Li Jing

Li Jing joined Sanlian Life Weekly in May 2001 as a social reporter. Previously, he worked as an editor at China International Trust and Investment Corporation in July 1995. In October 2000, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Newspaper Industry Development Center of China Youth Daily.

After graduating from college, I played the role of a royal scholar in a well-known large company. However, the longer I lived a pampered life, the more emptiness I felt for no reason. After devoting five years of his youth, he decided to plunge into the fiery life outside the "siege city".

The boss of my company is a cultural person who loves reading. He goes to Sanlian Bookstore every week to scan books. Because of his discovery, there was an extra copy of "Sanlian Life Weekly" in the office. I had a lot of free time at work at that time, so I read every issue in great detail, even reading the two pages of the American book rankings word for word. (Later, there was a debate in the editorial department about whether to keep this column, and I boldly supported it. But it didn't save its fate). In April 2001, when I accidentally saw on the Internet that Life Weekly was recruiting a social reporter, my heart skipped a beat.

Maybe I was mistaken

I can no longer remember the specific content of Mr. Li Honggu’s conversation on the day we met. I only remember that under his questioning, which seemed to be like a sentence, my heart Filled with grief and anger, I had already had the urge to leave. I felt that I had never been so harassed since the day I went to school, and I secretly made up my mind to end my relationship with the "Sanlian". But Mr. Li seemed completely unaware of my grievances against him. A few days later, he called me and asked me when I would come again. I hesitated for a long time, and finally felt embarrassed and told him solemnly, "I don't want to go." "Let's go and have a look." I gave myself a step up, but I just stayed there in a daze.

I am still haunted by the mental torture I suffered on the day we met, so much so that I still accuse him every chance I get. Mr. Li murmured to himself like an innocent child: "Do I really have a problem?" Occasionally, he would explain with grievance that he wanted to know the "cognitive boundaries" of each applicant. Later, I often saw "Sanlian" believers from all over the country walking into the office with endless longing. After talking to Mr. Li, they were overwhelmed with grief and grief. It was inevitable to feel sympathy. Although Mr. Li confirmed that I was the only one of the currently employed reporters from the Ministry of Social Affairs who had been officially recruited, I always thought that was the result of his being temporarily confused.

Compared with many journalists with "good boy" backgrounds in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Mr. Li is a typical example of a backward young man becoming advanced. I often joke that the reason Mr. Li makes things difficult for newcomers is probably because when he was a student, he was a bad boy who was often complained by good students. Although he accidentally became a good person later, when he saw the "good students", he still subconsciously The desire to challenge and conquer.

After getting along with Li Honggu for a long time, I found that he is actually a generous person. The head of the Ministry of Social Affairs is sometimes a person who takes the blame from both sides. On the one hand, he has to lead his men and women (currently only Zhu Wenyi is left in the Ministry of Social Affairs) to take on the "hard news" part. He also has to grapple with the situation when "the country is peaceful and the people are safe." On the other hand, we also have to serve as an "instructor" to deal with our periodic work lows and fluctuations in thinking, and bear the grievances that we dare not vent to the editor-in-chief and transfer them to him. Every new reporter was initially obedient to Mr. Li and did not dare to make mistakes. As time went by, he realized that his original "thorn" only developed at the business level. In the office, we often make up his jokes in public, and Mr. Li is not in a hurry. If he talks too much, he will sigh helplessly: "You guys are bad guys!" But occasionally, he will still feel a little nostalgic. He talks about his glory days when he was a young and Dangerous boy and knocked out his opponent's two front teeth with one kick (or one punch, I can't remember clearly). Every time I hear this, I always take a breath and secretly remind myself not to bully him too much recently. But within a few days, he was ready to take action again.

Traveling thousands of miles to meet all kinds of people

The first manuscript I wrote seriously at "Sanlian" was about the trial of the "Da Shun" shipwreck. I was deeply impressed by the shipwreck that happened in my hometown, so I offered to do this report.

Later, my family helped find a family member of the victim. I secretly felt lucky. I talked with him on the phone for three hours at a stretch, switching the receiver from left ear to right ear, and then from right ear to left ear, listening to him talk about his life. Before the sinking of the "Da Shun", his brother kept talking to him on the phone, calmly explaining his funeral arrangements, the details of entrusting him to take care of his elderly parents, and their dissatisfaction with the rescue and handling of the shipwreck. He spoke sadly, and I remembered it in detail. It wasn't until my ears and temples started to hurt nervously that I hung up the phone and let out a long sigh of relief. I suppressed the joy in my heart and reported it to Mr. Li, wanting to start writing about it. Unexpectedly, Mr. Li had a deadpan expression on his face: "Very good, but one is not enough. Keep looking. We need to interview at least 8 family members!"

I was confused as soon as I heard this. It’s not easy to interview one person, and we have to find 7 more! Where can we find them in the huge crowd? I feel a lot of dissatisfaction, but it’s not easy to get angry when I’m new here. I had to bite the bullet and use the phone book to call all my classmates and friends in Dalian. It was really like seven aunts and eight aunts. Under my pressure, they launched a "carpet search" around the area and managed to obtain the phone numbers of seven people. Two of the survivors coldly refused the interview request. After much effort, they contacted the five family members, After interviewing them, I felt like I was going to collapse.

It has been like this for a long time. For a 3,000-word manuscript, you can find a dozen or even dozens of people. There was a long list, and they were harassed one by one. It really felt like I would rather kill tens of millions of people by mistake than miss one person. During that time, I was under great psychological pressure, and even in my dreams at night I was calling someone. I woke up and thought to myself, I can't live like this for long. But I later realized that this interview method has become the introductory training for almost every social ministry reporter. After passing this hurdle, when faced with a new topic, you can approach it efficiently and accurately, and you will no longer feel at a loss.

After arriving at Sanlian, I heard that reporters from the Ministry of Social Affairs had to travel frequently, which made me secretly happy. When I was a child, I had many famous sayings copied in notebooks. One of my favorites was: read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. Later, I added the sentence "know thousands of people". At that time, I fantasized about being like Sanmao, carrying my luggage and traveling around all day long. When I grow up, I realize that being mediocre like me can only live a life of daily necessities like most people. Taking advantage of a business trip to realize my wish of "traveling thousands of miles" was a small selfish thought of mine at that time.

I soon realized how ridiculous my idea was. My first "collapse" was a business trip half a year after coming to Sanlian. Before the Spring Festival of 2002, I was sent to Sichuan to write about a methamphetamine case. "Business trip" - once you get on the plane and leave Beijing, it means "you can only succeed but not fail" to a large extent. Later, I was asked more than once what to do "in case" the interview fails. I don't know how to explain that our pressure is to rack our brains to prevent this "in case" from happening.

The cold and dampness of winter in the south made me, a northerner, extremely uncomfortable. While cursing the unheated room in the small town hotel, I smiled with a smile on my face and talked to the police who said they were "sensitive" and would never accept the interview. Soft grinding and hard foaming. Until noon on Friday, I was still hiding my upset, acting like a lady as usual and dealing with the detective captain. Here, Li Honggu called me and told me that the deadline for the joint issue has been brought forward and must be submitted early Sunday morning.

I ran to a dark and smoky Internet cafe on the side of the road, and viciously typed out a few words on the dirty and sticky keyboard: "Warning letter." After sending "I warn you, don't force me again, or I will revolt!" to Li Honggu, he rushed out and continued to struggle with the police. Perhaps it was the desperation in my eyes or my persistence that never gave up that moved them. On the last night, someone finally sat across from me and told me stories in a down-to-earth manner.

The next day, I hurriedly got on the plane back to Beijing. When we arrived, it was already dark. The Fukang I was riding in made a small mistake on the Airport Expressway and crashed into the roadside guardrail. Fortunately, although the front of the car was smashed, the driver and I were so frightened that we could not speak. , no one was hurt. Later, when I recalled the moment when the car hit the guardrail, I thought with some malice that if something happened to me, the first person Mr. Li and the editor-in-chief would feel sorry for would definitely not be me, but those pages of manuscripts.

I rushed to the office overnight. Unexpectedly, the office was busier than usual. Lei Jing, who was covering the smuggling incident, had just returned from Fujian and was preparing to stay up all night. In the past, Lei Jing was taciturn and as quiet as a girl, but that night, he seemed restless. He would stand in front of the window from time to time, watching the sky in the distance turn white little by little, and the number of cars on the Third Ring Road increase in number. While muttering to himself: "I don't want to live anymore! I can't live like this!" The joke about Lei Jing being forced to jump off the building was born. We returned to Wuhan for the Spring Festival. No matter how much Li Honggu tried to persuade us, Lei Jing still resolutely abandoned us and refused to return to Beijing.

At that time, I was most afraid that Mr. Li would lament after seeing the manuscript: "There is no material!" I often felt that I had exhausted all my skills to get this little material but was ignored by him, and I suddenly lost all hope and wished I could go up and fight with him immediately. But as time goes by, I can gradually understand Mr. Li’s painstaking efforts. In the manuscripts of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the editor-in-chief also firmly supported the "Li Honggu line". Later I often found such changes: "××× felt very pleased." The editor-in-chief changed it to: "××× (talked to the reporter) He felt very gratified. "

One of the gains during his years in Sanlian was the training of many "informants." But sometimes I feel guilty that I am very utilitarian and often have no time to communicate with my friends when I am busy. However, if the interview requires it, I can eventually dig them out even if I have not contacted them for ten years. Until later, several informants who I often harassed would tear off their fake smiles as soon as they answered the phone: "What's the matter? Just tell me!" As time went by, I no longer pretended to be fake, and went straight to the topic as soon as the phone call came through.

I once told Mr. Li that our work is like agents. We are often "airdropped" to a location that has nothing to do with us and complete the task in just a few days. Mr. Li coldly hit me: "You are beautifying yourself too much!" But later, I really had the opportunity to interview a person with a status similar to an "agent". In just a few days of "interaction", he half-jokingly lamented: "You can definitely do it." You can do my job now!"

When I first came to Sanlian, I often felt that this job was "highly consuming" and not easy to stay for a long time. Three years, at most three years! I secretly set a deadline for myself. In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed this "deadline". I thought about giving up countless times, but in the end I stayed - maybe it's the kind of thing where you can never predict where you will appear tomorrow, what kind of events it will be related to, and what kind of events you will be associated with. What kind of feeling of dealing with people makes me stay? This wonderful feeling really fascinates me!

I am anxious to go abroad

In April 2002, "Air China "There was a plane crash in Busan. When they went to work on Tuesday, Li Honggu or Miao Wei tentatively said, "South Korea is so close, we can go there!" Then they looked around the Ministry of Social Affairs and landed on the only one who had a passport and had traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan. Me: "Li Jing, give it a try. If it works, let's go there!"

I started calling frantically. I found the embassy's phone number at the directory assistance desk, and when I dialed it, I always got a voice message for "Visa Instructions." Someone finally answered, but they said I didn't know who to call for this kind of thing. After making N more calls, I finally found a visa officer by mistake. After a brief interview in English that day, he asked me to bring all the documents and wait for the visa the next day.

After getting the visa, I was excited for only a few seconds, and then immediately fell into the many details that followed: where to stay? Where to find a translator?... In fact, I waited until I arrived from the embassy at noon the next day. After getting the visa, I only had half a day to set off. I couldn't find any clues, so I could only try my luck by calling one by one with my phone book. However, the international students I found were all in Seoul. I tried hard to restrain my anxiety and continued to search one by one. I jokingly called this move "throwing rain all over the sky." "Big net", I don't know which line the fish will be hooked on.

Two or three hours later, good news came, which finally made me feel a little more relaxed. My sister helped me contact the president of a trading company in Busan, Yoo Bo-yeol. It was just that my sister served as an English translator for him when he came to China to discuss business. Therefore, it was "unfortunate" that he had to work for a Chinese magazine that he had never known. It is said that when my sister first contacted President Yoo, he was still confused: "Why are Chinese journalists visiting Busan for interviews? Why are they looking for me?" Later I realized that this was a personal invitation.

When I got on the plane to South Korea early Thursday morning, my heart was full of confusion and fear about the unknown world, plus the pressure of not knowing how to complete the task. The consistent style of the "Sanlian" is: when a task is assigned, it only waits for the work to be collected and the money to be spent is spent. As for how to apply for a visa, how to solve the problem of food, accommodation and transportation there, and how to conduct interviews, it does not care. .

Because I was responsible for the important mission of "Sanlian" to send reporters abroad for reporting for the first time at my own expense, I stayed in a MOTEL (motel) for the first two nights in Busan. It was not that noble. The only motivation is to worry about spending too much money. If the task is not completed well, it will increase the psychological burden on myself. MOTEL is actually a love hotel, with dim lights, flirtatious pornographic advertisements scattered around the door, and people with ambiguous looks coming in and out from all walks of life. As soon as I got back in the evening, I immediately locked myself in the room and lay on the gaudy pink bed holding my nose. It wasn’t until the third day that President Liu couldn’t stand it anymore and he generously pledged his credit card and invited me in. Star Hotel (For three consecutive days, Chairman Liu’s driver drove a luxury car and picked up Chinese employees who could speak Korean, and he and I rushed to the accident scene, various hospitals, and the government, mentioning them, I am forever grateful). On the second day after arriving in Busan, I went to a hospital to look for survivors. The nurse at the reception desk was very friendly and checked the hospitalization list, saying that there were two Chinese people in the hospital and gave her the room number. I pushed open the door excitedly and saw that the two Chinese survivors were workers sent to South Korea by a company in Jilin to work as crew members. They were both Koreans. The thin man surnamed Wu was genuinely excited when he saw a Chinese coming. Without waiting for me to ask, he couldn’t wait to talk about his experience of going abroad for the first time and catching up on his first plane; Park, perhaps because he was deeply impressed by concepts such as "foreign affairs discipline" before the labor export, kept looking at me warily and asking me why I didn't come with people from the embassy. I felt that he had too many things to do, so I stopped pestering him and focused on asking Wu about the many details of that moment. Wu was in the middle of a conversation when Park, who was on the other side of the bed, suddenly uttered a long string of Korean words. Although I didn't understand it, I roughly guessed what the other person meant - Wu was not allowed to speak to me. Wu, who was very simple, hesitated for a moment, and was lost in the memory of the disaster that happened when he took a plane for the first time in his life.

This did not work. Park took out his mobile phone, dialed a series of numbers and said loudly without hesitation: "Hey, is this the embassy? We have a woman here who claims to be a reporter. ..." While I was doing the interview, my ear was catching his increasingly deeper voice, and I felt increasingly annoyed. "Okay, don't worry, I won't tell you the cause of the accident!" Park's voice suddenly rose again, and then he hung up the phone solemnly.

The first air crash of "Air China" occurred in South Korea, which made the incident suddenly more complicated, especially the cause of the accident. The South Korean side held on to the Chinese captain and the Chinese side believed that the Busan Airport control tower existed Mistakes. Both sides held their own opinions, and it was indeed very sensitive at the time. But will an ordinary survivor know the cause of the accident? Even if he can tell me something, I may not quote it, but I still have to be responsible for what I wrote! Park probably regarded me as a female spy, and I was annoyed. At the same time, I also laughed helplessly in my heart.

Although I felt that it hurt my self-esteem to be "reported" in person like this, I still tried my best not to be disturbed by him and concentrate on the interview with Wu. But suddenly there was another loud shout: "Hey, where's your ID?! Do you have your ID?!" At that moment, I felt a rush of blood rushing to my forehead. I couldn't control myself anymore and turned to him: "What qualifications do you have to see my ID?! Did I talk to you? I didn't interview you at all, and you have no right to see my ID!"

I thought later, this little "difficulty" Normally, I wouldn't have cared about it, but in that situation, the pressure I had built up from the moment I was sent to South Korea suddenly reached its peak and was released wantonly. Although I know that the probability that Park will read this article is smaller than the probability that he will encounter another plane crash, I still want to take this opportunity to apologize to him!

Honestly speaking, this The interview didn't go well. After all, due to lack of experience, they arrived at the scene and attacked in various directions. A lot of information overlapped with existing domestic reports, and many valuable details were ignored.

After coming back, Mr. Li bluntly said that my interview was not detailed enough. What impressed me most was that I seemed to casually mention to him: It seems that you can smell the salty smell of sea water when you get off the plane in Busan. Mr. Li said that I did not make good use of my "smell" during the interview. After he reminded me, I recalled how pungent the smell of disinfectant at the scene was mixed with the smell of burning objects.

I later divided society into two classes: mental workers and manual workers. Mr. Li has both brain and body, but we are all manual workers. Of course, our baby pig was once promoted from a manual worker and specialized in national policies. He found the grand meaning behind many small things, but unfortunately recently Return to the coolie family. They have evolved from "manual workers" to "migrant workers", and the Ministry of Social Affairs has mostly "female migrant workers" who kill people and set fires, and just grab their bags and leave at the slightest sign of trouble. After returning from a business trip, everyone gathered together, and each of them told the story of the angry encounter along the way. After venting his personal anger, he was "a good man again" the next day.

Life is an experience

After our dear and respectable brother Zhuangshan left, at a social ministry gathering, Li Honggu said heartily that he was sorry for being sent to the scene of mining accidents or floods many times. Zhuangshan, the two grown men were a little drunk and looked a little tearful. A few of us laughed at them in a weird way, but we all felt a little sad and heavy in our hearts. When I go out for interviews, I often have to explain the "three links" - the "three" of one, two, three, and the "link" of joint. The other party often looks confused and asks: "'Life' Weekly? Why do you write about us?" Or simply return the look of disdain. Later, when I saw someone criticizing the first half of the "Sanlian" for being "too rubbish," I felt frustrated and felt that being a reporter for the Ministry of Social Affairs was really a thankless job. I never dare to say how well the reporters in the Ministry of Social Affairs do, but I think they are at least worthy of the word "dedication."

Mr. Li often uses words such as "great media" or "great journalists" to make me get rid of my immediate hesitation. In the late autumn of last year, He Jin Yan was ordered to interview the "Shenzhou 5". Compared with the many "big media" prefixed with "中" that have come forward, "Sanlian" seems too insignificant. I have been rejected several times. The editorial department has already decided on the topic and there is no way out. I was forced to go to Space City again and again. Until one day I was temporarily assigned to an office to wait for someone, and I suddenly discovered the contact information of a key person under the glass plate of my desk, and I felt ecstatic. Before they came back, I quickly took out a pen and paper and copied them down one by one. The scene looked just like the female spies or underground gangsters in the movies back then. This trick really works. When you call the other person's home directly, they will be much less wary, and this will be a breakthrough.

I remember coming out of the Space City, exhausted from the battle of wits and courage, and saw the huge CCTV broadcast truck from a distance, and thought angrily: "This is what we call recording history!" I felt dejected. When I came back from the ground, I couldn't help but argue with Mr. Li, but Mr. Li told me in his unquestioning tone that the details I interviewed, such as Yang Liwei wearing diapers and taking off, and the three brothers drinking red wine when they got up early, actually have the same meaning. portion size. I have always been skeptical about this. Perhaps we have to wait until the 20th anniversary memoir to make a judgment.

Today, the shrewd Shanghainese Zhu Wei, the typical Beijing uncle Miao Wei, and China's "navel-eyed" Li Honggu from Wuhan have become the three fulcrums of the "Triple", shrewd, rough and meticulous. It's light, soft and hard, but it's also interesting. Men like to see the grandeur in events to show their grasp and understanding of the times; but I like the fate of small people in the big background, and feel that compassion for others is the most powerful thing.

I often think that I am a lazy person by nature. If it weren’t for this job, I would never write so many words in my life. The reason why I became a reporter is that firstly, I am interested in all novel things; secondly, I like to share my feelings with others. When I was a boy or a student, these names were from another world to me, such as Tang Degang, Chen Xiangmei, Wang Ganjun or He Zhenliang. But one day, when they all became my interview subjects, I sincerely felt that kind of "wonderful" feeling. "Happiness.

The Air China crash, the Bali explosion, the launch of the Shenzhou 5, the Pakistani hostage incident - these have become a yardstick for me to record the width and thickness of my life.

I have always believed that life is an experience. Expanding the boundaries of your steps is as happy as expanding the territory of your mind. The three years of "Sanlian" gave me a unique opportunity to experience a different kind of scenery. For this, I, who have suffered so much as a "female migrant worker", will always be grateful.