A young man from another world returned to his hometown.

The expressions of the three people tightened at the same time.

"After deducting costs, 20% will be recovered, and the remaining 20% ​​will be used as a development fund for subsequent construction."

The remaining 60% will be distributed as collective profit sharing among employees, ensuring equal pay for equal work. There is only a difference in job type, not a distinction of personal status.

Everyone in the store exclaimed in surprise.

Lin Jiayao opened the ledger and began distributing wages to everyone.

Everyone's salary has exceeded 10,000.

The store was completely in disbelief.

After calming down, Uncle Fang's daughter-in-law jokingly chimed in with a laugh.

"Brother Yan, are you kidding me? Finding someone with the same salary and benefits right here in your neighborhood is already terrifying."

She was the oldest of the three, and she thought that she was already lucky to earn two or three thousand yuan by working.

Ten thousand.

Ten thousand was a number she never dared to dream of before.

Lin Yan didn't say anything polite, he just looked at her calmly.

"You did it yourselves."

"This money is what you earned."

Lin Jiayao handed the cash to them.

One of the young employees finally couldn't hold back and started wiping his eyes.

Keep up the good work next month.

His tone was no different from usual.

"If anyone else wants to join us, tell Jiaqing. Jiaqing will be in charge of hiring."

Lin Jiaqing nodded and took over the conversation.

"Next, the commercial street will begin large-scale construction. If you have suitable people, you can be directly recommended. The conditions are the same for everyone. It will be open, transparent, and done according to the rules."

Lin Yan took two steps outside, paused in front of the side door, turned around, and added another sentence.

"By the way, this model won't just be limited to milk tea shops in the future."

"From now on, all places involving collective operations should follow this approach."

After Lin Yan left, they looked at their wages and turned them over and over.

Uncle Fang's daughter-in-law was speechless for a moment.

"but……"

The younger employee couldn't help but speak up.

"Sister Qing, is this really... something we should take?"

"Of course."

Lin Jiaqing leaned against the bar, looking at the three of them with a calm tone, as if she had expected their reaction.

"Ayan said that you are not just workers who shake milk tea in the shop. Although Ayan provided the construction funds, you are the ones who built this street from scratch and supported it together."

She paused for a moment and looked at Uncle Fang's daughter-in-law.

"He said that we'll be allocated housing in the future."

In the evening, Uncle Fang's daughter-in-law returned to the old house in the countryside.

The lights in the courtyard were on, and Uncle Fang sat on a low stool smoking a water pipe.

"You're back. Have you eaten?"

"have eaten."

"What's wrong? You look so strange."

She didn't speak immediately, but simply took out her wages from her pocket.

Uncle Fang took it, then froze.

"How much...how much is this?"

"More than ten thousand."

"...What?"

Uncle Fang's hookah fell to the ground.

Ten thousand yuan might not seem like much on a mobile phone, but for a rural person, the tactile sensation of that thick wad of cash in their hand is...

The daughter-in-law lives alone, for a month.

More than ten thousand.

Uncle Fang's daughter-in-law told him exactly what Lin Jiaqing had said.

"What a good kid! He's really talented!"

"His father said he was extraordinary when he was alive."

As Uncle Fang spoke, he shifted his gaze elsewhere, as if he suddenly felt his eyes were burning and it was inconvenient for others to see.

"Do a good job, get things done at the store, and don't cause him any trouble."

For most of her life, she toiled in the fields and worked odd jobs.

She never thought that what she was doing was anything remarkable.

It's just ordinary work, a little tiring, but you can get through it.

But today, something loosened in her chest at that number—a feeling she couldn't quite describe, as if she had put all those years on a scale and weighed them.

She took a deep breath, forcing back the tears welling up in her eyes.

No, I have other things to do.

She's going to call her man.

Her husband's name was Dayong. He was a senior worker on the construction site and could earn 300 yuan a day. However, that was not the actual amount he received, and he could not count every day he worked as a full day's wage.

She made the video call.

A much darker face appeared on the screen, with the iron bunk beds of the construction site dormitory in the background.

"What's wrong? Why are you calling at this hour?"

Fang Dayong's voice was tired and heavy.

She held up her salary.

"I've received my salary for this month."

There was silence on the other end of the video call.

"What...what is this? You didn't do anything wrong, did you?"

"What are you thinking? I live with Dad!"

"But this salary...? Don't you work at a bubble tea shop...?"

His voice stopped.

She said proudly.

"This month's dividend."

Is it true?

"It's true, I've already received the money. It's not a scam, it's not a pyramid scheme, it's a legitimate salary."

"I'll send you the transaction record; you can take a look yourself."

She took a screenshot of the monthly transaction details prepared by Lin Jiayao of the milk tea shop and sent it to him.

"Is there something wrong with this money? There are a lot of scams in the countryside, you don't want to be fooled..."

"No, don't you know how many days I've been working here? That child is Tamura Hayashi's nephew."

"And believe it or not, I'll go to the bank right now and transfer 10,000 yuan there. You can see if it arrives in your account."

There was silence on the other end of the video call.

"Don't waste your money..."

"You'll see when I turn around."

Then she saw that her man's eyes were red.

He is a person who never cries.

He had been injured when he was young, he scraped his leg on a construction site and needed stitches. She was extremely anxious while he was being bandaged, but he sat there without saying a word.

But now, he was sitting on the edge of his bunk bed in the dormitory, his eyes red and swollen, his breathing changed, it was the kind of crying that was forced back without tears.

Fang's daughter-in-law stared at the screen, and suddenly a sour feeling welled up in her nose. She took a deep breath, but couldn't hold it in.

She burst into tears.

It wasn't the kind of loud, wailing crying; it was the kind of crying that had been suppressed for a long time and finally found an outlet.

Fang Dayong on the other end didn't say anything either.

The couple, separated by a screen thousands of kilometers apart, remained silent, each holding a silence that contained far too much for her to express in a single sentence.

A number, solidly and undeniably displayed there.

It wasn't a gift from anyone, nor was it charity from anyone; it was earned through her own hard work.

Her own labor in the countryside.

On this land, they are the laborers known as rural women.

Fang Dayong wiped his eyes, his voice a little hoarse than before.

"Do a good job."

Fang's wife nodded, wiped away her tears, and looked at her husband's tanned face on the screen.

"I know."

"When you come back, we'll stay here and won't need to go out anymore."