Chapter 8

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While Yang Jie was talking to Liu Min, Xiao Wu had already disappeared on his own. After Liu Min left the house, Yang Jie hurriedly got up, put on his clothes, and walked out of the bedroom. He felt so hungry that he had no strength left. Without even going to the bathroom to wash up, he ran straight to the kitchen, took out the food Wang Yue'e had left for him, and started eating in large bites.

After finishing a large bowl of food, Yang Jie still felt his stomach was empty. Looking at the empty pressure cooker, he felt depressed and washed the bowls and chopsticks. Only then did he go to the bathroom to wash up.

"Brother Jie, you only ate that little bit. The bioenergy converted isn't even enough for Xiao Wu. How can I have the strength to help you?" Xiao Wu suddenly appeared in Yang Jie's eyes, holding his stomach, looking pitiful, which almost made Yang Jie, who had just come out of the bathroom, vomit blood.

"Turns out all the food I ate was for you? No wonder I still feel so hungry. It turns out it was all your doing!" Yang Jie thought about the large bowl of rice he had just eaten. Normally, even during university military training, after running five kilometers, he wouldn't eat that much.

"I'm hungry too! Besides, Xiao Wu is a variable material type intelligent optical brain. The system needs energy to run. Now that I'm parasitizing on you and have become your little manager, the energy required naturally has to be extracted from you. So, can you eat a hundred bowls of that kind of food?" Xiao Wu, looking aggrieved, placed her hands on her chest, gently tapping her index fingers together, and asked Yang Jie in a small voice.

"A hundred bowls!? Do you think I'm a pig? Even a pig can't eat that much in one meal!" Yang Jie blurted out when he heard Xiao Wu's suggestion.

Damn! Whether Yang Jie could eat a hundred bowls or not, even if he could, at this rate of consumption, even if he had mountains of gold and silver, it wouldn't be enough to fill the gap! Besides, Yang Jie didn't have mountains of gold and silver!

"Brother Jie, if I don't eat enough, the system can't function properly. Xiao Wu won't be able to help you with various tasks. Moreover, the bioenergy converted from a hundred bowls of food is just one-thousandth of what the system needs to run normally. It's just enough to start the system..." As Xiao Wu spoke, she saw Yang Jie's face getting worse and worse, and she immediately stopped, looking like she had done something wrong, and cautiously watched Yang Jie.

"Bro, I have hands and feet, and my IQ isn't low. I can take care of my life and work. Can we negotiate and not need you?" Yang Jie, with wide eyes, looked at Xiao Wu and suggested.

Hearing this, Xiao Wu's face changed. Her previous aggrieved look turned into anger, and she looked furious. Pointing at Yang Jie, she shouted, "Sorry! The system is already bound and cannot be changed. You just have to accept it!"

Damn! This is robbery! Without Yang Jie's permission, Xiao Wu had privately bound the system and made it irreversible. Thinking about having to eat a hundred bowls of food at each meal in the future, Yang Jie couldn't help but shudder. Is this even a life?

"But..." Xiao Wu's angry face softened, and she looked at the somewhat depressed Yang Jie, speaking seriously, "When you don't need the system's help, you can turn it off through your thoughts or voice. That way, the system won't draw bioenergy from your body."

Yang Jie was overjoyed. He could turn off the system! Why didn't she say that earlier? He was worried he would become a food bucket in the future.

Looking at Xiao Wu standing in front of him, Yang Jie silently thought about turning off the system. Xiao Wu, who had been floating in his eyes, immediately disappeared. Without Xiao Wu, Yang Jie felt refreshed and his spirits lifted.

Feeling his still hungry stomach, Yang Jie took out his wallet from his pocket, saw he still had over three hundred yuan, and then picked up the keys and walked out of Liu Daxing's house.

The Fuxin Tungsten Mine is under the Jiangnan Province Nonferrous Metals Corporation, a state-owned tungsten mining unit at the county level. The mine is located in Fuxin Town, Wuhu County, and has over twenty thousand employees and their families, making it the largest state-owned enterprise in Wuhu County.

The mine manager and party secretary are both at the county level, equal in rank to the county party secretary and county magistrate. They are not under the jurisdiction of the local government in terms of administration and business, so the mine is relatively independent in Wuhu County. Moreover, the social status of workers was high before the 1990s, and the wages of mine employees were higher than those of government workers, making the streets of Fuxin Tungsten Mine very prosperous, with a thriving scene in various industries.

The economic prosperity of Fuxin Tungsten Mine was driven by the needs of over twenty thousand people for clothing, food, housing, and transportation. The streets in the urban area of the mine were lined with various shops, offering a wide range of goods. Almost every industry could be found on these streets, so people from nearby towns liked to come to Fuxin Tungsten Mine for their needs.

To some extent, even the town where the county seat of Wuhu County is located is not as prosperous and thriving as Fuxin Town. Yang Jie, who grew up in the mine, had a deep understanding of this.

Yang Jie came out of the new employee family building in the first work area, walked through a small alley to the Fuxin Tungsten Mine Construction Road, and wanted to find a restaurant to eat again. However, as soon as he reached Construction Road, he saw a large crowd surrounding several foreigners with blonde hair and blue eyes, as well as several officials who looked like leaders, slowly walking towards him. Several police officers in uniform were scattered around the perimeter, maintaining order.

The wide cement road was lined with onlookers. In a place like Fuxin Town, foreigners were not common, especially for people from nearby towns, who were like Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden, pointing and whispering about the foreigners.

Yang Jie, a graduate of Yanjing University, had lived in the capital for four years and had seen many foreigners. He was not at all afraid or curious about these blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreigners and didn't feel inferior. Ignoring the police officers who were staring at him, he walked straight to the boxed meal restaurant.

"Yang Jie!"

A powerful voice called out from the crowd, stopping Yang Jie, who was about to leave.

Yang Jie turned his head and saw that Zhou Dalong, the Party Secretary of Wuhu County, was standing next to the foreigners, waving at him, signaling him to come over.

Zhou Dalong was Yang Jie's father Yang Xinhua's old superior. When Yang Xinhua was promoted to platoon leader, Zhou Dalong was the company commander. When Yang Xinhua was the company commander, Zhou Dalong was the battalion commander. Later, at the Laoshan front, Zhou Dalong was Yang Xinhua's direct superior. They had a friendship of over ten years.

After that battle, Yang Xinhua was injured and transferred to civilian work. During the massive military downsizing, Zhou Dalong also transferred to civilian work. A few years later, Zhou Dalong, who had been a county magistrate in another county, was transferred to Wuhu County as the Party Secretary.

After Zhou Dalong came to work in Wuhu County, Yang Jie would visit Zhou Dalong's house with Yang Xinhua every year. The two families had a very close relationship. Before Yang Jie graduated, Yang Xinhua had already mentioned Yang Jie's job to this old superior, which was why Yang Jie, after graduating from university and being assigned to work in the county, was not worried at all, even though it had been almost a week and his job had not been finalized.

The police officers responsible for security outside the crowd did not dare to stop the person called by Secretary Zhou. They watched curiously as the young man quickly walked to the front of Secretary Zhou and the other leaders.

"Hello, Secretary! Good afternoon, all leaders!"

Yang Jie, standing at 1.78 meters tall, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and dark blue trousers, with a well-proportioned and slender build, a small flat head, and a handsome and intelligent appearance, stood in front of Zhou Dalong, neither humble nor arrogant, and respectfully greeted the leaders.

Zhou Dalong looked at Yang Jie with approval and introduced him to the two men and one woman beside him, smiling, "This is Yang Jie, who graduated from Yanjing University this year and was assigned to work in our city. I specially went to the city to ask the leaders to assign him to our county. His father is the war hero Yang Xinhua, who has been awarded two first-class merits and three second-class merits. County Magistrate Zhang and Secretary Lei should have heard of him."

"Yang Xinhua is a war hero of Wuhu County. We not only know him but also see him often. He is the factory manager of Wuhu Liquor Factory, a collective enterprise on the verge of bankruptcy. Under his leadership, the factory not only revived but also improved its performance year by year, becoming one of the largest taxpayers in our county. He is a rare talent in management! Now seeing Xiao Yang, I realize that the saying 'a hero's son is a hero' is true!" Lei Shuping, the deputy secretary in charge of economic and industrial work in Wuhu County and a member of Zhou Dalong's faction, knew about the relationship between Zhou Dalong and Yang Xinhua. Therefore, when Zhou Dalong mentioned Yang Xinhua, he immediately praised him.

Zhang Daxian had also met Yang Xinhua. Although he and Zhou Dalong had a strained relationship in the county, he greatly admired Yang Xinhua. As a former war hero and current business talent, Yang Xinhua had turned a nearly bankrupt liquor factory into a thriving business, generating hundreds of thousands of yuan in taxes each year. It was impossible for Zhang Daxian, the county magistrate, not to like him.