Chapter 14

The following day, early in the morning.

Li Jinwen rode his electric bicycle to school, while Lin Mo took the bus to the job site the boss provided last night.

The bus was packed with people, and describing it as a sea of humans was no exaggeration.

Lin Mo gripped the overhead handrail tightly, making sure not to be swept away by the crowd, his other hand holding his phone as he searched for nearby open-air concerts.

Rakshasa City was an international metropolis where, weather permitting, such events were never in short supply.

Regrettably,

an open-air concert in North City District, where Lin Mo lived, had just concluded yesterday,

and the nearest one this evening was in Eastern New District Sha Town.

That is to say, the location of Disney.

“It’s over 50 kilometers from Chuansha, and I need to head over tonight. If I miss the last metro, it will interfere with Xiaoxiao’s classes tomorrow,” he thought.

“To make the round trip on the same day, I’d at least need a car.”

“I’ll rent one!”

With that thought, Lin Mo didn’t hesitate for long. He opened the Shenzhou Car Rental app, found a 24-hour self-service pickup point near his home, and then selected the cheapest Toyota Corolla rental available.

The cost was 58 yuan for the daily rental fee, plus a 50 yuan basic service fee, a 20 yuan car preparation fee, and 90 yuan for comprehensive worry-free premium insurance, totaling 218 yuan.

If Lin Mo had been 20 years old, he would have paid without a second thought.

But now at 30, after seeing the price, he went to the Xianyu APP, spent a few yuan on a Shenzhou Car Rental discount coupon, and managed to book the car for 180 yuan.

Years of living in an expensive city like Rakshasa had trained Lin Mo to discover various little tricks for saving money in everyday life.

After booking the car, Lin Mo searched Xianyu for a while longer and bought two concert tickets at half price, spending a total of 420 yuan.

Lin Xiaoxiao was still quite small, just 1.2 meters tall, barely qualifying for free admission and saving some money.

Having made all the necessary preparations, the bus arrived at its stop.

Lin Mo got off with the flow of people and, according to his boss’s instructions, entered a weathered apartment complex nearby, quickly finding building 4, unit 2, apartment 602.

Knock… knock knock…

A woman in her fifties opened the door and sized Lin Mo up before asking, “Are you the one here to clear the silt?”

Clearing silt meant removing construction debris.

Typically, a bag of construction debris weighed around 100 pounds, with charges starting at 4 yuan on the third floor, 5 yuan on the fourth floor, and so on.

Lin Mo nodded and politely replied, “Yes, that’s me.”

“Oh, you look quite sharp,” the woman said, pointing to the bags of construction waste behind her. “Did they tell you the price? 5 yuan per bag, just move them down to the garbage truck.”

Huh?

5 yuan?

And he had to load them too?

Something was off about this price!

Lin Mo explained, “Sister, I can’t work for that price. It should be at least 7 yuan per bag on the sixth floor, otherwise, please find someone else.”

He was well aware that the lady was trying to drive the price down and had long become accustomed to such dealings in his life.

Real life is not TikTok,

where recording his experiences as short videos would lead commenters to sympathize with him en masse and be willing to employ his services for a higher price.

But in the real world, there are many who live in multi-million-dollar homes yet haggle over mere pennies!

At least in the eyes of many,

someone like him earning a few hundred a day just by exerting himself was considered an unreasonable existence.

The middle-aged woman, surprised, said, “Oh, 7 yuan? With that many bags, wouldn’t that be six or seven hundred yuan? You guys make too easy a living, don’t you?”

“Hey buddy, let me make a deal with you, how about 6 yuan per bag, huh? We’ve got a lot of folks doing renovations here. You cut them a deal, and I’ll make sure they all come to you later on. Isn’t that a good way for you to make some money?”

Lin Mo shook his head firmly, “Sis, this is an industry standard, I can’t break the rules.”

The market price must not be broken, otherwise things will only get worse over time.

Especially since this job is not an easy one,

Out of a hundred guys who try to make a good income by carrying loads, 90 can’t even last the first three days.

Seeing Lin Mo’s firmness, the middle-aged woman waved her hand and said, “Alright, alright, 7 yuan per bag then, but you must finish before 2 p.m. If you delay the entry of electricians and plumbers, I’ll deduct from your pay.”

“Sure, I’ll be done around 2!”

After the middle-aged woman left, Lin Mo took off his clothes until he was left in just his shorts, then draped a towel over his shoulders and got down to work.

Carrying loads is exhausting work.

Lin Mo, who only weighs 140 pounds, had to carry two bags of construction waste at once, which means shouldering nearly 100 kilograms down the stairs.

The intensity of such work is unimaginably tiring.

About two hours later, Lin Mo was covered with dust, and beads of murky sweat trickled down over the dust.

In the end, the sweat mixed with the dust seemed to form a layer of grey armor.

His lower back started to burn fiercely, and his legs began to shake.

Several times, as Lin Mo turned corners in the stairwell, he would accidentally bump into the construction waste he was carrying, resulting in fine cuts and scratches on his back.

But to Lin Mo, these were just the normal pains of life, nothing worth fussing over.

“Whew…”

By 1:30 in the afternoon, without even stopping for a meal, Lin Mo finally completed the day’s work.

However, when it came time to settle the account, the difficult-to-please middle-aged woman still found various excuses — this wasn’t done well, that wasn’t clean enough — and docked him 30 yuan, leaving him with just over 600 yuan in earnings.

On the way home,

the chilly autumn wind blew against his face, the weight of life bending his shoulders.

But grasping the red bills in his hand and thinking of his wife and child’s smiling faces, he remained optimistic, feeling that all the sacrifice was worth it.

…

After arriving home, taking a bath, and changing into clean clothes, Lin Mo first went to the pick-up spot to get his car, and then drove to the wholesale market.

Having previously run a street stall, he was fairly familiar with the wholesale market.

After comparing goods at several shops,

and inquiring about the prices at different stores selling rain gear, Lin Mo ultimately bought 500 disposable raincoats at the price of 4 yuan each.

He also made a deal with the store owner that if he couldn’t sell them, he could return them,

but that would incur a damage fee of 50 cents per item.

“I hope the plan goes without a hitch, otherwise, with 500 raincoats, I’d lose 250 yuan, not to mention the car rental fee.”

Lin Mo took a deep breath.

Once he had the raincoats loaded into the trunk of the car, it was already past 4 p.m., with two and a half hours to go before Lin Xiaoxiao got out of school.

“What should I do now?”

Sitting in the car, Lin Mo pondered for a moment and eventually decided to visit a nearby antique market.

He wasn’t particularly interested in antiques, but he wanted to test whether he could get some information about antiques when the news refreshed the next day.

After all, that’s where the real hefty profit lies.

If he could snag a heavyweight antique at a low price, then he could completely leave his current life behind.

Of course, it’s a nice thought, but whether or not it’s possible, Lin Mo had no idea.

Upon reaching the antique market, after wandering around for two hours and attempting to strike up conversations with nearly all the vendors, Lin Mo then got back into his car and drove towards Future Star Primary School to pick up his daughter.