As long as you work hard, the days of working as a worker will gradually improve and you will gradually have the life you want.
The workers are on fire.
It describes a group of people who work hard to live, and it is also the majority of people around us.
Although it sounds a bit cheerful, and there are some jokes, in fact, it also hides a lot of the ups and downs of working.
This issue of the microscopic story tells the story of an ordinary northern drifter:
When the author saw the term “beating workers”, the first thing he thought of was the time he spent with his roommate Aji.
“It’s simply unbearable to look back. The experience of self-service food and vomiting may only be owned by workers.”
He and Aji lived in Fangshan for less than half a year. This short period of time always reminded him from time to time that it was the hardest time in Bei Diao, and it was also the most powerful memory.
Aji also said: “I can’t forget the time I spent with you, because I have never been so poor.”
Here is the true story about him:
Text | Cheng Shaliu
Edit | Qian Qiuyun
North Drift to Fangshan
On the day of Children’s Day in 2014, I moved from Chaoyang District to Fangshan District, which is far from the city. In many people’s impressions, it is considered a “remote suburb”.
There are two reasons why my itinerary for this move will be so large.
First, two seniors set up a book studio and planned to bring me together. In order to save costs, they rented the office space in Fangshan. In order to get to work, I had to move in.
The second reason is the most important. Brother Aji has just graduated and is planning to come to Beijing to work hard. The magazine where he works is in Fengtai. Taking into account various circumstances such as economic strength, we decided to share the house where the rent is cheaper. Fangshan.
After looking for a house for one day, at around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, I finally saw one that was suitable. In a new commercial and residential real estate, the landlord has just finished decorating the house for three months. Apart from the bed, a few simple wardrobes and a washing machine without a lid, there is nothing else in it.
There are three rooms in the house. I rented the master bedroom. The monthly rent is 1,500. After half and half of the house, I only have to pay 750 for one person.
The landlord happily told me that the other two rooms are also going to be rented out, and you will have three households by then. But until the end I checked out with Aji, and no new tenants came in.
After renting the house, I called Aji, and he said that I’m bothering you, and I will be there in two days.
Aji went to college in Chengdu, but he came to Beijing from his hometown of Ankang. His home made wine. When I picked him up at West Station, he carried a large schoolbag with a pot in it. Wine.
He said: “Pure food, 70 degrees, melts in the mouth, and smells full of smell.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t finish most of this bottle of wine. It moved home three or four times with me. Because it had been in the plastic jug, it had not been properly preserved, and it gradually smelled bad and had to be discarded.
The place where I work is very close, and I can walk to it in ten minutes. The two seniors don’t have much air, and they often joke together, and the atmosphere is very relaxed.
Although I only have a basic salary of 2,000 yuan, I think I can learn something. I’m still very young at 22, and I think everything is fine.
Aji has to go to work at 8:30 in the morning, and the magazine is not too close. He needs to take the subway to Guogongzhuang and change to Line 9. He often gets up before 7 o’clock.
His salary is not high. In the first three months of probation period, his monthly salary is only two thousand yuan. After he is converted, it will be increased or less depending on the status of the manuscript submitted for review.
Eating is a top priority
The young but poor days make people feel weird, confused at the moment, but full of expectations for the future, it seems that there are infinite possibilities.
But in fact, in a few years, we will all live a life similar to those around us. The difference is that it is our own choice, so we have peace of mind.
Eating is a major event. For a long time in human history, people spent their entire lives just to fill their stomachs.
Aji and I are too poor. After paying the rent, we only have the money we can get out of our pockets. After eating rice bowls and Shaxian snacks a few times, we can’t sit still anymore and plan to make our own rice.
The landlord did not install a faucet in the kitchen, nor a range hood, but an induction cooker. If you need to do something, you can only go to the bathroom to collect the water and use it in the kitchen. The only pot that can be used is a second-hand stainless steel. pot.
Aji went to buy some rice, I went to buy some pickles and the like, and started to cook porridge and drink.
After a few meals of pickled vegetables and white porridge, the gluttons in my belly began to growl.
I went to the market and went around and bought a two catty grass carp, a pack of cheap hot pot bottoms, and two large handfuls of water spinach, which I plan to make fish hot pot. Originally I wanted to buy some meatballs and the like to eat, but found that the money was not enough, so I had to give it up.
I bought the fish, but found that there was no kitchen knife. Fortunately, Aji had a fruit knife, so I put the fish in the pot and cut it piece by piece with a fruit knife.
The fruit knife is not easy to use, and the pot is always shaking. The fish pieces are cut out irregularly and vary in size. Some of the thorns are still exposed to the meat, and they will be stabbed accidentally. But it doesn’t matter, as long as you can improve your life.
When I make hot pot, I like to fry the base material. When the solidified lump base material slowly develops a spicy aroma in the boiling oil, I put the garlic, shallot and ginger into it and fry together. When the smell comes out, water is added to it. After the water is boiled, you can cook something in it, and then you can feast on it.
However, the bottom of this stainless steel pot is too thin, and the temperature of the battery stove is not as easy to control as the gas stove.
I put the pot on the induction cooker, and within a few seconds, the bottom of the pot became black with a piercing sound and a burst of black smoke.
I thought it was going to explode, so I immediately pulled the plug. After the noise disappeared, the bottom of the stainless steel pot became black. After repeated use and washing many times, the black one gradually returned to its original color.
No way, I had to add water directly to the pot, boil and put in the bottom material, the bottom material was diluted, and then boiled in it. Although it tastes good, but I feel a little uncomfortable.
I said to Aji while picking the bones:
“In the future, the conditions are good, I will definitely cook you a hot pot.”
I tasted the taste of hot pot. After a week, I wanted to eat hot pot again, so I bought some chicken drumsticks. This time I plan to make chicken drumstick hot pot.
The chicken legs are cheaper than the grass carp. I bought six chicken legs, four tomatoes, and a handful of spinach. I wanted to buy two of them, but there was more than half left last time, so it’s better to be more restrained.
Aji said to me while eating chicken drumsticks: “Eating less hot pot, the cost of a meal is thirty or forty yuan.”
When he said this, I realized that thirty or forty yuan is a lot of money, and you can buy thirty or forty packs of mustard.
The little luck at the bottom of the red oil pot
In addition to work, Aji and I are also working hard to write manuscripts, participate in some essay contests, submit to magazines and newspapers, gather and publish books, and so on.
Sometimes work is too tired, I just want to lie down when I get home, but Aji is much harder than me. No matter how tired he is, he insists on writing one thousand to two thousand words every day.
But I don’t have a long time to write, and I don’t have a lot of manuscripts. I get a handful of manuscript fees. Although Aji is diligent, his works are too personal and difficult to publish in popular publications. Naturally, I want to change the status quo with manuscript fees. It’s just an idea.
But we are still working hard to write things, in order to give an explanation to life, and to find some spiritual support for the unsatisfactory working life.
I want to write a collection of short stories, but I don’t have much confidence in whether it can be published. Aji said: “You write it first, and then consider the next step after you finish it.”
Therefore, most of the days when I lived with Aji were silent. The room was very quiet, only the sound of two people hitting the keyboard crackled around, and occasionally birds flew by outside the window, making a crisp sound.
Later, a manuscript that Aji participated in the essay competition was selected. He won a small prize with a prize of two thousand yuan. He invited me to a hot pot restaurant to have a serious hot pot with a red soup base. , Spicy and refreshing, very comfortable.
I ordered a large table of dishes such as lamb, fish, duck intestines, potatoes, tomatoes, winter melon, kelp, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, etc. The two of us had swollen stomachs and we needed to untie our belts to walk easily.
After eating, Aji and I looked at each other, and both of them laughed embarrassedly.
Later, I couldn’t help but think that the lives of our two workers are really miserable, and having a hot pot is such an extravagant and happy thing.
After the hot pot comes out, We found that there is a hot pot restaurant not far away, with a striking red background and white text banner on the door, “Lao Duck soup, hot pot optional, 39 yuan free to eat, free drinks”, I suddenly stared at the gold star, yes. Ji said: “Come here to eat next time!”
Almost a month later, we were too greedy. On a certain Saturday, we didn’t eat lunch and just waited for the evening meal. At five o’clock in the afternoon, we wore slippers and rushed directly to this self-service hot pot restaurant.
There are Laoyatang and hot pots to choose from. We chose Laoyatang because there is duck meat in it, and the hot pot can be eaten after the next meal.
Because the price is cheap, the store offers mostly vegetables, at most some sausages, so if you want to eat meat, you have to pay for it again.
But we still ate very happily and drank a lot of free beer and drinks.
When I was halfway through the meal, I found out that although it was 39 yuan per person, the bottom of the pot had to be counted separately, 30 yuan per pot. In other words, for this meal, Aji and I have to spend 108 yuan.
This is a lot of money, and I must eat it back!
I recklessly took a lot of vegetables, drinks, and wine, and boiled them all round. In the end, both of them had eaten it and left half a pot.
The shop stipulates that if there is too much left in the pot, you will have to pay again. I was afraid of giving more money, so I said to Aji: “We will go quietly and let them know.” Aji said: “The food must not be wasted, it must be eaten.”
The two of us had no choice but to hold on and finish eating.
After closing the bill and walking to the flowerbed outside the door, Aggie suddenly bent down and vomited. He was actually vomiting! I pointed at him and laughed. The laughter was not over yet, and I started to feel sad again.
When is this kind of life a head?
We went to the self-service hot pot restaurant no less than five times, with Aji and friends who came to see us.
One time, a buddy who lived in Changping took the subway and bus for three hours to see us. Aji and I took him to the hot pot restaurant. After eating happily, we discovered that he was from Wenzhou. , I don’t like spicy food.
Aji and I regretted it for a long time, thinking that if we were rich in the future, we must treat him to a non-spicy meal. As a result, we have not waited until now for the chance to get together.
Fangshan friendship story
In addition to the constraints of life, my more troubles come from work.
A few months have passed, and I didn’t get any commission, just the poor two thousand yuan basic salary.
I euphemistically proposed to the two seniors the idea of speeding up the work schedule, but they just had an indifferent attitude. They often took me out to play basketball halfway through their work, and the work progress was often stagnant.
I haven’t touched many links yet, and they are doing the docking with the publisher. Even if I want to speed up the progress, I have more than enough energy.
My state is becoming more and more negative, and more and more confused, I want to seek new jobs and directions. But this is not an easy task.
Aji’s condition is not good, mainly because he is tired. He often goes to bed after 12 o’clock in the evening, and has to get up to catch the subway before 7 o’clock in the morning. In addition, he is a very brainy text editor, and his body is often tired. status.
A few months later, Aji told me that the magazine now provides free dormitories and also has a special cafeteria. He plans to move in over a period of time, which will save a lot of money.
I am very sad. If Aji is gone, I will be left alone. The thought of that kind of lost loneliness makes me scared.
But Aji’s conditions have improved. Although it is a dormitory, it is close to where he works. More importantly, he does not need to pay the rent. I said: “That’s good, go ahead.”
Two weeks later, Aji moved out.
After get off work, I don’t want to go home. In such a big house, I am alone, and the place outside my body is deserted.
It took me more than a month to finally find a very good new job, a writing app just developed by a listed Internet company, and I was the person in charge of a certain content product line.
The new company is in Lama Temple, which means I have to move back from Fangshan.
Before leaving, I invited Aji to a meal. Spicy hot pot, I saw it on the Internet. It serves four people. The original price is 199. Now it’s only 99. I bought it in a group without saying a word.
But it happened that when we went there, the boss was not there, and he had to choose the ingredients for the spicy fragrant pot, and other employees had no authority.
We waited at this strange restaurant for more than an hour, just for the discounted spicy pot.
I am very angry myself, for the boss who has been playing games in the Internet cafe, and for my own uselessness. If I had money, I would have taken Aji away long ago and would never come to this shop again.
But when the food came, I forgot everything and I just wanted to eat it quickly.
For the four-person spicy hot pot, Aji and I ate more than half of it, and we picked out the rest and packed it in a lunch box to take away. For the remaining part, I ate rice porridge and ate two meals.
A few days later, I rented a house next to Communication University, moved out of Fangshan, and started a new life.
The smoke of hot pot illuminates the light of BeiDiao
After separation, Aji and I will still get together often, and each time we will find changes in each other. Then I will talk a few words about my previous days in Fangshan.
Aji said: “Life was really not easy at the time. I would feel bad when I went out for a meal and spent more than ten dollars.”
Aji later said: “Now going out to eat, I can’t blink my eyes for a hundred or eighty dollars.”
Aji said later: “Go out now and order whatever you want, without any hesitation.”
As long as you work hard, the days of working as a worker will gradually improve, and you will gradually have the life you want.
Later, Aji planned to leave Beijing and go to Chengdu to work as a self-media striker.
I think of the terrible hot pot meals I cooked for him when I was renting together. Now is the time to cook him a good meal. Before Aji left, I asked him to come home for hot pot.
I went to buy the top-quality hot pot base, added some garlic, ginger, and green onions, and fry it until the compacted base spreads and a scented aroma emerges, and then I add water to it.
After boiling, put it in a stainless steel pot, put it on the induction cooker, turn on the fire, and pour something into it. Duck intestines, crispy intestines, consuming fish, and hairy belly are tossed in the pot. When they are cooked, they are picked out, put in a sesame oil dish and dipped, and delivered to the mouth. The taste is really delicious.
We ate a lot of dishes, drank a lot of wine, and said a lot. I was so moved that I almost shed tears.
Aji said: “I have always remembered our days in Fangshan. That was the beginning of my stay in Beijing. More importantly, the experience of nestling with you in poverty is wonderful. We are poor, we have nothing, we Close upThe door came but caring for each other. “
This memory is the most precious in my career as a worker. Having a good worker working with you must be cherished.