Chapter 78 Chapter 78 Interesting

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Being a worker was the decision Gu Mengran made after careful consideration.

Join but not completely, leave yourself a way out. At worst, you can exchange your labor for temporary residency rights. If you are lucky, you can even earn some "living expenses" with Heng Rong Sheng.

As for whether the other party agrees or not...

If there is no other purpose and it is just a simple lack of manpower, there is no reason to refuse.

The grumpy old man crossed his legs and sat on the stool in a casual manner. He was silent for nearly two minutes. He raised his chin and looked at Gu Mengran, "How many of you can come?"

"Four." Gu Mengran replied.

The grumpy old man snorted and laughed, "Oh, two boats and four people, what are you doing?"

Gu Mengran remained calm and said seriously, "We are not from a shipping company. We own our own ships and do not have the required crew. There must be more than four people on board, but the others do not have much labor force and their presence would only cause trouble."

"Tsk, why bother to mention that." Duan Yueyan laughed even more wantonly, narrowing his eyes and looking at Gu Mengran meaningfully, "You specifically told us there were more than four of us. Why, are you afraid that I'll take advantage of the opportunity to attack your boat?"

Gu Mengran met his gaze and said frankly, "Of course. We are not familiar with each other yet, and we don't understand each other yet. We must be on guard against others."

Duan Yueyan shrugged, "We have enough food, water, and a place to live, so what do we need your broken copper and iron for? Young people should not be too defensive. People should still have some trust in each other."

It's hard for people to trust you when you look so careless...

Gu Mengran complained in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face. He chatted with him about random things, "You are right, but trust is also built up slowly. If you blindly believe in someone right from the start, you are just stupid."

"You are... interesting." Duan Yueyan looked at him with interest, then stretched, stood up, and walked slowly to Gu Mengran.

"Let me be frank with you. When you are in our village, you must abide by the rules of our village and follow our arrangements. Don't try to do anything tricky. Remember that you are just employees. You cannot wander around the village without permission, and don't ask about things that you shouldn't ask about."

Is this a promise? Gu Mengran said "hmm".

Without further ado, with a "bye", the grumpy old man patted his butt and walked away, leaving behind the newcomers Gu Mengran, Liang Zhao, the silly little fat man, and a man who was out of his mind the whole time and never said a word.

It seemed that they only told him to pick the people up, but didn't tell him about the arrangements afterwards. Xiaopang and Gu Mengran looked at each other, and said in bewilderment, "They've already left. How about I take you guys to work now?"

Interview on the same day, work on the same day... Gu Mengran hesitated for a moment, then said to Xiaopang, "Is tomorrow okay? You tell me a time, and we'll come early tomorrow. Our families are waiting for us to report back that we're safe."

"Is that ok?" Xiaopang looked back at the man uncertainly. Seeing that the man had no reaction, he hesitantly told Gu Mengran: "Okay, be there on time at 7:30 in the morning. If you're late, they'll have already left."

It was a little early for work, but Gu Mengran still nodded decisively.

Xiaopang: "Then, shall I take you back now?"

After hearing this, Gu Mengran, who was just anxious to go home and report his safety, said: "It's not that urgent. Can you sit for a while? I have something else I want to know from you."

Xiao Pang's neck shrank, and he looked out the door in panic, "Didn't my brother Duan just tell you not to ask about things you shouldn't ask about? Why are you so ignorant?"

Gu Mengran smiled and said, "I understand. I shouldn't ask about things I shouldn't ask about. Can I ask you about things I can ask about?"

The set of roundabout commands confused Xiaopang. Looking at Gu Mengran who had been very polite and courteous, he finally couldn't bear to refuse. He moved two wooden stools from the corner and handed them to Liang Zhao respectively.

"Please sit down. Just for a moment. I have something else to do later."

Gu Mengran took the stool from him with a smile, not caring about the raincoat that was still dripping with water, and sat beside Liang Zhao, beating around the bush and asking, "Are all the people living here your villagers now? Did all the tourists in the scenic area leave after the earthquake? Your village seems to be quite big, why are there so few people?"

It’s no wonder Gu Mengran has so many problems. It’s understandable that tourists leave, but apart from those who go out to work, there are not many young people in such a big village.

Shijin Village is not like a remote mountain village. There should be more than just the elderly and left-behind children in the village. The entrance to their village is a scenic spot, and their village is even included in the scope of the resort. Young people do not have to go out to work, they can go to work at their doorstep.

Judging from the number of houses, there should be quite a few people in the village.

Xiaopang was sitting on the stool left by Duan Yueyan. When he heard this, his shoulders visibly sank and he let out a long sigh, "Hey! Some tourists stayed here for a while, but they never got rescued. They left one after another, either by car or by boat."

"Of course there were more people in our village before, it was because of——"

Almost saying the wrong thing, Xiaopang braked in time and glared at Gu Mengran unhappily, "I told you not to ask nonsense, but you still asked."

"Excuse me," Gu Mengran said with a smile, and changed the subject very naturally. "I see you guys don't lack food now, why are you in such a hurry to find someone to help you with the work?"

"Who would complain about having too much to eat? If you can't finish it now, you can just leave it aside and eat it slowly later. My brother Duan said that this rain is very strange and we don't know when it will stop. It will be too late if the crops in the soil are washed away. We must harvest more now."

Gu Mengran nodded and asked, "Didn't you say that some of the crew members who came here before were infected? Are they well now? Are they living here too?"

Xiaopang patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, we have a clinic and doctors in our resort. They have already been cured. They are working in the mountains right now. They are fine. There is no need to worry about being infected."

"That's good, that's good." Gu Mengran was obviously relieved and asked tentatively, "There are no sequelae, right?"

There were too many questions. The good-tempered little fat boy waved his hands and said impatiently, "What sequelae can chickenpox have? You are really too cautious."

Gu Mengran smiled happily, "Thank you, Xiao...what should I call you?"

"Just call me Xiaodong. Let's go. I'll take you back."

A chaotic sound of footsteps was heard, and four people walked out of the stone house one after another. They rushed into the rain without hesitation, stepping on the smooth cobblestones and walking away.

In another stone house not far away, Duan Yueyan leaned against the stone wall nonchalantly, watching the few people leave. When they completely disappeared from his sight, he yawned lazily and turned back to the house.

"It's not a big problem. The tall one is very honest and didn't say a word the whole time. The shorter one is smarter, more defensive, and has more questions. He should be their backbone."

The dim stone house was lit up by the fire. A pretty and capable young girl was sitting by the fire. At her feet was a large wooden basin, and in the basin were the fish that had been cleaned and decontaminated.

She sprinkled salt into the basin and rubbed the fish's belly. When she heard Duan Yueyan's voice, she looked up and said with a smile, "How dare you leave Xiaodong there? He has a big colander. He will tell you whatever you ask. He can tell you everything that's going on in the village."

"It doesn't matter. The more questions the better. After all, asking questions will reveal your own information." Duan Yueyan walked slowly to the fire pit and took two pieces of dry wood from the side and added them in.

The girl said "Oh", "So what did you see?"

"They have no shortage of food, and they even live a pretty good life," Duan Yueyan said firmly.

"How did you know that?"

"That person asked a lot of questions, but he didn't care what he could get from us. But they were also very cautious, afraid that we had ulterior motives. I guess they didn't have any purpose, and they came to 'work' probably just to stay here temporarily."

The girl shook her head helplessly and sighed softly, "What a pity, it's hard to control a person who has everything."

"Yeah," Duan Yueyan also sighed, "Young, tall, and strong, it's a pity that such a talent... doesn't need to do manual labor."

"Try again."

"I'll try."

…

They boarded the ship in the rain, and before they could even warm up the deck of the Fengyi, Gu Mengran hurriedly brought Liang Zhao and Zheng Yijie to Heng Rongsheng and held a small meeting with the Xu siblings.

Gu Mengran reported four people to the other party. Originally, he planned to include himself, Liang Zhao, Zheng Yijie, and Xu Xinghe from Heng Rongsheng. However, when Xu Xingran heard this, he refused to agree and insisted that he wanted to go too.

At first, Gu Mengran thought that they wanted to earn more supplies, so he directly suggested that Zheng Yijie's share of supplies be divided among them, which was equivalent to two people on one ship. However, Xu Xingran still disagreed, and even her brother's personal persuasion was useless, she insisted on going along.

There was no other choice, so Gu Mengran finally replaced Zheng Yijie with Xu Xingran. It was fair and just, and it truly was a case of two people getting the best out of one ship.

It was already noon when he returned to the Fengyi. It was the last half day of rest. When he just returned to the room, Gu Mengran was still planning what to do. Unexpectedly, he felt sleepy after lunch. He thought of going back to the room to take a nap, but he lay down on the bed, closed his eyes and opened them, and it was dark.

It's dark and my heart is cold.

After dinner, I chatted with my grandfather for a while. It was time to go to bed. Although I was not sleepy at all, I had to get up early the next day, so Gu Mengran reluctantly went back to his room to take a shower.

"Boom boom, boom boom, boom boom—"

I had just come out of the shower and hadn't even dried my hair when there was a knock on the door.

When he opened the door and saw Liang Zhao in his pajamas, all damp, Gu Mengran suddenly remembered that they had agreed to hang the bed out to dry, but with so much going on in the past two days, he seemed to have forgotten about it.

If he takes the initiative to come to you, don't blame him for being rude!