Chapter 1: Summer Wind

New Jincheng is also known as the City of Angels.

As the third-largest port in the world and the number one in daily throughput in the Northern Hemisphere, there are too many accolades people heap upon this city!

It is like a gospel bestowed upon the world by God, bathed in the glory of God, everything is perfect...

Like hell it is!

Federal citizens like to call it the City of Angels, but in the eyes of others, there is not much difference between this place and hell.

For example, Lan Si, at this moment, thinks exactly that.

The City of Angels is too dangerous.

Almost every day, several shootings occur in this city, sometimes even over a dozen.

Sometimes, when gangs have a shootout, the number of people who die in the crossfire is so high that trucks are needed to haul them away.

While the local economy develops rapidly, it has also brought in a large number of criminals and criminal syndicates, with city officials corrupted by capital and black money looking down upon the entire city.

They only care about how much the numbers in their accounts increase each month, not whether those at the bottom of society will starve to death or encounter trouble.

What people need is always just the economic myth it constantly creates; few care whether anyone is struggling to survive behind those bright and beautiful city facades.

They do not want to know, nor do they allow anyone to know.

After all, this is the City of Angels, the engine of the federal economy!

Lan Si gazes at the girls on the street, somewhat distracted; the moment that warm breeze, typical of the last century, blows into people's hearts, it feels as if the whole world has put on a natural, vintage filter.

It feels as if the whole world is dim and yellow, occasionally with spots in some places due to overexposure.

The sound from the record player, clearly not quite right, pours out from the speaker, adding another layer of flavor to this retro world.

The summer sun heats up the city and also heats up the hearts of the young women.

Two young girls wearing sleeveless shirts and short skirts, with small round hats on, pass by the bakery; their vibrant and joyful smiles make this city, which looks like an old photograph, suddenly brighten up.

With a "slap," Lan Si, having received a blow, pulls his gaze back from outside the display window; the bakery owner is standing behind him, staring at him fiercely.

"I hired you to work, not to lie on the counter and stare at girls!"

He claps his hands loudly, "Get moving, get moving, you damn lazy bastard who's about to grow maggots, don't let me see you hiding and slacking off again, I'm paying you to work!"

Lan Si scratches his head and picks up a rag to start wiping the display window.

Business is very average today; a bakery like this, not located in a bustling district or the city center, is just like a steamed bun shop outside a residential area in another world.

They do daily business for the surrounding residents, with the main business hours being before 9:30 AM and when people get off work in the afternoon.

During other times, there is basically no one.

The bakery owner has the typical characteristics of a primary capitalist; he oppresses himself while exploiting his employees, and incidentally tries to control them.

Besides Lan Si, there is an apprentice in the bakery who not only earns zero wages each month but also has to pay the bakery owner ten dollars as tuition for learning the craft.

He has been here for over half a year, and so far, apart from knowing how to knead dough, he knows nothing else.

The bakery owner is very fat, weighing about 230 to 240 pounds, and possesses a very skillful craft for making bread.

The surrounding residents are his loyal customers; the main product produced here, that kind of whole-wheat bread, has a very strong feeling of satiety and does not easily cause hunger.

Lan Si has secretly seen that this cheapskate adds extra wheat bran, which makes the bread drier, harder, and denser, and thus more liked by the poor.

Because it can better fill their stomachs and is less likely to cause hunger.

The poor do not care what they put into their stomachs; they only care about how long it keeps them full.

He does not like this owner because he is mean, petty, and stingy.

Lan Si's monthly wage is fifteen dollars, while the average wage in the City of Angels is currently around sixty dollars; it is said that for the sake of this average, a subject called "Statistics" was added to universities.

In reality, the monthly income of most workers is only forty-five to fifty dollars.

Lan Si's salary is one-third of the actual salary, and he actually does not want to take such a small salary while doing endless work.

But there is no good way; he is an undocumented immigrant.

He arrived on a ship for no apparent reason, and then the ship docked here.

According to the people on the ship, they all paid enough money to smuggle themselves into the Federation.

The rapid development of the federal economy lacks a large amount of labor; even today, when mechanization is advocated everywhere, one can still see people working alongside cattle and horses in many factories.

Actually, sometimes you cannot really distinguish clearly who is a person and who is cattle or a horse.

The gap between people and cattle or horses is actually not as large as imagined.

The economy is developing rapidly, and there is always a huge gap in labor; the President is currently pushing the "Illegal Pathway Immigration Legalization Bill."

To put it bluntly, it is to give undocumented immigrants who smuggled themselves in a legal citizenship status, the kind that can even vote.

This move has received support from many undocumented immigrants without status and has also made the use of illegal labor more common; everyone seems to have realized something, but just hasn't said it out loud.

It is precisely because he has no legal status that he can only work here, taking a salary less than half of others.

This situation is common in New Jincheng; everyone likes to use undocumented immigrants. If you are obedient, these budding new capitalists will cut your salary by another two dollars next month.

If you are not obedient enough, they will turn around and call the police, saying they have been harassed by you.

This tactic is very effective against undocumented immigrants.

A fellow villager who came with Lan Si is now eating free lunches.

All afternoon, he has been busy back and forth in the bakery.

The aroma of baking bread induces his hunger as time passes, but now is not the time.

Only after getting off work does he have a chance to eat the bread that couldn't be sold.

This kind of low-priced bread from the bakery owner cannot be kept overnight; after a night, it becomes as hard as a brick, and although it can be eaten after being toasted, it is ultimately not as good as fresh bread, so it becomes their food.

Starting from a little past six, work in the bakery becomes busy; the fat owner stands in front of the counter responsible for collecting money, and his daughter is responsible for packing bread for customers.

The apprentice inside cannot rest for a moment, putting the already prepared bread dough into the oven and then continuing to knead dough.

And Lan Si is responsible for various odd jobs.

Although the owner's daughter is not very beautiful, she is plump and has a certain appeal.

A kind of... sour smell; if it weren't for the smell on her being too strong, maybe Lan Si would have gritted his teeth and become family with the bakery owner.

But precisely because the smell is too strong, he really cannot bear it.

The busy work finally ends after 8:30; Lan Si drags his exhausted body to clean the bakery. He is not allowed to enter the back kitchen at will, so his main workplace is the front hall.

The fat owner sits at the dining table counting today's income, his smile completely uncontrollable.

It is hard to imagine that a mean and petty person could reveal such a soft and gentle smile; perhaps this is the great power of money.

Lan Si finishes cleaning the last spot, arranges all the tools neatly, and after confirming there are no omissions, he walks to the fat owner's side.

The pressure of someone approaching makes the fat owner look up, watching Lan Si with some vigilance, "What are you doing?"

Lan Si squeezes out some smiles, "It's been a month, Boss, my salary..."

The fat owner, who was still a bit vigilant, almost jumps up as if someone had stepped on his tail, "Salary?"

"What salary?"

"Did you get caught in the rain and get a fever a few days ago?"

"If you don't have a fever, what nonsense are you talking about?"

"What salary could you possibly have?"

Looking at the fat owner who is jumping around as if someone had poked his anus, Lan Si is also a bit dazed, "We agreed before, fifteen dollars a month."

The fat owner stares at Lan Si with wide eyes, "Yes, that's right, but have you thought about it? You live here every day and eat my bread; have you calculated how much money you've spent of mine this month?"

He sits back down and turns a page of his notebook, "The cheapest hotel nearby costs twenty-five cents a day; you live in the shop, I'll count it as twenty cents for you."

"So thirty-one days a month..."

"It's February now, Boss."

"Shut up, listen to me!"

"Thirty-one days, twenty cents a day is..."

Lan Si looks at the fat owner who has directly crashed, and reminds him in a low voice, "Six dollars and twenty cents, Boss."

The fat owner nods, "You're right, six dollars and fifty cents, and you eat a portion of my bread every morning and evening."

"You know, I sell every portion of bread for fifteen cents, that is...", he looks at Lan Si, waiting for Lan Si to give him a standard answer.

Lan Si does not disappoint his expectations, "Nine dollars and thirty cents, Boss."

The fat owner adds another number to the notebook, "Yes, nine dollars and fifty cents, plus your accommodation fee, six dollars and fifty cents, you spend... eighteen dollars of mine every month."

"But your salary is only fifteen, kid, so I ask you, what qualification do you have to ask me for a salary?"

"You owe me three dollars now, deducted from next month's salary, if you have any."

Lan Si is a bit incredulous; after all, this kind of thing only happens in "storybooks" and "history," and even though a month has passed, he has no actual "sense of participation."

For him, he is like a passerby in the long river of history; perhaps he will marvel at this world, but he will not have too much attachment to it.

Until this moment—

"Are you... sure you're not joking?", he asks. ===== CHAPTER 2 =====