It has been 10 years since I walked out of the village that was full of rumors about myself.
Wang Xiaoliang built his own safe haven.
His express store is the third rookie station in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province. It can receive five or six hundred orders a day on average, and its performance ranks in the forefront of Fancheng District, Xiangyang City.
Wang Xiaoliang, 33 years old this year, takes only 20 seconds to pack and express with one hand.
From losing his right arm at the age of 22 to winning a place in the express delivery industry, he held up a full 10 years of struggle with one hand.
Wang Xiaoliang, who was born in a rural family in Xiangyang, practiced at a railway marshalling station in 2011.
However, on the last night of the internship, the rotating train driver was drunk and ignored the distance signal sent by Wang Xiaoliang.
The train was speeding straight ahead, ramming him mercilessly.
When he woke up, Wang Xiaoliang was lying on the cold hospital bed.
His right arm was amputated and his body was no longer complete.
"My yearning for a better life, and even my hope and courage for life, have been sawed away bit by bit with the scalpel."
After being discharged from the hospital, disheartened, he returned to his hometown in the countryside, closed himself in the house, and "lived like a corpse all day."
Wang Xiaoliang lost some of the conditions for self-care, and things that were easy in the past, such as tying shoelaces and eating, have become difficult now.
He tried to pick vegetables with his left hand, but for a while he couldn't hold anything with his chopsticks.
When his parents went to the fields to do farm work, he only watched helplessly. "Looking at the empty sleeves, I even lost the courage to live." Wang Xiaoliang said.
Rumors and rumors in the village also flooded the sky.
"It must be the adults in the family who have done something bad, and the retribution is on their own children." "How can a girl want to marry a person with one hand"...
After more than half a year of dormancy, Wang Xiaoliang chose to "escape".
In 2012, Wang Xiaoliang rented a bungalow in downtown Xiangyang and lived alone.
He adapts to the function of his left arm alone. He does laundry, cooking, and writing with a "business as usual" mentality. He also tries to match his limbs. If his clothes are not clean, he steps on them with his feet. Cut fingernails.
He lived "like a able-bodied man" and learned life skills he never had before.
However, when looking for a job, he still hit a wall.
Because it is difficult to meet the normal labor demand, Wang Xiaoliang was rejected by many positions, regardless of whether the major is the counterpart or not.
An organization once introduced him to an assembly line job, but people with physical disabilities could not do it.
Can't find a job, no source of income.
For a long time, Wang Xiaoliang, who fled from the village, did not know where to go.
With the help of relatives, he got a hard-earned sales job.
Because he cared about his disabled status, Wang Xiaoliang was very inferior and timid at first, and did not dare to talk to others.
In order to overcome his fear, he endured the pain of amputation and put on a prosthesis weighing more than ten kilograms to "embolden" himself.
On a hot summer day, Wang Xiaoliang cycled all over the city of Xiangyang with one hand.
He handed out flyers and chatted with clients.
At the end of the year, Wang Xiaoliang's sales performance was at the forefront of the company.
"Any job you are currently engaged in is a precipitation for the future." Wang Xiaoliang said.
In the two years he has been in sales, he has figured out the large and small lines in the urban area of Xiangyang, and has accumulated a large number of customer resources, which have become the paving stones for his later entry into the express delivery industry.
In 2014, the "Tmall Double 11" e-commerce boom emerged, and express delivery companies were recruiting.
Wang Xiaoliang went to the stores of some courier companies to recommend himself.
However, the other party rejected him mostly on the grounds of lack of work experience.
"Although I only have one hand, I have sales experience. And my wife and I will work together, and we must complete the work." In the end, he changed his career to become a courier boy and entered a new life.
After his wife became pregnant, Wang Xiaoliang started to work alone, and only then did he realize how difficult it was to do express delivery: he couldn't hold the big one, he couldn't carry the heavy one, he couldn't pack it, and the delivery speed was slow...
"I have no way out. I must face my physical flaws and my inner fears." Wang Xiaoliang said to himself.
To facilitate packing, he removed the prosthesis and put on short sleeves.
If it is difficult to pack with both hands, he puts the package on the tricycle seat, bites the courier bag with his mouth, and helps with the situation with his left hand; heavy and large packages are inconvenient to carry, so he uses rope or tape as a handle; express delivery is slow, He went around in his spare time, familiarizing himself with the delivery route over and over again.
After a long time, the broken arm of his right shoulder began to peel off layer by layer during friction, and the end of the arm was thick with calluses, which felt hard to the touch.
His left hand was so hard that he couldn't lift his arm because of soreness.
From the side, his left shoulder blade is a fist higher than his right.
"At that time, I was determined to do a good job." He felt that driven by the development of the Internet, express delivery would definitely become a pillar industry for the development of e-commerce, with broad prospects.
After two years of hard work, Wang Xiaoliang has accumulated a certain amount of work experience in the express delivery industry.
In 2016, he joined ZTO Express, rented a 10-square-meter facade with his wife, and independently took over the express contracting area.
With the reputation of "high speed" and "excellent service", Wang Xiaoliang's express store has become more and more prosperous.
In the past few years, the average daily delivery volume of his store has grown from 80 to 90 orders to 500 to 600 orders, and the express delivery ratio has been the highest in the city for many times.
"Although one hand is inconvenient, he is diligent and careful in work, especially able to endure hardships, and treats every customer with enthusiasm." Colleague Lu Jun commented on him.
In 2018, Wang Xiaoliang took his parents to his side, worked at his own express delivery point, and paid monthly wages based on performance.
The father takes care of the store and is responsible for courier collection, while the mother rides a bicycle to deliver the parcels.
Everyone has a clear division of labor and each performs his/her duties.
"I give my dad four or five thousand yuan a month, and my mother three or four thousand yuan each month." Wang Xiaoliang said.
In 2019, Wang Xiaoliang's store settled in Cainiao Station.
He also brought his unemployed sister and brother-in-law into the express delivery industry, helping her family.
Wang Xiaoliang felt that their relatives were taking care of each other together, and it was fun.
The message on the door of his express car, "Brother, hard work!" was written by his sister with a black marker.
"Being friendly", "optimistic" and "positive energy" are the impressions Wang Xiaoliang left on the people around him.
In fact, in the face of misfortune and injustice in life, he also fell in negative energy.
But he always reminded himself that when the body is broken, the mind cannot be broken.
So he is willing to fight and move forward with all his strength, just asking for a clear conscience.
Over the years, Wang Xiaoliang has been awarded "Hubei Province Self-improvement Model" and "Hubei May 1st Labor Medal".
Under the care and recommendation of the Xiangyang Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, he was also awarded the "Hubei Upward and Good Youth" in 2022.
From losing his right arm to the bottom of his life, to starting a business in the express delivery industry and leading his whole family to find employment, Wang Xiaoliang said frankly: "When we encounter difficulties and setbacks, as long as we don't give up, don't be afraid, and dare to persevere, even if we only have one hand, we can create glorious future."
Wu Ziyi, China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Zhu Juanjuan and Lei Yu Source: China Youth Daily