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Mai Miao pressed her face against the car window, her breath creating a white mist on the glass.

Outside the window, an endless expanse of blue suddenly came into view...

That was the first time in her life she had ever seen the sea.

"My God! How can the water... how can the water be so wide?" Qiu Hong, who was in the same car, stammered, her fingers gripping Mai Miao's arm tightly.

The carriage immediately erupted in chaos.

A dozen or so girls from Xihai Gu crowded around the window, shouting and yelling in the Ningxia dialect.

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, a faint smile playing on his lips...

Every year around this time, he would bring several groups of girls from Northwest China, all equally rustic and equally amazing.

As the iron gate of Haiyue Garment Factory slowly opened, Mai Miao subconsciously gripped her luggage bag tightly.

Inside was a red cloth bag that her mother had given her before she left, containing a pinch of soil from her hometown.

Teacher Bai said that if you have water and soil incompatibility, just put a little bit under your tongue.

"Welcome, sisters from Ningxia!" A large red banner was displayed at the factory gate.

Several female workers in uniforms stepped forward to help carry the luggage, but their heavy Hokkien accents made the girls look at each other in confusion, and none of them dared to let go.

At the welcome party, Wu Yuejuan's speech was like a breeze passing by Mai Miao's ears.

She only remembered one sentence: "The guaranteed monthly wage is 450 yuan, and skilled workers can earn more than 600 yuan."

This number automatically translated into the prices of goods in Xihai Gu in her mind...

This is equivalent to thirty fat sheep, or two hundred catties of high-quality goji berries.

The dormitory is much better than I expected.

The room is for eight people, with snow-white walls, brand-new iron bunk beds, and a small balcony.

Mai Miao was assigned to the lower bunk, facing the window, where she could see the shimmering sea in the distance.

"This is so much better than ours!" Qiu Hong jumped excitedly on the trampoline, then suddenly pointed to the corner and screamed, "Ah! A mouse!"

Hearing the noise, Sister Lin, the dormitory head from Fujian, rushed over and chuckled, "It's a cockroach!"

She stomped on the thumb-sized insect, saying, "There are plenty of them by the sea, it's damp there."

"cockroach?"

That night, screams from more than a dozen girls from Northwest China echoed throughout the night.

They had never seen a cockroach before, let alone one this big.

Finally, Mai Miao remembered a traditional method for repelling insects from her hometown, so she sprinkled chili powder she brought from Xihai Gu on the door and windowsill.

Amidst the pungent smell, they finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the cafeteria food dealt them another blow.

Steamed fish, lychee pork, stir-fried vegetables...

These are all methods I've never seen before.

Qiu Hong stared at the scaled fish in the bowl, tears welling up in her eyes: "I just want to eat a bowl of sour soup noodles..."

After the training began, language became the biggest obstacle.

The Fujianese workers' explanations of "assembly line," "process," and "quality inspection" sounded like gibberish to them.

In the first week, Mai Miao's group had the highest return-to-work rate in the entire factory, and their wages were almost completely deducted.

"What should we do?" Qiu Hong wiped away tears in her dormitory. "I promised to send money home..."

Mai Miao bit her lip and didn't say anything.

She touched the red cloth bag she kept close to her body and suddenly made a decision.

On Sunday, during her day off, she secretly slipped out of the factory area and bought five kilograms of flour and a packet of yeast at a nearby market.

That evening, a peculiar fragrance wafted from the dormitory building.

Mai Miao used a washbasin as a kneading basin and a thermos as a rolling pin to make simple noodles.

When the first noodle went into the kettle, my roommates were already lining up and drooling.

"What's that noise?" When the security guard kicked open the door, Mai Miao was scooping cooked noodles into a lunchbox.

The security captain looked at the room full of girls holding bowls of noodles, his anger turning into curiosity: "This...is this edible?"

Mai Miao mustered her courage and handed over the lunchbox.

The security captain took a bite, his eyes widening in surprise: "Wow! That's powerful!"

This "noodle incident" unexpectedly improved the situation of the female workers.

The next day, the canteen set up a special window for Northwest-style noodles and invited Mai Miao to instruct the chefs on how to make hand-pulled noodles.

Even more surprisingly, after tasting her cooking, the factory manager transferred her to the quality control department...

The pay is high there, and you don't have to work night shifts.

Before the Spring Festival in 1998, Mai Miao received the first "huge sum" of money in her life - 568 yuan.

She asked Sister Lin to take her to the post office, where she solemnly wrote "To Bai Chongli" on the money order.

As she walked out of the post office, she pulled out the last five dollars from her pocket...

From now on, she will have to support her family on her own, and she needs to learn a skill in Fujian so that she can earn lots and lots of money.

On New Year's Eve, the factory held a party.

The girls from Ningxia performed a Hui folk song, and although they were terribly off-key, they won a standing ovation.

After the party, Mai Miao found "red dumplings" at the convenience store downstairs in the dormitory building...

A type of Fujian rice cake, bright red like the lily flowers of Xihai Gu.

"Let's buy a few and send them home!" Qiu Hong suggested.

The girls all took out their money, three here, five there, and soon they had a whole box full.

The proprietress gave her a dozen or so extras, saying they were New Year's gifts for the "Northwest girls".

Back in the dormitory, Zhang Yijuan suddenly closed the door mysteriously: "Look!"

She pulled a letter from her bosom; it was unsigned and only contained a strange symbol.

"What did you write?" Qiu Hong leaned closer.

Zhang Yijuan stammered, "The cafeteria... deducts... thirty yuan per person per month..."

The dormitory fell silent instantly.

Mai Miao took the letter and read it carefully. It contained detailed evidence of the cafeteria's false reporting of expenses...

Vegetables are sold at meat prices, and local rice is passed off as Thai jasmine rice...

"Sue them!" Qiu Hong stomped her feet in anger.

“How can we sue? We don’t speak the local dialect,” another girl muttered.

Mai Miao suddenly remembered what Ma Defu had said when he saw her off: "Once you're out there, you have to fight for your rights."

She pulled out her notebook and began writing a joint letter in broken Mandarin.

My sisters and I took turns writing, and it wasn't until late at night that we finally finished.

Three days after the letter was sent out, the factory manager came to the dormitory in person to apologize and promised to reimburse the meal expenses.

The girls cheered with joy, but only Mai Miao noticed that the factory manager gave her a meaningful look as he left.

But Mai Miao didn't regret it, because backing down would only embolden the bad guys, and only by fighting back could she let others know that she was not someone to be bullied.

After the Spring Festival, applying face cream became popular in the dormitory.

Fujian is humid, and the girls' faces are starting to peel.

The local product recommended by Sister Lin costs five yuan a box, which is equivalent to half a day's wages.

Qiu Hong bought a box, but couldn't bear to use it.

"I'll leave it for my daughter." She hid the face cream under her pillow.

On a day off in March, Mai Miao received a letter from Ma Debao.

The letter was short, only saying that he was working in an electronics factory in Xiamen and missed home.

A photograph was enclosed with the letter…

Ma Debao stood on the beach, with a huge ship behind him. He was tanned dark, but he smiled brightly.

Mai Miao kept the photo under her pillow and looked at it for a while every night before going to sleep. Sometimes she would think of the jujube trees in Jintan Village, the sound of Teacher Bai's abacus, and the way Ma Defu waved from under the telephone pole.

In the spring of 1998, the sea breeze, carrying a salty and damp scent, blew into the dormitory balcony.

Mai Miao stood by the window, gazing at the shimmering sea in the distance, and suddenly realized...

This once unfamiliar and frightening blue has now become an everyday part of the landscape.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Xihai Gu, Ma Defu is leading villagers to plant a new batch of saplings.

The wind blows across the Loess Plateau, stirring up fine grains of sand, some of which drift very far away and eventually fall into the sea and disappear.

……

In the general manager's office of Xihai Gu Shuihua Garments, Li Shuihua stared blankly at the documents on the table.

Outside the window, the spring sunshine was bright and clear. In the courtyard, newly recruited female workers were lining up for medical examinations. They all wore floral headscarves, had rosy cheeks, and their eyes revealed a mixture of restraint and anticipation.

The document, just delivered by the county government, is titled "Selection Notice for the Second Batch of Personnel in the Fujian-Ningxia Labor Cooperation Program," and more than forty names are circled in red pen on it...

They were all skilled workers in the workshop, including her capable assistant, Ma Lan.

A knock sounded at the door, and workshop director Wang Guifang came in carrying the attendance sheet, her face not looking too good: "General Manager Li, three more female workers have submitted their resignation letters, all of them are going to Fujian."

Li Shuihua took the form, her fingers unconsciously tracing the familiar names.

These girls were trained by her, from not knowing how to thread a needle to being able to make patterns independently, and the longest-serving one has been with her for two years.

However, the children of the Northwest have an unimaginable yearning for the sea, so this kind of thing simply cannot be stopped.

"Let's proceed according to the normal procedures," she said softly. "You'll receive your full wages."

Wang Guifang hesitated, then turned around and "accidentally" opened a drawer, revealing a thick stack of resignation letters inside.

Li Shuihua pretended not to see it and simply walked to the window.

Downstairs in the training room, newly recruited female workers were clumsily practicing operating sewing machines, with the sound of needles breaking occasionally audible.

"Splash of water".

A familiar voice came from behind. Su Ning was standing in the doorway, impeccably dressed in a suit, holding several reports in his hand.

As the company grew, they saw each other less and less, and when they did communicate, it was mostly for business.

After all, Suning is now the director of the poverty alleviation office, so some things can only be managed by Li Shuihua herself.

"I heard you're worried about labor export?" Su Ning walked to the French windows, the sunlight gilding his silhouette.

Li Shuihua didn't answer directly, but pointed out the window: "Do you see that girl in the blue cotton shirt? Ma Lan's cousin. She just came for a job interview yesterday and has never even seen a sewing machine before."

Su Ning looked in the direction she was pointing.

A small, thin girl stared in horror at the machine that suddenly started smoking, and kept backing away in fright.

“The training period for new employees is at least three months,” Li Shuihua continued, “while Ma Lan and her team can complete fifty finished products a day.”

“I understand.” Su Ning opened the folder in her hand, “but look at this…”

It was a market analysis report that showed that Shuihua Apparel's sales growth in the southeast coastal areas was slow, mainly due to "a lack of regional identity".

“Consumers in Fujian have a higher level of trust in local businesses,” Suning said, pointing to the data. “If our employees include familiar faces from Ningxia, people from Fujian…”

"So you're doing this for the market?" Li Shuihua interrupted him. "Making these girls leave their homes, just to sell a few more pieces of clothing?"

The air in the office seemed to freeze instantly.

Su Ning sighed and softened his tone: "Shui Hua, this is national policy. The Fujian-Ningxia cooperation is not just a corporate matter, but also a political task. Moreover, forcibly obstructing it is pointless."

Li Shuihua turned around and took a sample garment from the cabinet...

This is a Hui-style dress that Ma Lan designed independently last month, with exquisite intertwined floral patterns embroidered on the neckline.

“Suning, I taught them skills, not to send them away,” she said softly.

Su Ning was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Do you remember what your father said when we got married?"

Li Shuihua was taken aback.

The old man who traded his daughter for a water cellar once arrogantly said, "No matter how many skills a girl learns, she'll still have to get married in the end."

“The fathers of these female workers today think much like your father did back then.” Su Ning’s voice was gentle, but every word was piercing. “If we don’t let them go out into the world, they will forever remain ‘someone’s daughter’ or ‘someone’s wife’.”

Li Shuihua's fingers gripped the dress tightly, and the fabric made a soft tearing sound.

The afternoon workshop inspection was much quieter than usual.

The machines are still roaring, but the laughter and chatter of the past are gone.

As Li Shuihua passed the quality inspection station, she noticed several female workers quickly stuffing something into their pockets.

"Take it out," she said softly.

The female workers looked at each other, then finally pulled out their crumpled registration forms...

It was the labor export application form issued by the county, and it already had the official seal affixed.

"President Li, we..." The youngest, Haiyan, was on the verge of tears.

Li Shuihua picked up a form with her application reason written in neat handwriting: "I want to see the sea and earn tuition fees for my younger brother."

"Have you made all the decisions?" she asked.

The female workers nodded in unison, their eyes filled with trepidation, but even more so with determination.

After get off work, Li Shuihua stayed alone in the workshop.

In the locker room, she inadvertently discovered that several lockers were unlocked.

Driven by curiosity, she gently pulled open one...

The room was decorated with family photos, and a dried jujube flower was pinned in the corner.

Hidden in another cabinet were half-embroidered insoles, which, judging by the size, were intended for an elderly person.

The innermost cabinet even contained a small cloth bag, its earthy color faintly visible, exactly the same as the one she took with her when she left home.

When her fingertips touched that handful of soil from her hometown, Li Shuihua suddenly understood something.

She took out her phone and dialed the county poverty alleviation office: "Director Wang, I have a few suggestions regarding labor export..."

……

Three days later, Shuihua Apparel held a general meeting for all employees.

Li Shuihua announced several decisions: female workers who went to Fujian would retain their seniority and positions; the company would cover their round-trip travel expenses; and a liaison office would be set up in Fujian to specifically address the difficulties faced by migrant workers.

"And another thing," she paused, "every year during the Spring Festival, the company charters a plane to send everyone home."

There was a moment of silence in the audience, followed by cheers.

Ma Lan rushed onto the stage and hugged her tightly, her tears soaking her shoulders.

After the meeting, Su Ning stopped her in the corridor: "Charter a plane? Do you know how much that costs?"

Li Shuihua pulled a contract from her briefcase: "A negotiated price with Xiamen Airlines. Also,"

A slight smile played on her lips. "Fujian TV agreed to report on our 'giving back' campaign for free; the advertising value far exceeds the cost of the airfare."

Su Ning was stunned, then shook her head and smiled wryly: "When did you learn all this?"

“I learned it from you!” Li Shuihua blinked. “‘Do your own thing well,’ isn’t it?”

The two smiled at each other, and their years of tacit understanding were reconnected at this moment.

A month later, the day arrived for the second batch of female workers to depart for Fujian.

Li Shuihua personally went to the station to see everyone off and gave each person a backpack embroidered with the "Shuihua Clothing" logo.

On the platform, new and old employees embraced each other to say goodbye, a scene that was both sad and full of hope.

On her way back to the company, Li Shuihua's phone rang.

These photos were sent by the Fujian Liaison Office...

Ma Lan and the others have arrived at their dormitory and are excitedly taking selfies with their company-issued social security cards.

In the corner of the photo, the azure sea can be faintly seen.

As the car passed the training center, Li Shuihua asked the driver to stop.

Through the window, she saw the newly hired girls practicing acupuncture under the guidance of experienced masters.

Sunlight streamed through the glass window, casting long shadows that stretched all the way to the distant Loess Plateau.

In the spring of 1998, the sewing machines in Shuihua Garment's workshop clattered incessantly, like a song about inheritance.

...(End of chapter)