Chapter 8 Silence is equal to consent
Look more carefully, there is a small red note below that outrageous period [Converted according to the base account balance]
Working years are calculated based on the account balance? Qi Huan frowned, clicked on the line of small words, and his eyes went dark again:
[Base account balance: -17969052]
Qi Huan felt like he was about to break apart. Maybe they sent him here from afar to help him survive this difficult time.
He originally thought that the residents of the abandoned planet were the bottom of the alliance, but he didn't expect that he still overestimated his social status. This is not the bottom at all, it is clearly the negative seventeenth floor, where they don't even have the most basic personal freedom.
After eating two pieces of deluxe hodgepodge burritos in succession, Qi Huan pieced himself together again. In order to find out where the debt came from, he began to look through the details at the back.
The way the details of the debt are recorded is similar to the logic of bank statements. They are arranged in reverse chronological order, with the latest at the top.
The first item was the fee for using the base's medical cabin, which was 330,000 silver coins per hour. He lay there for a total of 28 hours, plus the cost of medicine, labor, and other medical supplies, totaling 9,509,000 silver coins.
Qi Huan sighed. No wonder he felt something was wrong. Such a poor place actually had such a good benefit as free medical care. It turned out that they were automatically keeping accounts.
Apart from this "life-saving fee" that belonged to him, the rest were all debts to the original owner and the debts of the father to be repaid by the son - debts transferred from Uncle Lin Sen.
Most of what the original owner owed was Uncle Lin Sen's medical expenses, house repairs, and the purchase of new kitchen appliances, totaling just over five million.
The rest was owed by Uncle Lin Sen. The three largest payments came from the store opening license, store equipment and renovation, and the original owner's base quota fee. A lot of it had been paid back over the years, and there was still more than three million left.
After looking through the account details and searching the base announcement regulations for the key words, Qi Huan angrily took a big bite of the burrito at the eight-digit debt. The original owner was hit by both life and the base! What base employees? Isn't it because the labor cost-effectiveness of the natives of the waste planet? It's clearly the evil feudal slavery that has changed its name and continues to exploit!
Simply put, although the base will provide training to the recruited employees, training fees need to be paid. Food and accommodation provided during the training also need to be paid for. It doesn't matter if you don't have money. Just keep a record of it first, and then slowly repay it with your salary after you obtain the qualification to work in the base.
After moving into the base, the rent of the assigned house needs to be charged, and the uniformly provided equipment - such as the basic personal terminal in Qi Huan's hand - also needs to be recorded in the bill. As for other situations, such as choosing to open a store with a loan, or damaging the public equipment in the base, they will be added to the personal bill.
The original owner was still young and could not get a staff spot, so Uncle Lin Sen had to choose to take out a loan to open the store - the store owner can get additional spots to bring family members or hire employees, but of course they also need to pay for them.
The total amount of debt owed by each person is converted into years of work at the base and automatically updated on the first day of each month. Qi Huan's 250-year contract was added up in this way.
In terms of income, ordinary base employees have two fixed incomes. One is the base subsidy enjoyed by all employees of the base, and the other is the salary at the workplace. However, when added together, they don't make much. It's basically enough to cover the basic needs of life. After paying rent, energy fees and other expenses every month, there is not much left. Most people in the base can only survive on the cheapest nutritional supplements provided free of charge by the base as their main food, which is why they have to engage in "side jobs" such as picking up garbage.
Accounts can be written off in three situations.
The first is the cancellation of debts after death. When the debtor dies, if he has relatives or children, the debt will be automatically transferred to him. If there is no successor, the debt will be automatically cleared 30 days after his death.
The second is to cancel the contract and expel the staff. The base has three assessment standards for staff: public security, professional ability, and base contribution. If the score is below the standard, the staff will be dismissed and expelled from the base. At that time, although the huge debt does not need to be repaid, the security guarantee is lost, and facing the stone beast is basically a dead end.
Even if one is extremely skilled and can deal with stone beasts, one can only spend the rest of his life living in fear as a vagrant or illegal resident in the hunting area. Without the limited resident status granted by the base, one will never be able to set foot on other planets.
The owner of the house on the right side of the restaurant was deducted all his security points and expelled from the base due to robbery.
As the current owner of the restaurant, his residence rights are also in jeopardy. Food ratings and customers' complaints to the command hall will deduct the store's professional points. The professional points of Renjian Restaurant are already on the verge of the bottom line. If more points are deducted, he will have no choice but to close the store, terminate the contract, cancel his status and expel him from the base.
The last way to clear the account is to redeem oneself. Pay off the debt and reset the term of the work contract to zero. Then you can make your own choice, such as applying to move to another planet as a resident of an abandoned planet.
The original owner of a store like this has more flexible income. The purchase cost is borne by himself, and the store profit belongs to himself. The relative income is higher than that of ordinary base employees, and there is a better chance to save money to pay off the debt. But opening a store is actually a bigger pitfall. Various handling fees are sky-high. Except for a very few hardworking and successful businesses, paying off the debt is basically an impossible task.
Everyone in the discussion forum said that the 'best' option is to lie down, live a routine life, and stay here to work for the rest of your life.
At first, Qi Huan thought that the base might want to spread out the bad debts of "death" and "departure", so they deliberately raised the rent and other prices. After seeing the comments and mentality of most people in the discussion area, he realized that the deliberate increase in prices was true, but the base managers were more evil than he thought. In addition to the cost issue, they wanted to use the huge amount of debt to extinguish the hope of these people leaving the base, so that they could "lie down" and work in accordance with the law. Only in this way can the entire base operate like a machine with stable personnel and smooth operation.
The stone beasts he saw at the unloading site in the afternoon flashed through his mind, and Qi Huan felt that he might not survive more than three days after leaving the base. It was impossible for him to lie down, so he chose to earn money to redeem himself without hesitation. His future goal was to fight for his personal freedom and financial freedom!
The debt is 18 million, and the contract is for 250 years. The alliance has a total of 13 months and 390 days each year. It can be inferred that the original owner's daily salary is about 184 silver coins. According to the past expense details in the bill, it is roughly estimated that the rent, water, electricity, management fees and other costs of the human restaurant are about 192 silver coins per day. If nothing is done, the debt will increase by 8 silver coins every day.
The shops are responsible for their own profits and losses. If the daily profit of a restaurant can reach 300 silver coins, it will take about 154 years to pay off the debt. If the daily profit is 500 silver coins, it will take about 92 years to pay off the debt. If the daily profit is 1,000 silver coins, it will take 46 years to pay off the debt. If the daily profit can reach 4,500 silver coins, it will only take a little over ten years.
By this calculation, there is still a chance to pay off the debt. Qi Huan ate the remaining half of the burrito and consoled himself silently.
He was trying to come to terms with himself when a furry shadow suddenly jumped onto the table.
A kitten? Qi Huan was stunned. He had placed a board more than half a person's height at the entrance of the stairs. How could it jump so high?
"Ouch!" The little guy squatted beside the plate and gently kicked the edge of the plate with his pink paw pads. He puffed up his cheeks and glared with his green eyes, and shouted at Qi Huan angrily, as if accusing him of eating alone.
The angry little fur ball was inexplicably cute. Qi Huan's heart trembled slightly, and the pressure caused by the huge debt was temporarily kicked away.
"Want to eat?" He picked up the last shrimp on the plate and handed it to the kitten. The kitten took a bite, turned around and started eating it in big mouthfuls.
"Where's your owner?" Qi Huan stretched out his finger and poked its round back, which felt soft and warm. It only eats when given food, and it is so well-behaved, it must be raised by someone.
The kitten took the remaining half shrimp and moved two steps to the corner of the table to avoid his "harassing" fingers.
"If you can't find your owner, how about following me for a while?" Qi Huan couldn't help but poke it again. The kitten arched its back to dodge and continued to eat shrimp.
"Silence equals consent equals agreement." Someone half-supported his chin, and was busy making equations and stamping them, but in his heart he was thinking about putting up a notice to find the Lord tomorrow morning. He would be worried if he lost such a cute little guy, right?
After being interrupted by the little guy, Qi Huan realized that it was getting late, and quickly stood up to clear the dishes and tidy up the kitchen.
He had originally planned to continue looking at other data of the original owner before going to bed, but he got up too early today and was so tired from running around that he fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
When I woke up again, it was already bright day.
Twenty-two hours in a day really didn't feel enough. Qi Huan yawned and got up, prepared a meal for the hungry kitten, and posted a notice for the little guy to find his master. It was almost ten o'clock, so he grabbed two tubes of nutrition supplements and put them in his pocket, then trotted towards the food store.
Qi Huan rushed to the food store, where the two brothers of the Wan family were standing in front of the counter discussing something. When they saw him coming, the eldest brother nodded, and the second brother happily took him to the unloading yard in the backyard.
Wan Laoer was very talkative and explained the situation to him as they walked.
The unloading yard has two main functions. One is cutting. The meat animals transported from other star regions are usually large in size, and before selling, they need to be cut into small pieces according to different parts for easy sale.
The second one was the one Qi Huan saw yesterday afternoon, helping the hunting team dismantle the stone beast.
The work of cutting food ingredients is usually done in the morning. During this period, the members of the hunting team are either still outside in the hunting area or sleeping. If there is a hunting team coming in the afternoon, they will dismantle the stone beasts. If not, they will continue cutting the ingredients.
When the two men went in, there was already a truckload of thawed animal meat in the yard. The butcher, Lao Wu, was pouring water on the meat and sharpening his knife. Wan Lao Er introduced the techniques to them, motioned for Qi Huan to follow Lao Wu, and then turned back to the front yard.
Seeing another set of knives and whetstones nearby, Qi Huan also started sharpening the knife.
Although he had never cooked a stone beast before, he was familiar with skinning and bone removal. Many ancient Kung Fu dishes required skinning and bone removal skills, such as the red sheep stick dish "cutting a sheep on the hoof to get four things". More difficult dishes even required removing bones and taking out meat without breaking the skin, such as pigeon wings, eight-treasure gourd duck, roasted whole pig head, etc. In order to make these dishes well, he studied the bone structure of the ingredients and worked hard with the knife.
"I heard that you run a restaurant?" Qi Huan was concentrating on sharpening a knife when Lao Wu suddenly spoke.
"Well, but business is not good. I owe Uncle Wan money for the ingredients, and my hand was injured recently, so I wanted to come over and help out for a few days." Qi Huan readily explained his situation to Lao Wu, including the 'amnesia' thing, so that people would not be surprised at why he didn't have common sense.
He wanted to take this job, on the one hand, because it was a subsidiary business of the food store, and working under Uncle Wan's nose would make him feel at ease, as he would see his sincerity in repaying the money, and it would be a short-term and stable way to repay the money. On the other hand, he also wanted to take the opportunity to get more familiar with the food in this world.
When he was shopping yesterday afternoon, he realized that he knew too little about the ingredients in this world. His financial situation is tight now, and it is unrealistic for him to buy food and try it like he did before. This opportunity is like a godsend.
Furthermore, he who is close to the water gets the moon first. If there is any discounted good food in the food store, he can be the first to grab a bargain. Besides practicing his cooking skills, he can also nourish his body. In short, he kills two birds with one stone.
"You only have one right hand left, can you do it?" Lao Wu raised his eyes and glanced at his left arm in a splint.
"I'm definitely not as fast as you, but I should be better than Uncle Wan and the other two on their own." Qi Huan smiled brightly, his amber eyes rippling with clear light, "I'll try to follow you today. If you think it's not working, I won't come tomorrow."
Lao Wu was distracted by his laughter and frowned, but he didn't say anything in the end.
After sharpening the knife, the two put on anti-fouling clothing and started working.
The car to be dismantled today is a sunflower beast. Its head has been cut off and it is split into two large pieces. The whole piece is two to three meters long and is covered with palm-sized gray-black scales.
They need to peel off the scales first, and the rest is similar to the idea of cutting pork and mutton. They first use a saw to roughly cut large pieces into pieces according to the front part, pork belly, ribs, back part, and tail, and then separate them into small pieces by hand.
Lao Wu took half a fan and demonstrated how to disassemble it in detail. People here don't eat bones at all. They don't want the claws, tail, or spine. They also remove the meat between the ribs and discard the bones.
Qi Huan watched it once and started to operate it himself.
Two and a half hours later, Wan Laoer came to change the freezer for the meat. Qi Huan was using a fixator and his knees to help him peel the scales. He was clumsy and slow. Laowu had already started to remove the third scale, but he hadn't finished half of it yet.
No, it's too slow, Wan Laoer shook his head. At this speed, he could only cut one fan today.
There was an hour break at noon. Wan Laoer grabbed a handful of barbecue skewers and went to the backyard. He gave a few skewers to Lao Wu and also gave two skewers to Qi Huan, saying that they were sent by a familiar restaurant for them to try.
The meat is fresh and delicious. Although it is roasted a little too high, it surprisingly has a burnt aroma and tastes good.
After eating the skewers and drinking the nutritional supplements he brought, Qi Huan put on his stuffy anti-fouling suit again and squatted next to the sunflower beast he was halfway through. Lao Wu glanced at his back a few times, said nothing, and quietly lay in the shadow of the corner of the yard with his eyes closed for a nap.
No hunting team came in the afternoon, and the two of them spent the whole afternoon cutting up sunflower beasts. Wan Laoer was originally thinking about how to "dismiss" Qi Huan in his mind, but when he walked to the backyard, he was stunned.
There were actually two pieces of animal meat in Qi Huan’s freezer!
How is that possible? He clearly only cut half of it this morning.
Did Lao Wu help him? Wan Lao Er looked suspiciously at the freezer on the other side, where three and a half slices of bananas cut in the afternoon were piled up. Together with the slices cut in the morning, there were six slices a day, which was Lao Wu's normal speed.
This kid, he was able to cut two and a half on his first day at work? Even with his left hand not being very convenient! Wan Lao Er touched his chin and immediately put on a smiling face, "How come you are so much faster all of a sudden?"
"It will be fine after some practice." Qi Huan wiped the sweat off his cheek. At first, he was not familiar with the position of bones and the direction of muscles, so he spent more time studying.
"Okay, okay." Wan Laoer patted his shoulder with a smile. Cooking is indeed different. He still has some basic skills in using a knife.
The reward for cutting the meat was based on weight, and the more work you did, the more you got. Qi Huan's first day's reward was 38 silver coins. He only took 8 silver coins, and asked Wan Laoer to record the rest to offset his debt.
After finishing work, the used tools and stone tables needed to be cleaned. Qi Huan was imitating Lao Wu's way of cleaning the stone table when he saw Wan Lao Er sweeping the peeled scales, bones, animal feet and tails into a cart and pushing it towards the garbage disposal well at the back door.
"Wait," Qi Huan rushed over and stopped Wan Laoer, "Are we going to throw these things away?"
Wan Lao Er laughed and said, "It's not the bones of a stone beast, what's the point of keeping them?"
"If you don't want it, can you give it to me?" Qi Huan's eyes were full of anticipation.
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