star hunter

Zhong Yuncong was wandering aimlessly on the street.

He didn't know where to go, so he wandered freely, unexpectedly, he wandered to Changle Street where he visited last night, but the scene during the day was far less bustling than at night, and the assembly line-like food stalls disappeared. No, it was a little deserted, but the whole street was also opened up a lot, and he finally got a glimpse of the whole Changle Street.

The steamed stuffed bun shop, tailor shop, and grocery store that he was interested in were all open for business. He took a quick walk around and had to admit that he was no longer in the lively mood.

Although it is not as crowded as the night market, there is no lack of popularity as the shops come in and out, welcome and send off, but Zhong Yuncong feels unbearable loneliness like a tide.

This kind of unforgettable loneliness is unprecedented, because his personality has always been extroverted, and his adaptability is not bad. After coming to this strange and closed city for no reason, he has been trying to get used to all kinds of strange people and people here. The monotonous and rough food should be a pleasure in bitterness.

Besides, at that time, he still had a place to stay and someone he could rely on.

Now there is nothing left.

"Forget it." He shook his head, and simply walked along Changle Street to check the posters posted last night, and asked someone from time to time: "Excuse me, have you seen the person in the painting?"

Everyone who was asked shook their heads.

He was frustrated, thinking that finding a needle in a haystack is really difficult... Maybe the scope should be expanded?

But the problem is, he doesn't even have a pen and paper in hand.

While he was thinking hard, a more realistic problem lay in front of him—after the night passed, his stomach started to make empty plans, and the first problem he had to solve was how to make himself have a full meal.

If he wants to eat, he needs money, but he has no money.

He can't do petty theft, so he has to find a way to make money right now.

After wandering back and forth on the street for a while, he finally aimed at a target, an aunt who looked kind and friendly. After hesitating for a moment, he mustered up the courage to walk over and asked the other person respectfully: "Hi, I would like to ask Let’s see, is there any place to work nearby? It’s best to include food and accommodation.”

He said the last sentence with a guilty conscience. He always felt that it would be difficult to find such a job in this kind of place. Sure enough, the aunt looked him up and down and shook her head: "I'm afraid there is no shortage of manpower around here."

Zhong Yuncong's heart sank to the bottom in an instant.

Probably seeing the helplessness in his eyes, the aunt felt compassion. She pondered for a while, and then said: "If you want to find a job, you can only go to the mine. But that place is full of hard work. Live, are you okay?"

mine?Zhong Yuncong hesitated for a moment, and quickly realized that she should be referring to the emerald mines that are now the economic lifeline of the "isolated island".

He had read from newspapers that Mengchuan was rich in jadeite ore resources, and the development of the jadeite industry had almost fed 80.00% of the city's population.

He could foresee that working in the mine would never be an easy task, but he had no choice at the moment. Facing his aunt's suspicious gaze, he forcefully smiled: "I can do it. Don't look at me as thin, but I still have strength." of."

Auntie nodded slightly: "In this case, then you can try it." Then she sighed: "These days, there are not many young people who work hard."

He didn't have time to think about whether there was any deep meaning in her words, his stomach was getting more and more hungry, and he desperately wanted to get a job, so he asked: "Then how do I get to the mine?"

The aunt was speechless: "If it wasn't closed now, I would have suspected that you were a foreigner."

Zhong Yuncong was ashamed, but fortunately he had contact lenses to cover up, the other party was astonished as he was, instead of being suspicious, he kindly pointed out the route for him.

"Go to the other side of the street, go straight, turn right, and walk for more than ten minutes, and you will see the train station. The train over there goes directly to the suburbs. You can get on the train and you will reach the mine."

Zhong Yuncong didn't move after listening, he looked at her expectantly: "Oh... the train, you have to buy a ticket to go there, right?"

"Of course!" In Zhong Yuncong's eyes, the aunt basically looked at him with caring eyes for the mentally retarded, but she was really nice, and after seeing his predicament, she said in surprise: "You child, Could it be that you don’t have any money on you?”

He smiled shyly and remained silent.

The auntie shook her head, looked at the blood stains on his face that hadn't been wiped clean, showed some sympathy, hesitated for a moment, took out two bills from the cloth bag at her waist, looked left and right, and stuffed them while no one was paying attention. In the palm of Zhong Yuncong: "This money is enough for you to buy two steamed buns and a bus ticket. The wages in the mine are paid on a daily basis. Auntie can only help you so much. The rest is up to you."

Zhong Yuncong was moved to tears. When he was most lonely and helpless, there were people he had never met who were willing to help him. He was really lucky.

After thanking him a thousand times, he continued walking along the street and bought two steamed buns in a steamed bun around the corner.

>>>

When Zhong Yuncong bought the ticket and boarded the train bound for the suburbs, Su Xian hurried to Zhang Jibai's clinic. After seeing his uncharacteristic expression, he changed his mouth: "What's wrong with you? In a hurry?"

Su Xian's eyes quickly turned around the clinic, but he didn't find Zhong Yuncong's figure. His heart skipped a beat, but he responded, "It's okay, I'm passing by, and I'll see you by the way."

Zhang Jibai was surprised now: "Wow, you still come to see me when you are short of money and medicine? It's a fantasy."

Su Xian didn't have time to pay attention to his sarcasm, and turned around to leave.

"Didn't you say to come to see me, just take a look and leave?" Zhang Jibai's teasing came from behind, Su Xian was suddenly a little annoyed, and replied angrily: "Then you still want me to take a look at you? "

Well, whoever wants to look for it, I won't look for it anyway!he thought angrily.

>>>

This dilapidated and simple station has a lot of passengers. It seems that they all go to the mine to find work.After getting out of the station, Zhong Yuncong followed the crowd and came to an emerald mining area in the general direction of the crowd.

The first thing he saw was the almost smoothed mountain. The entire mountain was exposed, without any edges and corners, and it was full of steep walls almost perpendicular to the ground.The ecological environment was obviously damaged badly, the vegetation was completely stripped, from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain, not a single bit of green could be seen, it was all bare rock layers.

There are countless large and small mines all over the mountain, with pits and pits, and some huge open-air mines, filled with muddy water, turned into mouthfuls of artificial ponds.

This is one of the countless emerald fields in Mengchuan. Hundreds of people work at the same time. The whole mining area is like a huge ant nest, with densely packed worker ants working hard.

The development level of this city stayed at the level of more than 20 years ago, and it even went backwards. Naturally, mechanization has not been realized. What's more, mining, especially the development of precious mineral deposits such as jadeite, is difficult to completely de-artificialize.

On the paved road in the mountains, there are still many people carrying or carrying pieces of ore from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain.

The scene of thousands of troops mining together is quite amazing.

Zhong Yuncong was shocked by the hot scene, but after recovering, he realized that he would soon become one of them.

He's just here to find work.

Speaking of which, this was his first official job, not counting the internships he had found in college, and it seemed to be purely physical work.

To be honest, he was also beating drums in his own heart. He was spoiled and spoiled since he was a child, neglected to exercise, did not work hard, had poor physical fitness, and had no confidence at all.

But isn't there no way out now?Even if you bite the bullet, you have to go.

Like him, there were quite a few people who came to the mining area to look for work. He queued up with those people, registered and reported one by one, and was assigned by a middle-aged fat man wearing a hard hat.

When it was Zhong Yuncong's turn, the fat man was smoking a cigarette, writing something down with a pen in his hand, without lifting his eyelids, he asked vaguely, "Can you 'dig a hole [Note 1]'?"

Zhong Yun shook his head in bewilderment.

Fatty: "...Then will you 'open the pond [Note 2]'?"

Zhong Yuncong continued to shake his head.

Fatty: "...What about 'Chong Miao [Note 3]'?"

Zhong Yun smiled at him embarrassingly, which was self-evident.

The fat man couldn't bear it anymore, and raised his eyelids to look at the young man: "Why do you come here if you don't even know how to fart? Looking at you like this, you probably haven't been to a mine before, have you?"

The contempt in his eyes was too obvious, but Zhong Yuncong still replied with a good attitude: "I can't learn it. Everyone starts from scratch. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect..."

"You brat, you're so noisy that my brain hurts!" The middle-aged fat man flicked the cigarette ash on the ground, and spit out a mouthful of phlegm by the way, Zhong Yun never took a step back calmly, and the other party smoked Take a puff of cigarette, "Go back, there is no job you can do here - next!"

Zhong Yuncong was in a hurry: "Why? Even if my ... technical level is not good, but there are always jobs that don't require technical level?"

The fat man smiled contemptuously, and pointed to the back casually: "That's the work of working hard, here, those who carry ore, can you do it?"

"I can do it..." Zhong Yuncong bit the bullet and replied, "Why can't I?"

Now not only the fat man, but also the people behind him laughed out loud, and the person behind him became a little impatient: "Come on brother, with your body, a gust of wind can blow you down, right? Hurry up Come on, don't waste everyone's time!"

Zhong Yuncong was thick-skinned enough, as if he hadn't heard of it, his eyes only looked at the fat man in charge, and said with a smile: "Let me try it, if it doesn't work, I'll leave right away, and I won't stay any longer."

He was handsome and had a pleasant smile. The middle-aged fat man had the mentality of "reaching out and not hitting the smiling face". He frowned for a while, and finally raised his pen and asked, "What's your name?"

Zhong Yuncong knew that he had passed the first test, so he happily reported his name: "Zhong Yuncong."

He was originally worried about whether he needed a certificate or not, but he obviously worried too much. Looking around, there were a lot of child laborers in the mouth, and it seemed that the management was very loose and chaotic. After he registered his name, he was released. In a mine, join the army transporting ore.

The excavated and picked mountain materials [Note 4] are put on one side, and the opposite side is piled up with waste materials. Zhong Yun never looked back, but he didn’t find any difference between the two piles of stones. The difference is that the amount of waste is much larger than that of mountain materials.

He received a pannier, and the person in charge of distributing tools glanced back and forth at him several times before handing over a dirty bamboo pan: "Line up over there!"

Zhong Yuncong took it quickly: "Okay."

The loading of the stones was also carried out by a special person. After the scales were weighed, they were packed one by one. When the basket was full, he carried it on his shoulder and almost didn't stand up.

It was really heavy, and he felt like he was carrying a mountain.

But when he actually walked into the team, he realized that his back basket was really nothing. Most of the people chose to pick it up, and it was full of two loads, which was heavier than him.

He laughed at himself, it really couldn't be compared with others.

Zhong Yun, who was mixed in the transportation army, walked with difficulty and soon sweated profusely, but he still maintained a mentality of enjoying the hardships - he remembered a text in a primary school textbook, which seemed to be called "The Porter on Mount Tai".

Does he mean something like that now?But after thinking about it, he decided not to touch the porter of Mount Tai, after all, Mount Tai is much steeper than this broken mine.

At the moment when he felt that his spine was about to be bent, he was disheartened to find that he had only gone half way down the mountain, and the road ahead was long and difficult, which made him despair.

After a long time, we finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. Everyone had to weigh the mountain materials they had transported down. This was not only to echo back and forth, but also to check whether the workers had cut corners, and it was also one of the proofs for later settlement of wages.

After Zhong Yuncong unloaded the stone, his head was a little dizzy, probably due to hypoglycemia, and he couldn't hear the weight he was carrying clearly, but he also understood that the amount he carried was very inconspicuous among a group of people.

It's okay, as long as you can earn a stutter, I'm single anyway.He thought hopelessly.

There was no time to rest, and he wanted to return to the mountain immediately. The return journey was much easier, after all, the basket was empty, but his legs were still trembling uncontrollably.

His body has not been able to adapt to this high-intensity physical work for a while.

Returning to the starting point, repeating the same process, Zhong Yuncong wiped off his sweat, carried a heavy basket on his back, and started down the mountain again.

This simple and rough job really didn't have any technical content, and the only thing needed was strength. At this point, Zhong Yuncong obviously failed to meet the standard. It was only the second trip, and his steps were already a bit vain.

That guy Xiang Yu must be perfect for the job.He thought with a wry smile, sweat slid into his eyes, it was itchy and painful, when he was blinking non-stop, the person behind stepped on his heel abruptly, Zhong Yun was caught off guard, and he was already a little dizzy , the burden was heavy, and the whole person fell to the ground. He was fine, but all the mountain materials fell out.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, but brother, you are walking too slowly, blocking my way." A voice that was not salty or plain sounded behind him, and he felt that the voice was familiar, so he turned his head and glanced at it. , it turned out to be the big brother who was behind him earlier.

Sensing the mockery hidden in the corner of the opponent's eyes, Zhong Yuncong immediately concluded that this guy must have done it on purpose.

As for?I didn't offend you, just bypass me if you get in the way.He was very depressed.

"I've said it all, this job is not something you can do," the big brother exaggeratedly pointed at a piece of rough rock, and shouted, "Look, you broke all the mountain materials!"

The voice of this bastard is comparable to a megaphone, and it directly attracted the person in charge of this incident—that is, the middle-aged fat man from before. He heard that someone broke the mountain materials, and he was so angry that he was covered in fat All trembling, before approaching, a thunderous voice came over: "Which bastard dropped the mountain material?!"

Zhong Yuncong glanced at the pile of gray stones, one of which had a few crooked cracks crawling on its surface, it was hard to tell whether it was original or just dropped.

Zhong Yuncong felt that it was probably the former.

He wiped the dirt on his face, stood up holding the heavy mountain material, and justified himself: "How can such a hard rock be broken so easily, the crack should have been there in the first place." of……"

The fat man ran over, saw the cracks on the stone at a glance, and immediately slapped him indiscriminately, angrily: "I knew you were a worthless thing, and I shouldn't have let you in! There is no mountain material that broke Lao Tzu!"

Zhong Yun's hands and feet were weak from the beginning, and the fat man's attack was quite ruthless. This blow directly made him fall to the ground, with golden stars in front of his eyes, and his ears were buzzing, as if a swarm of bees had gathered beside his ears.

I've never been hit like this before.He covered his face, and his anger also came out.

His hand holding the mountain material tightened involuntarily. The rough surface of the stone made his fingertips ache, but at the same time, a wonderful picture flashed across the screen like a broken screen .

He was startled, and subconsciously closed his eyes.

The rough touch under the fingertips still exists, but the weathered case is like melting ice, dissolving little by little.

Before his eyes was a blur of gray and white.

This is... the inside of the ore?He reacted belatedly, and was immediately taken aback by himself—he knew that he had some unusual abilities, but he didn't expect that this ability could also act on objects in addition to the human body.

He never knew that his tactile power had such uses.

After realizing that he was peeking into the inner composition of this piece of rough jadeite, he suddenly became excited and also a little curious, wondering if there was precious jadeite hidden in this piece of mountain material.

He also put his other hand on the surface of the stone, and groped with both hands. As the contact area increased, the entire rough stone appeared in front of his "eyes" without reservation.

Gray and white, a large area of ​​gray and white, with some gray and black impurities in the middle, but most of them are plain gray and white.

There's none?He was disappointed at first, but soon he couldn't help laughing - anyway, the stone does not belong to him, and it has nothing to do with him if he can't get the emerald.

When he was laughing at himself, in the deepest part of the stone, in the chaotic dream, suddenly there was a flash of greenery full of vitality.His heart skipped a beat, and just as he was about to delve into it, he never thought that someone pushed his shoulder violently. He was startled, and the blue color disappeared without a trace.

He opened his eyes with regret, and what he met was a pair of angry little eyes squashed by fat.

"What are you doing?" The fat boss saw him hugging his mountain material with a drunken look on his face, his heart arose, and he snatched the stone with his hands, cursing, "You short-lived poor man, don't you want to steal it?" Lao Tzu’s mountain materials, right? Huh? You’re so courageous!”

Zhong Yuncong rubbed his swollen cheeks, then used his hands and feet to get up, and sincerely warned: "Boss, since this piece is waste, you should throw it away earlier."

"Hurry up and get out! The waste is all thrown out by you!" The fat man spat on the ground again, "Let me see you again, and beat me every time I see you!"

Under the gloating eyes of many people, Zhong Yuncong patted his buttocks and walked down the mountain, ending his first part-time job in an unseemly way.

However, at this moment, he has found a new path that is more suitable for him.

That is definitely more promising than transporting ore.