Rebirth 1994: Starting from laid-off workers

The speaker was a man in his early thirties. He was thin and withered and looked smart in a white shirt. He wore a large peaked cap on his head, so he was not afraid of covering up prickly heat even in the summer.

"You are laid-off workers, right? What skills do you have?"

Zhang Jiaqiang pretended to be humble, nodded and said, "Brother, we are all just laid off. We don't have any skills, but we just have the strength. Can you find a job for us?"

Next to them, Zhang Cundong and Yan Guoqing suppressed their laughter and nodded along with them.

The peaked hat looked at the three people up and down, and was quite satisfied with their strong bodies. "It's not easy to find a job here, and those units are not prepared for you. As long as you can work hard, come with me. As long as you are willing to work hard and pay back 20 yuan a day." Take care of food and accommodation!”

This guy should be that kind of broker, but I don’t know whether he hired people to go to the construction site or sell them to a small coal mine.

This kind of guy has trapped many desperate laid-off workers, making their already miserable fate even worse.

Zhang Jiaqiang plans to find out his details.

“Brother, we all have seniors and juniors, but we don’t dare to travel far away to work!”

The peaked cap chuckled and said, "It's definitely not far. It's less than ten kilometers away from the city. You can go home every night!"

Zhang Jiaqiang then asked what could be done to pay wages, and other details that workers should be concerned about.

The peaked cap replied with a smile of course, "Don't worry about that. I'll give you ten yuan each when you get on the bus later. Even if you don't get the interview, I won't make your trip in vain. Now you're satisfied!"

Zhang Jiaqiang showed a greedy expression and said, "Brother, wait a moment, I will discuss it with my brothers!"

The peaked cap waved his hand impatiently, but continued to look at the people around him with his eyes.

Zhang Jiaqiang pulled the two of them away for a few steps and spoke to them while the people around them were noisy.

"This kid is most likely a liar. I will continue to trick him in a while. Cundong, you go to my booth in the factory and ask them to find someone to follow me. Don't apply for the job later. I just have something to talk to you about!"

Zhang Cundong nodded solemnly in agreement.

Zhang Jiaqiang looked at Yan Guoqing and said, "Brother, are you going to continue looking for work, or do you have other plans?"

Yan Guoqing's face flushed, showing a look of struggle, and then he seemed to have made up his mind and gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Qiang, I will follow you, you are too dangerous!"

"Okay, be careful later!" Zhang Jiaqiang patted him on the shoulder, and the two of them walked back to the peaked hat together.

The peaked cap was fooling a middle-aged man. When he saw the two of them approaching, he said with an unhappy expression, "Why are you two the only one? What about the other one?"

Yan Guoqing answered, "Hey, he didn't want to put in the effort and went to apply for a job elsewhere!"

Zhang Jiaqiang looked at the nervous expression on the peaked hat, knowing that this guy must be afraid that one less person would reveal their whereabouts, which further concluded that there must be something fishy behind this kid.

He hurriedly explained, "We are not familiar with him. We just met him today. We had a good chat while waiting in line, so we took him as a companion!"

"You two, follow closely. I'll take you to the car in a minute!" The peaked cap then returned to normal and continued to fool the man.

It didn't take long for the duck cap to fool four more people, and together with Zhang Jiaqiang, they had six people.

The peaked hat was very satisfied and led them towards the door.

Zhang Jiaqiang turned around and saw the tall figures of Li Hu and Tie Zhu in the crowd in the distance. The two were looking this way, and he suddenly felt calm.

The group of people went out to the parking lot. The peaked hat led them forward, and finally stopped in front of a shabby bus covered with dust and mud.

There were already five or six people sitting in the car, and two men under the car were smoking and chatting.

Seeing the six people brought by the peaked hat, one of them, a middle-aged man, laughed.

"Okay, Gouzi, you got rich today. You made six of them at once!"

The peaked cap rolled his eyes, "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and give them money!"

The middle-aged man smiled and sent each of Zhang Jiaqiang and the others a solidarity note.

After the peaked hat and others received the money, they turned and shouted to them.

"Get in the car, get in the car quickly, I'm delaying the construction period, and your wages will be deducted!"

The remaining people got on the bus one after another. Yan Guoqing looked a little nervous. Zhang Jiaqiang gave him a reassuring look and followed him to get on the bus.

The dilapidated bus with more than 20 seats had peeling interiors, rusted floors, and waste paper, cigarette butts, and all kinds of garbage everywhere.

The cover of the front engine was still open, and a strong smell of gasoline mixed with the smell of sweat penetrated directly into the nose.

At this moment, the car was half full. There were more than a dozen laid-off workers, old and young, with different expressions, but they were all very quiet.

There were also two men smoking and playing poker. They should be thugs belonging to the car owner's group.

Zhang Jiaqiang sat calmly next to the engine, pretending to tie his shoes, picked up a piece of tinfoil from the cigarette box, and quietly stuffed it into the gap between the platinum dots of the spark plug.

Then he pretended that nothing was wrong and looked at the three people outside the window.

After everyone got on the bus, the peaked hat said hello to the two people under the bus, and walked away alone. It seemed that his direction was not to go to the Talent Exchange Center. He must have completed the task and escaped.

There were two people under the car, and one of them got into the cab and started to start the car.

Another young, strong man got on the bus at the front door and immediately closed the door, staring at everyone as if looking at cargo.

Seeing that everyone was honest and no one asked questions casually, he nodded with satisfaction. He wanted to sit down but found that the Zhang family had taken his place.

This guy patted the backrest angrily, "You, go behind, this is mine!"

Zhang Jiaqiang didn't care, walked to Yan Guoqing and sat with him.

The engine roared and the car body trembled, but it never moved.

The driver yelled angrily, "There's something fucking wrong with this old car again!"

After a while, the driver, sweating profusely, turned around and shouted to the strong man, "Let them get off first and help push!"

The strong man stomped his feet angrily, then struggled to open the car door, shouting at everyone to get out of the car and push the cart.

After everyone got out of the car, Zhang Jiaqiang suddenly stopped them.

"Hey, brothers, where are we being dragged to?"

Some people have wanted to ask this question for a long time, but the laid-off workers are used to being submissive. They are afraid of offending their employers and losing their jobs, and they have the ten dollars in front of them to keep their mouths shut, so no one asks questions about their own fate.

When Zhang Jiaqiang said this, everyone couldn't bear it anymore and started shouting to ask about the destination.

The four people in the car, except for the driver, got out, and all of them were carrying wrenches and crowbars.

The strong man shouted impatiently, "Didn't I tell you when I found you that it's in the suburbs? Is it useful to tell you the place now? You know the place and plan to go there by yourself?"

Zhang Jiaqiang sneered, "It can't be unclear. At least let us know where to go. This is our right to know!"

The strong man winked, and the three of them stood in front of and behind Zhang Jiaqiang.

"I see you are looking for trouble, right?"