Chapter 4: Mr. Wei from the Mine

Seeing Yang Che walking out, Yang Hu said to him with a smile on his fat face: "Yang Che, come here."

Yang Che's eyelids twitched slightly, but he still walked to the courtyard calmly, without saying anything, and just stared at Yang Hu indifferently.

The fierce-looking stranger was a bearded man with a sinewy face.

He looked at Yang Che carefully, frowned and said, "Yang Hu, this man is too thin, is it okay?"

"Boss Zhao, you can do it. Although this guy is a little thinner, his bones are strong and he still has a lot of strength."

Seeing that the bearded man was a little unhappy, Yang Hu immediately said flatteringly.

"Okay, since I have the strength, I'll take it away."

The bearded man said, pointing at Yang Che: "Come with me."

Yang Che was confused and froze on the spot without moving.

At this time, he saw Yang Hu take out a piece of paper full of words from his arms, wave it in front of him, and said with a smile:

"Yang Che, this is Foreman Zhao from the neighboring county. He is here to hire labor in our village. I have helped you get a place and signed an employment contract with Foreman Zhao. You can go with him. From now on, it will be considered Now that I have a formal job, I can live up to your dead grandfather."

When Yang Che heard this, he wished he could just get up and slap Yang Hu hard on the ears. Yang Hu knew that he was illiterate, so even if he had done something about it, he had no way of knowing.

What's even more hateful is that this person killed his grandfather, but he kept pretending to be innocent and generous. It's really hateful.

Yang Che turned his gaze to Foreman Zhao, but still didn't think too badly of him, and asked expectantly: "I dare to ask Mr. Zhao, what is written on this paper?"

Foreman Zhao, a bearded man with a strong beard, glanced at Yang Hu, and then said calmly:

"It is indeed an employment contract signed by Yang Hu on your behalf. The content is that you can mine in my Xingshan Mine and you will get two taels of silver a month. You can leave Xingshan Mine after working for up to three years. "

"Mining?"

Yang Che had heard a little bit about this.

Whether it was when his grandfather was still alive or in recent years, he had heard of people from the mines coming to the village to hire labor.

There are also people in the village who have made a fortune from mining and returned to the village to marry their wives and live a good life.

Yang Che thought, if he went mining for a while and earned money, it would be much easier to learn how to read and write.

But it was impossible for him to believe Yang Hu's words in his bones, so Foreman Zhao said it himself, and Yang Che was half-convinced.

There was nothing to pack, so Yang Che packed a few changes of coarse cloth clothes, and after thinking about it carefully, he rolled up all the things he got in the grotto in the bag, and then followed Foreman Zhao to a main road outside the village. A carriage parked on the roadside.

As soon as he got on the carriage, Yang Che found that there were already several teenagers and half-grown children crowded in the carriage.

These children, like him, were all wearing tattered clothes, and they looked like children from poor families.

The carriage bumped all the way and walked for four or five days before arriving at a mine located deep in the mountains.

"Get out of here, hurry up."

With a vulgar curse, the carriage compartment was opened.

Foreman Zhao, the bearded and bearded man who had been relatively 'mild' before, suddenly seemed to be a different person. He was holding a black and oily leather whip in his hand and was beating Yang Che and others indiscriminately.

"Ouch, ouch. Mr. Zhao, why are you beating someone?"

Among them, two slightly older children screamed and shouted at Foreman Zhao in confusion.

At this moment, Yang Che suddenly felt an ominous feeling in his heart.

"Hitting people? Hehe. I spent real money to buy you. If you want to hit or scold them, it depends on my mood."

Foreman Zhao spat fiercely on the ground and continued viciously:

"Hu Lai, Yang Che, Meng Ran, Zhang Gu, Liu Song, the five of you are already my mine slaves. From now on, you must obey me obediently, otherwise I will be careless and you will be beaten to death accidentally. That's fine. Just deserve it."

"Ah, I want to go home, I want to go home."

One of the younger children was crying and rushing outside the mine, trying to escape.

Yang Che recognized this child as Meng Ran. He was the shyest and introverted child along the way and almost never spoke to other children.

There was a loud bang, and Meng Ran was blocked by a burly man.

The big man kicked Meng Ran directly on the stomach. Meng Ran flew backwards like a kite with its string broken, and hit the hard stone surface hard. After twitching for a few times, blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He didn't know what it was. Life is death.

This scene immediately frightened the other children. Their faces turned pale and they stood there blankly, not daring to move at all.

Yang Che's eyes were cold and he clenched his fists unconsciously.

When he learned that he was sold by Yang Hu to Foreman Zhao as a mine slave, a raging anger seemed to burst out of his chest.

But Meng Ran's tragic situation always reminded him not to be impulsive.

At this moment, Yang Che completely wrapped up his heart. He looked at the world with cold eyes, and his character became stronger and tougher.

Meng Ran was dragged away, and Yang Che, Hu Lai, Zhang Gu and Liu Song were assigned to the same simple wooden house.

There are only five wooden beds in the wooden house and nothing else.

The carriage was bumpy and tiring, coupled with the fright just now, Hu Lai, Zhang Gu and Liu Song fell on the wooden bed and soon began to snore.

Yang Che also lay down. He put his hands on the back of his head and pillowed his head on the baggage, but he couldn't fall asleep.

Standing up and sitting cross-legged, Yang Che practiced the first level of the "Purple Yuan Jue" again. He felt refreshed and his fatigue was swept away.

He felt that the strange airflow in his body seemed to be stronger, but he was troubled by not knowing what the strange airflow was for.

While he was thinking, the door of the wooden house was pushed open and a pale and thin young man walked in.

"Don't sleep anymore, get up quickly. Follow me to get the tools." The young man kicked the wooden bed one by one.

Hu Lai and his friends were sleepy until they were roughly grabbed from the bed and thrown on the ground by the young man. They stood up with a groan.

Yang Che secretly stuffed the bag under the bed when no one was paying attention.

Then, Yang Che and his friends followed the young man to an extremely spacious stone house.

Behind the long table at the door of the stone house sat an old man in his twilight years.

After the pale-faced and thin young man bowed to the old man, he said to Yang Che and the others:

"This is Mr. Wei, who is in charge of tools at our Xingshan Mine. If the tools are broken and need to be repaired or replaced in the future, just come to Mr. Wei directly."

Then the young man said to the old man: "Mr. Wei, please give them a set of tools each."

"Come in with me."

Mr. Wei coughed and stood up with a hoarse voice.

Yang Che and the others followed the old man into the house and saw a large number of stone and iron tools piled up inside.

Afterwards, each of them received an iron chisel, a stone shovel and an iron pickaxe.

These tools are very heavy.

Yang Che saw that Liu Song, who was about the same age as him, had a hard time just picking up the three tools, not to mention using these tools to mine.

Hu Lai and Zhang Gu were both fourteen or fifteen years old, so it was not very hard for them to pick up these tools.

Yang Che originally thought that he would definitely have the same hard time as Liu Song to pick up these tools, but he did not expect that he could easily grab these tools in his hands.

Yang Che immediately pretended to be very tired, he didn't want others to see his ease.

However, the old man Wei noticed Yang Che's action, and a strange color flashed in his dim eyes.