Life of a migrant worker Lao Nie touches thousands of netizens

Thousands of netizens were moved by the migrant mail deliverer’s story

The netizens were enthralled with Lao Nie’s ordinary and authentic life photos

Recently, an unassuming article on the Internet attracted a number of readers. In the article, a netizen wrote a day-in-the-life article by following a mail deliverer, Lao Nie, for a whole day. Lao Nie, the protagonist of the article, is a very ordinary worker. However, an ordinary person’s life and emotions recorded in the article moved thousands of readers. Just as the netizen said in the article, although nowadays beauties, violence and vulgarity have filled the Internet and caught people’s eyes, this man’s story was able to penetrate and inspire a lot of people.

Lao Nie delivering express mails in the summer sun of Beijing

Lao Nie, the protagonist in “an authentic record of a migrant worker’s life in Beijing,” is an ordinary migrant worker. He has worked in Beijing alone for eight years, during which, he has been a loader, a construction worker, a street vendor, a cleaner and a milkman. Now, he works as a mail deliverer for a private express service company. The article records a day’s work and life of Lao Nie. Though he lives in a windowless basement, Lao Nie is very satisfied with it. Every morning, he gets up at 6:00 am, goes shopping for food, cooks breakfast, and then goes to work at 7:30 am. August is a very hot month in Beijing and the temperature of the pavement often reaches nearly 40 degrees Celsius. People need to hold a sunshade or wear a hat to prevent from getting sunburn. Lao Nie, however, does not have anything to protect himself from the sun and yet he has to ride his bicycle in the sun all day long. He works a flexible-hour schedule, typically for about eight to ten hours six days a week, with only one day off per week.

At around 1:15 pm, he begins to have lunch sitting on a step at roadsides under an overpass. For lunch, he has a bottle of mineral water and a Chinese cake with a fried egg, costing a total of three yuan. That day night, when he finished his day’s work, he went to a Shanxi noodle restaurant for supper, he ordered a big bowl of sliced noodles, a plate of fried peanuts and a bottle of Erguotou liquor, costing a total of 13 yuan, which was his most expensive meal.

The author said that Lao Nie has two dreams, one is to see his daughter finish her college education and the other is to have a chance to have his family come and visit Beijing.

Within a few days, there are around 160,000 people who have read the article about Lao Nie and the comments have extended over ten pages. The author who recorded a day’s life of Lao Nie said, “This plain and virtuous worker moved me deeply. I am sure that there are tens of thousands of people like him in Beijing; all of them support their family with their own shoulders. This group improves Beijing’s development and progress. In addition, I think there is also something deep about them that can move your heart.”

Messages posted by netizens:

I do not know what to say, and just want to cry. Their life is too hard. I hope all of them can live a happy life but I do not know what I can do for them.

Looking at Lao Nie's smile, the most authentic smile, I haven’t seen this kind of bright smile for a long time. I am moved by his smile and I wish him safety and happiness!

Those who live at the bottom of the society have a simple life, very hard and taxing, but often many of them live a full and optimistic life. Thinking of this, I feel somewhat ashamed!

Translated by LOTO