Chapter 86: Illusion
“You can’t find a job after graduating from college and you don’t have money to go back?”
“Who knows what you’re up to? You young people still have the heart to do this kind of work? What can you do with your small body?”
“Get lost, get lost. There are no part-time jobs at the construction site. Don’t waste my time. If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll beat you up.”
…
Su Yu was driven out of the house by the worker, holding a job advertisement. His documents were accidentally scattered on the floor, and his ID card hit the ground and bounced, almost falling into a small puddle on the side of the road. He quickly bent down to pick it up, but a rough and dark hand was faster. It was covered with thick and hard calluses, and he didn’t mind the dirt. He directly reached into the mud and took out the ID card.
He looked up at the man in a daze. Perhaps it was because he was often exposed to the sun, but his face was very dark, his pores were large, and the corners of his eyes were full of obvious wrinkles. He looked a little old. But in the cold weather, he was only wearing a tank top. When he bent down, his back was strong, and it was clear that he had a lot of strength from working often.
The man squinted his eyes and smiled at him. He shook the mud from his hand, rubbed the ID card in his hand, and then looked down at it for a few moments. His cloudy and vicissitudinous pupils contracted and then relaxed. He handed the ID card to Su Yu. “Take it. If you lose this, you’ll never be able to go back. A college student… is really rare.”
He then looked past Su Yu at the worker behind him. His voice was no longer as gentle as when he was talking to Su Yu. He shouted with a hoarse and sandy voice, as if the other party were a deaf person who couldn’t hear. “Old San, what’s wrong with you? Why are you making a fuss so early in the morning?”
The foreman had just picked up the papers on the floor. He frowned and pushed the things against Su Yu’s chest, not using too much force. He shouted at the man, “Boss, this kid says he’s here for a part-time job. Isn’t this ridiculous? He’s a good scholar. Why is he here? He’s just wasting his life. If something happens, he’ll probably blame us.”
“Is that all? Then let this kid try. There aren’t many shops in the nearby shopping mall that are hiring during the New Year. How can he not have money to go home during the New Year? And didn’t Xiao Meng just leave a few days ago? Let this kid take his place. It’s just a waste of a college student’s brain to do manual labor.”
“Th-Thanks.”
Su Yu was a little dazed by the sudden turn of events. He came back to his senses and subconsciously handed the documents in his hand to the man who was called the boss.
“It’s a small matter. I’m the foreman here. Even if you’re a temporary worker, you’ll be paid daily, and you’ll be provided with food and lodging. But you don’t have to sign a contract. I’ll pay you separately. It will be a little less than a formal worker, but it’s not a problem to save up for a ticket home. If you believe me, you can do it. You can live in the same room with Old San and the others in the future. Let him take care of you. You have to work hard for me. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless. It’s almost the New Year, and we’re all in a hurry to catch up.”
“Boss, where are you going so early in the morning?”
Old San stared at the man, who was rarely wearing a few clean clothes that he would only wear when he went out. His hair was also neatly combed.
“I’m going to a meeting. They’re just talking about catching up with the schedule all day. They can’t even come up with a plan after half a day of discussion. And I had to get up so early to take a shower. How come these idiots are so rich?”
The man waved his hand and returned the documents to Su Yu without even looking at them. He lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth, and then he turned and disappeared into the hazy morning mist behind him.
Su Yu turned his head and looked at Old San, who was standing behind him. He pursed his dry lips and asked in a hoarse voice after a while, “What’s the foreman’s name?”
“The boss and I are both from the Wu village. We’re both surnamed Wu. My name is Yaoming, and the boss’s single name is Yong. You’re really lucky, kid. The boss looks like he’s hard to get along with, but he’s actually a very kind person. I was also brought to the city by him from the village to work back then.”
“I said some harsh words just now. I’m sorry. I’m actually quite envious of you. You can study. How can you come here to work?” Old San no longer had the fierce look he had when he was about to drive Su Yu away. He walked over and patted Su Yu’s shoulder, a simple smile on his face. “Have you had breakfast?”
“No, I’m hungry.”
Su Yu also smiled. The quietness of the construction site was broken by the noise of the steel bars rolling early in the morning. The workers were wearing raincoats and were shouting everywhere, preparing to start work. He was in a very lively place, and he had no time to care about anything else. It was as if he would not be so lonely like this. The restless heart in his chest calmed down, and his tired and embarrassed spirit was also calmed down by this.
“Let’s go. It’s probably not going to be a breakfast stall at the entrance today since it’s raining. Let’s go to the cafeteria to eat. It’s on me. It’s the end of the month, and I still have a few meal tickets left.”
Old San was very talkative. He kept pestering Su Yu and asking him about college students. He was curious about how difficult it was to study, and why Su Yu, who had gone to college, still couldn’t find a job with easy money. He also said that he had been learning to drive a crane for a few months but still couldn’t get the hang of it. He would get sleepy as soon as he saw a book. He also said a lot about the foreman, about how they had started their business, and how they had come to the big city to work hard until now.
The two of them were chatting and arrived at the cafeteria. It was just a long corridor that had been temporarily built with a shed. Standing at the entrance, one could smell the tempting and oily fragrance of the meat-filled steamed buns after they had been broken open.
Su Yu’s appetite had not been good these past few days. He had only gotten a little bit of white porridge and an egg. He sat down in a corner, and Old San soon came over with a large plate. He had also talked to many people on the way and had greeted them. They were all speaking the same local dialect. He sat down at the table and stuffed a few steamed buns into Su Yu’s hand without a word. He looked at the clear and watery porridge in his bowl and said with some dissatisfaction.
“You’re only eating this little? How can you work like this? Anyone who doesn’t know would think I’m bullying you. Eat more steamed buns. They’re meat-filled. It’s just that the taste is not very good. They’re a bit dry. They’re not as good as my mom’s.”
“Th-Thanks. I was just about to get some steamed buns.”
Su Yu picked up a steamed bun and took a bite. The freshly steamed bun was hot in his hand, and it was a little hot. He swallowed the greasy and somewhat hard-to-swallow oil that was mixed in the meat filling with the white porridge.
Old San ate very quickly. He broke the steamed bun and put it in the white porridge and mixed it with a few quick chopsticks. Su Yu had just swallowed the steamed bun in his hand, and he had already added another bowl of white porridge.
“Where are you living now? I see you’re empty-handed. You should have another place to live, right?”
“I…”.
Su Yu agreed and looked around. The narrow shed was filled with workers who were preparing to go to work early. They were wearing raincoats and were eating with their heads down. The drizzling rain was mixed with the mud under their feet, and it was a mess from the rough and flat bottoms of their cloth shoes. He was like an out-of-place person, and his clothes were so clean that they were a little eye-catching.
“I’ll move over tomorrow. I’ll bring my luggage with me.”
He suppressed the bloating pain in his stomach, which was being propped up. He lowered his head and drank the thin porridge in his bowl in large gulps, as if he had made up his mind, just to make himself look not so out of place.
“I’m full, I’m full. Let’s go… let’s start work.” Old San put down his bowl and chopsticks and patted his stomach with satisfaction. He wiped his greasy mouth with the cuff of his sleeve and looked at the raindrops outside the window. He smacked his lips and cursed, “It’s been raining these past few days, and the higher-ups are always urging us to rush the work. They’re only giving us a little bit of money, and they’re always rushing us… like they’re rushing us to our deaths. The leaders? I think they’re just a few Zhou Bapis.”
Su Yu smiled and didn’t say anything. He packed up the plates on the table and put them away. He followed Old San out of the shed. It was still drizzling outside, and the rain was splashing on the half-dry concrete on the side of the road, creating a cloud of water mist. It was mixed in the air and was scattered everywhere. It was a hazy scene everywhere, as if he had fallen into a bizarre and motley illusion, just as he had never thought that his life would have such an absurd experience.
A few workers were shouting and pulling a large cloth to quickly cover the freshly laid concrete. The figures in his vision were swaying. He suddenly felt a little dizzy, and the shouting with an accent in his ear was also blurry. He covered his temples and was in a daze for a moment. When he looked up again, his whole body was as if it had been struck by a bolt of lightning and was stunned on the spot.
Just like that, abruptly and unexpectedly, the back of a woman suddenly appeared on his retina. She was wearing a standard professional suit, a neat and simple single ponytail, and was wearing thin and long high heels, which outlined a graceful and shapely figure.
It was so abrupt and horizontal, as if a beautiful and delicate flower had suddenly been born in a barren and sandy land. In a monotonous world, its branches were graceful, and it was bewitching and lingering. Every petal, every branch was beautiful and unparalleled.
Because all of this was familiar to him, the back gradually merged with a certain moment in his previous life. He subconsciously escaped from the protection of the umbrella and chased after that back. But his body suddenly stopped. He turned his head in a daze and saw Old San grabbing his arm.
Old San stared at him and shouted at him a few times, thinking that Su Yu didn’t know the rules. He immediately instructed, “Hey, where are you running? What if you get into an accident if you don’t know the construction site? That’s the office area upstairs. You’re not allowed to wander around.”
“What? Are you already in love, kid? This is probably someone sent by the higher-ups to inspect. These pretty girls in the city have their hearts higher than the sky. You’ve come to the construction site to do this kind of work. You’re probably not doing very well. How could she be interested in us? You should give up this idea as soon as possible. But I have a wife in the village. I’ll save up some more money to build a small Western-style house at home and then go back to get married. My wife is also pretty. I don’t think she’s any worse than that girl just now. The girls in the city just have nice clothes and know how to dress up. They’re not necessarily better than the ones in my village.”
Old San also saw that graceful back. He nudged Su Yu with his elbow and looked at him with an ambiguous and frivolous look, and he smiled.
“You’re not bad-looking, kid. It’s just that you look a little timid. I’ll introduce you to Xiao Cui from the village later. She’s also in the city. She’s very pretty. If you’re really thirsty, cough cough… I’ll take you for a massage next time. But don’t… don’t tell the boss.”
Su Yu didn’t say anything to Old San. He thought he had probably been away from home for too long and missed his old life too much. Otherwise, how could he have such an impossible illusion?
He suddenly felt that the back was very strange and blurry. Everything was like an illusion. He slowly turned his head, and the woman had already disappeared at a corner that he couldn’t find.
