Chapter 474: Working (1/2)
Chapter 474: Working
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Ye Qiuyu had fed Chen Jiayi and wiped her mouth, she was called over by Luo Yuan, ”Doctor Ye, can you please come over?”
Ye Qiuyu did not know why but quickly trotted over, ”Mayor Luo, how can I help you?”
”This is your share.” Luo Yuan picked up the remaining piece of the energy crystal and handed it to her.
Ye Qiuyu looked at the almost completely transparent piece of energy crystal and was stunned for a moment. She then breathed heavily and quickly shirked, saying, ”This... This is too valuable Mayor Luo.”
”Don’t be so concerned about it. Just take it.” Luo Yuan patted her on the shoulder, ”Just do your job well.”
This was the first time Luo Yuan had intimate contact with her body. The warmth of his palms went through her thin clothes and penetrated her skin. Ye Qiuyu shivered and her face turned slightly pale.
At this point, her mind was messy and she did not know what to do. She was always deep in thought and sometimes a common word would be much considered and analyzed in her mind, ”Is this a hint? What should I do? Should I insist to reject or pretend not to understand the hint and just accept it for now?”
Luo Yuan looked at her pale and flushed face and thought that she was shy to accept it, so he took up her hand and placed the piece of energy crystal on her palm and said, ”Take it!”
Ye Qiuyu looked at it and was stunned as if she had lost her mind. It was only after a while that she regained her consciousness and found that Luo Yuan had walked over to Chen Jiayi.
She bit her lip, retracted her hand, and looked at that piece of energy crystal. Even though it was physically light, she felt that it was heavy in value.
...
A shrill sounding alarm suddenly rang somewhere around midnight.
Cui Weichuan, who was still fast asleep with his eyes shut, was confused for a while when he suddenly became conscious and was completely awakened by the sound.
Today was his first day of work so he could not afford to be late. He quickly woke up and switched off the alarm.
He was originally an entry level public servant in Desert City. Unfortunately, the entire Desert City was buried underground after it was hit by a major earthquake and thus he came to Hope City as a refugee.
At that time, Hope City had accepted a large number of refugees from all the other cities which consisted of some public servants like him so it was impossible to assign jobs to everyone.
After waiting for a few days, he was assigned as a deputy minister in the logistic department of the first steel plant in Hope City.
This career was not bad as it was considered a small promotion to some extent. He had speculated that there was a certain factor that had contributed to this hiring process because he knew a great man and it was also because of this man that he was able to come to Hope City with his daughter. Perhaps this was the reason why he got the exceptional promotion.
To the great man, the period of friendship might have been insignificant and he might even just be considered as an acquaintance. However to him, it was probably a turning point in his life.
However, goods things do not last long and the brutal disaster that had happened a few months ago buried his factory deep underground in just a matter of minutes. He was fortunate to have survived as he was assigned the day shift on that day and so he was not in the factory when the incident took place.
The entire Hope City was in chaos and darkness during that period of time. There was crying throughout the night and everyone was mourning in the city. Some of the people were hopeless about the future and released their desperation everywhere. Occasionally, gunshots could be heard on the streets too.
Those were his most feared days and he and his daughter had hid in his lodge and did not dare to go out for a few days.
Fortunately, the chaos did not last for too long and everything started to improve gradually. Order was restored in the city and there was hope in Hope City even though he had completely lost his job.
Unemployment days were quite tough as he could only go to the cafeteria which belonged to the public welfare to line up every day and fill his stomach. Though he was not starved, he did not eat sufficiently too. Usually, he also had to think twice even if he wanted to purchase some small items for home.
As a new migrated refugee, he did not have much savings and had almost depleted most of it by now. He could still tolerate a poor life but he did not want to let his daughter suffer together with him. His daughter was even being discriminated by the other students at the boarding school.
He must get a job! Fortunately, studying was completely free since the apocalypse or he would not even be able to afford the school fees.
He went into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. After he cleaned himself up, he walked to the closet and took out all his clothes and wore all of them on, layer by layer. His job required him to work in the cold so had to keep warm.
He put on all the clothes on his body and suddenly started to sweat. He wanted to take off a few pieces but decided against it after he had given it some thought. It was just a few steps to the first level which was only one layer away from the outside world. The temperature would have dropped a lot over there.
Finally, he pulled out a fur coat, leather gloves, and boots, and held them in his hands before he closed the wardrobe.
This three-piece suit was quite heavy, especially the fur coat that was about 20 pounds or more in weight. The outside layer was a mutated creature’s skin that was only 3.5 millimeters thick while the inner liner was generally soft red fur. The suit served like a heater after he wore it on his body regardless of how cold it was outside.
Last time when Cui Weichuan wanted to buy the cold clothing during a limited sale, he had to queue up for an entire day under the temperature of -30 degrees Celsius before he managed to buy the clothes for him and his daughter. Furthermore, the clothes had taken up most of his savings.
However, he started to regret after they had only wore it for a few days as heating lamps were installed all over Hope City, which caused the temperature to get warmer as if it was spring. The expensive cold clothings then became luxurious accessories lying inside his wardrobe and every time when he saw them his heart pained.
Nonetheless, everything happened for a reason and this time the job requirement clearly stated that the workers had to bring their own leather jacket. When he thought of it, he felt that it was kind of prescient to know that he would have needed it someday in the future.
The pay of this work was very high - almost three times more than normal. Besides, he was hired as a team lead to manage more than 100 people as he had experience in management. His salary was two times more than a normal worker’s so his life would be better off after this.
He closed the door and walked out of the house and soon came to the first level of the underground area.
This level had collapsed during the disaster but it had been repaired after that so he could see the different layers of cement that had been used.
He found that he was not the earliest but rather there were hundreds of people earlier than him. Now, most of the space had been transformed into a large open-air food hall and people were eating breakfast during this time.
When Cui Weichuan smelled the tasty food, his stomach kept rumbling so he immediately went to the counter and ordered a breakfast set too.
When he chatted with the chef, he received good news that the food here was not limited. These days Cui Weichuan had not been eating sufficiently and it was pretty suffering. He could finally eat as much as he needed now.
The crowd started to pick up as breakfast time got closer. The cafeteria that was silent at first was slowly getting crowded and his dining table was also gradually filled up with people.
”Hey, Chief Cui!”
”Hey brother, you are here too!” Cui Weichuan said quickly as looked up and found his previous department colleagues.
”What can I do if I don't come here? This is the only place that provides sufficient food to eat.” Lao Hu said with a wry smile. Apparently, he had suffered during this period too.