"Sewer cleaner" is actually a dung that time, there were no flush toilets, and every household used a dung bucket. A city would produce a lot of dung water every day, which needed people to clean up. "There is no distinction between high and low jobs! There is no distinction between high and low professions!" Today is my first day at work. At less than three o'clock in the morning, the excrement-collecting team gathered in the square. The team leader arranged everyone into a neat line and said these words loudly. The captain was a middle-aged man, broad-shouldered, about 40 years old, with a sharp-looking figure. He had been a night soil collector since he was a child, and had been doing this for nearly 30 years. Before the founding of New China, the night soil he collected was either snatched away by bullies or he was caught and forced to collect night soil for the Japanese. After the founding of New China, he still did not change his career and insisted on staying in his position. As a result, two years ago, he was named a national model worker and went to the capital to attend a commendation meeting. I heard that the Prime Minister personally presented him with the award. One is an "advanced individual" commended by the whole country, and the other is a social cancer labeled as a "little black guy". I felt a little uneasy and didn't know if he would target me.
"Today, we have a new member in the cleaning team!" The team leader called my name loudly: "Su Cancan, step out!" My heart suddenly rose to my throat, and I had no idea what would happen next. I walked out of the line, stood in front of it, and stood straight. The team began to whisper, and since I was close I could hear a lot of what was said clearly. "Isn't he the top performer in Zuiyunlou? It cost a lot of money to see him in the past! Now he wants to dig manure with us..." "That's right, back then, I wanted to go to Zuiyunlou to ask for a bowl of water, but the lackeys there beat me out with sticks!" "You are really wrongly accusing us. Zuiyunlou serves distinguished customers. You are covered in feces and urine, please don't make them stink." On the surface, he was speaking for me, but in fact, he was secretly mocking me. "Look at his thin arms and legs. He might not be able to lift the bucket. He'll splash us with manure!" "Tsk tsk tsk, you better stay away from him later." …… The taunts grew louder and louder, and the originally neat and quiet team became noisy and scattered. "Everyone be quiet!" The captain's scolding made the whole team quiet down a lot. "No matter who you were before, from now on, you will all be cleaners working hard at your jobs! Even if you have done something wrong before, as long as you correct it, you can become our good comrades in the future! Do you hear me?" Fortunately, he sounded like he was trying to help me. "Tell me! Do you hear me?" The whispering did not stop. As if the captain felt that everyone had a lukewarm response to his words, he spoke loudly to the team, saying it three times in a row. It reminded me of the instructor who shouted slogans very hard during military training. At first, only a few people responded indifferently. After saying it three times, everyone responded in unison:
"I heard!" A faint warm current arose in my heart and spread to every part of my body. I have been treated coldly and criticized by everyone these days. Under the huge psychological gap, I am at a loss as to what to do when I cannot adapt to my new identity. From respected artists to people at the bottom of society, whether they know me or not, they all come to step on me and say that I deserve it. It seems that as long as they do this, they can show that they are superior to others. It seemed that as long as they did that, they could put themselves against me. It seemed that if they did, they wouldn't end up in the same situation as me. But it was at this time, and it was the captain who should have the most sense of superiority, who stood up and spoke for me. At that time, I was just greedy for this little bit of warmth, and didn't know that at that time, nothing was immutable. Today you teach me a lesson from a high position, and tomorrow I will report you secretly. …… It took me a long time to get used to the job of carrying manure. Although this body had undergone a lot of hard training in order to perform opera, it was still delicate and tender. After all, it was not as skilled and strong as the workers who did this kind of heavy work all day long. Every morning at three o'clock, I would gather at the sewage treatment plant, and then push the sewage cart to Linxi Street. There are several very narrow alleys near West Street, where many families live densely. The manure cart cannot be pushed in, so I always push the manure cart to the entrance of the alley, then carry the manure bucket to the back door of each house and collect manure from house to house. When the dung bucket is full, pour the dung water into the dung truck. This cycle repeats, and basically I have to carry 80 buckets a day. My shoulders and palms were soon rubbed by the rough hemp rope over and over again, and I had to keep getting new scars on the old wounds before the old ones healed. Calluses soon formed on my palms, shoulders and back, and I would come home exhausted and lightheaded, wishing I could just fall to the floor and fall asleep. In addition, I gradually developed a smell on my body. This smell first permeated my clothes and could not be washed off. Then it spread to my hands, my shoulders, and finally penetrated into my skin, as if spreading into my internal organs. Like a shadow. I gradually began to want to escape, to escape from the crowd, because I was afraid of seeing them covering their noses, afraid of seeing their disgusted eyes, and I became more and more sensitive day by day... Fortunately, Chu Yucheng, who lives with me, doesn't care much about it. Speaking of Chu Yucheng, he has been very motivated recently. The guys who originally worked in the theater were also reassigned to new jobs after the theater was confiscated, and most of them were arranged to work in factories. Chu Yucheng is among them. He is now assigned to a textile factory, responsible for loading and unloading. There are actually dormitories for male and female workers in the textile factory, but Chu Yucheng did not live in the dormitory. Instead, he and I tidied up this small, shabby house. First, the roof, which had many holes of varying sizes, was patched up with new thatch.
Although the house still leaks when it rains heavily, it is much better now. Then, he cleaned the walls that were originally covered with dust and cobwebs, and re-pasted the originally mottled walls with grass stems mixed with soil. When the soil dries, the entire wall looks brand new, with no traces of sun and rain left. Finally, there are the furniture in the house. The few broken bed boards that were so rotten that they couldn't be rotten anymore have been cleaned out by Chu Yucheng. He also received a second-hand wooden bed from somewhere. Although this wooden bed is a bit old, the four legs are not even, and it creaks when you sleep on it, but this does not affect our happy mood at all when we have a new piece of furniture. It is hard to imagine that the two of us, who had never had to worry about food and clothing since childhood, would be so excited about owning a broken bed. The happiest thing was that after a month's work, Chu Yucheng and I received our salary, although our combined salary was less than 100 yuan. We excitedly planned what to do with the money. "Once we save some more money, we'll add a few beams to the roof and then we can put on tiles. This way, the house won't leak anymore!" Chu Yucheng can now sleep in the same bed with me without changing his expression or any worries, and can also chat with me about the future. "Once we have enough money, we can also install a line in this house, so that we can have electricity and we don't have to live in darkness at night." "There are also tables and chairs to be purchased..." "There's a piece of wasteland in the backyard, where I can build a stove, a chicken coop, and raise a few chickens..." …… We always fall asleep in such an atmosphere. With fear and expectation for the future, we head towards an unknown destination. (End of this chapter)