The Water Deliveryman at 4:30 in the Morning

A heavy rain that had never happened in a century left the entire city submerged in water. A waterman pushed dozens of barrels of pure water into the flood to serve as floats and rescued the elderly and children floating over. The young mother cried and said thank you. He shouted back: "Don't thank me, thank me for this bucket of water!" That bucket of water later became a symbol of the city. Chen Weiguo was fifty-two years old and had been delivering water in the south of the city for seven years. He has seen unlocked egg baskets on street corners in the early morning, open coin boxes, and newsstands that were left open all night—none of them lost a green onion in seven years. He thought his life was like this: delivering water, changing buckets, waiting for his daughter's call, and watching the city lights light up one by one. Then the flood came. After the water receded, the city did not disperse. Contractor Lao Tie led migrant workers in three shifts to build roads. Entrepreneur Lin Zhendong withdrew overseas funds and invested them back in his hometown. Armed policeman Lei Zheng guarded overseas construction sites from the flood front. Ayiguli, a Uyghur single mother, set up a large pot to make soup. The bowl of hot soup was carried from the resettlement site to the "Belt and Road" construction site. The returnee neighbor tore up his green card and said, "I escaped by mistake for twenty years." The American blogger focused his camera on all this and said with a choked voice, "I have been filming for ten years and I have never seen a country like this." Chen Weiguo was present at all these things. He carried the bucket and walked through the ruins, through the construction site, and through the streets and alleys that were lit again. He is just a waterman. But every bucket of water he delivers flows in the veins of this city. "It's great to be born in China."