My upper bunk

One evening in late autumn, Juaner and I boarded the train bound for Nanjing to attend a learning event.

"You are in the lower berth of No. 8, and I am in the upper berth!" In Car No. 12, we took our suitcases and walked through the carriage corridor, looking at the number board in the window, looking for our own berth.

"No. 8! It's here!" When I saw "8", I smiled knowingly, as if it had been waiting for me for a long time.

"Hi! Are you on the lower bunk?" Suddenly, a rich tenor greeted me.

"Yes! I'm on the lower bunk!" I replied, looked up, and was happy! A big man with a black face was standing in the aisle. He weighed about 200 kilograms by visual inspection. He was as fat as a tower. His eyes were round and he looked confused: "Oh! I'm in the middle berth."

I smiled to myself: With your size, sleep on my upper bunk, don’t collapse the bed!

He was a familiar person and very enthusiastic. He helped us stuff our suitcases under the bed, then sat on the bed opposite me and started chatting with me.

The train was speeding forward, and the sky outside the window became dark. He did not speak, but took out a book to read. I glanced at it and saw that the book seemed to be in Tibetan. I was also going to read a book, but I felt a little tired, so I simply turned on my phone and listened to Himalaya's recitation of "The Temple of Earth and Me". Because he didn't wear headphones, he played an external sound. As a result, the sound disturbed him. He raised his head from the book and asked me: "Do you like reading or listening to books?"

"Listening, you can feel the charm of the text and enjoy it, but you can't remember it just by listening. If you want to study, you still have to read paper books. In books, I can highlight the key points, take notes, and write them down." I said.

"However, most people nowadays like to listen to books." He said.

"Listening to books is very convenient and does not require using your brain. It is a kind of shallow reading. If you study, you must read books before you can use what you learn." I said.

"I'm a science student, I don't like learning Chinese, and I can't stand listening to this kind of article!" He curled his lips, and I hurriedly turned off the phone to play.

From this moment on, he opened up his chatterbox, and the words jumped out like beans.

He said: "I graduated from Xi'an Normal University. I am a science major, but my major is history, history! You think it's funny!"

"Science major Study history? "Why?" I am very curious.

"My dad enrolled me in the major. He said that history is a minor field and easy to get a job."

"So you are a history teacher?" I asked.

"Yes, I was a history teacher at first!" "After I graduated, I went to my hometown to teach for a year, and was finally assigned to a middle school. I stayed there for five years. It was too boring to stay in school. Moreover, I was fed up with the life that I could see all the way to the end, so I quit my job and went south to Suzhou, where I am now a migrant worker."

"Working for a foreign company, with an annual salary of more than forty. Ten thousand!”

Tsk! Amazing, talented people can shine wherever they go.

"It's beautiful on the surface, but it's actually very tiring!" He said, his brows dimming, "Do you know how much it costs to buy a house in Suzhou? A 128-square-meter house costs 2.8 million. The down payment is 600,000, and you have to pay off the mortgage for 15 years without food or drink. People nowadays are either house slaves or car slaves. The pressure is too much!”

“That’s too expensive, we don’t even dare to think about it!” !” I said, “But pressure is motivation. If you were asked to return to your hometown, continue teaching, and live a simple life, would you?”

He shook his head without thinking: “No. , I’ve been back home for a few days, it’s so boring!”

“Yes! You are used to a fast-paced life, but you are a little tired.” Found your value."

He nodded.

"Then are you satisfied with your current life?"

His face suddenly became solemn and he said: "Not satisfied! Life is too tiring and stressful. I get up at five o'clock every day and work hard. I have to take the subway, take the bus, spend the whole day in the office, and sometimes go home with clients at two in the morning. You see, I am 35 years old and still single. I have no time to fall in love or get married. There are many people like this around me. But. , Even so, I have to work hard, and only if I work hard enough now can I live the way you want!"

From five o'clock in the morning to the early hours of the night, work is the core of everything, and there is no time for love or marriage! , what kind of life is this? I wonder: Can I do this?

During the conversation, we learned that he is currently an employee of a foreign company. He went to Suzhou. In order to find a good job in a good company, he enrolled in night university at night and learned two foreign languages, Korean and Japanese. Only then did I successfully apply for a job at a foreign company. He said: "If you want to find a good job, your own abilities must be worthy of the job." The book he just read was an Arabic book, and he was studying on his own. I was simply amazed, looking at a string of symbols and words like a book from heaven, how could I learn this! He spread his hands and said: "My work requires it. I will develop in the Middle East in the future. No matter how difficult it is, I have to learn it!"

It was late at night, and my upper bunk was already snoring loudly.

Tonight, I am destined to be sleepless, not because of this snoring. When people are traveling, the outside world is wonderful, but there are also many unknown sorrows behind it. Bing Xin's words resonated loudly: "People can only admire the beauty of a successful flower. At the beginning, its buds were soaked in the tears of struggle and sprinkled with the drizzle of sacrifice." The truth of life: Perhaps the most touching thing is struggle. When you struggle, you are like a matador, not afraid of difficulties and moving forward bravely. Only in the dark night, you can lick your wounds, regain your strength, and continue to challenge tomorrow after tomorrow until you are unable to do anything with your efforts. Because only by working hard enough can you live the way you want; because when you get old one day, at least I will not regret it, because I have struggled.