My Sister's Fortune-Making Story in Shenzhen

Synopsis of My Sister's Fortune-Making Story in Shenzhen I came to Shenzhen in 1998. The moment I stepped off the train, I was swindled out of the 50 yuan Mom had scraped together by selling chili peppers. Then the half-jar of chopped chilies I had carried from home slipped and smashed on the ground. Chili water soaked my shoes and socks, and the jar cracked. I curled up beneath a bridge in Shekou Harbor, chewing on a dry steamed bun. In the summer of 2006, I held my four-year-old son as I identified my husband A Qiang's body at the funeral home. He had jumped into the sea to escape 150,000 yuan in loan-shark debt. He was still clutching a hard, oily fried dough stick he'd bought for our boy, and had just three yuan in his pocket. On the back of a photo, he'd written, “Don't sell our boy.” That very night, the loan sharks held a knife to Xiaozhen's neck. “Either pay off 60,000, or we all die!” I didn't choose to die. I spent 28 yuan on a coal stove with a hole in the bottom and patched it up. I learned to make rice-noodle soup from an auntie from Yiyang, then pushed A Qiang's old bicycle to sell food outside an electronics factory. The urban management officers chased me until I fell in the mud. Scalding soup splashed onto my legs, but the first thing I did when I got up was grab the jar of chopped chilies. That was my lifeline. Later, I opened a shop. When a contract manufacturer tried to pass off inferior chopped chilies, I threw them in his face and smashed 600,000 yuan worth of goods. When a businessman from Jiangxi tried to steal my customers, I taught him how to pickle authentic chopped chilies. When my fifth brother asked me for spare cash, I snapped, “Money is earned one spoonful at a time. If you don't work, you don't get any.” The jar of chopped chilies I brought from home stayed with me for 27 years, from that bridge to my home in Longhua. Over the years, I've learned this: chopped chilies should taste like home, you should work with grit and determination, and you should always be honest and down-to-earth. If you've ever drifted far from home, eaten cold instant noodles, been kicked out by a landlord, or slept in an internet cafe or beneath a bridge, don't lose heart. If you work hard and honestly, without stealing or cheating, and keep at it, you'll eventually have a decent home of your own. You'll earn your parents' relieved, forgiving, approving smiles.