In my impression, the first family to go south was my father’s only brother, my uncle Yellow River Water.
In the winter of 1984, my uncle’s wife, my aunt Feng Youqun, died of illness at the age of 26. In the autumn of 1997, has been taking care of the river uncle young son’s grandmother died, before the deathbed also did not see the river uncle has gone south last. Grandma died the second year, river uncle took the two sons left behind in the home — yan pei and vocational training, officially began the father and son of three people to work in the south.
He is only 13 years old when he arrived in Guangzhou. Although he is a little young, he is the pioneer of his family’s work in south China.
Around 2000, feng Village began a large number of relatives to the south, some of the original stick to the land, the wife and children of women, witnessed the meager income left behind, after weighing calculation, also decided to leave their homeland, to join the south of the crowd. However, because they are older, they cannot enter formal large factories like some young women, so most of them can only work in some small factories and workshops, and it is difficult for them to have a long-term job opportunity. In addition, they did not apply for temporary residence permit, and did not dare to run more. More often, they hid themselves in the rental houses of villages in the city, and sought some way of life in the chaotic settlement of floating population.
In 2006, the National Day, uncle invited me to go to Guangzhou Tangxia to play, as in the hometown, our family spent a day together. According to the chat records, I tried to restore the state of my uncle’s life, they are: uncle Huang He, married ying Guo uncle (female), married caifeng uncle (female).
Uncle River: wandering in the edge of urban and rural restless soul
For many years, uncle Yellow River water has been a mystery to me. He was born in 1958 and married Feng Youqun, a huaqiao girl from his hometown, in 1980. His first son, Huang Yanpei, was born in 1981 and his second son, Huang Zaipei, was born in 1984.
Unlike most of his father’s brothers (who had more than a dozen Cousins), Uncle Hehe almost never settled down on his native land. In the 1980s, before the mass migration of the rural population, he would rather contract out the department stores and end up home in a state of debt than farm well. He had a natural dislike and fear of the land, and always talked about nothing to do with the land. He was eager for the outside world.
In my husband’s family, mother’s family and grandmother home of many relatives, Uncle river is the only one of their fate of the peasant identity, with natural antipathy, rebellious mood of the relatives. He had not the humbleness and cowardice of the peasant, nor the simplicity and equanimity of the peasant. Although his wife’s early death left him a widower at 26, and the family sympathized with him for dragging two boys (three and a half), I always thought he would never have stayed at home if nothing had happened to him.
He went south to Guangzhou alone in 1996 and returned to Hunan with his two sons in 2015. For a long time we knew nothing about the life of the river. In 1997, when grandma was dying, her greatest wish was to have a look at her little son, whom she cared about and loved all her life. The old man languished for days, but did not get this look.
To my father, the day the river disappeared was the day he was in trouble.
Uncle River’s fields have never been taken care of. He does not tell others to plant them, nor does he come back to look after them for a few days during the busy season. At that time, the agricultural tax had not been abolished, and village officials often went to their father’s unit to make him pay the agricultural tax of his brother. The most serious one, is the township government below, every family has malicious arrears of agricultural taxes, brothers and sisters, parents if there are public officials, are forced to deduct wages.
In addition, river uncle blind adventure for many years, left him a lot of creditors, in his sudden disappearance, his father instead of him became the object of being chased. In the acquaintance society in the countryside, the rule of “father’s debt and son’s return” also applies to brothers. In the face of the creditors who come to us in a round way, the father loses his smile again and again, and is speechless in the tearful accusations of others. These things annoyed my father, but there was nothing he could do about it. In the countryside his reputation had been built up over the years, and the river had been greatly diluted by unruly behaviour.
The father’s responsibility and river uncle laissez-faire, constitute two extremes, more difficult to accept is that river uncle in the two children are not yet adults, will leave them alone at home. How my two children grew up in a lonely, remote home, dependent on the food provided by their uncle (my father), was always an unimaginable blank to me.
It wasn’t until I went south to Study in Guangzhou in 2002 that I had a chance to get a closer look at Uncle Hehe’s life. Miluo villagers and just landed in Guangzhou, the same river uncle to Guangzhou Baiyun District Tangxia village as their stronghold, nearly two decades has never moved.
I later found that the reason why Tangxia became a place where many workers from the bottom of the settlement, in addition to the relatively cheap rent, is more important because of the convenient transportation: in front of the village you can take a bus in “Tangxia Station”, behind the village you can take a bus in “Airport Road” station, from the subway “Sanyuan Li Station” is also very convenient. This developed traffic pattern, doomed to tangxia floating population, sources of miscellaneous. Listen to my cousin said, in addition to Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong province chaoshan people are also very much, Miluo to Guangzhou workers, almost all live here, Tangxia is sanjiang, Changle and other miluo northern towns out of the workers drug abuse, gambling headquarters.
In 1998, a year after his grandmother died, Uncle Hehe’s two sons, Yanpei and Vocational training, came to Guangzhou one after another. They, father and son, three bachelors, lived in a front and back room of less than 10 square meters. River uncle lived in the house on the fourth floor, and the next building space less than two meters, is the so-called “handshake building.” The streets were dirty, with rubbish everywhere and a bad smell.
2005 Spring Festival, my father let me take some bacon, grain wine from my hometown to river uncle, because to send these things in time, lest guangzhou warm, humid air let food spoiled, I arrived that day and river uncle contact, in Tangxia station to meet me, river uncle took me slowly walked into the village.
Zigzag into a narrow corridor, river uncle told me that this is his residence.
A pungent odor mingled with the humid, hot southern air; the stairs of the rented house were extremely steep, judging by the aftertime. When one reached the fourth floor, one’s legs felt weak, and the narrow stairs were only large enough for one person to turn around. When I went upstairs and looked down from my small window, I could see that the wires between the buildings were dense, and the wires were hung with clothes. It was obvious that the wires were built in disorder.
The room is very narrow, there are two rooms in front and back, the usable area is not more than 10 square meters. Outside a room with a slightly roomy bed, is the river uncle and young son vocational training sleeping place, inside a room with a bed less than a meter wide, for the river uncle son yan pei rest, the whole room in addition to a few cartons stuffed with some clothes, there is no decent furniture. Listen to river uncle said, hot days, their father and son three people directly sleep on the ground, although the room is quite stuffy, but for the “handshake building”, also can not find other better ventilation method.
Uncle He also told me that the monthly rent was 210 yuan. The security here is very bad. There are a lot of people stealing bikes. Two bikes were stolen soon after he moved in.
What surprises me more is that Uncle He has been in Guangzhou for nearly 20 years without a fixed career. When he was young, his grandmother taught him to be a builder of bricks and mortar (a craftsman who builds houses). She also gave him a master, and he was able to deal with projects on his own, so he was regarded as a skilled man.
After his aunt died in 1984, his uncle at The Yueyang Engineering Company helped him contact some businesses and made him a contractor early on. River uncle in 1985 more than 40 thousand yuan (father at that time a month’s salary is 68 yuan), became the richest man in the village. Perhaps because he was too young and easy to make money at that time, he took the tens of thousands of dollars, but within a few years he had nothing at all. When his life fell into difficulties again, he was not willing to start from some physical work because he had had the experience of making money.
In Guangzhou for many years, uncle Hehe devoted most of his energy to “buying yards” and entertaining friends, except for some temporary jobs (such as guarding warehouses for others in a short time and guarding materials for houses to be renovated) introduced to him by some friends.
The only thing to be thankful for is that river uncle’s son yan Pei, vocational training does not need to worry about. Since the two brothers arrived in Guangzhou in 1998, the living expenses of the family are entirely dependent on the wages of the two brothers. However, after maintaining three mouths, there is often little left.
Compared with the bad reputation in his hometown, Uncle Jiang was obviously a popular type in Tangxia. He was generous by nature. Despite financial difficulties, he was very forthright and had many friends coming and going because he cared about face and valued others’ evaluation. “My father had so many fair-weather friends that two of them ate for two months,” He once complained. The money was eaten up.
Though the house was small, it was popular, and even some of his friends who sold counterfeit notes hid in it. According to the landlord, one third of the people from Sanjiang come to Guangzhou for work and stay here first. The river is fed and watered until someone else finds a job. Have no money, borrow. “This is a village,” He says. “I don’t even know many of the people who come to dinner. They come to see Huang.” My father scolded my uncle several times for this, and told him that he should think of training and vocational training, even if he could not help them, at least not bring them into trouble because of his limited ability.
“The boat to earn money to dump”, a popular sentence in his hometown, is the best description of uncle river life.
Uncle Hehe mainly makes a living by “Buying Code”. Before he came to Guangzhou, I only got this impression from my relatives. After arriving in Guangzhou in 2002, I directly felt the deep connection between Uncle Hehe’s life and “buying code”. “Buy code” as a kind of very common lottery in Hong Kong, had no special, it is set in the code probability is less on the face of positive and negative of COINS, but since around 2000, the purely used for recreational activities in Hong Kong, has become a master of feng village, pass the village many demons of fate, the degree of its crazy, far beyond the normal scope of reason.
River uncle although not in the phoenix village crazy atmosphere, but in the tangxia rental house, as home “introduced to buy code” the original origin, his life is also deeply trapped into the crazy and absurd situation. He narrow room is filled with all kinds of information, there are illegible yards, pornography and superstitious temperament miss white, and the Hong Kong version of the calendar, and various pieces of paper not myself on the Numbers, the paper material, a pile of a pile of pile up in a cluttered room, similar to some scientific research office of the scholar got the construction of the atmosphere.
“Guess code” can be considered as “buy code” the most exciting link, river uncle superstitious special code, as soon as the free will attach various factors, looking forward to the arrival of “special code”. The number of times a child defecates or urinates, the first animal seen that day, the dream of last night, and the number of times the sun comes out in the teletubbies show, all contain hidden secrets that determine the fate of wealth. The logic of these lies in the fact that there is no reason or law to speak of.
I asked uncle He if he had ever bought anything, and he said, “Of course I have, but every time I have bought something very small, I dare not buy a large size for fear that others might run away.” His experience is that, in order to reduce the risk, only to the landlord do the bank account to buy, buy can reasonably sit at home and wait for money. According to the odds, if you buy five hundred dollars, you can redeem it that night, and you’ll get twenty thousand dollars. If you buy a thousand dollars in the yard, you have to wait until the next day to cash in.
After winning the lottery, the next-door neighbors would invite him to have supper, beer, barbecue, and sometimes even go to the hotel to open a room and play cards. The money of the lottery would soon cost more than half. “In the code” of the people, will be in the hustle and bustle of the people’s attention, to obtain the satisfaction of self-esteem.
In their eyes, “buy code” the risk is not very big, also need not worry banker to run away, those landlord banker have house property to pledge commonly. Nevertheless to river river uncle, more time, “buy code” the ending is to be eaten by banker principal. Toss for a long time, but also occasionally immersed in the “code” in the illusion.
In 2006 National Day in tangxia, river uncle saw me the first sentence is to talk about code, “I very regret to lose a batch of good numbers, is the last time to buy 8, originally special code, flat code are guessed right, but missed to write 8, I die of anger”.
“When I was in Guangzhou, no one bothered me. I was just a poor man living as long as we felt we had a good life. We have no right to judge other people’s lives.” At that time, I was shocked. There was clearly a reflection on life in the meaningless appearance of Uncle River. When I mentioned whether because of tangxia lively, not used to leave here, the river uncle look dim down, “where is not willing to go back, is not allowed to go back!”
Perhaps, in the river uncle heart, I do not understand the pain.
Seeing the meager income left behind at home, some women who had previously stuck to the land and supported their husbands and children also decided to leave their native land. Seeing the meager income left behind at home, some women who had previously stuck to the land and supported their husbands and children also decided to leave their native land.
Ying Guoshu: the street sewing life
My grandfather’s youngest brother, according to the generation, we call eight father. Eight father raised five children: strong country, big country, rich country, ying country, establish the country. Among them ying country uncle is his youngest daughter, married to the village of Hongyuan township, raising only son Feng Chao.
Ying’s uncle decided to go to Guangzhou with his relatives in the south when his son was seven years old. From 1997 to 2005, he had no way to enter the factory because he was too old. It was always difficult to find a suitable job and he had little money left over. In 2005, as her son’s expenses rose, she was forced to return to her old job, renting the downstairs stairwell of her landlord and sewing on the street, zipping and changing clothes. Unexpectedly, because of the floating population, less people engaged in sewing, but unexpectedly found a way to live, to make some money.
Ying’s uncle is cheerful and likes to chat. In others’ opinion, he can talk for half a day even when he meets a piece of hemp stone.
In 2006, National Day, she invited me to come to her house. She said it was her house, but it was only two or three square meters under the stairwell. She put her sewing machine on the street during the day and slept in the windowless stairwell at night. In spite of this humble, ying guoshu was still facing the street sewing machine behind the door, posted a photo of her and her son. The photo was taken a few years ago, and with a red cloth as the background, the little home was full of life and hope.
That afternoon, while she was busy and cheerful, she told me a lot of things since she came to Guangzhou.
Interview time: October 1, 2006
Interview location: Tangxia Rental House, Baiyun District, Guangzhou
I came to Guangzhou in 1997, one year before the brothers Yanpei and Shipei. Since I arrived in Guangzhou, I have been renting on the fourth or fifth floor. I lived next door to them for five years in order to keep an eye on them and save food. Now there are too many people in my family, so I went out and rented a stairwell. The house is too small for me to stay in, so I seldom ask them to eat.
During the Spring Festival of this year, the family had to put the sewing machine straight, there is no way, all stand in the house to eat. Let me give you a listen. On the day of The Spring Festival, uncle Fuguo came, uncle Da, and brought a guest, plus Uncle Wei and his family, and your uncle’s family, you see, how can a few square meters of house stay? I was out of luck and could not make money for several years before I came to Guangzhou. Until last year (2005), someone suggested me to sew on the street, so I put the sewing machine directly on the street. Guangzhou is rainy, then decided to rent a stairwell, began to do business.
When I run a shop, I pick up a lot of things from the outside. I picked up 50 zippers, a few feet of elastic, and dozens of tags the other day. If a garment factory lost something, people would tell me, and I would run to pick it up. Sometimes I can pick up a cloth, pick up a cloth can earn more than ten yuan. Two pants pocket I accept 12 yuan, a pair of pants pocket two, each pocket three yuan, if all depend on buy cloth, the cost increases, can not be worthwhile. If I can find the cloth, it will save me a lot of time. I had bags of cloth under the bed, all of them.
I also intend to work for five years, the children of my children read out, go home. It’s too hard to stay outside. I don’t have a good place to sleep and I can’t eat fresh vegetables, especially the house is unbearable. The house here is too close and stuffy.
My work includes zipping and changing clothes. I’ve made clothes before that can be altered no matter what. Change clothes, change two or eight pieces on both sides; Change a trouser leg, three pieces; The size of clothes depends on the workload; If it’s the whole thing, it’s 15 yuan. The whole thing is a lot of trouble, but it does not cost, as long as a little electricity, a little wire, basically do not need other money.
Zippers cost a little, copper zippers, usually 50 cents. Relatively speaking, the cost of changing clothes with a dollar, you can earn more than ten dollars, the cost is relatively low. The income of a year, calculate gross income to have more than ten thousand, in addition to expenditure, a month can save seven hundred dollars. But also want to see the season, autumn and winter peak season can earn 800 or 800 commonly, like this summer, only 500 or 600. This year the highest record, a day to earn more than 90 pieces, is gross income. But my gross income, which is almost net income, is very small. My sewing machine was wrung from home, and there were two heads in the room that I had ordered from someone else (and bought all day at appraisal) for fifty dollars each, or forty dollars for scrap.
Anyway, like in the last two years, it’s better to be out than at home. In fact, both of us are working here, Zhengliang (ying’s uncle’s husband) if not “buy code”, a year to calculate a little, a high school student or can afford to keep. I only have one child, he can study, now in high school, a year costs 12000, 13,000! It’s expensive to eat, wear, use and drive these days.
Put the holiday this time, exceed ya son to call to come over again: “mama, I have a holiday.” “How much is it?” “Maybe a few hundred.” I got up early this morning and mailed him the money. I had to mail the money on the 29th or 30th of every month. Even if I had no money in hand, I would send the money to him in advance.
He in miluo two high school study, in fact, the year of the high school test, the score line more than a 15 points, but the application voluntary, he asked me is the newspaper a high school or two. I said, if you are sure to sign up for one, not sure to sign up for two, to be on the safe side, he still signed up for two. The reason for this choice, in fact, because I told him, if a high school exam is not on, will not buy.
Feng Chao called this summer vacation to visit his father, whom he had not seen for two or three years. I do go back once a year, but Zhengliang seldom goes back. Overbred children summer vacation came, live two or three days will go back, insist to go back.
I asked him why, and he said, “Mother, it’s not that I don’t want to stay here with you. It’s that there’s no peace here, no way to read, and no way to be quiet in this place of business, with all the traffic.”
I told him to close the door. “One light will do, two lights will do. I only go in when I’m locked, and at other times I try to stay outside.”
He said, “I have bought four hundred and eighty yuan worth of books, but only one third of them have been read, and the other two thirds have not read at all. Living here, Being a businessman, I am not used to hearing, and I cannot sleep at night, and I am in poor spirits. Besides, you all want me to go to college, grandpa said. Your parents are working outside, so you should study hard and get a good school. It’s not easy for your parents to work outside. My uncle also said that I failed the exam. How can I be so ashamed?”
Hearing this, I bought a ticket that evening and let him go back. Of course, I wish he could stay longer, stew him some soup with spare ribs, buy him some tonic steamed pork belly, and no one could take care of him peacefully at home. I took him there when he came to Guangzhou when he was nine years old. I took a lot of photos of him. I took him to the subway, to the park, to the shops, took a lot of photos and went to the Baiyun Hotel.
He was already very tall this time, a head taller than I, and much taller than both of us. I didn’t cook for him for eight solid years. He stayed at home with his father when he was eight, and I went out to work. Until he graduated from junior high school in the last semester, I see his good grades, worried that we could not afford to go to high school, just called his father also out to work. Read junior high school, I came out to work alone, barely able to afford; But read high school, must two people work outside just afford.
You see, there are two light bulbs in my room, both of which are energy-saving bulbs, a three-watt bulb and a five-watt bulb. They cost only five yuan each. With this kind of lamp, the electricity meter doesn’t turn at all, and I can use this kind of lamp to lock and iron my clothes. I know that the utility bill of the three of them is more than 100 yuan per month, and the utility bill of caifeng is also more than 100 yuan per month, and my utility bill is only 17 yuan per month (the residential electricity in Guangzhou in 2006 was 0.6 yuan/KWH), I can save as much as I can, and try not to spend money if I can’t earn it.
Zhengliang in a logistics company to work, do coolies, mainly to help others move things, his kung fu than you Uncle Wei even heavy, eat and cover, there are more than a thousand yuan a month. But he is not fine, last year and the year before last, “buy a yard” lost more than ten thousand. He is very economical in other aspects, is too like “buy yard”, he last year and the year before last only saved more than 9,000 yuan, but “buy yard” all lost, two years did not go back to celebrate the New Year. This year he began to plan, must go back to the Spring Festival. I said to him, this year do not “buy the code”, in case next year the overbred gamin took the university, how to take the money by that time?
I was busy from year to year, and I didn’t see any money saved. I have saved only three thousand dollars till now, but he needs at least ten thousand to study. The result that exceeds the child also is not special top-grade, the appearance of middle upper reaches, in the school teacher still let him become a monitor, he becomes monitor every year, he the second half of the year arrived high school, next year graduated from high school. He said that after graduation from high school next year, he would come to Guangzhou to work for a month and then come by himself. He will be eighteen years old into nineteen years old on the sixth day of the first month of next year, I am too lazy to think so much, he can read out better, can’t read out, we do the parents also try their best, there is no other way. At least now, bitter and tired, we also want to ensure that he read the money, he likes reading so much, always a book in the hand, if the parents do not have the ability, the misbred, he will complain for a lifetime.
Ten years passed, since then, I have never seen Ying Uncle.
Just as she expected, after her son graduated from college, she finally ended the days of sweating like a pig under the stairs and returned to the beautiful village. Exceed ya son finally took an examination of 2 universities, the school teacher is good to him still. It is said that after graduation, there was a period of time when he was cheated and participated in pyramid selling. Now he seems to be working in a company, but I don’t know the specific situation.
Last Chinese New Year, my mother told me that Ying Guoshu had breast cancer and had undergone chemotherapy. I did not know when she could endure it.
A sign in a village
Caifeng uncle: debt forces her to do business
Uncle Caifeng is only four years older than me, but according to seniority, I still have to call her Uncle. She is married to her fifth grandmother’s younger son, Wei Shuqian, and has had a son from a previous marriage. Her ex-husband was a restless, bad-tempered, bad-tempered man, prone to domestic violence, and had to get a divorce. Caifeng was only 24 years old when she got a divorce.
When Uncle Wei was young, looking for a partner is too picky, the marriage will be delayed, did not expect to meet Caifeng uncle, Uncle Wei is very satisfied with her. I still remember that when they fell in love, Uncle Caifeng wore tight jeans, her hair was pulled up high and she looked like a blooming youth. They often worked together in the vegetable field beside the reservoir in my hometown. They got along very well with each other.
Uncle Wei is forthright, also very diligent, love gambling, this is really out of caifeng uncle’s expectation. She puts her marriage down to fate: her ex-husband likes to gamble, but Uncle Wei still likes to gamble. Caifeng and Uncle Wei after marriage, gave birth to a son yong Yong, very beautiful. As their son grew up, they gradually realized the pressure of life. In 2005, CAI Fengshu finally entrusted her four-year-old son to his fifth grandmother and began to work in the south.
CAI Feng uncle work experience is relatively simple, in 2005, river uncle will take her to Guangzhou, after the introduction of acquaintances, at the beginning of a tangxia garment factory to work, do a full year of probation, only four hundred yuan a month. After one year’s probation, the boss saw that she was still reliable, so he asked her to do quality inspection. She went to work at 7 o ‘clock in the morning and went off at 12 o ‘clock in the evening. She had no holiday for a month, except Sunday night. In the second year, the salary was a little higher, with a base salary of 800 yuan and a little commission. If you gave 10,000 yuan, you could get 300 yuan in commission, barely eleven hundred yuan a month.
Caifeng uncle to Guangzhou, the first idea is to control her husband Wei Uncle. Uncle Wei came to Guangzhou five years earlier than her, but almost did not take a penny back, low salary is the main factor, but the more important reason is that he is too good to gamble, stay in Tangxia, he could not control himself.
“Uncle Wei’s salary is not high, but he has bad habits. Last year for two months, I lost my money playing cards. I also cheated my niece Ming Ming that he needed a deposit for gas filling. Ming Ming gave him one thousand yuan. Caifeng uncle did not know these things, a month later, my father accidentally told in front of Caifeng Uncle Wei Uncle to borrow money, did not expect Caifeng Uncle also silent, her temper is really too good.
We lived near Uncle Wei. He delivered goods for a boss, who liked him very much. Uncle Wei had a strong sense of labor and was willing to pay the price. He had a long working day, fourteen hours. He went to work at nine o ‘clock in the morning and came back at eleven o ‘clock in the evening, sometimes at twelve. Tired like this, he came home from work at night to take a shower and went to the stall to see if there were cards to play. If there are cards to play, but also to play a card, to hang a three attack, hang three attack even to do zhuang. This kind of life has been maintained for seven years without any improvement in the caifengshu couple’s economic situation.
In 2010, Grandma Five fell ill and Uncle Caifeng left Guangzhou to take care of the old man. When Grandma Five died the following year, the family was even worse off. Yong Yong is getting bigger and bigger, not only study to money, a few broken house in the home also has not met the living demand, not to mention years of money (low wages lead to savings, Wei Uncle lost more than win less, plus five grandma died, owe a lot of money), let them back a lot of debt.
Choi Fengshu know can not put the hope of life on Uncle Wei, decided to return to Guangzhou in 2011. Then she did not choose to enter the factory, but to a steamed restaurant, in the steamed restaurant for four months, and then confessed Uncle Wei took the opportunity of delivery, to find the front. She wanted to open a shop and cook steamed vegetables with her mother’s brother, and her life turned around.
On April 19, 2016, Uncle CAI Feng invited our family to have dinner at her place. While entertaining guests, she told me about opening the store.
Interview time: April 19, 2016
Interview place: SAN Yuan Li Yaochi Street, Baiyun District, Guangzhou
This year is the fifth anniversary of my opening. I’m going to have a celebration. The food is so expensive right now that I can’t afford it, but I can give everyone who orders a soda for a dollar a bottle, as long as the restaurant doesn’t lose any money on the day. Businesses like mine are all acquaintances, mainly students, residents of Guangzhou, or outsiders who have lived here for a long time. For five years, I have never quarreled with the people around me, nor had any conflicts with the customers. No one could open the store for half a year before, but I persisted for five years.
Now I hire three people and my brother-in-law to help with the dishes, and I need a relative to look after when the shop is busy. My shop has a very good reputation in Yaochi Street. My principle is never to sell leftovers to others. I would rather throw leftovers away or give them to my neighbors that day rather than keep them until the next day. But I have a good plan. Usually there are only a few dishes left. In addition, the restaurant’s hygiene must be very good, if the place to eat is not clean, others will not dare to come.
Every day you go to the vegetable market wholesale fresh vegetables more than three o ‘clock, vegetables must buy their own, rest assured. After getting acquainted with the boss, the price can be cheap, and you can choose your own dishes. Especially the fish, must be caught, just fresh, steamed out of the taste is delicious. Every vegetable I buy should be carefully selected and cleaned. In order to save labor costs, many fast food restaurants do not wash their vegetables or do not wash them properly. When customers know that I care about hygiene, they all rest assured. In five years, no one has ever complained of diarrhea or other discomfort after eating my food. Many people have said to me, “Madame, I have been eating in your shop for five years,” because they are as friendly to the customers as they are to the people in the barn.
However, I think this year’s vegetable prices are the highest ever. Before, winter melon prices never exceeded 1.5 yuan per kilo, but this year they have all gone up to 2 yuan per kilo, red pepper has gone up to 9 yuan per kilo, and pork has also gone up a lot. Now the wholesale price is 13 yuan per kilo. The dishes are too expensive, so I have to buy less and pair them with the cheaper ones. The rent has also gone up a lot. It used to cost 10,000 yuan a month, but now it costs 13,000 yuan. Plus more than 1,000 yuan for utilities each month, the cost is really huge. Every day I open my eyes, I wonder if I can break even that day. Labor went up, too. Three workers were hired, with an agreed wage increase of 10% a year. Even so, I can’t raise the price of the food in my shop, because if it’s too expensive, nobody will come to eat it.
I calculate, a day gross income achieves 1800, I can only break even, a day if can achieve 2000, I can only earn 200 yuan, a month also earn 7000 yuan, calculate to calculate, that is to earn two people’s wages, but we have to worry about how much! What a risk to take! Not a day dares to be discouraged, gets up more than three o ‘clock in the morning to prepare, closes at ten o ‘clock in the evening, day and night, can rest only four or five hours in the evening, until completes the noon that group of guests, can find time to rest.
The last two years were much better than now. I remember when the shop opened in 2011, the vegetable price was cheaper and the labor was cheaper than now. I could earn 18,000 yuan a month. Although I was very tired, I thought that after a few years, I would be able to pay off the debt, pay off the money from the shop, and save money to go home and build a house. What is more rare is that after you left Tangxia to SAN Yuan Li Yaochi Street, you changed a lot of playing habits, no longer indulge in gambling as before, I feel that life really has a bold head. But I did not expect that the rent, labor and vegetable prices have risen so fast in the past two years. As a result, there are fewer people to eat. As a result, business is far less than before.
The money earned in the first year, paid off the cost of the store, can be said to be a year back; The next year he made money, and paid off his old debts; In the third year, I saved 80,000 yuan, most of which I lent to my relatives. When I was in trouble before, they lent me money, now they have opened their mouth, they should also help them. People are not difficult, will not seek others to open.
Since last year, I’ve been planning to build my house, build it slowly, and then pay the bills. Business is obviously not good this year, but I still want to insist, after all, it is better than working. But only for a few years, the body can not bear, too tired, is to earn hard money, from dawn to dusk, there is no day to relax. I feel a lot worse, too, because of worry and tiredness, especially this year, it’s hard to fall asleep at night, and I have a headache every afternoon.
I’m most guilty of being brave. Yong Yong to a few years old, gave grandma to take. When I worked in a garment factory, I would pick up Yong Yong for two months every summer vacation. He lived in Guangzhou and didn’t want to go back. He sent him to the train and cried terribly. Uncle Wei and I miss him so much that we have to take his picture with us. He is here, we also can’t take him to play, I have to go to work, Uncle Wei to deliver goods, he stays at home to watch TV, basically watch TV every day, as long as you wake up, open your eyes the first thing is to watch TV.
In 2011, the year I opened my shop, my grandmother died, but Yong Yong had to stay at home, so he had to entrust his younger sister (Ba Da’s younger son) to start the country. Small sister family has three children, there are two and Yong Yong together to study, play together since childhood, Yong Yong has been living in their home, also only willing to go to their home. Small sister husband and wife to children, their two children in general grades, yong Yong score a little better. I went back to him during the Spring Festival and said, “You should work harder to get into No. 1 Middle School.” Yong Yong did well in science, but his English was poor and he could only get more than 40 points in each exam. “Mom, I try my best,” he said, “I can’t help it. I know the English words, but I don’t know it.
When I was ten years old, he once called me and cried before he opened his mouth, “Mother, I cry most of the time to sleep.” Once I listened, my voice became hard and I could not help crying. I summer vacation will he take over, he come over to grow flesh, in the father niang in front, he follow one’s inclinance, the state of mind relaxed, gain fat. Another time, ping brother tease him, said we do not want him, will he sent to the sister home, he called, asked us to have a few years did not take him, is it really do not want him, I advised a long time, he just calmed down.
Tell the truth, although earned a little money outside, but the children put in the other people’s house, also no way of the matter. Anyway, after two more years of building the house, I must go back and take care of the children.
In the chat with ying country uncle, choi Feng uncle, let me feel the most, from their children about.
Compared with the hardship of working, the most difficult thing for mothers to bear is being separated from their young children. Ying Guo shu said that he hadn’t cooked a meal for his son for eight years, Choi Feng shu said Yong Yong slept in tears at night, my sister-in-law in Fengsan village, although the child had married and had children, still “didn’t make money, and lost” the past……
Fortunately, in feng Shape village out of several uncles, caifeng uncle is the only one through efforts, and finally through the shop to find a way out. Think about it, aside from the degree of fatigue, the risk of opening a shop, the cost is really too high, if there is no certain courage and economic strength, it is difficult to achieve, choi Fengshu if not forced into such a life, the last stand, it is difficult to take this step. Unfortunately, with the deterioration of the external economic environment, her store’s profit is lower and lower, and the external expenditure is rising year by year, the store is difficult to support, has become in front of the cruel reality.
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