Chapter 3: Time Limit

Su Qing shouldered a big hammer, blending into the crowd, walking and silently calculating.

The day before yesterday, while eating lunch, he unintentionally overheard two foreign guards chatting, saying the new mine supervisor, namely "Mr. John": because he doesn't speak the Eastern Kingdom language, he wants to find a Chinese translator.

Since all the workers in the mine are Chinese, they didn't bother to avoid speaking openly.

It so happened that Su Qing, passing by, overheard it exactly.

At the time, hearing this, Su Qing didn't take it to heart.

After all, since graduating from university, due to long disuse, most of his English knowledge had already been returned to his teacher; now he only remembers a few words and some simple conversational phrases, so naturally he didn't think about translation work.

Of course.

Su Qing is a decent person; even if his knowledge weren't lacking, he wouldn't go be a lackey for the foreigners who oppress him in business.

Unfortunately, things are unpredictable.

First came Zhang Lei's chrysanthemum threat, then the arrival of the golden finger.

He had no choice but to make a change.

He planned to wait for the English to be downloaded and installed, find a chance to become the foreigners' translator, and use the opportunity to escape Zhang Lei's threat.

Then, find a chance to kill Zhang Lei.

This dead pervert who's fixated on his buttocks—if not killed, it cannot quell Su Qing's hatred in his heart……

Finally.

If there's a chance, to rescue the suffering Chinese laborers on the mine.

Although he got a fortuitous encounter that crossed time, he doesn't have much longer to live; in the final stage of his life, Su Qing always wants to do something meaningful.

Otherwise, his time travel would be in vain.

Of course, all this is merely a hypothesis under ideal conditions; whether he can succeed as a translator is still up for debate.

Anyway, Su Qing has already prepared himself mentally for failure.

"Su Qing, are you alright?"

The speaker is a frail man beside Su Qing, about thirty years old, wearing a pair of broken glasses on his face, his clothes tattered and disheveled, yet one can still see a scholar's refined air from him.

Looking at Su Qing's gaunt cheeks, the man hesitated.

Before yesterday's shift ended, Su Qing wasn't like this; although he was also thin, his face still had some color, but after not seeing him for a night, the whole person became so listless, with both cheeks sunken in.

If it weren't for the half-month of acquaintance, during which he had become extremely familiar with Su Qing's appearance, he really wouldn't have recognized the person.

Could it be the effect of Zhang Lei's threat yesterday morning, causing inner anxiety?

But that doesn't seem right either!

In his impression, although Su Qing sometimes speaks astonishingly and thinks outside the box, appearing approachable, his character is actually steadfast; he's not someone easily frightened.

"Nothing, just feeling a bit unwell." Su Qing turned his head to look at the man, pulling his mouth into a smile.

The middle-aged man's name is Wang Zhiqiu; he is the first person Su Qing met at the mine.

After half a month of association, Su Qing learned that Wang Zhiqiu had studied abroad in his youth, later returned to China, became a teacher, specializing in teaching foreign languages.

He only came to Dayingguo to seek a livelihood after accidentally killing a foreigner, to avoid implicating his family; he never imagined that upon setting foot on Dayingguo's soil, he would be knocked out by human traffickers and sold to this mine to do hard labor.

Speaking of which, Su Qing is currently downloading proficient-level English skills from Wang Zhiqiu.

"Then that's good..." Wang Zhiqiu, not knowing what he was thinking, darted his gaze away from Su Qing's eyes.

"It's fine." Su Qing smiled, saying no more.

When he first arrived, many things were learned from Wang Zhiqiu's mouth.

Therefore their relationship is still decent; Su Qing doesn't want to implicate him because of his own affairs. Although the other party has consciously been keeping distance.

In the midst of talking, they arrived at the mine.

The two split up and each got busy.

…………

The midday sun was especially fierce, scorching people fiercely.

Su Qing wiped away a sweat, then with difficulty raised the big hammer and struck it against a piece of ore.

Just as he was about to bend over to sort, he heard the foreman shout loudly:

"Mealtime, mealtime……"

Su Qing, already hungry to the point of his chest sticking to his back, immediately threw down the hammer handle and followed the bustling crowd toward the food distribution point.

"Line up properly, otherwise nobody will get to eat!"

"Smack, damn it, get in line for me."

"Got it, stop hitting……"

"……"

Su Qing held his bowl and walked to a corner where the sun couldn't reach, plopped down on the ground, gazing at the distant Zhang Lei, who was fawning over the foreigners, and muttered inwardly: "Really, he's raised a fine dog!"

Thinking of this.

He lowered his head to look at the food in the bowl, his eyelid twitching uncontrollably.

Just because the bowl is full of porridge, half of it is water.

Rather than calling it porridge, it's more fitting to say it's "boiling water with rice grains."

Zhang Lei, this petty man, using the foreman's title, arbitrarily deducted food expenses.

Earlier, the workers couldn't bear it, protested collectively; Zhang Lei, to suppress them, directly hanged the leader on the flagpole, killing one to warn a hundred.

Thereafter, the workers, cowed by Zhang Lei's brutality, could only endure silently, daring not to resist any further.

"Huh?"

A glance at the corner of his eye.

Su Qing then saw Zhang Lei, who had just been loitering by the guards' table, walking over holding a bowl, his face full of springtime pride.

His heart gave a jolt, but his expression stayed calm as he kept drinking the thin porridge; only his eyes flickered, fixed on the man walking over.

Just as he swallowed the last mouthful of soup and porridge, Zhang Lei arrived before him.

Seeing Su Qing sitting there unmoved, he wasn't annoyed, bent over and handed the large bowl filled with vegetables to Su Qing, his face showing a gentle expression as he said:

"You won't be full, huh? Here, this is what I specially got for you."

A gloom settled.

Having eased his hunger a little, the expressionless Su Qing held the empty bowl, gazed at the man before him, and said coldly:

"There's a bloody smell in this rice; I dare not eat it."

Hearing this, Zhang Lei realized Su Qing wouldn't back down; his smile vanished at once, he stopped trying to persuade, and simply threw the bowl in his hand away.

The large bowl hit the ground and shattered, scattering food everywhere.

The surrounding laborers immediately erupted, each lunging forward, grabbing handfuls of vegetables without bothering about dirt, and stuffing them into their mouths.

"Mine, mine."

"Get lost……"

"……"

The scene fell into utter chaos.

Su Qing watched this in silence; for a decent person, after enduring long torment of hunger, his sense of shame naturally becomes bullshit.

Zhang Lei saw Su Qing still expressionless, felt annoyed, his eyes shifted as he thought of something, and he said with ill intent: "I've changed my mind; today, before work ends, I want a satisfactory answer, or else—hehe—don't blame me for not cherishing fragrance and jade."

Having said that, he turned away proudly.

Watching the retreating back, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in Su Qing's eyes; considering Zhang Lei's character, he had thought the other wouldn't wait three days, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon.

"I'll kill you sooner or later."

With a fierce resolve in his heart, Su Qing's thoughts moved, and a light screen appeared.

He saw that English (Proficient) had finished downloading, awaiting confirmation of installation.

"'Hope it's as I thought.'"

Due to lack of time, Su Qing hadn't had a chance to test the installation function, and inevitably felt a bit uneasy.

But even his chrysanthemum is about to not survive—where would he have time to consider these?

He took a deep breath.

Su Qing's thoughts moved, and he immediately chose to install.

In an instant.

He felt his mind fill with much English-related knowledge, which not only helped him recall his previous knowledge but also deepened his understanding and use of English.

Su Qing tested it in his mind and found no awkwardness; communication flowed without problem.

"'If measured by the standards of my previous life, I've probably already surpassed English Level Six.'"

He privately compared, then Su Qing looked at the light screen again and saw, after the installation record, English (Proficient) displayed prominently.

Very good.

The Golden Finger's function was as expected.

Su Qing retracted the light screen, ignored the various gazes from all around, lifted his head to look at the sky, and murmured to himself.

"'All that's left is to wait.'"