High Daily Wage

Seeing Stur so excited made Gallo happy as well.

He felt a sense of being recognized by a client, then smiled and said, "Mostly because you understood it so well yourself."

"Look what I brought you!"

Stur set a stack of books on the coffee table in front of him.

The books were tightly bound with a wide cloth strap, and Stur had carried them all the way here from school.

"All the books I bought are here... uh... except for a few I lent to my classmates.

But these should be enough to keep you reading until you get off work."

Gallo explained, "If you'd come any later, I'd have packed up and gone home."

"So early?"

"My sick mother and little sister are waiting for me at home." Gallo gave a faint smile and continued, "Though I'll be done with these books soon enough!"

Stur untied the cloth strap around the books and said to Gallo, "There are twenty-three books here. Even at yesterday's reading speed, it should take you over an hour."

"It won't take that long."

Next, Stur witnessed Gallo reading even faster than he had yesterday.

In half an hour, Gallo finished all twenty-odd books.

At such an outrageous speed, Stur's stunned jaw remained hanging open for a long time.

"Uh... you finished them all?"

"Yes, I've committed them to memory." As Gallo spoke, he began using the cloth strap to tie the books back up for him.

But Stur suddenly planted both hands on Gallo's shoulders and pressed him straight back into his chair. In a grave tone, he enunciated every word: "Are you some kind of monster?"

"Hahaha, I'm just naturally gifted. Some people are born suited to studying and learning."

Gallo's words left Stur standing there in frustration for a long while before he finally let out a long breath.

He waved a hand and said, "When I went back to the dorm last night, I told several of my roommates about you."

Gallo pricked up his ears. The other man was going to help spread his influence—this was the advertising effect. Sure enough, satisfying customers was the best kind of advertising.

Satisfied customers often went home and told ten people, who then told a hundred.

"Oh... what did you tell them about me?"

Stur looked at Gallo seriously. "Exactly what I just told you. That you're a monster!"

Seeing Gallo's speechless expression, he continued, "Now I think you're even scarier than a monster."

"A few of my classmates will be coming to this street later. Why not wait a little before leaving? Some of my roommates are coming too, and they're all curious about you.

Maybe you can make a few more deals later."

Gallo shook his head. Just then, the clock tower on the Imperial Industrial University campus struck six in the evening.

Gallo told him, "It really is getting late. If I leave now, I won't get home until seven. So if your classmates or friends need anything, please come early tomorrow."

He packed away his cardboard sign and left the street under Stur's watchful gaze.

On the way back, Gallo silently calculated what he had earned that day.

"The first customer this morning had two books and wanted two content analyses, for a total of two Copper Nil. Then there was one book-finding service for two Fenso.

There were also three book-finding customers in the morning, so that was another six Fenso.

My total income for the morning was three Copper Nil and three Fenso."

"The afternoon was relatively quiet, so I also checked every bookstore on Lubo Lane to see whether their catalogs had changed or been updated.

Other than that, there were only three customers. Two wanted books found, while the other wanted me to analyze an economics journal!

That earned me one Copper Nil and four Fenso in total."

Gallo's pace quickened. He had earned five Copper Nil and two Fenso in a single day, far more than an ordinary apprentice could make.

In Xiting City, a child laborer around his age doing heavy manual work earned only two Copper Nil a day. Some might make a few more Fenso, but absolutely no more than three Copper Nil.

And two Copper Nil was only enough for a child his age to cover one day's food and rent for a place to stay.

To save any extra money, they had to pinch every penny. They might only have a few Copper Nil left over after an entire month.

Apprentices earned even less. If a shop owner paid one Copper Nil a day, that owner was already considered an exceptionally good person.

And most apprentices also faced the risk of unpaid wages, because in a shop owner's eyes, apprentices did not work in their stores as equal employees.

Apprentices came to learn a trade and acquire skills. The work was merely an additional, necessary contribution.

If they received any wages at all, it was only because the owner felt generous after seeing how they had performed recently.

So Gallo earning five Copper Nil and two Fenso in one day was equivalent to the daily wages of two child laborers.

"I remember that Mother was a skilled textile worker at the factory. Her monthly pay was around one Nalang and eighty Copper Nil.

With occasional overtime pay, and the temporary work she did at small workshops in her spare time, she could earn a little over two Nalang a month."

Gallo took a deep breath. If not for Father's death compensation, it would have been incredibly difficult for the three of them to establish themselves and survive in Xiting City.

More precisely, it had been hard for his mother to work while raising two children, especially when she had also paid for Gallo's education before.

"Heh! The fact that this compensation kept me in school until I dropped out of middle school means it must have been a 'huge sum'!"

He deliberately took a detour on his way back and went to a market near Valen Street.

He had originally wanted to buy some meat for the family and improve their meals, but when he saw that the butcher was charging one Copper Nil and four Fenso per pound of meat—

Gallo's cheek twitched. In the end, he only spent two Fenso to buy Lily some Roasted Fragrant Beans, so the little girl could satisfy her craving.

Gallo also visited an apothecary, told the owner about his mother's condition, and bought a bottle of cough syrup.

That single bottle of cough syrup cost Gallo three Copper Nil, and the pitch-black medicine was only enough for two days.

Before he left, the shop owner reminded him to take two spoonfuls every morning and noon, then four spoonfuls before bed at night.

It could also be diluted with water. The effect would be weaker, but it would last four days instead of two.

Clearly, the owner had realized Gallo came from a family that was not well-off, so he kindly gave him that advice.

But the fact that three Copper Nil bought only two days' worth of cough syrup still made Gallo sigh. No matter what world one was in, medicine was always the most profitable business.

And poverty was also the hardest disease to cure.

When he got home, before he had even finished climbing the narrow wooden stairs, the attic door opened from within.

"Gallo! You're back! We're having stewed Sweet Stalk Greens tonight."

"That's great. I'm starving."

Gallo rubbed Lily's head, then took the bag of Roasted Fragrant Beans from his pocket and stuffed it into her hands.

Watching his sister dart to the bedside, eager to share the delicious snack with their mother—

Gallo suddenly felt a wave of happiness.

"Gallo, how was work today?"

"Not bad. The owner is paying me a daily wage of five Copper Nil and two Fenso!"

"That much?" Aisha exclaimed in surprise when she heard Gallo's daily wage was five Copper Nil and two Fenso.

After all, she knew that child laborers at the factory where she worked could only earn around two Copper Nil after toiling all day, with some making even less than that.

That was why she had insisted on sending Gallo to school before.

Even if it meant spending all of her husband's death compensation.

Perhaps she was only an illiterate, impoverished woman, but she knew that only studying and gaining knowledge could change a person's fate.

She saw Gallo as the only hope for changing both her own fate and the fate of this family.

"It's just like I told you last night. The owner knows I went to school and can read, so he doesn't treat me like an apprentice or child laborer.

But five Copper Nil and two Fenso is only probationary pay.

Once my probation ends and I become a full employee, my pay will be even higher. I just don't know exactly how much yet."

Gallo firmly believed that as long as he stayed on Lubo Lane long enough, more and more people would come to him for consultations.

Once he had more customers, he would naturally earn more.

"That owner truly is a very good person. If... you hadn't dropped out and had continued studying until you graduated from middle school—

perhaps your future prospects would have been even better."

Aisha sighed. Clearly, in her eyes, the reason her son had been valued by a nonexistent bookstore owner was because he had attended middle school and possessed knowledge.

That was why he was qualified to work in a bookstore, and why he earned more than twice the wages of an ordinary child laborer.

"Yes, he really is a very good person. And my probation is only half a month. After half a month, once I become a full employee, I'll earn even more.

And there's this too..."

He handed Aisha the bottle of cough syrup he had bought on the way home and told her how to take it and the dosage.

"Three Copper Nil for a bottle of cough syrup, and it only lasts two days... cough, cough!"

Gallo hurriedly explained, "If you dilute it with water, it can last four days. Fortunately, you don't have a persistent fever, Mother. That makes me sure you don't have pneumonia..."

"Yes! The gods have blessed us."

Aisha said this with lingering fear. If it had been pneumonia, she could not afford to go to the hospital, and her only end would have been death.

What would happen to her two children after she died? Fortunately, she could still see hope in Gallo, which eased much of the anxiety and pressure in her heart.

"Will Mother get better after drinking this medicine?" Lily asked from the side.

"Mother will get better faster!" Gallo said.

Then Lily set dinner on the table. As Gallo ate, he still decided that when he came back tomorrow evening, he had to buy some meat and other nutritious food.

Even if Mother did not have pneumonia, prolonged malnutrition would still be bad for her health.

While Gallo ate, his gaze fell upon a cardboard box placed beside his bed. He asked, "What's that?"

Lily immediately said excitedly, "Mrs. Jell brought it over during the day! It's materials for making dolls!"

"Making dolls?"