Lao Zhang squatted on the brick pile behind the factory area and smoked, looking at the crushed cigarette butts under his feet and smelling the indelible smell of engine oil in the air. He, his wife, and four children were crowded into a 16-square-meter cabin, and their ears could hear the never-ending quarreling, crying, and roar of the huge machine.
He thought he was just paying a "labor tax" until he saw clearly that this huge steel beast ate and vomited humans. Those who have so many children are just adding to the bottomless pit. In this city engulfed by heavy industry, everyone pays taxes with youth, bones and unformed dreams. Some people count the days silently under the miner's lamp, and some people mechanically tighten the nuts of fate on the assembly line. But Lao Zhang just wants to regain a little warmth as a human being after paying his taxes. This is a group portrait story about survival, numbness and weak struggle.
Purpose: To explore the living conditions and alienation of people at the bottom under extreme survival pressure, to reflect on the loss of humanity in the cycle of poverty and mechanical life, and to find the meaning of glimmers of light in despair.