Chapter 1 Summer Wind
Jingang City is also known as the City of Angels.
The third largest port in the world and the largest daily throughput in the northern hemisphere, people have a lot of good reputation for this city!
It is like the gospel given by God to the world. Bathed in the glory of God, everything is perfect...
A hook!
The Federals like to call it the City of Angels, but in the eyes of others, there is not much difference between this place and hell.
For example, this is what Lance thinks at this time.
The City of Angels is too dangerous.
Almost every day there are several shootings in the city, maybe even a dozen.
Sometimes when gangs fight, the people who die in the fight need to be pulled away by trucks.
The rapid development of the local economy has also brought a large number of criminals and criminal groups. City officials corrupted by capital and black money look down on the entire city.
They only care about how much the numbers in their accounts can increase every month, not whether those at the bottom of society will starve to death or get into trouble.
What people always need is the economic myth it continues to create. Not many people care whether there are people struggling to survive behind those glamorous cities.
They don't want to know, and they don't allow anyone to know.
After all, this is the City of Angels, the engine of the federal economy!
Lance looked at the girl on the street in a daze. The moment this warm wind from the last century blew into people's hearts, it was as if the whole world was wearing a natural old filter.
It seems like the whole world is dim, and occasionally spots appear in some places due to overexposure.
The obviously wrong sound from the record player poured out of the speaker, adding another touch of flavor to this retro world.
The summer light heats up the city and also heats up the hearts of the girls.
Two young girls wearing sleeveless shirts, short skirts and small round hats passed by the bakery. Their energetic and joyful smiles made this city that looked like old photos suddenly brighten up.
With a "pop" sound, Lance, who had been slapped, looked away from the kitchen window. The owner of the bakery was standing behind him and staring at him fiercely.
"I invited you here to do the work, not to lie on the counter and look at the girl!"
He slapped his hands so hard that they crackled, "Move, move, you damn lazy bastard who is about to get maggots, don't let me see you hiding and lazing again, I paid for you to come!"
Lance scratched his head, picked up the rag and began to wipe the window.
Today's business is very average. A bakery like this is not located in a busy neighborhood or in the center of a city. It is like a bun shop outside a community in another world.
What they do is the daily business of the surrounding residents. The main business area is before 9:30 in the morning and after get off work in the afternoon.
At other times, there are basically no people around.
The owner of the bakery has the characteristics of a typical junior capitalist. While he oppresses himself, he also exploits his employees and tries to control them.
In addition to Lance, there is an apprentice in the bakery. Not only does he not earn a penny per month, he also pays the bakery owner ten yuan as tuition for learning the craft.
He has been here for more than half a year, and until now, he knows nothing but kneading dough.
The owner of the bakery is very fat, about 230 to 240 pounds, and he is very skilled in making bread.
The surrounding residents are all his loyal customers. The main product produced here, the whole wheat bread, has a very strong feeling of satiety and is less likely to cause hunger.
Lance secretly saw that this bitch added some extra wheat bran to the bread, so that the bread would be drier, harder, and more solid, and would be more popular with the poor.
Because it fills your stomach better and makes you less likely to be hungry.
Poor people don't care what they put in their stomachs, they only care about how resistant they are to hunger.
He didn't like the boss because he was mean and stingy.
Lance's monthly salary is fifteen yuan. The current average salary in the City of Angels is about sixty yuan. It is said that for this average, there is an additional subject called "statistics" in the university.
In fact, most workers earn only forty-five to fifty yuan a month.
Lance's salary is one-third of his actual salary. He actually doesn't want to take such a small salary and have to do endless work.
But there is no good way, he is a gangster.
I came to a ship inexplicably, and then the ship docked here.
According to the people on the boat, they all paid enough money to sneak into the Federation.
The rapid development of the federal economy lacks a large number of labor forces. Even today, when mechanization is promoted everywhere, you can still see people and cattle and horses working together in many factories.
In fact, sometimes you can't really tell them clearly, who is a human and who is a cow or horse.
The gap between humans and cows and horses is actually not as big as imagined.
The economy is developing rapidly, and there is always a huge gap in the labor force. The president is promoting the "Irregular Immigration Legalization Act."
To put it bluntly, it is to give illegal immigrants a legal citizenship, so that they can vote.
This move was supported by many unidentified criminals, and it also made the use of illegal workers more common. Everyone seemed to be aware of something, but they just didn't say it out loud.
It is precisely because he has no legal status that he can only work here, with a salary that is more than half less than others. This happens a lot in Jingang City. Everyone likes to use black accounts. If you obey, these budding novice capitalists will reduce their salary by another two yuan next month.
If you are not obedient enough, they will call the police and say they are being harassed by you.
This trick is very effective against gangsters.
A fellow villager who came with Lance has now received a free lunch.
All afternoon, he was busy in the bakery.
The smell of baking bread induced hunger in him over time, but now was not the time.
Only after get off work did he have a chance to eat the unsold bread.
The low-priced bread made by the bakery owner cannot be left overnight. After being left overnight, it becomes as hard as a brick. Although it can be eaten after being baked, it is not as good as fresh bread after all, so it will become their food.
Starting from a little after six o'clock, the work in the bakery became busy. The fat boss stood in front of the counter and was responsible for collecting the bills, while his daughter was responsible for filling the bread for the customers.
The apprentice worker couldn't rest for a moment, putting the prepared bread dough into the oven, and then continued kneading the dough.
Lance, on the other hand, is responsible for various chores.
Although the boss's daughter is not very beautiful, she is plump and has great taste.
A... rancid smell. If the smell on her body wasn't too strong, Lansi might have become a family with the bakery owner after biting her teeth.
But it was because the smell was so strong that he couldn't bear it.
The busy work finally ended after 8:30. Lance dragged his tired body to clean the bakery. He was not allowed to enter the back kitchen casually, so the main working place was in the front hall.
The fat boss sat at the dining table and counted today's income, the smile on his face completely uncontrollable.
It's hard to imagine that a sarcastic person can actually show such a soft and gentle smile. Maybe this is the power of money.
Lance finished cleaning the last area and arranged all the tools neatly. After making sure nothing was missing, he walked over to the fat boss.
The oppressive feeling when someone approached him made the fat boss raise his head and looked at Lance with some vigilance, "What are you going to do?"
Lance forced a smile, "It's been a month, Boss, my salary..."
The fat boss, who was still a little wary at first, almost jumped up as if someone stepped on his tail, "Salary?"
"What salary?"
"It rained heavily a few days ago. You didn't get a fever from the rain, did you?"
"You don't have a fever. What nonsense are you talking about?"
"What salary can you get?"
Looking at the fat boss who was jumping around as if someone was poking his eyes out, Lance was a little confused, "We agreed before, fifteen yuan a month."
The fat boss stared at Lance with wide eyes, "Yes, that's right, but have you ever thought about how you live here with me and eat my bread every day? Have you ever thought about how much you spent on me this month?" How much?"
He sat back down and flipped a page in his notebook. "The cheapest hotel nearby costs twenty-five cents a day. If you stay in the hotel, I'll give you twenty-five cents."
"This is a month and thirty-one days..."
"It's February, Boss."
"Shut up and listen to me!"
"Thirty-one days, twenty minutes a day is..."
Lance looked at the fat boss who was immediately stunned and reminded him in a low voice, "Six dollars and two, Boss."
The fat boss nodded, "You're right, six and a half dollars, and then you will eat a piece of bread from me every morning and evening."
"You know, I will sell every piece of bread for fifteen cents, that's..." He looked at Lance, waiting for Lance to give him a standard answer.
Lance lived up to his expectations, "Nine three dollars, Boss."
The fat boss added another number to his notebook, "Yes, nine and a half dollars, plus the cost of your accommodation, six and a half dollars, you will cost me... ten... eighteen yuan every month."
"But your salary is only fifteen, boy, so I ask you, what qualifications do you have to ask me for salary?"
"You owe me three dollars now, deducted from next month's paycheck, if you have one."
Lance was a little unbelievable. After all, this kind of thing only happened in "storybooks" and "history". Even though a month had passed, he had no actual "sense of participation".
For him, he is like a passerby in the long river of history. He may be amazed by the world, but he will not be too attached to it.
Until this moment——
"Are you... sure you're not joking?", he asked.
(End of chapter)