" Being poor " was not a good thing. His father's ancestors were poor, and his mother fell into poverty due to social changes. Their fates were tragic. The sorrow here was not only the physical torture and damage caused by economic poverty, but also the mental torture and damage. It was no exaggeration to say that being 'poor' could brutally pin the poor on the pillar of shame.
Aunt Liu worked as a worker in the leather shoes factory in Qing Dao. The factory had sold leather shoes, but they were returned to the factory due to quality problems. In order to reduce losses, the factory sold the leather shoes returned by customers to the factory workers at a processing price. These shoes had been worn by customers, and the factory priced them according to the degree of wear. Aunt Liu saw that the remaining two pairs of leather shoes were very cheap, so she bought them back, repaired them, and sent them to our house. Aunt Liu estimated that we boys could make do with them.
Mother saw that the style of leather shoes sent by Aunt Liu was for adults and not suitable for children like us, so she asked Father to try it on and see if it was suitable. Father was not tall, so his feet were naturally not big.(When I was in the sixth grade, I already wore size 38 shoes, the same size as dad's shoes). Dad tried it and it worked. Mom let Dad wear these two pairs of leather shoes. Although Dad had worn industrial boots after coming to the mine, he had never worn formal ones.(Black) leather shoes. Father wore leather shoes and walked around the house. He didn't have the courage to go out of the house. Mother saw that after Father put on leather shoes, he seemed to be much more energetic and didn't look so rustic anymore. She encouraged Father to wear it to work. Father actually liked it very much. He just felt that such western-style leather shoes were not qualified for people like him to wear, so he felt awkward. In that era, leather shoes were not something that ordinary people could afford. A pair of leather shoes cost more than 100 yuan. Even with a few months of salary, his father could not afford a pair. Therefore, it was almost impossible to see working families, and even ordinary cadre families wearing leather shoes.
His father's appearance in the workshop wearing black leather shoes had become the biggest news in the mine. It was no less than the explosion of an atomic bomb in China. People were shocked. They could not believe that such a western-style thing, such a luxurious thing, something that only the mine manager was fit to wear, was actually worn on the feet of Old Cow, the poorest and most rustic blacksmith in the mine?
Even those who usually did not look at their father widened their eyes at the leather shoes on his feet. They had to re-examine this dark, short, and stubborn old blacksmith, as if asking," Has the sun risen from the west? Why did Old Bull also have leather shoes to wear? Why did Old Bull dare to wear leather shoes?”。
"Where did Old Bull's leather shoes come from?”It became the thing that people wanted to know the most. Someone directly asked," Master Niu, did you buy leather shoes to wear?”"What are you talking about? Do you think I can afford leather shoes?”"You're already wearing it, yet you still say you can't afford it. If you didn't buy it, where did it come from?”" The child's aunt gave it to him." " No, her aunt is a worker in a leather shoe factory."" Even a worker in a leather shoe factory has to be rich to be able to afford leather shoes. Leather shoes cost more than 100 yuan per pair. How could she pick them up for free?”Father also said that it was too unclear. When Aunt Six sent the shoes, she did not mention how the leather shoes came about. In the past, there had never been so many people who cared about him, and there had never been so many people who talked to him. A pair of leather shoes had changed all of that. In the past half a month, his father had patiently explained over and over again that the leather shoes were " sent by the child's aunt " and " the child's aunt works in the leather shoe factory." It was just like how Aunt Xianglin in Lu Xun's " Blessing " told passersby over and over again," I'm so silly. I didn't know there were wolves in spring..." It was the same.
In fact, his father liked leather shoes. He liked wearing leather shoes even more, which made him get so much attention. And the leather shoes were " sent by the child's aunt ", which made him have the same words as others. For more than ten days, his father wore the two pairs of leather shoes sent by Aunt Liu every day. They were two pairs of leather shoes of different styles. His father changed them. He took off one pair to dry and changed into another pair. It was obvious that not only rich people could get happiness from enjoying good things. Similarly, poor people could also get happiness from it. Moreover, they might get happiness several times, ten times, or even dozens of times more than rich people. I didn't want to laugh at my father. I had experienced this before. When my aunt took me to the mine manager, the mine manager gave me a piece of steamed bread. I really couldn't bear to eat it. If that piece of steamed bread was something that couldn't be put away, I would rather starve and worship that piece of steamed bread as a gift from God. I would always say," This is from the mine manager, from the mine manager..."
What happened next caused his father to fall back to the ground from the clouds in the nine heavens, and even smashed a small pit in the ground. At the end of the month, when his father received his salary, he found that he did not add ten yuan of living allowance to the salary of the families of the extremely poor workers as usual. His father thought that he had missed it, so he asked. The clerk said that he did not know what was going on. It was the section chief who told him to stop paying and asked his father to ask the section chief.
When the Section Chief saw that his father had come to look for him, he did not say anything. Instead, he looked at his father's leather shoes. His father did not know what the Section Chief meant. He looked at the Section Chief and did not know how to ask. The section chief said," Old Bull, there are many families that are more difficult than you. The special hardship allowance is limited. You have to help those who are more difficult than you first. Otherwise, they will raise opinions to the mine leaders and say that the mine leaders are unfair. Your family situation is better than theirs. Look, your sister-in-law is a senior official in the provincial capital. There is also an sister-in-law in Qingdao who sends you leather shoes. How many families in the mine can afford to wear such expensive leather shoes? Therefore, please understand the difficulties of the leader. Don't fight for the hardship allowance anymore.”
The Section Chief's words made his father tongue-tied. He almost couldn't breathe. He immediately took off his leather shoes, threw them on the ground, and walked away barefoot. Later, I found out that it wasn't the leaders who wanted to cancel my family's special hardship allowance, but those poor workers who were similar to us couldn't tolerate Dad, a poor ghost, wearing leather shoes and looking smug. They encouraged the mine to cancel Dad's relief fund behind his back. They wanted to make Dad look bad so that they could vent their anger. Sigh, poor, so petty and pitiful.
His father was really not good at arguing for himself. He did not receive any relief money for three months. His mother knew that his father was not good at asking for help, so she went to the Section Chief on his behalf to explain the situation. When the Section Chief saw his mother coming, he told the truth,"Tell Old Bull not to wear leather shoes anymore (I threw a pair at the Section Chief's place before, and there's another pair at home. Father is still wearing leather shoes). Our family is so poor, why must we wear leather shoes?" "How could the leaders not know that your family is in a difficult situation? But some employees said that you can afford leather shoes that cost more than 100 yuan, but you still have to eat relief. The leaders are also in a difficult position." His mother nodded in agreement. The section chief added,"Alright, go back and tell Old Bull not to wear leather shoes anymore. As for the relief money, I'll make it up to you next month. Forget about the past."
His father no longer wore leather shoes. He was on charity, so leather shoes were not something he could wear casually. Father also understood that it was fine to not wear leather shoes, but losing ten yuan a month was a huge matter for the whole family. He used the mining boots that he had picked up from scrap picking, worn out uppers, or worn out soles. Using the skill of making small oil lamps, he removed the unworn uppers and nailed them to the unworn soles. Then, he made boots again. It looked as if they had been dug out from a thousand-year-old tomb. Wearing them on his feet, it was as funny as Chaplin's acting. Perhaps, his father only deserved to wear such " leather shoes " because this was in line with his identity as a charity worker. The impression of his father being " poor " had been carved into the bones of the people around him. His father could not change it, and the people around him did not allow him to change it.
His father returned to his original appearance in the workshop. His feet were no longer wearing the black leather shoes that were eye-catching to the people around him. Naturally, no one asked him where the leather shoes came from. His father did not have to explain how the leather shoes came about again and again. He also did not have the chance to say that the child's aunt sent them.
No one asked him why he was no longer wearing it, nor did anyone ask him where the black leather shoes that were meant for the officers had gone. This was because everyone knew that the reason why Old Cow was no longer wearing black leather shoes was because they had put some effort behind his back. At this moment, the people around him calmed down, as if they were saying to their father,"Oh, that's right. Old Bull should be like this. In the past, everyone understood your family's difficulties very well. Didn't everyone object to eating relief food? It was all because you, Old Bull, got carried away by eating relief food and actually dared to wear black leather shoes, causing everyone to be unhappy. Old Bull, you have to seriously sum up your lesson. It's not good to be like this in the future!”
His father raised his hand, and the hammer smashed a small pit on the ground beside the blacksmith furnace.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。