Chapter 43: 6000 Bricks

  Although the contract with the crew has been cancelled and the job in the crew is lost, there is no point in going to the crew anymore, but Tang Xiaosheng still goes to the film and television city, hoping to find a play to shoot in other crews and earn extra money.

  Unfortunately, he spent a whole day searching around the Beijing Film and Television City, running through all the crews, but still got nothing. In fact, he found that some crews obviously needed extras, but the leaders just didn't want to see him, not giving him any chance to perform.

  Tang Xiaosheng himself was also helpless and could only stay on the scene silently waiting to see if he could wait for an opportunity. He waited from morning till noon, but still didn't get one.

  Because there was no play to shoot, the crew's boxed lunch didn't have his share. At noon, everyone was eating their boxed lunches, but he could only go alone to a nearby convenience store and buy a package of instant noodles to get by.

  Just as I was eating instant noodles, my phone suddenly rang, and the caller was actually Long Tianhao.

  "Have you found yourself unable to find any roles in the film and television industry?" Long Tianhao said as soon as he picked up the phone.

  Tang Xiaosheng swallowed the noodles in his mouth, regained his composure and asked: "Did you do it?"

  Long Tianhao didn't answer, instead he said: "As long as you're willing to leave my daughter alone, I won't make things difficult for you. Otherwise, don't even think about acting in films for the rest of your life."

  Tang Xiaosheng retorted: "Mr. Long, isn't what you're doing a bit too much?"

  Long Tianhao seemed too lazy to argue with him and said in a low voice: "That's all I want to say, you can handle it yourself."

  He hung up after finishing speaking.

  After hanging up the phone, Tang Xiaosheng was stunned for a while. He finally knew that the reason why the crew suddenly cancelled the contract with him today was because Long Tianhao had intervened. Now he not only lost the opportunity to sign the contract, but also might not be able to find any roles in the entire Jinghua Film and Television City.

  A few days ago, Xia Bai had already used his connections to buy off some of the leaders in the film and television industry, making it impossible for Tang Xiao Sheng to get any roles. If Long Tian Hao also decides to do the same thing, with his far superior resources compared to Xia Bai, Tang Xiao Sheng might really be unable to stand a chance in the film and television industry.

  Tang Xiao Sheng is now eager to find a play to shoot, not just because he likes shooting plays, but also because he needs to make money now. He not only has to support himself, but also take care of Little Dragon Girl and Guo Xiang. If they can't find work for a long time, the three will have to drink northwest wind together.

  Long Tianhao claimed on the phone that if Tang Xiaosheng continued to be with Little Dragon Girl, he would never find a play to shoot. At first, Tang Xiaosheng was skeptical about this threat, but three days later, he found out it was true.

  In the following three days, Tang Xiaosheng ran back and forth between various crews in the film and television city, asking around everywhere, trying to get a role to play, but unfortunately, he was unable to succeed. Long Tianhao didn't know what means he used, almost all the group leaders in the film and television city were bought off, completely blocking Tang Xiaosheng from getting any opportunities, not even giving him a chance to play an insignificant extra role.

  Staying in the film and television city, Tang Xiaosheng felt like a transparent person, with no sense of existence. He had clearly realized that he could no longer mix in the film and television city.

  But anyway, life goes on.

  In the film and television industry, Tang Xiaosheng knew he had to find another job. However, in the past six years, he had spent almost all his energy on acting and never thought about doing anything else, so for a while, he didn't know what he could do.

  A grown man with hands and feet, it's not that hard to find a job to make a living. He can work as a courier for an express delivery company, be a salesperson at a fast food restaurant, or be a waiter at a dining establishment.

  These jobs only earn over a thousand yuan per month, which is far from enough. Because he now needs to support not only himself, but also Little Dragon Girl and Guo Xiang.

  Xiao Long Nu was worried that he would be exhausted from filming, so every day she followed the recipe to cook big fish and meat for him to supplement his body. The daily expenses were at least over a hundred yuan. If Tang Xiao Sheng found a job with a monthly salary of over 1,000 yuan, it would barely be enough to make ends meet. Moreover, apart from food expenses, there was also rent to pay.

  After thinking about it, Tang Xiaosheng felt that he had to find a job with a monthly salary of at least 4,000 yuan in order to barely make ends meet. However, apart from acting, he was not good at anything else and didn't know what he could do, so finding a job was not an easy task.

  Of course, even if it's hard to find, Tang Xiaosheng had to find one, so he rode his bicycle around the city, and whenever he saw a store with recruitment information, he went in to ask. After an afternoon of wandering around, he had already asked more than thirty stores and applied for jobs over thirty times.

  He applied for positions including salesperson in a clothing store, salesclerk in a mall, security guard in a supermarket, service staff in a domestic services company, deliveryman in a computer market, and porter in a warehouse.

  Although he was basically capable of doing these jobs, the monthly salary was less than two thousand, which was a bit like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water. So in the end, he gave up and continued to ride his bike around the city.

  By a little past noon, he had almost strolled through the entire city center but still hadn't found his ideal job. Tang Xiaosheng suddenly felt a bit bewildered and didn't know what to do.

  When he was riding his bike on the Second North Road of the city, he found a construction site by the roadside with a sign that read "Recruiting Workers".

  Tang Xiaosheng hesitated for a moment before entering the construction site. As soon as he entered, he heard the sound of concrete mixers "rumbling" and several workers mixing concrete. Some were shoveling stones, some were shoveling river sand, some were pouring cement, some were pulling sand buckets, and some were pounding vibrating rods. In addition to this, there were also dozens of workers busy at work on the construction site, either moving steel bars, smashing steel bars, straightening steel bars, carrying cement, nailing wooden boards, pushing mixed concrete, or moving bricks.

  Later, under the prompt of a worker, Tang Xiaosheng found the foreman of the construction site, who was in charge of recruiting workers, and asked: "Uncle, are you hiring here?"

  The foreman was a man in his forties, wearing a yellow hard hat. Although he had thick eyebrows and big eyes, he looked kind. He sized up Tang Xiaosheng for a few moments before saying, "Young fellow, are you looking for work? Let's switch to another place, this one is all physical labor, you can't handle it."

  Tang Xiaosheng didn't mind and continued: "What specific work do you do here?"

  The foreman smiled and said: "What can be done on the construction site is just carrying cement, moving bricks, and pressing steel bars. They are all hard work, and you young people definitely can't do it."

  It doesn't matter if the work is tiring, Tang Xiaosheng was mainly concerned about the salary issue, so he directly asked: "How much is the salary?"

  The foreman saw that he seemed to be genuinely looking for work, so he introduced: "The salary is 2,800 per month, ten hours a day. If you work diligently, there will also be extra money."

  "28,000?" Tang Xiaosheng asked for dozens of jobs today, and this salary is one of the highest. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Uncle, I want to give it a try."

  The foreman walked over and patted him on the shoulder, saying: "No need to try anymore, this job is very tiring, you definitely can't handle it, go find something else to do!"

  "Alright, I'll work for an afternoon without pay. If you think I'm doing a decent job, then let me stay." Tang Xiaosheng proposed.

  The foreman hesitated for a moment, seeing that he seemed to have made up his mind, and replied: "Alright!" He pointed to the front of the construction site and said: "You're in charge of moving this cart of bricks to the second floor. If you can finish by 7 o'clock tonight, you can stay."

  "Alright."

  Then Tang Xiaosheng took off his jacket, wearing only a vest, pushing a construction site's special handling handcart, and started his work - moving bricks.

  There are about 6,000 bricks in a truckload. A handcart can hold about 100 bricks at a time, so it would take about 60 trips to move them all. It takes about 2 minutes to load and unload the goods, and about 3 minutes to push the goods up to the second floor. One round trip takes about 5 minutes, so 60 trips would be 5 hours.

  It was already 2 pm, and Tang Xiaosheng needed to move 6,000 bricks before 7 pm. He only had 5 hours left, which meant that he couldn't take any breaks during this time, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to finish the task.

  To get this job with a decent salary, Tang Xiaosheng had no choice but to grit his teeth and go through with it.

  Carrying bricks is purely a physical activity, with little technical content to speak of. To complete it, apart from gritting one's teeth and persevering, there's no other way. Fortunately, Tang Xiaosheng's willpower was not bad, and he managed to hold on. Moreover, he had practiced the "Reversal Meridian Method", so whenever he felt extremely tired, he would secretly circulate this skill a few times, and his fatigue would gradually alleviate.

  All afternoon, Tang Xiaosheng had been pushing a handcart around the construction site, cart after cart of bricks to the second floor. Although it was freezing cold with temperatures only one or two degrees, his vest was already soaked through with sweat.

  At 6:17 in the evening, he successfully completed the task and moved all 6,000 bricks to the designated location, more than half an hour ahead of schedule.

  "Hey kid, you must not have a girlfriend, right?" said the foreman, walking over after seeing that he had already moved the bricks.

  Tang Xiaosheng was stunned and didn't understand what he meant.

  At this time, the foreman laughed and said: "You must not have a girlfriend, otherwise your physical strength would not be so good! It's incredible to finish moving a whole truck of bricks in less than five hours!"

  Tang Xiaosheng smiled faintly, unable to tell if this foreman had a bit of humor.

  The foreman continued: "It seems that you can really do this job, okay, you can stay. If you can maintain the energy of this afternoon in the future, I will give you at least 3000 yuan a month. You can come to work tomorrow, 8 o'clock in the morning, don't be late."

  So, Tang Xiaosheng found this brick-carrying job at the construction site. Although it was tiring, the income was still acceptable. After finishing carrying bricks, he didn't go home immediately but instead took a shower with the tap water on the construction site first. He had been carrying bricks in the afternoon and his whole body was dirty. If he went back directly, Xiaolongnv and Guo Xiang would definitely notice it.

  Until now, Little Dragon Girl and Guo Xiang were still in the dark and did not know about his unemployment, let alone his brick-moving job. To avoid worrying them, Tang Xiaosheng decided to continue keeping it a secret.

  After washing up at the construction site and putting on his jacket, Tang Xiaosheng rode his bicycle home.

  "Long'er, Xiang'er, I'm back."