I am a second-year student in a technical secondary school. Every holiday, my family forces me to go out to work.

Teng Zhenguo, 42, once made a sensation in Henan and even the whole country as a migrant worker, with the first degree of high school graduation, the strength of self-study for several years, and the glory of being admitted to a master's degree at the age of 38.

Little known is that after his master's degree, his life and work have returned to the original point.

for him, knowledge has not changed the hard fate of life: he returned to the university where he used to work; The meager salary can't afford him to boldly wear a new dress; His wife, who has been sweeping the floor there for several years, still criticizes his uselessness ...

Is this the failure of business life, the embarrassment of academic qualifications, or the workplace employment discrimination of "retiring at the age of 35"? On July 28th, the reporter interviewed Teng Zhenguo and his family who returned to their hometown in Ruzhou, Henan from Changzhou, Jiangsu.

□ Reporter Lu Zhiou/Wentu

Youth flies by in the struggle against poverty

Teng Zhenguo, born in, is a realistic version of Sun Shaoping in the writer Lu Yao's Ordinary World, just like thousands of rural children in Qian Qian. They firmly believe that knowledge can change fate.

His mother Tian Jian still remembers the 12-square-meter tile where her son lived from primary school to middle school. There is only a table, a stool, a bed, a kerosene lamp, dark and damp, and a ceiling made of sorghum stalks.

From to, Teng Zhenguo took the college entrance examination for three times, but he usually got excellent grades and was favored by his teachers, but he failed one after another.

at the age of 22, he finally gave up the idea of going to college.

In the next few years, Teng Zhenguo's main business was growing vegetables and working as a temporary worker at Ruzhou Railway Station. In the meantime, there was a fever of self-taught examination in China. He listened to other people's suggestions and began to take the self-taught examination for junior college.

At the age of 27, he had little hope of learning to change his future during the Spring Festival last year, and he hoped that his bedridden father would see him get married before he died. So, he listened to his relatives' advice and met a girl introduced by them on the 16th day of the first month. They got married a month later and gave birth to a son a year later.

He is looking for a job in Ruzhou with the college diploma he just got, but there is no result.

for the next seven years, he worked as a cleaner, porter, builder, insurance salesman, etc. None of them lasted long. "I am 34 years old in this way." Teng Zhenguo said, "In those years, my idea was to cook vegetables and go out to do odd jobs to make money. Now talking about this with my former classmates, I blame myself for taking a detour. If someone could guide me at that time and learn a skill such as a chef, life would not be so difficult. "

He is honest and shy by nature, and has no ambition. His hands that change his destiny are pale and powerless, and his youth flies by in the rush for survival.

The school decided to realize the university dream through postgraduate entrance examination.

In the summer of 28, his junior high school classmate Dong Suiqiang returned to his hometown to visit relatives. Teng Zhenguo suddenly thought, why not ask his old classmates to help him find a job?

Three months later, with the help of his old classmates, Teng Zhenguo became the main teaching building of logistics service in Jiangsu Normal University of Technology, with a monthly salary of RMB.

Teng Zhenguo's daily job is to look after the main teaching building, manage multimedia equipment, and is not responsible for cleaning. Which teacher needs multimedia, he is responsible for opening it.

for three years in a row, he was rated as an advanced model in college logistics.

In the meantime, he took his wife Feng Junmei to school and arranged for her to be a cleaner with a monthly salary of multiple yuan.

Teng Zhenguo is very satisfied with this kind of work and feels "like in a dream".

Wu Jinchuan, an art teacher familiar with him, encouraged him to take the opportunity to continue his studies, which just catered to Teng Zhenguo's desire to study. One day, he told his wife, "I'm going to get my lost things back here."

Teng Zhenguo soon took the undergraduate course of secretary self-taught examination in Nanjing Normal University. After passing 1 courses, he learned that he could take the postgraduate entrance examination with a college degree, and decided to "take five years to get into graduate school".

In, he took the postgraduate examination of philosophy major in Hainan University.

This time, he scored 56 points and 74 points in the English test, both exceeding the admission scores of national key universities, but the scores of professional courses were almost the same, and he failed to get what he wanted.

at the suggestion of a friend, he took an examination of Chongqing Normal University in the second year.

"Fan Jinzhongju" He thought the future would be bright from now on

In June, 26, Teng Zhenguo received a notice of admission to the public-funded master's degree program in the direction of ideological education of ethics major in the philosophy department of Chongqing Normal University.

at the age of 38, he turned from a migrant worker to a master's student. As soon as the news came out, he quickly became a "celebrity". Among the stars holding the moon, he felt that this was a big turning point in his life and his fate would change from now on.

He said, "This is my best year."

The Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Jiangsu Teachers College of Technology held a forum for him to listen to him talk about the past, feelings and ideals. The logistics leader held a special farewell party and personally drove him to the railway station.

in his hometown of Pingdingshan, he was selected as one of the "Top Ten News People who Moved Eagle City (Pingdingshan)" and "Top Ten Outstanding Youth in Ruzhou".

After returning home from the Spring Festival holiday in, Teng Zhenguo was invited to give lectures to students from Ruzhou Vocational Secondary School, No.1 High School, No.2 High School and Technical School.

Teng Zhenguo felt that he really deserved the pride of Ruzhou people at that time. "Being a graduate student is not simple, but it makes people look at each other differently.".

During the Spring Festival, my mother-in-law was much more enthusiastic when she went to her parents' home to pay a New Year call. She even gathered around him and said, "I voted for you and canvassed my neighbors and friends."

Friends who haven't seen each other for several years now take the initiative to join him, and some colleagues who have forgotten them also send them. "Speaking of this, I feel like Fan Jinzhong." Teng Zhenguo said.

Facing the 35-year-old threshold, the 41-year-old master was disappointed again and again.

Before the Spring Festival last year, there were still half a year before he graduated from the master's degree, the 41-year-old Teng Zhenguo began to look for a job. He wants to go back to Henan to teach in a university or take an examination of civil servants. To take a step back, he can teach in a middle school.

As one of the top ten outstanding young people in Ruzhou, Teng Zhenguo had the cheek to find Li Quansheng, secretary of Ruzhou Party Committee. Secretary Li told him that there is still a recruitment plan for the administrative institutions in Ruzhou, which can be reported as soon as it is recruited. However, later, Secretary Li said that he was too old. If there was a recruitment plan at that time, there was still no way to refuse to sign up after research by the leading group.

This made Teng Zhenguo realize that this road was impassable, and he began to find his own unit. He said: "Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Pingdingshan, I have submitted resumes to many schools, and the other party is not interested."

Several schools in Pingdingshan University, xuchang university, Zhengzhou and Luoyang have basically the same reply: "Older, majors are not right." Ruzhou Technical School, where he worked as an intern for half a year, also didn't want anyone. This is the school where he once gave a report to students with a whole body of glory.

Teng Zhenguo said, "I applied for the civil service, but people refused to register. I checked the conditions for participating in the civil service examinations in various provinces online, which are basically 35 years old or under. "

he once wanted to go to an enterprise. He found Tianrui Group in Ruzhou through connections, but he didn't make it. When applying for shenhuo group, people think he is too old ... Many resumes that have been submitted are even worse.

Some people have made statistics on the recruitment plans of civil servants in most provincial units and provincial vertical management systems in, and found that almost all positions are not available to people over 35 years old. Many college recruiters and other positions require a master's degree under 28 years old and a doctor's degree under 32 years old.

When more and more older graduate students are turned away, the "35-year-old phenomenon" of workplace employment discrimination is attracting attention from all sides, and some people have begun to call for legislation against discrimination.

It's hard to find a job for a senior master's degree.

In desperation, Teng Zhenguo went to work with the former Jiangsu Institute of Technology.

The leader of the school logistics service said to him, "As a graduate student, you should at least find a school to teach. Isn't it useless to learn and waste talents in our school? As you know, a high school student can do our work well. " He was speechless.

in August, 28, Teng Zhenguo returned to the logistics service property service center. His labor relations are exactly the same as before. The only difference is that it used to be a teaching building, but now it is a library.

Many colleagues who have worked together are still engaged in their original jobs. They were all surprised when they saw Teng Zhenguo: "Did you come back from graduation?" Some people say this sentence is a surprise, while others say it is contemptuous. "This is similar to the scene of working in farmland after the college entrance examination failed." Teng Zhenguo said, "When I left, I said I would always make Changzhou my second hometown. I never expected to come back."

In this year, Teng Zhenguo's daily work is to manage the air conditioning, lecture hall and monitoring room of the library to ensure the normal operation of these places.

Today, Teng Zhenguo's monthly salary is RMB, and the teaching building work he once did has risen to RMB. In this way, his salary is more than that of three years ago, which is the result of the general increase in wages.

Life is like a drama, but it's still just for survival

From postgraduate entrance examination to graduate school, he went to school in Chongqing, his wife worked as a cleaner in Jiangsu Technical Teachers College, his 8-year-old mother looked after his grandson in his hometown, and his family separated.

Teng Zhenguo's most uncomfortable thing is that his 15-year-old son Ma has been promoted to Grade Three, but he is addicted to playing games in his hometown, and his grades have plummeted. It seems that he is more interested in going out to work than going to school.

When the reporter interviewed him, he had just returned to his hometown from Changzhou, just trying to solve the children's problems. Taking him to Changzhou, the pressure on the couple will increase a lot. More importantly, the textbooks in the two places are different, which gives him a headache. He really wants to find a job in his hometown.

Teng Zhenguo said, "I don't regret going to graduate school. This kind of experience is a valuable asset. What is worrying me is that my present job is too different from my ideal to learn something useful."

His wife complains about him, so much for not going to graduate school. Going to graduate school wastes time and makes less money. In the face of more and more complaints from his wife, Teng Zhenguo once said, "I just want to study, which is my belief and reverence for knowledge", which has been shattered by reality. "Kaobo has no practical significance. When I graduate, I will be nearly half a year old. Who will want me?"

When he is alone, Teng Zhenguo will stand quietly by the school river, overlooking the small bridge on the river. When I was admitted to graduate school, there was a red banner "Congratulations to Teng Zhenguo for being admitted to public graduate school".

"If I get into the university successfully ... if I learn a skill ... if I get a college degree, I will go to work in the coastal areas ... if ..."

Unfortunately, there are no assumptions in life.