The tides of history rolled on, and the once-prosperous Jingjiang Gearbox Factory went spectacularly bankrupt.
The iron rice bowls that had sustained a thousand workers for half their lives shattered overnight. A generation's dream of a steady, ordinary life at the factory faded into a bleak memory.
Wang Hao, a factory worker, was driven by a deep sense of justice. He secretly gathered evidence, exposed the factory's deep-rooted problems, and stood up for ordinary workers.
But the rot ran deep, and the tide of history could not be turned back. His burning passion couldn't save the factory. Disheartened, he withdrew from the world and kept out of sight for five years.
When he returned, the old factory lay in ruins, and everything had changed.
His former comrades and fellow workers went their separate ways amid the upheavals of the times, each facing a different fate, with their own joys and sorrows.
No golden finger, no miraculous comeback.
A faithful portrait of the era of state-owned enterprise reform, this story captures the quiet endurance, struggles, and helplessness of a generation of grassroots workers, and lays bare the hardships and vicissitudes of ordinary lives.
