From 2018 to 2021, I worked in Dongguan, Guangdong, and met Xiaohui, a 24-year-old girl, we have been in love for three years, but she doesn't know that she is married, and she thinks that she has found true love and a partner in life, but in fact, she is just an embellishment in other people's lives.
I am Wei Xiaojiang, from Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou, which is the birthplace of "Village BA". In July 2018, I completed my vocational school, but the two-year job search was not smooth.
So, like my peers in the village, I came to Dongguan, Guangdong Province to work. I was only 22 years old at the time, and I was in the prime of my youth and full of energy. In my computer science Xi at school, I was looking forward to finding a job that matched my major, but in Dongguan, it seemed more difficult than climbing to the sky.
In desperation, I had to work in an electronics factory that made light bulb transistors. During my time at school, I enjoyed a monthly living allowance of 3,000 yuan, and I was full of expectations for life. However, from the moment I started working part-time, I deeply felt the hardships and difficulties of life, and also realized the complexity of the real society.
At the electronics factory, we work in two shifts, the morning shift from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the evening shift from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning, with a two-hour break in between.
Our wages are calculated on a basic basis and piecework, and we get more for more work. In October last year, a new colleague came to the workshop, she was not beautiful but very fair-skinned, dressed plainly and neatly, and did not like to talk.
She was assigned to the workbench next to me. Usually we just say hello and concentrate on our work. After a month or so, one day, I couldn't help but ask her, "Are you from?"
She turned her head and replied to me: "I'm from Xiangxi Prefecture, Hunan, what about you?""I said I was from the southeast of Guizhou Province, and she smiled, revealing two deep dimples, which combined with her plain face, made me take a strong interest in her.
I complimented her on her sweet voice, and she smiled and said, "No, my voice is like a broken trumpet." "When I was on the evening shift, I had half an hour to rest and have a late night snack.
Every time she eats supper, she is always alone, with no smile on her face, and sometimes she even looks at the city outside the factory in a daze. The other girls wanted to talk to her, but she just smiled and never said a word.
Her mystery and uniqueness made me curious about her and wanted to get close to her. Once, when I was having supper, I sat with her with a bowl of fried noodles, and I asked her, "I see that you eat alone every night, don't you have any acquaintances in the factory?"”
She smiled and said, "No, people over there like to go to Zhejiang to work, and they don't like to come to Guangdong." After saying that, she quickly finished eating her flour and went back to work in the workshop without looking back.
These differences in her made me like her. After a long time, we started to talk, I know that her name is Wang Xiaohui, sometimes she is not good at assembly or slow speed, I will teach her some skills, sometimes the factory needs to work overtime to catch up with the goods, she can't finish it, I will vacate my place to help her finish. Every time she would look at me gratefully, revealing those two deep dimple smiles.
I started to get a little bold, and I sat next to her during supper. She just laughed, didn't object or say yes. I asked her, "Xiaohui, do you have a boyfriend?"She looked at me with a glint in her eyes that I still remember but cannot describe, then shook her head lightly and said, "No." ”
I plucked up the courage and said, "Then be my girlfriend, okay?""I was blushing and my heart was beating because the request came from Tik Tok and it was the first time I said it to a girl.
She looked me up and down and said, "You're so handsome, why don't you have a girlfriend, who are you fooling?".I said seriously, "Not really." "Once I was resting, it happened to be the weekend, I stopped her: "Xiaohui, accompany me to play with some friends who are in vocational school tonight, they asked me to bring a girlfriend, you can pretend to be my girlfriend, okay?".”
She smiled and agreed, saying, "Okay, for the sake of how many times you've helped me, I'll pretend once, but it's not true." That night we were in a nightclub, and unlike the girls with heavy makeup brought by other classmates, Xiaohui just put on a light makeup, so that the other classmates praised her as "original", saying that I had found a good girl. "
In the days that followed, I saw Xiaohui as my lover. In addition to accompanying her at work, I take her to KTV or the park every month of work.
Xiaohui also seemed to accept me naturally in her heart. However, our interaction was limited to holding hands and hugging in a no-man's area in the park. Half a year has passed like this, and it is 2019"May Day"During the holidays, I told Xiaohui:"Let's travel to Hong Kong!"
She was a little hesitant:"Can you go?I heard that I need to apply for a visa?"I replied:"No problem, you can handle it when you get to Shenzhen. "
During our five-day, four-night trip to Hong Kong, we visited Golden Bauhinia Square, Repulse Bay, Victoria Peak, Disneyland and Ocean Park, and took a cruise through Victoria Harbour at night to enjoy the dazzling night view of Hong Kong.
Every night, we would go back to the hotel to rest, although the room was a little small (because the room rate was too high), Xiaohui always watched over me and made me feel safe. On the fourth night, we returned to the hotel from Victoria Harbour, I ordered takeaway and some barbecue, and bought a bottle of "Hong Kong Shochu".
That night, Xiaohui seemed to be very happy and drank one glass after another with me. Through the wine, I confessed to Xiaohui, and she gladly accepted, and I finally became Xiaohui's veritable boyfriend.
After returning to Dongguan, we no longer care about other people's eyes, as long as we are free, we go shopping and stay in hotels like lovers. Xiaohui seemed to be happy with my performance.
One day, she said to me: "Jiang, we don't live in the factory dormitory anymore, let's learn from those couples, let's rent a room near the factory, buy some pots and pans, add some furniture and bedboards, and live."
I happily hugged her around and asked her if she would agree to marry me. She replied, "Didn't I marry you in Hong Kong?"I put my arm around her shoulders and laughed.
So we rented a 60-square-metre one-bedroom apartment in a nearby village, bought a bed, a TV, and living utensils. In Dongguan, I feel like I have a woman and a home.
We live a romantic life in the commute and in the rental house, and the days go by unhurriedly. Xiaohui keeps her home in good order. My monthly expenses are only a few thousand yuan, and I don't care about this anymore, because I think that Xiaohui has given me everything and the future to me, and if I am still reluctant to spend money, then what kind of man am I?So whatever Xiaohui bought me, including her clothes and supplies, I gladly accepted.
I have lived in urban villages for a long time, and I have found that most of the people who rent here are not really couples, but temporary couples or concubines from all over the world, and most of them have families.
Once, I made a joke about Xiaohui and asked if we would also be a temporary couple. A hint of panic flashed in Xiaohui's eyes after hearing this, but soon she retorted to me, saying that we are not married and have no family, how can we be a temporary couple.
Although Xiaohui always avoids me to pick up her hometown, I also found in her WeChat that she has no other friends except for a few girlfriends. Despite this, I still think that Xiaohui was a girl before me, she was very good to me, and sometimes the living expenses are not enough, and she will not hesitate to help me out.
Although Xiaohui never talks to me about marriage, I think we are boyfriend and girlfriend, but we are not married yet. Xiaohui and I have been in love for a year now, and I told my parents about our relationship. They suggested that I take her home to see her, or that we go to see her parents together.
I accepted their advice, and on the occasion of the New Year 2020, I made a request to Xiaohui to meet my parents. However, Xiaohui said that she wanted to go back to see her parents and brother first, and then come to see my parents.
I understood her thoughts, so we decided to go back to our respective homes and wait for her to discuss it with her parents. After returning to Guizhou to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my parents, I hurried back to Dongguan, and Xiaohui also arrived here on the eighth day of the lunar month.
However, she was not in a good state of mind and seemed a little sullen. That night, I made garlic stir-fried bacon and wine, and after eating, I wanted to do something, but when I took off her clothes, I found multiple scratches and whiplash marks on her neck and body.
I asked her what was wrong, and she hugged me and cried, saying that her parents didn't approve of our relationship and beat her. She wiped her face and told me that the part where her parents hit her was secret, and I didn't ask any more.
The days of work began, and Xiaohui and I still held hands with each other and shuttled back and forth between the urban village and the factory. One day, she told me that we should start saving, and every month I save two thousand, and she saves two thousand, so that we can save forty thousand a year.
She said that if we couldn't get married, we would keep working outside the home and not going back. I agreed, and we started saving money on frugal terms. From 2020 to 2021, we saved a total of 53,000 yuan.
Although the card is in my name, the card is in Xiaohui's hand, and we all know the withdrawal password.
The text describes a woman named Xiaohui who went home once in May and October 2021, under the pretext that an elderly person had passed away and a relative had been drinking.
However, when she left again, she left a note telling Jiang that she had a husband and children and that her husband would beat her, so she chose to leave. Chiang tried to find Xiaohui, but was unsuccessful.
This story reveals the phenomenon of "temporary couples" among today's migrant workers, and the tragedy and helplessness in it are thought-provoking.