This maneuver meant that his school registration was still at Tangnan Middle School, yet with just a payment for a transfer fee, he could go study at Fourth Middle School. But for the national college entrance exam later on, he would need to return to his original school and comply with their arrangements.
Deng Xiang then asked, "Brother Gang, aren't you working anymore? Didn't you say you were living it up?"
"Living it up my ass!" Duan Shigang recalled his first day at the factory, a workshop processing steel machinery parts—stuffy, noisy, spattered with metal shavings. On his first day, he saw the high-temperature molten iron and the manufacturing process of the machinery, which made his scalp tingle.
Thinking about his future life staying in that hellhole, Duan Shigang felt utterly hopeless on the spot.
But he still had some resilience and didn't run away right then and there, enduring several months in the steel plant until he was nearly worn out.
