Era: Rise from the Wilderness

"Let's go! All you real men, go move the books!"

Fu Chao chimed in with a comment and was the first to stand up.

Under his influence, and driven by a subtle desire to show off in front of the female classmates, almost all the boys in the class stood up and followed Li Yunjing out of the classroom.

Led by about twenty boys, they marched across the playground and arrived at the office building opposite.

Li Yunjing asked everyone to wait quietly at the door, while he went inside and found the teacher in charge of distributing the teaching materials.

After explaining their purpose, the teacher led Li Yunjing into a warehouse that had been converted from an unused classroom next door.

Inside, there was a small mountain of new books, and the air was filled with the rich smell of ink.

The teacher pointed to a pile of books bundled tightly in brown paper against the wall and said, "Students, this pile belongs to your Senior Three Class One. Count them and find someone to move them!"

"Thank you, teacher!"

Li Yunjing thanked him, walked to the pile of books, and roughly estimated that it was quite heavy.

He walked out of the warehouse and said to the boys waiting outside, "Brothers, all our class's books are in there. Let's work together and try to move them all in one trip so we can go back and enjoy the fans!"

After saying that, he set an example by walking to the front, bending down, and with a shout of "Heave-ho!" he lifted a heavy, unopened bag of books onto his shoulder!

The package looked wider than his upper body and was obviously quite heavy, causing Li Yunjing's steps to falter slightly.

Fortunately, in the two months since his rebirth, he has consistently maintained his morning runs and strength training, making his physical fitness far superior to that of ordinary people his age; otherwise, this would have been truly difficult.

Ding Dong, who followed him in, saw Li Yunjing carrying such a large bag of books without changing his expression. His eyes widened instantly, and he blurted out, "Holy crap!"

He was genuinely shocked!

Li Yunjing looked refined and his skin was fairer than those of the kids who often ran wild on the streets. He looked like a typical "pretty boy from a state-owned enterprise." I never expected him to be so strong!

This small detail inadvertently reveals some subtle class differences among teenagers in small towns during this era.

The children in the town can be roughly divided into three types.

One type is children of state-owned enterprise employees like Li Yunjing, whose families are relatively well-off, live in the relatively closed environment of the factory area, attend factory-run schools, have a secure life, and generally appear more "civilized".

The second type consists of children whose parents work in town-owned collective enterprises or industrial and commercial enterprises. Their family backgrounds vary greatly, and they mostly attend the town's central school. Their family backgrounds are quite diverse.

The third type is the children of pure farmers. Their families may not have much cash, but they have land and are self-sufficient. The children often need to help with farm work, so they are generally stronger and more hardworking. They are also more "real combat" in fighting.

In general, farm children are the strongest and most courageous because of their year-round labor.

The children of state-owned enterprise employees lead comfortable lives and are generally less "combat-ready" than the former two groups. Of course, this is not absolute, but just a general impression.

The power that Li Yunjing displayed at this moment clearly shattered the stereotypes that people generally have about "children of state-owned enterprise employees".

Ding Dong's exclamation also attracted the attention of the other boys, and their gazes toward Li Yunjing were filled with surprise and admiration.

This was exactly the effect Li Yunjing wanted. He carried the books without making a sound and took the lead out of the warehouse, thinking to himself: Let's establish our authority by moving these books!

Ding Dong's family was indeed quite poor. He was a typical farmer's son and had helped with farm work since he was a child, which made him very strong.

Fifty or sixty pounds is nothing in his hands.

He truly hadn't expected that Li Yunjing, who seemed like a pampered son of a state-owned enterprise employee, would have such strength, carrying a schoolbag that was no lighter than his own.

"Li Yunjing, I didn't realize you were so energetic!"

Fu Chao, carrying a stack of loose books (only about a dozen), strolled leisurely beside me, chuckling as he spoke with a hint of surprise and teasing.

Li Yunjing glanced at the pitiful few books in Fu Chao's arms and felt speechless.

Goodness, this kid really knows how to slack off. Even a female classmate wouldn't take so little!

"Old Fu, you can't do this!"

He replied, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "When you're in this business, having a lot of underlings isn't enough; you also need to have some physical strength to keep things under control in crucial moments!"

"fine!"

Fu Chao smiled dismissively, a sense of superiority on his face, and said, "I have plenty of underlings; I don't need to do this kind of heavy work myself!"

That wasn't entirely an exaggeration; he did indeed have a group of followers who freeloaded off him.

"Oh? So, what's the oldest among your underlings?"

Li Yunjing casually replied, seemingly out of mere curiosity, "How many of them have already dropped out of school and are now drifting through society?"

Fu Chao was taken aback, not expecting Li Yunjing to be interested in this.

"Those who are really wandering around in society, there are probably forty or fifty of them, and they are all older than us."

He thought about it for a moment, and decided it wasn't something that needed to be kept secret, so he casually replied, "Why are you asking this?"

His subordinates were all delinquent youths who had dropped out of school in previous years.

It can be said that their influence is already considerable.

This is why Fu Chao became a notorious local hoodlum a few years after dropping out of school.

He really has people under his command!

With his father's connections and his parents' financial support, he was naturally able to thrive.

One thing Fu Chao did left a deep impression on Li Yunjing.

He took more than a hundred coins and kept throwing them away as he walked!

They seem to have plenty of money!

He was truly stunned at that time.

People actually play like this?

Another thing is that while others couldn't get cigarettes, Fu Chao was already smoking cigars!

I have no idea where this thing came from!

But Fu Chao could take it out while at school!

In any era, there are always people who behave in ways that exceed the comprehension of ordinary people!

"Haha, it's nothing."

Li Yunjing chuckled, concealing his inner turmoil, "I was just curious about the extent of your 'sphere of influence,' Boss Fu. You truly live up to your reputation, you're quite impressive!"

He was overjoyed!

Forty or fifty unemployed people in society—that's forty or fifty potential, usable ID cards!

In this era where financial regulation is still imperfect and many businesses require real-name registration but have loopholes, these ID cards may be passports to wealth in certain specific operations!

With manpower secured, the most crucial issue now is the lack of "capital" to get started!