Starting as a dockworker

Chapter 3 A New Job: Huang's Rice Shop!

The next morning, my mother was busy in the kitchen very early.

After getting up, Li Xiao ate five multigrain steamed buns and three bowls of porridge in one go, under his mother's watchful eye.

After finishing his meal and bidding farewell to his mother, Li Xiao headed to Jiangguan Wharf.

To make a living at the Jiangguan Wharf, one cannot go a day without going.

If you don't go for a few days, your position might be taken over; there are plenty of people begging for food in this world.

Upon arriving at the dock, Li Xiao, like the other laborers, waited in the work area to be assigned tasks.

Just then, foreman Zhao Degui came over and called out to the men: "Wang Sheng, Lao Kang, Hai Gen, Chao Sheng, Kai Zi... Li Asi... all ten of you come over here, there's something good."

He called out ten names in one go, including Li Xiao in the end.

"What's going on...?"

Li Xiao asked Liu Kai, who was standing beside him, in a low voice.

"Great news..."

Liu Kai whispered, "It must be that some company is short-handed, so they're sending people from the docks to help move goods. They earn more than at the docks, and they even provide meals..."

"That's a good thing."

Li Xiao was overjoyed.

The ten men followed Foreman Zhao to a secluded spot.

Zhao Degui looked up and said, "Huang's Rice Shop is short-handed. You guys can go help out at the rice shop these next few days. They'll pay your wages. You're all sensible, and we'll remember all the good things you do..."

Several sensible children had already gone to slip money into Zhao Degui's hand.

Li Xiao followed suit, slipping in three cents to get the job.

"Good, you're sensible."

Zhao Degui stuffed the money into his purse, then smiled and led his men toward the warehouse.

Arriving at one of the warehouses at the dock, we found it filled with neatly stacked sacks of rice.

The man next to him, around thirty years old, wore Western-style glasses and a white shirt, and looked very respectable.

This is Manager Huang of the Huang Family Rice Shop.

Manager Huang smiled and cupped his hands in thanks, "Thank you for your help, Foreman Zhao."

Zhao Degui smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, saying, "Manager Huang, these are all strong dockworkers, none of them are the type to cheat or shirk their duties. Now that the people have been brought... I'll take my leave."

Generally speaking, rice shops have their own employees to move the goods.

But recently we've been short of staff and can't find anyone to help us temporarily, so we're looking for help from the docks.

After Zhao Degui left, Manager Huang smiled at them and said, "Everyone, come help Huang's Rice Shop move and unload goods. The daily wage is 50 cents, and meals are provided. If you're willing, you can start moving goods now..."

Upon hearing this, all the laborers were secretly delighted.

The daily wage was fifty cents, which was much more than usual.

People can only earn two or three cents a day on weekdays.

Of course, Li Xiao was an exception.

He was able to earn six cents because he moved three times the amount of goods as others.

Before long, all the laborers were already busy at work.

They carried the sacks up and loaded them onto the Huang family's rice shop's cart...

......

"Kai, how's your martial arts training going?"

During a break from moving goods, Li Xiao quietly asked Liu Kai a question.

He had long admired the Zhongyi Martial Arts School, but had never had the chance to go.

"This feels great!"

When this topic was brought up, Liu Kai excitedly said:

"What they teach is the real deal, top-tier martial arts in the martial arts world, called Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm. You hear the mysterious name? It's incredibly powerful. I saw our senior brother who taught us slap a handprint into a stone slab with one palm. If that palm hit someone on the head, they'd be torn to pieces!"

When he got excited, Liu Kai tossed the sack aside and started gesturing.

The movements were quite fluid, somewhat like Tai Chi, with stillness and movement, which seemed quite right.

Hearing this, Li Xiao was somewhat surprised.

Although he had never practiced martial arts, he probably knew that practicing martial arts without internal energy training would be futile in old age.

Liu Kai went to the martial arts school for two days, but instead of practicing stances and building a foundation, he immediately started teaching moves.

"Do you know...?"

Liu Kai leaned closer and whispered, "My senior brother who taught me secretly told me that I am a rare martial arts prodigy. In just two days, I have reached the first level of the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm. If this continues, my future is limitless."

"As long as I can scrape together the fees for five semesters, I'm sure I can reach level ten... I'm only telling you this, don't tell anyone else, or people will be jealous and cause trouble..."

Li Xiao: "..."

Why does this sound so unreliable?

Even a fool could see through the trickery of the Loyalty and Righteousness Martial Arts School.

Can you reach the first level of Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm in two days?

If it were that easy to learn, everyone on the street would be a master.

I still need to scrape together tuition fees for several more sessions to train my kung fu to the tenth level...

After a little thought, Li Xiao understood everything.

This Zhongyi Martial Arts School is using the name of loyalty and righteousness to scam money...

Believe it or not, what they teach might actually be real kung fu.

But teaching only the moves is utterly useless.

They skipped the hard work of building a foundation and went straight to teaching the moves.

To put it bluntly, it's just teaching some fancy tricks.

The goal is to make these people from the lower classes feel like they've learned something real and can actually practice a few moves, so they're willing to pay more money to the martial arts school...

Otherwise, if you start by practicing standing meditation, who can withstand the fatigue and hardship?

If you discourage people from attending classes right from the start, who will continue to pay tuition?

Thinking of this, Li Xiao whispered a piece of advice: "Kai Zi, why don't you just finish this course and save some money to get married? That's better than anything else..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Kai's face darkened. He looked Li Xiao up and down and said coldly, "A-Si, I only told you this because I considered you a brother. I didn't expect you to be the kind of person who can't stand to see others do well..."

After saying that, he ignored Li Xiao and went to move the goods on his own.

"Damn, what an idiot!"

Li Xiao cursed inwardly, thinking that his good intentions had been completely wasted.

However, it's normal for Liu Kai to have some reservations; he simply can't understand it.

Having lived two lives, the previous one was in an era of information overload. I read books, watched short videos, and received so much information that my way of thinking was very different from that of people carrying heavy loads in this era.

Moreover, Liu Kai was still immersed in his dream of being a martial arts prodigy, so how could he possibly wake up?

This Zhongyi Martial Arts School is truly disgusting; it weaves a beautiful dream of turning one's life around for the underprivileged.

This small example illustrates just how difficult it is for people at the bottom of society to rise up in this era.

Not only are there layers of exploitation by gangs, government officials, and warlords, but also leeches that cheat people out of their money and suck their blood.

Li Xiao could also foresee Liu Kai's future; he would ultimately end up like Xiangzi from Camel Village.

Unable to afford the tuition, the extraordinary skill remained unfulfilled, leading to lifelong regret, and ultimately, the blame was placed on not having tried hard enough...

But Li Xiao didn't want to lose this fairly good friend, so he went up to him and said a few nice words.

Liu Kai, being the type to be easily swayed, quickly put on a smiling face again:

"Ah Si, if you say that, then we're still brothers. If I can't afford the tuition later, I'll have to borrow some from you. Once I've mastered the skills, I'll definitely help you achieve great success."

Li Xiao believed the other party was speaking from the heart; after all, they were brothers in adversity, and true friendship is revealed in times of trouble.

When I first arrived at the dock and didn't know the rules, he helped me several times without asking for anything in return...

"Alright, there's no need to stand on ceremony between brothers."

Li Xiao agreed, then asked, "By the way, this is my first time going out to work. Is there anything I should be careful about?"

"Of course."

Liu Kai looked around and, seeing that no one else was around, whispered, "When we get to Huang's Rice Shop, don't work as hard as you do at the docks. Wages are paid by the day. But you can't carry too little, or people will think you're slacking off. You also can't carry too much. That way, the more days we work, the more wages we get. They provide meals there, so we'll have more money left over than at the docks."

As expected of a dockworker who's been around for years, he knows the ropes... Li Xiao nodded: "Understood!"

For the rest of the time, Li Xiao carried only two sacks of burlap each time.

After working for almost four hours, the dozen or so horse-drawn carts from the rice shop were piled high with rice.

The dock warehouses still have mountains of rice stockpiled; it will probably take four or five days to move everything.

At the order of the rice shop manager, the horse-drawn carriage team left the dock and headed to the rice shop.