The surging news reporter Xue Shasha Wei Jiaming Wang Jian
After the car was dragged to the repair shop, Lao Yang removed the seat cover and cleaned it for a day before washing the car that had been soaked in water for two days.
In fact, Lao Yang, who has been driving a taxi for 11 years, knows that there is no need to repair a car with such a serious soaking in water. But he was not dead hearted, and he still wanted to come to the repair shop to try it.
On the afternoon of July 20, when the rainstorm struck, Lao Yang was driving his car to be blocked at the south exit of the tunnel on Jingguang North Road in Zhengzhou, and later he abandoned the car to escape and waded home on foot.
The old Yang family's life is counting on this car. The mother-in-law who suffers from lung cancer in the family spends thousands of yuan every month to buy anti-cancer drugs; the second son has cerebral palsy since he was a child, and he must be taken care of; the cost of the younger son's high school in his hometown is also a fixed expense every month; the eldest son has just married, and Lao Yang is still repaying the dowry and the loan for house decoration.
The money earned from driving was not enough, and he had to overdraft his credit card to buy medicine for his mother-in-law. At present, the living expenses of the family can only rely on the more than two thousand yuan earned by the wife as a promoter.
The subsistence taxi is nearly scrapped. Three or four basins of water are discharged from the engine, and all parts involving electrical appliances such as starters and batteries must be replaced. It is expected to take a month to fix it, and it will take 30,000 yuan. Even if it is repaired, it may continue to be sick in the future.
"The money in WeChat is enough to repay last month's credit card, and you can only continue to overdraft the credit card to repay the loan and buy medicine for the elderly." The car has no need to repair, because the car is soaked in water, Lao Yang has not earned money for a week, and now he does not want to delay for a day, he wants to seize the time to borrow money to buy a new car, and with a car, he can continue to earn money to support his family.
Old Yang and his taxi
Young and away from home
Old Yang is a person who can bear hardships.
In 2010, he took more than 200,000 yuan saved in his hand, borrowed more than 200,000 yuan from relatives and friends, bought a car, and completed the operation qualification procedures, spending a total of 450,000 yuan.
For 11 years, he left early and returned late every day. When he first started driving a taxi, he was running a sports car for 18 hours a day. According to his words, "We will not be opportunistic, we will not ask others for more money, we can only earn money by hard work."
The 51-year-old Yang is not as healthy as he was then, but he still starts taking orders every morning and does not return home until 2 a.m.
Old Yang did not dare to stop.
The three sons in the family, the eldest son got married at the New Year this year, and the money for the wedding room, the bride price and the house decoration money were all loaned by Lao Yang. When the second son was born three days ago, pathological jaundice caused cerebral palsy, the family ran out of money, searched for famous doctors, or did not cure, more than 20 years old still have to rely on family care. The younger son's college entrance examination results this year were not satisfactory, and he re-studied in his hometown Of zhoukou.
There are also two septuagenarians in the family who need to be cared for. My 76-year-old mother-in-law, who developed lung cancer three years ago, had cataracts a few years earlier and had surgery.
Although Lao Yang desperately took a sports car, the family's living expenses were still a problem, and his wife could only find a job as a promoter, earning 2,500 yuan a month to maintain her livelihood.
Old Yang has no mother since he was a child, and his father lives in Zhengzhou after remarrying, doing early business, leaving him and his grandparents to live in the countryside.
After graduating from high school at the age of nineteen, he came to Zhengzhou to make a living, and with no money and no place to stay, he came to his father's house to make a floor. When he got up in the morning, he helped his father's family sell peppery soup.
Slowly, he had planned to learn radio technology in Zhengzhou and repair the TV recorder, but he inadvertently learned the craft of making peppery soup.
Halfway out of the house
Selling peppery soup business is small and low cost, in Lao Yang's view, this is only a business that makes money and does not lose. Later, he and his wife set up their own stalls to sell, got up early and worked hard, and the two young people slowly saved some money.
In the years that followed, prices rose, but the price of peppery soup "stood still." The small business, which was originally small profitable, could not make any money, and the life of the old Yang family was difficult to sustain.
He thought of a way out again—selling egg cakes. After learning the craft from a friend who specializes in cake filling in Xinyang, he opened a store. Because of his focus on the taste of the cake and the treatment of guests with real materials, the egg cake he sold was well received, and he also appeared on the "Fragrant Food" program of Henan Television, and the business was getting better and better.
Recently. When the business of selling egg cakes was booming, Lao Yang received news that the shop he rented and the small stores around him would be demolished. The cake filling business can't be done.
At that time, there were often many taxis passing outside the store, and some drivers were too late to eat at noon, so they shouted "Master, come and fill the cakes." Lao Yang made a good job of sending them to the car, and also sent a cup of soy milk for free. From the taxi drivers of the time, he learned that driving a taxi was very profitable.
But the brother-in-law, who has bought a taxi and started a sports car, is not working well and always complains that he is tired of driving a taxi without making money. For this reason, Lao Yang and his wife also quarreled with their brother-in-law.
Lao Yang has some gambling gas, anyway, the business of filling cakes can't be done, "I'll buy a car to try and see if I can make money in the end."
In 2010, Lao Yang was 40 years old and he signed up to learn to drive. After learning, he invested half his life savings in this taxi. Since then, Lao Yang has officially stepped into this line.
Old Yang didn't try or make it. After driving a taxi, life at home gradually improved.
"(Growing up in the countryside), we have been able to endure hardships since we were young." Initially driving, he earned more a day than his brother-in-law and the two of them (the other driver).
Relying on this car, Lao Yang bought a second-hand house in Zhengzhou with full money when his young son was about to go to primary school. Over the years, in addition to providing for the eldest son to finish college, he also bought a marriage house for him in the South Third Ring Road of Zhengzhou.
Three years ago, my mother-in-law suffered from lung cancer, which brought a lot of blows to the family. The monthly cost of medicine has become the biggest expense of the family. Coupled with various loans, Lao Yang barely made a living by the money he earned by driving and credit cards.
After the rainstorm, the relevant rescue units pumped and drained the Jingguang North Road tunnel.
Torrential rain raids
A torrential rain broke such a life.
On July 20, the torrential rain never stopped. At first, Old Yang thought it was just raining, which was nothing.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, near 4 o'clock, the old Yang Kai car picked up a girl in her 20s near Jingguang Road to go to the bus station. When they entered the tunnel, there was no water and it was unimpeded.
At about 4 p.m., he came to the south exit ramp of the Jingguang North Road Tunnel, and only a few tens of meters away, he could drive away from the tunnel mouth. But there were several cars in front of him blocking his way.
After being blocked for half an hour, Lao Yang looked at the rain that was not quite right, the rain was very heavy, the raindrops were very dense, there was already water in the tunnel, he was worried about the safety of the passengers, and let the passengers get off the bus first and leave here.
"I told her to get off the bus quickly, not to go to the station, to go up and find a hotel to stay, whether it is expensive or cheap, stay first, and don't go anywhere." Wait for the rain to stop and see the situation before going to the station. In this case, even if you go to the station, no one will leave. Lao Yang confiscated the passengers' fares and let her get on and off the ramp.
On the other hand, the wife received a notice from the company that she did not go to work and took care of her parents and son at home.
The old Yang family lives in an old house, a rain will leak, this time the leakage is more serious, the water flows down the anti-theft window, a few minutes on the leak of a whole basin, the wife had to change the basin back and forth.
The situation at home made her wife a little uneasy, and she sent a message to Lao Yang asking him to go home as soon as possible.
But Lao Yang was still blocked at the mouth of the tunnel and could not advance or retreat.
The water is menacing. There are three lanes in the tunnel that are about 10 meters wide, and then the water "is equivalent to the opening of the big river, which is very fast, and the water is pouring down."
Approaching 6 p.m., the water level rose higher and higher. Lao Yang felt that he could not wait any longer, and he tried to open the car door, but the momentum of the water was too great to open with one hand. He chuckled in his heart, thinking, "This is broken, I can't get out."
Experienced, he first opened the window of the car, "the water is poured in, as soon as the water is in, the door is open." He pushed open the car door with both hands. "I could swim, and I was thinking, as long as I could open the car door, I could escape."
At this time, a person who had already come out of the car shouted and told everyone to go quickly, "Hurry down, hurry down, the car is not going to be out of the car", shouting from the back to the front.
At that time, because it was blocked for too long, one male driver fell asleep directly in the car, and the other drivers smashed the glass of the car with a water bottle, woke him up, and saved his life. There were also people who hesitated, distressed the car, did not want to abandon the car and leave, and the shouting man somewhat commanded them to get out of the car quickly.
As he walked to the safety area of the nearby viaduct, he saw that the owner of a car had abandoned the car and escaped, leaving only a dog in a cage, and he took the cage and placed the dog in a place where it could not be flooded.
After Lao Yang came to the viaduct near the tunnel entrance, he saw that his car had floated up and drifted backwards for twenty or thirty meters. He did not dare to tell his wife that the car had been soaked up, for fear that she would be distressed.
Flooded cars were destroyed
After coming to the safe area, Lao Yang hurried to the house, "In case of a big flood, how can these three people (parents-in-law and second son) get it?" ”
He waded home in the water and swam, and it took him four or five hours to drive 10 minutes on weekdays. The water on the road was already waist-high, and the highest point had reached Lao Yang's chest. He went home with a young man and a girl. When passing near the big stone bridge, because the water was too deep to judge where the road was, he fell down without paying attention, and the young man behind him pulled him.
For two days after returning home, he was thinking about his car.
Later, the owners who were blocked at the entrance of the tunnel with Lao Yang set up a WeChat group to exchange messages.
On July 23, he rode his bicycle back and forth near the tunnel of Jingguang North Road, and finally found a car soaked in water for two days on the navigation road. The body is all mud, and the inside of the car has been smelly after soaking in water for too long.
Although he knew that the car could not be repaired, he had to tow it for scrap disposal. But Lao Yang still had a little hope, and he found a trailer company.
Due to the long soaking time, Lao Yang's car engine had more water, and three or four basins of water were discharged in the repair shop.
Seven or eight hundred yuan of towing costs, Old Yang was reluctant to spend this money. He had to find a relative's car, and when there were fewer cars on the road at night, he towed the car to the repair shop.
Like Lao Yang's car, there are more than a dozen water-soaking cars stacked in the repair shop, but other people's cars are soaked on the road, only Lao Yang's car is soaked in the tunnel entrance, and his car is the most seriously damaged.
The owner of the repair shop looked at Lao Yang's car and said that it was okay to repair it, and all the parts involving electrical appliances were replaced, which cost a month, and it cost 30,000 yuan.
That's a lot of money.
Considering that after repairing, it is inevitable that various "sequelae" will inevitably appear when the sports car is repaired, Lao Yang plans to scrap the car, and then quickly borrow money to buy a new car. Only with a new car can you continue to earn money to support your family.
The saddle inside old Yang's car has been removed.
A lesson on the road of life
Old Yang had calculated an account. Mother-in-law suffers from lung cancer, eats a box of anti-cancer drugs with an original price of fifteen thousand yuan per month, and after medical insurance discounts, she still has to spend more than 6,000 yuan per month. The eldest son's mortgage has been handed over to the son to repay, but the dowry loan and decoration loan Lao Yang still have to pay more than three thousand a month. Coupled with the cost of the younger son's school life, he has to spend 10,000 yuan a month to maintain.
Three years ago, the old Yang mother-in-law suffered from lung cancer, relying on "oscitinib mesylate tablets" to maintain, a box of fifteen thousand yuan, a box is only enough to eat for a month, after the medical insurance discount, but also more than six thousand yuan. Courtesy of respondents
Sometimes the money is not enough, "there is really no way, can not get by", Lao Yang can only learn to open a credit card, overdraft credit card to buy medicine for his mother-in-law, with the money earned next month to repay the money overdrawn last month, "a month after a month like this".
Over the years of driving, Lao Yang himself also suffered from the taxi driver's "occupational disease" lumbar disc herniation. According to his words, he also has to go to the hospital several times a year, "spending ten thousand dollars."
Even if his health is not as good as it was then, Lao Yang is still a sports car day and night. He gets up every morning to kick the shuttlecock to work out and starts sports cars in the morning until 2 a.m.
Now, the car has become a water truck, about to be scrapped, and the family's source of livelihood has been cut off.
The affiliated company is counting soaked vehicles, and his fleet has a total of 19 vehicles damaged by water immersion, and other teams have also damaged many vehicles. Mr. Yang said his car was not insured against damage because the insurance company did not sell to taxis.
Recalling the scene of being blocked at the mouth of the tunnel at that time, Lao Yang could not understand that the rain was so heavy, out of the tunnel mouth U-turn is the viaduct, just to the safety zone, why the car can not move in those tens of meters?
In the WeChat group they set up, some people are asking this question, and some people are asking who should be responsible for these water soaking trucks. In the end, they did not discuss the results, but some car owners sent such a paragraph: No matter what, our loss should be a lesson encountered on the road of life, so that we understand and understand a lot of things that we can't appreciate in ordinary life! The meaning of life is experience!
Recalling the experience of these years, Lao Yang was very emotional. Such pressure had almost overwhelmed him a few years earlier. One winter day four or five years ago, he came back in a sports car, and the moment he got out of the car, he felt a violent headache. He then went to the hospital for a check-up, and the results showed that there was no problem with the head, and the heart examination found that he had coronary heart disease.
Old Yang was hospitalized for a week and installed two cardiac stents. After being discharged from the hospital, he only had a day off at home before he began to pick up single sports cars again.
Editor-in-Charge: Cui Xuan
Proofreader: Yan Zhang