Twenty years ago, my mother and younger brother were working at a wood factory in Linyi. We hadn't seen each other for many years, so I went to find them. At that time, I bought a ticket in Pingyi and after a bumpy journey, I finally arrived at that private wood factory far from the village.

The boss and his brother both operated wood trucks, but his brother seemed to be more arrogant. After making money, he started messing around with women and eventually, while fooling around in a car with a woman, he accidentally hit and killed an old man. Later, he had to pay a hefty sum, and the factory could only take in some rotten wood, leading to a worsening economic situation.

His brother opened this factory, but it was said that it wasn't going too well. Due to inadequate safety measures, an elderly person got injured, and he also had to pay a lot of money.

When I arrived at the factory, I was assigned to do some physical labor that afternoon. If it were up to me, I would never consider working at such a factory, but since my mother and brother were there, I decided to work temporarily in such a place.

At that time, the person responsible for recording my work period was the boss's wife’s brother. He recorded the dates according to the lunar calendar, while my mother recorded them according to the solar calendar.

After working for a month, I expressed my desire to leave this place and go to Qingdao. They were all afraid to go to Qingdao because they had never been there, but someone had to go first, so I decided to go to Qingdao alone.

At that time, the boss settled my wages, and then the boss's wife’s brother, using his lunar calendar method, claimed that I had only worked for twenty-nine days and insisted that he was not wrong.

I said that I indeed arrived on the sixteenth, and the ticket also showed the sixteenth, but that was the solar calendar, not the lunar calendar. The boss's wife’s brother said that the day I arrived was the lunar sixteenth, which led to a conflict. Although one day's wage wasn't much, it was about fairness and justice.

At that moment, I thought about looking for the ticket, as the date on the ticket couldn't be falsified. As for whether the other party considered the ticket to be solar or lunar, they could just ask at the station.

At that time, my brother was reluctant to search and didn't participate. I searched through my luggage but couldn't find it. Since my brother kept talking to me, we had some disagreements, which made me miss the chance to open the small bag on my luggage, and the ticket happened to be in that small bag.

So I couldn't find the ticket, and they continued to argue about the date. My mother insisted that I arrived on the solar sixteenth, while the boss's brother-in-law insisted that I arrived on the lunar sixteenth.

The reason for this disagreement might be related to the boss's brother-in-law's delayed bookkeeping. When I first arrived, he didn't record it in time and later asked me which day I came. I said the sixteenth, and he recorded it according to the lunar sixteenth.

The boss's brother-in-law even brought up my evidence, saying that your child said he came on the sixteenth.

Oh my God, who would say they came on the lunar sixteenth? It was indeed the sixteenth when I took the bus, but it was the solar calendar.

Later, the boss said to pay me according to my mother's solar calendar record.

However, his brother-in-law and wife were not convinced, believing they were not wrong, and spread rumors among the employees, saying my mother deliberately recorded an extra day's wage to take advantage of them.

In the end, when they paid me, they still used their lunar calendar method and shorted me a day's wage.

My mother said not to dwell on this matter and that I wouldn't work at this factory anymore.

Later, when I returned to my hometown, I wanted to wash this luggage. At that time, I opened the small bag on the luggage and found the ticket. However, by then, everything had already settled, and having this ticket wouldn't allow me to argue the truth with the Linyi wood factory anymore.

At that moment, I felt very desperate and angry. If my brother had believed my mother and not distracted me with conversation, I might have opened that small bag on my luggage. If he had also been indignant, he might have helped me check the luggage again, and perhaps we would have found that ticket. Once that ticket was found, we could use it as evidence to verify whether it was solar or lunar, thus proving my mother was right and that his brother-in-law was mistaken.

At that time, my mother was too focused on being angry and didn't help look for my luggage; they only stayed at the level of argument. Why didn't they all search for this key evidence together?

Only I was doing the right thing, yet I was still distracted and couldn't find it. They even thought I was deliberately hiding the ticket.

So, from that time on, I had a very bad impression of Linyi. They neither had a broad perspective nor took action to seek the truth, but remained in a state of argument and slander.

Later, unless my mother was in Linyi, I had to go there, otherwise, I would never return to work in Linyi again. Later, my father went to work at a ceramic factory in Linyi and was owed over a month's wages, which he seemed to never get back. At that time, I was far away in Guangzhou and couldn't help, which further worsened my impression of Linyi.

Although I am from Linyi, specifically from Pingyi, my impression of these small workshops is no longer good. I remember when I rushed to my mother, she and my brother were working for that man's older brother. After I arrived, my daily work was to go with a group of people to the main road to sun-dry wood rolls, and after drying, we would load them back to the factory for further processing.

Each of us worked very quickly, and I was also very fast. These workers, especially when the boss drove over, would pick up the wood rolls like spinning tops, giving the impression that they were working very hard for the boss.

Once, when we were all desperately picking up wood rolls, my brother said to me, "Go to the small shop by the road and buy me a pack of cigarettes; I'm craving." I kept up with the main group while telling my brother, "Just hold on; the boss is driving nearby; this isn't good."

My brother said, "It's fine; you're just buying me a pack of cigarettes; it won't have any impact."

I had no choice but to quickly run to the small shop by the road to buy my brother a pack of cigarettes and then quickly return to join the work of picking up wood rolls.

Later, the boss became unhappy. He told others that I was slacking off at work, running around and not keeping up with everyone’s pace. But in reality, I hadn't done less work.

I don't know if the boss knew the truth and said that on purpose, or if my brother and others didn't explain the reason for me. Later, perhaps my mother was worried about implicating my brother and didn't dare to tell the truth, so I was deemed to be incapable of working. My mother later blamed me for not being diligent, saying no wonder people didn't want to hire me.

Later, my mother found me another factory, but this boss was even worse, withholding wages for a year, and if someone quit midway, he wouldn't settle the accounts. This is Linyi people, which I cannot understand. Even though I am also from Linyi, I don't think all Linyi people are good; perhaps my fate is not good, and I always encounter such scoundrels.

When I stopped accepting my mother's arrangements, my fate began to change for the better, and I met good Linyi people, like Mr. Leng, who works with pesticides, a sincere and trustworthy person, but that's a story for another time.