A Bottom-Rung Girl’s Struggle to Survive

Yuandan was an abandoned child. Just a few days after her birth, she was left beside a garbage bin. On New Year’s Day, Grandma Yuan, a welfare recipient who made her living collecting scrap, happened to find her and take her home.

Grandma had no money and suffered from heart disease. When Yuandan was in the second semester of eighth grade, Grandma fell ill and passed away. Yuandan worked hard to complete the nine years of compulsory education, having heard that a diploma would make it easier to find a job.

Aunt Liu from the back street said, “Yuandan, my factory needs workers. Come with me.”

So, as soon as her final middle school exam was over, Yuandan put down her pen, packed her clothes, and went with her. She didn’t even have time to pick up her middle school diploma.

The kind-hearted aunt had no idea that Yuandan meant she was sixteen by Chinese age reckoning. She wasn’t old enough to get into the factory.

She worked as a waitress, sold clothes, and delivered takeout. At last, she got a job at the garment factory where Aunt Liu worked.

Aunt Liu said, “Yuandan, study hard. This is skilled work, too. Once you learn it, you can start your own business. You get paid while learning a trade. Where else could you find a deal this good? The factory provides room and board and even pays your social insurance!”

Yuandan said, “Auntie, I’ll do as you say!”

So she worked from eight in the morning until ten at night, pedaling the sewing machine so hard every day that it practically smoked. The factory worked six days on and one day off. The day off was Yuandan’s happiest day. She loved browsing the flower and bird market, just looking and never buying, because she had no money in her pockets.

One day, she became inexplicably enamored with a flowerpot that she thought was outrageously expensive yet utterly ordinary-looking.

The woman selling flowerpots told her it was understated luxury with a touch of class.

Yuandan gritted her teeth and stomped her foot, then bought it. This flowerpot was no ordinary one...