Chapter 83
Under the fierce white light tube, people in prison uniforms are doing simple work in front of the assembly line, assembling some complicated parts, or putting the finished products into boxes and packaging them.

This is an industrial area located in the lower level of Arpeggio City. It is not only a factory, but also a prison, where the previously arrested people are held.

After a month of investigation and interrogation, the federal government of the North Seventh District has roughly sorted out the situation in the underground world of Arpeggio City. The blockade in the past has been gradually lifted, and the relevant personnel involved in the previous incident have also been gradually dealt with.

"Bru!" A guard in a gray-blue uniform walked into the underground factory with a personal terminal showing data.

"To!"

A tall and strong man stood up in the crowd, like a white bear rising from the ice, which was particularly eye-catching.

"Come with me." He waved to him, and he led Bruce out of the room.

The two entered a room that was used for conversation and was closely monitored.

"Sit down and drink some water." The guard's tone was a little better than before.

"Received." Bruce honestly opened the mineral water bottle on the table and drank the water in it.

Seeing how he accepted the order, the guard nodded in satisfaction. Although most of the underground people were disobedient and had bad personalities, there were some exceptions.

"You have performed well in prison, and all evaluations have passed. In addition, the previous crime was relatively light, so—" He held back a little, and paused for two seconds before continuing.

"You are honored to be released. The time is tomorrow. In the next five years, as long as you abide by the law and do not touch the place that violates the rules, you can be an ordinary federal resident with peace of mind."

"Thank you for your teaching." Bruce looked a little excited, but he didn't know what to say.

"Okay, that's all for now, be a good person in the future." The guard patted his shoulder and walked out.

Two days later, the gate of this large underground prison was slowly opened, and several thickly armored escort vehicles drove out slowly, and then several released personnel walked out, and Bruce was among them.

He was carrying a large package containing his clothes and sheets. Before leaving, he asked what he could take with him, and the staff told him.

"This is 500 federal currency, as a small reward during your sentence. After you get out, you have to find a job as soon as possible, so that you can settle down."

Rubbing the card on his chest that contained federal coins, Bruce recalled the guard's confession before leaving, and his heart was full of emotion.

Although 500 federal currency is not much, it should be enough to live frugally for a week. The most important thing during this period is to get a job. Now that the underground gang has disbanded long ago, and the people I knew before have basically disappeared, so I can only try hard to think where I can get a job. accepted him.

In ancient times, with his body type, it would not be difficult to get a bite to eat, but now it is the interstellar age with advanced technology, and all kinds of heavy labor are mostly replaced by machines. Smart people and fast learners are more popular, so in the future A period of time may not be so smooth.

Anyway, it's finally out.

Walking out of the gate, Bruce looked at the prison fortress illuminated by the bright yellow street lights behind him. It was blocked by layers of thick steel structures, like a giant beast lying on the ground.

Three days later, Bru found his first job at No. 45 Wholesale Market on the 14th floor underground of Arpeggio City.

The content of the job is to load, unload and move all kinds of goods in the wholesale market. The salary is 2400 federal currency per month, and board and lodging are provided.

Although there are also T6 AI machines in the market to load and unload, but those are responsible for the unified and coded bulk goods, and the distribution of some scattered and messy goods, it is more convenient and cheap to employ people.

In order to save the declining employment rate, the federal government has raised the tax rate on AI chips several times. About 90%-95% of the selling price of the AI ​​chips produced today is taxed, and a second tax will be levied according to the activation time. secondary tax.

"Hey, big man, there's a new shipment, follow me."

In the dark corner of the warehouse, Bruce was sitting in the corner, his vest was already wet with sweat, he had just finished moving, and it was rare for him to sit for a few minutes.

"Got it." He responded in a low voice, then stood up again, and followed behind the thin and tall little supervisor.

In the loading and unloading area, trucks of different sizes are parked and loaded and unloaded in front of warehouse doors with different numbers in an orderly manner. There are monitors at the front and rear of each warehouse door to strictly monitor the quantity of cargo loaded and unloaded, and the driver only needs to check the number of cargoes at the personal terminal. interface, enter the specified tracking number, confirm and wait.

There are three transportation channels from Arpeggio City to the outside world. One is the most common ground freight road. When it reaches the top of the patio, unload the goods and transport them to the ground via industrial elevators. The other is the underground track train, which is built in The underground traffic line hundreds of years ago, because it was considered that the ground was facing orbital bombing and traffic might be blocked, so underground cities were built with such deep underground rail lines. The third is the flying vehicles or spaceships. It is mainly responsible for the routes connecting the regions in the far south and the outer space.

Among the three transportation channels, the underground transportation line has the lowest cost, but it generally only transports bulk industrial raw materials and products. The ground transportation is more flexible, and various daily necessities and commodities in adjacent areas are transported through this. Aircraft and spaceships are the most expensive, and are generally used for transportation. Import-export and time-critical shipments.

"Come on, here it is." The tall and thin supervisor instructed Bruce to come to a warehouse door, where the trunk of the truck parked there had already been opened, and the driver was sitting beside him, smoking and resting.

"Lao Gu, you're fucking here, we can wait for you to fade out here." The driver had a bearded face, shoulders and arms, and his voice was rude.

"Isn't it here?" The tall and thin supervisor greeted briefly, and then looked at the boxes in the truck.

"How many boxes in total?"

"31 boxes of lychees, 42 boxes of watermelons, 12 boxes of strawberries, 5 boxes of blueberries... TM's transport of watermelons is really a loss." The driver took out his personal terminal and reported one by one, complaining again.

Although watermelon sales have been good recently, the profit margin is not large because the selling price is lower than other fruits.

"Come on, if you don't have something to ship, who will hire you." The warehouse supervisor in his 30s checked the order number, and then asked Bruce to start moving.

These fruits are all produced in the nearby area, and they are picked from the plantation in the morning, and after they are loaded, unloaded and distributed, they can be put on the shelves in various supermarkets in the city at four o'clock in the afternoon. Because it is a short distance, there is no such complicated coding. , Moreover, the fruit is easy to break, and there is always some loss that requires artificial adjustment of the data.

"Come on, Bruce, take these down carefully one by one, don't drop them."

"Received." The fat man started to move. He was standing on the loading and unloading platform beside him, moving the boxes out of the car one by one, and then slowly moving them on the rolling belt beside him.

"Is this new?" The driver looked at the big man who was working not far away.

"That's right, he just got out of prison." The little supervisor handed him a cigarette.

"Okay, it's quite neat to work." He leaned back and started to twitch.

About 20 minutes later, all the goods were unloaded. At this time, the supervisor and the driver came and opened the boxes one by one to check.

"Well, these more than 30 boxes of lychees are not bad, they are all good." The supervisor put down the lid and looked at the other side.

The previous ones were basically considered qualified, but when the watermelons were checked, the watermelons in the two boxes had already split.

"This..." The driver rubbed his hair, a little annoyed.

"I'm very stable on the road. I can only say that this watermelon is like this. It will crack when you touch it. Don't you think it's quite fresh?"

"What's the use of telling me that, the customers don't agree with it, they all want to buy it." The little supervisor waved his hand.

"MD..." The driver cursed a few more words, saying that he would never pull watermelons again, then took out his personal terminal and transferred a small fee to the supervisor.

"It's cheaper for you again." Putting away the personal terminal, the driver picked up the kettle on the side, climbed onto the truck seat, and was about to start to leave.

"Director?" Seeing the driver leave like this, Bruce asked.

"It's okay, let him go." As a junior supervisor of the warehouse, he was familiar with this situation and had many ways to solve these problems.

"You distribute these goods to the designated shelves according to the order number, and in an hour there will be transport vehicles from various supermarkets to tow them away. As for the two damaged boxes, let's put them away and talk about them later." After the explanation was completed , the junior supervisor picked up the personal terminal and communicated with the familiar supermarket manager.

……

"Yes, that's right, I'll give you a half-price discount for this batch... It's just cracked, and the condition is good. Don't you think it's over after you make a platter? The quotation on the book is still the same, and I'll return this part to you separately... OK, That's it, when the time comes, you will explain to the driver who delivered the goods, and don't talk about the wrong goods again."

After the communication, he put down his personal terminal and played with it in his hands. He was in a happy mood. Today, he had an extra income, and it was also pleasing to the eye to see the sweaty big man carrying it.

"Work hard, Blue, and I'll give you half a watermelon after get off work to satisfy your hunger."

"Got it." Bruce replied breathlessly.

Time passed slowly, and just like that, Bruce gradually settled down in this wholesale market. Although the salary was very low, he also had a small shelter, and occasionally he could eat some wasted fruits.These wasted fruits were all T5-grade high-quality products. Even if they couldn't be put on the shelves normally, they were far better than the half-rotten ones he had dragged at the garbage dump before.

In this way, the time came to mid-July, and Bruce finally had a rare day off.

He took the old-fashioned second-hand personal terminal that he bought for more than 300 federal coins, and went to the place where Qiaolong lived and grew up.

After inquiring around for a while, he found that Qiaolong had not returned here, and there was no news. Scratching his not-so-clever head, he went to visit the cemetery entrusted by Qiaolong.

The black tombstone is the same as usual, and there are only a few dead branches pressed down by stone bricks in front of Qiaolong's master's cemetery. This is the bouquet that was put down last time.

"Did the boss come out, or where did he go?" He stood in front of the cemetery holding the bouquet he bought temporarily, and slowly put the bouquet down.

After thinking for a long time, to no avail, he pressed the small card with his contact number under the stone brick, hoping that someone could contact him in the future.

Back at the No. 14 wholesale market, just when he thought that this kind of life would last for a long time, and it might take several years for him to hear back, a strange call made Bruce stand up.

"Huck? Is it really you?" His voice was excited, because the other party was the partner he often worked with, and the two had been following Joron.

The next day, Blue saw this long-lost companion, wearing a baseball cap, hip-hop, and green paint on his face.

With his hands in his trouser pockets, Huck walked into the warehouse door, then stood still, smiling proudly at Bruce.

"It's great that I'm still alive, and it's even better to see you alive." After he finished speaking, he let out a long roar, jumped up a few steps forward, and threw himself on Bruce, and the two hugged each other. Together.

After a while, the two sat in the corner of the warehouse and talked about their respective affairs.

"At that time, I found a hidden path in advance and returned to the low-level residential area of ​​Arpeggio City. I hid next to a garbage station for a week, and then quietly moved. After the incident passed, I was safe." He is a smart man , is also thin, and can easily blend in with the crowd, unlike Bruce, who can't hide.

"Huck is amazing." Bruce praised, and then asked about other things.

"I don't know the whereabouts of the boss, but I guess he's still alive. A man as tough as him won't die so easily." Huck told Bruce not to worry about this.

"Have you been working here recently?" Huck looked around.

"Yes, the supervisor is quite nice."

"Forget it, he probably depends on whether you are easy to use or cheap." The thin Huck understood a lot.

"I've been among a group of night marchers recently, and my life is pretty good. Why don't you come with me, and I'll help you find a job as a nightclub janitor. It's a lot easier, and you're big enough."

"No, Huck." Bruce shook his head. He was taught in prison and would stay away from such an industry in the future.

"Uh..." Huck rubbed his head, he couldn't help this big guy for a while, after all, he was not Joron, so he just followed suit.

"Okay, let's not talk about that for now. In fact, I'm a little browbroken recently about what the boss explained. If we have time, we have to go find the young lady."

"Is it something to help find someone?"

"That's right, there was a mixed bag of fish and dragons among the night tourists. It really gave me some information. It is said that it was the information filled out when the residents were resettled, and among them was the information of the young lady's parents."

"This, isn't it all in the archives, do we still need to tell the eldest lady?" Bruce didn't understand.

"No, no, no, although there are many things recorded in the archives, there are some things that the young lady doesn't know about." Huck shook his head.

"When the residents settle down, the local residential area committee will conduct interviews and inquiries with the new residents to understand the situation. This is not a formal and serious process, so it is very casual, but it is also easy to find some problems."

"For example, her parents left a deep impression on the interviewers at that time. This is what I asked when I spent hundreds of federal dollars to treat people to dinner."

"Is it all right?" Bruce thought it would take more than half a year to find out some bits and pieces of news, but he didn't want Huck to have the results so soon.

"I just inquired about her parents' past. As for her father's whereabouts, I don't know. On the contrary, he walked too cleanly, which made me suspect it was a professional." Huck waved his hand.

"Ordinary people owe a huge amount of money to repay their debts. When the formal channels are not available, they will have to take some side ways, such as usury, doing illegal work, underground boxing matches or racing cars."

"But her father left no such traces at all. It seems that he got a sum of money suddenly, paid off his debts, and then left quietly. This process is so smooth that no one in the gray area of ​​Arpeggio City has ever touched it. .”

"But thinking about her mother's origin, maybe many things can be explained."

"According to the old man's recollection, it was more than 20 years ago. The eldest lady's mother was in the prime of life, and her voice and behavior were very different from ordinary people. He didn't understand it at the time. Later, after traveling to other places, he guessed that the young couple might come from North Second District."

"It's hard to explain that kind of temperament, but if someone has been there, he can understand. He told me so." Huck leaned his head on the cushion in the corner, and the two chatted until there was a truck Pulling into the warehouse, Bruce had to start working again.

 Not surprisingly, there will be another chapter tonight 0 0/~
  
 
(End of this chapter)

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