Chen Feng looked at the fifteen-year-old child and took a deep breath.
“Auntie, this isn’t a kindergarten. Nobody has time to watch him. You should let him learn something so he can have a skill later. Don’t let him waste his time,” Chen Feng said helplessly, patting the child’s shoulder.
"Eight hundred is fine with me, really, just take him. He's incredibly hardworking, always running around and never still," the aunt said, unwilling to give up.
"I don't hire child laborers, I really can't take him. You should take him and teach him something," Chen Feng refused.
"Oh dear, think it over again?" The auntie led her child out the door, then turned back to ask, still unwilling to give up.
"Goodbye, goodbye!" Chen Feng waved his hand repeatedly, and the old lady could only regretfully take her grandson home.
"Aren't there any decent people in your village?" Xia Yingying looked at Chen Feng, who was sighing, and couldn't help but smile.
"Who knows? What are these places? They're either nursing homes or kindergartens, there's no one to do any work," Chen Feng said, shaking his head.
"Fengzi, Fengzi, I'm here! I brought you two cans of food." Lu Dahai came running over from outside the door, and the voice could be heard even before he arrived.
"Get out of here! Get out of here! What the hell are you doing here? You want to work in the mines, don't you?!"
Upon seeing Lu Dahai's arrogant expression, Chen Feng became furious, grabbed his face, and kicked him hard in the buttocks.
"Hey, hey, stop messing around, Fengzi. I just came over to discuss with you whether I can sell goods from you." Lu Dahai's face was pinched into an "O" shape by Chen Feng, and he quickly spoke up.
"What are you doing? What kind of goods are you going to sell?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Feng released Lu Dahai, as long as this guy wasn't there to smooth things over.
"Your mine has a canteen, right? The workers go there every day. I was thinking of selling cigarettes, drinks, candy, tea, or something at your place when I have free time. What do you say?"
Sure enough, he was always thinking about the right things to do. While others were thinking about getting jobs through connections, he was thinking about using connections to sell goods.
Chen Feng handed him a cigarette, and the two sat down. He thought for a moment and said, "It's not impossible. Anyway, it's all the same who sells. Once we have more people and things are on track, you can go if you want."
"Hey, then it's settled. If I can't have it, someone else will." Lu Dahai chuckled. He knew Fengzi wouldn't treat him unfairly.
"Okay, let's leave it at that for now." Chen Feng nodded.
“Okay, then these two cans of food…” Lu Dahai blinked.
"Put it here."
This was the first time Chen Feng had received a gift; he definitely wouldn't have accepted it from anyone else.
"No, I mean, are you paying in cash or keeping it in the books?"
"Fuck you!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Feng stood up and was about to kick Lu Dahai. Lu Dahai seemed to have expected this. After saying that, he took off running, chuckling as he ran. Chen Feng, carrying slippers in his hand, couldn't catch up with him.
Watching Lu Dahai flee, Chen Feng was so angry he laughed.
"You son of a bitch, you've come here to sell your stuff, huh? I'll kick you to death."
When Chen Feng returned, Xia Yingying looked puzzled: "Does he really want money?"
"What the hell? Even if he wanted it, I wouldn't give it to him. Eat it."
Chen Feng picked up the can, slapped the bottom to open it, grabbed a piece with chopsticks, and handed the rest to Xia Yingying.
"If he doesn't want money, why is he still..." Xia Yingying took the canned food, confused.
"Ignore him, he's just being a jerk," Chen Feng said dismissively.
Until evening, Chen Feng received countless people and answered countless phone calls; his lips were practically worn thin from talking so much.
There's nothing you can do. That's just how villagers are. You see each other all the time. Even if you don't accept gifts or give them special treatment, you can't just start cursing at them. You can only try to persuade them to leave with kind words.
In the evening, Chen Feng was finally able to calm down for a while, and Liu Ping told him that his father would be back in two days.
Meanwhile, Huang Fei was eating at home, standing on a stool, when his father couldn't help but ask, "Hey, I saw a lot of people going to Fengzi's house to give gifts today, all in order to get some work done."
"If you don't go talk to him in advance, what will you do if there are no seats available later?"
Huang Fei scoffed upon hearing this, and said smugly, "Are you kidding? With the relationship between Fengzi and me, why would I need to give gifts or anything like that?"
“I’ve already told Fengzi everything. Everyone else is a miner, but I’m a driver. I’m the only driver in the entire mine. Do you understand how valuable I am?”
"You're a driver? That's good. You'll be driving for Chen Feng from now on?" Huang Fei's father asked in surprise.
"Maybe I do part-time work occasionally, but my main job is driving people around and buying groceries for the cafeteria. Apart from getting up early and working late, it's quite easy," Huang Fei said, taking a bite of rice.
"Alright, Fengzi is a really good guy. He even knows to help you guys out when you get up. You'd better work hard and not skip work today and then come back tomorrow," Huang Fei's father instructed.
"Of course I am, I'm that kind of person." Huang Fei rolled his eyes.
What kind of self-description is this? Am I really that unreliable?
"Whether it's true or not, you know for sure," Huang Fei's father snorted.
The next day, Chen Feng was awakened by the noise downstairs before he was fully awake.
"What's going on downstairs? What are they doing?" Xia Yingying asked, too sleepy to keep her eyes open.
"Let me see." Chen Feng stood up, leaned out the window, and was immediately stunned by what he saw.
Looking out from his front door, a long, densely packed line stretched out, numbering at least several hundred people, including men, women, young and old.
"Go to hell..." Chen Feng suddenly woke up, looking at the people outside and muttering to himself.
The first thing Chen Feng did after realizing what had happened was to check the time. There was still an hour and a half until the time he had said he would arrive.
The second thing he did was to call Chen Feng and Huang Fei one by one.
"Brothers, come quick, I can't hold on any longer."
With so many people, just maintaining order is a difficult job, let alone having to apply for a job.
When Zheng Ping and the others arrived after receiving the call, they were also stunned by what they saw.
Seeing that they couldn't leave through the main gate, they all jumped into Chen Feng's house from the vegetable garden.
"Fengzi, what's going on? Why are there so many people here?" Zheng Ping asked in shock as he entered the room.
"How would I know? You guys keep order in a bit, make sure they line up in one row, don't make a fuss, I'm going." Chen Feng said, holding a pen and paper.
Chen Feng waited until it was almost time before carrying a table out, with Lin Nian carrying a chair for him from behind.
The crowd, which had been relatively quiet, suddenly became noisy after seeing someone come out.
"Don't make noise, don't panic, line up, one at a time." Chen Feng opened the door, set up the table by the entrance, and prepared to conduct the interviews.
Zheng Ping and a few others went out to maintain order and made them stand properly.
"Move over a bit, don't push forward, don't cut in line!" Huang Fei shouted.
He felt that the only difference between him and the neighborhood committee aunties was a red armband.
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