Three Women in the Cage

After Yang Yu arrived at Zhang Erfa's place, Zhang Erfa took her to the security guard's residence.

It was a small room of about ten square meters, with three bunk beds made of iron plates. Each bed was separated by a cloth, forming a small enclosed space.

Zhang Erfa's bed was at the innermost part. He put the luggage that Yang Yu brought on the upper bunk and asked her to pack it up.

At this time, no one else was there, only the two of them. Zhang Erfa sat casually on the edge of the bed and said to Yang Yu: "You should take a rest today and go to the cafeteria to help tomorrow..."

Yang Yu nodded and said, "Okay, you can go to work. I don't need to take care of you."

She didn't want Zhang Erfa to be late for work, so as to avoid having his wages deducted. At Yang Yu's urging, Zhang Erfa returned to the security room.

When Yang Yu got off work in the evening, he looked at the two sixty-year-old men who came in and asked with a puzzled look on his face: "Old people? Do you live here?"

When the two old people saw the unfamiliar Yang Yu, they understood and said, "You are Zhang Erfa's wife, right? He and I are colleagues. He is on night shift today and will not be back until tomorrow morning..."

Yang Yu didn't expect that there was only one young man, Zhang Erfa, in the security room, and the other two were all old men. She suddenly felt embarrassed.

She didn't know much about anything, and didn't know how much Zhang Erfa made per month. Embarrassed, she asked tentatively, "Old man? Why don't you have any young people in the security office?"

The old man chuckled and said, "Who among the young people wants to do this? We all have nothing to do, so we just want to help our relatives and come to guard the gate. Young people are all working in factories. It's tiring, but the salary is high! It's much higher than our 800 yuan a month. Young people have families to support, so they can't do this. They have no choice but to work in factories, where they earn over 1,000 yuan a month!"

Another echoed, "Exactly. Young people should go work in factories. Security guards are the only thing we old men do to get by. We tried to persuade your son, Zhang Erfa, to work there, but he said he didn't want to endure the hardship and it wasn't a financial burden. We figured if he could feed his family, the whole family wouldn't be hungry, so we didn't try to persuade him. But don't you think he has a wife? Since you're here, you should try to persuade him. Young people should be motivated."

After hearing this, Yang Yu couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He didn't want Zhang Erfa to be so afraid of hardship. He would rather endure other people's strange looks and do a job that would only allow him to eat and wait for death.

He was not even willing to fight for his children and himself, as if his life was enough to support himself.

She tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep all night and even at dawn, she couldn't fall asleep because she was worried.

She lay on the bed, waiting for Zhang Erfa to come back from his shift. After a while, Zhang Erfa walked in with an egg and some buns in his hands.

Seeing Zhang Erfa coming in, Yang Yu sat up and asked intentionally or unintentionally: "Isn't this factory you are guarding recruiting workers? Why don't you go to the line and have to stay in the security room? I see there are no young people in the security room, only old men..."

Zhang Erfa ate his buns and said impatiently, "Whether I go or not is none of your business. Just do your own thing. Why do you care about me?"

Yang Yu wanted to talk to him properly, but Zhang Erfa couldn't communicate well. She said angrily, "You are a young man, and you are competing with an old man for work. Isn't it shameful? Others go to the factory to work, why can't you go? Don't you have family responsibilities?"

Zhang Erfa is desperate. He knows that others look down on him in private and say that he is not a man of integrity, but so what?

He has no burden of life, he doesn't want to struggle, he doesn't want to work overtime in the factory, he doesn't want to be a mechanical robot, he wants to be more relaxed and comfortable.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have come all the way here to work. Those jobs were too hard. He finally found an easy and comfortable job, so why did everyone blame him?

No matter how those people looked at him, he could just laugh it off, but when Yang Yu talked about him, he got unhappy!

What burdens and responsibilities does she have? What qualifications does she have to speak for herself? So, Zhang Erfa yelled at Yang Yu: "Stop preaching in front of me? What are you capable of? You rely on me to get here. If you are so capable, why don't you go to the factory? I want to see if you can bear it and how capable you are."

Yang Yu was so angry that he shouted: "Go ahead, I'll see how hard it is? Everyone can do it, but you can't?..."

The next day, under the guidance of Zhang Erfa, Yang Yu found the person in charge of the factory and explained the work to her. When the person knew that she was Zhang Erfa's family member, a hint of ridicule flashed in his eyes. Then he took her to the workshop, casually introduced her to the people in the workshop, and asked the workshop leader to take her to work.

When the people in the workshop knew that she was Zhang Erfa's relative, they all looked at her with tinted glasses, and the mockery in their eyes could not be concealed.

All the people working in the workshop were couples, except Yang Yu, who was the only one without a partner. She was also unfamiliar with the work, so her work slowed down.

Often, when everyone else had finished their work, she was still working overtime alone, and occasionally she would be criticized by others because of her slowness.

She endured all of this silently, thinking that she had just arrived here and must not exacerbate the conflicts and must maintain good relationships with them.

However, there are times when the weak are destined to be bullied, especially when men are useless, they are especially looked down upon, excluded and squeezed out.

Because of this incident, the conflict between Yang Yu and Zhang Erfa became more and more serious, with a small quarrel almost every day and a big quarrel every three days.

Their conflicts could not be resolved and they were destined not to be together. When they were at home, they often fought because of Zhang Erfa's laziness and gluttony.

Now, Yang Yu can't stand him even more. Not only is he afraid of hard work and fatigue, but he also always uses his meager wages to enjoy himself. When he gets his wages, he goes to the big supermarket and buys a bunch of food, including all kinds of delicious food.

In less than a month, most of my wages were gone.

Only then did she understand why Zhang Erfa had worked for so long but had not saved a penny.

The one or two hundred yuan he sent back every month was only a quarter of his wages, and he enjoyed the rest.

They worry about every penny at home and grow old, but he is so different. When asked about money, he always says he has no money. They have to beg him for money before he gives them anything.

At this moment, she felt extremely disgusted with Zhang Erfa. What kind of person did she marry? She even felt her scalp tingling when she saw him.

Finally, after endless quarrels, Yang Yu got tired of it and didn't want to stay with Zhang Erfa anymore.

Although she felt unfamiliar with the outside world, she kept going out to look for jobs. Finally, she found a job far away from the city where Zhang Erfa worked.

After finding a place, she moved there without delay and rented a shabby house in a very remote place. This way, she could settle down temporarily.