Black Gold 1983

"You'd be a penniless teacher, just like your mother. How much would you earn in a month?" Xu Hongbing slowly turned half his face to the side, his chin gleaming, covered with a light layer of stubble. "Forty? Fifty? That meager salary, what can you even do with that?"

"Enough to keep alive," Xu Dongsheng said casually.

"Enough to live?" Xu Hongbing chuckled, then his expression darkened. "I crawled from the mine to this office, enduring countless hardships and being skinned alive, not just so you could live!"

He abruptly changed his tone, the oppressive atmosphere intensifying: "Also, you're free to date, but you can't bring me back a used woman!"

"Sui'er is not a slut!" Xu Dongsheng's voice suddenly rose.

The air in the office suddenly tightened.

After a few seconds of silence, Xu Hongbing raised his hand and stroked his chin, his tone flat yet sarcastic: "Not a used woman?"

"She slept with another man at their engagement party. You say she's not a slut? Then what is a slut?!"

Xu Dongsheng was speechless.

"You want to marry her? Where do you think I'll put my face?" Xu Hongbing picked up his teacup and took a sip of the ice-cold tea. "Our Xu family has been in the Hongxing Mine for three generations. Your grandfather was one of the first workers to open the mine. I worked my way up from worker to team leader, and then from team leader to section chief. All the face I've built up over the decades, you've fucking disgraced me!"

Xu Dongsheng sneered, "Face? Our Xu family has no face left after all the shady things we've done in the mines over the years!"

Xu Hongbing whirled around, grabbed an ashtray from the table, and smashed it over the shoulder, yelling, "You've gone too far!"

The ashtray grazed Xu Dongsheng's shoulder and slammed against the wall, shattering into pieces with a loud crash.

Tiny shards of glass littered the floor, and the room fell into an instant, deathly silence.

After a long stalemate, the tension in the room gradually subsided.

"When I first wanted to date Sui'er, you said Tian Mancang's daughter was steady, respectable, and cultured, and that she was a good match for me. How come she's not respectable now?"

Xu Hongbing slammed the teacup on the table, and with a bang, the tea splashed out.

"Decent? That was before! Now the whole mine knows she slept with other men, what decentness does she have left!"

Xu Hongbing let out a long sigh of relief and pointed to a pile of cigarette and alcohol cans in the corner: "They have the self-awareness to know what's going on. After such a mess, they returned all the gifts early on. They know perfectly well that their daughter is promiscuous, getting engaged and still messing around with other men. Her reputation is already ruined, so how could they have the face to accept our gifts again?"

As he spoke, Xu Hongbing leaned back in his chair, his eyes darkening. "I think you've given up on this idea. You should find a clean and respectable girl as soon as possible."

"As for Tian Mancang... does he think that by making that matter clear, I won't dare to touch him?"

"Let me tell you, I'm not just going to mess with him, I'm going to make sure their entire third team suffers!"

"Let him know what the consequences are for offending the Xu family!"

-

Mining Hospital, second floor of the inpatient department.

Tian Mancang's ward was at the end of the corridor, facing south, with good natural light.

The window faces the mountain ridge to the west of the mining area. On a clear day, you can see a hazy gray ridgeline, layer upon layer of peaks and ridges.

But nobody was in the mood to admire the scenery right now.

The ward was packed with people.

The coal mining team, young and old, filled the room to the brim.

Tian Mancang lay half-reclined on the hospital bed, leaning against the pillows with a buckwheat hull pillow behind his back, his face gloomy.

"Team Leader Tian, ​​tell me, what's going on here!"

"Our team, Team Three, ranked first in engineering quality and safety production in last year's mine-wide labor competition. Our raw coal output was also quite good. What did the mine say when they were evaluating advanced teams? They said our Team Three was the benchmark for Hongxing Mine!"

"And what's the result? Now they want to lay us off? Are they trying to burn the benchmark?"

The one who spoke was Zhao Tietou, an old rock driller from the third coal mining team. He was in his early forties, short and stocky, and had a voice so loud it could lift the roof off.

Someone nearby chimed in, "Team Four had three minor injury accidents last year, and their tunneling progress was more than 200 meters less than ours. What's the point of comparing us to them?"

Everyone echoed this sentiment.

"What's the point of saying all this now?" Chen Zhiqiang, deputy captain of the third team, said, "The mine has issued a document to promote mechanized production reform, eliminate coal mining teams, break up the organizational structure, and reassign personnel. This is a done deal. No matter how much we argue here, it won't change anything."

"Diversion?" Zhao Tietou exploded. "Where to? Downhole support? Surface support? Or the damn gatekeeper?"

He listed them off one by one, becoming more and more agitated as he spoke: "I, Zhao Tietou, have worked in coal mining for eighteen years. What hardships haven't I endured underground? Roof collapses, water inrushes, gas leaks—every time I've risked my life! Now you want me to clean? To read newspapers in the mailroom? I can't bear that humiliation!"

"Exactly!" the crowd echoed. "What else can we do besides mining coal? We've been down in the mines for so many years, and we haven't learned any other skills. If we're really sent to the surface to earn a fixed salary of forty-odd yuan a month, how will our wives and children survive?"

These words struck a nerve with everyone.

The people inside looked at each other, their faces grim, and no one uttered a sound.

In the early 1980s, coal miners' wages were mainly supported by underground allowances and piece-rate wages.

Workers working on the front lines of underground mining can earn sixty or seventy yuan a month, or even more.

However, once they are transferred to ground support positions, they lose their downhole allowance and piecework pay, and their income is cut in half or more.

Tian Mancang remained silent.

He leaned against the pillow, staring at the gray sky outside the window, lost in thought.

Everyone in the team was looking at him.

Zhao Tietou couldn't hold back any longer: "Team Leader Tian, ​​say something! You're our backbone. If you don't say anything, we're really falling apart!"

Tian Mancang slowly withdrew his gaze and glanced at the people in the room.

They were all his old brothers who had followed him for over ten years.

"This round of coal mining team cuts at the mine is not targeting our Team 3. Hongxing Mine has been established for many years, and the shallow coal has been almost mined out. Deep mining cannot keep up, and production is declining year by year. The Ministry of Coal Industry is imposing quotas, and the province is imposing targets. The mine has to survive, so it has to find a way. Promoting mechanized mining is the general trend."

Technician Liu Yuejin adjusted his glasses: "Team Leader Tian, ​​we understand what you're saying. But the problem is, why should we be chosen between Team Three and Team Four? Last year in the labor competition, Team Three's overall score was almost twenty points higher than Team Four's—everyone in the mine saw that. If it's really about results, we shouldn't be in this situation at all!"