncle Dong didn’t answer, just focused on the matter at hand. “She will not come today, the old lady can make panic (Henan “tired ” meaning “tired”). “Dong Abo’s wife said.
The two people standing at the intersection came to hear the news. They are from Harbin to Zhengzhou on a business trip to work, impressed by the spirit of the old lady, feel particularly inspirational, “Grandma so old, but still active and hard to live. “
Purposely rushed to the intersection, they did not want to buy the bun, and did not want to disturb the grandmother, just want to take a picture, to keep a souvenir. Last night did not wait for Zhang Yuzhen, they deliberately postponed their trip back a day and came again.
Tonight, however, they still returned disappointed.
Like the wandering master Shen Wei, Xiao Ma Yun Fan Xiao Qin, ramen brother Cheng Yun Fu burst into the limelight, Zhang Yuzhen’s stall became one of the highest Internet traffic.
There are young people who come all the way in station wagons and luxury cars to buy the old man’s vegetable bun; there are scantily clad girls who roll up their sleeves hoping to help the old man roll out his noodles; and there are many phones and cameras that are aimed at her at all times ……
Today, those squatting netizens anchors, all of them disappeared. Vehicles come and go, and few stop specifically for this intersection. The cameras, the crowd, the blinding live lights all joined together and retired as Zhang Yuzhen disappeared.
Around 00:30, a passing uncle raised his cell phone, the camera swept across the road from left to right, recording the slightly silent night.
- Accidentally go popular
More widely known than her own name, Zhang Yuzhen is the “96-year-old stall grandmother in Zhengzhou”.
On April 8, 2021, Zhengzhou photographer Zhang Zhigang released a shake video of an interview with Zhang Yuzhen, and the number of likes soon exceeded 2.6 million.
The incident quickly fermented, and after being forwarded by major media, the highest number of readers on Sina Weibo topics related to “stall grandmother” reached 270 million.
In the video, 96-year-old Zhang Yuzhen’s many golden words have touched many people.
“It’s better to rest than to do something worthwhile. “
“Isn’t young old age just a matter of eyes opening and closing? “
“Young people are just the time to get angry, the elderly should learn from them. “
“As long as the money comes in the right way, there is nothing that is not easy. It is not easy to come from the right way, and then easy. “
In fact, this is the second time Zhang Yuzhen has gone viral.
She comes from the city of Zhoukou, Henan Province, went out alone early to do small business. She has three children, two sons and a daughter, now have families and businesses, firmly rooted in the city.
Talking about this experience of doing business, Zhang Yuzhen once said: “A lifetime of business has not failed, but never landed money. “Most of her money is only enough to supplement the family.
Because of her years of travel abroad, she did not spend much time with her children.
After bringing up her three children, Zhang Yuzhen was able to take a moment of rest on the rollers of life, but she wanted to keep going and do something she loved. “It’s been a lifetime of supporting myself, and I can’t stop anymore. “
She sells vegetable buns simply because she likes to eat them too. Once late at night, Zhang Yuzhen rides her bicycle to the intersection and leaves the stall at 23:00, kneads the dough, rolls out the dough, spreads the vegetable filling and cooks the pancakes.
At 5 o’clock, she closes the stall and then rides her bicycle to the morning market to select seasonal vegetables. In order to make the vegetable bun more fragrant, she also has additional ingredients such as water chestnuts, cumin, vermicelli and tofu.
After she bought the vegetables, she had to do all the work. After lunch, she has her rest time.
Such a day and night reversal, Zhang Yuzhen lived for 30 years. She guarded that busy intersection, but also many late-night people running around for a living.
Wang Haoran (a pseudonym), a patron of her stall since elementary school, recalls that Zhang’s vegetable buns were “big” and “gave a lot of vegetables”. The price is affordable, always 6 yuan a piece, and the pastry is made by her purely by hand.
“The taste is not special, is the family old people do home taste. “This taste he ate for more than ten years.
Zhang Yuzhen once responded, she vegetable bun portion of the reason: “that under the force of the people (Henan words “out of the force of the people “) you think about it, you get a small bun a little, people can not eat ah, how much the dish can be worth. “
In 2019, a reporter from Henan TV reported on Zhang Yuzhen’s story, and she became a famous celebrity in Zhengzhou.
Her stall is surrounded by customers, saying her vegetable bun has “the taste of childhood”. Zhang Yuzhen was happy from the bottom of her heart.
However, 2 years later, when she was surrounded again, there were more than mouths to eat, but cell phone flashes to her. She was constantly being praised for her “inspirational” and “positive Energy”.
Her smile faded, and she answered questions reluctantly. A video shows someone holding up a cell phone and asking her, “Where is your family? “
She replied, “On Earth. “
- “One person runs four live rooms”
Time to pull back to the old man rest stall two nights before.
The night of April 11, the intersection has been surrounded by water. Crowds of onlookers came from all around, journalists, netizens, anchors, local diners were in the queue. “The line was as long as two stalls,” recalled Wang Haoran.
“She stood there all night, constantly rolling out the dough, making vegetable buns, hunched over just to do so the next day, who can not stand. “The owner of Jiao Ji barbecue stall said. His barbecue stall is located directly opposite Zhang Yuzhen’s vegetable bun stall, look up and you can see the situation of the vegetable bun stall.
Wang Haoran and his friends often meet to eat at this late-night snack street. He talked about, usually there are also people lined up to buy, but not many people, the elderly can occasionally sit down to rest for a while, “this time make the rest time are not”.
In the media release of the scene, the old man was surrounded by a variety of cameras and selfie sticks, microphone dislike in front of the elderly.
In the crowd of onlookers, some suggested the old man to raise prices, some queued up while repeating questions from the previous interview video, hoping to get new “golden words” from the old man’s mouth The “golden words”.
One video shows a young woman squeezing next to Zhang Yuzhen, holding a selfie stick in her right hand and pointing at the old man with her left hand, smiling at the phone screen: “Look, this is the 96-year-old grandmother of the stall! “
What impressed Wang Haoran the most was that a person set up 4 cell phones, while live in the Jitterbug booth. “Open 4 numbers to shoot at her, earn traffic, it’s crazy. “
The live broadcast of Zhang Yuzhen only head down to do bun, gradually tired of responding to the problems thrown in.
“Taste bun is false, see people is true. “Zhang Yuzhen is aware that she has many “rubbing traffic “onlookers, but in order not to let down the customers who want to taste the bun, she still additionally purchased a large number of flour and ingredients, until all the materials are consumed, she only closed the stall home.
Some diners couldn’t stand it, so they reported it to the police.
On April 11 and 12, the police came to control. According to Dong Abo’s wife, the police checked the documents related to the filming staff that night and advised the live broadcasters who did not have press cards to leave.
Wang Haoran said: “After the police left, and a group of people gathered around. “
In the early morning of April 13, Zhang Yuzhen handed the last vegetable bun to diners, told everyone that tomorrow will not be out of the stall, need to rest for a while.
Later, a reporter interviewed Zhang Yuzhen, she said that night has been reluctant to come out of the stall, “but thought I still have to go to everyone to say hello. ”
Zheng Zhigang, the short video creator who initially shot the fire Zhang Yuzhen, has been silently watching the old man’s stall from afar. His original intention was originally to record ordinary life, but things have gone beyond his expectations.
He came forward to appeal to the anchor to stop bothering and not to burden the old man.
- A wish for quiet
On the morning of April 15, I contacted Grandma Zhang to learn about her recent situation. Some diners who live near Grandma provided her approximate address.
Since the 13th stall, she resumed a relatively quiet life. In the morning, she went to the morning market as usual, buy vegetables, wash and pick and then cut the sections, made into vegetable filling. But in the afternoon and evening, she needs to have more time to rest and adjust her back.
Her body was a little overwhelmed by the stall the other day. “Tired, very tired, standing for too long, can not stand. “
In the premise of not disturbing the grandmother, the author came to the neighborhood where the grandmother lives. That is an old low-rise buildings mainly in the community, lush and vigorous trees, many gray walls are climbing climbers. Close to noon, the fragrance of cooking dishes wafted out of the neighborhood, adding a sense of fireworks.
Most of the residents in the neighborhood are elderly, and there are many tricycles and electric bikes parked on the road, including many food stalls’ stalls. A blue tent was set up in front of the unit building, and four elderly people were playing poker under it.
Life and pace, it seems, have become slow here.
In this neighborhood, Zhang Yuzhen rents a house for only 400 yuan a month. She rarely changes the place where she sets up her stall. “Doing business would not be able to change the place often. “
After years and years of doing business, she has seen too much human warmth, and she always wants to release goodwill.
She has paid attention to the pie stall across the street. The other party has children at home, “my children are old. They have a family. But they still have difficulties, I am very busy, so I do not come out, leave a gap for people, call people to eat”.
For the netizens onlookers, she also always treats kindly. “Everyone is also life, want to earn a money, understandable, I have no way to evaluate. “
The author pressed on the phone, netroots live on what distress her, she replied, “Everyone is very good to me, but there are some things you can not imagine, girl. “
She said she would be out again in a few days, but there was only one thought in her mind: “A wish to be quiet (only wish to be quiet). “
Zhang Yuzhen’s neighborhood, there is a tower crane, the construction site sound noisy, but into the neighborhood, her residence and life remains quiet.
The flood of the times, she does not know how to use smart phones, does not know what is the fan economy, but she knows how to respect, struggle and live.
After returning to Beijing, it is already early in the morning when I am writing these words, and it is quiet outside the window, just like the streets of Zhengzhou that night. I hope this kind of quietness can accompany Grandma Zhang for a long time.
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