"I was a failure. I barely noticed whether the sun was shining, because I had no time.
"My parents couldn't support me, and I didn't have much education. I was alone in the city, searching for a future.
"I applied for many jobs, but no one hired me. Perhaps no one liked someone who wasn't good with words, disliked communicating, and hadn't shown enough ability.
"For three whole days, I ate only two loaves of bread. Hunger kept me awake at night. Fortunately, I had paid a month's rent in advance, so I could keep living in that dark basement instead of facing the extraordinarily cold winter winds outside.
"Finally, I found a job working nights at a hospital, watching over the morgue.
"The hospital at night was even colder than I'd imagined. The wall lamps in the corridors weren't lit, and everything was dim. I could only make out the ground beneath my feet by the little light spilling out of the rooms.
"It smelled terrible there. Every so often, a dead person would arrive stuffed into a body bag, and we would help carry him into the morgue.
"It wasn't a very good job, but at least it let me afford bread. I could also use my free time at night to study. After all, few people wanted to come to the morgue unless a body needed to be delivered or taken away for cremation. Of course, I still didn't have enough money to buy books, and for now, I saw no hope of saving any.
"I had my former colleague to thank. If he hadn't suddenly quit, I might not even have landed a job like this.
"I dreamed of taking a turn on the day shift. Always sleeping when the sun rose and getting up after