Era of Mist

Shi Tiexin was very familiar with the location of the Star Worker Meat Processing Plant; he had once worked there under the table. It wasn’t too far from Xiongan Security Company, so Shi Tiexin ran at a steady pace the whole way and arrived at the meat plant’s entrance five minutes early.

In his uniform, there was no need for an announcement; he was impossible to miss. A middle-aged man in his fifties immediately emerged from the guardhouse at the Meat Processing Plant’s main gate. The man’s complexion was dark, not from his ethnicity, but purely from being weathered by the sun and wind.

"You the one here for the trial shift?" The man had a slick, smarmy look, with the particular brand of bossiness common to cynical old-timers.

Shi Tiexin was all too familiar with this way of looking at people—sidelong glances, as if he’d rather be looking down his nose at you. It was the look of someone who didn’t take you seriously in the slightest. The look of someone who, the moment they saw you, was already calculating how to exploit you, how to burden you with more work so they could slack off.

But Shi Tiexin couldn’t afford to argue with him. ’What right do I have to argue, anyway?’

’I still have to work under him to make a living!’

So Shi Tiexin put on a respectful demeanor. "Yes, I am. You must be Director Wei, correct?"

"Oh, right. That’s me."

Of course, this Old Wei was no director. In reality, he was just a minor foreman for the outsourced teams. But who doesn’t like a bit of flattery? And it was all the more effective coming from someone like Shi Tiexin, whose honest-looking face and serious expression made it sound sincere.

Of course, a cynical old hand like Old Wei wasn’t going to be won over by one "Director Wei." Flattery could only get you so far; what really mattered was the man’s underlying attitude. If he was already full of malice, sweet talk wasn’t worth a damn.

"You’re late. Next time, be at your post twenty minutes early! And you better remember it. No tardiness, no leaving early, no slacking off, and no abandoning your post. Keep your eyes peeled while you’re working, and look sharp when you see any of the plant’s management. Got it?" Old Wei pulled out a small notebook and slapped it into Shi Tiexin’s chest. "These are the employee rules. Read them carefully."

"Understood," Shi Tiexin said, nodding earnestly.

"We run on three eight-hour shifts. The morning shift is 8 AM to 4 PM, the swing shift is 4 PM to midnight, and the night shift is midnight to 8 AM. The shifts rotate, but not in order. After a morning shift, you’ll work a night shift. After a night shift, you’ll work a swing shift. Then it’s back to the morning shift." Old Wei’s tone was severe. "Show up early for shift changes. Don’t you dare make the next guy wait for you, or I’ll dock your pay. Got it?"

"Got it, got it."

"One last thing, kid. Let me be clear. I don’t give a damn about you temps. You do your job quietly, and I can’t be bothered to find fault with you. I don’t get a cut if they dock your pay, so why would I make your life hard? But if you get caught messing up by the plant management, no one’s going to cover for you. In fact, everyone up the chain will come down on you, one after another. So, be smart. You get me?"

Shi Tiexin nodded. "Don’t worry, Director Wei. I understand."

"You understand? Hah. You’d better." Old Wei gave Shi Tiexin a sardonic look. "Your post is the guardhouse at the entrance to Plant Two. Security checks, manning the gate. Shift change is at eight. Let’s see... you’ve got three minutes." With that, Old Wei turned, walked back into the duty office, and slammed the door shut with a BANG.

"Right away, Director Wei. I’m heading over now." Shi Tiexin still called out a respectful goodbye through the closed door.

Old Wei hadn’t said where Plant Two was, and Shi Tiexin hadn’t asked. Having worked here under the table, he was familiar enough with the layout to know the way. From the duty office, Old Wei watched him, as if waiting for a show. But when he saw Shi Tiexin head straight for Plant Two without a single wrong step, he could only let out a cold snort.

As Shi Tiexin jogged away, his back to Old Wei, the respectful expression on his face vanished, replaced by his usual cold, hard look.

’The magnificent Champion Scholar Stone, Big Brother Tie, the Iron Tyrant... and now I’m here, bowing and scraping before some petty old-timer.’ It was humiliating, but a man has to lower his head when he’s under another’s roof. Shi Tiexin saw right through Old Wei’s mindset.

’All in all, this job at the Meat Processing Plant isn’t great. That Old Wei seems like bad news—the kind of asshole who makes trouble for others just for the fun of it, even if there’s nothing in it for him. But it’s not the worst-case scenario, either. I know this place, so I’m not going in completely blind.’

Before long, Shi Tiexin arrived at the entrance to Plant Two.

Shi Tiexin knew exactly what he was in for with Plant Two. It was no paradise. The environment, in particular, was downright inhumane. And sure enough, the moment he stepped through the side entrance, he was hit by an indescribably bizarre odor. It was the smell of the chemical agents used to process the synthetic meat. At first, it had a cloying sweetness, but it quickly turned your stomach, making you want to gag.

The security post was located at the start of a quarantine corridor. After passing the initial security and full-body scan here, workers had to proceed down the corridor for several more layers of inspection. Only after passing through a final "air shower" could they officially enter the plant proper.

A ceaseless draft carried the odor out of the air shower, blowing directly onto the security post. To meet environmental standards, the factory had to be airtight, which meant there was no natural ventilation to the outside. The huge blades of the exhaust fan overhead spun with a constant, loud RUMBLE. The noise, the light, the smell—this was by no means a pleasant place to be.

The guard Shi Tiexin was relieving was another young man. As soon as he saw Shi Tiexin, he offered a few brief instructions and then hurried off, leaving Shi Tiexin alone to familiarize himself with the handheld security scanner.

He glanced around. ’Narrow, cramped, suffocating.’ This had to be the post with the worst conditions in the entire Meat Processing Plant.

But Shi Tiexin wasn’t particularly bothered by the environment, nor did he think Old Wei’s assignment was any big deal.

’In my lifelong struggle, I’ve seen plenty of people more vicious and shameless than Old Wei. And I’ve certainly been in places with worse, more unbearable conditions than this. The dorms for the garbage-sorting crew, for instance, smelled every bit as foul.’

’I’m not that picky, nor am I that fragile. I can take it.’

Shi Tiexin scanned the area and noticed a security camera on the opposite wall, pointed directly at his post. He looked at the dark lens and let out a dry chuckle. "Heh. Working under a camera. Just great."

’Looks like I won’t be able to slack off and practice my rhetoric on the job.’ This fact displeased Shi Tiexin greatly.

’Still, on the bright side,’ he thought, ’coming back to the Meat Processing Plant is a ’glorious homecoming’ of sorts. For all its faults, this security post is a hundred times better than the powder-mixing workshop I was in when I worked here under the table. The conditions there were even worse, and I worked my ass off every day for a measly three points. Now, I’m wearing a proper uniform with impressive epaulets, making seven points a day. It’s practically perfect.’

’And all these changes came about because I seized the top spot at the Orphanage and became the Iron Tyrant.’

’Natural selection. Survival of the fittest.’

Shi Tiexin secretly psyched himself up. ’I have to find a way, any way, to squeeze out more time to get stronger, and then even stronger. Only then, one day, will I be able to grind all these people I have to bow down to into the dust. I’ll make *them* the ones who have to watch my every move and live in fear of my mood!’