Some Things Just Pass with a Smile

In the summer of 2007, when 17-year-old Chen Mo received a call in the college entrance examination room, the pencil in his hand snapped. The man who always said, "Son, don't be afraid that your father is here." He stayed under the collapsed scaffolding forever. What was left to him was not only a box of tools, but also a debt of 230,000. He dropped out of a key high school and worked three jobs at the same time: delivering food during the day and memorizing every corner of the city, choking on the fumes at the barbecue stall at night and pinching his thighs to stay awake while driving in the early morning. On the night when the debt collector blocked the door and threw paint, he practiced smiling in front of the mirror in the damp rental house. The next day, he attended the "Hongmen Banquet" of his father's creditors with this expression on his face. During the ten years of ups and downs, he slept in overpasses, ate expired food from supermarkets, and was swept away by his partners all his savings. But no matter how difficult it was, he always remembered his father's words: "No matter how hard the life is, it will pass with a smile." When he hung the "Moji Hardware" sign opposite the building where his father had an accident, the contractor who had escaped back then was hunched over and applying for a doorman job. And Lin Xia, his customer who always ordered takeout late at night, was now sitting across from him with an investment agreement. She turned to the last page of the contract, pointed to the terms and asked softly: "Are you going to push me to someone better this time like you did in college?" The sun shined through the glass window on his smile that was no longer stiff at last.