The reason why Shen Yingkui let Li Shouzhong and Gaoda pretend to be brothers was mainly because intelligence showed that the Jiangnan Group intended to prevent clan forces from continuing to cause trouble overseas, so the closer they were to their fellow villagers, relatives and friends, the more likely they would be dispersed and distributed.
Only those who come from the same small family can be guaranteed to be grouped together, so that they can take care of each other. Moreover, since these two grew up together, there is no need to worry about being exposed, so Shen Yingkui did not make up any life stories for them. Of course, the less false parts there are, the more realistic it is.
Considering that someone might know them, Shen Yingkui assigned the two to go to Lanzhou, thousands of miles away, to register...
The two were just standing there feeling uneasy when they saw a single man in front of them being kicked out.
"You guys are so unreasonable. How can I not immigrate just because I'm single?" The scoundrel said to the security guard who pushed him, "What's wrong with you looking down on me?"
A clerk following the security guard sneered, "Forget it, Niu San. You think we don't know that you have a gambling debt and have nowhere to run, right?"
"Stop slandering me, I don't owe any debt! Even if I do, so what? It's not your debt!" Seeing that he was recognized, Niu San curled his lips and his arrogance subsided a lot.
"You are so unreasonable that I won't tolerate you! Get out of here right now and don't block the door." The clerk snorted and ordered the security guard, "If you make any more noise, I will send you to the government shackles!"
"Yes!" the security guard responded, rolled up his sleeves and was about to arrest the person.
"You are so cruel!" Niu San then left cursing.
Seeing this scene, the people in the queue were shocked and worried that they would be kicked out as well.
"Don't worry, elders. We are just trying to prevent bad apples from sneaking in." The clerk knew the mood of the people very well. He put on a friendly face, bowed and smiled, saying, "You are all law-abiding, hardworking and honest people. We welcome you with open doors."
"We are all good people, good people." The people nodded hurriedly.
"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling dizzy?" Li Shouzhong found that something was wrong with Gaoda.
"Brother-in-law, we won't be discovered, right?" Gao Da wiped the sweat off his face and whispered in his ear, "Why don't we go back..."
"Call me brother!" Li Shouzhong gave him a fierce look and whispered, "Be professional!"
"Hey, brother." Gundam shrank his neck.
"You coward, I really despise you. You don't want to marry my sister? You don't want to marry my sister, I still want to marry your sister. How can you do anything with money? You have to stand up!" Li Shouzhong scolded his brother-in-law, and then whispered to comfort him:
"Don't worry. What did they teach you? Have you forgotten?! They don't want street urchins. Are we the same?"
"No." The two looked at each other. Are they still streetwalkers? They begged for food all the way from Xi'an to Lanzhou. They walked thousands of miles in the freezing cold. Their ragged jackets were all torn to pieces. They had a straw rope tied around their waists and a broken bowl in their hands. Their hands, faces, and ears were all covered in frostbite, black and red. They looked as miserable as they could be...
"Don't say anything later, you coward. I will show you what it means to love what you do!" Li Shouzhong snorted and took on the responsibility.
"Hey, brother, you're awesome!" Gundam was full of admiration.
~~
After more than an hour, it was finally their turn.
The two were led into a reception room with a red fire and stood in front of a long table.
In order to improve efficiency and reduce the suffering of the people, the commissioner and deputy commissioner of the Immigration Office accepted applications separately in two reception rooms.
They were lucky that they didn't fall into the hands of an experienced webmaster...
Behind the desk, the deputy commissioner in charge of the preliminary review asked in Mandarin with a Wu accent.
"Your two names, ages, places of origin, and relationship." The deputy commissioner asked, but there was no response for a long time.
Li Shouzhong was seen sifting the bran with sweat all over his forehead.
"Why are you sweating so much?" The young deputy commissioner adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at the two beggar-like men.
Before coming in, the two were asked to wash their hands and faces. Although the two basins of clean water turned into ink and were not clean, they could finally see the true appearance of Mount Lu.
"Hot." After a while, Li Shouzhong finally squeezed out a word from his throat.
"Why are you shivering in the heat?" the deputy commissioner said with a smile. Seeing that the two men had simple and honest faces, timid and innocent looks, he let down his guard.
It is normal for an honest countryman to tremble, stutter, and be unable to speak when being seriously interrogated. It is doubtful if he can speak eloquently.
"Don't be nervous. I'm just asking you what's your name, how old are you, where are you from, and what's your relationship with you?" The deputy commissioner repeated the question in unfamiliar Shaanxi dialect.
"My name is Li Shouzhong, I'm twenty years old, and I'm from Huaiyuanbao, Mizhi, Yulin." Li Shouzhong wiped his sweat and stammered, "This is my brother, Li Shouxiao, eighteen."
"That looks like my brother." Gundam nodded quickly.
"Are there any other relatives of yours?" asked the deputy commissioner.
"They are all gone..." Li Shouzhong's expression darkened. "Last year, there was a swine fever. My father, mother, and sister were all gone. Only my brother and I ran away and begged for food all the way here..."
He started to cry at the end. Gundam started to cry too, thinking about when he would see his parents and fiancée again.
The deputy commissioner heard this and nodded to the clerk who was recording beside him. The plague was the same as the bubonic plague. They knew that there was a plague in Yulin last year. They were no longer suspicious.
"What did you do at home?"
"We are good at farming." Li Shouzhong knelt on the ground and cried, "Please take us in, sir. We can do anything. We don't want wages, just food to eat!"
"Get up quickly, get up." The deputy commissioner stood up, walked around the table, pulled Li Shouzhong up, and looked at the calluses on his hands, the hunchback caused by years of plowing, and the calluses on his neck.
He went back to the long table, wiped his hands with alcohol cotton, sat down and said, "Immigration is a big deal. Once you make a decision, you can't easily regret it. So we have to sign a ten-year agreement. Within ten years, you can't return to your country, nor can you migrate overseas."
"Ah, ten years?" Li Shouzhong and Gaoda opened their mouths in shock. They really didn't know this, and they didn't know whether the East Factory didn't find out or deliberately didn't tell them.
"This is immigration, not playing house." The deputy commissioner said calmly, "It will take several months on the road, and you have to be isolated, quarantined, adapted, and trained. The first year is basically just a free meal. In the second year, you won't be able to get started, and it will take the third year to gradually get started. It will take the fourth and fifth years before you can contribute to the group. Can it work in a shorter time?"
"Is it not possible to visit relatives?" Gundam asked in a low voice.
"Isn't everyone in your family dead?" The deputy commissioner frowned slightly, a hint of suspicion rising in his eyes.
"I'm just asking." Gaoda realized that he had said something wrong and shrank his neck.
"My brother has an engaged wife." Li Shouzhong hurriedly said, "Actually, I have one too. But when the eczema broke out, I don't know whether she will live or die."
"Is that so?" The deputy commissioner nodded and said, "In principle, you can be granted home visit leave, but it will take more than a year to go back and forth, so the number of places is very limited. It depends on your performance when the time comes."
As he spoke, he looked at the clock in the corner and said impatiently, "How about you two reconsider this?"
"No need!" Li Shouzhong gritted his teeth and said, "I can't even survive, why would I still want to think about those things?"
"Where is your brother?"
“I…”
"He listens to me!" Li Shouzhong pulled him and stopped Gaoda from speaking.
"Okay. Let me tell you again, the world overseas is by no means peaceful. Plagues, pirates, savages, poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts, any of them can take your lives. So from the moment you press your fingerprints, you must obey orders unconditionally. Violations will be punished." After the deputy commissioner finished speaking, he pushed the two contracts prepared by his assistant in front of the two men.
"Press your fingerprint if you agree."
Neither of them could read, and there was nothing good to see, so Li Shouzhong simply pressed his handprint, and then forced Gaoda's finger to press on.
"Keep one copy for yourselves." The deputy commissioner put the other copy into a file basket nearby and told the security guard to take them to the back to take a shower, eat, and change clothes.
After Li Shouzhong thanked Gaoda profusely, he pulled the reluctant Gaoda out.
After the two men went out, the deputy commissioner opened a black hardcover booklet, which was a preliminary assessment of the immigration situation issued by the Bureau of Secrets.
He filled in the names and basic information of the two people line by line. He paused for a while on the "initial evaluation registration" column before writing down "B".
~~
Li Shouzhong and Gaoda followed him into the immigration office and found that it was much bigger than it looked from the outside.
It turned out that the Immigration Office had bought all the houses in the entire back alley and renovated them to provide initial disinfection and temporary resettlement for one thousand people.
In fact, the housing prices in Lanzhou were very low at that time. Ten taels of silver could buy a large house with four entrances. The Immigration Office spent only a few hundred taels to purchase these properties, which was not even one-tenth of the renovation cost.
The two brothers were led into a hallway divided into several rooms, where the local employees of the Immigration Office were handling things.
The two offices in Lanzhou only had ten staff members including security guards, which was not enough to deal with the situation. So a large number of local people were hired to help.
Normally it's fine, but during the Chinese New Year, even if you pay them three times the salary, they won't come. So the immigration office waited until the sixth day of the Chinese New Year to gather enough staff to open the door, and also gave the employees big red envelopes...
Alas, it is difficult to do overseas work. You either have to beg for help from everyone.
The employees in the first room were all wearing large masks and gloves, and they asked the two men in a muffled voice to hand over all their belongings.
"All of them, don't hide anything! Don't worry, we will return them to you after thorough disinfection."
The two of them came here disguised as beggars, so how could they have any personal belongings with them?
"Two broken porcelain bowls, two jujube wood sticks, four copper coins..." These were all the belongings of the two people. The employee wrote them down loudly, put them in a basket, and then handed a wooden sign with a strange number on it to Li Shouzhong and said, "Take it with you. The number on it is your only code here."
Li Shouzhong took the wooden sign, and the two of them went into the next room in a daze. The temperature in this room was much higher because there was a large open stove burning fiercely.
"Take off all your clothes, and throw them all in." An old lady looked at the two young men and said with a chuckle.
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