The World of Men Is Not Always Smooth!

The late autumn wind carried dead leaves and hit the rusty security windows. Mr. Wang huddled in a rental house of less than ten square meters, looking at the leaky and soaked wall in the corner. His matchstick-like fingers rubbed the faded work permit - which was issued when he was an apprentice at a state-owned machinery factory twenty years ago. When the state-owned enterprises were restructured that year, Mr. Wang, who was twenty years old, clutching the 8,000 yuan he had received to buy out his seniority, became a duckweed in the wave of layoffs. He followed his fellow villagers to carry cement at the construction site, using a towel to put a towel on when his shoulders were bruised; he set up a stall at the night market to sell kebabs, but when the city management came, he picked up the oil pan and ran away. The hot oil splashed on his ankles, leaving a row of hideous scars. Someone advised him to learn a trade, so Mr. Wang borrowed money to enroll in a home appliance repair class. But by the time he graduated, the streets were full of stores specializing in smartphones. In the year of the financial crisis, Mr. Wang's small hardware store closed down and when his creditors kicked in the door, he was squatting on the ground giving antipyretic medicine to his daughter who had a fever. The daughter grabbed the corner of his clothes and asked, "Dad, are we going to sleep on the street?" Mr. Wang held his daughter in his arms and dug his nails into his palms: "No, Dad will build you a steel castle." That night he huddled under the bridge until dawn, watching the morning joggers walking by in the dew, and the water splashing from the soles of his shoes wet his frayed trousers. In the days that followed, Mr. Wang delivered takeaways, ran trucks, fell into drainage ditches during heavy rains, and helped customers carry gas tanks in the coldest months of winter. When a meal delivery was overtime, a customer in a suit and tie threw the lunch box at his face in front of everyone in the elevator: "You should do such a despicable job if you are not educated!"