1
One morning, years ago, I was sleeping. Wake me up is my mother: “Zhang Tongyi boy looking for you.”
Seeing me yawn again and again, my mother advised, “Stay up less late in the future.” She said it almost every day, and I nodded impatiently, urging her out.
When I got dressed and wiped my face, Zhang Kai, The son of Zhang Tongyi, was standing in our yard. Zhang Kai is the same age as me. We were classmates in the first grade of primary school. Later, he dropped out of the class because of his grades and became classmates again with my younger sister, who is two years old. Although two families are before and after neighbors, my father and his father is also a classmate, often drink and play cards together, but we are not familiar, year round, few contact.
Wearing a tracksuit and a black handbag under his arm, he asked me anxiously: “Are you busy today?”
He knew that I wrote novels, and many people in the village knew that, because since the village was founded, there had not been a word worker in the village, and I was the first one in our village. They thought it was new, so they gave birth to a baby, started a company, and even bought a dog.
Zhang Kai’s second child had just been born. I thought he came to my house to ask for my name, so I replied, “It’s ok.”
“I want to drive your car.” Zhang kai said.
In our village, the standard items of every family were like this: a two-story house, a narrow courtyard, a wing, and a car. But there are exceptions, such as Zhang Kai, whose family has four cars and can hardly limit the number. I wondered why I could borrow one of your many cars, but politely said, “Drive it. I’ll get you the keys.”
But Zhang Kai was somewhat embarrassed to ask: “Do you come to drive?”
Reluctantly, I nodded in agreement.
Then he went to the door and found a man standing at the door. Zhang Kai introduced him as a man working for his family. On the car, Zhang Kai sat in the first driving directions, the man sat in the back. After dropping out of junior high school, Zhang kai often works in the city, knowing where there are speed limits and where there are snapshots. Although I studied in a college in Hongqi Street, Shijiazhuang for several years, I am not familiar with the city.
At the gate of a neighborhood in the city, Mr. Zhang asked me to turn off the fire. I thought they were going to get out, but instead he pulled a telescope out of his pocket.
“What is this for?” I asked.
“Blocking people.”
In my experience, “blocking people” should be synonymous with catching rape. In the village, this kind of thing is too taboo to allow outsiders to get involved, and I thought to myself that my relationship with him was not good enough to share dirty linen.
Soon, Zhang Kai gave me the answer: “that grandson owes us money, living in this community, do not answer the phone, can stay here to stop him.”
It dawned on me that the reason he didn’t drive his family car was that he didn’t want to be recognized.
2
Zhang tongyi and his son are excavators. Their first excavator was bought in my high school.
When Zhang Kai graduated from primary school, the three subjects of Chinese, mathematics and natural Science added up to less than one hundred percent, and the nine-year compulsory education had been popularized. He entered a junior high school in the countryside, only finishing the first half of the first semester of the first grade, but disappeared after the end of the year.
Two years after dropping out of junior high school, Zhang bought two excavators and a hook. When the work is busy, a car needs two people turnover, people rest the car, one day work, one night work. Zhang kai was placed on an excavator and apprenticed with him, and his B driver’s license was later purchased.
After working for two months, Zhang Kai ran away. Having just passed his seventeenth birthday, he could not accept such a boring job, and Zhang Tongyi did not insist: “You go to school, I provide for you, you go on for a lifetime, I provide for a lifetime. Instead of going to school, you earn your own living.”
Zhang Kai nodded in agreement. At that time, there was a logistics company in the village, so Zhang went there to work as a truck loader and got four days off every month. He was assigned to the line from Guangzhou to Shijiazhuang. The 9-meter 6-van from Guangzhou arrived at about 7 o ‘clock in the evening every day, and his team of five people had to work all night: first, unload half of the goods, and put them in accordance with the final delivery area. Then the other lines to be sent to Guangzhou goods loading, the requirements of neat, maximize the use of space, than the unloading technology is much higher.
The goods have light and heavy, light one person to carry, heavy several people to carry, then heavy on the pallet, forklift loading and unloading. The hardest part is not the effort, but the effort. A day or two does not show anything, every night shift let Zhang Kai soon felt unable to endure the body. On the hour, all the night workers would gather in the toilet to smoke, and Zhang learned to do so. “A cigarette is a tube of blood,” which keeps them energized for an hour.
After the night shift, Zhang kai and his colleagues have breakfast together. The older workers all like to eat tofu, but the younger ones are not satisfied with the taste and prefer to eat bean curd. When he got home after the meal, Zhang Kai went to sleep with his head covered. He didn’t wake up until the afternoon. His mind seemed to be in a dream.
A month later, the company joined a novice, or a college student, his hometown Cangzhou. The other members of the group did not like this new student. One was that the college student had not done any hard work, and the work was a drag on everyone. The other was that the college student still had a subsidy of 300 yuan per month.
Zhang Kai has a fairly good relationship with college students. The logistics company does not provide accommodation, so college students rent a house in the village. These steveers from Baoding, Xingtai, Hengshui and other places are the first batch of tenants in our village. Some families will pick up the second floor and rent it to them for 100 yuan per month.
College students do not smoke, as a result one night, unloading the car was a motor hit the foot. The rest of the group gloated over it: “Look, let him stop smoking.”
This incident made Zhang kai feel the bitterness of human for the first time. He chose to end his two-month working as a stevedor, went home in disgrace, and said to Zhang, “I drive an excavator.”
Zhang Tong-yi placidly: “Yes, but this time come back can’t walk again, walk again can, can’t come back again. There are two again and again, not four again and again.”
Since then, Zhang Tongyi went out to work and treated his son as a worker. He worked, retired and paid the same salary as others. After returning home, Zhang Kai can restore his son’s identity in front of Zhang Tongyi.
3
When Zhang Kai first started to operate an excavator, only a few people knew how to do it. Even though the work was not much, they could eat well and earn money by doing it casually.
Due to the early start of the business, Zhang Tongyi bought his first car very early. At that time, he was no longer in charge of excavators or hooks, but entrusted To Zhang Kai with full authority. He was mainly responsible for “running and living”, or to put it more professionally, “market development and customer maintenance”. Two years ago, when work was easier, Mr. Zhang paid for the family’s second car at his own expense.
Nowadays, although shijiazhuang is now full of new buildings and paved roads, excavators need more and more work, but also more self-employed excavators running, you fight for me, competition is very fierce.
Then there was the hard work, and most of all, the accounting. In winter, many construction sites stop work, but they are busy, father and son drive a car to Run all over Shijiazhuang, staged a “big drama”. Generally speaking, a family of two cars has been the “top match”, but his family has four – the other two are the account of the time to arrive, car discount money, to fill the hole.
I know a little of these things, but I didn’t expect to be involved in them one day. I asked him, “How much do I owe you?”
“More than 30,000,” Said Zhang kai.
“Not much, a boss engaged in engineering, can’t take this money out?”
“I’m used to it. Every year I’m in arrears. Why, we used to do that, and that’s why they owe it!”
The last “owe” word a pun, in addition to owe money, also refers to no character, take “owe beat” meaning.
“Well, how can you keep him working every year?”
“If you don’t do it, there are people who do, more than less.” Zhang kai looks at me, realizes he’s using foul language, and awkwardly adds, “We’re used to roughing it. You don’t mind.”
Zhang Kai felt oppressed in his heart, and took me as his confidant. At the very beginning, he did not finish his work. He displayed all kinds of difficulties one by one and gave the telescope to his mate, who was responsible for keeping an eye on him.
At noon, Zhang Kai also did not leave the car, ordered takeout. Take-out brother came over, I opened the door, shouted “here”, the little brother looked at our eyes both strange and envy, probably think we are squatting plainclothes police. Zhang Kai stuffed his lunch box in his mouth and continued to talk. In the middle of the day, the sun was warming the car, and I was drowsy and yawning. Zhang Kai asks me to squint for a moment and leans on the window to let the guy stare.
After some time, I don’t know how long, I heard the guy shout, “Kekai, is that the one with the hat?” Zhang Kai rubbed his eyes and took the binoculars to make out: “Yes! The car!”
After they got off the bus, I sat in position and watched through the binoculars that Zhang had dropped into the passenger seat.
Zhang kai had expected to give the man a good beating first, but he just stopped the man and said a few words, which looked more like an attempt to curry favor than a debt — a smiling face and a cigarette to light the fire. With the wind blowing outside, Zhang Kai’s lighter came back several times and failed. Finally, the man came and held it in his hands to create a tiny “safe haven” to keep the flame alive.
They spoke a few more words — and the man, not like a debtor, but a life coach, patted Zhang on the shoulder as he spoke. After a while, the man walked into the neighborhood and Zhang kai and his buddy returned to their car.
“Well?” I asked.
“It’s the same as last time,” Zhang said. “One week at the most.”
“Isn’t that nice?”
Zhang kai said: “This is not a guarantee, this is ha ha ha! It’s been half a month since I said it last time.”
‘So what’s next?
“What else can be done? We’ll go to his house if we don’t give him the money. You see, no one wants to be a bad guy. It’s all forced.”
4
I worked for Zhang Kai as a driver only once, and the next thing I heard was “rural women’s Radio”. The so-called “rural women’s broadcasting” is the “alliance” between my mother and several other village women. It usually takes only two days from the occurrence of events in the village, ranging from marriage and burial to minor disagreements between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
A week later, my mother “broadcast” to me at the dinner table: the day before, Zhang Kai and his buddy went to the door again, but the man did not open the door, Zhang Kai called to find the lock company. The door has not been opened, but the police arrived first, zhang Kai and others away. “I’m an accessory, I’m an accessory.”
Two days later, my mother said that Zhang Kai, who had come out of the detention house, had jumped off the building:
That day, Zhang Kai drove to the work site. Construction began in the summer, and the frames of the buildings have been erected on the site, which is currently at a halt — the tall buildings planted by Mr. Zhang’s digger, but none of his business, were fully booked as early as 2016, when shijiazhuang’s housing prices were soaring.
Zhang kai some hopeless, the ghost of the general over the wall entered the site, climbed on the roof, took a photo to send to the creditors. The creditor, who had been pretending not to be there, panicked: if Zhang Kai jumped off the building, things would be magnified. So the creditor quickly called to stabilize Zhang Kai, played the phone, and immediately played money.
I didn’t believe my mother’s version. The fact that Zhang Kai jumped from a building was definitely not so enjoyable. Later, I heard a different version from Zhang Tongyi: “To jump from any building is to climb up and take a selfie!”
If I don’t pay back the money, I will really jump off the building
Shortly after the money came back, Zhang Kai invited me to dinner as a reward for my earlier drive.
During the dinner, Zhang Kai could not persuade the wine. My ears are soft, can not help but persuade, began to say not to drink not to drink, then the situation is out of control. Zhang Kai joked: “where can you write novels without drinking ah, drink a lot of literary thoughts, like Li Bai.”
At that time I was still sober, do not want to answer words, then found other topics: “money to come back, can lead a good year?”
Zhang Kai replied, “By a long way, there are still a few left. I have to jump off a building in a couple of days, but I can’t just take pictures this time. I’m going to set up an account, open a room, broadcast the jump and make it bigger.”
“Can this be streamed?” I was shocked.
“Now broadcast what all have, our village face still have someone broadcast feed pig.”
I drank a lot of wine that night, and when I got home, I threw up and couldn’t sit still. The next day I had a splitting headache, and the whole day was wasted. Lunch time, I just get up, my father a bit can not see the past, asked me: “the great writer, and to the end of the year, when do you publish a book?”
I said, “Next year.”
My dad said again, “You said that last year, and the year before that.”
My mother talked to me. “I’m sure she’ll come out next year, right?”
I’m a little upset. This is my year.
5
In the village, we do not say the Spring Festival, but the New Year pass. Old arrears of rent, debt of the people to pay off debts before the New Year, this is the convention, for these people as the New Year pass, so called the New Year pass.
That night, while I was being inspired, my mother came in and said, “Your father called to ask you to go to Zhang Tongyi’s house.” It turned out that when they had dinner and drank together in the evening, Zhang Kai’s little daughter had eczema on her face, so she had to go to the children’s hospital. Zhang Tongyi had drunk alcohol, but Zhang Kai had not come back before he went out to collect his bill, so he asked me to be a driver.
I couldn’t refuse to see the baby, so I drove straight to the children’s hospital. Our village is on the south third Ring road of Shijiazhuang. Starting from the village entrance, take National Highway 308 and turn to Jianhua Avenue. All the way north to yuhua Junction, a famous blocking point in Shijiazhuang. There was a huge traffic jam in front of the children’s hospital. They went to the clinic first, and I waited for half an hour before queuing for a parking space.
When I parked my car and went to the clinic on the second floor, I found that Zhang Kai’s wife was still holding the child in her arms. Not to mention eczema, even a fever, but as long as the child does not have convulsions, it can not be plugged, honestly waiting for the patient in front of the room to swallow in the vomit.
At this time, Zhang Tongyi is making a phone call: “Boss, when can we get that money? I’m in the hospital right now. My granddaughter is sick and needs an operation. She needs money. For this money, my boy has been so anxious to jump off a building for the past two days. Look at that, it’s settled early, the Spring Festival is coming soon…”
When he finished his phone call, he found that I was looking at him and said, “Don’t say a little sad no line, their dogs don’t take you seriously!”
After a while, he added: “Every time the New Year comes to an end, it’s like a war. Now the work gets worse every year, and the money gets harder every year. To ask them for money, you have to think twice.”
Because of the hardships of life, he and I suddenly had a sense of mutual sympathy, sighing and comforting each other. Later, Zhang went out for a smoke and said he had two more calls to make. Asked me if I smoked, I waved my hand.
Half an hour later, Zhang tongyi’s daughter-in-law came out with the child in her arms, looking for Zhang to recharge the medical card. When he didn’t come back, I volunteered three hundred dollars. When giving the child blood test, zhang tong-yi came to us, after understanding the situation, he would add me WeChat to transfer money to me. I said no hurry, he said sooner or later also have to give, early to give, the heart do not need to remember.
I sighed. “If only those who owe you money had this awareness.”
At home in the evening, when I was scrolling through my moments, I saw the latest news of Zhang Tongyi. It was a picture of crowded people in the hospital, with the caption: My granddaughter is going to have an operation, and my grandpa can’t even get enough money together, so I felt sad.
Said that the New Year, can really get the day of the big year, in fact, there is nothing special at all. Even on New Year’s Eve, As usual, I spent my time at my desk.
No matter how lazy you are, you must get up early on New Year’s Day. In the village, the first day of the New Year must get up early to take the street (New Year), the younger generation to kowtow to the elders. It starts at five o ‘clock every year and takes about two hours to walk. The elders lived in different quarters and often had to go round and round the village. Then go home to eat dumplings, then go to the grave, kowtow burn yellow paper.
The graves are all men, my mother do not have to go. On the way back, my father met Zhang Tongyi and was invited to play mahjong at his house. When I got home, mother was tidying up my “study”. It’s New Year’s Day, and I didn’t pick up those random stack of books. Many of the books were bought last spring, and the year before, partially unopened, their plastic seals covered in dust.
“Mom,” I knelt down suddenly, “Let me kowtow to you, too. It’s New Year’s Day.”
My mother said quickly, “Get up.”
Then he said, “Don’t take what your father says so much to heart. You don’t know, when he goes out, he always tells people that his son is a literary man. He’s got a great look on his face. He always said you write a book, is not to hurt you, I think, not to write a book in fact does not matter, you take good care of your health, less late at night on the line.
My year, in fact, is not their year?
6
After that, I met Zhang Kai twice.
The first time was on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month. On that day, I went to my aunt’s house to visit my relatives. The two villages were not far from each other except for a national highway 308. On the way back, the battery ran out after three rounds and I had to push my way home. That day also under a light snow, snow fell to the ground that is melting, all the way muddy, I appear very embarrassed.
As I was getting home, an Audi A6 passed me, slowing down to ride with me. The car window slowly rolled down, inside unexpectedly is Zhang Kai: “how push?”
I answer: “this is not, ran out of electricity.”
“Wait till I get the car home and come back and help you push it. Visiting relatives? How nice it is to drive.”
Instead of answering, I changed the subject. “Did you get another Audi, too?”
“No, I bought a rich car, the owner of this car was driving this car to make money. It’s not expensive either. I’ve run 100,000 kilometers, and the total cost is only a few hundred thousand yuan.” Zhang Kai continued, “Drive this car to run live face, the other side looks up to you. This time how limit number also can’t limit me.”
“Have you started yet?”
“Construction started, I just came back from The Emperor of Praise, repair the highway. I quit now, and began to ‘run’ too. The workmen were watching.”
“That is state appropriation, wages should good want some.”
“Well, it’s all the same.”
“Are the accounts of the years before over?”
“No, in a couple of days. Then I’ll go first and you push slowly.”
The second time I saw Zhang Kai was two days ago. It was at a one-month banquet for the second child of one of my primary school classmates. Before I saw him, I heard from my mother what had happened to him — he was trying to collect his bill when the dog bit him.
Instead of driving an Audi, Mr Zhang drives the most broken of his five cars, a Jetta: silver grey, with its fenders ripped off, its front windshield cracked and a wide piece of transparent tape.
The creditor was a factory owner and a villager from a nearby village. Several years ago, I did not know who said that their village would “develop”, so I asked Zhang Kai to dig two fishponds in their own farmland. Digging fish ponds is not for business, but to say that there is an industry here, can be more than normal land compensation.
But the “development” of the matter soon disappeared, fish pond was not intended to be a good business, the two cars of fish, turning over the white belly dense drift a layer, half a mile away can smell the stench.
I don’t know if it was on purpose or by accident. When Zhang Kai went to ask for his account, the Wolf dog on a leash suddenly broke off its chain and ran towards Zhang Kai. Zhang Quickly hid in Jetta, but his calf and arm were bitten several times.
At the banquet, someone kept urging Zhang Kai to drink wine. He said that he could not drink. People said that he was faked.
The village to persuade wine again fierce, see is so we also put down. During the dinner, everyone’s topic is multifarious, finally said their work, one after another said “this year’s work is not good”. Zhang Kai chimed in: “Yes, every year gets worse.”
“You’ve already bought an Audi, but it’s still hard to work?”
“And I was bitten by a dog, didn’t you see?”
Then everyone laughed.
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