Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

Others say that I am blessed, but I never feel that I am blessed. My mother often scolds me for being born in the midst of blessings and not being blessed.The result of the technical competition made me realize that I may really be more blessed than ordinary people.When we participated in the technical competition, it was said that the top three in the city could be rewarded with a first-level salary, so those of us who were selected to participate in the technical competition had a vague hope.At that time, a first-level salary could make people's living standards and savings speed leap.When I officially went to the city to participate in the finals, I was always worried about the TV I just bought the day before, and I was in a hurry to go home to watch TV.After a while, the municipal government announced the decision. This city-wide technical competition was the first time since the reform and opening up. The top ten in each type of work will be rewarded with a first-level salary, and the top five will all be promoted to technicians.So I not only got a first-level salary for nothing, but also became a technician in a daze. Before that, I had been a second-level worker.A technician is even higher than an eighth-level worker. Think about it, how many people have never made it to an eighth-level worker in their lifetime, but I suddenly surpassed the eighth-level worker and became a worker technician. It is said that the next wage reform, I will I can get the salary of a technician, I am very happy.

My dad seemed happier than me, and specially asked his second-year-old daughter-in-law, Xiao Linzi, to come to my house and ask me and Ye Shengnan to come home for dinner.While waiting for dinner at home, my dad asked me to tell him the process of the technology competition in detail, and then rewarded me with a Zhonghua cigarette.My mother didn't know what a technician did. Seeing that my father valued it so much and was so happy, she thought that her eldest son had won the first prize in the exam, was promoted to a high official, and won the big lottery. While eating the meals, everyone regretted that the younger sister did not come back after graduation but stayed in other places, otherwise today would be another big reunion.My dad made an exception and drank a glass of wine. Not long before his second birthday, he became the deputy director. He happily announced the good news to his family. My dad said flatly, "I have been the secretary of the county party committee for several years at your age." It meant that he was a little dismissive of his promotion.Today, my parents held a family banquet to celebrate my promotion to a technician. After drinking two glasses of wine in my second career, I used the strength of the wine to squeeze me: "Brother, come, I will toast you, I wish you every step of the way, and everything goes well." I drank his glass of wine.He asked again: "Brother, what level is a technician?"

Technician is just a technical title and has no administrative level. His question clearly implies that I am not as promising as he is.I said: "What level is it? It's a worker. I can't compare with you, a cadre, a deputy director." I have passed the historical stage of whoever is older and who is king with him. I have long lost the authority of being a brother to him. He has long lost the obedience and flattery he had when he was a child.After each of us got married and had children, our relationship was sometimes close to each other, sometimes we fought each other, but generally it was peaceful and friendly.

I’m telling the truth, the older I get, the less promising I become, and I’m a worker, planning to rely on my hard-working fitter skills to support myself for the rest of my life.The second-time prospect is the bigger the more promising, he joined the agency early on as a worker, and later transferred to a full-time cadre smoothly, did not leave work and got a college diploma with salary, and became a deputy director before he was thirty level cadres.But I have never bowed my head in front of him. Everyone has their own way of life. No matter how senior he is, he is still my younger brother. It is impossible for him to become my brother just because he is older than me.

My dad said: "Whether you are a cadre or a worker, even if you are a farmer, the most important thing is to keep your feet on the ground. As long as you support people by your own labor, no one is superior to anyone else." Anyone can hear the words. It's a bit of a compliment to my second-year career. The words were not speculative, and we didn't pick up the quarrel. We buried our heads in eating and drinking, for fear that someone who said a word inappropriately would cause a crisis at the dinner table. We carefully maintained the stability and unity at the dinner table.At this time, Ye Shengnan took the wine glass and toasted Er Chuxi: "Er Chuxi, come, congratulations on being the director, let's have a toast!"

He didn't drink in his second year, and said: "Today, my father and mother congratulated my brother on being a technician, so I don't dare to overwhelm the host." Ye Shengnan, in order to appease Er Chuxi, or to help Er Chuxi balance his mentality, and also to save face for himself, wanted Er Chuxi to drink the wine in the cup, and said again: "Where, your brother will only be a technician again. A stinky worker, I can’t compare with you as a director, come here, I wish you every step of the way.” Her words were completely out of good intentions, although there was some suspicion of belittling my performance, but I could tell that she was really doing it for the second Promising and long-term ambition.

It is a pity that in the atmosphere at that time, in Er Chuxi's mood, what she said made Er Chuxi sound ironic, and Er Chuxi said angrily: "Don't say that, our family has no I don’t care if the director is not the director, there is no need to toast to this crap.” Ye Shengnan was embarrassed, and she was embarrassed to put down the hand holding the wine glass.My mother said: "Come on, Sheng Nan, our mother and I will do it. Our family doesn't care whether the director is the director or not. As long as we behave honestly and rely on our own skills, we will be a good baby if we have a skill."

My mother relieved Ye Shengnan, Ye Shengnan reluctantly took a sip from the cup, and put down the hand that raised the cup with a stiff face.The atmosphere at the celebration banquet held for me was not joyful, because Er Chuxi felt that my parents favored me and underestimated him, so I got off the dinner table and recited Er Qixi, and I asked my dad if he was unhappy that Er Qixi was the director.My dad said: "It's no good for a man to be crazy, but a dog is crazy and hits a brick. I'm afraid that he will become crazy. I feel that I have become a director at a young age, and I think I really have some skills. I don't know the heights of the sky and the earth."

"Then you are not afraid that I will go crazy too?" My dad said: "That's different. You keep yourself safe as a worker, relying on your own craftsmanship to make a living. This is the right way. Don't look at the second career as a sesame official and think that he is promising. In fact, what will he do? Work? No workers, no farmers, no panacea, a box of panacea, once that little black gauze hat is lost, it will be very difficult to make a living.” My dad's words made me find it difficult to understand. How can I say that being a cadre is much better than being a worker? A cadre at the level of a director is much better than a worker. In the future, if you are not sure that you can get promoted in the future, it is even better than me. This worker is strong.My dad seemed to see what I was thinking, and then said: "I never expect my son to be an official, and I never think that being an official means being promising. Your grandfather has been an old farmer all his life. Although your dad and I have been a cadre , I have been working all my life, I have been working all my life, and I spent most of my time dealing with sports and conflicts between people. In my opinion, being such an official is not as easy as being a commoner. I only hope that my son doesn’t care What to do, as long as you can be an honest person and work diligently, I will be at ease. Although you are a worker, you can be the first batch of technicians among tens of thousands of workers, which shows that you have really worked hard. Three One hundred and sixty lines, it’s not difficult to choose a job, but it’s difficult to become the number one in that job, you are not the number one fitter in our city, at least you are the number one, I am happy for that.”

My dad’s words gave me great comfort and support. Since then, I feel like I have a pillar of support in my heart, and I have confidence in my stomach. I don’t feel shorter than others in front of anyone, even though I just go to work. Oily, monthly workers living on wages.I think it is a blessing to live like this for a lifetime. The TV series filmed in Hong Kong started to show on the TV. We were all crazy about it. We waited at my dad’s place to watch TV before we went home after dinner. Their TV is in color.Socialist Chinese have seen movies and TV shows with education as the primary purpose for many years, but now they see the absurd stories fabricated by capitalist Chinese with bizarre storylines and exaggerated martial arts moves. Bewitched to the point of fascination.Fortunately, these Hong Kong and Taiwan movies confuse people only for a while. Watching too much is like eating fast food box lunches every day, getting tired and nauseated.

"The Condor Heroes" started. My parents were dismissive of Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts movies. At the beginning, they even competed with us for the channel. Later, they saw that we were addicted to watching, so they followed us to join in the fun and slowly entered the plot. , actually also interested.After the TV show was over, we got up to pack up and retreat one after another. I carried Dandan, Ye Shengnan took our bags and Dandan’s clothes, and Erqing helped us carry our bicycles. We carried our bicycles upstairs when we returned home in case they were lost. superior. Eggy was sleepy, and I put him in the basket on the car beam, and he immediately fell asleep with his head tilted.Ye Shengnan jumped onto the back seat of my bicycle, and my family of three was carried home by me.Ye Shengnan patted me on the back like a farmer caressing a pulled mule: "Ride steadily, don't throw our mother and daughter into the ditch." I ignored her. I was a little depressed to feel like a cow and a horse for their mother and son. Although most men are doing cows and horses for their children, men are often complacent and think that they are the masters of the family. To put it bluntly, men are often unhappy.I am in this state right now, I hope people say that I am the head of the family, and I don’t want others to tell the truth, pointing out that I am actually the head of the family like most men.I pedaled my bicycle silently. The asphalt road under the street lights was like a barren riverbed, and there was almost no one else to see except us.Under the street lamps, there were some squatting figures, and from time to time there was a "ping-pong" sound of chess pieces colliding in the crowd. "Hey, what are you thinking?" Ye Shengnan slapped me on the back again. "I didn't think about anything." "Let's change the TV!" Her abrupt proposal made me unable to answer immediately: "What? Change the TV?" Ye Shengnan confirmed: "That's right, are you going to watch that black and white TV for the rest of your life? Change to a color one." I haven't thought about this issue yet. My father and her father bought color TV sets at home. They were tickets issued to them by the city government to take care of veteran cadres, and they were cheap.We wanted to buy it but no one gave us an invoice. Even if we got the invoice, we had to take out all our money to be able to afford it. "Why don't you speak, do you agree or not?" I thought for a while and said, "Even if I want to buy it, where can I buy it?" She said confidently: "Don't you just buy a color TV? As long as you want to buy it, I don't believe you can't buy it." I said, "I can also buy the high-priced ones on the black market." Ye Shengnan was full of confidence: "What kind of skill is that? If you want to buy it, buy a cheap one. Tell me, what size should we buy? I said that if you want to buy it, you can buy it at once. Buy a 21-inch color one, so as to save time and have to update it like now. Replacement." I turned a corner and poured cold water on her: "You find braised pig's trotters so that he can make us another?" This is Ye Shengnan's shortcoming and also her pain point. Whenever this matter is mentioned, she feels uncomfortable all over, and she can't wait to scratch the two paws of the stewed pig's trotters.When I mentioned this matter at this time, I just wanted to make her feel uncomfortable. Maybe she gave up the plan of upgrading. Ye Shengnan's enthusiasm was not extinguished by my cold water, and he still maintained a high desire to buy: "Of course I won't look for him. Besides, we have no proof whether he made money or not. We just suspect. If you have no objection, I will start tomorrow." Think of ways to." I didn't reciprocate her positivity, and I knew it would be pointless for her to disagree head-on.Her decision-making mode of discussing everything with me, but finally doing everything according to her established policy made me feel helpless and helpless.I don't know how to cast my downvote and make my downvote work.If I simply objected to her proposal, she would stalk me for reasons.If I tell the reasons, she will use more and newer reasons to prove that my reasons are not as reasonable and clever as hers.She is like a great dictatorship pretending to be a democracy. Everything is first democratized by the ruled and then centralized by her. She has the final decision-making power and the right to deny.I can't figure out whether this style or personality of hers is innate or cultivated or developed after I married me.I bluntly questioned her why she never listened to me and was always the head of the house, and she told me with a playful smile that she had been my monitor since she was a child, and I was used to it. I have to listen to others everywhere outside, factory director, deputy factory director, secretary, deputy secretary, workshop director, workshop deputy director, section chief, deputy section chief, squad leader, deputy squad leader... almost everyone I know has All kinds of positions to give them management rights and leadership rights over me.Although what they say is very pleasant, I am a working class, I am a technical backbone, I have the most right to speak and so on.However, I only have the right to speak, and the right to make decisions is absolutely out of my reach.When this situation extended to my family, I was often aggrieved, and I often wanted to disagree with Ye Shengnan, and I often wanted to show my status as the master.But like those people outside, she only gave me the superficial right to speak, but the decision-making power was firmly in her own hands. She has a lot of ideas, she is the one who bought a black and white TV, and not many days later she wants to buy a color TV, her thinking transformation speed is far behind my brain of a worker technician.I am used to measuring life with card scales. Ding is Ding Mao and Mao is Ding. Every processing procedure can not be omitted or added step by step. If it is omitted or added, it will produce waste products.But she seems to be born with the instinct to adapt to social changes, and her nature is to catch up with fashion and advance in fashion.It is a pity that we have to pay for adapting to social changes, catching up with fashion, and fashion. Our economic ability has not yet reached the level of enjoying fashion and fashion.When we got married, the family gave me the money I saved since we got married. As far as I know, the amount of savings is only about 2,000 yuan. I did everything possible to ask someone to find a relationship, but it was easy to buy it, and we didn't have a penny in savings. I absolutely don't want to live a life of earning and living, and that kind of life makes me feel uncertain. When I got home, I turned on the black-and-white TV, which now looks shabby and insignificant. The evening news was playing on the TV, and there was another meeting at the Central Committee, and the announcer tirelessly read the speeches of the meeting.Isn't it just watching personal videos, watching a storyline and listening to news?Isn't it enjoyable to hold a radio that you can't listen to when there is no TV?Going forward, wouldn't people still have children and live without radios?I persuaded myself, and then began to persuade Ye Shengnan: "I think let's forget it, we only have a few deposits, and we bought TVs, in case there is an urgent need in the future, where can we borrow them? Besides, if there is such a black and white one, watch it first." Look, there are really good programs and I want to watch them in color. Your house and mine have color TVs, so it’s good to go to them and watch them.” Ye Shengnan washed Dandan's buttocks, face, feet, and all the parts and parts that could be washed. Dandan was so sleepy that she swayed to and fro, and let Ye Shengnan play with her helplessly. "Isn't earning money spent? Can money be used as TV in the bank? You haven't heard people say that if you earn money and don't spend it, the money belongs to someone else. Besides, we have a salary every month. After spending it Save more. In case there is an urgent need, your family and my family have to lend a helping hand. That is just in case. In fact, what do we have in case? You and I are both public-funded medical care, and Dandan can also claim half of the medical treatment. We don’t need to pay our own money for the only child to go to nursery school and elementary school, so why worry about it?” I don't have the heart to discuss with her whether the money earned should be spent or not. I also know that she must have started to buy a color TV. Now there is no practical point in arguing with her about this issue. She has already made up her mind. At this time If I continue to insist on not buying a color TV, my life will not be stable, and eventually the color TV will be placed on the clothes box of our house.I took off my clothes and got into the bed. After she settled her balls, she also got into the bed. Her cold legs wrapped around my legs to keep warm, and her hands were also coldly walking on me: " Why are you so warm?" I have no intention of talking to her, I think her way of going her own way implies a disregard for me, a denial of my status in the family, and a contempt for my intelligence and value. "Thanks to the fact that you are just an ordinary person, if you become a leader, you must be more domineering than anyone else." I made a conclusion on her. She hummed, pushed me away and turned over to sleep. Ye Shengnan suddenly hugged me tightly in the middle of the night, and I was awakened from my sleep: "What's wrong?" She trembled all over and said, "No, your grandpa is here!" How many years have passed since my grandfather died, and she was the one who went to the funeral with me at that time, and now the bones of my legs can be used as drumsticks, isn't she talking nonsense?I was a little angry, and shook her head: "Wake up, whose grandpa is here? My grandpa has passed away. As far as I know, your grandpa died earlier than mine. Which grandpa is here? What are you doing?" " She said: "Just now I felt that the light in the dining room was on, so I got up and went to have a look, and I clearly saw your grandfather sitting on the stool in front of the dining table. I knew in my heart that he had passed away, but I was not afraid at all." , and said to him: "Grandpa, if you want to come, let us know in advance, and come in so quietly to scare people." Guess what your grandpa said?" Her narration made me feel chills. Although grandpa is my relative, but now he is dead after all. He came to my house in the middle of the night without saying hello. It sounds really scary. I suppressed the fear in my heart and asked her: "What did my grandpa say?" She answered me very seriously and with certainty: "Your grandfather said he wanted to watch color TV at our house." I couldn't figure out whether she really dreamed that my grandpa wanted to watch a color TV, or she made up nonsense to remind me to buy a color TV, or she was thinking about it day and night, thinking about buying a TV all day long, and it turned out Invited my grandpa's ghost too. I taught her: "Next time my grandfather comes to watch color TV, you tell him to watch it at your natal home." She pinched my crotch angrily: "Why did you tell him that he can't see your natal home when he goes to my natal home?" I said, "My grandpa went home without knocking on the door or saying hello. I was afraid that my parents would be shocked." Ye Shengnan twisted my arm again: "You're not afraid to startle my parents." I said: "Your parents don't know my grandfather, and they don't know he is dead when he comes here, so they can't surprise them." But I was thinking in my heart, it seems that this color TV must be bought. Grandpa has moved out, and I will insist on not buying any more. I don’t know which dead ancestor she will invite, and even all the ancestors who have died in our family and theirs, to watch color TV at home in the middle of the night. If that's the case, my house will be full of ghosts every night, which will definitely make people breathless. I just don't know if ghosts will occupy the space. If ghosts also occupy space like people, our small house will probably be destroyed. The ghost ancestors she invited were overwhelmed and crushed.