Chapter 181

Under Ye Zhi’s management, even though he was an outsider and not good at conversation, he was never bullied.

His boss even provided him with a small house to live in, not far from the farmers’ market. Although it was somewhat old and sparsely furnished, Ye Zhi was still very content.

All high-tech products were left in the central city, including communication devices and the light screen given to him by Huo Youqiao. Except for the money he withdrew from his account, Ye Zhi had practically nothing to his name.

But having a stable job made him very satisfied, even if the work was tiring.

He had to wake up at three-thirty in the morning and arrive at the farmers’ market half an hour later. Even though it was still early, many people had already gathered at the entrance, either carrying goods on shoulder poles or pulling carts to sell their items. As soon as it was time, they would start weighing and tallying up the accounts.

There were several other employees responsible for weighing the goods, while Ye Zhi’s task was to record all the types of food, their weights, and their prices. This process used to be done by hand, but after his boss found out he was proficient with computers, he provided Ye Zhi with a new computer. So now, Ye Zhi used the computer for data entry.

Although he was already recording at a fast pace, the workload was still heavy due to the large number of goods. He suggested grouping similar items together, which saved some time.

However, just completing the registration took him a full three hours.

And it took nearly another hour to organize everything again. So it was already past eight o’clock when Ye Zhi finally had breakfast.

After breakfast, he was busy with outgoing registration. Since it was the end of the month, he also had to settle the payments for the previous month with the farmers and mountain dwellers.

The accounts from the previous month were done by the previous finance clerk and were somewhat messy, with even some conflicting entries, which troubled Ye Zhi. Sometimes he had to refer back to the original invoices for verification, which further slowed down the process.

Fortunately, the people waiting in line were patient and didn’t cause any trouble. They understood that it might take some time and even brought snacks to eat while waiting. Some even took off their shoes and sat on the ground to wait. Ye Zhi felt embarrassed by their patience and tried his best to speed up.

By nightfall, there were only about twenty people left in line.

As he finished settling the accounts with the person in front, it was already past closing time. The person responsible for counting the money nearby was getting impatient and said, “Why don’t we finish this tomorrow?”

His voice was not soft, and everyone heard him. Some of them started to get anxious. “We’ve been waiting for a long time, and it’s almost done. How can we wait until tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’m so hungry I can’t stand it. I didn’t even dare to go eat.”

The impatient person became even more annoyed and said impatiently, “Are you the only ones hungry? Aren’t we hungry too? You’re just sitting here resting. Have you seen us idle for a moment? Look at Mr. Ye, he hasn’t even had a drink of water and has been working hard all this time. Don’t you know how to be considerate?”

The crowd fell silent for a moment. One person spoke up, “But some of us have traveled a long way. It took me three hours to get here. Can’t we…”

Ye Zhi looked up and said gently, “It’s okay. I’ll settle everyone’s payments before I leave. Don’t worry.” He turned to his colleague nearby. “If you’re hungry, you can go ahead and eat. There aren’t many people left in line, and I can manage it alone.”

The colleague felt embarrassed and immediately said, “No, no, we’ll do it together. It’s also my job.”

Ye Zhi smiled. “Thank you.” He looked at the person in front of him and said, “Please tell me your name.”

The person had been staring at him intently since he walked up, as if trying to recognize him. Ye Zhi had grown accustomed to being scrutinized since he arrived here, and although he wasn’t used to it at first, he had gotten used to it. He patiently said, “Hello, please tell me your name so I can settle your payment for last month.”

The person finally snapped out of it, looking a bit embarrassed, and hurriedly said, “Hui, my name is Hui.” In this place, many people still followed the old custom of using only their given names, without surnames.

There were several people named “Hui,” so Ye Zhi confirmed which one the person was before recalculating the payment. While he was doing the calculation, Hui kept staring at him, making Ye Zhi feel a bit uncomfortable. Just when he was about to say something, Hui spoke up, sounding nervous, “I, I think I’ve seen you before.”

He was visibly nervous, and Ye Zhi also felt anxious as he looked up at him.

In that moment, he was afraid that something terrible had happened to Huo Youqiao back in the central city.