——Salute for SmartGener who went abroad to serve customers without fear of the epidemic.
The bright moon climbed high in the sky.
Although it is nearly midnight, lying in the small bed of the public rental housing, he still couldn’t sleep and tossed and turned for a while. It’s almost two hours, he calculated silently. Then he directly sat up, drank a glass of water, exercised his fingers and body. Just as he was about to lie down again, “Ding”, the new message came. He couldn’t wait to open WeChat, and there was a message from her, with just a few words: “Go on and take care of yourself.”
Two days ago after dinner, the usual video chat with family member living in their hometown was underway. He asked about how the eldest daughter was doing and teased the younger daughter. Recently, the eldest daughter was in a mood and wanted a set of roller skates. He slightly calculated in the heart and felt a little distressed for this requiring hundreds of yuan plus protective equipment. The daughter asked it again in the video, hesitated for a while, he hemmed and said, “You are too young to play now, let’s buy it when you are grown up.”
The children went to play, leaving only the two of them.
“Tell you something.”
“What?”
“I have to go on a business trip.”
“Go ahead.” As the service personnel, he also often did that.
“But this will spend a long time.”
“How long?”
“A bit long anyway.”
“How long is it? It’s not like this before.” He went to Changsha for the on-site maintenance for more than one month.
“Almost three months.”
“So long. Where to go?”
“Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
“Where? Which province?”
“Abroad, in Africa.”
“What? Are you crazy? Hang up first, let me check.”
The video call ended abruptly. He laughed bitterly and slumped down on the bed. “Almost as predicted,” he thought to himself. The moon outside the window had risen quietly, but it is not so clear to see. It looked hazy, maybe because of dark clouds or haze.
After a while, the phone video call rang, he quickly grabbed it.
“No, you can’t go. Do you want to kill yourself? I just checked. It’s so dangerous in the abroad, not only the COVID-19, bus also Ebola. You also don’t know foreign language.”
“It’s OK, they are all Chinese.”
“You are the backbone of the family, what if something happens to you? Our two children are still so young, and our parents are old. No way.”
“It’s OK, don’t worry.”
……
“How many people will go?”
“Just me, it’s fine.”
“You just say it’s OK. There are so many people in the company. Why others do not go?”
“More people want to go. There was a little fatty in our foreign trade department, crying and shouting to go, but the leader didn’t let him go.”
“Why?
“He is not familiar with the technique, hey hey.”
“Why does it take so long time?”
“It requires the quarantine for a while after arrival. We need to debug the project, so arrange more time. Besides, the longer the time, the more the subsidy. The little fatty said that foreign business trip subsidy is high, how nice it is to earn more money without considering food and housing. Don’t worry, I’ve been vaccinated. It’s very safe. It’s living with a project team of one of our major clients, they are all Chinese. Everything is OK……”
“What? You’ve been vaccinated. You’re ready to go. You did not discuss with me.”
“I am discussing with you now. Hello? Hey?……”
With a sigh, he hurriedly tried again to initiate a video chat with her, again and again, it was rejected. He could only edit the message paragraph by paragraph, sending her what he wanted to say and what he thought.
Outside the window, the hazy moon could not be seen, this time it was really completely obscured.
……
The day of departure was Grain Full. Although the road is still far, just a little satisfaction appeared. The airport was deserted because of the epidemic, but some passengers were still in a hurry. We meet by chance, we were all foreign guests, we were in the rush for life. When he knew that he was not the only one who suffered in the world, he could reduce the pain and light up hope in despair and loneliness.
He chose a window set, and the first trip abroad made him excited and uneasy. There are also some fears, possibly. After all, the destination is so strange. The moon has been hanging high in the early morning, and the moonlight was so bright in the remote airport. He suddenly remembered a poem that was often placed on the little fatty’s desk. After reading it for a long time, he seemed to remember only one sentence: She’d follow it to shine on her beloved one’s face.
At this moment the family is asleep, she must still be awake. Opening his phone, he edited a large message for her to say. After sending it out, he still wanted to write another paragraph. After writing and deleting, deleting and writing, feeling a bit unlucky, he simply sent only one word: “Gone!” before turning off the phone.
“When I get back, I’ll buy the eldest daughter a set of roller skates”, he muttered at 30,000 feet high, looking out the window at the bright moon that was about to come full circle.
——A long way is dedicated to a place far away,
——Rose is dedicated to love,
——What do I dedicate to you?
——My love.
African service site
Meanwhile, in Murom, Russia, more than 6,000 kilometers away, despite the fact that it was already 8 o’clock in the evening, the sunset and the cold moonlight were intertwined. An alarm suddenly appeared on the large screen of the parallel monitoring system. Being outside the monitoring room in the smoke, he habitually scratched his hair after hearing the alarm, looked back, immediately extinguished the cigarette butt in his hand, wrapped up the old blue jacket and rushed in……
(To be continued!)
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