shadow empire

"Where's Johnny?"

A familiar yet disgusting voice came from his ears. The apprentice rolled his eyes and looked up at Lance. "You can't call the boss by his name. You can call him Boss, or Boss!"

"And you didn't come back during the evening rush hour, the boss is very angry, he wants to deduct a large sum of money from you!"

When saying these words, the apprentice had a gloating smile on his face.

In fact, his own life was already miserable. He had studied here for more than half a year, but had learned nothing except kneading dough.

The fat boss is a very careful person. When it comes to protecting his own recipe, the apprentice has no idea what to put in the flour, how much to put in, and in what order!

In the past six months or so, he has only learned how to knead the dough vigorously, make the dough, and put the dough into the oven.

As for the rest, he had mastered nothing.

But he just has an inexplicable sense of superiority, especially when facing Lance.

Of course, he can also find some psychological comfort from Lance, which is why he often does this.

However, ever since his mother came last time, this sense of superiority seemed to be fading, or perhaps his "showing off" had been seen through, and he no longer had anything to be proud of.

But it had become a habit, and his inexplicable hostility towards Lance made him do this subconsciously, including now.

Lance didn't take the apprentice's words to heart at all, and even remembered to give him a "knife".

"You can't treat him as your father just because he slept with your mother. If I were your father, I would feel sad."

"At least in terms of frequency, he is not qualified!"

The apprentice was stunned for a moment. He swore that he had never heard such dirty, vicious and heartbreaking words in his life.

Lance walked right past him and added, "You'd better mop the floor before he shows up, or your mother will suffer again."

It took several seconds for the apprentice to react. He turned around and looked at Lance, shouting his name.

Lance paused for a moment, turned sideways, and looked back, "If I were you, I would shut up and lick the floor clean right now instead of being incompetent and furious."

When it comes to being vicious, Lance is definitely the best. After all, he has experienced much more than this apprentice who only knows how to mock.

He shook his head and continued to walk towards the inner room. The apprentice just stood there. His cheeks, which had originally turned red due to anger, suddenly turned pale inexplicably.

In fact, things are worse than imagined.

He worked as an apprentice here for nearly half a year, but not only did he not learn how to make a good cake, but he also made the already poor family even worse off. A considerable portion of the family's monthly income was sent to the bakery.

The last time the apprentice's mother came here, she provided the fat boss with a blowjob because she hoped to avoid paying the monthly tuition.

But the fat boss is such a man, there is no way he would agree.

So they exchanged ideas and changed the conditions. She would come over and provide the fat boss with oral sex at least four times a month, and at least once a week, and the apprentice would not have to continue paying tuition.

From a certain perspective, the fat boss actually made money from this business. After all, even the cheapest stripper at the port would charge five dollars to do this.

Four times a month would equal twenty yuan, but something that could be done by hand suddenly changed its style, and he lost ten yuan in income every month, which made him a little unhappy.

After all, compared to ten dollars, he would rather choose money than blowjob or handjob.

But if he refused, this free labour might leave, so he finally chose to compromise.

The apprentice learned these things from the quarrel between him and his mother after he returned home.

Their families can no longer afford to invest more money every month in a skill that they will never be able to learn.

The more this situation came, the more he couldn't leave. He couldn't let his hard work over the past six months, the money he had already spent, and his mother's various sacrifices become sunk costs!

He had to learn something here to prove that these efforts were meaningful and valuable.

He cannot think like an adult and know how to give up something. Even adults may not be able to do this. The only thing he can do is to realize his wish of coming here - to learn how to make delicious bread.

Only in this way can he calmly face those unfair efforts...

Ignoring the apprentice's daze, Lance knocked on the fat boss' door, and soon he opened the door wearing a sweatshirt with holes in it.

When he saw it was Lance, his expression suddenly became slightly distorted, a little too much, "Damn maggot, you missed our busiest time tonight, I will deduct three dollars from you today."

"You already owe me fifteen dollars at the beginning of this month. From today on, I will charge you interest..."

Lance didn't give him time to talk nonsense and told him directly, "I quit."

"What did you just say?"

"You're quitting?"

"Ha ha!"

The fat boss couldn't help laughing. "Besides a tolerant and kind person like me, who else would accept the job request of an illegal immigrant?"

"If you knew what's going on outside, you would understand that the whole city is boycotting you thieves and criminals from the Empire!"

"No one else will be willing to give you a decent job except me!"

Lance could see that he was actually a little nervous.

"I've only worked for about a week this month. Adding my income from last month, you only need to pay me twenty dollars."

The fat boss raised his voice, "Are you kidding?"

He paused, then lowered his voice, "I know you're angry, Lance, but these things are indeed your problems..."

"How about this, the money you owe me won't change, and I'll give you five dollars, which is your salary for last month. This amount is enough for you to save some face in front of your friends. Don't make things difficult for us, okay?"

Lance shook his head and turned to walk outside, saying as he walked, "You really make me feel sick, Johnny."

"I hope you can still maintain this state when we meet next time."

Seeing him leaving, the fat boss chased after him two steps. He didn't want free labour like Lance to leave.

It was too difficult to find another free labourer who was able to work, willing to work hard and obedient!

He had to hire more people, which meant that if he couldn't find the next free labourer, he would have to spend at least 20 or 30 yuan more every month.

Originally these twenty or thirty yuan belonged to him, but now he had to give them to someone else. He was so heartbroken that he almost couldn't breathe.

The apprentice was mopping the floor in the front hall. He heard the conversation between the two. Just as he was about to say something, he was scolded by the fat boss, "You are not a telephone pole. Why are you standing in the middle of me blocking what I want to do?"

"Get out of the way, and if you don't mop the floor before you go to bed, get out of my bakery tomorrow!"

After he finished speaking, he ran after the apprentice, but he only saw Lance get into the car and start it.

It wasn't until this moment that he realized that he might really lose Lance.

He didn't even know how to retain this free labour. At least Lance had a car to drive, while he could only ride a bicycle.

He stood on the sidewalk and shouted, "I'm going to call the police for stealing my money."

Lance just looked at him calmly through the car window. Meeting Lance's calm gaze, Johnny shuddered for some reason and eventually never dared to mention it again.

Watching the car going farther and farther away, the fat boss cursed Lance for bad luck, and at the same time he began to have a headache about where to find free labour tomorrow.

He returned to the restaurant in a very bad mood. Looking at the apprentice standing there in a daze, he couldn't help but vent his emotions with some vicious words.

He just kept talking about the apprentice's IQ and his mother. After scolding for a long time and finally letting out a sigh of relief, he returned to the inner room with some dissatisfaction.

It seems that we will be recruiting again tomorrow.

These damn, ungrateful bugs.

He didn't notice that the apprentice's eyes were red as he stared at his back, and he didn't even notice that his nails were digging into his palms.

Lance found a hotel near the pier, which cost one dollar a night and provided free but limited-time hot water.

There was a dull smell of decay in the house, as is common with wooden houses near the sea if proper maintenance is not in place.

The bed was a soft one, and Lance was not used to it. What was even worse was that starting from the second half of the night, there were all kinds of moaning sounds everywhere, from front to back, left to right, up and down.

He shouted loudly without any reservation, as if he was competing.

After finally shouting for a few minutes, it stopped, but started again after a while.

It can be heard that even late at night, there are still some people who are riding hard with heavy loads on the thorny road of life.