Chapter 179: A Poor Way for Poor Times
When she shortened the duration to six hours, the system still indicated that the target employee could not apply.
Jian Xingxia reduced it all the way down: four hours, three hours, two hours, one hour…
Jian Xingxia was practically dying of anxiety. “My good brother, your maximum wage for one hour is only one yuan! If you don’t apply soon, you won’t be able to carry anything back even when you do come!”
In the end, she could only adjust it by the minute: fifty minutes, forty minutes, thirty minutes…
Only at the very final attempt, with the working time set to ten minutes, did the new notification finally cease popping up.
Jian Xingxia had been tapping for so long that she had developed an operational inertia. Staring at the calm system interface for a good while, it finally registered in her mind—
Shang Yue was coming!
Jian Xingxia hurriedly rode her electric tricycle, bringing a cartload of supplies, and rushed down to the foot of the mountain to receive him.
In the mountains, the sky grew dark early and brightened early too.
At five in the morning, the morning light was faintly dawning. Dew had condensed upon the wild grass and small blossoms by the roadside. Devoid of summer heat, the air felt exceptionally cool and refreshing.
Wearing a long-sleeved standing-collar shirt with puffed cuffs and lantern pants, Jian Xingxia still felt a trace of chill. Ignoring the bumpy mountain track, Jian Xingxia drove straight down to the foot of the mountain in one breath, focusing her mind to wait.
Last time, Shang Yue had emerged from a hole in the ground like a prairie dog. Jian Xingxia kept her gaze fixed on the ground, scanning the area with a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sweep. She looked so focused she felt like she was playing Whac-A-Mole.
Before two minutes had passed, the ground beneath a large tree covered by withered leaves suddenly stirred, and a tall figure emerged from the dirt.
Even though this was the second time she had witnessed this scene, Jian Xingxia still found it somewhat startling yet amusing. But before she could even manage to greet him, she caught sight of Shang Yue’s left leg.
“You’re injured?!”
Having stayed inside the dark mine shaft for a long time, Shang Yue found it highly difficult to open his eyes under the stinging glare of the early morning light. It took him a good while to adapt. With bloodshot eyes, he reported the circumstances to his benefactor.
“Yes. My leg was snapped by a falling rock, but it has already been splinted.”
Shang Yue earnestly implored Jian Xingxia, “We have a young brother whose abdomen was pierced by a broken timber the size of this. He lost a lot of blood… Although it didn’t strike his vital organs, the wound is massive and looks highly terrifying.”
Jian Xingxia handed a stack of fried glutinous rice cakes with sweet oil sauce to Shang Yue. “Eat while we talk!”
The cakes had been fried by the plump auntie yesterday morning—pumpkin glutinous rice cakes wrapped in a filling of white sugar, sesame, and crushed peanuts, exceptionally fragrant and dense in calories. Originally, Jian Xingxia hadn’t intended to give such high-oil, high-sugar, deep-fried glutinous rice foods to the ancient temporary workers right off the bat, fearing their stomachs wouldn’t adapt.
But Shang Yue only had ten minutes. Nothing was smaller in volume yet higher in calories than this sugar-and-oil mixture. Faced with a matter of life and death, stomach issues meant nothing.
Having dug earth all night, Shang Yue was also ravenously hungry at this moment. Since Jian Xingxia told him to eat, he grabbed them and crammed them into his mouth.
While he was busy eating, Jian Xingxia took the opportunity to explain what she hadn’t found time to clarify yesterday. “Coming here to my place counts as performing labor, and you exchange your working hours for wages. Your wage is only one yuan per hour… which means one yuan for half a watch, and one yuan is… Oh, forget it, I’ll explain next time!”
Yesterday she had felt pressed for time. Looking at it now, today’s time was even tighter!
Jian Xingxia didn’t bother explaining further, only hurriedly having Shang Yue test whether the supplies she had prepared could be carried back while he ate. Today Shang Yue could only come for ten minutes, which was one-sixth of an hour, meaning his wage amounted to less than twenty cents. Jian Xingxia had truly racked her brains to come up with a solution.
First of all, she knew that gutter oil could be carried back. The plump auntie had also proven that leftovers and swill counted as waste, costing virtually zero money, or only a very minor sum.
Jian Xingxia had dumped last night’s leftover dishes and rice into a plastic ziplock bag, pounding and kneading it with her hands… The process was a bit disgusting, but it was also somewhat therapeutic. The result, however, was a bag of meat, eggs, rice cakes, and buns that could no longer be recognized in their original form.
The appearance was exceptionally poor, but the calories were absolutely dense. Jian Xingxia had only learned this morning that Shang Yue could only stay for ten minutes, so she had hammered out two bags in a mad rush. After pouring them out of the plastic bags, she wrapped them in rehydrated dried lotus leaves, creating two heavily weighted bundles.
Jian Xingxia had Shang Yue hold them. “See if you can carry them away.”
Shang Yue’s mouth was still packed with a fried cake—this time it had meat filling. “Yes! Yes!” With his mouth stuffed, his speech was highly muffled, but the pure excitement and gratitude in his eyes were clearly visible.
“Good, food is resolved. Next is water.”
Food and water were inseparable. Shang Yue and his group were trapped beneath a mine shaft; she feared a lack of water would be far more terrifying than a lack of food. River water was easy to manage, costing nothing with zero investment.
However, a tool to hold water wasn’t easy to source. An object that fit the development level of the Great Yu Dynasty yet remained cheap could only be a bamboo tube. But even for a bamboo tube, the system had a pricing mechanism, counting one as worth at least a few cents.
Jian Xingxia could only pull out the straw mats from the side room, soaking them entirely inside a bucket of water.
Jian Xingxia said to Shang Yue, “You can’t carry the bucket away. Right before you leave in a bit, carry this straw mat away. Once you return, have your companions draw the water from the straw mat at the first opportunity.”
Shang Yue nodded repeatedly—he himself was currently gulping down the warm water inside a bamboo tube in massive drafts. The warm water tasted a bit strange, sweet yet a bit salty, as if mixed with sugar and salt.
“There is another straw mat here, which has been soaked in gutter oil… However, the manor has only just opened for business, so there isn’t much gutter oil.” Jian Xingxia scratched her head. “I had to borrow the waste oil from people’s range hoods…”
Shang Yue likely couldn’t understand. Jian Xingxia also felt highly awkward.
Last night, when she suddenly asked Auntie Lu to collect the range hood waste oil from every household in the village, it had caused Auntie Lu to look her over repeatedly, harboring deep suspicions.
Auntie Lu had held Jian Xingxia’s hand, advising her with bittersweet earnestness, “Xiaxia, ah, your business has just gotten off the ground, and your reputation is pretty decent. You absolutely must not do something against your conscience just for a bit of petty cash!”
Jian Xingxia repeatedly argued… no, explained, “Auntie Lu, I’m collecting this waste oil for composting.”
Auntie Lu remained suspicious. “You want fertilizer? I’ll have your Uncle Lu haul two tubs up for you.” Many people in Lu’an Village still used organic farm manure.
Jian Xingxia could only brace herself to offer a secondary excuse: “It’s not just for composting, but also to prepare fuel for future bonfire camping… Yes, waste oil costs no money, so saving a bit wherever possible is good.”
This triggered Auntie Lu’s key criteria. This time Auntie Lu believed her. She nodded, and the look in her eyes finally transformed from doubt, worry, and condemnation into realization, care, and approval.
“That’s true. Buying charcoal costs money. Can this oil truly burn? If so, I’ll go gather it for you!”
Currently, Auntie Lu’s word carried weight in the village. The moment she spoke, every single household bustled into action, and before long, they had collected a tub of waste oil for Jian Xingxia.
Waste oil was worthless, but the villagers had put in quite a bit of effort bustling about deep in the night to clean their range hoods and scrape the oil. Jian Xingxia had hesitantly asked Auntie Lu if she should give the villagers a bit of compensation for their hard work.
As it turned out, the villagers cheerfully refused. “No money, no money! Xiaxia, if you host bonfire camping, we can make money along with you! This bit of waste oil was useless anyway, and the range hoods need periodic cleaning. Take it and use it as you please! We’ll save next month’s for you too!”
Thus, Jian Xingxia obtained a tub of concentrated, refined gutter oil.
