Krupp’s Spring Festival couplets posted in rental houses
Do you remember how you spent last year’s Spring Festival? The people of Wuhan were quarantined, the whole of China was in fear, and countless people watched the Spring Festival dinner while brushing up on the disturbing news about the Epidemic. This year, there was no mass migration, no Family reunion, and it was destined to be another unusual Spring Festival.
Because of the epidemic prevention requirements, many people have experienced repeated tussles, hesitations, and even returned their tickets in tears over the past month, choosing to spend New Year’s Eve in place. The Ministry of Transportation expects this year’s Spring Festival passenger flow to drop by more than 60% compared to 2019, and compared to last year, nearly 111 million people did not buy tickets to go Home, with 29 provinces and cities issuing initiatives to keep people.
Not going home for New Year’s Eve is undoubtedly a difficult decision. Although many people’s idea when they were young was to avoid the Spring Festival, which is not much fun except for eating and drinking, going home for New Year is still as natural as breathing and drinking water.
Behind the number of “not going home” is a real story. The past New Year’s Eve, some of them are in isolation, some still insist on working, and more are hiding in the rental house to spend a normal day.
36 Krypton has interviewed a number of local New Year’s Eve “workers”, in which there is loneliness, heartache, but also infinite tenderness and enthusiasm for Life. Here are their stories.
Krupp, a 28-year-old employee of a central enterprise in Beijing, “Home is like the 1. Without it, all the hard work would be meaningless.
The process of being decided to spend New Year’s Eve in the same place is like “boiling a frog in warm water”.
As an employee of a central enterprise, Krupp had to spend the Chinese New Year in a foreign country for the first Time in more than 20 years, despite the fact that the epidemic prevention policy in his hometown of Shandong had been relaxed and no longer required a 14-day home quarantine.
Inwardly, reason has been fighting against fluke. After reading so much news, reason always told Krupp, “You can’t go back. But it’s always a fluke: “What if there’s a chance?” He didn’t want to return his ticket, he didn’t want to return his nucleic acid testing appointment, and he kept hoping for a miracle, feeling like he could go back.
It wasn’t until the twentieth day of the lunar month that Krupp knew there were no miracles, just like Chinese soccer. After receiving notice from his unit in the afternoon, he sent a message to his family at 12:00 at night: “I can’t go back this year.”
“I purposely chose to send it at this point in time because I was afraid my Parents wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.” Krupp said he was also afraid that his mother would not be able to tense herself up with a video coming over.
The process of accepting the New Year in place is also a process of constant trial and error and correction of policy. First, the National health Commission’s one-size-fits-all policy led to a lot of complaints, and later on, adjustments were made, and then finally it was made clear that “local epidemic prevention policies should not be increased without authorization,” and the policy level was completely free of obstacles to return home. But because of the special work, Krupp had to choose to “put the big picture first”.
Krupp thinks he is a wanderer with a sense of home, but this time I know that the most loaded inside is still home. “‘Home’ is like the ‘1’, if not it, then all the struggle will lose can carry all the meaning of the root, lost the motivation to fight.”
Wuhan epidemic last year, Krupp did not seek the advice of his parents decided to go to Wuhan to support the front line, two months, he has seen the warmth of the world, “at that time thought in case they were infected, the most sorry or parents.
This year’s New Year’s Eve not home, Krupp’s father is open-minded, constantly sending WeChat to guide Krupp, “every day watching the news broadcast, long done my intention not to go home, exhorting me to spend a good New Year’s Eve outside; mother also sent their own fruit, always afraid that I do not have to eat; brother sent some seafood, know that I am not easy to get some fish in Beijing. “
The more he doesn’t go home, the more Krupp wants to make the New Year a good one. For several years he did not want to buy new clothes, he bought a new set of clothes, ready to wear on the first day of the year. In a rented house of a dozen square meters, he also bought a pair of lanterns, a pair of couplets hanging on the door, every year in the past, the Spring Festival, with his father to write couplets are Krupp’s most enjoyable moments, he regarded this as “the most intimate dialogue with my father moment”.
For New Year’s Eve dinner, Krupp ate a one-person hot pot in his small rental house, with two plates of lamb and one plate of shrimp. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
“I’m trying my best to imitate it, but it’s just a veneer.” Krupp says the sense of smell is especially important during New Year’s Eve, and the variety of flavors that permeate the body makes it feel like the “taste of New Year. Now, he can only extract those smells from his memories.
Even though he had the opportunity to go home every month for the next year, Krupp still felt that it wasn’t “New Year’s home” and that “he had wasted an opportunity to spend New Year’s with his parents.
But Krupp also did not idle, the Spring Festival holiday he was scheduled to work many days, early on New Year’s Eve he was assigned to go out to shoot video, “quite good, I hope I can busy.”
Take-out worker Shen Fei, 50 years old, Shanghai, to pay off debts to do Shanghai floating
Two weeks before the Spring Festival, three cases of New Crown Pneumonia were confirmed in the Zhaotong Road neighborhood of Shanghai’s Huangpu District, which was classified as a medium-risk area. With the experience of last year’s protest during the Spring Festival, Shen Fei, a deliveryman who is in the Zhaotong Road neighborhood of Huangpu District’s Zhejiang Middle Road detachment and often delivers to the Zhaotong Road neighborhood, soon realized that the situation was once again grim.
The sudden outbreak of a new epidemic once again disrupted his plans to return to his hometown, and he had to back out of the ticket he had booked in December last year and was scheduled to return home on Feb. 1 this year. “Originally thought that this year can return ironically, and her daughter played the package, but still let her down”, about not being able to accompany his 9-year-old daughter for New Year’s Eve, Shen Fei face regret, but very restrained: “the child was crying a lot, I and her mother to ensure that I must go back to see her in March. ” This is the third year he came to Shanghai, the second time did not go home for the Spring Festival.
Shen Fei, 50, attaches great importance to this annual family reunion opportunity. But under the weight of life, he can only choose to suppress his nostalgia.
Shen Fei is a native of Luoyang, Henan Province, before coming to Shanghai, he had a wedding studio storefront in the county near his hometown. The original operation was good, but soon because of blind investment, business gradually off track, owed nearly a million foreign debts.
Business failure on the life of Shen Fei change is huge. In order to fill the deficit, he sold the house in his hometown, to make up most of the arrears, but the house sold, his wife and daughter had to go back to his wife’s mother’s home in Hubei, while his son and his old mother stayed in Luoyang, by his sister and brother to help take care of. Shen Fei confessed that the sale of the house, in the old family’s Perception, is a matter of great importance, and inevitably to be discussed by the neighbors; plus, debt collection calls after calls, so that he was nervous: “I was already depressed, debt collectors even call your relatives and friends every day”, he left home without a second thought.
And all first-time outsiders, like Shen Fei just came to Shanghai, also took a lot of detours. He was most impressed by the experience of going to a freight company as an escort, stayed for a while, spent a few hundred yuan to do the escort card, but did not receive a penny of salary, the money with him also spent, at a loss, he chose to send delivery.
The first six months, because he was not familiar with the route of Shanghai, his monthly salary is only about 4,000 yuan, but he was not discouraged, 7:00 am to familiarize with the route, 9:00 am and colleagues to attend the morning meeting, more than three years to persist, now his salary can be on the ten thousand yuan per month, the working hours are also fixed at 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.
This Spring Festival, stay in Shanghai on-call delivery staff also got a certain subsidy and run single reward. Referring to these, he gradually had a smile on his face: “These hard work was not in vain, can also be considered to alleviate some of the burden.”
Young people in the metropolis can quickly enter a new social circle, but alone in a foreign country, middle-aged men, the way to relieve loneliness to quiet and much cheaper.
Shen Fei spends his free time visiting Shanghai’s historical homes and attractions, and records his thoughts on the public number “Takeout Shanghai” or uploads videos on his headline. Although he does not have many followers and his readership is small, recording and sharing can bring comfort to people.
He also enjoys listening to Himalaya’s free “Chinese and Western Philosophy Enlightenment Class” on his way to deliver Food. “This class from the original human origins, talk about modern life, from Western philosophy, talk about the East, Taoism, Legalism, so step by step listening, as if I can get away from reality for a while.” Shen Fei said.
The middle-aged man, who had suffered all kinds of changes, thus gained a new life in Shanghai. He also began to take the initiative to communicate and cooperate with his fellow takeaway workers.
This year’s Spring Festival, Shen Fei, with his experience in running a wedding studio store, took the initiative to organize the first Blue Rider Spring Festival, held on the rooftop of a group home in downtown Shanghai. Near the Spring Festival, Shen Fei and colleagues use the little time they have after work to prepare the program, “every day when the chorus is very hard”.
Shen Fei believes that a takeaway worker has not only the meticulousness in front of him, but also the joy and Dreams. “I’m 50 years old, but my life is still changing a lot. Coming to Shanghai has opened my eyes to another world and has freed me from my original pain and given me hope in my new job.”
Drip driver Zhang Zhongzhi, 54, Chengdu, “I can’t go home, but I hope to bring more people home”
This is the second Spring Festival that Zhang Zhongzhi, a drip driver, has been out alone. in 2019, at the age of 53, he retired from a local state-owned enterprise in Anhui province and came to Chengdu with a friend to work as an express bus driver for two years.
It was a less than pleasant beginning. In the last few years at the state-owned enterprise, Zhang Zhongzheng found himself increasingly overwhelmed by younger and younger colleagues and increasingly mechanized work equipment, which made him withdraw. He also briefly did a water purifier agent business for a while, but because of the high capital requirements and the difficulty of marketing, inexperienced he soon lost two to three hundred thousand dollars, casting a shadow over his retirement.
In September 2019, there was no way out, Zhang Zhongzheng chose to leave his hometown in Anhui and become a dropshipper in Chengdu. But just two months after opening, he caught the outbreak of the new crown epidemic.
That New Year’s Eve Zhang Zhongzhi was spent on the road, not even in the rental room to eat a bite of rice. “(That day) there was nothing on the road, and no single, but just did not want to stay inside.”
This year, because of the requirements of epidemic prevention, Zhang Zhongzheng still did not choose to go home, a month before the Spring Festival, his wife asked him “this Spring Festival to come back”, Zhang Zhongzheng said “think about the Spring Festival to run more orders, more money, get the reward. Three days before New Year’s Eve, his wife sent a video inquiry late at night, he was ruthless, said not to go back, hung up the phone in the nest to wipe tears.
This New Year’s Eve in 2021, Zhang Zhongzheng will have to spend on the road, New Year’s Eve dinner can not eat. But he decided to open the map to find his hometown at the end of the New Year’s Eve drive, although you can not see the night scene, but also a special romance.
After leaving the state-owned enterprises, Zhang Zhongzhi straight to the family bought a house in the city center of his hometown in Anhui, in order to come to Chengdu as a drop driver and bought a new car, counting the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost before doing the agent, he has to pay off a small loan of 10,000 every month, do not allow themselves to relax and lazy.
The past year Zhang Zhongzheng almost every month is the first income in the fleet, but after taking out the loan and various fuel insurance costs, more than 10,000 monthly income is hardly anything left. “Every day is a dozen hours of running, sometimes only the platform mandatory six-hour break will stop to take a nap.” Because of living in the urban-rural combination, Zhang Zhong straight back to the rental house sleep time is not much, most of the time is in the car to make up a night, “go back to the empty car, can not scratch.”
In September this year, the mortgage in Anhui home will be paid off, Zhang Zhongzhi straight look forward to next year’s Spring Festival he can go home and spend more time with his parents in their 80s.
Internet factory couple, 25 years old, Hangzhou, the two of the first foreign New Year
Xiaoyue and Xiaowu are a couple, they both work in the Internet factory, this year both chose to stay in Hangzhou for the New Year.
Xiaoyue’s parents were unexpectedly a little pleased: “My home is far away, in Heilongjiang, the Spring Festival round trip by plane to spend 6,000 yuan, heard that I do not go home, my parents instantly feel for me to save a lot of money.” This somewhat clumsy concern, more or less make her cry and laugh. Also because Xiao Yue can use the holidays to go home three to four times a year, parents do not force the Spring Festival reunion.
Another more secret reason is that for a long time, Xiaoyue and her father had a “knot” between them: she felt that her father could not understand her pursuit of career and freedom, and her father felt that Xiaoyue’s current situation did not meet his plans for his daughter.
For Xiaoyue, staying in Hangzhou for the New Year is also a good choice – the city has carried a lot of feelings and memories for her and her boyfriend Xiaowu.
The 95-year-old Xiaoyue has been in Hangzhou for eight years, four years of college and four years of work, and Hangzhou has almost become her second hometown. When she first arrived in Hangzhou, she was very unaccustomed to the months-long rainy weather here, to experience what is called “Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai” dry quilts. The old home in the northeast is always ready to warm equipment, in the winter can also wear thick cotton shoes, the days are very pleasant.
But now, the situation is reversed. When she returned to the northeast, Xiaoyue could no longer stand the dry and cold climate there. She also gradually got used to shopping malls in Hangzhou to buy new clothes at the original price of the hangtag. In the past in the northeast, she tends to go to the local wholesale market to buy, always with the boss to cut prices.
Xiaoyue and Xiaowu are now talking about Marriage, and Xiaowu is not only her lover, but will also become her family. They are planning to buy a house in Hangzhou, due to the new housing restrictions, the first lottery did not succeed, Xiaowu intends to try again after the year.
When it comes to not being able to go home for the Spring Festival, Xiao Wu, who lives in Changchun, is also very calm. Before he came to Hangzhou, he was a foreign student and spent four years in Korea, hardly ever returning home, his parents are used to it, and he himself has long been used to living in a foreign country and spending the holidays.
The duo’s social circle is also fixed in Hangzhou. Xiaoyue revealed: “friends in the hometown are seven, eight years have not seen, Hangzhou friends from college to now have been in contact, this Spring Festival also about together, each out of a few dishes, after dinner together to play cards or games.”
For the elders living in the Northeast, it seems to be the norm for the younger generation not to go home for the Spring Festival. Xiao Yue confessed, “The Northeast economy lacks vitality, the exodus of young people is very serious, we are not all saying that the young people of the Northeast are all over the world, even Sanya are many.”
As for how to spend the long holiday, they have a preliminary plan: first and friends to eat a New Year’s Eve dinner, the next day to go to the cinema to watch the two-year wait for “Chinatown Detective 3”, and then go to a disco, but also intend to go to Shanghai’s Disneyland tour.
But the duo is more spontaneous. “If you can’t get in line to stay at home and watch TV and play games, there is no problem at all.” Xiao Yue even intended to take the initiative to work a few days during the New Year, she just changed jobs not long ago, want to use this time to “catch up”.
The couple also did not purchase much for the New Year, the New Year’s Eve goods are bought at home near the box horse, the couplets are issued by the company Xiaoyue, completely new human beings do.
This is the second year that Xiaowu and Xiaoyue did not go home for the Spring Festival after coming to Hangzhou. The last time was last year, when they were restricted by the epidemic. They are starting to get used to spending the Spring Festival locally, and after they settle down, this will likely be the future as well.
(Krupp is a pseudonym in this article)
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