The fat police officer who was standing at the door blocking the bakery door with his fat body turned around and stared at the fat boss with a fierce light flashing in his small eyes.
Sometimes, the police in the City of Angels are worse and less like the good guys than the gang members.
Faced with a choice between a vague but terrifying threat and two hundred dollars, the fat boss ultimately chose to give up the two hundred dollars to protect himself.
The bakery makes a profit of about four hundred yuan a month, and after deducting normal expenses, there is about three hundred and fifty yuan left.
The monthly sanitation fee paid to the gang is fifty dollars, and the monthly sanitation fee paid to the police is about sixty-five dollars. Now the gang fee has increased to sixty dollars.
That means the monthly profit is only two hundred and twenty-five yuan. If his daughter and himself are included in their wages, the net profit is only one hundred yuan.
This number may still be an unattainable number for many working-class people, but for a shop owner, it is actually not too much.
But in the end, you can still make money.
The fat boss took a deep breath and said, "No problem, I'll get it right away."
Not long after, he reluctantly took out two hundred yuan from his secret money box and put it on the table.
The police officer glanced at it casually, picked it up and put it in his pocket. "Don't worry, Johnny. I am also a person who follows the rules."
"You actually didn't suffer any loss. I won't take your money again in the next six months. You weren't blackmailed by anyone. You just paid in advance."
This explanation seemed to make the fat boss feel a little better, but Lance, who had been watching in the corner, knew very well that the sudden collection of fees in advance was definitely not because he was in urgent need of money.
It is very likely that this guy is really going to be transferred.
So I plan to make some more money before being transferred.
However, he had no obligation to remind the fat boss, and even if he did, the fat boss had no ability to resist.
Some people have tried to report the behaviour of some corrupt police officers, but in the end nothing came of it.
The officer looked at the fat boss, then at Lance, then picked up the handkerchief and threw it into the trash can beside the table. "If there is any trouble, let the radio station find me."
As he spoke, he put on his hat, patted the fat police officer on the shoulder, and pushed the door open.
The sign that said "Temporarily closed" changed back to "Open".
Lance watched through the window as they went to the next store, and he could tell that he had a big appetite.
There are at least thirty shops from the front of the street to the corner. If each shop gives him four hundred yuan, that would be twelve thousand yuan.
In this era when the average wage per capita is only 40 or 50, 12,000 yuan is definitely an astronomical figure for the lower class!
"These bastards with sores on their feet, bastard sons of bitches..." Johnny cursed in a low voice, and even cursed so carefully that Lance found it ridiculous.
He suddenly raised his head and looked at Lance, his eyes were red, "Do you think I'm funny?"
Lance took a step back in confusion and waved his hands quickly, "No, not at all."
But the fat boss seemed to have already determined that this was the case. "You can laugh at me, you saw me make a fool of myself, but it doesn't matter, dinner is cancelled!"
After saying that, he went back into the room without looking back, and then the sound of something falling was heard.
Lance looked at the half-open door and listened to the curses coming from the room. The apprentice was standing at the door of the back hall looking at him with a sneer. All this gave him a very clear understanding of this era.
Strength is the foundation.
He and those young men who came to collect protection money and the police officer in his thirties who wore a police uniform that represented justice, once you remove the external things, there is no difference between them.
What is it that makes him work here for nothing for a month and still owe the capitalist three dollars, and what is it that allows those people to get a large sum of money every month without doing anything?
It is power, order created by power!
Those who have no power obey order.
Lance wasn't a rule-abiding guy, at least he wasn't likely to be.
In the afternoon, when he was thinking about how to make the fat boss pay for his arrogance, suddenly a short man wearing a baseball cap ran outside the bakery.
He stood with his hands on his hips, looking into the bakery breathlessly. Lance saw him at a glance and walked out immediately.
On the ship he came to meet a lot of people of his age. People aged 17, 18, or 19 were a group that was easy to get along with.
There is no need to know each other, just say a few words and then express whether you can "play" together, and a small group will be formed.
Most of these refugees from the same place stayed in the local area to work, and many of them worked as laborers in the port.
This is also where the most illegal immigrants appear. The heaviest, most tiring and dirtiest work always involves illegal immigrants.
The locals look down on such dirty and tiring work, and the capitalists are unwilling to hire the more expensive locals, so illegal immigrants are always the best choice.
There was even a "job for rent" notice on the port's notice board.
According to federal laws and regulations, on the surface it is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the grassroots people, but in fact it only provides capitalists with better means of exploitation, so workers who want to work need to provide at least one of the two certificates.
A federal citizen's Social Security number, or an immigrant work permit.
Whether you are a native or a legal immigrant, you must have one.
Illegal residents do not have social security numbers and cannot have work permits, but they need jobs. What can they do?
Some locals rent out their jobs to illegal residents, such as boat cleaning.
The port office doesn't care who the hell wipes the boat down with the rag, they just care that the job is done on time.
The boat cleaner gets a monthly salary of 35 yuan, and the illegal immigrant needs to pay the boat cleaner 15 yuan and complete all the work.
Then the remaining twenty dollars is their own income.
Twenty yuan is already considered a high income. Now many work cards are increasing in price, and some have risen to eighteen yuan.
This means that a person who is unable to work openly, takes over other people's work and only earns 17 yuan a month for his hard work.
Living in a cement pipe and eating the worst and cheapest food, I could only save a few dollars a month.
Some smart locals often work two, three or more part-time jobs at the same time, and then rent these jobs to those illegal immigrants.
Earning fifty or sixty yuan a month without doing anything has become a way of life for the locals.
It is also a lifestyle unique to a few cities.
The little guy in front of him is called Elvin, a fellow villager of Lance. In a foreign country, there is an inexplicable sense of trust between fellow villagers.
This sense of trust comes from the sense of security that comes from having a common past and living in the same area, but many people also take advantage of this trust to do bad things.
But this little guy can be trusted because he and Lance came to the Federation from the Empire at the same time.
It can be seen that he must be very anxious.
Lance pushed the door open and wiped his hands on his apron, "What's wrong?"
Erwin looked anxious, "Something happened to Ethan!"
Lance's expression also changed a little, "What's wrong with him?"
Among this group of people, Lance is more respected by others in the small group because of his more mature insights, and they are willing to discuss anything with Lance.
After all, as an adult with many years of experience, even if he is not so familiar with the world, when faced with some choices, he will still be more stable and more appropriate than these half-grown children.
Erwin took a deep breath and forced himself to breathe steadily. "Today is payday. You know that our work cards are rented, so..."
Lance had already guessed what was going to happen next. "So the dock gave the wages to the person who rented your work card, and then Ethan's guy refused to pay him, right?"
Erwin nodded repeatedly. "That's right. That bastard told him that he wouldn't give him a penny and scolded him."
"Then he got impulsive and beat up the idiot, and the son of a bitch called the police directly..."
This kind of thing is not uncommon at the docks, and it is not uncommon in the entire City of Angels. There will always be people who are spying on your wealth and everything without your knowledge!
At the same time, this is also directly related to the fact that illegal immigrants are not recognized by the federal judiciary. The cost of calling the police is much higher than the loss of a month's work, so even if some people are cheated, they will eventually choose to pretend that nothing happened.
This also prompted these disgusting local maggots to become more aggressive. After all, they knew very well that no one would call the police, and the cost of calling the police was unaffordable for those illegal residents.
Moreover, considering the current employment scale in Jingang City, there is no shortage of people willing to try out these work cards.
Lance frowned. This was not going to be easy. "Where is Ethan now?"
"I had him hiding in the culvert under the bridge."
"What did the guy say?"
"He said if I gave him two hundred dollars, the matter would be over. If I didn't give him, he would keep causing trouble for Ethan."
"If he does that, there's a good chance Ethan will be sent back."
Being sent back to the empire at this time is no longer a matter of going to the front line. The emperor has gone crazy and he will send all those who escape military service to the gallows!
In other words, there is a high probability that Ethan will go to jail or even die if he returns!
The reason why the federals are so confident in threatening and exploiting them is because of this!
But two hundred yuan is really too much. These people have only been here for a month, and most of them only have a few yuan left after spending on food and drink every month.
They simply couldn't gather together two hundred yuan.
Erwin also talked about this problem, "Seven or eight of us could only collect sixty-three dollars, and we were still short of more than a hundred dollars."
Lance sighed, "Not only did I not get paid a penny this month, I also owe three dollars."
Erwin's voice was filled with hatred, "These damn vampires!"