Under the strong white light, people wearing prison uniforms were doing simple work in front of the assembly line, assembling some complex parts, or putting finished products into boxes and packaging them.
This is an industrial area located at the lower level of Payin City. It is not only a factory, but also a prison where previously arrested people are imprisoned.
After a month of investigation and interrogation, the federal government in the North Seventh District has now roughly sorted out the situation in the underground world of Payin City. The previous blockade has been slowly lifted, and the relevant personnel involved in the previous incidents have gradually been dealt with.
"Bru!" A guard wearing a gray-blue uniform walked into the underground factory with a personal terminal showing information.
"arrive!"
A tall and strong man stood up in the crowd, like a white bear rising from the ice, which was particularly eye-catching.
"Follow me." He waved to him and led Blue out of the room.
The two entered a room for conversation that was closely monitored.
"Sit down and drink some water." The guard sounded better than before.
"Copy that." Blue honestly opened the mineral water bottle on the table and drank the water in it.
Seeing how he accepted the order, the guard nodded with satisfaction. Although most underground people were disobedient and had bad personalities, there were some exceptions among them.
"You performed well in prison and passed all evaluations. In addition, your previous crime was relatively minor, so -" He gave up for a moment and paused for two seconds before continuing.
"You are honored to be released. The time is tomorrow. In the next five years, as long as you abide by the law and do not violate the rules, you can be an ordinary federal resident with peace of mind."
"Thank you for your teaching." Blue looked a little excited, but he didn't know what kind of compliments to say.
"Okay, that's all. Be a good person from now on." The guard patted him on the shoulder and walked out.
Two days later, the gate of this large underground prison slowly opened, and several thickly armored escort vehicles slowly drove out. Then several released personnel walked out, and Blue was among them.
He was carrying a large package containing his clothes and sheets. Before leaving, he asked what he could take with him, and the staff told him.
"This is 500 federal coins, as a small remuneration for you while serving your sentence. You must find a job as soon as possible after you get out, so that you can settle down."
Touching the card with federal coins on his chest, Blue recalled the explanation of the guard before leaving, feeling full of emotion in his heart.
Although 500 federal coins is not much, it should be enough for a week if you live frugally. The most important thing during this period is to get a job. Now that the underground gangs have long been disbanded, and the people who were familiar with them are basically missing, all I can do is think about where to go. Accepted him.
In the distant ancient times, with his size, it would not be difficult to make a living, but now we are in the interstellar era with advanced technology. Most of the heavy labor has been replaced by machines. Smart people and people who learn quickly are more popular, so in the future It might not go so well for a while.
Anyway, it's finally out.
Walking out of the gate, Blue looked at the prison fortress behind him, illuminated by bright yellow street lights. It was sealed off by layers of thick steel structures, like a giant beast lying on the ground.
Three days later, Blue found his first job at the No. 14 Wholesale Market on the 45th floor underground of Payin City.
The job content is to load, unload and move various goods in the wholesale market. The salary is 2,400 federal dollars per month, and room and board are provided.
Although there are T6-level AI machines in the market for loading and unloading, they are responsible for unified and coded bulk goods. It is more convenient and cheaper to use humans to distribute some scattered and messy goods.
In order to save the declining employment rate, the federal government has repeatedly raised the tax rate on AI chips. About 90%-95% of the selling price of AI chips produced today is tax, and a second tax will be levied based on the duration of activation and use. Secondary taxes.
"Hey, big man, a new batch of goods has arrived. Come with me."
In the dark corner of the warehouse, Blue sat in the corner, his vest already soaked with sweat. He had just finished moving, and it was rare to sit for a few minutes.
"Copy that." He responded in a low voice, then stood up again and followed the tall and thin supervisor.
In the loading and unloading area, trucks of different sizes are parked and loaded and unloaded in an orderly manner in front of warehouse doors with different numbers. There are monitors in front and behind each warehouse door to strictly monitor the quantity of goods being loaded and unloaded, and the driver only needs to log in at his personal terminal. Interface, enter the specified order number, confirm and wait.
There are three transportation channels to the outside world in Payin City. One is the most common ground freight highway. When reaching the top of the patio, the goods are unloaded and transported underground via industrial elevators. The second is the underground rail train, which was built in The underground transportation lines hundreds of years ago were considered to have been blocked by orbital bombardment on the ground, so underground cities were built with such deep underground rail lines. The third was the flying aircraft or spaceships. Mainly responsible for the routes connecting the distant southern regions and outer star fields.
Among the three transportation channels, underground transportation lines have the lowest cost, but generally only transport bulk industrial raw materials and products. Ground transportation is more flexible, and various daily necessities and commodities from nearby areas are transported through this. Aircraft and spaceships are the most expensive and are generally used for transportation. Import, export and time-critical cargo.
"Come on, this is it." The tall and thin supervisor directed Blue to a warehouse door. The back of the truck parked there had already been opened, and the driver was sitting aside to smoke and rest.
"Lao Gu, you damn thing is here. We've all been waiting for you to fade away." The driver's face was covered with stubble, his shoulders and arms were thick with flesh, and his voice was rude.
"Isn't this coming?" The tall and thin supervisor simply said hello, and then looked at the boxes in the truck.
"How many boxes are there in total?"
"31 boxes of lychees, 42 boxes of watermelons, 12 boxes of strawberries, 5 boxes of blueberries... It's a real loss to transport watermelons." The driver took out the personal terminal at hand and reported one by one, complaining again.
Although watermelon sales have been good recently, the profit margin is not large because the price is lower than other fruits.
"Okay, if you didn't have something to transport, who would hire you?" The 30-year-old warehouse supervisor checked the order number and then asked Blue to start moving.
These fruits are produced in neighboring areas and were picked from the plantations in the morning. After they have loaded, unloaded and distributed them, they can be put on the shelves of various supermarkets in the city at four o'clock in the afternoon. Since it is a short distance, there is no such complicated coding. , besides, fruits are easy to spoil, and there is always some loss that requires manual adjustment of data.
"Come on, Blue, take these down carefully one by one, don't drop them."
"Copy that." The fat man started to take action. He was standing on the loading and unloading platform nearby, moving the boxes out of the car one by one, and then placed them on the rolling belt nearby and moved them slowly.
"Is this the new guy?" The driver looked at the big man working hard not far away.
"That's right, he just came out of prison." The little supervisor handed him a cigarette.
"Okay, the work is quite neat." He leaned back and started pumping.
About 20 minutes later, all the goods were unloaded. At this time, the supervisor and driver came and opened the boxes one by one to check.
"Well, these more than thirty boxes of lychees are pretty good. They are all good." The supervisor put down the lid and looked at the other side.
The first step was basically considered qualified, but when the watermelons were inspected, the watermelons in the two boxes had cracked.
"This..." The driver rubbed his hair, feeling a little irritated.
"I'm very stable on the road. I can only say that this watermelon is like this. It cracks when I touch it. Doesn't it look quite fresh to you?"
"What's the use of telling me this? Customers don't agree and they all want to buy good ones." The young manager waved his hand.
"MD..." The driver cursed a few more times, saying that he would never pull watermelons again, etc. Then he took out his personal terminal and transferred a small fee to the supervisor.
"I'm giving you another advantage." Putting away the personal terminal, the driver picked up the kettle on the side, climbed into the truck seat, and prepared to start and leave.
"Supervisor?" Blue asked as he saw the driver just leaving.
"It's okay, let him go." As a small supervisor in the warehouse, he has long been used to this kind of situation, and he has many ways to solve these problems.
"You distribute these goods to the designated shelves according to the order numbers. In another hour, transport trucks from various supermarkets will come to tow them away. As for the two damaged boxes, let's put them aside for later." After the explanation, , the young supervisor picked up his personal terminal and communicated with the familiar supermarket manager.
…
"Yes, that's right, this batch is discounted to you at half price... But it's cracked, but the quality is still good. Wouldn't it be over if you just make it into a platter? The price on the book is still the same as before. I'll return this part to you separately... OK, That’s it, when the time comes you explain it to the driver who delivers the goods and don’t keep saying that the goods are wrong.”
After the communication, he put down his personal terminal and played with it in his hands. He felt happy. He had gained an extra income today, and he was also very pleased with the sight of the sweaty big man carrying it.
"Do a good job, Blue, and I'll give you half a watermelon to satisfy your cravings after get off work."
"Copy that." Blue replied breathlessly.
Time passed slowly, and just like that, Blue gradually settled down in this wholesale market. Although the salary was very low, he also had a small place to live, and occasionally he could eat some lost fruits. These lost fruits are all T5-grade high-quality products. Even if they cannot be put on the shelves normally, they are still much better than the half-rotted fruits he hauled to the garbage station before.
So, it was mid-July, and Blue finally had a rare day off.
He took the old second-hand personal terminal he bought for more than 300 federal coins and headed to the place where Qiao Long lived and grew up.
After probing around for a while, he found that Qiao Long had not returned here and there was no news. He scratched his not-so-smart head and went to visit the cemetery where Qiao Long had been entrusted.
The black tombstone is the same as usual. In front of the grave of Qiao Long's master, there are only a few dead branches held down by stone bricks. These are the bouquets that were laid down last time.
"Is the boss not coming out, or is he going somewhere?" He stood in front of the cemetery holding a bouquet of flowers he bought temporarily, and slowly put the bouquet down.
After thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure it out, so he pressed the small card with his contact number under the stone bricks, hoping that someone would contact him in the future.
Back at the No. 14 Wholesale Market, just when he thought that days like this would last for a long time, and maybe it would take several years before he could get some response, a strange call made Blue couldn't help but stand up.
"Huck? Is it really you?" His voice was excited, because the other person was the partner who often worked with him, and the two of them had been following Qiao Long.
The next day, Blue saw this long-awaited companion. He was wearing a baseball cap, hip-hop clothes, and green paint on his face.
With his hands in his trouser pockets, Huck walked into the warehouse door, then stood still and smiled proudly at Blue.
"I'm still alive, which is great, and then I see you alive too, which feels even better." After saying that, he roared, jumped forward a few steps, jumped on Blue, and the two hugged each other. Together.
After a while, the two sat in the corner of the warehouse and talked about their own affairs.
"At that time, I found a hidden path in advance and returned to the lower-level residential area of Payin City. I hid next to a garbage station for a week before quietly moving. Later, the incident passed and I was safe." He is a smart man. He is also thin and easily blends into the crowd, unlike Blue who can't hide.
"Huck is awesome." Blue praised, and then asked about other things.
"I don't know where the boss is, but I guess he is still alive. A man as determined as him will not die so easily." Huck told Blue not to worry about this.
"Have you been working here lately?" Huck looked around.
"Yes, the supervisor is pretty good."
"Forget it, he probably just wants you to use it and it's cheap." Huck, who is thin, understands a lot.
"I've been living among a group of night marchers lately, and my life is pretty good. Why don't you come with me, and I can help you find a job as a nightclub janitor. That would be a lot easier. You're big enough."
"No, Huck." Blue shook his head. He was taught in prison and should stay away from such an industry in the future.
"Uh..." Huck scratched his head. There was nothing he could do about this big guy for the moment. After all, he was not Qiao Long. This guy would just do whatever he said.
"Okay, let's not talk about this for now. In fact, I have been a little frowning recently about what the boss told me before. If we have time, we have to go find the young lady."
"Is it about helping to find someone?"
"That's right, there was a mix of good and bad among the night outings, and I actually got some information. It is said that it was the information filled in when the residents were resettled, and among them was the information about the young lady's parents."
"Isn't this all in the archives? Do we still need to tell the young lady?" Blue didn't understand.
"No, no, no, although there are many things recorded in the archives, there are some things that I don't think the young lady knows about herself." Huck shook his head.
"When residents settle in, the local residential area committee will conduct interviews and inquiries with the new residents to understand the situation. This is not a formal and serious process, so it is very casual, but it is also easy to find some problems."
"For example, her parents left a deep impression on the interviewers at the time. I asked about them when I spent several hundred federal dollars to treat them to dinner."
"Is this all okay?" Blue originally thought it would take more than half a year to find out some fragmentary information, but he didn't expect Huck to get the results so quickly.
"I just inquired about her parents' past. As for her father's whereabouts, I don't know. On the contrary, he left so cleanly that I suspected he was a professional." Huck waved his hand.
"Ordinary people owe huge sums of money to repay their debts. When formal channels are unavailable, they will have no choice but to resort to some sideways methods, such as loan sharking, illegal work, underground boxing matches, or racing."
"But her father left no such traces at all. It seemed that he suddenly received a sum of money, paid off his debts, and then left quietly. This process was so smooth that no one in the gray area of Payin City had ever been exposed to it. .”
"But thinking about her mother's origins, maybe many things can be explained."
"According to the old man's recollection, it was more than 20 years ago. The eldest lady's mother was in her prime, and her voice and behavior were very different from ordinary people. He didn't understand it at the time. Later, after traveling to other places, he guessed that the young couple might be from North District 2.”
"That kind of temperament is hard to explain, but if anyone has been there, they can understand it. That's what he told me." Huck leaned his head on the cushion in the corner, and the two of them talked until a truck came. Driving into the warehouse, Blue had to start working again.
Not surprisingly, there will be another chapter tonight 0 0/~
(End of chapter)
