Chapter 5

The next morning, Zhai Da climbed up the moment the alarm rang.

He had never gotten up so fast in his life, except when he was a beast of burden, when he woke up in the accountant's rental house after drinking too much at an annual meeting.

He was afraid the accountant would calculate the money with him.

Of course, he later found out there was surveillance in the rental house, and both of them were drunk, playing "finger-catching" all night.

Zhai Da pushed open the door and smelled the rich aroma of corn. On the table were two boiled corns and two eggs.

I don't know if it's because his body became young after rebirth and his stomach was full of power, but Zhai Da's appetite was whetted. Looking at the big corn and eggs together, he felt they were all beautiful.

By the time Yu Xiaoli came out after fixing her hair, he had basically finished eating.

Yu Xiaoli: "Is it delicious?"

"Delicious!"

"Have you ever thought about why there are two of everything?"

Zhai Da: ...

Ms. Yu rolled her eyes. It's fine not to eat breakfast. Her waistline grew faster than her wrinkles in middle age.

However, at this age, her son looked like a starving ghost. The doctor said that fainting in the exam room couldn't rule out the possibility of insufficient nutrition.

Thinking of this, Yu Xiaoli took out a hundred-yuan bill from her wallet and handed it to Zhai Da: "This is your pocket money for next week."

Zhai Da was a bit unbelievable: "Is our family rich?"

He remembered that when he was in high school, his weekly pocket money was 50 yuan. The school canteen meal card was calculated separately, and other things like bus cards, small learning supplies, snacks, and occasionally eating out were all paid from here.

Rounding it up, he was an absolutely impoverished population. If he wanted to buy extra things, like magazines or CDs, he had to go hungry.

"Men's Health" had turned yellow and he didn't dare to buy a new one.

Rising to 100 a week, which is 400 a month, was considered quite generous compared to the school.

But this also put some pressure on Zhai Da.

After all, Yu Xiaoli's salary was only 1900... excluding the food, daily necessities, water and electricity bills for two people, and his occasional expenses, she still had to save Zhai Da's tuition, miscellaneous fees, and reference books...

Mothers always want the best for their children, but they can often only give what they have.

Some time ago, because Zhai Da's grades were not ideal, Ms. Yu had thought about hiring a tutor, but her son fainted in the exam room once, so she extinguished this idea and looked at Zhai Da's grades openly.

She wasn't the kind of mother who pushed her child. She could accept that Zhai Da didn't study well, couldn't get into junior college, and even went to work in a factory like her.

But she couldn't accept her son having any more problems.

People, you have to look at the comparison.

Compared to mental illness and flying kites, what is working in a factory? That's called stable work!

And giving Zhai Da double the pocket money was also hoping that Zhai Da could be more relaxed and happier.

"Take it, you're a big boy now, it's inevitable to have some strange consumption."

"Mom, you better make it clear... what kind of consumption is strange?"

"Anyway, take it and spend it. It will be like this from now on, 100 every week."

"Are you sure? Is there no place to spend money at home?"

"Originally I was saving it for your junior college, but it seems you are going to save our family a lot of money."

Zhai Da: ...

Mom, you are really humorous. The [Clown's Love Letter] should be given to you.

However, he only said yesterday that he would be relaxed in this life and not in a hurry to earn money. Today, thinking about the original economic situation at home, Zhai Da considered that he could add "preliminary improvement of income" to the memo.

After all, earning a little money can also make Mom more relaxed.

Of course, the priority should be ranked after the system and learning. There are still three months until the college entrance exam, so he can't put the cart before the horse.

Zhai Da didn't have to go to school today, and Yu Xiaoli didn't care about him. Being open-minded is being open-minded. Taking money to go online is also fine. However, in order to accompany Ms. Yu more and also to hitch a ride on the bike, Zhai Da took the initiative to propose to send Yu Xiaoli to and from work.

Send Mom over, and he can ride the 28-inch bike around the county, and pick Mom up from work in the evening.

Yu Xiaoli felt a bit strange.

But there was no reason to refuse. The bike can move by itself, who wants to pedal it personally?

However, after leaving the residential area, Zhai Da took a detour of a few dozen meters, bought a few steamed buns and soy milk at the breakfast shop, one for each, and handed them to Ms. Yu.

He urged: "Not eating breakfast is bad for your health. Take it to the factory. I also got one, I wasn't full just now."

Yu Xiaoli rolled her eyes: "Ride fast, I'm going to be late."

But the smile at the corners of her mouth couldn't be suppressed at all, and her heart was warm.

She always felt that this child had grown up overnight.

After several relocations, the wool textile factory is currently in the industrial zone far from the county center.

The pillar that once had the most limelight in Dongyang has finally become a withered state where grass is taller than trees.

First, military reform to civilian, then self-financing, and later eliminated by the market. The story during this period was very long. The wool textile factory had also struggled, but it revealed a kind of clarity that was always one step slow. It had also engaged in messy things like parts and instruments, hardware plating, leather shoes, and socks.

It once called itself "31 Wool Textile Group."

But after rounds of poor management, asset stripping, debt restructuring, and leadership interference in personnel, it only had the "garment factory" part left, which had no threshold and purely exploited cheap labor, and the scale was not large.

When you find that you are going downhill, don't be afraid, you will always go downhill. From this moment on, until Zhai Da's rebirth, 31 Wool Textile will get worse year by year.

To use an inappropriate analogy, after winning the lottery in his previous life, Zhai Da could have bought 31 Wool Textile.

Then he would have gotten a lot of broken equipment, worthless old factory buildings, and hundreds of retired workers waiting to be fed.

The earliest glory, such as the Maofang Middle School where Zhai Da studied, had long been taken over by the county, leaving only a name. However, after more than ten years of operation, it had become a key high school in Dongyang County.

Of course, it was only a key high school compared to the other two scum high schools in the county, which couldn't be mentioned, "not too."

Ms. Yu Xiaoli is currently in the "garment factory" that is all that's left of the wool textile factory. She has been in the job for 20 years, and her current position is a pattern maker.

Riding the bicycle further and further away, the two went towards the industrial zone. Along the way, the number of large trucks on the road was obviously increasing, and dust was rolling.

"What are your plans today? I heard that children now play C... S... You go play too?"

"CS is outdated now, it's all Audition and QQ Speed."

"Dancing is good, it can exercise the body. Driving is not okay, you don't have a driver's license..."

"Uh... I don't play games, just stroll around the county."

Zhai Da had already lost his game addiction in his previous life. It happened naturally as he grew older. The girls in the games were becoming more and more realistic, but the teenager of the past already had electronic ED.

Just chatting, when they were only two intersections away from the wool textile factory, Zhai Da suddenly braked sharply.

Yu Xiaoli was confused: "What's wrong?"

Zhai Da didn't answer, but looked cautiously at the front, a thick old elm tree by the side of the road.

This big tree couldn't be hugged by two people. The bark was cracked severely, the color was dark, green with black, completely different from the conventional street trees by the road. It didn't seem to be transplanted, but was already there, and just happened not to be dug up because of road construction.

"Discovered green rare special item, [Execution Old Elm]: There used to be an old prison, and every execution was under a tree. Many people's last look was the crown of the old elm."

"Ownership status: Not owned, not activated."

"Effect: Probability of accidents in the range +50%, corpse decay speed under the tree +300%, ???."

"Unsealing task: Unknown."

"Not yet activated, requires the host to obtain ownership. High-rarity items show all effects and unsealing tasks after possession."

"Note: Before activating it, have you really thought it through?"

Zhai Da swallowed...

So... special items that can be converted into [Equipment] also include this kind of thing...

Looking over, a warning sign was set up next to it, saying "Accident-prone section, please drive cautiously."

The guardrail on the edge of the road was mottled and crooked, as if it had been hit many times...

Although according to the system description, [Equipment] before conversion is just a special item and does not have any surreal abilities, the warning sign might just be a coincidence...

But inexplicably, Zhai Da felt a chill running down the back of his neck early in the morning.

Zhai Da decisively followed his heart and chose to take a detour.

"What's wrong, Xiao Da? Why take a detour?"

"I just saw a beauty on the right, I'll chase her and see!"