"If my hometown is a big road, I am a car, galloping on the road, how free I am!" If my hometown were a big tree, I would be a leaf, swaying in the wind, how happy I was!
Yes! How happy I am! This is the classic line spoken by Lao Zhao, a migrant worker played by Zhao Benshan, in the 2007 Chinese New Year movie "Falling Leaves Return to the Roots". This movie mainly tells the story of "Lao Zhao" who sent his seriously ill fellow villagers back to his hometown because of a promise.
Although the film has received widespread praise in today's society, it received some criticism when it was released in 2007. That's because the film is based on the real experience of migrant worker Li Shaowei, and some people think it's inappropriate to present someone else's tragedy as a Chinese New Year comedy.
Li Shaowei, the party involved in this movie, is very dissatisfied with the description of the movie. Although the cover of the movie reads "Incredible Real Story", his experience is very different from what is portrayed in the film.
Li Shaowei, an ordinary farmer in Hengyang, Hunan Province, lives in Zhangshuwan Village, Chejiang Town, and his friend Zuo Jiabing lives in the next village. The two often go out to work together, usually in a factory in Hengyang.
In November 2004, 61-year-old Li Shaowei heard that Feng Qiping, the foreman of a small package, said that workers in Longyan, Fujian Province, who were urgently recruiting to dig cables, could earn 80 yuan a day, including food and lodging.
Li Shaowei was attracted by this opportunity, because in Hengyang it is only twenty or thirty yuan a day, and going to Fujian for one day is equivalent to earning two days, isn't this a big profit?
Because Li Shaowei didn't want to go to Fujian alone, he found Zuo Jiabing with him, so that he could take care of him after arriving in Fujian. However, Zuo rejected his offer.
The Zuo family is the poorest family in the area, and the most valuable thing they have is a 14-inch black-and-white TV. Their main economy** is farming and working outside the farm during their slack time.
Farmers in the region can harvest two crops of paddy a year and earn 1,200 yuan a year. However, it also costs 400 yuan a year to buy fertilizers, 300 yuan to buy pesticides, 70 yuan to use electricity, and 600 yuan to pay agricultural taxes.
This means that there is not much profit left in growing rice at all. Zuo Jiabing chooses to go out to work when the farm is not working, and his wife, Lu Shumei, is not in good health and often suffers from headaches and loss of appetite.
He worries that if he gets too far away from home, his wife may have problems and there will be no one to take care of her. However, Li Shaowei's situation is different. He has been a single man for most of his life, alone and without much savings.
His younger brother once helped him bulldoze and rebuild a mud house that had almost collapsed, and he only had 40 yuan in savings at the time. His goal is to save more money so that he can find a place to retire.
Under Li Shaowei's patient persuasion, Zuo Jiabing finally agreed, and on November 28, he went backpacking with Li Shaowei, and met Tan Yuebing, the foreman of the contractor, on the way, he led a team of 14 people and went to Longtan with Zuo Jiabing.
Tiankeng is in Fujian, and Li Shaowei is aware of the gap between ideals and reality. Before departure, the contractor promised 3 yuan per meter, and the depth was not limited. However, after the field trip, he learned that the dirt floor had to be dug 80 centimeters deep and the stone floor 50 centimeters deep, and he had to dig 10 meters a day.
The problem, however, is that the stones in the ground are so hard that when you go down with a hoe, you can only hear the "clanging" sound, but to no avail.
Li Shaowei dug for more than ten hours, but only dug eight meters. In this way, he can only earn twenty or thirty yuan a day, which is about the same as Hengyang's salary. Still, it cannot be said that the contractor lied.
Because Feng Qiping, Tan Yuebing, and another contractor named Liu Guobing are all small contractors, and there is also a large contractor named Jiang Xuanwei above them, and there are only so many left.
If you go back to your hometown directly, won't the effect be better? Li Shaowei and a few co-workers went to the contractor to discuss the explanation, but they were told: "I love to do it, I don't dare to get out, and some people are willing to do it." ”
After only a week, there were only nine migrant workers left on the site. Li Shaowei and Zuo Jiabing didn't want to leave, but they couldn't leave. When they came, Li Shaowei brought fifty yuan, and Zuo Jiabing brought twenty yuan, and now even if they want to return to their hometown in Hunan, they can't go back at all.
In order to complete the project, Liu Guobing asked Feng Qiping and Tan Yuebing to transfer the remaining migrant workers to himself, promising to give the workers 10 yuan a day for living expenses, and requiring them to work 10 hours a day without a break in between.
Unable to leave, Li Shaowei could only accept this reality.
A month has passed in a flash, and the passage of time has taken away many things, but it has left us missing. On December 31, the last day of 2004, the engineering team specially purchased fish and bulk liquor to spend this special year together.
Zuo Jiabing was an alcoholic, he drank a lot that night, and the next morning he drank again before he had time to eat breakfast.
Two or three taels of liquor, and then they went out. He looked fine when he went out, but on the way to the construction site, his face suddenly became unsightly, saying that he had a headache, and Liu Guobing immediately called the emergency ** after seeing it.
In the First People's Hospital of Longyan City, the doctor told Liu Guobing solemnly: "The preliminary diagnosis is that you have a cerebral hemorrhage. A few days later, the hospital issued a critical illness notice: "Brain herniation has been formed, the operation is of little significance, and if you continue to **, you need to pay a fee." ”
During this time, the ** fee has reached 1,585 yuan, and Liu Guobing only paid a deposit of 100 yuan before. So, Liu Guobing specially convened a meeting of all the people in the engineering team: "Everyone knows the situation of the family soldiers, and no matter how good it is, it will not help."
But we can't let him die like this, we have to let him fall back to his roots. If he dies, we will also transport his body back to Hunan. After speaking, Liu Jiabing pointed at Li Shaowei: "I will pay, you will contribute."
You are the cousin he brought from Hengyang, and you are responsible for carrying the corpse. Soon after, the attending doctor came to the ward and asked them if they would continue, and when they got a negative answer, the doctor pulled out Liu Guobing's drip.
As he left, the doctor also reminded the workers not to forget to pay their fees.
Do people still have to pay fees after death? After the doctor left the corridor, Li Shaowei successfully escaped from the hospital and rode a motorcycle directly to the train station with Zuo Jiabing on his back and under the cover of his co-workers.
According to the plan, Zuo Jiabing will be escorted back to Hunan by four workers, including Li Shaowei. Before leaving, the project party provided 11 red bills, saying that it was Zuo's salary.
In order to avoid exposure, after buying the tickets, the four wrapped Zuo Jiabing's body in a quilt, sprinkled some wine on his body, pretended to be drunk, successfully passed the inspection of the security personnel, and boarded the train to Guangzhou.
However, after arriving in Guangzhou, a new problem arose: Li Shaowei worked on the construction site for more than a month and only received a salary of 95 yuan, and the other three workers were similar, and the four of them simply did not have enough money for five train tickets to Hengyang.
Pack the body and check it in, and we'll take the car back. "However, when the snakeskin bag containing the body was consigned, the outcome was already predictable. ** Quickly rushed to the scene and controlled Li Shao and four others.
Zuo Jiabing's twin stars were working in Shenzhen, and after receiving the news, they immediately rushed to Guangzhou, and embarked on the road to Fujian accompanied by Li Shaowei, in order to find Jiang Xuanwei, the contractor, to ask for clarification.
Jiang Xuanwei showed an innocent look, insisting that he had outsourced all the work to Liu Guobing, and since the person had died, how could he bear any responsibility?
However, Jiang Xuanwei's statement did not satisfy the Zuo family, and they turned to Liu Guobing, hoping that he would take responsibility. However, Liu Guobing also refused to take responsibility, saying that he had not received the payment for the project, so it was impossible for them to ask him to pay compensation.
Moreover, he believes that the deceased died because of excessive drinking, so he is not responsible. Faced with this situation, the Zuo family had no choice but to find the Public Security Bureau and the Labor Bureau and ask ** to intervene.
However, Long Yan ** said that the body was in Guangzhou and they could not dispose of it; The labor bureau said that the person had passed away, which was not a labor dispute and they could not accept it.
The Zuo family had no choice but to go to court to file a lawsuit.
Zuo Jiabing's difficulty in working to make money is so difficult that even paying for funeral expenses has become a problem, and his family cannot afford to hire a lawyer. They continued to seek Liu Guobing's assistance, and after some communication, the other party agreed to pay 2,000 yuan for funeral expenses.
According to the regulations of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, the body can only be cremated locally and the ashes can be brought back. So, Zuo Yunfu, the son of Zuo Jiabing, bought a set of shrouds for 108 yuan on January 8 to replace his father's old clothes and prepare for cremation.
However, when he was about to push his father into the crematorium, Zuo Yunfu suddenly remembered that his father was in his 60s, but he didn't have a ** souvenir, so he immediately found someone to take five portraits with a digital camera, but the eyes were partially synthetic Zuo Yunfu's eyes.
Although only the ashes remained, the Zuo family made a coffin for the Zuo family soldiers and held a three-day ceremony. On January 11, they let Zuo Jiabing be buried with dignity.
Zuo Yunfu spent a full 3,000 yuan on funeral expenses for Zuo Jiabing, although it meant that he sacrificed a life. Zuo Yunfu said that this was to liberate him from the underworld, because he had suffered too much during his lifetime.
He hopes that through this ceremony, Zuo Jiabing can live a better life in another world.
On the day Zuo Jiabing's body was found by the police, the tragedy quickly aroused widespread concern in society. Some self-righteous "sober people" criticized Li Shaowei for his lack of modern civilization literacy, and even compared him to "rotten wood that cannot be carved."
However, more people are deeply sympathetic to the plight of Li Shaowei and Zuo Jiabing, believing that Li Shaowei embodies traditional Chinese virtues. They called him "the first person to move China in 2005" and "the last and most simple farmer in China after entering the 21st century".
Director Zhang Yang found that it is rare for a person in modern society to insist on carrying corpses for thousands of miles and returning to his roots. He felt pure humanity from Li Shaowei and thought that this was an excellent road movie material.
So, he created a movie script "Falling Leaves" based on Li Shaowei's story. However, when the script was handed over to the first leading actor Zhao Benshan for review, he suggested that it be renamed "Falling Leaves Return to the Roots".
The film was released during the Chinese New Year in 2007. The reporter interviewed Li Shaowei during the Spring Festival to understand his current situation. At that time, after his story was ***, someone was willing to offer him a job, and someone was willing to send him to a nursing home.
But Li Shaowei still decided to return to his hometown of Hengyang. He only has one friend from Zuo Jiabing, and he plans to chat with an old friend to relieve his boredom when he has time. However, when he returned to his hometown, he could never find the grave of Zuo Jiabing.
Whether it is Zuo Jiabing's relatives or neighbors, they are unwilling to lead the way for him, because they have a grudge against Li Shaowei, and it can even be said that they "hate it to the bone".
In the Zuo family's view, they only received 3,000 yuan in compensation, believing that Li Shaowei was responsible for it. They believe that the person was brought by him, and that after the person dies, he should not go home with the body, but should stay on the construction site and fight for the responsibility of the construction party with them.
Li Shaowei felt very wronged by this: "Since the labor contract was taken away by the contractor, there is no contract now, how can you claim compensation from the boss?" Do you want to go to a lawsuit again? ”
His explanation was not understood by many people, and some even doubted whether Li Shaowei had received the benefits of his boss and did not need to compensate for carrying the body home. Li Shaowei, who has always been bad at words, became angry directly after hearing these questions: "I can swear in front of God that I didn't cheat Zuo Jiabing's money, and if I deceived him, I would rather not die for the New Year." ”
With the intervention of reporters, Li Shaowei finally knew the location of Zuo Jiabing's cemetery.
When he came to the mountain behind Zuo's house with wine, a deep nostalgia for his past interactions with Zuo's soldiers emerged in his heart. "These memories will always be cherished in my heart, but when I'm gone, they'll disappear with me," he said.
These memories will stay with me as long as I live. Although in modern society, it is unimaginable to carry corpses for thousands of miles, but in ancient Hunan, especially in Xiangxi, this phenomenon is not uncommon, and there are even special "corpse chasers".
One of them sang in front to lead the way, and the other carried the corpse on his back and embarked on the difficult ...... home