The mutated rat had bowed down to Hong Xiaofu.
Everyone was stunned. What on Earth was going on?
The rat had knelt down before Hong Xiaofu. Was Hong Xiaofu the king of rats? Even if he was the king of rats, no one had ever heard of a rat bowing down to the king…
Out of everyone who was there, old Wu got the greatest shock—he was the only one who knew about Hong Xiaofu’s power. He had not believed it at first, but now that he had seen it…
It was definitely true! Hong Xiaofu did not lie to him!
“Little brother, you…” Uncle Chen who was standing nearby looked at Hong Xiaofu anxiously and asked, “You can control rats?”
Hong Xiaofu, “…”
Only ghosts could control rats!
However, he did not have time to explain what was going on. Hong Xiaofu shouted at the mutated rat at once, “Go away, quickly go away!’
It seemed to have understood what Hong Xiaofu had said, because it circled twice around Hong Xiaofu and immediately disappeared into the nearby bushes.
Everyone finally heaved a sigh of relief.
The rat was absolutely frightening. Its mouth was filled with thick shovel-like teeth. If it had bitten someone…
But every creature had a weakness. Before Hong Xiaofu, even the rat had been forced to bow down.
“Fortunately, there weren’t any accidents.” Just then, Chief Wang Zhen ran over. He had been hit by panic earlier on. If any workers had been bitten by the rat, it would be considered a work injury and therefore be compensated—and judging by the teeth, the compensation fees would not be little.
He was starting to like Hong Xiaofu a lot. He said while smiling, “Little brother, great job, you are so capable! I won’t say anything else, I’m obliged to give you an additional one hundred dollars on top of your pay for today!”
Extra pay of one hundred dollars! Indeed nothing was more practical than that! Hong Xiaofu let out a smile instantly and said, “Thank you Uncle Wang.”
“Yup, good job!” Wang Zhen patted Hong Xiaofu’s shoulders firmly and said, “I have faith in you!”
Nothing significant happened in the remaining time. Everyone was working their guts out; very quickly, it was already five in the evening. The sky had gotten dark and it was time to wrap up.
“Everyone please gather. We are collating the numbers and doing the accounts now.” Wang Zhen instructed, “Everyone is to report the number of bricks you have moved for today.”
Everyone started reporting the figures.
“Six thousand and three hundred.”
“Six thousand and six hundred.”
“Five thousand and eight hundred.”
Going one after another, the accountant would calculate their earnings after they were done reporting. It was easy to calculate. There was a specific way in which the workers had to arrange the bricks and people could tell in a glance how much they had moved. As they were collecting their pay one by one, it was Hong Xiaofu’s turn. He carefully reported his number, “Erm… I moved thirty-five thousand and five hundred bricks…”
Upon hearing the figure, the accountant was so shocked that his pen fell onto the ground. He asked, “How much?!”
Hong Xiaofu repeated himself, “A total of thirty-five thousand five hundred and sixty bricks, you can forgo the sixty…”
The accountant, “…”
He had moved nearly thirty-six thousand bricks in a day? Was that a joke?
“Are you serious…”The accountant stood up and walked outside. He saw a terrifying scene: there were mostly small piles of bricks around, but at the side of it, there stood a huge pile of bricks which was six to seven times the size of the other piles.
The accountant gulped in disbelief and asked, “How… how did you do it?”
Hong Xiaofu answered simply, “Using my hands…”
The accountant, “…”
He obviously knew that he had used his hands. What else could he have used? His feet?
“The number is correct.” At that moment, Wang Zhen smiled as he walked over and said, “Xiaofu is very hardworking. Take it as he did thirty-six thousand and give him an additional one hundred dollars for chasing away the rat.”
“Oh, okay.” Since Chief Wang had already instructed as such, the accountant would not have any objections. He immediately issued a receipt and gave him the pay. Thirty-six thousand bricks, that would amount to one thousand four hundred and forty dollars. Adding one hundred dollars to that, Hong Xiaofu had earned more than one thousand five hundred dollars in a day from moving bricks.
Hong Xiaofu instantly felt like he had found a safe path leading to a bright future.
That was amazing! He loved his job!
When he had collected his pay, the accountant had given him one thousand five hundred dollars. He was short of notes and all he had left were coins.
“Erm…” The accountant asked Hong Xiaofu, “Are you okay with this?”
People then didn’t really like coins, especially a handful of them because they were hard to carry—which was why the accountant had intentionally asked if it was okay.
Hong Xiaofu was perfectly fine with it. Coins were good too, he could bring them home and give them to Shen Xiaoling for her to put in her piggy bank. He smiled and replied, “Sure, I don’t mind it.”
“Alright then.” The accountant checked the sum carefully, and he had some change of about a few tens of dollars left. It was all ten cents, fifty cents, and one-dollar coins. Chief Wang waved his hand and said, “You can take all of it, it’s only about ten dollars.”
Hong Xiaofu immediately expressed his gratitude and said, “Thank you Chief Wang!”
“Haha, young man, you are having it tough.” Chief Wang tapped on Hong Xiaofu’s shoulders and asked, “You may go. Are you coming tomorrow?”
Hong Xiaofu, “I’m coming!”
He hopped onto the van that was driving into the city. After he bid farewell to Uncle Chen and the rest of the workers, he went back home.
As soon as he stepped into the house, Shen Xiaoling came to greet him, “Brother! You are back! How was your day today? Are you coping well with work?”
“It was great, and it couldn’t get any better.” Hong Xiaofu brought Shen Xiaoling into the house. He first took out the 1500 dollars and said while smiling brightly, “Look, I earned so much from moving bricks for a day!”
“Huh?” Shen Xiaoling looked at the money in Hong Xiaofu’s hand and was instantly surprised. She became teary as she said, “Brother, you must be very tired right? Let me help you massage your arms!”
As she was speaking, she started carefully pinching Hong Xiaofu’s arms. She did it extremely carefully and gently.
Hong Xiaofu felt comfortable, grinning from ear to ear. He laughed and said, “I’m not tired actually. Didn’t I fall asleep when I was practicing? I found out that this works perfectly for me on the construction site! When I finished moving the bricks I was completely exhausted. I took a nap and I was perfectly fine by the time I woke up. That’s why I could earn so much today.”
“Really?” Shen Xiaoling said excitedly, “That’s great! I know my brother is the most capable person!”
She was completely honest about it. To her, Hong Xiaofu was the best brother—he was invincible!
Hong Xiaofu said, “If I maintain this speed, I could get one performance enhancing pill in another three days. I will know if it works then.”
Shen Xiaoling nodded her head firmly and said, “Yup, you can definitely do it brother!”
They both laughed for a while before Hong Xiaofu took out a plastic bag full of coins and said, “There’s more. Look at what’s here?”
“Wow!!!” exclaimed Shen Xiaoling loudly. Her eyes were filled with stars as she shouted, “They are all coins! Brother, where did you get them from? Are these for me?”
“Of course.” Hong Xiaofu giggled and nodded as he replied, “I was supposed to get 1540 dollars. I took 1500 dollars in notes, then they ran out of notes so they gave me coins. In the end, they had about ten dollars of change left and Chief Wang gave everything to me.”
“That’s great!” Shen Xiaoling cheered loudly and ran toward her room. She returned with three coin banks and she immediately opened them up and started putting the coins into them while counting, “One dollar… one dollar… fifty cents… one dollar…”
She quickly finished sorting the coins and hugged her three coin banks tightly. She laughed so much that she was nearly drooling, “Hehehe! My little treasury is filled again, I have fifty-two dollars and eighty cents more now! Happy! hehehe!”