At the time you think of poetry and faraway places every day, there are a group of people in for firewood, rice, oil and salt.
The world is not fair, some people suffer all their lives, the world is fair, everyone is poor.
I'm in this little corner of the world watching babies teething, watching promoters sweating, watching amazons dancing in the square, early in the morning until late at night, rainstorms until the blazing sun.
I sit quietly in the store to greet my new day, still fuming. Two meters away appeared a woman, visually forty-eight to fifty years old.
Hair with a few dollars a large clip clip together, face dull, wearing a white wash of loose clothing is still fat, stepping on a dozen dollars a pair of high-heeled sandals is still very short.
All glowing with thrift and poverty, she was putting away a parasol with a broken wire when I looked at her.
"Are you charging your phone bill here?" She looked at me and smiled, a phrase I didn't hear until the third time she said it. She had a bit of a big tongue.
I took out my cell phone and hurriedly opened Alipay: "Auntie, what's your number, I'll charge it for you." The store can not charge the phone bill, see this person in front of me suddenly have compassion, not noble, perhaps hope everywhere about love.
She was not speaking clearly, and I checked the number several times. After rushing she thanked me, we were both silent for five seconds, then she smiled and asked me: "How much do you work here a month ah?"
"I'm here to help, not an official employee. I heard them say it's four or five thousand a month." I looked at her with unblinking eyes, word for word, in case she didn't hear me.
"It's better for you guys, I'm old, I can only go to wash dishes for others. Two thousand dollars a month."
She bowed her head to make the umbrella: "There is no way ah, we have poor food and poor housing, but no one wants them when they are old."
I couldn't answer, and quickly changed the topic. I don't even dare to imagine how she can survive on a salary of two thousand dollars a month.
Say what poetry and faraway places, so many people for firewood, rice, oil and salt liver.
I didn't ask her why she didn't get a new job, I've seen a lot of people, in the city, nowhere to settle down, in order to find a job, it can be considered a headache.
Dishwashing is a job that some people say is cheap, but some people make a living at it.
As if she had found someone to talk to, she brought the conversation back to dishwashing.
I nodded when she finished a sentence, never taking my eyes off her. Being friendly to others, perhaps in the hope that when I grow old, I will have someone to listen to me quietly.
She said a few people crowded in a house, one person a duffel bag, put a few pairs of shoes, there is no room.
I asked her all the questions that followed, and the first time I saw her I planned to write a story about her.
The city is so big that there is never a shortage of protagonists in the story, and so small that there are more glimpses and fewer heart-to-heart conversations.
She told me that the meager income from housework was not enough to support herself, and the birth of her daughter made her leave her home and come to this strange city.
She also went to the factory because she was too old, and was often asked and rejected outright. To go to the restaurant interview waiter, but in front of those young and cute little girls, she simply did not have half an advantage. Want to go to the supermarket to interview cashier, do not understand the computer self deterred.
"No way, to wash dishes. Dried for a year and a year."
She said she was nine in the morning and nine in the evening, sitting on a small stool every day to wash stacks and stacks of bowls, sitting until her whole body is numb, and the posture of the head down makes her cervical vertebrae hurt from time to time.
She said she is old and angry, her parents have not let themselves be aggrieved. But so strong she for a job also slowly soften up.
"I also have a bitter, can not find people to say." Said she red eyes.
At home do not talk to mom and dad, never report good news. The phone does not talk to the daughter, feel more to protect the daughter. Going home and not talking to my husband, who is also tired from work.
I asked her if she came to the supermarket to buy food, she smiled again: "I live in the dormitory, did not buy a pot. There is a small rice cooker, on vacation to make thin rice."
The more people I meet, the more I realize that there really are people who are fighting tenaciously against the world. They are not great people, they are just people who are living their lives. They laugh, but are not treated gently.
She said she can take four days off a month, mostly to sleep in the dormitory. When you wake up, you get up and boil some rice, and the day passes. It's not that you don't want to go out to play, one is no money and two is no one to accompany.
"Your husband does not live with you?" I asked, staring at her.
"He's not over here, it's three hours by car from here." She held up three fingers.
Once I asked, she answered.
She said it costs 52 bucks round trip to her husband's place, which is pretty expensive, and she can't afford to go over there if there's nothing major.
She said it costs 52 bucks to go back and forth to her husband's place, which is quite expensive.
My husband is over 50 years old, and it's not easy for him to find a job on the other side of the country. I can't afford to change my job easily. The first thing I'd like to say is that I don't know what to do, but I'd like to know what I'm doing.
She also told me that her home is in Guizhou. It's not too far away from here, but I haven't been home in years, and I don't have the money to go home.
She thinks everything is very expensive. So she rarely buys new clothes and doesn't eat fruit, let alone go out for a good meal. The first time I saw this, I was so happy to see you, and I'm so happy to see you.
A month 2000, in this city to survive, which talk about life.
"Your child should be very big." I asked her carefully.
"She is fourteen years old and in middle school." Talking about her daughter she seemed to be talking about a baby thing, and then took out her cell phone to show me a picture of her daughter.
WeChat avatar is daughter.
In the photo, the little girl revealed eight teeth smiling brightly. It should be taken on the roof of the house, a large red brick house, behind which you can see the mountain. Beyond the mountains are still mountains.
I looked at it for a long time.
"My daughter, ah, nothing less for her. Pretty dresses, nice shoes, she likes I buy her. Every month 2000 dollars, I let myself use 200, the rest of the money is saved for her."
She was born in her old age, and if it wasn't for her daughter, she could have lived at home in poverty, free of worries.
Deok-seon's dad in "Please Answer 1988" still buys his son good food when he doesn't have any money and never says in front of his kids how tired he is from working.
Because it is the first time to be a parent, it seems like all parents are equally great, a dishwasher, but a good mom .
"Every time I call my daughter and hear her laugh, I feel that washing dishes all day is worth it."
"Does she miss you?"
"Yes, I can't stop crying when she says she misses me." She reddened again.
I seem to be able to understand that mom and dad work hard day after day, year after year, but ask me over and over again on the other end of the phone if I have enough money.
The first thing you need to do is to get your parents to do a good job.
I asked her if she was bitter.
She said that this is what happens in a person's life. I don't have many years left.
I asked her if she was tired.
She said there is nothing to be tired of, after all, she is a few decades old.
I didn't ask her anything else later, this life, I can't say enough.
How much of the world's wind and snow, and how much of the firewood, rice, oil and salt. Many people do not live a good life.
I haven't even had a chance to ask her name, when I left I instructed her to be sure to hold an umbrella, the sun outside, she said it's okay.
I looked at her back, short and fat, she was taller from then on, and no longer a dishwasher.