Watching the strangers gradually disperse, she sighed and smiled bitterly: Why do you live so hard?

"Brother, who doesn't live hard in BJ? You can't stand it after only an hour of commuting? I have to take two and a half hours each way every day, I worked overtime at the unit until one o'clock last night, and I got home at half past three to have a meeting at nine o'clock, what can I say? As the subway arrived at the station, a big brother suddenly squeezed next to her, who was talking with his mobile phone and hurrying away.

The coincidental answer of the passer-by once again comforted Zhang Xianxian, it turned out that everyone was a person who slept for three hours a night, no wonder they met in the subway station, isn't this the legendary fate? Because three hours was also Zhang Xian's sleep time last night.

Last night, my father vomited and diarrhea so much that the family didn't rest until 1:30 a.m. As a result, at 3:20 in the middle of the night, my father's attending doctor in the hospital hurriedly called. Tell Zhang Xianxian that at half past eleven this morning, a patient will be discharged from the internal medicine department of the inpatient department, and a bed can be vacated.

In this way, my father was finally able to go to the internal medicine department for hospitalization and surgery as soon as possible, instead of continuing to be treated in the radiology department first. There is a constant shortage of beds in the inpatient department, and if a patient is late the next day, the bed may be allocated to another patient who is in a hurry.

In the hard-to-find BJ authoritative tertiary hospital, this hospitalization news is the good news that she begged her grandfather and grandmother everywhere and waited for ten days. Therefore, she was carried away by the excitement, and immediately sent WeChat to the leader to apply for leave.

As a result, until 8:09 in the morning, Zhang Xianxian still did not receive a WeChat reply from the leader. According to the experience of getting along with the leader in the past few years, she knows that she has no sense of existence and continues to ask for leave, but she is no longer read back by the other party.

The shame of being looked down upon, the anxiety of taking leave in a row, and the uneasiness of being disgusted by the leader, made me still insist on checking my phone with difficulty in the crowded morning rush hour, trying to wait for a miracle that would never happen.

Until 8:29:42, Zhang Xianxian was still standing in front of the credit card machine at the door of the unit, and he still did not receive a reply from the leader in the WeChat on his mobile phone. Remembering the last time I asked the leader for leave this month, he asked the question: Are you eligible for so much leave?

Standing at the door of the unit, she felt that the soles of her feet were a little weak when she thought of this problem, and her anxiety became more and more intense. From a severe stomach ulcer to a diagnosis of stomach cancer, and then to hospitalization for surgery, Zhang Xianxian, as the only daughter in the family, has indeed used up all the leave that the unit can take every month.

Every time she asked for leave, it became the last thing she wanted to face, and it felt like waiting to be executed, but she had no choice.

At that time, parents actively responded to the family planning policy called for by the state, not only marrying late and having children later, but also having only one child. Today, my mother is 68 years old and my father is 73 years old, and both of them are not in good health, and they can't do without someone to take care of them, especially their sick father.

Zhang Xianxian's parents are ordinary retired workers, with some pensions, and originally had a little savings. Six years ago, when she first came to BJ to work hard, they tried their best to buy a suite for their daughter, like all parents who want their children to live better.

So, the old couple smashed the pot and sold iron stickers to make up for everything, not only sold the housing in their hometown and everything that could be sold, but also took out all their coffins and pensions to provide for their daughter. The house represents home, which is the most important thing for Chinese, and it seems that people with a house can have roots. Therefore, under the dedication of her parents, Zhang Xianxian, an ordinary person, actually bought a small house on the edge of the fifth ring road in BJ, where the house price is unlimited.

This small house is a new house in 1996, and the area is said to be 54 square meters, but after removing the shared area, the real usable area is only 36 square meters, and it is a set of one bedroom and one living room facing southwest. The location of the house is an hour and a half away from her unit, and it takes nine bus stops and one subway ride to get there. If it weren't for the fact that the transportation in the community is not very convenient, and the location is on the edge of the Fifth Ring Road, her family would not have been able to afford it.

The three of them are crammed into this small house, with parents living in the bedroom inside, and Zhang Xian living in the living room outside, with little room for movement. But the family is very satisfied with this, after all, compared to many Beipiao who need to rent and move constantly, it is already a very happy thing to have a house to live their own life in this strange and cruel city.

Before her father got sick, Zhang Xianxian still didn't understand her parents' obsession with buying a house, but now looking at her sick father, she suddenly understood the meaning of having a house to have a home. This small house gave his father a place to stay for medical treatment, no matter how his illness tossed his body, no landlord would dislike him and drive him away.

However, another cruel survival problem is in front of us, that is, it costs money to treat diseases, even if my father has social security, there are still many medicines and treatments that cannot be reimbursed and need to be paid out of pocket. Buying a house, she has long emptied the old bottom of the family, and she has not saved any money at all after graduating over the years, even if she is usually very frugal and simple.

The only 40,000 yuan fixed passbook left in the family is the last coffin book of her parents, which was also taken out by her mother today to pay her father's hospitalization fees. The resident nanny costs 5,200 a month, Zhang Xianxian's salary is only 7,100, plus his parents' pension, and then throwing away the necessary options such as paying off the mortgage, daily food and drink, etc., he can barely leave 2,000 yuan per month.

2,000 yuan per month is a drop in the bucket for families with stomach cancer, and it cannot solve the actual problem at all. If she loses her job again, how will she pay her father's hospital bills? The relationship between making money, taking care of the elderly, and working suddenly became an endless loop, and Zhang Xianxian still couldn't find a solution.

"Girl, it's 8:30, let's go in, the gate is closing!" The security guard's reminder brought her back to her senses.

"Oh, okay, thank you, uncle!"

She walked briskly towards the company's office building, but her empty stomach "gurgled" at an inopportune time, and the sound was particularly harsh in the silent corridor. The company's canteen will close at 8:30 p.m., because the company has a reputation for not encouraging everyone to work overtime and to get to and from work on time, but in fact, it is to avoid overtime pay and overtime benefits. The canteen closes after half past eight every day, which can reduce the company's expenses, and when the KPI is pressed down like a mountain, it is still common to work overtime all night.

It just didn't care about that, it still gurgled and reminded her that it was time to eat after an hour and a half of commuting. Zhang Xianxian rummaged through the bag, trying to find a little snack, but unexpectedly saw that the big red wooden coffin that had been thrown away last night had reappeared at the bottom of the bag.