Chapter 1: The Sky Falls
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The scorching sun hung high in the sky in the blazing month of May.
In Qingzhou City, at the Wanfuxie Stone Quarry.
“Jiang Cheng, if you don’t move all these hundred-plus raw stones into the warehouse today, not missing a single piece, I’ll blind your other eye too!”
“And you all, if anyone dares to help Jiang Cheng, forget about your salary this month!”
Zheng Wanfux spat contemptuously and glared fiercely at the gathered workers. The fat on his face twisted into a grimace as he cursed and stormed into the raw stone warehouse.
Jiang Cheng touched the medical gauze soaked with sweat over his right eye and glanced at the enraged boss Zheng Wanfux who was leaving. Gritting his teeth hard, he wiped the sweat from his brow, lowered his head, squatted down, and silently hoisted a raw stone weighing over thirty kilograms. Limping, he made his way toward the warehouse.
“These hundred-plus raw stones, some weighing over ten kilograms, some as much as fifty or sixty, under this blazing midday sun… If it weren’t for Jiang Cheng, we’d be dead tired by now, haha…”
“Haha, the boss is way too harsh. How about we get him a little cart?”
“Are you out of your mind? Can’t you see the boss is deliberately making things hard for him? I advise you to mind your own business…”
“Sigh! Jiang Cheng’s really got bad luck. After the accident, not only was his newly bought pickup truck wrecked, but he also lost sight in one eye because of the shattered glass. His little sister is still studying and is about to take the college entrance exam. If he loses his job now, how will they live in the future?”
“Hmph! He deserves to lose an eye! He crashed the truck into the guardrail and flipped it over. The boss’s dozen or so raw stones were either shattered or cracked. The boss just kicked him out and didn’t even make him pay for it. And this blind cripple still has the nerve to stick around here. I’ve never seen such shamelessness!”
“But those dozen or so stones were worthless scrap, right? And all of them were cheap stuff bought at a thousand yuan each. Jiang Cheng is blind in one eye; shouldn’t that cancel everything out?”
“Scrap or not, wasn’t it bought with money? Over ten thousand yuan isn’t small change!”
...
After Zheng Wanfux left, a few workers at the quarry sat in the shade, eating ice cream and fanning themselves leisurely, watching Jiang Cheng sweat like rain.
They pointed and whispered, laughing and joking.
Like watching a clown show.
Listening to their gloating mockery, a sudden wave of sorrow surged up in Jiang Cheng’s heart.
They were all people grinding in the lowest rungs of society, biting their teeth to persist for a few meager coins.
Why must they, when others are down and out, assume the role of “superiors,” putting on airs of pity and taking pleasure in others’ misfortune?
Is this the only way to affirm their tiny sense of superiority?
All are laborers, faces turned to the soil, backs to the sky, digging out their livelihood with their own hands. Who among them is noble?
Jiang Cheng’s eyes burned as he recalled the night three days ago.
Three nights ago, he was driving his pickup truck loaded with a dozen or so jade raw stones from Ruili to Qingzhou.
Who knew, as the truck just entered Qingzhou’s highway section, a woman in a red dress suddenly darted out in front of the vehicle, as if sprouting from the field itself, startling him.
Everything happened so fast!
The speed was too high, braking was too late; instinctively, Jiang Cheng swerved sharply. The truck skidded and crashed headlong into the guardrail with a loud bang.
The truck flipped, and shards of glass scratched his right eye.
Dazed, he vaguely saw a young woman in a red dress pulling him out of the truck.
Then, he didn’t know what she shoved into his mouth, and everything went black as he lost consciousness.
When he woke up, he was already in the hospital!
Boss Zheng Wanfux stood by his bedside, glaring at him fiercely as if ready to devour him.
Only then did he learn that the truck had flipped and the entire load of raw stones was destroyed.
Though his body wasn’t badly injured, his right eye was scratched by glass shards and blinded.
His pickup truck, bought with his savings, was wrecked.
The stones ruined, Zheng Wanfux told him not to come back and fired him!
One disaster after another pressed down on Jiang Cheng like a mountain.
In that moment, he felt as if the whole sky had collapsed.
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He was an orphan, taken in by the Jiang family since childhood, and had a younger sister with no blood relation.
In his senior year of high school, his foster father had an accident and didn’t survive.
His foster mother fell into despair and passed away shortly after.
At the time, Jiang Cheng was preparing for the college entrance exam. With the family struck by tragedy, he had to choose between life and studies.
For the sake of life and caring for his sister, he resolutely dropped out and worked as a laborer at Wanfuxie Stone Quarry in Qingzhou.
Later, after saving some money, he got his driver’s license and bought a used pickup truck, dedicating himself to transporting raw stones for the quarry.
He had been doing this for over four years.
Life was supposed to improve gradually, but who would have thought that after the accident, his pickup was wrecked, the entire load of raw stones destroyed, and he lost vision in one eye, becoming disabled and kicked out by the boss.
His sister Jiang Ling was about to face the college entrance exam in a month. At such a critical juncture, if he lost his job and income, what would become of her?
No matter how much he suffered, it didn’t matter. He could never let his sister follow in his footsteps, never allow her to give up her studies because of poverty.
After lying in the hospital for two days, ignoring the doctor’s advice, Jiang Cheng resolutely returned to Wanfuxie Stone Quarry.
He wanted to plead with boss Zheng Wanfux, begging not to be fired; he couldn’t be without this job.
More than that, he wanted to prove that even with one blind eye, he was not useless. He could still earn money with his hands.
Zheng Wanfux promised that if he moved all the hundred-plus raw stones by himself, the debt would be forgiven, and he could return to work.
Jiang Cheng agreed without hesitation.
Thus began the opening scene.
Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth tightly, sweat streaming down his face in rivulets, his clothes soaked through. His limbs trembled with fatigue and pain, but he didn’t care.
He couldn’t lose this job.
He had to stay.
He was not a cripple.
Several hours later, when the last raw stone was safely placed on the warehouse shelf, Jiang Cheng could no longer hold on and fainted.
When he woke again, he found himself back in the hospital, with a young man in his twenties standing nearby.
It was his good friend Qin Xiaoshu.
Just as he was about to speak, the hospital room door was slammed open.
Zheng Wanfux entered, carrying a black leather bag, wearing a heavy gold chain, and dressed in fine clothes.
“Well! Still alive, huh!” Zheng Wanfux’s eyes flashed with mockery.
He pulled two red bills from his bag and tossed them carelessly onto Jiang Cheng’s face like trash.
Sneering, he said, “Jiang Cheng, don’t say I’m not fair. Here’s two hundred yuan for you. Your debt for wrecking one batch of my raw stones is cleared. You don’t have to come back here anymore!”
Jiang Cheng immediately grew anxious.
“Boss Zheng, didn’t we agree? If I moved all a hundred stones, you’d let me return to work. How can you go back on your word?”
Zheng Wanfux touched his ear, smirked playfully, and said, “Did I ever say that?”
“You! You’re playing me!”
Only then did Jiang Cheng realize that Zheng Wanfux’s promise to let him return was a cruel joke.
Jiang Cheng clenched his fists so hard his whole body trembled.
“Chengzi, why are you so stupid? That bastard’s just playing you!” Qin Xiaoshu glared furiously at Zheng Wanfux.
“You moved over a hundred stones and passed out from exhaustion. When I got here, he just threw you on the ground and ignored you. If I hadn’t called the ambulance, who knows what would’ve happened!”
Hearing this, the fury inside Jiang Cheng surged like a raging river.
He had strived alone to move over a hundred stones, collapsing from exhaustion. No matter how painful, he endured because he didn’t want to lose his job.
All for that one promise from Zheng Wanfux.
Just to prove that even with one blind eye, he was not useless.
But this simple hope was ruthlessly trampled and toyed with by the boss.
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He almost grabbed the fruit knife on the table, wishing to stab that bastard Zheng Wanfux.
But thinking of his sister Jiang Ling, he held back.
He could settle scores with Zheng Wanfux, but what about Jiang Ling?
With their parents gone one after another, she had only him left as family. How could he bear to leave her alone in this world?
Qin Xiaoshu’s words seemed to darken Zheng Wanfux’s face in an instant. He roared, “Hah! You’ve got the nerve to say that? That bastard wrecked my entire truckload of raw stones, broken and shattered, causing me a loss of over a hundred thousand yuan. I’m being lenient not killing him, and he wants to go back to work? Dream on!”
“Over a hundred thousand?” Qin Xiaoshu’s anger flared up. “Zheng Wanfux, don’t think I don’t know. Those ten-plus stones were bought for only a thousand yuan each, and the broken and cracked ones aren’t even worth processing. Even amateurs know it’s all scrap! Jiang Cheng had a work accident delivering stones for you. Does losing one eye really compensate for a dozen worthless scraps? Do you have any conscience?”
Zheng Wanfux sneered mockingly, “What? Didn’t I pay for the scrap? If those stones weren’t cracked, I could’ve ripped off others for over a hundred thousand. I’m already being generous not making that bastard pay. And he still wants to go back to work? Hah! Besides, did I sign a labor contract with him? His blind eye is none of my business. He’s a cripple now. What am I supposed to do, take him in? Do you think Wanfuxie Stone Quarry is a garbage dump for all kinds of trash?”
Qin Xiaoshu ground his teeth so hard his knuckles cracked. He cursed, “Bastard! Jiang Cheng is your worker. He had an accident, and you just wash your hands of it? Are you even human?”
Zheng Wanfux gave a cold laugh, “Whether I’m human or not is none of your business. Jiang Cheng, from now on, you have nothing to do with Wanfuxie Stone Quarry. If you dare come looking for trouble again, I’ll blind your other eye!”
With that, Zheng Wanfux swaggered out without a backward glance.
“Damn it! I’ll kill him!” Qin Xiaoshu grabbed the fruit knife and rolled up his sleeves, ready to chase after him.
Jiang Cheng hurriedly grabbed Qin Xiaoshu’s arm, “Forget it, Xiaoshu. That kind of person isn’t worth you getting involved.”
Thinking of those dozen worthless stones equating to his lost eye, Jiang Cheng’s heart bled.
If he could choose, he’d rather pay tens of thousands than become blind.
Qin Xiaoshu sighed deeply and was silent for a long while, then forced a smile and said, “Chengzi, don’t worry. Focus on healing. Maybe your eye will get better. If it doesn’t and you can’t find work, I’ll support you!”
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng couldn’t hold back tears anymore and hugged Qin Xiaoshu tightly.
After seeing Qin Xiaoshu off, Jiang Cheng lay on the hospital bed, unable to sleep.
Zheng Wanfux’s word “cripple” pierced his heart deeply, bleeding profusely.
From now on, was his right eye really blind?
Bitterness filled his heart…
He couldn’t understand why heaven always singled out the unfortunate to torment.
In the middle of the night, half asleep, his right eye suddenly itched fiercely.
He jolted awake.
“Doctor! Doctor! My eye itches so badly!”
A young nurse quickly called the on-duty doctor.
The doctor inquired about the symptoms, then carefully removed the gauze from Jiang Cheng’s right eye and examined itI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.