preface
I got to know Wang Gong a few years ago on the construction site of a project in the Middle East. At that time, he was the general contractor and I was the site representative of the design institute. We share the same dormitory and share the same interests despite the considerable age difference. At that time, I was young and energetic, and I often walked around with wang Gong after work. During those months, I talked with Wang Gong all the time and learned a lot about his experiences. I have always wanted to write down his story, but because he has been overseas construction sites for many years and rarely returned to China, he made several appointments without success, so I could only watch him travel around the world in the circle of friends. This year, I happened to go on a business trip to Shandong. He just came back for a rest, so I made an appointment to see him. Later, we had a few more video chats off and on. This is the dictation of Gong Wang.
1
In 2001, before I graduated, I signed up for a small engineering company. At that time what also do not understand, think that can have a job is good, the regular enterprise should also not deceive people, did not pay attention to the content of the contract, the word to sign.
At that time, more than half of the students in the department signed for engineering companies, and those who stayed in China also traveled with the projects all over the country, and they could not go back home all the year round. In contrast, I thought I was quite lucky to work overseas as soon as I graduated.
When I told parents to work abroad, after his father very excited – although overseas construction site is usually more difficult than domestic conditions, the salary is not much, but he still thought it was a great families, for fear that the villagers don’t know, ancestral temple in the village for put more than half an hour of firecrackers, let then I became the envy of the village.
After waiting for more than ten years, “going abroad” has become commonplace for many villagers. When they finally figured out where I was going, they scoffed, “Hey, it’s just international labor.”
At that time, I was assigned by the company to a project in North Africa. The project department was located at the seaside, with no people around. I had never seen an unexplored coastline, clear water, blue sky, and easy seafood. I was very excited. But as soon as the novelty wears off, there’s endless restlessness — men are all around, steel and concrete, and the regular salary is just over $300 a month. The terms of the contract were clear in black and white: at least two years of overseas service, or a fine — but the salary was never mentioned, and I went to the project as “human leasing”, which was completely different from what had been promised when I was hired.
I wanted to leave on impulse, but I had no money to pay liquidated damages, and my passport was collected by the company under the pretext of “unified management”, so I could only muddling along.
After I became a regular, I was assigned to work as a welding technician on site, managing dozens of welders in the installation company. The welders were young, as confused as I was, signing contracts with the company that offered them round-trip tickets to China only once every two years — except that I was unmarried and most of them had children.
There is a period of time, the site for large-scale special materials welding, high-altitude work, safety hazards, a little attention will be dangerous, so the technicians have to stay in the site after the end of the workers waiting for welding to leave. In the Summer of Africa, the clouds are so thin and the heat so intense that one has to be peeled off after standing outdoors for half an hour. As soon as the task was assigned, the older staff said “exercise for the young,” and of course the job fell to me again.
My heart is negative resistance, do things carelessly, the workers did not suffer my anger, but dare not speak.
One day at noon, the workers went down to eat, I stayed on the construction platform to wait for colleagues to come over to sign the shift, thinking to save lunch to come up again. My colleagues did not come late. I was anxious and irritable in the midday sun. I walked to and fro on the construction platform and had no place to vent my anger.
All of a sudden, I noticed that there was a flash of arc light coming from the welding nearby — and there was someone welding without a break in the middle of the day? Blatantly violate the project department construction code! In an instant, My evil fire poured out and I rushed to the welder and shouted, “Fuck! Didn’t it mean they couldn’t be welded while I was away? Do you want to die?”
He took off his shield and smiled awkwardly at me, his sweat washing out white furrows in his face and mumbling: “I saw you still there, so I didn’t stop… I want to earn more.”
The welder is according to the welding inch count money, more work more — think of even they are more work more, and I tired to death also so little money, I was more depressed, hard kicked the railing on the platform: “you make a fart money, you will pit me to death!
I moved too far, not knowing that the seat belt hook had fallen off the safety rope and I was leaning back against the counterforce of the rail. Unexpectedly, the railing behind was empty, and the whole body lost its center of gravity and fell backward.
‘I’m dying! My head “bang”, a blank, the body fluttering down, followed by a “clang”, someone pulled me, followed by that person’s pain to shout again. Unconsciously, I looked up. It was the welder who was holding me. As he pulled me, the seat belt hook caught on the rail post.
When I climbed back onto the construction platform, I found that the safety net at the bottom was about 10 meters from the platform. If I fell, if I could be caught, It would probably be a serious injury.
The welder’s protective coat had been scratched sharply by the grid on the platform, and a large piece of skin had been removed from his arm, from which blood was trickling and dripping onto the grid.
“You hurry to the infirmary, or you can stand so much blood!” I was in shock and a little guilty.
“It’s all right. When the bleeding stops, it’s all right. I’ll go back and deal with it later at dinner.” He took a piece of gauze from his pocket and wound it on the wound. “Don’t let the project department know, or you may lose your salary for several months.”
Due to local laws, the company has been “zero tolerance” for safety accidents on the construction site — all violations of safety regulations are mainly fined, and the punishment is extremely heavy. For example, if I fail to fasten the seat belt as required, I would be considered a “serious safety violation”.
Midday patrol security officer heard the movement on the platform, also climbed up, looked at us, looked down at the net, did not speak, and down the straight ladder.
“Did he see it… He needs to report it, that’s it, months of working for nothing…” The welder’s voice trembled slightly and his face was distorted, perhaps because of the pain.
“He must have seen it, but he certainly wouldn’t have reported it.” I comforted him by saying that the safety protection measures on the construction platform obviously did not comply with the regulations, and the safety officer could not get rid of the relationship.
In the evening, I took the vitamins from the country to see the welder, he began to refuse to take, I say good or bad, he reluctantly took.
“Has the wound been bandaged? Go to the infirmary if you can’t. It’s safe.” I asked.
He smiled, and pulled out a small chest from under the bed. It contained disinfectant, bandages, and many medicines, both common and uncommon: “People who run out of the house must have all the usual medicines.”
“Why do you take so much medicine?” I looked at some of the pills and they looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember what they were for. When he saw me staring at the bottles, he closed the box and changed the subject.
Sitting for a while, when I got up to say goodbye, he suddenly pulled me, a face of solemn color: “Wang Gong, in fact, we workers know you don’t like this job, but still have to pay attention to safety, even now the company does not agree with you to leave, you can not take the safety of life joke, after all is the construction site ah, you are too dangerous……
Then he smiled, somewhat embarrassed: “If you want to leave, if you want to, there is still a way.”
When I got back to my dorm, I finally remembered that the familiar bottles of pills I had just taken were for insomnia — the year of the college entrance exam, I suffered from insomnia due to stress, and the doctor had prescribed them.
2
After that, I became familiar with the welder. His name is Li Ran, his hometown in Shaoyang, Hunan province, a remote mountainous area, his parents and my parents, also rely on the ground for food. He married young, had several children, and often worked abroad with engineering teams in order to learn skills and earn more money.
Li Ran works very hard and the welding quality is also high. He is seldom lazy. After I got familiar with him, I often arranged some difficult but expensive welding jobs for him intentionally or unintentionally. From then on, I was called “Wang Gong” by others and “Eldest brother” by others. I tried to stop it, but I still swallowed it after several times.
Half a year passed quickly. In order to improve the workers’ enthusiasm, the project department planned to promote several “leaders” among them, and their salary could be increased by $80 per month. When many workers got wind of it, they tried their best to get moving. So is Li Ran, but he only knows me. When I see he is eager to look in the eyes, and pressing has no power, didn’t also the ability to meet his requirements of I, can only be turned to pretend not to see, I thought to myself, welder, the special material welding several best try a gain technology, combined with working attitude and good, even I can’t help you, he should also be more promising as captain.
On overseas project sites, technicians and workers mostly live in containers. On overseas project sites, technicians and workers mostly live in containers. (Courtesy of the author)
On Friday night, I was lying in the dormitory watching the discs brought from China with boredom in my mouth, reluctant to give up the cigarettes brought from China, when Li Ran suddenly pushed the door and came in, with an embarrassed smile on his face, carrying three bottles of “Lao Gan Ma” and a few packets of peanuts. Those who have spent time in foreign construction sites know that “Lao Gan Ma” is equivalent to hard currency here, and people do not want to eat at all on weekdays, and only dig out a little when they are really unable to eat.
“Boss, are you resting?” Probably nervous, Li Ran’s voice a little tremulous. I quickly got up and poured him a glass of orange juice. He held it up and drank it down, then wiped his mouth with his hand and began to ramble. I understood his purpose, but it was not easy to explain. He did not understand it, and for a long time he even stammered.
As I watched his awkward conversation, I realized that I was his only hope for “promotion”, but that I was also a low-level employee who could not help. I felt a little weak and couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. I sighed silently, thought for a while, and comforted him, saying, “Don’t worry, I will try my best, but I’m not sure if I can make it.”
Li Ran was relieved and breathed a sigh of relief, then got up to say goodbye. I asked him to take the things away, he refused, helpless, I had to grab two packs of cigarettes from the cabinet to him, he refused, I asked repeatedly, he finally took it down.
The next day, I went to the project head to intercede. The general worker leaned back on the sofa and smiled to me. “I will try my best to help you, young man. Work hard first and don’t think too much about anything else.”
As I walked out of the manager’s office, It occurred to me that I shouldn’t have come empty-handed.
Before the captain selection has not been finalized, the project department first asked for the opinions of a round of technicians, I see no Li Ran in the selection list, hurriedly find the chief worker to intercedeate, see if there is still a chance.
“He is the best welder and the hardest worker. Can I mention him?” “Said the chief engineer slowly.
I was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to follow the conversation.
“Doesn’t it lead to a decline in quality if the team leader is the most skilled and the hardest working? If you’re a manager, you need to be mentally active. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bad technician. If you’re a top technician, you need to keep working.” Thinking I didn’t understand, the chief worker explained again.
“That…… Why don’t you give him a little raise? It soothes him.” I want to fight for Li Ran again.
“Give him a raise, what about the other welders? What about the other jobs?” Total worker some dissatisfaction, the tone is high, “domestic welding technology good workers everywhere, the fundamental is not worth money, why to make special for him?”
Say that finish, the total worker takes out a pile of documents to throw on the table again from the drawer: “you see this month of ‘pay salary’ and ‘receivables’, serious go beyond means, don’t reduce salary pretty good!”
“The project does the deficit to deduct the salary, that company makes money to give us the bonus?” I almost shouted the words out, but I choked them back on my lips.
“Little Wang Na, you are still young, the future is promising, don’t be in a hurry to engage in mountaintop doctrine.” The chief engineer said meaningfully, trailing his voice.
When I read out the “captain” list on the construction site, Li Ran looked disappointed and stared down at the ground in a daze. Then he gave me a shifty look, perhaps disappointed and dissatisfied. I wanted to explain, but I didn’t know how to begin.
Soon, Li Ran began to work too slowly, not as smart as before, he became like a hedgehog, always looking for opportunities to vent his dissatisfaction, always angry at his partner’s workers (usually a welder will be assigned a plumber, the plumber is responsible for the pre-welding treatment, the welder is only responsible for welding). At the beginning, the partner can endure, but sometimes his own welding quality is not good enough also angry at the plumber, for a long time, the foreman are not willing to cooperate with him.
Li Ran thus becomes more and more withdrawn, even not to play with colleagues, when the rest of a person nest in the dormitory, do not watch TV, do not play games, just lie in bed in a trance, has no previous cheerful. I asked him several times to enlighten him, but he was rejected.
I asked a worker who was familiar with him about the situation, and the man replied, “He is mentally ill, Wang Gong. You don’t have to pay attention to him. It will be all right after a while.
3
While the work was still going on, the workers on the construction site suddenly went on strike without warning, demanding higher wages.
On overseas construction sites, workers often come from several countries, each with different pay levels, but the language barrier keeps them from communicating with each other. But this time must be someone suddenly idle, to inquire about the wages of workers in other countries, find back fryer, the same type of work, the European and American workers’ wages than domestic workers, early know that domestic workers, also can stand, but when they suddenly aware of their workers’ wages and Pakistan, even as the Indian workers, almost immediately imbalance.
The managers of the project department all know that when domestic workers are wronged in daily life, they often break their front teeth and swallow their grievances in their stomach. They never make trouble, and at most, they just curse behind closed doors. This time, if we can unite to strike, there must be someone to take the lead in doing things. Sure enough, the project department one investigation, the organization of the strike turned out to be Li Ran.
The project department’s solution to the problem is simple and crude: break each other down and treat each other with kindness and kindness. Some of the rioters were laid off without compensation and sent home with a plane ticket. But because of the project schedule, which requires retention, most people get a nominal raise — except For Li.
Li Ran had neither reward nor punishment, nor even soothing talk.
From the beginning to the end of the strike less than a week, however, a few days later, there was a rumor on the site, said that this time after the trouble, the biggest increase in wages is Li Ran, dozens of times the others. To this kind of true and false can not prove the rumor, the workers would rather believe it has also not believe it, slowly, everyone began to alienate Li Ran, scold him hypocritical, no matter at the construction site or in the dormitory, Li Ran said no one answered him.
I saw That Li Ran was getting depressed and persuaded the workers several times. Because of their face, when I was present, they pretended to have a few words with Li Ran, behind my back, still do not say a word to Li Ran, also called him a “psycho”, “bitch”.
Li Ran’s face is also more and more downcast, the work is always absent-minded, constantly make mistakes, then the project department found an excuse to let him do a small job, the salary is lower than the welder half, and a lot of tired. Li Ran proposed to return to China to the project department, and the project department agreed, but said that he had to pay for the air ticket and deduct his salary, because he had not reached the “service life” stipulated in the contract.
A ticket of nearly 20,000 yuan, Li Ran an ordinary worker, where can afford.
He began to passive resistance, no longer go to work, all day in the dormitory to sleep in a daze, night and day fu, black and white reversed. The project department also let it go, stopped paying his salary, but still gave him money on time on the meal card every month. Because he did not get along well with the workers in the same dormitory, the workers often complained to the project department. The project department was so annoyed that they arranged a “room” with no Windows for him.
At this point, Li Ran was completely separated from the crowd at the construction site.
Perhaps money played a role, perhaps it was the effect of killing the chicken to scare the monkey, the construction site of the domestic workers have a lot of safety, work more hard, even in the daily complaints are less, let alone as before behind the leadership ridicule.
However, at the later stage of the project, the project department formulated many strict quality regulations, and the punishment methods were still mainly fines. The workers figured out that they would not get as much money as they had before the strike without a pay rise.
4
Some time later, another alarming thing happened at the construction site.
In order to relieve the boredom of life, and also for security, the project department kept several dogs, including a mother who gave birth to a litter of puppies. The project department likes it from top to bottom. It takes great care of these little lives and eats better than people. It can be said that it is the pet of the project department.
But one day after the bitch went out, the seven puppies all died inexplicably in the room. The project department is very angry, can check to check, but in vain. There is no scar on the body of the 7 puppies, in the difficult construction site, every day against the pressure of the schedule, we can only in a few sound of regret, nothing.
However did not lead a few days, that bitch unexpectedly also indescribably dies on the construction site, the body also does not have any scar. The project department suspected that someone was poisoning, but there was no condition to test on the site, so they had to issue a notice to let everyone pay more attention in daily life, which once caused panic on the site. But it didn’t take long for everyone to mutter about the dogs that died somehow when the leftovers couldn’t be dealt with.
Because of the long construction period of this project, the company secretly raised pigs in the warehouse to save money. Due to the unique folk customs in our area, although there is no strict religious belief, local people are not allowed to eat pork. On weekdays, the local government has never come to inspect the construction site. In case of special circumstances, they will also call in advance. Therefore, no one except our own people knew that the project department was raising pigs.
That year, the workers rushed to catch up before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and finally completed a major construction node. The project department holds an event, which is both a celebration and a festival. The event took place late, and the logistics staff had a rare chance to relax and get drunk. When I went back to sleep in a daze until midnight, I suddenly heard someone Shouting out of the window: “The pigsty is not closed, the pigs are running out!”
Several people in the logistics department were shocked into a cold sweat. When they woke up in the middle of the drink, they jumped up with the torch and pushed the door open. If these pigs ran out and were found by the local people, they would cause a lot of trouble.
But no sooner had I approached the barn than I heard a series of shrill pig-calls coming from inside. The logistics people thought that the pigsty had not been closed, had been run into by some wild beast, was biting the pig, hurriedly grabbed a stick, reliable close look, there is no wild beast inside, unexpectedly is Li Ran — only to see a pig is being pressed to the ground by Li Ran, howling desperately. Li Ran ruthlessly strangled the throat of the pig, his mouth kept issuing the terrible “ha ha” sound, laughing while Shouting: “I fucking want to strangle you, I fucking want to strangle you! Let you fucking bully me…”
Under the dim light, Li Ran face iron green ferocious, mouth corners also kept overflowing a pile of white foam, this strange scene, logistics a colleague on the spot scared to paralysis.
This, in front of the killing of the dog, also suddenly come to the bottom. The project tried to suppress the news, but by early the next morning it was all over the site — except, of course, for the foreign workers.
The doctors in the project department were at a loss what to do about Li Ran’s condition. In the event of such a thing, the project department could not afford it and had to selectively report the situation to the headquarters of the company. The headquarters is afraid of Li Ran again what matter, arrange special personnel to send him back to the country. In order to appease Li Ran’s family, he also lost a sum of money.
This matter later became the topic of conversation in the project department and was chewed for a long time.
5
But as if the mood were contagious, there have been a series of safety incidents since Li’s return: inexplicable fainting spells, heatstroke, malnutrition, swelling and even anecdotal reports of walking ghosts.
As time went on, the workers became so noisy that the project department had to re-examine the health status and qualifications of the subcontractors. Upon examination, it was found that many contractors, in order to hold down the wages, had a lax inspection in hiring, regardless of the health and age of the workers, who were willing to come. So the project department presses the subcontractors, the subcontractors press the labor companies, the labor companies press the workers, and at the end of the day, the workers can’t get any money out of their hands.
In order to appease the people on the project, the project department paid a large amount of money to hire a group of mages from China. They flew tens of thousands of miles to the foreign site to sing and dance for several days. After the ritual, the mages took black dog blood and poured it several times around the project department.
Maybe it was all psychological cues, but after that, there was no weirdness in the project.
Similar to the previous strike, Li Ran’s madness brought about “pratt & Whitney” effect to the people on the construction site. Later, the company agreed to sign a two-year contract with all the workers and engineering and technical personnel, every half a year can go back to China, do not return, you can discount tickets as deserved income.
Presumably, this is still a group benefit at the expense of one person.
After Li Ran was sent back to China, I felt very sad and often blamed myself. I still don’t believe that a cheerful person would go crazy because of these things. Later, I have been around to inquire about his situation, as long as met from Shaoyang to the workers, will ask about Li Ran with them, but nothing.
After many years in the industry, in 2010, the owner of a power plant in Jiangsu province invited me as a member of the expert group to help inspect the welding quality of special materials. Did not expect this world is so small, I unexpectedly met Li Ran again.
At that time, Li Ran in the site as a welding group leader, can contract their own small works. During the inspection, the construction site was still under construction and he was wearing a protective mask when he spoke to me. I just felt that his voice was a little familiar. However, due to the large number of people on the site, I did not dare to go forward to confirm his identity.
A few days later, when the inspection was over, he took off his mask and smiled at me as I was leaving. I stepped forward to talk to him, but before I could open my mouth, he put on his mask again and buried his head in the welding. The arc flickered, his masked face flickering in the smoke from the welding, and my heart bubbled with memories of nine years ago.
“How? What’s wrong with the welding? Not up to the code?” The plant attendant asked me when he saw me staring blankly at a welder.
“No, I just think it’s all familiar.” I hurried to cover up my loss.
“Ha ha, the construction site is not all like this.”
After leaving the scene, I called the maintenance person in charge, want to tell him some things, but words to the mouth, eventually swallowed, just asked Li Ran’s performance, fortunately, heard are praise.
Over the years, Li Ran has not changed a bit, But I have become a lot older. That’s fine.
(Note: In fact, I participated in the acceptance inspection of the power plant in 2010. Maybe I also had several meetings with Wang gong, but at that time I did not know wang Gong and the welder who had saved his life at that site.)
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