by Admin

A Chinese Man's Struggle (2)
I Took Up Challenge

1 December 2008

The following is an English translation of the core text of a Chinese post currently appeared on China's online forum tianya.com. The author, a man from poor rural area with college education, tells his true story (as he so claims) of how he struggles with his career and marriage in a big city:

1, I Didn't Want to Give UP

农笑非 2 Nov 2008:　

When my brother learned about the 10,000 yans contract, he was also overjoyed - he never saw such a large amount of money. That night, we cooked two hot and spicy dishes and bought a bottle of wine, toasting to our success and planning next moves. Our biggest dream is to get a mortgage on a house so our parents could come to live with us.

Unfortunately things didn't work out as we expected. My wife's relative informed me that he would only gave me 3000 yans commission or else he would talk to the person who signed the contract with me directly. I had no choice but to accept his new term of settlement, provided he could pay me upfront in cash, which he agreed. When we arrived at the bank, he told me he only had 2500 yans in his account. "No worries, just give me what you have," I grinned wryly, and replied.

Of 2500 yans, I gave 1500 to my brother, and spent the rest to buy milk powder for my son and on bus fare when looking for new projects.

Quickly another month was gone, yet I wasn't able to secure a new contract. As my pocket became empty again, I grew increasingly anxious. One morning when I was on a bus I noticed on a hill a construction site with a couple of excavating machines working in the field but no cinder bogie in sight. I decided to try my luck and got off the bus at a nearby stop.

It took me almost an hour to climb to the site along a roughly constructed road and only to learn that the site manager would not turn up until the afternoon.

The late autumn sun lacked warmth and strength, and I sat on a stone watching the drivers working in their excavators, feeling weary and drained.

Hours later, a white Toyota appeared in the road, and when it arrived at the site, two men with briefcase strode out the vehicle and walked into the site office. I promptly jumped to my feet, followed them into the room and presented my business cards to each of them.

One man in a four-pocketed jacket scanned me with alert and then waved a hand to drive me away. "It's all arranged, please go, leave."

It wasn't something entirely unexpected. In fact, I frequently encountered such experience while looking for contract. Before leaving the office I asked habitually: Where is the landfill site? How much per truckload?

"180 yans - yet to know which landfill to use," he replied off-handily.

I resigned to my fate at the first but quickly realised he lied to me. If he didn't even know the disposal destination, how on earth he could know the price. Clearly, the guy is not site manager but my competitor doing exactly what I was doing.

I decide to take up the challenge.

The original text in Chinese can be viewed from tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1452303.shtml

3, I Gave Up

Prev: A Chinese Man's Struggle (1)
Next: Dalai Lama and 9/11 and Beyond

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