Chapter 392: Chapter 392: There Will Be That Day
Ji Huan thought he was afraid the Orphanage manager would retaliate later.
"Don’t be afraid. I won’t go to the Orphanage. Let’s try finding County Magistrate Pan. The County Magistrate should have authority over them, right?"
But Zhou still held her back, refusing to let her go.
Ji Huan was very confused. Only after she pressed him repeatedly did Zhou finally explain the reason.
He had been doing fine working at the docks, but then Pan Jiadao saw him during an inspection. After asking and learning he was from the Orphanage, the magistrate ordered the foreman to stop exploiting child laborers. That’s how he lost his job.
"County Magistrate Pan only forbade you from working? He didn’t arrange for anything else?"
"He did. He told me to go back to the Orphanage and study hard."
Ji Huan: "..."
The root cause of Zhou being at the docks was the Orphanage’s corruption. What was the use of just stopping him from working without addressing the source of the problem?
County Magistrate Pan may have had good intentions, but some good intentions are a burden the weak simply cannot bear.
For Zhou, it was indeed cruel for him to be hauling sacks. But to stop him from hauling sacks before dealing with the ones who forced him to do it in the first place was even crueler.
As he himself said, no work meant no income. He couldn’t even fill his own stomach, let alone secretly save money to buy food for the younger children at the orphanage.
"Then how did you get kicked out?"
Logically, at Zhou’s age, he was just becoming "useful." The orphanage exploited even the youngest children, so why would they let go of a prime money-maker?
Zhou lowered his head. "The manager said I deliberately made a malicious report in front of Lord Pan..."
"Did they beat you?"
"Yes." They beat him and locked him in the woodshed for several days.
Zhou rolled up his sleeve to show Ji Huan. It was covered in scars, and his left elbow was even slightly deformed.
Ji Huan’s heart clenched at the sight. She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath, "Those bastards!"
Zhou continued his story, "Lord Pan wouldn’t let me work at the docks, and they didn’t dare send me to any other places where I could earn money. They were afraid I’d cause more trouble or be noticed by Lord Pan again..."
He was a liability. Since he couldn’t work, there was no use keeping him. So they falsified his age and kicked him out of the Orphanage.
Ji Huan asked and learned that he had been driven out in the middle of the tenth month last year. That was only a week after she had sent Dabao to the Orphanage. And at the time, he was only thirteen...
She couldn’t bear to imagine how he had survived this past year.
"They kicked you out, and they weren’t afraid you’d actually go and report them?"
"The manager said that if I dared to cause any more trouble, he would sell off Xiang and the others."
It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of reporting them. Before him, some older boys and girls, unable to endure it any longer, had tried to seek justice from the County Magistrate. However, they didn’t even make it inside the government office before they were gagged and dragged back to the Orphanage. The screams from the woodshed lasted from day to night, and after that, those few were never seen again.
The children at the Orphanage were also interrogated one by one, asked if they had known about it beforehand. Even those who didn’t know couldn’t escape a beating, and the abuse afterward became even more severe.
And just like that, the matter was silenced.
"Then... since County Magistrate Pan summoned you for questioning back then, why didn’t you take the opportunity..."
"It’s useless." As Zhou said those two words, his face was completely wooden.
He recognized County Magistrate Jiang, who accompanied Lord Pan. He had seen with his own eyes the Orphanage manager bowing and scraping before County Magistrate Jiang, inviting him into the most expensive restaurant in town.
Zhou looked up at Ji Huan and asked, "Do good officials really exist?"
Ji Huan couldn’t answer that question.
She herself was beginning to have some doubts about Pan Jiadao.
If he truly loved his people like his own children, how could he allow the devils at the Orphanage to run rampant? Was he really completely ignorant of it?
But could a man unanimously praised by the village chief and Xin Ziqi, a man held in high regard by the people of Yeyang, really be as black as all the other crows in the world?
Or perhaps, it wasn’t that Pan Jiadao hadn’t taken targeted measures, but simply that they hadn’t been properly implemented.
It was like in later generations, where many policies were created with good intentions, but by the time they were implemented locally, they had been warped by the selfishness and greed of certain individuals, losing their original purpose.
The scripture itself is good, but it can’t help being chanted crookedly by a crooked-mouthed monk.
A truly good official governing a region faces an endless stream of problems every day. Their busyness is beyond imagination, making it difficult to have eyes and ears everywhere. If you then add middlemen taking a cut into the mix...
But there were also plenty of those who were only out for fame and reputation, and they were masters of disguise.
Before she could be certain what kind of person Pan Jiadao was, she really couldn’t act rashly.
"Where are you living now?"
"The ruined temple in the south of the city. Boss, if you ever need someone to work, you can find me there. I can do anything, and I’m cheap. Or, no pay is fine, just a meal will do."
Ji Huan felt a pang in her heart. She paced for a moment with her arms crossed, then made a decision.
"Never mind ’later.’ How about right now? I’m about to open for business and I’m short on staff. How would you like to stay and be a shop assistant for me?"
Zhou never imagined something so good would happen so quickly.
He wasn’t good at expressing joy, but his dim eyes suddenly shone with light.
"Thank you, Boss! Thank you, Boss..."
Ji Huan stopped Zhou, who was bowing repeatedly.
"And don’t go back to that ruined temple. We can clear out a spare room in the backyard. I’ll need someone to watch the shop at night, anyway. Any problem with that?"
At first, Zhou declared resolutely that there was no problem, but then he hesitated.
Ji Huan thought he was about to ask about wages, so she said, "Besides room and board, I’ll pay you whatever other shops pay, not a single coin less. If you do a good job, there’ll be bonuses too."
Zhou quickly waved his hands. "That’s not it, Boss. It’s... I-I’ve never been a shop assistant before... Why don’t you just let me stay and do odd jobs? Sweeping, watching the door, heavy lifting, I can do all of that!"
For the common folk, being a shop assistant in a city store was already considered a respectable job.
Zhou had only ever done the most menial, low-class jobs. He was afraid he wouldn’t do a good job and would disappoint Ji Huan.
Ji Huan smiled. "Well, that’s perfect. I’ve never been a boss before, either. This is my first time. I’ll learn to be a boss, and you’ll learn to be an assistant. It’s settled."
"But..." Zhou hesitated. "I don’t know how to..."
He didn’t have the first clue.
"The Shopkeeper is coming tomorrow. He used to be an assistant, so just follow him. Watch, listen, and think. Where there’s a will, there’s a way."
Zhou finally stopped refusing.
He suppressed his excitement and nodded firmly. "I will, Boss!"
When they came today, they had already loaded some of the finished products into the carriage. Guan Shan was out front unloading them.
Putting his words into action, Zhou immediately ran over to help carry things into the shop.
Guan Shan looked at Ji Huan, who had followed Zhou out. A single glance was all it took for him to understand her decision.
When they finished, it was about time to eat. Ji Huan had originally planned to take Zhou to a restaurant.
But Zhou was too embarrassed. Besides, he was supposed to collect his wages today, and he had already told his friends from the Orphanage a couple of days ago to wait for him at the ruined temple.
So Ji Huan didn’t insist, telling him to just come directly tomorrow.
Zhou dashed out of the shop, his steps light and quick. It was the first time Ji Huan had seen him like this, and she suddenly felt that hiring a child worker wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
’I’ll help them one at a time,’ she thought.
Besides solving his basic needs, she hoped he could also be tempered by the experience in the shop and grow toward the sun.
"You know," she said to Guan Shan, "at first I thought Zhou was just over ten. Ji Mu... my lost younger brother, he’d be that age too..."
That’s why whenever she looked at Zhou, living such a tiring and bitter life, Ji Huan couldn’t help but wonder if Ji Mu, if he were still alive, was also living this kind of life.
If it were possible, she wanted to find Ji Mu. It would be a way to do something for Ji Lianbai’s family.
But Ji Lianbai had searched for so long back then and found nothing. The world was vast; where would she even begin to look?
She could only hope that Ji Mu was still alive and well somewhere in this world, growing up safe and happy in a kind family.
And she also hoped...
Guan Shan listened with his eyes lowered. When she finished, he patted her shoulder. "That day will come."