When he returned to his home at the back of the Bund Avenue, he smiled and said to his coachman when he got out of the carriage: "I heard that Lao Li, the one in your family gave birth to a boy for you?" ”

Lao Li was slightly surprised when he heard his employer say this to him, his old man was very serious on weekdays, although he didn't talk coldly, but he wouldn't talk to him about these common words, as far as he knew, his old man was more arrogant, and he was not kind to the people below.

However, although he was surprised in his heart, he also grabbed the horse, stabilized the carriage and looked at Song Chaojiang while getting out of the car, he also replied: "Yes, this time God has finally opened his eyes!" ”

Lao Li's name is Lao Li, but in fact he is not old, he is only more than thirty years old this year, just because of his perennial work, he has been a handlebar for more than ten years, so his face looks relatively old, he has been married to a wife for many years, but what makes him a little depressed is that his wife gave him three daughters in a row.

Although he also likes his three daughters very much, he still thinks that this is not possible without a son after all.

And this time his wife was pregnant again for ten months, and then gave birth to a big fat boy for him, which made him smile when he drove the car for the past few days.

Song Chaojiang was in a good mood, so he said: "Well, I'll ask someone to send you a few supplements when I go back, which can be regarded as a gift!" ”

When Lao Li heard this, he immediately said: "How dare you, master, you are too polite!" ”

Song Chaojiang waved his hand, but he didn't say anything anymore, although he was in a good mood and said a few more words to this old Li, and he also asked people to send him something. But for Song Chaojiang, this is just his casual behavior. And he didn't mean to be polite to Lao Li, this courtesy. Lao Li couldn't refuse.

Seeing Song Chaojiang enter, Lao Li couldn't help but show a wry smile, thinking that this old man had changed his temperament, but he didn't expect that he would be cold and arrogant in just a while.

However, he is a worker, although he is calling Song Chaojiang a master, but he is not his slave, as long as Song Chaojiang continues to pay him a good salary, he doesn't mind Song Chaojiang being like this, after all, he can't expect the boss and the employee to become friends.

My family has to rely on my own salary to support my family!

Lao Li immediately led the horse to the backyard. After putting down the carriage, he entered the big house through the small side door next to him, the scale of this western-style building in Song Chaojiang is not small, and there is a small courtyard on the upper and lower floors.

Song Chaojiang's own family is upstairs, in the kitchen separated on the first floor and the servants' rooms, Song Chaojiang's salary is quite rich, he hired a cook, three maids, and Lao Li, a groom and coachman.

Originally, Song Chaojiang wanted to raise a carriage and a coachman, which was quite extravagant. However, his position at work is a bit far away, and he often runs at the company's headquarters and shipyard and even the Baoshan branch. That's why I bought a Western-style two-wheeled carriage.

Song Chaojiang, a high-level executive who can afford to make a big business, lives in a garden building near the Bund and employs three to five servants. The annual income is about 3,000 yuan, which is basically a typical high-income group in the modern era of the empire.

Although it is still a little short of high society. But it's better than some of the average middle class.

After Song Chaojiang entered the house, he couldn't wait to find his wife. Tell her that he has been promoted, though due to confidentiality rules, he can't tell his wife that he will be the general manager of the project for one of the Empire's most cutting-edge new warships.

But his wife also knew that her husband worked in a shipyard and had a lot of contact with warships on weekdays, so she couldn't tell her about many things, so she didn't ask some detailed questions.

Although the details could not be known, Song Chaojiang's wife was still smiling, and then ordered the kitchen to prepare a rich dinner to celebrate.

When the upstairs was full of joy, in the kitchen downstairs, Lao Li had a meal alone, and then after saying to the housekeeper, he left the Song family, and then went to his own home under the dim kerosene lamp on the street.

There was also a bag of things in his hand, which contained several supplements from Song Chaojiang, which Lao Li and others could not afford in the past, and he also brought some leftover snacks from the kitchen to eat.

Although Song Chaojiang is a little arrogant on weekdays, he doesn't look seriously at the servants, but he is still good in terms of treatment, in addition to the fixed salary, Song Chaojiang will often give some benefits to these people who work for him, mainly some food, clothing and the like, such as meals on holidays, some welfare items and the like.

Lao Li, like other servants, eats and lives in the Song family every day, and only goes home during holidays, but because his family lives relatively close, Lao Li will go back to stay for one night when he is usually fine.

When he almost got home, Lao Li pinched the banknotes in his pocket again, stopped when he felt their thickness, and then walked into a butcher shop at the corner of the street after a slight hesitation.

After a while, he just walked out with a small piece of meat!

He works in the Song family, although he can't be considered to eat well, but it's okay to eat a full meal, and occasionally let him eat meat, but if he is in his own family, I'm afraid that his lady is reluctant to buy meat on weekdays.

If you don't buy it, I'm afraid you won't be able to eat meat for a month.

Carrying meat and a bag of things, Lao Li took advantage of the night to return home, and was just about to take out the key to open the door, when there was a burst of cheers inside: "Daddy is back!" ”

Then, the door in this small bungalow was pulled open from the inside, and then a little girl of seven or eight years old threw herself into Lao Li's arms: "Daddy! ”

She was followed by a slightly younger little girl, only four or five years old, but the girl did not pounce like her sister, but saw the things Lao Li was carrying in her hand at a glance, and then cried out in a milky voice: "There is something delicious, there is meat to eat!" ”

Lao Li looked at his two daughters, and the smile on his face became even bigger. After entering the door with these two daughters in his arms, he saw his mother also holding the third daughter in her arms and greeted her: "Why did you come back today." Didn't you just come back yesterday, and you always run out. It's not good for the lord's side to see it! ”

Lao Li put down his things, and then took out a small bag of osmanthus cake from the bag, this is tonight Mrs. Song because her husband was promoted, in a good mood, not only let the downstairs add food, but also specially sent several packs of various snacks to the servants downstairs, this snack is the famous Li pastry shop on Qingxiang Road, this family's dim sum is delicious, but it is expensive. On weekdays, it is exclusively for major restaurants or wealthy families, and ordinary people will only buy some when they give gifts or celebrate the New Year.

Although Mrs. Song gave several packs of snacks to the servants downstairs, there are four or five people downstairs, and this point is actually a bag per person, although Mrs. Song is young, but she is a young lady from a big family, this treats the servants with her own set, and this reward is also a bag of dim sum per person, no more, no less.

These snacks are naturally nothing to the Song family. It's just a few snacks, but the words to the servant can win a lot of favor from the servant, and this will naturally work harder.

watched the two children each eat the osmanthus cake, and Lao Li walked to his mother's side. Then he took over his third daughter, who was only a little over a year old and is now asleep!

With his daughter in his arms, he walked into the room, where his wife was lying on the bed. Now, a few days after giving birth, she is still a little weak. Seeing Lao Li coming in, he smiled: "I'm back!" ”

Lao Li snorted!

However, two steps forward. saw the youngest son who was sleeping sweetly next to his wife, and then said: "Just come back and see, I have to go back later, the master will go out early tomorrow morning!" ”

As a coachman, Lao Li's work is actually not very hard, basically he goes out with Song Chaojiang every day, and after sending Song Chaojiang to work, he can basically only wait for Song Chaojiang to get off work, or go out halfway, most of the time, he is chatting with other coachmen.

However, although it is not too hard, there is one thing that is not very good, that is, it must be on call 24 hours a day, no matter when Song Chaojiang goes out, he has to follow, sometimes Song Chaojiang does not go out, but if his wife wants to go out, he also has to drive a carriage to pick him up.

So most of the time, he will still sleep in Song's house, but when he is free, he will go home to take a look, and leave after he finishes it.

Seeing that his youngest son was sleeping sweetly, Lao Li first put his third daughter on the bed, and then took out a small stack of banknotes in his pocket, which were full of banknotes.

Among the banknotes issued by the Central Bank of the Empire, although there is a yuan, a pentagon, a dime, cents and cents, but in daily use, those five-jiao and one-yuan banknotes are still rarely used, because the value is too great, and many poor families in rural areas cannot accumulate a few yuan in a year.

In addition to all kinds of technical personnel and management personnel, the weekly salary of ordinary middle and lower-class workers is only one or two yuan, and some are even less.

This has created a situation where very few one-dollar banknotes are used, and a large number of one- or two-dime notes are used, and then one- or two-cent notes.

Those one-dollar banknotes are generally used for large commercial transactions.

"Here's this week's wages!" Lao Li's salary this week was handed over to his wife, and this small stack of dimes of banknotes added up to three rounds, six five-corner banknotes.

Lao Li's Zhou Xin is moderate for a large group of migrant workers living in Shanghai.

In Shanghai these years, ordinary female workers in ordinary silk reeling factories have less than one yuan per week, and some manual laborers, such as workers on the docks, are not high, and their weekly wages are about more than one yuan. In this era, it is very cruel for ordinary laborers who have no skills, they are often at the bottom of society, and it is difficult to support their families.

However, some technicians and literate people earn much better, and the most ordinary low-level technician in those factories can often earn more than three or four yuan a week.

Although Lao Li is just a coachman, it doesn't sound good, but in fact he is also a person with skills, this driving carriage is not anyone, young people want to learn it is difficult to find any way, this year's carriage driver, than the later generations of the division level is generally scarce.

In addition, in addition to being a coachman, Lao Li also worked part-time as a groom and gardener in the Song family, and he also had to help with other things on weekdays.

It can be said that he wears many hats, and this salary is naturally higher than that of ordinary employees, and his weekly new is three yuan, which is equivalent to almost twelve yuan a month.

It's just that this salary is still very reluctant to support his family, his mother, wife and four children, just eating is not a small amount, so on weekdays, his mother is specially taking these children, and his wife is helping embroidery, sewing and mending in the ready-to-wear shop, although the income is not much, but it can also be slightly subsidized.

It's just that now his wife still has to do confinement, this sewing is naturally to stop temporarily, and there is another mouth in the family, if it weren't for the little money accumulated in the past two years, I'm afraid it would be difficult to endure these months.

However, although he was able to spend the past few months with his savings, Lao Li knew that he was far away from his goal of buying a house.

When Lao Li came to Shanghai with his family, although he took refuge in his fellow villagers and successfully found a job in the Song family and settled down, he couldn't afford to buy a house in Shanghai, even if it was the cheapest house, and now he can only rent a small bungalow.

After coming to Shanghai for three years, Lao Li dreamed of buying a house to avoid the family living on the streets in the future.

But the reality ruthlessly shattered his dream, and after three years, he still hasn't been able to save even enough money to buy a toilet.

Although Shanghai is said to be the most developed in the modern empire, the most commercially firepower, and the city with the most opportunities, it is not a city that is friendly to everyone.

Those who are talented and dare to work hard can easily find their own path to success here, but for some ordinary people, although it seems that they get more salary than in their rural hometown, they are actually still struggling to make ends meet.

In the 19th century, the main effect of the famous Industrial Revolution was not to improve people's living standards, but to make a country stronger.

Whether a country is strong or not is not directly related to the living standards of its people.

In the 19th century, London had a strong financial and industrial system, as well as a large number of slum kilns.

The same is true of Shanghai, with its glossy Bund Boulevard, the smoky North Shore industrial area, and many neighborhoods where low-income people live together.

This is a very deformed society that has developed!

The empire can build a huge 10,000-ton ironclad ship, but there are still countless people in the country who do not have enough to eat, and it is much more difficult to solve the problem of food and clothing than to build a world's largest fleet. (To be continued.) )