In Changsha, Hunan Province, there is such a sanitation worker, her name is Huang Xinsheng, she is 51 years old this year.
Every day, on the road, Huang Xinsheng cleans the city with a broom, and when she gets home after get off work, she takes out a pen and paper and cleans her soul with words.
In the environmental sanitation circle in Changsha, Huang Xinsheng is a celebrity. Her poems and novels are topics that everyone talks about. In more than four years, Huang Xinsheng wrote more than 300 works. In reading and writing, she found A warm and peaceful world.
Every morning at 6 o'clock, Huang Xinsheng will appear on Yuehua Road in Changsha on time. From here to the east gate of the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, the street about 1 kilometer long is her cleaning area.
Huang Xinsheng, a sanitation worker in Yuelu District, Changsha City:
We usually have to clean the first time before 7 o'clock. These days, the leaves will not fall off the trees. These two days are the easiest two days. The easiest time of the year is Recently.
It usually takes me at least an hour and a half to scan from Yuehua Road here to the front section. If it is too cold to scan, I just rub my hands and stomp my feet. In fact, when I do things, my body is still not cold. .
After finishing her work in the morning, Huang Xinsheng took the bus to the Hunan Library. She came here to borrow books once a month, which was her habit for many years.
Chen Hao, a staff member
of the Hunan Library: When borrowing books, no matter how many things she has in hand, or she is carrying a schoolbag, she never puts the books on the ground, and puts the books very neatly in her schoolbag every time in.
It was 8 years ago that Huang Xinsheng entered the Hunan Library for the first time.
At that time, she had just experienced the heavy blow of her husband's unexpected death, and brought her two sons to live in Changsha.
A library card became Huang Xinsheng's antidote to fight against misfortune and get out of the haze.
Huang Xinsheng:
All the books in the library are free. You only need to apply for a library card, and you only need to pay a deposit to get a library card. The deposit will be refunded in the future, so this provides me with great convenience.
When I came to Changsha, except for my own relatives, I had no previous friends. Books are my best friends, and then I relieved the pressure.
I have to earn money every day, rent a house, and earn tuition for my son.
Then there is another goal, I also want to have a hut of my own in Changsha.
So if the pressure is so great, I can't bear it without the help and comfort of books. This book has brought me endless wisdom and motivation.
Huang Xinsheng's home is full of books. She is always careful about budgeting, but she is never stingy when buying books. She regards these literary works as spiritual food and reads them every day. Sleep with a book on your pillow.
Huang Xinsheng:
There was another incident that I remember very deeply. My bag was full and it was so heavy. As a result, I accidentally sprained my foot when I got out of the car. I worked so hard that month and my foot was swollen.
But I don't regret it, it's because of the book.
In "University", it is said that "after being safe, you can think about it, and after thinking about it, you can gain." I got some insights, and I have something I want to write.
"Why is your voice so low, you clean up the city day after day, why your smile is so calm, you pick up the years in the colorful light and shadow of fallen leaves, the blue sky and white clouds are leisurely, have seen too many faces and occasions, heard There are too many sad and joyful stories. People come and go in the bustling workplace. How many people have seen the sanitation move? Honesty, simplicity, perseverance, love and dedication are synonymous with sanitation workers. All roads lead to Rome, and the stars are shining and brave. Creation."
In Huang Xinsheng's works, there are trivial matters in life, everything in the world, and his own inner emotions.
When she was young, she had the habit of keeping a diary. Writing opened up a whole new world for her.
"The winter wind beats the spring rain to repay the heaven and the earth to refine the world"
When did the seeds of reading and writing take root in my heart?
Huang Xinsheng couldn't explain clearly. Growing up in the countryside of Lianyuan, Hunan, what she yearned for most when she was a child was to see the outside world. However, her failure in the college entrance examination was the first blow to her wish.
In order to provide for his two younger brothers to study, Huang Xinsheng gave up repeating his studies and chose to go out to work.
Even though she failed to enter the university, Huang Xinsheng’s enthusiasm for writing has not faded. When she was free from work, she wrote poems on waste paper, which was circulated by her colleagues. Later, Huang Xinsheng, who got married and had children, returned to the countryside for the sake of her family. , During those days, she felt the vastness of the world from the book.
Huang Xinsheng: The
villagers thought that I was restless and didn't want to live in the countryside. At that time, I was satisfied with food, but I was still not satisfied with this.
I feel mentally depressed and feel that I have no sense of worth.
Reporter:
Does it have something to do with the fact that you read a lot of books?
Huang Xinsheng:
That should be, because I have not experienced any of the things described in the book. The life I yearned for at that time was to have my own job, my own study room, bookshelf, and desk.
After I finish my work, I can sit quietly at the desk and read a book after work. I even said that I have a hut like Haizi’s poem said, facing the sea, when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming. Just write poetry.
I firmly believe that our country and our era should have such an opportunity in the future, and I can break through.
With such determination, Huang Xinsheng left the countryside and went to Huaihua to work hard. She set up a stall to sell vegetables, while her husband worked on a construction site, and her life gradually got on the right track.
Just as Huang Xinsheng was looking forward to a more colorful life in the future, an accident took away her husband's life and made her life lose its color.
Huang Xinsheng:
The sense of family responsibility and loneliness.
The pressure of work and the pressure of the economy are really pressing in my heart, as if sometimes I can't breathe.
After her husband died, Huang Xinsheng took her children to Guangdong. In 2014, in order to balance work and family, she returned to Changsha and worked as a sanitation worker.
Huang Xinsheng:
The supervisor said you can do it. You look like this. I said it’s okay. I was born in a rural area and I also farmed at home. I said I can bear it.
I got up earlier than everyone else and went back later.
Others stipulated to leave work at 11:30, and I didn't leave work until 12:00.
I want to make sure there is nothing dirty on the road.
The hardship and tiring of sanitation work is nothing to Huang Xinsheng. She can use her own labor to support her family, and she can also read and write when she is busy, which makes her feel peaceful and stable.
Huang Xinsheng wrote the ups and downs of half his life into his poems.
Huang Xinsheng:
This is a doggerel, "Song of the Cold Rain", "The wind is cold and the rain is sudden, the sleeves are wet and the shoes are soaked in water, because my clothes are all wet, the shoes are soaked in water, the hair is dripping, the hair is dripping, the orange clothes The broom flows with the water, because I wear the orange clothes, and use a broom to do things in the water. The guest asks the sky when it will rest, it does not pity the flowers and plants or the insects, the wind is cold and the rain is sudden, and the law of God is like a mountain. I don’t want to be selfish, I feel sorry for everything in the world, the wind and rain first spread the rainbow, the winter wind blows and the spring rain pays off, the heaven and the earth unite to refine the world.”
Reporter:
What kind of environment was this written at that time?
Huang Xinsheng:
It’s raining, I have to go to work in the rain, and I have to sweep the floor. It’s raining heavily, my clothes are wet, my shoes are all soaked in water, my hair is dripping, and I just want to start studying again , I have a little feeling in my heart and say, first apply the wind and rain and then spread the rainbow.
Going to work to make a living Chasing dreams after get off work
As Huang Xinsheng wrote, "Spread the wind and rain before spreading the rainbow", no matter what the hardships in front of you, as long as you persevere, you will always usher in a better tomorrow.
In 2019, by chance, Huang Xinsheng joined a group chat called "Hunan Environmental Sanitation Poetry and the Distance".
The members of the group are all sanitation workers from all over the world. Their common feature is that they love writing and reading.
Huang Xinsheng put his work in the group and got a good response.
The editors in the group published her works on Hunan Environmental Sanitation Network and the New Environmental Sanitation Official Account, and many readers affirmed and liked her.
Yuan Jiacheng, director of Liuyang City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Maintenance Center:
Her works are very readable, and the more you read, the more interesting they become, allowing people to understand a part of life.
What impresses me is hard work, very hard work.
She goes back to write after work every day. Sometimes we see her writing until one or two o'clock in the night in the group.
Liang Pingfang, editor of Hunan Environmental Sanitation Network:
The title of the third Hunan Environmental Sanitation Culture Competition in 2022 this year is "Tomorrow will be better", which can be reflected from her award-winning works. Her own life is not easy, but she sees others Begging there, she also took the initiative to give 5 yuan to others.
During the ups and downs, Huang Xinsheng also briefly doubted the meaning of his dreams.
But the nourishment of books and the encouragement of everyone made her firmly hold the pen in her hand.
Today, Huang Xinsheng writes on the bus, during a short break in the afternoon before meals, at midnight and early in the morning when he can't sleep, chasing his dream between every word and sentence.
Huang Xinsheng:
For me, I suddenly discovered that I am not alone, and I am not useless. I feel that my original intention is still there, and I still have to work hard to pursue my dream.
Then I wrote slowly and thought slowly, if you are in this one, your mentality will be better, more people will ask you to do things, and you will earn more money.
For a long time, not being admitted to university has been the deepest regret in Huang Xinsheng's heart. In 2019, with the encouragement of his friends, Huang Xinsheng applied for the self-examination of Chinese Language and Literature, and passed the three exams in one go in 2020. Now She is still studying hard, hoping to dream of going to university one day.
Huang Xinsheng:
I came to Changsha in 1990 and worked near Central South University of Technology. After I got off work, how many times I wandered around the campuses of Hunan Normal University and Central South University of Technology. I envied the students in those universities. , I envy them, really, they are the proud sons of heaven.
Now I finally made one of those things for myself.
If I want to be admitted to a university, I think to myself, I don’t know if I can pass the junior college. After I pass it, I still want to take the undergraduate exam. Anyway, I will continue to study.
Eight years ago was the most difficult time for Huang Xinsheng. He cleaned the city's roads during the day and let the grief of losing his loved ones flow silently in his heart at night.
Fortunately, there is no unparalleled road, and fate closed several doors, but it also opened a small window of literature for Huang Xinsheng.
It was in the space of a book that Huang Xinsheng gained a new life.
She draws strength from reading, and turns her tenacity and delicacy into poetry.
Despite the ups and downs in the first half of her life, her works are always full of hope.
It is a perfect embodiment of the unity of knowledge and action even after half a century.
Everyone should have their own spiritual home, which has nothing to do with what job they do, where they live, or what they have experienced. It is only related to peace of mind and abundance. Literature is the treasure map leading to the spiritual home. The library card of Hunan Library is Huang Xinsheng's golden key.
When everyone who loves life and dreams can obtain the golden key more conveniently, there will be more newborn souls, like Huang Xinsheng and her partners in the group chat, going to the vast poetry and distant places.
(CCTV news client reporter Yan Naizhi Gao Yuan Yang Kan Ma Rongda Sun Xiaolu)