Rule Strange: Urban Legends That Don't Exist

Chapter 292 Return to Earth
The three noticed the wedge pill in his hand.

The samurai sword that looked dark, had no edge, and was at most as long as an arm, did not cause them to be overly vigilant.

In a place like the old city, isn't it normal for an Asian to hold a knife to defend himself when he opens the door?
It would be nice not to have a gun when you open the door!

The three of them entered the door one after another. The Luke almost forgot to throw out the cigarette butt, and looked up at Chen Yan cautiously. After seeing that Chen Yan didn't notice him, he was relieved.

Chen Yan has been very busy. The living room on the first floor of the apartment has not been tidied up. The sheets that the previous owner covered the sofa and chairs to prevent dust are still there. Now that the living room needs to be used, Chen Yan removes all the sheets, thrown into the corner.

The Lukes and Goliaths knew that today was not their home game, so after they came in, they obediently sat on the old imitation cowhide sofa on the side of the living room, and Li Shoufang sat on the painted alder wood chair next to the sofa.

It wasn't until Chen Yan lit the kerosene lantern, filled the kettle with water, pulled another alder wood chair, and sat in front of the three of them. Under the weak but sufficiently illuminated yellow light, the three of them became less nervous.

"What did Andil say?"

Chen Yan spoke.

It's Imperial.

The three of them came together, and speaking their native dialect could easily cause misunderstandings for the other two. It was just a polite way of saying it, but now that they are talking about serious business, they can no longer speak their native dialect that the other two cannot understand.

Presumably Li Shoufang also understood this matter.

After Chen Yan sent an inquiry in Imperial language, Li Shoufang's smile was obviously much easier.

He was also afraid that Chen Yan would not like to use the imperial language. Once they had a conversation in their native dialect, the other two would not know what they were talking about. After going back today, it would be difficult for him to be a human being.

"Is such that."

Li Shoufang said in imperial language with an obvious Asian accent:

"Downtown is a mess these days."

Chen Yan seems to have heard this sentence somewhere... The last time I mentioned this sentence was when Jack Baldo was standing at the gate of the apartment building tonight.

Li Shoufang rubbed his hands that had only been dealing with machines all year round. Even though he had thought about what he was going to say many times before coming here, when he actually said it, he still stuttered.

He is obviously not good at words.

But still said it intermittently.

"Our factory mainly produces wrenches, screws, rivets and various small mechanical parts."

"Recently, the efficiency of the factory has been very good... In the past, our prices were very high, and many of the parts we produced could not be sold, but recently, everyone in the market seems to have money, and our products are sold out of stock."

"It would have been a good thing."

Li Shoufang paused here.

"The parts are out of stock, our boss is obviously making more money, but he is not happy about it.

He told everyone that such a good market has never happened in Yanan City for decades, and we must produce more and earn more money.

Since about a week ago, our working hours have been much more than before.

Please don't get me wrong, we used to work very long hours, and we needed to work 15 hours a day to get the basic daily salary. "

Chen Yan couldn't help asking: "How much do the workers in your factory earn per day?"

Li Shoufang said: "Old workers like us can earn 12 pence a day, but there are fewer new workers... Like some Ayer people who can't even speak clearly, they are not considered regular workers, they can only do odd jobs , it’s only 5p a day.”

Chen Yan scratched her head: "Speaking poorly and doing poor work are two different things."

Li Shoufang nodded: "That's true, but what can they do? It's not bad to have a job. There are so many Ayre people in the city, and there will be more people who come to the empire across the ocean. They can earn a lot of money. Five pence is not bad, and there are many people who are hungry all day long."

Chen Yan had nothing to say, and after a long pause, he finally broke out: "You continue."

Li Shoufang sorted out his thoughts.

"It takes three shifts to work 15 hours a day, because we have a lot of machines, enough for three shifts of workers to operate."

"But now, we have to stay in the factory for nearly 18 hours a day, and even if we count the meal time, we still work for nearly 17 hours."

Chen Yan couldn't imagine how such a working system works, and he sounded like Li Shoufang talking nonsense.

"It's fine if the body can't bear it. We come out to do hard work to earn money. Where can we get money if we don't work?"

"But the product is selling well, but the boss told us, don't be so anxious to raise wages, when he saves enough money, buy us more advanced machines, we can earn more money!"

Chen Yan pulled out a handful of hair unconsciously: "Don't you guys get overtime pay?"

The three were stunned at the same time.

The Luke people couldn't help it at first: "Overtime pay? What is that?"

The Goliath followed suit, "What is overtime?"

Chen Yan's eyes darkened: "After you work 15 hours a day, the extra work is overtime! You..."

He couldn't go on.

What's the point of saying this, 15 hours has far exceeded the normal legal working hours of the empire, and it stands to reason that more than 8 hours should be counted as overtime, but can they do this?
Chen Yan continued to ask: "What if it's not enough for 15 hours?"

Li Shoufang replied: "Foremen like us rarely work less than 15 hours, because our daily salary is already very high, 12 pennies, it is enough to support the family, who dares to work without enough time?" ?”

The other two nodded with deep approval on their faces.

Li Shoufang resentfully said: "But other workers...they are miserable. For the 8p a day for ordinary workers, if they ask for leave, they get nothing, and if they don't work enough time, they only get 2p."

Chen Yan was speechless for a long while.

After a while, he finally recovered and said, "In this situation, is there anyone still working in the factory?"

Li Shoufang smiled wryly and said: "The people who line up outside the factory in the industrial area to do short-term labor can line up from the factory gate to the smoke lake!"

Chen Yan glanced at the three of them again.

"So, you want it?"

The Luke man spoke, and it seemed that he was the one talking about the trio.

"We want to raise wages."

He said.

"It doesn't take a lot, just five pence, we went from 5p to 12p, workers went from 17p to 8p."

His tone was cautious, as if testing.

"We already know the production efficiency on the assembly line, and we have also investigated the prices of parts on the market. We calculated it carefully, and the increase of 5 pence is not excessive at all, and it is not worth mentioning even for the money the boss gets."

Chen Yan asked: "What about the working hours?"

The three of them were taken aback, they didn't expect him to ask this, and they didn't even think that there was anything wrong with working hours like that.

"Working hours... are actually okay."

The Goliath smiled foolishly.

"We have strength and are not afraid to work."

(End of this chapter)