1.
Qingyuan is like 19, knows nothing about the world, but once he saw a flyer about making big money in Canada.
So he just goes.
2.
He steps off the ship and immediately realizes:
Yeah… this place is not the dream people talked about.
Cold wind, strange language, people staring at him like he doesn’t belong.
He already misses home but it’s too late.
3
They send him to work on the railroad in BC.
The mountains are huge and kind of scary—like they don’t want humans cutting through them.
He hangs off cliffs with a rope, hammering spikes.
Hands start bleeding on day one.
No one cares.、
4.
Work is terrible, but nights are somehow worse.
Cold wooden shack, maybe 12 guys squeezed together.
Soup that’s mostly water.
Mice running around like they pay rent.
He writes a letter home but doesn’t even know if it’ll get sent.
5.
Then winter comes and it’s like nature wants them gone.
Snow everywhere, tools freezing, people coughing nonstop.
Some guys collapse and just… don’t get up again.
Qingyuan keeps thinking:
I have to go home. I promised my mom.
6.
There’s this blast they’re doing—nothing special, just another day.
But the fuse goes off too fast.
A flash, a sound, and everything disappears.
Qingyuan ends up under rocks and snow.
A few guys pull him out, but it’s already too late.
Nobody even knows his real name.
7.
His mom waits every day at the door.
She tells neighbors he’ll come back soon.
But nothing comes—no letter, no ship, no news.
Just more waiting
8.
Years later, the railroad was finished.
Trains run every day.
No one talks about guys like Qingyuan.
He becomes one of those names the wind carries away.
The road he helped build goes somewhere—
just not home.