The sun slowly rose in the Guangdong province of China.
In a complex of abandoned apartments scheduled for
demolition an alarm was ringing at 6:00 am in the morning.
The sound was coming from an almost broken down apartment, a
door you couldn't close properly no matter how hard you pushed, with a chair
behind it in a 45 degree angle acting as a lock for the door.
The apartment was medium sized, around 80 s.m. yet it was
almost empty inside. A bed mattress was in the middle of the living room along
with a small sized table with an alarm clock on it. On the side of the room
were 10 big water bottles along with some packs of instant noodles.
A body could be seen moving under the blanket that was
covering the mattress, reaching for the alarm clock on the table.
''Ugh'' that person groaned after he tapped the alarm clock
once.
A malnourished body revealed itself from underneath the
blanket as it slowly rose from the bed.
A young man seemingly around 16-17 years old rose from the
mattress as he walked towards the bathroom. The water was cut off since the
apartment was abandoned so the young man couldn't even take a shower in the
morning. He grabbed a half empty bottle of water from the table with the alarm
clock on it, and used it along with his toothbrush to wash his teeth and when
he finished, he then gulped down the rest of the water from the bottle. Then he
grabbed his work clothes from the table and put them on as he left the
apartment.
It was around a 20 minute walk from the apartment complex
until he reached a huge construction site with a lot of warning signs of:
''Danger'' and ''Work in progress''.
As soon as he walked towards an 8 story half-finished
building, the young man heard a voice from behind him shouting ''ay Rock''. The
voice belonged to a 45 year old man.
''Good morning uncle'' said Rock.
Of course Rock wasn't his real name, but a nickname given to
him by the people working in the construction site with him as he didn't like
to talk that much. Rock didn't have a real name from his parents, he was an
orphan, and he grew up in a house complex owned by the government for orphaned
children. The government send food to those houses once a week but it wasn't
enough for the kids there to feed themselves. The orphanages were all full and
that's why the government created these houses and sent food to the children
but a lot of them still died due to hunger or illnesses as there was no one to
take care of them even when they were ill. Rock stayed there until he was 12.
He could fight the other children for the food, but even then it was not enough
to feed himself so he decided to leave.
He attended junior high-school in a public school not far
away from the house he lives. It was school in the morning and construction
work in the afternoon.
Usually people in the construction sites didn't allow kids
at work, considering it was illegal but due to the low wages, few people went
to work at those construction sites, and since lower manpower equaled slow
production, the construction manager accepted even a kid like Rock with skinny
arms and legs, and allowed him to work there, for a pitiful amount of money as
his wage of course. Rock wasn't dissatisfied, as he would finally have enough
money every month to feed himself at least.
This situation occurred until Rock graduated from
high-school but he never stopped working at the construction sites as that was
his only way of income.
It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel aggrieved. Even
working for his food in construction sites without proper security measures was
considered normal to him nowadays but he still hoped deep inside that his luck
would change one day and his life would take a turn for the better.
For the past half a year that Rock has been working on this
construction site, this ''uncle'' has taken care of him plenty of times, either
by sharing with him food or drinks, or taking care of helping him during work
when needed.
Needless to say that rock felt extremely thankful to this
man and he also helped him during work whenever possible as well.
''Haa kid.. i knew you wouldn't bring breakfast with you
again. My wife gave me extra again today so let's share it together.'' as soon
as he finished his sentence he grabbed a plastic bag and took out 2 big water
bottles along with 2 sandwiches and 4 rice balls. He split them at 2 portions
and gave one to Rock.
The man knew Rock wasn't one to accept charity so easily so
he said ''Hey kid we have to eat up to start working, you still need to take
care of me as this job is really dangerous so eat up.''
Rock still didn't respond, until the man spoke again and
said: ''You will treat me to drink again when you get your wage okay kid? Let's
eat!'' then without even looking at Rock again, the man started eating the
food.
Rock didn't say anything but he also started eating, keeping
this gesture of this man deep inside his heart.