How could I possibly be confined in a cage?

The empty, drafty cement pipes had no stairs for her to climb up; to reach the separate pipe at the top, she had to use both her hands and feet to climb up.

Fortunately, Qingru was light and agile, and she used both hands and feet to climb up the pipe by stepping on the bottom edge in a few quick movements.

The environment inside almost made Qingru faint. The bedding was scattered haphazardly, and whether it was from being frozen or dirty, it was hard and cold, covered with stains and even intentional bloodstains. Even stray dogs wouldn't stoop to staying there.

Qingru frowned in disgust, rummaging through the things with two fingers, but there was no place at all suitable for humans to live in.

She peeked out and saw that the other girls were in the same situation, which made her worry.

He pulled out a relatively clean clump of cotton from the bedding, swept out a spot where he could sit, and barely managed to rest for a while.

This place is drafty from front to back; if it continues like this, it probably won't survive the winter.

Just as Qingru was secretly worried, she suddenly heard a small noise beside her. She looked up and saw a dark shadow dart past her.

"Who?" Qingru was shocked and jumped up, looking around but couldn't see anything.

Did I see it wrong just now?

But soon, the voice rang out again, and it was getting closer and closer to her.

Qingru clenched her fists, her eyes fixed warily on a certain spot.

"Squeak...squeak..."

Qingru looked in the direction of the sound and saw a rat dropping fall from the crack in the pipe. She immediately understood what was going on.

It's this season, and the rat hasn't frozen to death. Fortunately, Qingru wasn't scared after seeing it clearly; she was just disgusted.

She didn't bring much luggage with her, only a few pieces of clothing. Fortunately, she had made thorough preparations from the beginning, wrapping herself up in layers of clothing so she wasn't afraid of the cold.

But this environment... is truly disgusting.

"Pig, time to eat!" Qingru heard someone shouting in a pretentious tone and quickly looked towards the source of the sound. A middle-aged woman, as thick as a vat, came over, swinging her hips. The girl she called "Pig" was Luchaibang, who looked only thirteen or fourteen years old. She was very thin and not much thicker than a reed.

She was dressed very thinly and looked frail. The older woman would poke her with every word she said, but she didn't dare to fight back. She just obediently lowered her head and accepted it.

Seeing her like this, the aunt pinched her hard a few more times. "Wait, I'll get you some grain. You all do so little but eat so much, and I have to take care of you. You're all so unambitious."

Whether from the cold or fear, or perhaps both, the girl kept her head down, nodding or shaking her head repeatedly, not daring to utter a single word. Aside from the few newcomers around, there was no one else in sight.

After scolding her, the auntie swayed away and walked away.

The girl was still standing there, stunned.

Qingru couldn't bear it, so she threw a piece of clothing to her from above.

A soft, fragrant garment fell from the sky, and the girl instinctively reached out to catch it, staring blankly at Qingru.

"For you."

The girl took the clothes and stared at Qingru for a long time without saying a word. She folded the clothes and put them aside before going to find firewood.

Qingru didn't know what she was thinking, and just shook her head with pity. Poor child, perhaps she was terrified, and dared not even accept other people's kindness.

Qingru gave the clothes to her and then stopped looking at them. She was thinking about how to find a place to spend the night.

The girls had already cleaned up their pipes and were discussing how to squeeze together to sleep, hoping it would be warmer.

Qingru was very curious: how could they still persevere when the situation was so different from what she had imagined?

"Huh? This is completely different from what I was told when I came. I wish I hadn't come," Qingru said tentatively.

The girl opposite her, who had chosen the left-hand pipe on the second floor, heard her speak, glanced back, and then whispered, "Who doesn't know? I could tell as soon as I came here, but what can I do? I've already taken the money. If I don't work here, I'll have to pay compensation. I only came here to work as a factory worker because my family is poor. Where am I going to get the money to pay compensation?"

"Loss money?" Qingru kept this in mind. She hadn't known this before. It seemed to be one of the traps.

I asked a few other girls, and they all had different answers. Some of them saw that there were people in charge here and hoped to do well and become "little managers" in the future. Others felt that their families were struggling to survive and wanted to come out and make their way in the world. In short, none of them had the idea of ​​running away.

This is troublesome. This is only Qingru's first day. Tomorrow I need to find a way to contact Chief Zhang's younger sister and leak this information.

It seemed that no one lived in the pipes around Qingru's place; the environment was dirty and messy. Fortunately, she was the only one there. She didn't plan to tidy it up much; she just wanted to get through the night.

The terrain here was high, and the weeds in the field were only partially visible from the top. Qingru went down and pulled some up, weaving a rough round door to block the wind. Seeing this, the other girls followed suit, asking Qingru for advice, which brought them closer together.

Qingru then realized that all the girls came from the same village.

“We live near Shaoxing, so there are boats everywhere.” The speaker was Li Qiaofeng. She had seven sisters, and with so many people and so little land, and her mother still had to give birth, “girls couldn’t survive. My cousin said he had a way to get me a factory job in the city, so I came. My contract is worth thirty silver dollars, and he said it will increase by ten every year.” Clearly, Qiaofeng still held onto hope, believing that with her hard work, she could surely make a good life here.

“That’s right. So what if the boss is a bit fierce? In our town, the workers and apprentices are often beaten and scolded by their employers, and they don’t even get paid as much as we do. We just have to put up with it.” This was Qiu Shuang’s response. She didn’t have that many children, but the landlord was arrogant and took over her land. Her family had no way to make a living and couldn’t survive. So she believed the middleman’s words and came here to work.

The other three girls had similar reasons: their families were poor and they couldn't make ends meet.

As they were talking, Luchaibang'er returned, dragging a bundle of dry branches. Several girls came forward to help her.

"You're the senior, I'll help you with some things, and you can teach me how to work here." Qiu Shuang was very enthusiastic, and when she saw that Lu Chai Bang was struggling, she stepped forward to help.

Luchai Bang'er glanced at her, then lowered his head again. "No need, you guys rest."

"Don't be shy, where's the kitchen?" Qiu Shuang looked around, but couldn't see any kitchen here.

Let the reeds go wherever they want. He walked to the middle of the pipes, where there were several stones piled up on the ground, already blackened from burning, with a frame supporting them and a large pot hanging from them.

"This isn't the 'kitchen,' is it?" Qiu Shuang exclaimed in surprise. Qing Ru and the others all crowded around to look, and their expressions instantly turned sour.

The reed sticks lit the dry branches on their own, rinsed the big pot, and then added several large ladles of water.

They could clearly see that the pot was covered with a thick layer of grime, and there were withered branches floating in the bucket, yet Reed still added water into it.

"You're so careless with your cooking! How can anyone eat this? Even pig feed isn't cooked like this!" Xinlan, with her two shiny braids, couldn't help but complain.

The reeds seemed not to hear them at all, ignoring all of them.

Qingru found it a bit strange, but she felt that Luchaibang wasn't the kind of person to be so careless; there must be another reason.

Sure enough, the plump auntie came swaying over again, carrying a large bowl in her hands, the contents of which were obscured. Seeing Qingru and the others gathered around the large pot, she said irritably, "Eat, eat, eat! You'll all eat yourselves to death! The food hasn't even been cooked yet and you're already staring at it. If you dare steal a bite, I'll break your teeth."

The girls didn't know who she was, but she was arrogant and might be Zhang Dali's wife, so they all stood aside and cursed her. Qingru, however, didn't want to cause trouble. She just wanted to find out what was going on and contact Guo Zixing to rescue the people.

The fat shaman pointed at the reeds and cursed, "Why didn't you burn them later? Firewood is free! If you had that time, you could have taken on a few more jobs and I'd consider it a good deed."

Lu Chaibang apologized repeatedly, and only then did the plump woman pour the leftover food from her bowl into the water. She then glared at the girls and swayed away.

"Who is she?" Qingru asked.

Lu Chai Bang'er then replied, "Boss lady, you can just call her Mrs. Zhang."

"Mrs. Zhang?" Can she really be considered a wife?

"Yeah, she likes it when people call her that. When she's happy, she gets beaten less often."

Qingru was already shocked enough today, so hearing these words now seemed rather ordinary. It was nothing more than someone who couldn't be a 'wife' and was trying to find some satisfaction in these female workers.

A sour, pungent smell of food wafted from the pot. Qingru pinched her nose and leaned over to take a look. It seemed to contain some broken rice, indica rice, burnt rice, and bean dregs. Such a large pot of water could only be boiled down to a thin porridge.

Is this what we'll be eating from now on?

Qingru and the others were reluctant to accept it, but seeing the porridge being cooked with reeds and swallowing their saliva, they knew that this was probably the food for the female workers.

"It's so cold, and there's still spoiled food. I feel sorry for her. I wonder how long it's been sitting there."

Qingru didn't want to accept it either, but when you're under someone's roof, it's best to keep your head down. Luckily, she had some food on her, so she wouldn't actually have to drink that bowl of spoiled porridge. Besides, the fat aunt was keeping them at arm's length.

While the porridge was cooking, Luchai added a few more pieces of firewood and turned to walk into his pipe.

Qingru understood the look in her eyes and quietly followed.

"What's the matter with you?"

Lu Chaiban pulled her inside and whispered, "Can you read?"

Qingru didn't know what she was going to do, but nodded in confusion.

"Write something for me." Lu Chai Bang'er pulled out a relatively flat stone slab, about the size of two palms. "I'm in charge of cooking. Since you've helped me, I'll save the thickest broth for you every day."

"Write what?"

"Sun Qiao".

"your name?"

Luchabang shook his head, guiding Qingru to look, "It's her."

There was a girl in that corner, about fifteen or sixteen years old, her face was pale and lifeless.

Qingru gasped, her heart pounding. Who would have thought that Luchaibang'er had hidden a corpse in her bed?

Luchaibanger wasn't afraid at all, and even went up to tidy her hair. "The clothes you gave me are very nice. I put them on her. It's good that she looks a little more presentable."

Qingru was absolutely terrified. This was the first time she had ever faced a corpse directly. Fear spread uncontrollably throughout her body, and she couldn't stop trembling no matter how hard she tried. "Wh...what happened?"

“She was sick, but no one treated her. They still made her go to work, and she died. She died from exhaustion and illness. It was truly a miserable experience.”

Luchaibang'er's words were incoherent, but Qingru understood them. Her fear subsided somewhat, and she couldn't help but feel pity.

"Okay, I'll write it for her."

Qingru took the stone slab, but there was no pen. Luchai handed her a burnt twig. "Here, write on it. I'm going out now. When you're done, put it next to her. Everyone will be back soon, and it will be time to eat."

Lu Chai Bang'er's tone remained calm throughout, yet Qing Ru sensed an overwhelming sorrow within it. This feeling was completely different from that of her younger sister, Yan Ru; one possessed a charmingly naive and pitiful quality, while the other conveyed despair and struggle in dire circumstances.

A dull ache settled in her heart. These girls were all about the same age as Yanru. Qingru loved her younger sisters so much, and that made her heart ache even more for their plight.

This girl named Sun Qiao died silently, her origins and whereabouts unknown.

With the end that had burned to charcoal, she carefully wrote the two characters "Sun Qiao" on the stone slab. Two tears fell, and Qingru blinked. Overcoming her fear, she placed the stone slab in Sun Qiao's arms, offered a sincere prayer for her, and then slipped a piece of candy into it, saying, "May you be as sweet as honey in your next life."

Qingru composed herself and came out. The other girls sat by Qiushuang's pipe, as it was the lowest spot, making it the most convenient for them to rest.

Qingru huddled around the large pot to warm herself by the fire, stirring the reeds with a ladle and adding a ladle of water every now and then.

For a moment, the only sounds in this cluttered space were the crackling of burning firewood and the clanging of spoons against the iron pot.

Before long, the area around them started to get noisy. Qiu Shuang and the others stood up when they heard the noise and went to find something to do next to the reeds, not wanting to appear idle.

Qingru did nothing but keep her eyes peeled, memorizing her surroundings.

The reed stick just now inspired her; besides delivering the message, she also needed to draw a map of the environment and send it out.

Zhang Dali returned with thirty or forty girls. The fat woman, ah, no, "Mrs. Zhang" had somehow slipped out from somewhere and was standing here waiting for people.

When Zhang Dali saw her, his eyes showed some unease. "What are you doing here? Go back."

“I can’t supervise the cooking, and I can’t supervise the newcomers. Do you think everything is so cheap? Look at Lu Er and the others, there are now ten or so more people. If you paid more attention, you wouldn’t be any worse than him.”

"Alright, let's eat quickly. After we finish eating, I'll take the new recruits for a tour of the factory. We're already so busy every day."

He would lead people to patrol back and forth, as if he were doing a lot of work. When the girls passed by Mrs. Zhang, they would all have to call out respectfully and then run to get their own bowls and chopsticks. Then Mrs. Zhang would take a large spoon, stir the pot, and have people line up to wait for their food.

Qingru and the others had no experience and didn't know that they needed to bring their own bowls and chopsticks to get food. Besides, they didn't really want to eat it, so they just endured it and watched others eat.

Luchaibang sat to one side, watching Mrs. Zhang serve the food blankly. Qingru couldn't bear it, so she went over and sat down with her, warming her with her body heat.

"Come to my place tonight, I still have some clothes," Qingru whispered.

The reed stick, with its ears perked up, half-listened and half-guessed, and softly replied with an "Mmm".

Mrs. Zhang had a knack for serving rice. She would stir the bottom of the bowl, scoop it up, and then add half a spoonful of water. That was one serving for one person.

Whoever gets their share is responsible, and no one dares to object. Instead, they flatter the person, because if they refuse this meal, they won't get another one.

Qingru also noticed that among the women who were good-looking, Mrs. Zhang was almost like a ladle of clear water, while the uglier and more robust the woman was, the denser she was.

Looking at Mrs. Zhang and then at Zhang Dali, Qingru understood: this person was wary of others.

Seeing that Qingru and the others hadn't eaten, Zhang Dali didn't bother them and called them over, saying, "Come on, let's go to the factory and take a look. Learn the skills as soon as possible so you can start working."