"Erniu, I heard you quit the electronics factory in W City and went back to work at some logistics company in Pearl City?"
"So how much do you make a month there? Is it enough to get by?"
Zhang Erniu's head hurt the moment she asked this question.
Third Aunt wasn't a bad person, really, but her mouth never stopped running. She loved showing off her son to anyone who'd listen.
Her son, Zhang Xiaodong, had gone to a vocational college and now worked in sales at a company in the provincial capital. Every time he came home for the holidays, he'd be all decked out, talking with that smug city air about him.
The whole family, really, had this way of acting like they were better than everyone else.
"Not much, just enough to scrape by," Zhang Erniu mumbled, brushing her off.
Third Aunt's ears perked up at that. She spit a sunflower seed shell onto the ground and said, "Oh my, Erniu, it's not that I'm lecturing you, but if you'd worked as hard as Xiaodong and gone to college, you'd be sitting in an air-conditioned office right now. You wouldn't have to do that kind of back-breaking labor."
Zhang Erniu smiled but said nothing.
Third Aunt continued, "Erniu, your logistics company must keep you pretty busy, right?"
"Not too bad. Three shifts, eight hours a day."
"Eight hours?"
Third Aunt was genuinely surprised to hear that.
Everyone from the village who worked outside the city put in twelve or more hours a day, often pulling graveyard shifts.
Erniu only worked eight hours? That couldn't be right.
"So you're just like someone in an office? Do you sit at a desk at the logistics company too?"
"No, I'm a sorter. I move goods."
"Moving goods, but only eight hours? Then how much can you even make? Two thousand?"
"Something like that," Zhang Erniu said casually.
In truth, his base pay plus performance bonuses came to about four thousand a month, with an annual bonus of over ten thousand at year-end. But he didn't want to tell the truth—if he did, Third Aunt would just accuse him of bragging.
After all, in most people's minds, doing manual labor in Pearl City for over four thousand a month, plus some mythical year-end bonus, was simply impossible.
So he didn't bother explaining. Let her guess whatever she wanted.
Once Third Aunt confirmed that Erniu's salary was only around two thousand, maybe less, her sense of superiority shot through the roof. She brought up her precious son again.
"Let me tell you, Xiaodong got promoted last month. He's a sales team leader now, making four to five thousand a month with commission. Just the other day he called and said he wanted to earn more money to take us to the south coast for a trip—said he'd show us old folks the sea and put us up in a fancy hotel."
By this point, the wrinkles on Third Aunt's face were all spread out in a grin.
Zhang Erniu's father, sitting on the doorstep, showed a hint of envy when he heard this. "Xiaodong's really made something of himself. You two are in for a good life."
"You bet we are!"
Third Aunt was on a roll now. "Xiaodong said once he saves up enough to buy a big house in the city, he'll move us in. No more living out here in the countryside."
Zhang Erniu's mother couldn't hold it in anymore. "Alright, enough showing off. That's not even a sure thing yet."
"How is it not sure? My son is filial!"
Zhang Erniu's mother didn't bother arguing. She turned and headed to the kitchen.
Third Aunt redirected her attention to Zhang Erniu. "Erniu, does your company ever organize trips or anything? I hear a lot of big companies have that kind of perk."
Zhang Erniu shook his head. "We're in logistics. Manual labor. No trips or anything like that."
Third Aunt nodded. "Figured as much. Moving goods—having a steady job is plenty, never mind trips. Not like Xiaodong's big company. They organized a two-day employee trip once. Two whole days."
"Erniu, don't mind me saying this, but if you'd studied hard back in the day, you'd be going on company trips too."
"When Xiaodong goes on his next trip, I'll have him take lots of pictures so you can see what good company benefits look like. Open your eyes a bit."
"Yeah, sure, sure," Zhang Erniu said absentmindedly, a strange feeling stirring in his chest.
He thought about his childhood. Back then, his family wasn't just poor—it wasn't that he couldn't study. It was that he'd been a lazy, playful kid who didn't like school. He dropped out after fifth grade.
It wasn't until he followed the villagers into the real world and got knocked around by life that he regretted not taking his studies seriously.
Back then, he'd thought that once he earned enough money working, he'd take his family on a trip, show them the world outside.
But reality had other plans. He'd worked over a decade and never really made anything. Now that he finally had a decent job, he had to save for a house, raise a kid, pay for food and bills—there was never any extra money left.
That dream of taking his parents to see the world stayed buried at the bottom of his heart, surfacing every now and then.
Third Aunt just kept yapping away without pause.
Zhang Erniu couldn't take it anymore. He turned and went inside.
Inside, six-year-old Zhang Xiwa was hunched over the table, drawing.
"Xiwa, what are you drawing?"
"Daddy!"
The little kid looked up, holding up his drawing to show him: "I drew the sea. The teacher said the sea is blue, really really big. Dad, have you ever seen the sea?"
Zhang Erniu shook his head: "Dad... never seen it."
"What about Mom?"
"Mom's never seen it either."
"What about Grandpa?"
"Nope."
"What about Grandma?"
"Nope."
Zhang Xiwa: "Then who in our family has seen the sea?"
Zhang Erniu opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Zhang Xiwa: "When I grow up, I'm going to earn lots and lots of money, and take Dad and Mom, and Grandpa and Grandma, to go see the sea!"
When Zhang Erniu heard that, his nose stung. He reached out and ruffled his son's head: "Alright, then when you grow up and earn money, you take us there."
As he said this, he couldn't help turning his head to look at his parents outside the door, their hair already half white. When he was little, he seemed to have said the same thing to his own parents.
But in the blink of an eye, over a decade had passed—his parents had grown old, and he still hadn't kept that promise.
Just then, the phone in his pocket buzzed.
He pulled it out and saw a text message from a coworker at the logistics center.
[Erniu! Erniu! Have you checked the company intranet? If you haven't, go look now!]
Zhang Erniu saw the message content and was a little confused.
[No, I'm back in my hometown. What's going on?]
[Do you have a computer? If you do, go check it now.]
[I'm in my hometown and there's no internet café. I can't check it.]
The moment he sent that text, the other person quickly replied with a multimedia message.
The resolution was pretty bad, but he could still barely make out the words.
It turned out to be an internal letter issued by the group chairman.
"To All Employees of Wanlonghui: Walking Together in Heart and Mind, Facing the Future Together, Never Letting Any Effort Go Unrewarded!"
Zhang Erniu read it word by word.
The earlier parts about restructuring he didn't quite understand, but the later content he understood all too well.
[The first employee immediate-family travel season of Wanlonghui Group is now open, eligible for fully company-subsidized domestic travel...]
[The entire trip includes five-star hotel accommodation, with professional tour guides and a medical support team...]
[Employees can choose travel routes based on their family's wishes, such as the Imperial Capital Culture Tour, Southern Coastal Tour, BS Province Scenery Tour, and more...]
[For employee children, the company will organize a summer camp program, covering educational visits to the aquarium, zoo, science museum, and outdoor team-building activities...]
[All expenses are covered by the group, without taking up any of the employees' personal benefits quota...]
After reading the content, this tough, rugged man found his hands trembling involuntarily.
From excitement!
He rubbed his eyes hard and read it again.
He wasn't mistaken!
Five-star hotels!
Seven-day domestic trips!
All expenses fully covered by the company!
And the kids' summer camp—aquarium, zoo, science museum, all of it—fully covered too.
After confirming there was no mistake, Zhang Erniu turned abruptly to look at the drawing his son had made.
The sea.
Blue, stretching endlessly to the horizon.
"Dad, what's wrong?"
Zhang Erniu didn't answer his son right away. He read the letter once more.
After confirming it wasn't fake, and that the signature was indeed the chairman's name, Zhang Erniu's eyes went red, as if sand had gotten into them.
He was thirty years old. Although he'd left the province before, he had never once seen the sea.
But at least he still had a chance to go traveling someday.
But his parents—they were nearly sixty, and had barely ever left their village or town.
The farthest they'd ever gone was to the hospital in Mingzhu City to have their legs checked. Their whole lives had been spent working the land.
Once they got even older and their legs gave out, this life might truly just pass them by.
With regrets.
But now, the chairman was suddenly telling them...
The company would take your parents and your kids out to see the world.
That feeling—he couldn't put it into words. He just couldn't quite hold back the tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
