Bloodstained

This was clearly an ill-timed question.

They obviously weren't getting the money now. Everyone was already kneeling on the ground, yet he came up and asked how much they should have been able to receive.

If he had run into someone with a worse temper, Li Wei might have gotten slapped before he could finish asking.

After all, they couldn't hit the mine manager or the foremen, but couldn't they hit him?

But then again, anyone kneeling here had long since had all their edges worn away. Their eyes were numb and vacant, and every one of them had a meek, easily bullied nature.

The ten-year-old child was kneeling too. He seemed to have come to claim compensation for his father's death, alongside the other adults.

Li Wei's question was met with silence.

But Li Wei was in no hurry. He squatted down beside them, and only after a long while did a man with half an arm missing finally speak.

"The contract you signed states it clearly. For deaths on the job, the field normally pays thirty thousand."

The ordinary laborers here earned at most a hundred a day, around three thousand a month. Li Wei still did not know the game's purchasing power, but judging from their complexions, living quarters, and clothes, that was clearly not enough to keep them fed and clothed without worry.

And even then, the compensation for a death was not even a year's wages.

"You definitely wouldn't get the full thirty thousand, would you?" Li Wei continued.

The one-armed man seemed to feel that, since he had already opened his mouth, it no longer mattered what else he said. He answered with his head lowered.

"When we're lucky, we get sixteen or seventeen thousand. When we're unlucky, just over ten thousand."

"Even when you're lucky, it's only half." Li Wei clicked his tongue. "And when you're unlucky, forget just over ten thousand. Right now, aren't you getting nothing at all?"

Faced with words that sounded nothing but mocking, none of them showed the slightest change in expression. They remained utterly numb.

It was as though they had completely lost the ability to feel anger. Begging was their final resort.

Li Wei shook his head and stood up.

"Brother, can we talk alone?"

The one-armed man did not move. He remained kneeling there like a clay statue, but Li Wei forcibly came over, pulled him to his feet, and dragged him aside.

The man wanted to resist and shake off Li Wei's hand, but a softly spoken sentence stunned him.

"I can help you get the money back."

They had reached a secluded corner. After hearing Li Wei's words, the man's eyes were filled with obvious suspicion and distrust.

He asked tentatively.

"Do you have some special relationship with the mine manager?"

Li Wei merely shook his head.

"Don't worry about how I'll get it. You don't have any other options anyway, do you? I'm not asking you to give me anything upfront. I only have one condition."

He stared into the one-armed man's eyes.

"Whether or not I recover the full compensation, I get thirty percent of it."

This condition was not excessive. If anything, it was unbelievably generous.

Even if they went to collect compensation through normal channels, they could receive at most half of it. Yet Li Wei was promising them the larger share!

The one-armed man looked at the young man before him in disbelief. He did not know where Li Wei got the confidence to recover the money.

But if it was truly as Li Wei said, and he would only take thirty percent after recovering it, then it was entirely acceptable to people like them.

Whether it worked or not, there was no downside.

"Alright! I can agree on everyone else's behalf!"

Yet after he agreed, Li Wei continued at an unhurried pace.

"You won't just agree on behalf of the others. I need every person to leave me a written note. Go back now and tell them to stop wasting time kneeling there. Find paper and pens, and have someone who can write clearly state on the paper that I get thirty percent, then have everyone stamp it with their fingerprints."

The one-armed man merely stared at him in surprise.

"What's the point? If you get the money, it'll come to you first before you divide it among us. How much you give us is up to you, so why write a note?"

Li Wei had no intention of explaining. He turned and walked straight into the Coal Mine Field.

"Tonight, at the northwest corner outside the field. One written note for one share of the money. Without a note, even if I get the compensation, you won't receive a cent."

Not long after Li Wei returned to the cafeteria, the laborers' families who had been causing a scene while kneeling at the field entrance dispersed.

Feng Zi, who had been watching outside from the cafeteria, had clearly seen Li Wei's interaction with those people.

"What did you say to them?"

"I comforted them by telling them to face reality. Stop kneeling here and entertaining pointless fantasies. Instead of getting beaten and cursed here, they might as well go home, lie flat, and wait to die."

Feng Zi stared at Li Wei, her lips pressed tightly together.

This time, she did not simply obey whatever Li Wei said. Instead, she was unusually serious.

"626, some things should be resisted, even if you can't fight them."

Li Wei offered no comment on her words. He merely slipped a dinner knife into his pocket and said calmly.

"Let's settle our own business first."

The thick, low clouds in the sky gradually darkened.

The laborers were finishing up their final tasks. Most of them would take the train back to the community at nine o'clock, while a small number with no homes would choose to stay in the dormitories within the field.

"Little Zhao, let's go. Time to head down into the mine. It's your first day, and you've already made out well. You lazed around all day, so your wages are practically free money."

Zhang Ling first arranged the dormitory within the field for Li Wei and Feng Zi. At last, he was ready to take Li Wei down into the mine.

Li Wei followed Zhang Ling with a cheerful smile. Another foreman named Yan Li carried a hoe over his shoulder and stubbed out the cigarette in his hand.

They put on helmets and lamps, then descended into the pitch-black mine shaft.

The two foremen walked one in front and one behind, keeping Li Wei between them as they headed deeper in. The tunnels were intricate as a maze; without someone familiar with the place to lead the way, it would be easy to get lost.

Along the way, Zhang Ling kept making small talk with Li Wei, asking about his family and why he had become an unregistered person working here as a laborer.

Li Wei initially gave him a few perfunctory replies, but after more than ten minutes in the mine, he could not even be bothered to speak.

The atmosphere fell silent. In the quiet mine shaft, only three dull sets of footsteps echoed.

Zhang Ling gripped the hoe in his hands tightly. He sensed that something was off, but he did not feel particularly nervous or uneasy.

He and Yan Li had worked together on this more than once, and nothing had ever gone wrong. The most dangerous time had merely been when a burly laborer struck his leg with a hoe while resisting.

That injury had forced him to recuperate at home for half a year. Fortunately, his leg had not been crippled.

From then on, he had learned his lesson. Whenever they handled business in the future, they could never give these people hoes.

And empty-handed, no matter how strong someone was, they could not beat two armed adults!

The end of the mine shaft was already in sight. Zhang Ling felt that it was about time.

He flashed a grin full of yellow teeth, turned around, and spoke the code phrase he and Yan Li had used for nearly seven years.

"After tonight, when we get off tomorrow, we'll take you somewhere nice, treat you proper—"

"Pfft!"

He had been only one word away from finishing.

Once he finished, the two perfectly coordinated men would raise their hoes together and smash this inexperienced young man's head to pulp!

Yet Zhang Ling stared in disbelief at the dinner knife buried in his chest!

The young man who had always been smiling now looked as calm as if he were watching a dog by the roadside. Slowly, he pulled the short blade that had pierced Zhang Ling's heart free.

Spraying blood stained the filthy ground, soaking into that unbearable darkness.