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墨書 Inktalez
As the smoke of the college entrance examination cleared and the results were announced, Peng Fei felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. The cruel numbers clearly told him that the gates of high school were firmly closed to him. Faced with the choice of repeating a year, he struggled internally for a long time. Ultimately, looking at his parents' eager yet helpless expressions and recalling how hard it was for his family to support his education, he gritted his teeth and decided not to repeat the year. Instead, he aimed to quickly step into society and find a way out.
His aunt, Huang Ling, was warm-hearted and always concerned about her younger relatives. Seeing that Peng Fei had no school to attend, she became anxious and ran around trying to help him. After much effort and countless favors, she managed to find him a job as a carpenter’s apprentice, hoping he could learn a trade and secure a future for himself. Upon arriving at the woodworking shop, Peng Fei felt both nervous and hopeful. He looked at the various types of wood piled up in the yard and the array of tools hanging on the walls, secretly encouraging himself that he would learn and achieve something great.
However, the carpenter master did not seem kind at all. He was hunched over and thin, with skin as dark as coal. His face was perpetually gloomy, and his eyes glinted with cunning and calculation, resembling a shrewd street vendor. From the very beginning, the master assigned Peng Fei various tasks—sweeping up piles of sawdust in the corners of the workshop, hauling heavy wood back and forth from morning till night. Exhausted to the bone, Peng Fei bore it all without complaint, viewing it as a necessary trial for entering the trade.
As time went on, the master’s harsh treatment escalated. Every day at dawn, just as the sky began to lighten, he would shout for Peng Fei to wake up and start working, only stopping when the moon hung high in the sky and silence enveloped the night. If there was even a moment's pause or if Peng Fei's work did not meet his expectations, he would unleash a barrage of insults—calling him lazy and lacking awareness—words raining down like gunfire. When it came time to teach woodworking skills at crucial points, the master would always make excuses or offer only superficial lessons, claiming that Peng Fei was not skilled enough in basic tasks to learn finer techniques.
The issue of wages became another area where the master exploited Peng Fei mercilessly. Throughout three months, every time Peng Fei brought up payment, the master would change the subject or say that his work wasn’t worth paying for yet since he was still an apprentice who needed to pay tuition fees. He treated Peng Fei like free labor that could be commanded at will. Once, while working on furniture for a family under the scorching sun, Peng Fei carried heavy wood up and down stairs dozens of times until his shoulders were raw and bleeding from friction; sweat soaked through him painfully. When he returned to the workshop that evening and mustered up the courage to ask about his wages, the master instantly turned hostile. With wide eyes filled with fury, he shouted: “You little brat! You’ve eaten my food and lived under my roof for three months while doing shoddy work! And you dare ask me for money? It’s already good luck I haven’t charged you for damages!” Feeling wronged, tears welled up in Peng Fei's eyes but he found no words to defend himself; the master's unreasonable demeanor left him utterly disheartened.
After enduring three months of such hardship, Peng Fei realized that staying any longer would be futile; there was no future here. Finally, one early morning as dawn broke softly on the horizon, he packed a simple bag and left the woodworking shop without looking back, casting aside those dark days.
In times of despair, help came unexpectedly from Uncle Qian, who had found success in the passenger transport industry. Knowing about Peng Fei's situation and seeing his earnestness and hard work ethic, Uncle Qian connected him with an opportunity at a passenger transport company. When he first entered this new field, faced with massive buses and complex control panels, Peng Fei felt nervous beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he didn’t know where to place his hands or feet. However, deep down he possessed an indomitable spirit; he humbly sought advice from experienced colleagues and diligently studied operation manuals day and night. During breaks, he practiced starting up, stopping, and shifting gears repeatedly until he finally mastered driving skills and became a qualified bus driver.
Once settled in his job, Peng Fei's longing for friendship grew stronger. He often thought about his close friends far away in Shanghai—Zhuang Tunan and Lin Dongzhe—and so during every holiday or day off, he would meticulously clean his bus until it shone brightly while checking all safety features before eagerly driving off to Shanghai.
Having just arrived from Suzhou, as soon as he entered Zhuang Tunan's dormitory, he tossed off his jacket and flopped onto a bed exclaiming: “Finally made it! The traffic was terrible; I thought I’d suffocate!”
Zhuang Tunan looked up from his book, adjusted his glasses with a smile and teased: “You busy man! Finally decided to come see us!” He tossed over a bag of snacks.
Lin Dongzhe also came over from a corner, throwing an arm around Peng Fei's neck excitedly: “Come on! Tell us what’s new in Suzhou! I’m so bored I could die waiting for your stories!”
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