New Life on the Construction Site

——A Day in the Life of an Excavator Operator

At six in the morning, the sky is just beginning to brighten, and the city is still asleep.

Old Li is already wearing a reflective vest, sitting in the cab of his “iron partner” — a Xugong 215 excavator that has accompanied him for eight years.

He gently turns the joystick, the mechanical arm stretches like a dancer, and the bucket slowly probes into the soil, carrying the morning's dampness and the scent of grass.

“The excavator has its temperament,” Old Li says, “you have to go along with it, and it will listen.”

The camera sweeps over his calloused hands, sunlight filters through the small window of the cab and falls on his face, his eyes reflecting the distant tower cranes and the rising sun.

“Many people think this work is dull, but what I dig every day is not just soil, but also the dreams of others.”

On this construction site, a residential building will rise three months later. Old Li knows that in the future, a family will be drinking tea in the living room and drying clothes on the balcony, and the first layer of foundation for this piece of land is precisely what he has dug out, scoop by scoop.

The construction site quiets down in the afternoon, he turns off the engine, takes out a drawing board and pencil — this is his little secret.

Every time he completes a project, he draws the excavator and the surrounding scenery as a memento.

“When I retire, I’ll hold a small art exhibition, and I’ll call it ‘The Shape of Soil’.”

As the sun sets, the mechanical arm traces a golden arc in the twilight.

Old Li smiles and says: “Others are on the road, I am on the construction site, but we are all heading towards a new life.”