Level-Five Check-In, Breaking Through the Ceiling

After eating and drinking his fill, chatting with the young couple for a while, and playing with their child, Liang Xin finally headed home.

There was still some food left. They had made quite a lot, and the three of them hadn't finished it.

Then Sister Xiao Zhou insisted on having Liang Xin take the leftovers with him.

She told him to heat them up for breakfast tomorrow.

Heh, I, Boss Liang, have a system backing me. Am I the sort of person who eats leftovers?

Then Sister Xiao Zhu put all the leftover food in a basin. Afraid someone might see it, she covered it with a clean cloth and brought it back to Liang Xin's home.

She told him to save it for breakfast tomorrow.

Forget it. I, Boss Liang, do have a system backing me, but it wouldn't look good to go back and forth over a little food like this.

Besides, her hospitality is too hard to refuse, so I'll reluctantly accept it!

There are still several pieces of red-braised pork left. Heat them up tomorrow morning, and they'll be downright delicious!

Even though he was stuffed right now, he was still looking forward to it!

[Congratulations on completing your check-in. You have successfully claimed 2.4 yuan]

"Haha, not bad! Level four gave me 1.9 yuan a day, and level five gives me 2.4. That's a fifty-cent increase!"

"That's fifteen yuan more a month!"

"Two point four times thirty, that's seventy-two yuan a month? Add the eighteen yuan from the supply and marketing cooperative, and I'm already making ninety yuan a month?"

"Wow, I'm almost touching the ceiling for the working class!"

"Boss Liang, you're awesome!"

In this era, under the eight-grade wage system for workers, the exceptionally rare so-called grade-eight workers-even factory directors had to coax and flatter them, stopping just short of putting them on a pedestal-basically never reached three figures!

Their wages were almost all around 99 yuan!

That was the ceiling for workers!

One person earning the wages of three was already incredible, all right?

Other people earned enough on one salary to support a whole family.

He alone could support three families!

How was that not incredible?

This was a fair and just socialist society!

Not a capitalist society where people could exploit others at will!

That was already incredible!

And Liang Xin's income was now almost on par with theirs!

Wasn't he allowed to show off a little?

Of course, he could only show off in secret. After all, this income couldn't be brought into the light.

He could only enjoy it on the sly.

"Kids, time for candy!"

Liang Xin pushed open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs!

He had money now. What was wrong with being a little flashy?

I earn three yuan a day. Would I miss a little over ten cents' worth of candy?

Doors opened in every household, and children came running out in droves.

"Come on, line up. You should all strive to be good modern children who practice civility and promote new values!"

"One more announcement: there won't be any candy tomorrow morning!"

As soon as they heard that, quite a few children looked as though the sky had fallen.

Why?!

Could there be anything so cruel in this world?

I just got a taste of this candy, and now it's immediately going away?

I don't want that!

Quite a few of the younger children couldn't bear the blow. Their eyes reddened, and tears were about to fall!

"My work schedule changed today. I won't be back until tomorrow evening, so I'll give everyone candy then. All right, you can all go now!"

Fuck.

Some of the slightly older children couldn't help having that exclamation pop into their heads.

Can't you fucking finish what you're saying in one breath?!

You said there wouldn't be any candy tomorrow morning. We thought there wouldn't be any ever again!

And that's all it was?

I'm mad! I really want to bite someone!

But that displeasure was immediately swept away by the feeling of having regained what they had lost.

Having harvested a batch of experience, Liang Xin turned around, shut the door, and went back inside.

He looked a little displeased.

"What happened? I didn't even get fifty experience points?"

"How am I supposed to farm experience from now on?!"

Fortunately, Sister Xiao Zhu and Brother Chen were good people.

They had still given him twenty points yesterday.

So he now had a hundred experience points again.

Liang Xin seemed to have figured out some of the patterns behind this lousy system.

He guessed that the next upgrade should require 240 experience points!

That was a hundred times today's check-in amount!

That had been the pattern before.

So he was still 140 experience points short?

He should be able to farm that in two days, right?

As for how much the reward would increase after the upgrade, he guessed it should be three yuan!

There was a pattern to that, too.

It started at ten, then went up by two, then three, then four, then five, and so on.

Once he upgraded, his monthly income would break a hundred!

He would break through the working-class ceiling!

Just thinking about it was exciting!

At such an exciting moment, of course he had to eat!

After eating, he'd go back to his hometown and see his family!

Liang Xin heated up some dishes left over from last night's dinner in a pot and ate them.

After sitting overnight, the taste hadn't changed much.

They even had a flavor all their own!

He was very satisfied with the meal.

He checked the time on the system's built-in clock. There was still a while before work.

He thought it over, but he kept feeling that he had forgotten something.

After thinking for a while, he slapped his forehead, then pushed open the door again and shouted from the doorway:

"Kids, come on out!"

He had forgotten that he'd been bored earlier and wanted to find some books to read!

As soon as Lao Zhou had told him about the work arrangements yesterday, he'd felt miserable for quite a while. He hadn't been bored anymore, so he'd forgotten all about it.