Chapter 1706 Survival from desperate situation
Qin Huacheng never imagined that one day he would be doing such tiring physical work on a construction site, let alone that he could persist for two and a half days under extreme fatigue. If he was still in Manila, he would probably have been at most one The effort of burning incense will be given up. But he also understood that his persistence was entirely for the purpose of survival, and it was not that his will had really become stronger than before, it was just a reaction of being forced to do nothing.
But the only good thing is that at least the prison authorities are not too stingy in the supply of food. Although they eat only simple meals, they are at least enough to keep the prisoners full, allowing the prisoners to have the physical strength to continue such intense work. Of course, from another perspective, the purpose of the prison is to squeeze the physical strength of the prisoners as much as possible and complete a huge workload with less labor.
Qin Huacheng was so tired that he had no energy to think about anything else. He believed that other prisoners would not be any better than him. However, from the perspective of prison management, these prisoners who are so tired that they collapse are obviously less likely to get into trouble and easier to manage. If anyone still has the energy to cause trouble after completing such a workload, then Qin Huacheng would really admire him.
Although he had no appetite at all, Qin Huacheng still forced himself to finish his lunch, otherwise he might faint from insufficient calorie replenishment before the afternoon work began. Qin Huacheng really wanted to beg the guard again to let him change to a slightly easier position, otherwise he might have to be carried back to the hard labor camp after the afternoon's work was over.
However, while Qin Huacheng was still considering his words, the guard had already taken the initiative to find him and asked him to follow him. Although Qin Huacheng didn't know what he meant, there was nothing unusual about the other person's expression, so he quickly struggled to get up from the ground, wiped the dust off his butt, and followed the guard.
Qin Huacheng followed the guard a hundred meters away and had already left the construction site. Just when he wanted to ask what was going on, he saw a group of fully armed soldiers in front of him, and the man surrounded by clothes in the middle, At a glance, he knew he was a high-ranking Haihan official - just like the high-ranking Haihan officials he had seen in Manila.
Sure enough, the guard leading the way had already bowed down and quickened his pace. However, when he was at least two feet away from the senior official, he was stopped by the armed guard. When Qin Huacheng saw this, he quickly stopped and waited aside.
The high-ranking Haihan official surrounded by armed guards was none other than Tan Juren, the local civil affairs official. The reason why he came to the construction site ahead was not specifically to summon Qin Huacheng. During the inspection of the project, he heard that Qin Huacheng had persuaded several agitated Spanish prisoners in the hard labor camp the day before, so he stopped by to meet this rumored prisoner. A prisoner who spent a few days as a security policeman in Manila.
After Tan Juren briefly exchanged a few words with the guard, he asked Qin Huacheng to step forward and reply. Although Qin Huacheng didn't know why the high-ranking official summoned him, he had a vague feeling that it was definitely not a bad thing, and it was most likely an opportunity for him to make a comeback. So he decisively knelt on the ground, assuming a posture of surrender and waiting for orders.
Qin Huacheng's active display of weakness made Tan Juren feel quite comfortable. One of his principles for employing people is to be sensible and obedient. They may not be very capable, but they must obey the instructions. Qin Huacheng seems to be this kind of person. .
"Qin Huacheng, I have read your file. Since you live in Manila, you should be able to speak Spanish, right?" Tan Juren did not ask Qin Huacheng to stand up and reply. After all, this guy's current identity is just a lowly prisoner, not his own. There is no need for subordinates to pay him too much attention.
Qin Huacheng lay on the ground and did not dare to raise his head to look at Tan Juren. Hearing this, he quickly responded: "Look back to the commander, I can listen and speak, and it is easy to communicate with Westerners."
Tan Juren said: "Okay, from today on, you will be responsible for acting as a translator in the hard labor camp. Someone will assign you specific tasks. If you do well, your life will be easier in the future. If you do not do well, then you will come back and continue to do hard labor. , understand?”
Qin Huacheng was overjoyed and quickly responded: "Thank you, chief!"
Tan Juren had no intention of talking to him anymore, so he waved his hand to signal the guards to take Qin Huacheng away. He was willing to give the prisoner a chance to prove himself, but he would not waste too much of his time on it, as long as he decided on the candidate. As for whether this person is competent in the future, there will naturally be a follow-up report from the hard labor camp. If he still behaves as haphazardly as the few Han prisoners he promoted before, then just send him back to the construction site to dig in the mud.
"Stop kneeling and get up. The leaders are all gone!" Seeing Qin Huacheng kneeling on the ground and not getting up for a long time, the guard went over and patted him on the back to tell him to get up quickly.
Qin Huacheng slowly turned his head, looked at the guard with a face full of pain and said: "Sir, help me, my feet are cramped and I can't stand up..."
No matter how embarrassed he was at this time, Qin Huacheng still had the luck that others envied, because on the second day after he entered the hard labor camp to serve his sentence, he was selected by a senior official from Haihan to do a relatively easy job as a translator. And once he has a mission, it is equivalent to having an additional official protection, and his life will definitely be better than now.
The appointment personally issued by Tan Juren had an immediate effect. When Qin Huacheng returned to the construction site, he was told by the guards that he no longer had to do the morning's work. Instead, he was immediately assigned to another place to direct and coordinate with the guards. Supervise the labor of a team of Spanish prisoners.
Qin Huacheng's task is very simple, that is, to translate the guards' orders into Spanish and convey them to the prisoners, and direct them to work on the construction site. For him, this is just a matter of words, which is a hundred times easier than the previous work. Qin Huacheng couldn't help but secretly sigh that maybe this was a turn of events. After his unlucky situation reached the extreme, his fortune finally improved a little bit. There are currently about a hundred Hispanic prisoners working on this construction site, divided into several teams, and Qin Huacheng is the only one who serves as translator. Before he received this assignment, the main way for guards to communicate with Hispanic prisoners was with sticks, and conflicts often occurred due to poor communication between the two parties. Although the Hispanic prisoners tried to cause trouble several times, they all ended in failure. In the process, several Hispanic prisoners were beaten to death by the guards during the suppression.
Qin Huacheng's mission was to stabilize the emotions of these Hispanic prisoners and avoid violent conflicts due to poor communication. Soon he found that he could try to explain the prison's point management system to the Hispanic prisoners to help them better Understand and abide by the prison's arrangements. Of course, Qin Huacheng himself knew little about this system. During the explanation process, he also deepened his understanding of this system and truly felt Haihan's advancement in the prisoner management system.
When he finished work in the evening and returned to the hard labor camp, he found that the way in which cell leader Lin Xingsui looked at him had changed. Lin Xingsui asked him carefully about the process of his appointment, and at the end he couldn't help but sigh: "Brother, you are really lucky. I remember that I worked hard from dawn to dusk for three months before I finally got the warden to notice me. You just I received such a good job just two days ago, and it was appointed by the high official on the island personally, which is much better than me.”
Qin Huacheng quickly said a few polite words and said that thanks to Mr. Lin for taking care of him, he said so. Although he was promoted to a high-ranking official in Haihan today, he did not dare to get carried away with it, nor did he want the prison boss to feel that he would be arrogant once he gained power. Lin Xingsui's purpose was naturally to further build relationships. He didn't know if there was any other reason why the high-ranking officials of Haihan liked Qin Huacheng. But since the prison authorities adjusted Qin Huacheng's job so quickly, it is assumed that Qin Huacheng will also be among the prisoners in the future. They are a privileged class, even a higher class than themselves - at least they don't have to be so tired during labor.
Lin Xingsui knew that he could not do Qin Huacheng's errands, and there was no conflict of interest between the two of them. Now he should maintain his personal relationship well, and maybe he would turn to Qin Huacheng for help in the future. The humility shown by Qin Huacheng also made Lin Xingsui very pleased, thinking that his care for him in the past two days had been duly rewarded.
Lin Xingsui immediately struck while the iron was hot and instilled his own values into Qin Huacheng, saying that we are all in trouble. Since we are destined to meet in this prison, we should try our best to take care of each other and tide over the difficulties together.
Qin Huacheng nodded in agreement while listening. If someone had said this to him before his accident, he would probably have shown his face to the other person on the spot. However, after going through some hardships, Qin Huacheng also understands that his abilities are limited. If you continue to act on your own as before, you will stumble sooner or later. Although Lin Xingsui has no outstanding abilities, he came in earlier than himself. He must know more about the situation in this hard labor camp, especially the relationship between prisoners and prison officials than he does, so he still needs to remain respectful. Don't offend the other party easily.
After breakfast the next day, Qin Huacheng was called out by the guard because the warden wanted to see him. Qin Huacheng knew that this treatment was probably related to the appointment he received yesterday, so he didn't feel too surprised at the moment.
Qin Bodu, the warden of the Second Battalion of Hard Labor Battalion, was an official transferred from Haihan. In his early years, he also served as a prison guard under Ren Liang, the current director of the Haihan Police Department. Later, the police recruited internal personnel and voluntarily transferred to overseas colonies. Qin Bodu signed up for the opportunity to be promoted to an official position. After working in the colony of Indochina for more than a year, he was transferred to Xingdao and was appointed as the warden of the Second Battalion of Hard Labor.
Qin Bodu came to Xingdao at the same time as Tan Juren. As soon as he took office, Roger handed over the jurisdiction of the hard labor camp to Tan Juren, so for Qin Bodu, Tan Juren was his recognized immediate superior.
Tan Juren wants to promote a new management system in the hard labor camp, improve the labor efficiency of the prisoners through scientific management and reasonable arrangements, and reduce the frequency of security incidents in the hard labor camp. Qin Bodu fully cooperates with it, even if there are some problems in the implementation process. Even though he stumbled a little, he still insisted on following Tan Juren's instructions. Qin Bodu did not use this to flatter his boss, but he really believed that if Tan Juren's system could be implemented in place, the expected management goals could be achieved.
However, after the Battle of Manila, the Spanish prisoners of war who arrived in batches brought a lot of trouble to Qin Bodu's management. His hard labor camp was not equipped with a Spanish translator, and the existing language barrier led to many inconveniences. Necessary trouble and conflict. The few Chinese prisoners who understood Spanish previously selected either had limited abilities and were unable to communicate verbally with Spanish prisoners at all, or they were crooked and expected to use this position for their own personal gain. These people were fired by Qin Bodu after working for only a few days. It was not until yesterday that he heard the guard report that Tan Juren had personally appointed a new prisoner to be a Spanish translator.
Since the candidate was personally selected by his boss, Qin Bodu could not turn a blind eye to it, so he summoned Qin Huacheng early in the morning to meet this lucky guy with the same surname as himself.
However, Qin Bodu's first impression of Qin Huacheng can only be described as unremarkable. This prisoner looks no different from the hundreds of other prisoners in the second hard labor camp. His face is sallow and his eyes are slightly swollen. Although he tried hard to think He stood up straight but looked exhausted. If there was something special about him, it would probably be the stubbornness in Qin Huacheng's eyes. Qin Bodu has actually felt this kind of aura from many people, and these people have one thing in common with Qin Huacheng, that is, they have just arrived at Star Island, and the edges and corners on their bodies have not been smoothed yet.
Qin Bodu couldn't say he admired or disliked this kind of atmosphere. He had seen too many people here turned into machines that only obeyed orders and worked, and most of those who were unwilling to submit were lying in hard labor. In the cemetery opposite the camp gate. If Qin Huacheng had not been lucky enough to be chosen by his boss, then there would be nothing more than these two endings waiting for him. Either he would have to survive with his edges smoothed out, or he would die here in obscurity.
"The hard labor camp does not support idle people, but if you are really capable, then even in the hard labor camp, you can live better than most people." Qin Bodu's opening remarks were very straightforward: "Since you are selected by the chief I will give you a chance to perform, but if your performance disappoints me, all the preferential treatment you have received will be immediately withdrawn, and I will let you go back to the construction site to work with other prisoners. You understand. ”
Qin Huacheng had already heard similar words when he was interviewed by Tan Juren yesterday. However, Tan Juren said it more implicitly, but when it came from Qin Bodu, the warden, it seemed more straightforward and impactful.
(End of chapter)