The Days of Opening a Restaurant on an Abnormal Earth

Jianfeng City, the most prosperous city in the world of Sedum.

There are singing and dancing here, the flowers are blooming here, and the buildings here are row upon row. Especially in the busiest commercial district, Goulan Washes are next to each other, and restaurants and teahouses abound.

And among the shops in Dongxifang City, merchants shuttled back and forth. Bullock carts, horse-drawn carts, camels, any large animal for freight that can be imagined can be encountered here.

The entire Jianfeng City is full of flowers, lively and magnificent.

But the world has always had two sides, where there is light there is shadow. And shadows are often hidden in corners that ordinary people can't see.

Fifty kilometers north of Jianfeng City, Luojia Mountain.

This is a place that many people in Jianfeng City will not come to. But this is the most important place for Jianfeng City.

Jianfeng City, as a city with a population of several million, is an endless black hole in Sedum, a relatively technologically backward world.

It frantically devours all the resources around it.

It needs food, water, coal, cloth, fodder, etc. to supply millions of people every day. At the same time, it needs a large amount of precious metals, which can be sold.

To feed a Jianfeng City, relying on Jianfeng City alone is not enough. It needs blood transfusions from dozens of satellite cities to survive.

And Changtan County at the foot of Luojia Mountain is such a small town.

When Niu Ben came to this city with his bald head, he was so smoky and speechless by the city's smoky aura.

Smokey is not an adjective, but a declarative.

Because this small county with only more than 50,000 people needs to supply the daily coal and charcoal needed by millions of people in Jianfeng City.

Luojia Mountain is rich in coal, and there is a large piece of high-quality pine wood on the remaining veins of Luojia Mountain, which is a good material for burning charcoal. As it should be, Changtan County became a subsidiary of Jianfeng City, supplying coal to Jianfeng City.

Changtan County is not big. If you walk straight, Niu Ben can walk across the entire county in half an hour. But this small county with only three meters of adobe walls has hundreds of chimneys tens of meters high inside and outside.

They stand upright, compared with the low houses in the county, they are so weird. Their black maws sprayed thick smoke mixed with flames.

The black smoke covered the sky and the sun, and it was clear that the heaven and earth looked up but the blue sky could not be seen.

Xu Shi Niu Ben's bald monk's attire attracted attention. When Niu Ben passed by, many residents of the county put their palms together and whispered a Buddha's name.

Some people bowed to Niu Ben.

Niu Ben didn't turn a blind eye, he saluted those who saluted him one by one.

Changtan County is very dilapidated, and there is not even a regular stone road in the county. The widest county road in the city is the one that pulls coal from the factory to Jianfeng City.

Carloads of coal were transported from here to Jianfeng City. The continuous flow of bullock carts even blocked the road. Niu Ben was in a daze, as if he had gone to the scene of a traffic jam on the Datong National Highway in Shanxi.

"Old man, are you transporting coal there?"

Niu Ben followed a stop-and-go coal ox cart, and asked the old man driving it.

"Look at how fresh your question is. Where can this coal be transported? Of course it will be transported to Jianfeng City." The old man driving the cart glanced at Niu Ben dressed as a monk, and spoke politely.

It's just that the words that came out of his mouth that had lost several teeth were somewhat leaky. Niu Ben listened carefully for a long time before he could understand what the old man said.

"Is this going to be shipped every day?"

"Well, there are so many people in Jianfeng City. If we stop here for a day, won't we be out of fire?"

"Uncle, do you transport a car these days?"

"Shipping a car in a few days? What good things are you thinking of as a monk, and the shopkeeper is not a living Bodhisattva in your temple. We ship at least two cars a day!"

"This... can it be delivered? Jianfeng City is also a hundred miles away. You have delivered the goods to Jianfeng City and are unloading, don't you stop?"

"Our cattle are fast. They are specially raised to transport goods. They can travel thirty miles in an hour. If nothing happens, we will reach the city in three and a half hours. We queue up for unloading for an hour. When we come back, we can go because there is no coal. Hurry up, usually you will be back in two and a half hours.

This round trip is seven hours is enough. "

Seven hours, that is equivalent to fourteen hours. Not to mention driving a car, even if you drive on the earth for fourteen hours, you will be exhausted.

This is actually high-intensity labor. And this old man looks to be in his sixties.

"Uncle, you are still working so hard in such an older grade?"

"It's okay if you don't work hard. If you don't work hard, my two grandsons will starve. If you don't work, the master will not kindly put the cake in your bowl."

"You raise a grandson? Where's your son?"

"The boss went to the mountain with someone to cut trees seven years ago, and was crushed to death by the wood. The second year ago, he went to the mine with someone, and the mine collapsed, and the body was nowhere to be found."

When the old man said this, his face was very calm, as if he was not talking about his son or his close relatives.

If one had to see any expression on the old man's face, it would be numbness.

Niu Ben asked a question that he probably already guessed the answer: "If your son is like this, the owner of the tree felling, the owner of the mine won't pay?"

"Compensation for what?"

"Losing money. Your son went up the mountain to cut trees and went down to the well to dig mines. He always worked for the shopkeepers. Now that someone has an accident, won't they pay for a life?"

"Look at what stupid things you, a monk, say. It's the child's life. Can you blame others?"

Niu Ben stopped in his tracks, not knowing what to say for a while.

He turned around and entered the county again.

This time he came to an open field among several alleys, where a small earth temple was built. In front of the temple sat some sewing women in twos and threes, and some children playing.

Children all over the world seem to be the same, as long as they can get together to play, they will be happy. Although most of them are thin and have malnourished faces.

Although the clothes on their bodies were covered with patches, some children's clothes were even covered by various patches. This is no longer patching on the clothes, but the patches directly become a piece of clothing.

The children played hide-and-seek and hide-and-seek, and they laughed happily. The mothers of this group of children sat under the big banyan tree in front of the Town God's Temple, looked at the children kindly, and looked at the direction of the forest or the coal mine with a little worry from time to time. Their eyes are both kind and worried.

Niu Ben uttered the Buddha's name and hurried past.

He passed by a carbon refining factory. The workers were bare-chested and only wearing shorts, and some even worked hard in the workshop without wearing shorts.

The scorching high temperature can be felt even standing at the door of the workshop, and Niu Ben felt that his hair was curled by the heat wave.

He saw the workers use large iron grates to remove hundreds of kilograms of red charcoal from the charcoal stove without any protection.

The red light was extremely dazzling.

"Dark, dark! A roar!"

"The big tree fell, come out of the ravine!"

"Dark, dark! Two roars!"

"Wood into the furnace, smelting black charcoal!"

"Dark, dark, three roars!"

"Hei charcoal comes out of the oven, it's hot and bright!"

"The charcoal has been smelted, it's black and bright~, hey! Buy clothes for my mother-in-law!"