Chapter 4

Chapter 4

While Officer Li was ordering takeout, Officer Dong voiced a question. “In your village, do the women not work?”

I nodded.

“That’s right.”

Our county was an impoverished one, and there weren’t many job opportunities to begin with.

That was even truer for the village.

Before Mingshan Mining arrived, both the men and women of the village only knew how to farm.

Once the coal mine opened, they began a massive recruitment drive. Every single man in the village went to work at the mine.

There were even many children who dropped out of school as soon as they turned eighteen to go earn money there.

But Fu Mingshan was a superstitious man; he wouldn’t hire female workers.

His exact words were that women weren’t allowed in the mine because it was bad luck and would surely lead to accidents.

In the entirety of Mingshan Mining, even the people cooking and serving food in the cafeteria were men.

There were several times when my mother wanted to bring my father a meal at the mine, but she was stopped at the main gate.

They wouldn’t let her in, so my father had to come out and get it himself.

That mine was massive. If my father had the time to walk all the way out to the gate, wouldn’t he have had enough time to just eat on his own?

After a few incidents like that, my mother’s cursing of Mingshan Mining grew even harsher.

In those days, there was a strong preference for boys over girls. Forget about job recruitment-any family that gave birth to a girl would be ridiculed by others.

The reason was simple.

In that remote mountain village, if a woman couldn’t work in the mine, she had no way to make money. Without an income, she had to rely on the men in her family to support her, which naturally meant she had no say in anything.

Unless, of course, she could marry someone like my father.

He had seen the world, was educated, and didn’t subscribe to that sexist mentality.

But in all those years, my father was the only city person who had ever settled down in our village.

Therefore, if a family had a baby girl, her fate was almost sealed.

She would have no status and could only clean the house and look after children. If she was unlucky, she might even have to endure beatings and verbal abuse from her husband.

Officer Xiao Li finished ordering the food.

He picked up his pen and paper to resume his notes.

Our conversation returned to the main topic.

My father treated me very well-one could even say he doted on me. Perhaps he wanted to use his love to melt away the grievances I suffered in the village.

He was very busy with work, but every time he finished his shift, he would devote all his time to me.

He played with me, told me stories, and taught me life lessons.

“Dad, do you think I’ll work at the coal mine in the future too?”

He didn’t answer my question directly. Instead, he asked, “Do you like the coal mine?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s dirty.”

He chuckled and cleaned his fingernails, where there was always coal dust that couldn’t be fully scrubbed away.

“It’s a good thing that you like to stay clean. Since you think the coal mine is dirty, don’t work there.”

“Then where else can I go?” I raised my hands in front of my face, loathing the sight of them.

I wished I had a healthy body. I wished I could be like the other kids in the village.

I wanted to be able to run and kick a ball.

I wanted to be able to catch them after they bullied me.

Instead, every time my father bought me a soccer ball, it would be ‘borrowed’ the very next day and never returned.

“Xiao Geng, do you know how to tell the difference between coal and gangue?”

I shook my head.

My father explained, “Coal and gangue look the same, but coal can burn and provide warmth. Gangue cannot.”

“If you want to know which is coal and which is stone, you have to do it yourself. You have to touch them and break them open.”

“Coal is brittle; inside, it’s still coal. Gangue is very hard and won’t break easily. Even if you do break it, the inside is just rough stone.”

“Many truths are buried beneath filth. If you want to understand them, you have to break them open.”

I didn’t understand what he meant by those words.

He saw my confusion and explained in more detail.

“Your future has many possibilities. No one knows exactly what they are. If you want to see them, you have to go looking for them yourself.”

“In the future, you might become a businessman, a writer, or a scientist. But there will definitely be mud along the way. If you’re afraid of getting dirty, you might miss out on something very precious.”