A Man’s Life Is Never Smooth Sailing!

The late-autumn wind swept dead leaves against the rusted security bars. Mr. Wang huddled in a rented room barely ten square meters in size, staring at the rain-soaked, blistering plaster in the corner. His fingers, thin as matchsticks, rubbed at his faded work ID. It had been issued twenty years earlier, when he was an apprentice at a state-owned machine factory.

That year, the state-owned enterprises were restructured. At twenty, Mr. Wang clutched the 8,000 yuan he had received for giving up his seniority and became one more drifter swept up in the wave of layoffs. He followed fellow villagers to construction sites to haul cement, padding his shoulders with a towel when they rubbed raw. He set up a stall at the night market selling kebabs, and whenever the city inspectors came, he would grab the wok and run, hot oil spattering his ankles and leaving a row of gruesome scars. Someone advised him to learn a trade, so Mr. Wang borrowed money to enroll in an appliance repair course. But by the time he graduated, the streets were lined with shops specializing in smartphone repairs.

Then came the year of the financial crisis. The little hardware store Mr. Wang had opened went under. When a creditor kicked in the door, he was crouched on the floor, giving fever medicine to his daughter. Clutching his clothes, she asked, “Dad, are we going to have to sleep on the street?” Mr. Wang pulled her into his arms, digging his nails deep into his palm. “No. Dad will build you a steel castle.” That night, he huddled beneath a bridge until dawn. He watched joggers pass by on the dew-covered path, water kicked up by their shoes soaking the worn cuffs of his trousers.

In the years that followed, Mr. Wang delivered food and drove trucks. He once fell into a drainage ditch during a downpour, and in the depths of winter he carried gas cylinders for customers. One day, after a delivery ran late, a customer in a suit threw the lunch box in his face in front of everyone in the elevator. “If you’re uneducated, this is the kind of degrading work you deserve!”