The People I’ve Helped Along the Way

I once picked up a passenger who cost me 300,000 yuan. In the winter of 1992, the cotton mill went bankrupt and I was laid off. I borrowed money to buy a secondhand Xiali and became a taxi driver. My first fare was a man dodging his debts. I helped him choose a direction, and he gave me fifty yuan. It was the best fifty yuan I ever earned. After that, I picked up all kinds of people. A Wenzhou businessman smuggling cigarettes: I refused to carry his goods, and he sent me my biggest clients. A Hong Kong merchant closing deals worth millions on his brick phone: I spotted an information gap and sold him a tip for a thousand yuan. A woman who’d spent three years collecting debts became my business partner. A veteran with one hand helped my company get past the transport bureau. And the man who cost me 300,000 yuan: when he first got in my car, I had no idea who he was. Thirty years passed. One car became twenty, then twenty became one again. The meter went from three yuan to three yuan, taking the long way around. Ride-hailing apps arrived, the platforms took their cut, and drivers with ratings below 4.5 got suspended. I formed the Taxi Drivers’ Alliance and fought back. My son joined a ride-hailing company, saying he wanted to change the industry. I became the one being changed. But I never stopped. The steering wheel is in my hands, and the car is still on the road. As long as there’s a road, I’m still here. This book isn’t about my story. It’s about the people I picked up. Each of them got in as one person and got out as someone else. So did I. The direction isn’t what matters. What matters is choosing the wrong one.