To respond to the national call of staying put during the Spring Festival and to catch up with the project schedule, Zhao Junwei, a staff member in the Fifth Section Project Department of Line 18 of Chongqing Rail Transit, promised his mother to celebrate the Chinese New Year again with her after the Spring Festival when the pandemic situation will be further improved.
Zhao Junwei works on his computer for a pressing project that needs to be done in the Spring Festival.
33-year-old Zhao Junwei comes from Huining County, Baiyin, Gansu Province. He is now the deputy chief engineer of the Fifth Section Project Department of Line 18 of Chongqing Rail Transit undertaken by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd. Zhao has worked for nine years. Having to change his workplace with different projects, he cannot stay with his family for much time in a year.
Early in the morning, he attends the project department's morning meeting on time to start one day's work. Zhao summarizes his work into three short phrases: construction scheme formulation, site technical guidance, and project quality control.
But in fact, he is so busy with a too monotonous life just linked to three places: project department, construction site, and dormitory. During the nearly one year when he worked in Chongqing, he never left Banan District, the project location. "My mother and my wife only came last year, and I accompanied them to visit the Guanyinqiao Business Circle once," said Zhao Junwei.
Zhao Junwei plays a dancing video of his 4-year-old daughter on his cellphone.
The Lijiatuo Yangtze River Double-Track Bridge is the control engineering of Line 18 of Chongqing Rail Transit. Currently, the construction of the king-tower cushion cap is underway on the north bank. According to the schedule, 60-consecutive-hour cushion cap placing must be finished before the Spring Festival.
Zhao Junwei is busy working on the construction site during the day and preparing relevant materials in the evening. The project department is like another dormitory for him, where he stays for more than 12 hours every day.
Only after work is he free to concern about his family in Huining; the happiness thing for him during one day is to have a video chat with his family. Zhao Junwei is very sorry that he cannot accompany his kids to grow up.
This year, to respond to the national call of staying put during the Spring Festival due to the pandemic, Zhao decided not to go home.
"I won't go back to celebrate the Spring Festival." Zhao finally said to his mother after thinking over and over again.
Zhao Junwei video calls his wife and daughter during spare time at work.
His mother became silent at first and then asked her son a lot of questions, fully showing her sincere expectation that his son could come back to celebrate New Year together with her.
"Why can't you come back for the Spring Festival? We have bought a lot of meats and prepared a lot of special purchases for the Festival. Without you, we won't have a good Spring Festival."
Zhao said to his mother, "I promise you that after the Spring Festival, when the pandemic situation is further improved, I will go back to celebrate New Year with you."
Upon hanging up the call, Zhao could not stop shedding tears as he felt really sorry for not going home at such an important festival.
"I owe my parents a lot. I cannot take care of them, and they are helping me take care of my kids. I hope that they can be healthy."
In Zhao's memory, when he was a kid, to celebrate the Spring Festival, his family would sit together to enjoy the delicious dinner cooked by his mother. There would be shehuo shows in his hometown, performances of walking on stilts, and dragon-and-lion dance.