Seize Wealth to Master Your Fate

In the evening, Catherine, feeling tired after a long day of work, changed her clothes and set off on her journey home. She declined the offers from several suitors to give her a ride on their bicycles and insisted on walking home.

The summer night breeze doesn't bring much coolness to the face; instead, it carries the last trace of the day's heat and sweltering heat, making one feel incredibly irritable.

Catherine is a strong girl who doesn't easily show certain shallow emotions, even if she might have other things on her mind.

She returned home before it got completely dark, and ever since she moved back into her own home, she has never stayed on the streets after dark.

It's not safe here; whenever night completely covers the sky, evil will descend.

Arguments, fights, and even gunshots are commonplace here at night, along with cries for help and the constant blaring of Police Siren.

As soon as she closed the door, Catherine sensed a different atmosphere; the atmosphere in the house seemed somewhat heavy today.

She changed her shoes, hung her bag (worth no more than five yuan) on the coat rack, and walked towards the Living Room.

Her father sat somewhat absentmindedly on the dilapidated sofa he had salvaged from the garbage dump, while her mother wore a sorrowful expression.

The man seemed not to hear the door opening and closing, his eyes fixed on the television. Catherine's mother, however, glanced up at Catherine before looking down again.

"What's wrong?" Catherine asked, sensing that the couple was acting differently than usual today.

The man continued watching television, seemingly oblivious to everything. Catherine's mother wore a sorrowful and bitter expression, her voice trembling slightly, "Your father... he lost his job."

This is quite normal. In fact, people were already mentally prepared starting in the second half of last year. Many factories began to shut down, and even though the unions organized worker demonstrations demanding that factories resume operations, they didn't dare to cause too much trouble.

They even scheduled the "strike" for the weekend, which became an international joke, but it also reflected how contradictory and acute the social problems were at the time.

Catherine's father's factory declared bankruptcy today, which was foreshadowed. They stopped importing raw materials last month. In fact, they had a premonition, but they were unwilling to face it or believe that misfortune would befall them.

Catherine fell silent. Her salary wasn't much, only two hundred and twenty-five dollars a month, just slightly above the 《Minimum Wage Law》 requirement.

Before today, her father earned between 300 and 350 yuan a month, which was more than enough for the two of them to support the family.

However, if Catherine only has one salary, it would be very difficult to support a family of three.

Nowadays, most factories are not hiring externally, even though the City Hall requires them to create more jobs.

When profits are scarce, every employee is like a piece of Mafa on the other side of the scales before death; each additional employee brings you one step closer to death.

A factory with a thousand employees has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries every month. If they don't make enough profit, they could go bankrupt just by paying salaries each month. So no company would choose to expand its workforce at this time, even if the City Hall requires them to do so.

This also means that Catherine's father will have a hard time finding suitable, long-term work at the Employment Center; he may find short-term work, or he may not find any work at all.

Needless to say, Catherine's mother has no work experience, and even if she were to learn now, she wouldn't have the opportunity. In other words, the heavy responsibility of supporting the family would fall on Catherine's shoulders.

Her monthly salary of 225 yuan will be the only source of income to support this family.

The three of them fell silent. Catherine's father had been watching television, and he seemed to have been provoked, locking himself in his own little world.

Catherine's mother, on the other hand, looked worried and sighed frequently, filled with anxiety about the future.

Catherine felt exhausted, the only feeling she had experienced in recent years.

She had felt this way before, but not so deeply. It wasn't until this moment that she began to feel a profound exhaustion.

She is not a girl without life and social experience. She is well aware that the reason why she and her family are in such a situation is due to their family background, social class, and level of education.

The latter problem is more obvious. If she had been able to go to college, or study accounting or some other professional field after graduating from high school, she might have a completely different job now.

The older young man who was pursuing her had studied accounting and now not only had a respectable job, but also a decent salary.

But for a child born into an ordinary family, continuing their education after graduating from high school is such a difficult thing that she can only dream about it.

Dinner was a little smaller than usual that evening, and Catherine's father suddenly erupted at the table, smashing a plate in a fit of rage before storming off.

In this man's view, because he lost his job, the women in his family no longer respected him, and he felt neglected.

The mother and daughter simply accepted everything calmly and silently, and then cleaned up the mess.

Early the next morning, Catherine's father left home to find work on the street. After a night's rest, he had come to terms with the situation.

Life must go on. If he really does nothing and just lies in the house, they will have to sell the house and become homeless in a month or two at most.

It took him more than a decade to achieve the life he has now, and he is unwilling to lose it all so easily; he will persevere.

Catherine faced life calmly and chose to go to work.

However, at noon, the young man found her again.

"I heard from my aunt that my uncle lost his job..."

Catherine glanced at him but didn't give any answer, which made the young man a little embarrassed, and he started to stutter.

"If... I mean if, if I arranged for my uncle... to work in our mall... what do you think?" He stammered, his face flushed with excitement.

He has a good relationship with the mall manager and helps him with the manager's personal tax returns, which saves the manager money every time he files taxes. This is where the value of an accountant lies.

Besides the manager, the management of the Super Mall will more or less rely on his profession, and he also needs to hire an accountant to help with his personal tax filing, and he will need to pay the corresponding fee for the help.

Young people also accept bribes, but very little, which gives him a good reputation among management.

Catherine's mother came to see him in the morning, explained the situation, and asked if Catherine's father could work at the mall, even if the salary was lower.

In fact, supermarkets and convenience stores at this stage are doing much better than many people imagine, and are even maintaining healthy profit standards against the trend.

But they won't say that. They'll portray themselves as struggling financially to gain sympathy and lower salary standards, thereby freeing up more profit margins.

The young man discussed the matter with the manager, who suggested that Catherine's father could work in the warehouse, where they needed some manual laborers and would offer him a basic salary.

So he came to Catherine to take credit, and also hoped that this incident would lead to a leap forward in their relationship.

Catherine neither nodded nor refused, but ended the conversation with the tone of discussing it with her family when she got home.

However, this made the young man feel that there was a chance to achieve his goal. This was the first time in a long time that Catherine had not directly rejected his idea, which was a good sign.

A tedious day of work passed in either long periods of torment or brief moments of waiting. Catherine refused offers to take her home and returned home alone.

Her father had returned, and the man who used to exude confidence had become dejected.

Throughout the entire day, only a few dozen job opportunities appeared in the whole city, but thousands of people were waiting at the Employment Center!

Catherine's father had no impressive resume whatsoever; there were far too many people more capable than him, and he didn't even get an interview. This made him realize that he shouldn't expect to find a job anytime soon.

This made him very frustrated and even made him doubt his own worth.

Catherine's mother was equally speechless. She had not yet told her husband about her affair with the young man, nor had she told Catherine.

She plans to bring up the matter again when the young man gives her an answer.

Both of them were a little listless, but Catherine was about to have an outburst.

She hung her bag on the clothes rack and seemed to be returning home as usual, but this time her steps were heavier.

She first drank a glass of water, then moved a chair and sat opposite the sofa, and even reached out to turn off the TV.

This action drew the couple's attention to her; her face showed no obvious anger, only calm.

She looked at her mother and, in the same calm tone, asked a very pointed question, "How much do you plan to sell me for?"

One sentence made the man suddenly look up, and Catherine's mother's expression also changed, but Catherine did not give them much time to react.

"Luo Mu found me at noon. He hinted that he would give my father a job if I was willing to accompany him. How much do you plan to sell me for?"

Although she appeared very calm, she put a heavy pressure on the couple, especially during this special time when the family's livelihood depended on Catherine's salary. This made her voice, even though it wasn't very loud, full of power!