“Number 57 Heibei Road!”
During the summer vacation, Wu Ming, following the information he had gathered, found where Neville’s family lived.
It was a shantytown, surrounded by small rivers filled with black, foul-smelling water, floating with large amounts of garbage. Numerous shacks were haphazardly clustered together, among which stood a few shaky concrete buildings.
Originally, Wu Ming had thought the area where he lived was the worst part of the city, but now he realized that everything must be judged by comparison.
Knocking on a somewhat shaky door, Wu Ming was unsurprised to see a group of dirty little kids, along with rags, broken clothes, and old furniture scattered everywhere.
“Is Neville home? I’m his classmate.”
Wu Ming tried to make his voice sound amiable.
“Brother, someone is looking for you!”
A girl with braids and missing two front teeth immediately shouted toward a corner of the house.
“Ah?”
In that corner was a pile of rags and old newspapers. The pile stirred, and Neville emerged from it.
His hair was a mess, his eyes still bloodshot, clearly having slept poorly.
“Oh, it’s Steven!’
Seeing Wu Ming, Neville’s previously drowsy face suddenly became alert: ‘You came looking for me?”
His face showed confusion.
Although both came from not very wealthy families, at least Steven lived in an apartment building, in much better conditions than his own. Moreover, Steven’s studies were better than his own, having ranked first in the grade this time, while he was just a failure.
Every time he saw Steven, it only reminded Neville more of his own inadequacy.
“Do you need something from me?”
Although they usually got along quite well, Neville could never integrate into Vidi’s little circle, perhaps because of his deep-seated inferiority, unconsciously distancing himself from everyone.
“Yeah, let’s go out for a walk! I have something I want to talk to you about!”
Wu Ming directly stated his purpose.
“Okay!”
Neville quickly got up: “Thank goodness you came today; otherwise tomorrow I would have started working at the factory as an apprentice to Master John!”
Apprentices in this era were not good jobs at all. They were practically private slaves for the masters, forced to do any task without receiving a single penny in return. The only thing provided was daily meals, and the only hope apprentices had was to learn a little skill from their masters so they could eventually work independently and earn a salary.
Unfortunately, how could the experienced masters be so generous? They guarded their unique skills very closely, hoping to exploit apprentices for their entire lives.
The two walked out of the shantytown, slowly moving away along the riverbank.
Neville seemed distracted, occasionally kicking stones on the road, clearly burdened with thoughts.
Wu Ming, on the other hand, felt as if he had finally exhaled deeply.
After leaving that area, the pressure in his heart had also eased somewhat.
“Neville… I have something I want you to help me with!”
After walking around, Wu Ming looked at the river surface and the factory and chimneys in the distance, suddenly speaking up.
“What is it? Just say it!”
Neville scratched his head, not immediately refusing. At school, he was always a hardworking person, often taking on far more work than his share, making him seem honest and easy to bully. Of course, Wu Ming had never bullied him.
“I want to start a small business. Come help me, what do you think?”
Wu Ming stared into Neville’s eyes.
“O-Open what? Are you kidding? You’re only how old?”
For some reason, although he was actually one or two years older than Steven, seeing the current Steven made Neville feel like he was still a child.
“Hehe! Neville… Tomorrow you would have become an apprentice. Look at all the paperboys and milk deliverers in the city starting early in the morning. Why do you still have such an idea?”
“But… but that’s different!”
Neville muttered.
One was purely selling labor and working for others, while the other was being one’s own boss, obviously different.
After confirming that Wu Ming was not joking, Neville finally asked, “So what do you want to do? Start what company?”
“Aren’t you kidding me?”
This time, Wu Ming instead looked at Neville with a mocking gaze: “Do you think the authorities would allow two kids under the age of fourteen to become legal representatives of a company? I just want to do some business, but it’s only going to be small stuff…”
“I see!”
Neville exhaled in relief. He had almost thought that Steven across from him really wanted to start a big business.
For some reason, thinking about Steven’s past deeds, he felt that the other person would surely succeed and become a great person in the future.
“Neville, now that the war is over and the economy is recovering, there are opportunities everywhere! As long as we catch this favorable tide, believe me, making money will still be quite easy!”
Wu Ming said in a persuasive tone: “Come help me, and I can pay you from fifty cents to one gold dollar per day!”
“Pay? There’s payment?”
Neville’s eyes widened in surprise, thinking he had assumed Steven wanted him to work for free.
“Of course. Also, you have a bunch of younger brothers and sisters, right? They can help me too!”
Wu Ming winked.
“Mary and the others are still so young, what can they do?”
Neville was puzzled.
“Although they’re just kids, they should still be able to handle simple tasks like sorting and picking, right? Anyway, with their age, no factory would hire them now. They might as well come out and help me do something!”
Wu Ming pointed toward the huge garbage hills outside the city’s suburbs: “That will be your workplace!”
“What?!”
…
Wu Ming happily returned home, recalling Neville’s expression at that time and his eventual agreement, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.
“Hey, Steven, where did you go today?”
Mrs. Straling was busy in the kitchen when she suddenly poked half her body out: “Your father found you an internship job at a trading company as a purchasing apprentice, with a daily payment of fifty cents…”
The currency system of the Kingdom of Golden Oak was also based on dollars, dimes, and cents. Although the money in circulation now was paper money, it could be exchanged for gold at any bank, giving it high value and calling it golden dollars, with one golden dollar equaling ten copper dimes.
However, Wu Ming had just used this salary to tempt Neville into working for him, and now another company was offering the same to him, which felt somewhat like poetic justice.
“I don’t want to go!”
Wu Ming directly refused.
“What?”
The noise from the kitchen suddenly stopped. Mrs. Straling came out and looked at Wu Ming: “Little Steven, what’s wrong with you? Do you know how rare this opportunity is? Mr. Catwin wouldn’t have agreed if it weren’t for your good academic performance…”
In her impression, Steven had always been sensible and obedient, so she never expected him to refuse the family’s arrangement today.
“Has he entered puberty?”
Mrs. Straling began to feel worried, but she didn’t expect Wu Ming to directly pull out a banknote from his pants pocket, the number on it making her heart jump.
“Ten golden dollars?”
She exclaimed in surprise: “How did you get so much money?”
“I’ve already started making money. I have an idea and plan to try it out during the summer vacation. I should earn more than five golden dollars a day, so…”
Wu Ming originally didn’t have so much money, but fortunately, in this world, there was a gambling and lottery industry that operated openly.
Especially the lottery industry, which was practically a spiritual opium for the poor, and was completely legal in the Kingdom of Golden Oak.
Wu Ming happened to have a bit of pocket money, which he had saved up for a few small “speculations.”
Of course, with his current abilities, trying to sense the fate lines and obtain a series of winning numbers was still more difficult than just robbing a bank.
Fortunately, there were various forms of lottery, including the simplest scratch cards, and he also had psychokinetic X-ray vision…
After several small trials, Wu Ming immediately made a small fortune. Now he had hundreds in his pocket, which would be his first pot of gold to start his business.
He could have earned more, but one time could be considered lucky, and several consecutive times would be too unbelievable.
Moreover, the more money gained from gambling, the more danger it would bring in multiples.
With his current abilities, this was already his limit.
“What do you plan to do?”
Sure enough, Mrs. Straling no longer mentioned the internship apprentice matter, instead looking at Wu Ming with shining eyes.
“Secret!”
Although he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide it forever, Wu Ming still acted like a little adult, causing Mrs. Straling to be both amused and exasperated: “You little guy…”
At the dinner table that night, Mrs. Straling and her husband exchanged a knowing glance. With adult wisdom, they remained silent but were almost certainly planning to secretly follow Steven the next day to see what he was up to.
Wu Ming knew this well but still pretended to be completely unaware, focusing on eating his food.
…
“Hey, Neville!”
“Hey, Steven!”
Neville rubbed his hands together: “Following your instructions, we worked all day and got these!”
He led Wu Ming to a “secret base” outside the suburban garbage hills. It was actually an abandoned large shack, with a very pungent smell and several piles of garbage stacked to one side.
“Good, very good. This is your payment for today!”
Wu Ming pulled out several 50-cent notes and handed one to each child.
“No, no, this is too much…”
Although Neville said that, his hands unconsciously gripped tighter. The other younger brothers and sisters weren’t as hesitant as him and directly cheered, stuffing the money into their pockets.
“You did well. Continue tomorrow!”
Wu Ming sent Neville’s group away and looked at the piles of waste paper and metal components, a slight smile on his lips: “Recycling resources? Come on! With this wage and such a meager return rate, it would definitely result in a loss!”
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