出差在广州(2)
考虑到他们操劳了一辈子且含辛茹苦地把她养大,我妻子在这上面尽量将就他们:没牌友了,她把亲戚朋友都叫来陪他们打牌;没器具了,她就算跑断腿也要帮他们找副象牙麻将并在第一时间亲自递到他们手上;没地方了,她把自家腾出来让他们打牌。有时候我的工作和生活也会被他们这种低俗的娱乐活动所影响,但我除了隐忍也没别的法子,再怎么说他们也是我的岳父母。
Figure 1: The staff members of my radio factory A few days earlier I was sent to Guangzhou by my immediate superior for some negotiation with local counterparts and entrepreneurs just because the factory I am employed have the intention to set up a branch in that city. As a core technician, I not only know my stuff, but am well acquainted with large and small things in my factory, therefore it must be deemed a high probability event to assign me to the task. Although as my child is too young to leave behind, I was reluctant to do the task at first, I was eventually talked into it by my superior promising an additional bonus of 200 yuan at the end of the year as a condition. Having arranged everything, I embarked on the journey to Guangzhou—a place totally strange to me but I yearned for, although I was not completely confident about the task, I had a faith that everything would work out in the end, after all, my knowledge and experience is there, it will shorten the distance between my peers and me and further simplify my task. I was given 5 days to finish everything, but 3 days are enough and I can use the extra 2 days to visit major places of that city, beyond that, I must take the opportunity to buy some toys for my boy and delicacies for my family members. With these beautiful thoughts I was full of energy, I hope the train drives faster so that I could reach my destination as soon as possible. It took me some 8 hours on the train, as a fixture to my seat I could do nothing but read newspaper and admire the pastoral scenery outside the window, when I was tired of doing so and there was still time for me to kill, I took out my phone and clicked here and there on the screen aimlessly, hope it acted as a time accelerator. Eventually, the boredom was brought to an end by the train stopping at its destination—Guangzhou, I threaded my way through the moving mass of bodies off the train to the ticket barrier, and was swept out of the station at last.