Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 516 Little Jimmy's Day

In a small residential apartment in the underground city of Beloberg, the young boy had gotten up early and was preparing breakfast for himself and his sister.

"Mary, it's time to get up!" The boy prepared breakfast and brought it to the table, then went to wake up his sister who was still sleeping.

The sister, who was a few years younger than the boy, rubbed her sleepy eyes and then greeted the boy: "Good morning, Jimmy."

"Good morning, Mary." The boy replied to his sister lovingly, and combed her messy hair. "Hurry up and get up. I've prepared breakfast on the table. Remember to go to school after you finish eating. I've packed your schoolbag for you. I have to go to work. Take care of yourself and don't be late!"

Although the boy was of school age, his parents died early, leaving him and his sister to depend on each other.

So even though the policy in the North allowed him to go to school and provided subsidies for orphans like him and his sister, the boy still chose to find a class to attend and earn money to support himself and his sister.

In the North, children under the age of 12 must go to school. This is a decree issued by Perfecto himself.

Public schools in the North can basically be described as charitable. Although tuition is charged, it is usually just the most basic textbook fees. Any family with a stable job and no more than three children can afford it.

It's not that Perfecto was stingy or mean. She could still afford free education in public schools. She just had to scrape a little money from the nobles to cover the entire North's educational expenses.

But free things are always hard to cherish, especially for children, who often find it difficult to understand the meaning of these things.

On the other hand, there is also the problem of how to maintain free education itself. Charging only for textbooks is already charity, and if it is completely free, there will be many problems.

You have to know that this was an era when knowledge was monopolized by the ruling class, and it was rare for ordinary people to have the opportunity to receive education.

So after some consideration, Perfect did not provide free education, but only charged basic textbook fees. It also limited the compulsory enrollment age to 12 years old, and did not force these children to study until adulthood.

After all, food must be eaten bite by bite. In this era, it would be somewhat inappropriate to spread out too much at once when it comes to compulsory education and universal education.

And the most important thing is that for many parents of this era, it is better to send their children to work than to let them study.

In their opinion, studying cannot bring immediate changes to their lives, and children from poor families are not cut out for studying. Instead of spending money to send them to school, it is better to let them learn a skill so that they can support themselves in the future.

If it is free education, perhaps these parents may think at first that it is free and it does not matter if their children study for a while. But when they think their children should go to work, they will not care much about it and will directly let their children find a class to attend.

However, when he spends money, he will think that this is the money I spent, and if you don’t learn something, it will be a waste of my money.

This is just like how a gambler will lose more and more if he keeps losing. The existence of sunk costs makes people unwilling to give up.

Of course, considering the income and burden of ordinary families, Perfectcot only charged a textbook fee, and the school also provided a lunch.

In this way, even for ordinary families, supporting one or two children to go to school is not a particularly big burden and basically everyone can afford it.

As for families with more children, Perfect can do nothing to help.

There is no need to say much about those who are willing to study and value education. Parents will send their children to school even if they have to live frugally.

But those who do not attach importance to their children's education will not think that there is any point in their children's education even if you give them money. It is better to send them to be apprentices as early as possible. If they learn a skill, they can go to the factory to screw screws and earn money to support their families.

You have to know that in this era, being able to work in a factory and screw screws is a good job.

However, for Jimmy, who is only 11 years old, he and his sister are the only ones left at home, and as an older brother he must protect his sister.

This was his mother's last words to him before she died, and he kept it firmly in his heart.

So when an official came to tell him and his sister that both of them needed to go to school, Jimmy lied to the official, who looked serious but kind, and said that he was twelve years old and had to go to work so that his sister could go to school.

He didn't think much about it at the time, he just felt that studying was a very expensive thing. If he went to school with his sister, the expenses might be too high, resulting in neither of them having enough books to go to.

Jimmy didn't know much at the time, and he thought that the serious official paid for their studies himself.

Although the official later explained that this was the order of the Northern Lord and the money was paid by the Lord's Mansion, Jimmy still did not change his decision.

He always believed that it didn't matter whether he studied or not, as long as his sister studied well.

He can go to work and earn money to support his sister.

Although the North provides subsidies and assistance to orphans like them, Jimmy still remembers his mother's teachings that people must rely on themselves and be self-reliant.

So he found himself a job as an apprentice in a factory, and started living the life of a screwdriver in advance.

This job was introduced to him by the official out of kindness, otherwise there was no way a child who knew nothing could work in a factory that produced steam knights and become an apprentice.

Jimmy did not let down others' help. He was a very hardworking child, and he was diligent and studious.

He remembered everything his master taught him firmly in his mind. Even if he didn't understand it the first time, he would force himself to write it down and then slowly understand it.

With such a serious attitude, Jimmy is still very popular in the factory.

When he punched in and walked into the factory carrying his lunch box, his fellow workers were all greeting him.

Jimmy responded politely one by one. His mother taught him that one must be polite to others when she was alive, and he has not forgotten this.

Everyone in the factory has always taken good care of him. In addition to his master, other workers have also taught him a lot. And on weekdays, everyone will provide him with some help within their ability, so that this teenager who has to work to support his family can have a little easier time.

Jimmy did not refuse everyone's help, after all, he really needed help.

But while accepting everyone's help, Jimmy also kept it all in mind and secretly made up his mind to repay everyone when he had the ability.

When he arrived at his workstation, Jimmy saw that the master had already started working, so he quickly put his things away and went to the master's side to join in the work.

Jimmy's master is a technician in the factory, who is responsible for the final assembly and quality inspection of their workstation. There are a total of six workers in this workstation, forming a small team, responsible for part of the assembly work of the Steam Knight.

The Steam Knight frames produced and assembled in other workshops will be sent to them, and they will complete the installation of the outer shell.

This is a relatively easy job. Even a kid like Jimmy can complete all the work by himself with the help of the wheel after he understands the process and steps.

However, Jimmy only knew how to do it. As for why he should do it and how to tell whether he did a good job or a bad job, these were still beyond Jimmy's understanding.

So Jimmy has always been very serious. He works hard, studies hard, and accepts criticism and teachings from others seriously, just to master the skills required for the job more quickly and to be able to work more seriously and better.

Although he did not go to school, Jimmy always had great respect for the Northern lord who allowed his sister to go to school.

After knowing that the factory was producing Steam Knight Armor for her, Jimmy worked even harder. He felt that as long as he could produce qualified products, it would be a reward to the lord.

There are many people in the factory who are as thoughtful as Jimmy. Maybe there are not many as young as him, but everyone is grateful to the Northern Lord.

Because many people, like Little Jimmy, have benefited from Perfectcot's kindness and their lives have become better.

Therefore, these people were grateful in their hearts and full of respect and love for the Lord of the North.

This also brought about a slightly interesting thing, that is, as the original revolutionary army was reformed into an autonomous region, the workers' union that was originally spread among the working class in the New World also began to spread to the north.

But their spread was greatly restricted in the North, because for the workers in the North, they were not oppressed at all compared to their peers, and they did not want to overthrow the rule of the Northern lords.

On the contrary, they are very supportive of Perfecto.

So much so that when some workers' union staff from the New World intended to spread their ideas to the workers in the North and incite them to resist the rule of the Northern lords, some of them were almost beaten up.

Jimmy didn't understand much about these things, but he knew that he could have his current life because of the grace and kindness of the Northern Lord, and he needed to work hard to repay her.

Influenced by this idea, Jimmy's work attitude was very serious, so much so that when it was time for dinner, he was so focused on the work at hand that he didn't hear the dinner bell.

It was not until his master called him that Jimmy reacted, put down the work in his hands, wiped his hands and prepared to eat.

The lunch Jimmy made for himself was very simple, or rather, for most people in the North, their food has become very simple now: two compressed biscuits received yesterday, and some pickles Jimmy made himself.

This was taught to Jimmy by his mother when she was still alive. Although his mother only asked him to help at that time and did not teach him how to make pickles, Jimmy still relied on his memory to recall how his mother did it, and then made some pickles himself.

As for these vegetables, they are of course not bought in the market, but wild vegetables that Jimmy dug himself in the wild, as well as some vegetables given to him by the surrounding neighbors.

Although Jimmy worked very hard, he was just a child after all. No matter how hard he worked in the factory, he could not compare with adults, so the salary he could get was only a little more than half of that of others, and this was the result of the foreman's special care.

Although the living expenses of the two children would not be particularly high and Jimmy's salary was enough to support them, he still couldn't bear to spend the money to buy the exorbitantly expensive vegetables in the market.

Everything in the North is expensive now. The vegetables sold in the market are basically grown in large greenhouses or underground shelters in surrounding towns. Not only is the yield low, but the cost is also high due to various reasons.

So even though there are fresh vegetables for sale in the market, Jimmy can afford to buy them with his salary if he grits his teeth, but he can only buy them once a week at most.

Not to mention that Jimmy also needs to buy meat, eggs and milk to improve the diet and let his sister eat better, which makes Jimmy have to be frugal in life.

Making pickles out of some vegetables and wild vegetables that are not resistant to storage is a simple way to allow yourself to eat for a longer period of time.

Jimmy's master couldn't stand this, but he also knew that Jimmy had a strong sense of self-esteem and too much help would be too much for the boy to bear.

It was also for this reason that even if Jimi's master and other workers helped Jimi, they mostly gave Jimi part of the things they bought, using the excuse that they had bought too much.

Fortunately, Jimmy and his sister are still children, and they eat less than adults. In addition, Jimmy has a job, so overall he lives a good life.

"Hey, Jimmy! This is for you." The master threw a small paper bag to Jimmy. Jimmy reached out to take it and found that it was a small bag wrapped in oil paper. There was a rustling sound inside when he shook it.

"Master, what is this?" Jimmy asked, not knowing what was going on.

"It's candy. Yesterday I passed by a grocery store and saw candy for sale, so I bought some. Your master's wife said that a little kid like you would definitely not be willing to spend money on candy, so she asked me to pack a bag for you and take it back to let your sister have a taste of the sweetness." The master said it casually, but in fact he went to buy it on purpose yesterday.

"No, it's too expensive, I can't have it!" Jimmy actually saw the candy being sold in the grocery store yesterday. He wanted to buy it at that time, but after seeing the price, he gave up the idea.

As he said this, he was about to return the paper bag to the master.

"Just take it if I tell you to. It's a gift from your master's wife! Besides, I'm a technician in the factory. My salary is eight times higher than yours. There are four other people in my family who get paid, so I don't need this. If you keep pushing me, I'll be angry." The master said, and directly rejected the paper bag that Jimmy stuffed back.

Seeing this, Jimmy could only put away the paper bag, his heart filled with gratitude towards his master.

(End of this chapter)