Chapter 164: The Rose Factory

"After we've gathered, we'll meet you at the tent before dawn to get the roses."

"Remember, don't let the picked petals be stolen by the stragglers around the fields who covet the dried leaf roses." The worker warned them sternly, "If they do, not only will you not get a drop of perfume, but you will be fired from the factory, and you will end up like those stragglers! Do you understand?"

With that, the worker hands Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi two linen pockets for the flowers, a pair of heavy cotton gloves for picking, to prevent the smell of roses from contaminating one's hands, a pair of long tweezers to pick up the fallen buds and a specific wage form.

The worker handed Bai Liu his pay slip and said smugly, "You won't be working for long before you're fired and turned into stragglers, our factory has a high weeding out rate, and those like me who get promoted to processors are one in a hundred flower pickers who can pick six kilos of roses an hour."

"You probably won't even get a sixth of what I have, and this will probably be your last night at the factory, so enjoy the scent of the original dried leaves and roses, you're not missing out - our Flower Field tent is the most expensive hotel room in the world, and many people are waiting for their gold. and many people have to wait for a reservation to stay the night."

"It's just your luck ......" the worker muttered indignantly as he walked back quickly, "Last year the dried leaf roses were not producing well, too many of them withered, and this year it's hard to recruit people who don't have a tendency to severe blight and won't steal roses from the flower fields. It's hard to find ordinary people who don't have a tendency to steal roses from the fields, and with the May Rose Festival coming up again, it's the flowering season when there's a shortage of people before it's your turn to recruit new people like you ......"

"...... think my batch but only recruit 985211 graduate degree or above, published more than three dry leaf rose research direction, sci impact factor of 1.0 or more papers graduate to pick flowers ...... "

Bai Liu, who graduated from a bad university after spending all his time playing games as a student: "......"

Liu Jiayi, a second grade student with disabilities (enrolled): "......"

Although I'm not low on intelligence, what the hell is this you're talking about?

Liu Jiayi held up two gloves about the size of her face and silently looked up at Bai Liu: "Can you pick roses?"

-- From what the worker said, it was clear that picking this dried leaf rose was a skilled job.

"No, I haven't picked any roses." Bai Liu replied dryly, but he quickly tied the sack next to his belt, and smoothed up his white shirt sleeves, tied up his trouser legs, and put on baking-like thick cloth gloves on both hands, instantly transforming from a city white collar man to a country boy, looking ready to go to work at any moment.

He looks at Liu Jiayi with a questioning expression of [why do you look so skilled? Bai Liu took the tweezers and explained naturally, "I used to cut pigweed when I was a kid, and although it's a different crop from roses, I think it's a similar way of harvesting."

Liu Jiayi: "......"

Don't treat roses like pigweed!!!

Bai Liu knelt down on one knee and helped Liu Jiayi pull up his sleeves and tighten his trouser legs, then tucked his gloves underneath and gave Liu Jiayi a barely fitting glove, while doing so he calmly explained to Liu Jiayi: "Don't worry about anything happening for now. "

Liu Jiayi had actually found out, but she hadn't figured out why.

"If the man behind the curtain wanted you to fight Tang Erda, he would have unleashed Tang Erda, a powerful beast that could kill you, to kill you quickly." Liu Jiayi put his hands on Bai Liu's shoulders and lifted his feet for Bai Liu to fix his shoes and socks, but his young face had a deep expression belying his age, "But he deliberately split you and Tang Erda as a protection for you, why?"

"Because he didn't design this game stage so that I could be killed." Bai Liu stood up and clapped his hands as he lowered his eyes in a Buming tone, "but rather to give me the ability to catch weaknesses and kill my opponent."

Liu Jiayi was stunned: "It's like the last game where you got Liu Huai's soul first and then came after me, isn't it? It's quite possible that Tang Erda has been sent to other flower fields this round, and it will take until-"

"-to wait until he thinks I'm capable of killing Tang Erda before we face off." Bai Liu added lightly to Liu Jiayi's words, with a little scattered smile on his face that he seemed to find amusing, "After all, a feeding scene where a simple beast kills a human is nowhere near as good as a colosseum where two beasts that are both finished growing and still mad kill each other."

"Of course, there's another reason why he did it, but I think you've already guessed that." Bai Liu looks over at Liu Jiayi

Liu Jiayi A coldness that could not be controlled ran up her spine as she slowly spoke: "Because the audience also likes to see such a development the most, he can profit from the system if he is related to it, such a small TV direction is the easiest to get charge points and likes, and our various gains from the audience are taken by the system in part ......"

"Even if we die, all our earnings, including our souls, will be taken away by the system ......"

They are all just random animals ...... that the people most behind the scenes have put out there for people to play with and watch for their eye candy .......

"So don't worry about our life and death for now, the people behind the curtain won't let me die easily." Bai Liu pulled the payroll form out of his pocket and sighed as he showed it to Liu Jiayi, "I can't believe it's really a part-time job ......"

The pay scale clearly lists the weight of the roses picked and the corresponding wages.

Reference data: one dried leaf rose (not dried) weighs approximately 2g.

Forty kilograms of dried leaf roses (with branches intact) can be exchanged for a bottle of low grade dried leaf rose gas perfume of 30% to 40% concentration, 35ml.

(Note: A bottle of low grade perfume with a concentration of 30 to 40 per cent will stay on the body for 4 hours)

[System Alert: Player unlocks side quests]

[Side Quest: Player collects 40kg of roses tonight]

[A successful mission will result in the player redeeming the first bottle of Rose Dried Leaf Gas, a low-level perfume that can be used to alleviate being contaminated, taking the first step towards promotion as a processor! Failure of the mission results in being laid off and exiled to the periphery, becoming an exile.]

Bai Liu did some mental maths to calculate 2g per rose, so 40kg of roses would be ......

"...... 20,000 roses ......" Liu Jiayi looked up from her payslip at Bai Liu in disbelief, "You want us to pick 20,000 dried leaf roses before they give us a bottle of low grade perfume that lasts for 4 hours? Are they treating us like animals?"

Bai Liu gave Liu Jiayi a normal glance: "Congratulations, kid, you've learned the true meaning of working early."

"That's what I said to my boss when I was paid every month." Bai Liu paused, "Then I got fired from my supervisor, but I wasn't really interested in doing something that was extremely cost effective per se, and after I had just learned the benefits of not working part-time as a freelancer (meaning earning money in horror games), I didn't think I'd have to start working part-time in horror games too, for less money than I had before ......"

Bai Liu is beginning to lose his way with the naked eye.

Liu Jiayi: "......"

OK, seems to have gotten to his heartbreak ......

However, Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi were able to carry the sacks down to the flower fields with their hands and feet.

The flower fields are densely fenced with lush roses and the rows and rows of rose bushes open up a narrow aisle about a man's width, in which Bai Liu now moves slowly, using tweezers to pick up the roses on either side.

Bai Liu tried to move quickly, but the bottom of the rose field was a rather wet, soft and sticky red mud, which was like stepping into a swamp, and it was difficult to move in the smooth plastic-look boots.

And the weird thing is that almost every rose here in full bloom is exactly the same size, colour and number of petals, as if someone had pinched a rose and then generated all the roses in the entire rose field with a copy and paste.

Bai Liu holds the rose by the roots with a pair of tweezers and lifts it upwards. He looks at the freshly picked dried leaf rose from a distance - a very unique species of rose that Bai Liu has not seen in reality, at least.

The petals are a dark red, almost blackish-purple from the roots, fading to a manly rose towards the edges of the petals and a lighter pink on the outermost side, and unlike the dull green oval leaves of the common rose, the heart-shaped leaves and thorns on the stem of the dried-leaf rose turn yellow at maturity and fade away as soon as they are picked. -This is where the rose gets its name.

At the moment of ripening, all the stems and leaves that have provided nourishment for the dried leaf rose dry up, leaving only the full, fragrant buds behind - just like humans who are addicted to its concentrated fragrance but are not fed all the time.

It is a very aggressive rose, both in its growth and in the perfume it prepares.

Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi walked deep and shallow through the flower fields, and after almost an hour they both stopped in unison and walked towards the edge of the field.

Liu Jiayi wiped the sweat from her forehead, exhaled and handed Bai Liu the sack full of roses she had just picked at her waist, then sat limply on the ground, gulping down a stamina supplement.

It's almost April/May in the game and the nights are not very cool anymore. Staying in a place like a flower field where the plants are overgrown with humidity can be a stifling heat that goes up your neck and down your spine, especially when they are also moving deep and shallow in a swampy flower field picking flowers, which is totally physical work.