Chen Mu's old injury on his left leg can be predicted in advance on rainy days, which is more accurate than weather forecasts. He has been moving cargo at the port of Xiangang for thirteen years, and he has developed a skill that is not written on his resume - his eyes are like a level, and he can tell where the center of gravity of the cargo is at a glance. This ability saved a co-worker, but also made his leg injury worse.
My son Chen Chen's illness is like a knife hanging over his head. Before the 18th of every month, he must collect 9,800 yuan in medical expenses. Chen Mu's time was torn into pieces: night shift at the dock, early morning delivery, midday transportation, with the road to the hospital in between. The luminous Pomodoro clock he picked up glowed green in the dark, and every time he finished a quarter, he got a little closer to the medicine fee.
Eleven-year-old Chen Chen neither cries nor makes trouble. The code he wrote can warn of dangerous loading and unloading, but it cannot stop his father from taking over the "death shift". When the smart exoskeleton drove into the dock, when the pharmaceutical company handed over the "positive energy endorsement" contract, when the algorithm engineer Lu Xun found in the data that the system was "reasonably optimizing" the work injury rate, Chen Mu stood at the crossroads of Xiangang.
Should he accept the carefully packaged rescue, or should he use his flesh and blood to block the gears of the system and fight for a way out for the "old bones" behind him? The luminous Pomodoro Clock in the dark runs on its own. It makes no sound and only marks the time - it is the tiny scale that workers light up for themselves in the darkest hour.
