24 City Page #3

when I didn't do my best?"

Director Cao said: "Never."

In fact, nobody was in the wrong.

Nobody had come to work late

or not given their best.

Director Cao said I'd never failed at my job.

And I'd never come in late,

never made a mistake.

But they simply didn't need

so many people.

There was less work.

They were earning less money.

They couldn't support everyone.

They gave us all a small pay-off.

So we went home. As for the dinner...

We cried. Some of us didn't eat at all.

I ate just to encourage the others.

I was just pretending,

urging the other to tuck in.

That's what I did.

We call that "smiling through your tears".

That's what I did.

I kept telling them: "Why cry?

"Let's eat!"

In 1994, I was 41 years old.

I'd left school at middle school.

A 41-year-old woman.

My kid was in the sixth grade.

I had to pay his tuition fees

and feed three people.

I had just about...

When I went out job-hunting,

I put up a motto on the wall.

It read like this:

"Come rain, come shine,

I must go forward."

I went out looking for a job every day.

Always had my motto in mind.

Anyhow, I went out looking for work.

I tried all over Chengdu.

Again and again.

I tried at the Job Center.

In Chengdu City, there's a Job Center

in the Workers' Cultural Palace.

You sign up there.

You look everywhere, you ask friends...

Maybe an old friend has work for you.

It's so hard, really not easy to find a job.

I couldn't find one

so I tried selling on the street.

What did I sell?

I sold yellow michelia flowers.

You can wear them in your buttonhole.

I sold that.

Early every morning,

I bought them at Qingshi Bridge.

I set up on Dongfeng Road

by a little tree. I had to be discreet.

If the cops or the city inspectors saw me,

they would confiscate the flowers.

Later, thanks to some friends...

Yes, thanks to some friends...

I was introduced to other jobs.

Slowly, step by step.

Are you working now?

Nowadays?

I do some sewing at home. I'm retired.

I have a pension, but I still do some sewing.

-You do what?

-I sew.

I sew at home.

Didn't you notice that at my home?

I put up the sign "Sewing" at my window.

I still do a bit of that at home.

Just a little. I like it.

I earn some money

and have something to do.

If you have something to do,

you age more slowly.

If you have something to do,

you age more slowly

I have a date tonight

I will not sleep tonight

When the bell sounds

across space and time

It wakes the new millennium

Come, dear friends

Come, fellow workmates

Regulations for retired persons'

cultural room

WANTED:

Dormitory area in Factory 420

Dali, going out?

Feel better?

Much better.

Dali

Aunty, I'll hang it for you.

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