Updated: 5:15 p.m. Sun January 19, 2025
⇪题图·from colorhub.me
傍晚从外地出差返沪，虹桥高铁站打车回家。
司机是个四十多岁黝黑邋遢的中年男人，车门打开，一股浓烈的烟味扑鼻而来，看来是个老烟枪。车子开出地库，一股寒风钻入，请他把车窗玻璃关上。他说我车子烟味大，关窗你不介意吧。我说我更愿意暖和点，说罢戴上耳机听音乐。
行程过半，见他跟我挥手示意，我摘了耳机。他说咱们聊会天吧，开了一天车了，有点累，有点无聊。我说当然可以。
他问我是干啥的？我说在设计院工作。他问哪里的设计院啊，我说在浦东。他说浦东哪里。我说世博园。他说知道的，是不是以前在浦东南路搬到现在这个地方的？我说你可以啊，这你都知道。他说我们开出租的，过程中会积累经验，什么时间段，哪里有可能拉到活。所以知道你们设计院经常加班到晚上十点多钟，不少人会打车回家。你们这个职业也累啊，也是经常加班。我说在上海，要想生存，哪个行业不累，不都靠加班多挣点辛苦钱嘛！他说是啊，不过最近你们加班打车的人不多了，看来也是受市场环境不景气的影响吧。客人是我们的衣食父母，整个社会经济是一个大系统，一荣俱用，一损俱损。我说你这思想境界可以啊。
我问他开白班还是晚班，他说是一个人开白、晚班，每天开到凌晨两点左右，坚持不住了的话，找个偏僻路边睡上四五个小时。最近连着好几天都只跑了四百多元左右的毛收入，每天还要交三百元的“份子钱”，这个日子确实不好过。但是不好过也得过，为了家庭，为了生存，只能自己多辛苦点，坚持下去，希望有好起来的那一天……
我挺佩服他的坚忍，有时候普罗大众的生存智慧，也具有质朴的积极意义。有这样一句古语：百样生意百样难,只有讨食过清闲。这世上的人，大都过着“为五斗米折腰”的日子。为生存，为发展，为家庭，为公司……，梦想还在，动力就在。
I returned to Shanghai for a business trip and took a taxi home from Hongqiao Railway Station in the evening.
The taxi driver was a swarthy and scruffy middle-aged man in his forties. It seemed that he was an old smoker, because when I opened the car door and a strong smell of smoke hit me. As the taxi drove out of the basement, a cold wind came in, so I let him to close the window. He asked me if I cared about the smoke smell. I said I'd rather be warm, then put on headphones to listen to music.
Halfway through the trip, I saw him wave to me, so I took off my headphones. He said let's talk for a while, I've been driving for a day, and felt a little tired and bored. Certainly, I said.
He asked me what job I do. I said I work in a design institute. He asked where the institute was, and I told him it was in Pudong New district. He asked where exactly. In Expo Park, I told him. Then he said he knew, the institute was moved from Pudong South Road to the place? I was surprised. I said you're impressive, you know all this. He said that when we drive a taxi, we'll accumulate experience in the process, what time period, and where it is possible to pick up. Therefore, I know that your design institute often works overtime until after 10 o'clock in the evening, and many people will take a taxi home. Your profession is also tiring, and you often work overtime. I said that in Shanghai, to survive, which industry is not tired, don't rely on overtime to earn more hard money! He said yes, but not many of you have been taking cabs overtime lately, so it seems to have been affected by the sluggish market conditions. Guests are our food and clothing parents, the whole social economy is a big system, a glory, a loss. I said that's a high enough state of mind for you!
I asked him whether he runs the day shift or the night shift, and he said that he runs the day and night shifts alone, he drives until about 2:00 a.m. every day, and that if he can't hold out any longer, he'll find a remote roadside to sleep for four or five hours. Recently, for several days in a row have only earn about 400 yuan of gross income, and still have to pay 300 yuan of “share money” every day, this day is really not easy. But not good have to live, for the sake of the family, in order to survive, can only own more hard work, hang on, hope there is a good day ......
I admired his stoicism, and sometimes the survival wisdom of the general public has a pristine positivity to it. There is such a proverb: A hundred kinds of business are difficult, only begging for food and leisure. Most of the people in this world live a life of "bending their waists for five buckets of rice". For survival, for development, for family, for the company ......, the dream is there, the power is there.