That year I graduated from middle school.

Father and Mother wanted me to continue to high school. My grades were just enough to make the cut, but I absolutely refused to continue studying no matter what.

The five-four system nine-year education was free, but high school cost money.

Our family had no extra money, and I had no more time either. I needed to race against the clock to snatch Liang Wa back from the hands of heaven.

That was the first time I quarreled with Father and Mother.

They were determined to have me attend high school, but I was like a stubborn mule.

Just as they said, everyone has their own fate.

If I had been born into an ordinary family with a healthy brother, I would definitely be willing to continue to high school, but not now.

I also had my own fate, and my fate didn’t allow me to be so willful.

I tore up the high school application form behind my parents’ backs and resolutely chose to go work like the other girls in the village.

I went to look around many places in the city. The work I could find was similar to what was in town. Big companies didn’t want middle school diplomas, and those that wanted middle school diplomas required you to be eighteen years old.

I seemed to be stuck in a very strange gap, unable to grasp the life-saving straws in front of or behind me.

When I was fifteen, a new factory moved to town, a clock factory responsible for making old-fashioned standing clocks.

They happened to start recruiting. The education requirement was only middle school, with no age limit. That was the best job I could find at the time, with a monthly salary of four hundred yuan.

Four hundred yuan, far exceeding Father and Mother’s income from farming.

This might be the benefit that a diploma brings.

The first two years at the clock factory were probably the happiest moments of my life. The assembly line was basically filled with boys and girls about my age, many even from the same school as me.

The girls had idle chatter, the boys had jokes to tell. I was often made to laugh until I doubled over. In the workshop, no one would control your discipline. I could say many, many things.

During the two years at the factory, we assembled the same model of standing clock. My colleagues and I each had our own division of labor. This standing clock was a bit different from ordinary standing clocks—the bottom pendulum wasn’t an ordinary clock pendulum, but rather imitated a temple’s large bell.

Whenever the hour struck, the copper bell below would swing along with it, making “dang dang dang” sounds. It was very pleasant to hear.

And my job was to assemble copper bells every day. Rather than calling them copper bells, they were more like copper chimes. You could gently shake them in your hand. Although I did this work for two years, I always felt that as long as I could hear that tinkling sound, I wouldn’t feel tired.

It was just a pity that I couldn’t bring the copper chimes home for Liang Wa to play with, otherwise Liang Wa would definitely be happy enough to jump up.

My monthly salary was four hundred. The factory provided food and lodging, and I went home once a week. I kept sixty yuan to buy daily necessities and gave the family three hundred and forty yuan. Over a year I could earn over four thousand.

Although every step was very slow, the matter of saving money for Liang Wa also began to have some foundation. At first Father and Mother would still urge me to go to school, but later I passed the age, and they could only let things be.

I could only earn four thousand a year. Father and Mother still had income from farming, and the team leader said I should be able to get a raise next year, so I could earn more each month.

Liang Wa still had a long time before becoming an adult. I might get many more raises, and by then if my parents asked neighbors to lend some money… we could save Liang Wa’s life.

Days can only be called days because there’s hope to look forward to!

I never regretted it. Even if I had the opportunity to attend high school, I still wouldn’t regret it.

Liang Wa was my family, my brother. Even if Father and Mother wanted to give up… I definitely wouldn’t give up.

Later, I met a boy called Mantuan at the factory.

Mantuan was responsible for assembling clock hands on the adjacent assembly line, and his family lived in the neighboring village.

He had large eyes, thick eyebrows, and a long face. I often felt he was as good-looking as the people on television.

Mantuan would often come to the side of the assembly line to talk to me. Many girls in the factory liked him. I was actually a bit afraid of this feeling.

Whenever Mantuan talked to me, I would always feel many pairs of eyes stabbing my back. They wanted to see through me, and also wanted to see through Mantuan.

So I would often intentionally or unintentionally distance myself from him.

But how would seventeen-year-old me know that adolescent girls are mostly like this—they might like the same type of boy.

And Mantuan happened to be that type that would attract people’s affection, but I didn’t dare talk to him.

My family’s situation was already troubling enough. Right now I had no way to consider other matters. At least before Liang Wa had his surgery, I couldn’t consider those things.

But Mantuan was really strange… There were clearly so many girls in the factory who liked him, and they all scrambled to talk to him, yet Mantuan only liked standing next to me.

Although I didn’t know what would happen, I was just afraid.

…

“Sis, what’s wrong with you?”

When I brought my wages home, I was staring blankly out the window, and Liang Wa’s words pulled my thoughts back.

“Nothing.” I smiled and shook my head.

“Nothing?” Liang Wa looked at me with a mischievous smile. “Sis, you’re staring out the window with a silly smile. What’s really going on?”

“Liang Wa, Sis met a boy at the factory. He tells jokes, and he’s a good person.”

“What? Is he going to be my brother-in-law?” Liang Wa also smiled happily. “Am I going to have a brother-in-law?”

“You silly thing!” I lightly hit his shoulder once. “Why is your mind full of brother-in-law?”

Perhaps Liang Wa was like me, always having something to look forward to in his days.

My hope was to save his life. His hope was to see me find my other half before closing his eyes.

But he didn’t know there was an invisible wall standing there.

On this side of the wall was a seventeen-year-old girl burdened with over a hundred thousand yuan in debt, and on the other side of the wall was a sunny, cheerful, likeable boy.

Our identities were decided from the very beginning.

A month later, the workshop director called me to his office. I had seen him from afar at meetings a few times. He was a middle-aged man not yet fifty years old. He was chubby, wore glasses, liked wearing white shirts, spoke with a heavy southern accent, and his expression was always smiling.

Most people in the village had the surname Zhang, but his surname was Fang.

He always liked to place a camera on his office desk. Colleagues said he was a member of some photography association, but I knew that was something only wealthy people could afford to play with.

I stood in front of him confused, watching him smile as he stared at a document in his hands.

“Tiantian.” He smiled. “I hear them all call you that. Is that your nickname?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Do you know why I called you over?” He asked with a beaming smile.

“I… don’t know.” I shook my head.

“First of all, I want to congratulate you.” The director said. “You’ve worked here for two years. Although you’re not old enough to be made permanent yet, the pass rate of the copper bells you assemble has always exceeded 99.5%. You can be evaluated as the factory’s Quality Advanced Model.”

“Quality… Advanced Model?” I didn’t know what kind of bun or what kind of meal the director was talking about. I only hoped he could give me a raise.