Conquering the world from the Kaiser's driver

After getting the confirmation, Letitia happily jumped and spun around in the living room. Lin Shangzhou stood beside her and looked at her with a smile.

In fact, he no longer cared whether Letitia could pay back the two thousand marks she owed him. After all, the compensation from the factory manager filled the gap of two thousand marks.

Of course it's still the best.

In the evening, in order to thank Letitia for her willingness to help him and the female workers, Lin Shangzhou treated her to a good meal.

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Chapter 81 Textile Factory (I)

On the morning of May 7th, after taking Letitia to the restaurant to ask for leave, Lin Shangzhou brought her to the vicinity of the textile factory. The textile factory, like the machinery factory, was on the edge of the city. After walking a little further, they were completely out of the city.

After dinner last night, Lin Shangzhou thought of one thing, that is, whether Letitia could spin yarn? He was relieved after asking Letitia, and Letitia told him that her mother had taught him how to spin yarn.

What he was worried about now was whether Letitia could bear the environment in the textile factory. From the complaint letters written by the female workers, it could be seen that the environment in the textile factory was even worse than that in the machinery factory in the past. More importantly, the female foreman bullied the female workers.

Generally speaking, women bullying women is much more serious than men bullying men, not to mention that the perpetrators are management.

Lin Shangzhou was very worried. He said to Letitia who was standing beside him, "Letitia, I am worried about the environment inside. What should you do if you are bullied by the female foreman?"

Letitia smiled and waved her hands. She didn't care if she would be bullied next. She said to Lin Shangzhou:

"Oh, don't worry. If I get bullied I'll run away on my own."

Lin Shangzhou was a little angry at her indifference, so he reminded her again: "Letitia, you have to know that many things are different from what you think. The environment in the textile factory may be worse than that of the machinery factory in the past. You may even try to escape and be captured by the people inside."

Hearing this, Letitia turned her head and looked at Lin Shangzhou in confusion. She didn't quite believe that this would happen.

"Fritts, you're not just trying to scare me, are you?"

"Why would I scare you? This is something that could happen."

Lin Shangzhou frowned and said that he remembered the miserable situation of female workers in Japanese-owned spinning mills described in the article "Contracted Laborers" written by Mr. Xia Yan, which he studied in high school. Although the situation of female workers in German textile factories was definitely better than the treatment of female workers in Japanese-owned spinning mills in "Contracted Laborers", it was only slightly better.

"hiss…"

Letitia took a deep breath. Lin Shangzhou's words made her feel afraid again. What if she wanted to run away but was caught by the people inside? That would be terrible!

She counted five hundred marks in her heart, and thought of the sympathetic female workers. Then she made up her mind and said with a firm look in her eyes: "Even so, I will still go."

Seeing that she was still determined to enter the textile factory, Lin Shangzhou stopped trying to persuade her. He reminded her again:

"Well, for your safety, I will be guarding outside the textile factory for every day you stay there. If you can't stand the environment inside, remember to escape. I will be waiting for you outside the factory. If they catch you and take you back, you must shout for help and I will save you immediately."

"Ah."

Letitia nodded and then walked towards the textile factory.

Lin Shangzhou looked at Letitia's back, his heart full of worry for her. A few minutes after Letitia left, he rode his bicycle to a place where he could see the textile factory. He saw the guard in front of the textile factory closing the small door, which meant that Letitia had successfully entered.

To be on the safe side, he rode his bike to the office and pulled out Kevin who was processing documents inside. The reason was simple. In order to better protect Letitia, it might not be possible for him to force his way in alone, so he needed to bring another person with him.

Everyone else in the office agreed to do this, so Lin Shangzhou and Kevin waited outside the textile factory every day for the next few days.

On the other side, in the textile factory, Letitia successfully entered the factory and became a textile worker. She followed the female foreman who managed her into the factory. The female foreman arranged her in a remote location and then left.

While working, Letitia looked around the factory. She already knew a little about what Lin Shangzhou had told her. Contracts were not allowed in this factory. When she mentioned signing a contract, the female foreman glared at her fiercely and said that there was no contract and she could work or not.

Letitia was very angry, but she had not yet completed all the tasks assigned to her by Lin Shangzhou, so she endured it and wrote her name on the list.

Just as she was looking around the factory, a female worker next to her noticed her movements, so she tilted her head slightly towards Letitia and called her in a low voice.

"Hey, hey! New here!"

The roar of the machines drowned out her voice, but Letitia didn't hear it and continued to look around the factory.

The environment inside the factory was not very good. When Leticia entered the factory, she felt very stuffy and hot. She was sweating after working for a few minutes.

The female worker next to Letitia wanted to remind her not to be distracted, otherwise the foreman would come over to warn her. The first time she shouted unsuccessfully, the female worker planned to shout again, but this time she saw the fat woman walking towards her out of the corner of her eye. She hurriedly concentrated on the work in front of her and felt sympathy for the newcomer Letitia.

Letitia, who was looking at the other side of the factory, was unaware of the arrival of the female foreman, and then she felt someone kick her butt.

"ah!"

When someone suddenly kicked her in the butt, Letitia screamed softly and turned her head to look. She wanted to ask the other person why he kicked her, but when she saw the woman's vicious eyes, she swallowed her words.

"What are you looking at? Get back to work!"

"well!"

Letitia hurriedly concentrated on her work. When the female foreman saw that she had given in, she kicked her on the butt again, perhaps because she was happy or wanted to warn Letitia again.

After kicking him, he said, "You are new here, so I am warning you once. If I see you slacking off again next time, I will not just kick you twice."

After saying that, the female foreman left. She felt very satisfied to bully such a beautiful young girl. She hummed an ugly little tune and returned to her original resting place, where there were several other female foremen between the ages of 30 and 50.

Sitting back in the chair, one of the middle-aged women with a thin face and shiny brown hair looked straight at Letitia who was secretly rubbing her butt with her hands. After watching for a while, she said to the people around her: "There is something wrong with that girl."

"What's wrong? Isn't she just an ordinary little girl?"

The obese woman who kicked Letitia asked in confusion.

The brown-haired woman looked at the fat woman with disdain and said:

"She is so pretty. A girl as pretty as her shouldn't be here. And don't you think it's strange that she came to work without a change of clothes?"

"You guys also know about the two guys who came here yesterday afternoon. I guess some of the little bitches among the female workers wrote a letter of denunciation and asked the person who asked for leave to go home to take it out. Otherwise, those two guys wouldn't have come here to cause trouble."

"This girl is probably also related to those two guys."

She said it very confidently, even though what she said were all guesses, she herself did not think that what she said were guesses.

The fat woman snorted disdainfully and said, "Come on, come on, you're the only one who thinks too much. She's just an ordinary, good-looking girl who came to the factory to work and earn some money. How can you say she has a relationship with the inspectors? Aren't you just jealous of her beauty?"

Others nodded in agreement.

The brown-haired woman looked at the fat woman angrily, but finally held back her anger.

"You--I won't bother with you. It's a waste of my life to bother with you."

She looked at Letitia again. Although her companions did not believe her, she was thinking about how to punish Letitia.

After being warned, Letitia stopped slacking off and focused on the work at hand. The female worker who wanted to remind her tilted her head and called her softly.

"New here! New here!"

This time, Letitia heard the shout and tilted her head slightly to look at the female worker.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Don't be absent from work again. The foreman is very scary. If you are absent from work again, you will not only be targeted but also have your wages deducted."

The female worker kindly reminded her and then turned her head back.

"Okay, I know."

Letitia nodded slightly and then concentrated on her work.

It was 12 noon and the doorbell rang, indicating that the morning's work was over. Letitia held her waist with both hands and stretched out her body. For her, who had never worked for a long time, this morning was very difficult.

After working for a whole morning, Letitia's stomach had already started to protest, so she turned around and followed the other female workers out of the factory.

One of the things Lin Shangzhou asked her to investigate was the food and accommodation conditions of the female workers.

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Chapter 82 Textile Factory (II)

On the way to the restaurant, Letitia learned from the female worker that there was a two-hour lunch break, from noon to 2 pm. This was actually not bad, giving a two-hour lunch break.

Arriving at the cafeteria, Letitia took the food tray and found a secluded place to sit down and eat.

She chewed the dry and hard bread while looking at the scene in the cafeteria. The food at the dining table was getting less and less, and the kitchen seemed to have no intention of replenishing it. After a while, all the bread there was taken away, and the kitchen still did not replenish it. Several female workers who came late for some unknown reason could only get a bowl of thin soup with no vegetables left.

They did not go to the kitchen but found a place to sit down and drank soup with bitter faces.

(It seems that the food supply is limited. If you come too late, it will be gone.)

Letitia thought to herself that this was totally unacceptable. Every worker must be able to have enough food to eat. Having enough food would help them work better and avoid accidents.

She kept this in mind and waited to tell Lin Shangzhou when she got out. She also remembered the two kicks that the fat woman had given her in the morning. You as a manager can manage people, but you can't hit people casually.

Thinking of her butt being kicked, Letitia was a little angry. She took a big bite of the bread in her hand to vent her anger.

During lunch, several female workers of similar age sat next to her and chatted with her. During the conversation, Letitia learned some things.

These female workers of the same age came from nearby villages and towns. They told Letitia that the hourly wage in the textile factory was 7 pfennigs, and they worked 12 hours a day with no days off. The fact that there were no days off scared Letitia, and she knew she would not be able to bear it if she continued working like this.

From the conversation, she also learned that the female workers around her had been here for more than half a year. Because the work here was too tiring, they planned to quit and go home after a few more months.

They told Letitia that the wages of the female foremen were slightly higher, one mark a day. Their task was to supervise the work of the textile workers, kick those who did not work properly, and teach them a lesson. If there were those who did not change their ways after repeated warnings, the foremen could directly deduct their wages. They were also the ones who paid the workers' weekly wages.

However, they said that they have not received their full wages for a long time. After the last March 3 strike, the boss paid them that week's wages, but since then, the wages have been getting less and less.

They also told Leticia that the fat woman among the female foremen was slightly better and not as bad as the other foremen. The worst one was the brown-haired female worker. She was particularly jealous of pretty girls like Leticia. They told Leticia to be careful in the future because the brown-haired, yellow-faced woman was likely to target her.

Letitia kept their words in mind, and her impression of this textile factory became worse and worse.

After lunch, because the textile factory did not allow female workers to go out at will, most of the female workers chose to return to the dormitory to rest. Letitia followed the female workers who had lunch at noon back to the dormitory.

After entering the dormitory, Letitia smelled an unpleasant smell, mixed with sweat, stink and fishy smell. After she entered the dormitory, the foreman who took her to work in the morning called her to her bedside - a wooden bed that made a creaking sound when she sat on it. The only thing that made her feel a little better was that there were basic quilts and pillows on the bed.

Lying down on the bed, Letitia closed her eyes and prepared to rest, but a few minutes later when she was about to fall asleep, she heard thunderous snoring in her ears. She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the sound, and saw that it was the fat woman who made the sound.

She lay on the bed like a sow, snoring and drooling.

Because of the fat woman's snoring, Letitia didn't take a nap. She had a hard time spending her lunch break in the dormitory. At 1:50, she dragged her tired body to the factory to prepare for work.

The work in the afternoon was as tiring as that in the morning. After a busy afternoon of work, Letitia finally looked forward to the dinner time she had been looking forward to. However, when she was about to leave her workstation and follow the group to the cafeteria, she heard someone calling her.

"Hey, the new guy!"

Letitia turned her head and saw the brown-haired woman walking towards her with a smile on her face. Because of the warning given to her by the female worker at lunch, Letitia was full of vigilance, but she still walked over amicably. After all, she was the foreman and her immediate superior.

When the two approached, the brown-haired woman asked enthusiastically: "Little girl, what's your name? You can just call me auntie."

"Hello, Auntie. My name is Letitia."

"Letitia...it's a good name."

The brown-haired woman reached out and took Letitia's hand, stroking her palm and the back of her hand. As she stroked, she said sympathetically: "Your family must have encountered some kind of change, otherwise why would such a lovely girl like you come to work here?"

Her words reminded Letitia of her breakup with her father, and she nodded sadly.

The brown-haired woman was a little surprised by Letitia's performance, but she quickly concealed her surprise and said sympathetically: "Then you are really pitiful..."

Then the brown-haired woman talked to Letitia for several minutes and said many nice things to her. However, since the other female workers had warned her before, Letitia didn't believe what the woman said. She just smiled and dealt with it.

After leaving the brown-haired woman, Letitia rushed to the cafeteria, but when she arrived, she found that there was no bread and only watery soup.

Letitia had no choice but to fill a bowl of soup and find a secluded place to sit down. As she drank the soup, she figured out why the brown-haired woman wanted to talk to her.

She deliberately held herself back so that she could arrive at the cafeteria late and miss out on eating. Thinking of this, Letitia took a heavy slap on this female foreman in her heart. She couldn't do anything now, but she could tell Lin Shangzhou about it after she got out. She believed that these female foremen would receive the punishment they deserved at that time.

While Letitia was drinking soup, a female worker who had come to see her at noon came over and sat down with a piece of bread in her hand. She handed the bread to Letitia, which surprised Letitia. The female worker's name was Jane. She said that she saw Letitia being harassed by the foreman, so she took an extra loaf of bread.

This made Letitia very grateful to her.

After dinner, Letitia started working from 7 o'clock to 11 o'clock. She usually went to bed no later than 10 o'clock at home, but it was already past o'clock when she got off work. Letitia dragged her sleepy, tired and hungry body back to the dormitory. She didn't have time to wash up and fell asleep soon after lying on the bed.

The next day, at seven o'clock in the morning on May 8, Letitia woke up to the sharp cry of the female foreman.

When she woke up, she couldn't understand one thing: how did the fat woman who slept like a pig get up so early?

Because she didn't take off her clothes last night, she just had to put on her shoes after getting up. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, walked out of the dormitory, went to the faucet outside, and used cold water to wake herself up.

After breakfast, Letitia came to the factory to work. After she got off work at 12 o'clock in the morning, she was called over by the brown-haired woman again. The female foreman said a lot of nonsense to her that sounded nice but was actually completely useless. Letitia knew what this woman was planning, but she couldn't just confront her.

It was several minutes before the female foreman let Letia go. Letia ran quickly to the cafeteria. When she entered the cafeteria, as she expected, there was no bread at the pick-up area.

She sighed, filled a bowl of soup, and sat down at the same seat she had sat yesterday. As soon as she sat down, Jane came over with two pieces of bread. After sitting next to Letitia, Jane gave the bread to Letitia, which touched her heart deeply.

On the other side, the brown-haired female foreman who had just walked into the cafeteria saw this scene. She was very dissatisfied when she saw Jane handing the bread to Letitia. In addition to Letitia, she also hated Jane, a girl with ordinary looks and no grudge against her.

After work in the afternoon, the brown-haired female foreman kept Letitia and Jane together this time, which resulted in both of them not being able to have a full meal. Letitia was very angry. Not only did that person target her, but she also targeted Jane.

Unlike the angry Letitia, Jane was not too angry. She said she just had to endure it for a few days.

At noon on May 9, the female worker still pestered Letitia, but this time Letitia was luckier. The brown-haired woman was called away by another foreman, so she was able to have a full meal.