Chapter 44 Forever Unable to Find Work

  When Tang Xiaosheng arrived home, he found that Little Dragon Girl had already prepared dinner for him. The dinner was quite sumptuous, with white rice, garlic broccoli, spinach and egg soup, plus a plate of mushroom stir-fried squid. He then sat down to eat with Little Dragon Girl and Guo Xiang in the living room.

  Tang Xiaosheng tasted several dishes and praised: "Long Er, tonight's dishes are very delicious!"

  Sitting across from him, Guo Xiang was sipping on egg drop soup while explaining in a childish tone: "Dragon sister spent the whole day making these three dishes!"

  Tang Xao Sheng suddenly enlightened, said to Little Dragon Girl: "Long Er, it's really hard on you."

  "It's not hard work, I'm just staying at home with nothing to do." Longnü said lightly. After finishing speaking, she used chopsticks to pick up a piece of squid and put it in his bowl. "Over here, eat more squid. The nutrition chart says that squid is rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron and other elements, which are beneficial for bone development and hematopoiesis. Your leg injury hasn't healed yet, you should eat more."

  "Alright." Tang Xiao Sheng nodded and also picked up a piece of squid to put into Guo Xiang's bowl, "Xiang Er, you're still growing, so you should eat more too."

  "Uh-huh."

  At this time, Guo Xiang suddenly said "hmm" and pointed at Tang Xiaosheng's hand, asking: "Big brother, how did your hand get hurt?"

  Tang Xiaosheng moved bricks in the afternoon, because the contractor did not provide gloves, he had to move them bare-handed. In one afternoon, he moved 6,000 bricks, and it was inevitable that there were some abrasions, his palms also ground out blood blisters, most of which had been worn through, with a small amount of fresh blood seeping out.

  Although the wound on his hand was just a minor skin injury, in Xiaolongnü's eyes it seemed to be quite serious. She gently grasped Tang Xaoxing's hand and looked at it, feeling a bit heartbroken, saying: "Xiao'er, how did you get hurt like this?"

  Tang Xiaosheng smiled slightly and lied, "This afternoon when I was filming, I accidentally fell. It's just a scratch, nothing serious."

  He didn't want to tell them about his unemployment and moving bricks because he didn't want them to worry, nor did he want them to be troubled by these things. He'd rather deal with all this trouble alone.

  Then, the little dragon girl went to the bedroom and brought a bottle of medicine. This bottle of medicine was bought by her today. Tang Xiaosheng's back had been hit by a stick by Xia Bai's thugs before, with some bruising. This bottle of medicine was originally intended for him to apply to his injured back.

  Little Dragon Girl carefully applied medicine to Tang Xiaosheng's injured palm, saying: "Tang, your hand is hurt so badly, why not take a break and rest at home for two days instead of going to the shoot tomorrow?"

  Tang Xiaosheng will officially go to work on the construction site tomorrow and can't stay at home. He said, "Long'er, it's just a minor injury, don't worry."

  The little dragon girl's delicate eyebrows moved slightly, and she said softly: "I don't want you to work too hard."

  XXX

  After dinner, Little Dragon Girl pulled Tang Xiaosheng to the bedroom and let him lie on the bed, preparing to apply some medicinal water to the bruise on his back. Tang Xiaosheng had nothing better to do, so he took off his top and lay down on the bed.

  The little dragon girl sat on the edge of the bed, her left hand holding a bottle of medicine and her right hand grasping a medical cotton swab, dabbing it lightly before gently wiping his back.

  After a moment, she asked softly: "Does it hurt?"

  Didn't hear any response.

  "Is that so?" Little Dragon Girl called out softly again, but still didn't hear any response. She then leaned forward to take a look and only discovered that Tang Xiao Sheng had fallen asleep.

  He moved a truckload of bricks this afternoon and was so exhausted that his whole body felt like it had fallen apart. Just now, he lay down on the bed, closed his eyes slightly, and in less than a minute, he fell asleep.

  Seeing Tang Xiao Sheng sleeping soundly, Little Dragon Maiden couldn't bear to wake him up, knowing he was too exhausted.

  As Tang Xiao Sheng didn't circulate the "Reversal of Meridians" before sleeping, he couldn't use his internal energy to resist the cold during sleep. Little Dragon Maiden then took out a quilt and gently covered him with it.

  XXX

  The next morning, Tang Xiaosheng woke up and felt severe soreness all over his body. He knew it was definitely due to moving bricks yesterday.

  After eating the breakfast made by Xiaolongnv, he hastily left home. Although he told Xiaolongnv and Guo Xiang that he was going to the film crew for rehearsals, as soon as he walked out of the community gate, he rode his bicycle to a construction site located on the Second Ring West Road in the city.

  At 8 o'clock in the morning, the construction site officially started work. Tang Xiaosheng's task today is no longer to move bricks, but to carry cement bags. The construction site received 400 bags of cement, and the foreman asked Tang Xiaosheng and another worker to be responsible for unloading the goods and carrying the cement to the mixer.

  A bag of cement weighs one hundred catties, and two bags are to be carried at a time, totaling two hundred catties. With the two-hundred-catty cement sacks on his back, Tang Xiaosheng's frail body was pressed down, panting heavily. Since he had chosen this job, he could only grit his teeth and persevere.

  Fortunately, he had practiced the "Reversal of Meridians Method", a technique that could continuously adjust the meridians in his body, and had a magical effect on relieving fatigue. Tang Xiaosheng was operating the "Reversal of Meridians Method" while carrying cement bags.

  After more than three hours of continuous fighting, the four hundred bags of cement were finally carried. However, Tang Xiaosheng had not yet had time to rest when he was called again to push a concrete mixer truck. This work is no easier than carrying cement, and one car of concrete weighs several hundred kilograms, which is very laborious to push, not to mention that Tang Xiaosheng's palms have been rubbed with blood blisters from moving bricks, and every time he pushes the cart, his palms are sore.

  The concrete mixer truck was moving forward, when the foreman walked over and said, "Tang Xiaosheng, stop, you don't have to work anymore."

  Tang Xiaosheng was stunned, put down the car and asked strangely: "What's wrong?"

  "Sorry, I can't keep you working here. You'd better leave right away!" He said, pulling out a crumpled 100-yuan bill and continued, "This 100 yuan is your pay for this morning and yesterday afternoon."

  "Why did you suddenly ask me to leave? What happened?" Tang Xiaosheng was somewhat perplexed.

  The foreman didn't give a direct answer, only saying: "Anyway, you can go now." After that, he stuffed 100 yuan into Tang Xiaosheng's hand and turned to leave.

  Tang Xiaosheng was stunned on the spot, unable to understand why he had been suddenly fired when everything had been going well.

  "Could it be Long Tianhao?"

  Long Tianhao, if he had the ability to make Tang Xiaosheng unable to find work in the film and television city, must also have a way to make him unable to find work on construction sites. Thinking of this, Tang Xiaosheng felt that his being fired was probably related to Long Tianhao.

  Since the foreman had already spoken, it was meaningless to continue staying on the construction site. Tang Xiaosheng tidied up his clothes and rode his bicycle away from the site. He is now unemployed again and has no choice but to look for a new job.

  Finding a job is not a big deal, what Tang Xiaosheng is really worried about is that even if he finds a new job, Long Tianhao may still use his resources to make him lose his job again. This kind of thing has happened once in the film city, and it's happening again today on the construction site, who knows if it won't happen for the third time, fourth time, or even more.

  Long Tianhao is a well-known real estate tycoon in the country, and the resources at his disposal are beyond Tang Xiaosheng's imagination. If the two really clashed, Tang Xiaosheng would have no chance of winning. Moreover, since Long Tianhao is the father of Little Dragon Girl, Tang Xiaosheng did not want this matter to be too big a deal, so reporting it to the police was also out of the question for now. Besides, even if he reported it to the police, there was no guarantee that they could do anything to Long Tianhao, after all, there was no concrete evidence.

  In this way, Tang Xiaosheng felt that he was like the Monkey King in the hands of Long Tianhao, and no matter how hard he tried to escape, he couldn't get out of his Five Elements Mountain.

  Things seem to be getting worse, but Tang Xiaosheng didn't want to worry unnecessarily. He continued riding his bicycle in the city to look for a job, taking things one step at a time.

  It's not hard to find a job, but the monthly salary for jobs he can handle is basically no more than 3,000, which is not enough. He wandered around the city for half a day and still couldn't find a suitable job.

  Until more than four o'clock in the afternoon, when passing by a private restaurant, Tang Xiaosheng stopped the car and walked into the restaurant to buy a bowl of fried noodles to eat. He hadn't eaten since he left home this morning.

  As I walked to the entrance of the restaurant, I unexpectedly found a note on the door that read "Recruiting temporary workers". After inquiring, I learned that this restaurant was recruiting dishwashers. The job content is responsible for washing all tableware in the restaurant, and the working hours are unlimited until the work is finished. The daily reward is 40 yuan.

  Tang Xiaosheng estimated that if he worked efficiently, it would only take about three or four hours to finish washing all the dishes in the restaurant. If he did this job, there would still be a lot of time left over each day, and he could find a second job.

  It's not easy for him to find a job with a monthly income of over 3,000 now, so taking on two part-time jobs at the same time might be a good option.

  After thinking it through, he communicated further with the restaurant owner and expressed his desire to take on the dishwashing job. The restaurant owner was a bit surprised because usually people who come to apply for the dishwashing job are middle-aged women in their 40s or 50s or laid-off workers, and young and strong guys like Tang Xiaosheng were rarely seen. Of course, the restaurant owner didn't mind these things as long as someone was willing to do the work.

  Then Tang Xiaosheng first ate a bowl of stir-fried instant noodles in the restaurant, and then started his work in the restaurant - washing dishes.

  Although the restaurant is not very large, there are hundreds of bowls and chopsticks used, which are all very greasy and take a lot of effort to clean. Tang Xiaosheng first mixed hot water and detergent, then put the bowls and chopsticks in the water, after everything was ready, he put on special gloves for washing dishes and started cleaning.

  Compared to moving bricks and carrying cement on a construction site, washing dishes is much easier. However, during the process of washing dishes, it's unclear whether the gloves were damaged or for other reasons, water seeped into the gloves. Tang Xiaosheng's palms had been rubbed raw and blistered from moving bricks, and now they were soaking in soapy water, causing him to grit his teeth in pain.

  It's okay, after enduring for several minutes, my palm is a bit numb and the pain has become less noticeable.

  The bowls had to be washed three times, and after washing, they still needed to be disinfected once. Tang Xiaosheng was busy from 5 pm to 9 pm, finally finishing washing the bowls and preparing for disinfection.

  Just then, the boss of the restaurant suddenly walked in, cleared his throat and said: "Young man, no need to wash."

  Tang Xiaosheng stopped and asked: "What's wrong?"

  The restaurant owner sank and said, "Just now I received a threatening call saying that you can't let him wash dishes here, otherwise he will be responsible for the consequences." After a pause, he added, "This is a small business, I don't dare to offend anyone, so you'd better leave."

  Tang Xiaosheng was stunned on the spot, furrowed his brow, and the first thought that flashed in his mind was Long Tianhao. The person who had just made a threatening phone call to the restaurant owner was probably one of Long Tianhao's people.

  The boss of the restaurant took out a brand new 50-yuan note and handed it over, saying: "Young man, take this money as your wages for tonight."

  Tang Xiaosheng has never taken money, for him, now having 50 yuan more is of no use at all, the real root of the problem lies in Long Tianhao.

  The dishwasher job was also lost, so Tang Xiaosheng left the restaurant and as soon as he walked out of the door, he directly called Long Tianhao.

  Long Tianhao seemed to have anticipated that he would make this call and said as soon as he opened his mouth: "How is it, have you figured it out?"

  Tang Xiaosheng asked: "I lost two jobs in a row today, was it you who did it?"

  "Not bad." Long Tianhao didn't hide it either, paused for a moment, and added, "If you don't leave my daughter alone, not only will you have no job today, but also in the future, you'll never find a job in Jinghua City again."

  "Mr. Long, don't you think you're being too excessive?" Tang Xiaosheng retorted.

  Long Tianhao seemed too lazy to talk to him anymore, and simply sighed: "It seems you still haven't figured it out, call me back when you have." After that, he immediately hung up the phone.

  After hanging up the phone, Tang Xiaosheng realized that what he was worried about had really happened. Long Tianhao must have sent someone to secretly follow him, and once he found a job, he would try every means to make him lose his job. He had already lost two jobs today, and such things might continue to happen in the future.

  If things go on like this, his life will definitely fall into trouble, what to do?

  Tang Xiaosheng knew this was a very tricky problem, he had no power or influence, and he didn't have the capital to compete with Long Tianhao. Things had reached this point, and all he could do was take it one step at a time.

  It was already 9:30 at night, and it wasn't early anymore, so Tang Xiaosheng rode his bicycle back home.

  When he arrived at the door, he was still worried about Long Tianhao's affairs and his mood wasn't very good. He just didn't want to bring a bad mood into the house, so he adjusted his emotions at the door, put on a smiling face, and after everything was ready, he opened the door and walked in.

  "Long'er, Xiang'er, I'm back."