When Xiao Mei went mining again the next day, he came out of the mining pit holding a piece of ore.
This ore was finally identified to be a b-grade blackfield raw stone.
“Oho, so there are still some remaining ore stones in that mine cave. I thought there was nothing left~” Said Rhode the manager while he was identifying the ore stones.
Hearing him, all miners could not help but look in the direction of their chief miner. That chief miner, however, continued to look ahead, as if unaffected by the sight of others.
At last, Rhode gave Xiao Mei 50 credits in total.
Today’s harvest was not so good for everyone in general, and Xiao Mei’s income from this stone was actually able to rank fifth.
They were the first pair who had a harvest on their second day of entering the mine.
Of course, this was something that Xiao Mei and Rong Gui couldn’t have known.
Then the next day, after they took the elevator down into the mine cave again, that chief miner suddenly called out to Xiao Mei before the latter was about to leave.
“From today, you’ll work there.” Pointing to a certain mine cave in another direction, he only said this one sentence without any other explanation. He left as soon as he finished his words.
And then, Xiao Mei also left.
The new mine cave was obviously much smaller and narrower. It was just opened up, and there weren’t many traces of excavation on the cave walls. Noticing such, Rong Gui’s eyes lit up.
This was a good mine cave! Since it hadn’t been excavated, it meant that the ores here had not yet been dug out!
Having stayed close with the knowledgeable Xiao Mei in these few days, Rong Gui more or less learned a smattering of things about excavation.
Well, that was, however, all he was able to learn.
Xiao Mei also looked around as soon as he entered into the mine cave. Yet, unlike Rong Gui, who could only find out that the cave had not been excavated before, Xiao Mei had already been able to identify several locations with a great likelihood to produce blackfield raw stone.
He was not in a hurry even after finding the ore stones. As usual, Xiao Mei first took off the back basket and placed it upside down on the ground. Then he pressed…no, placed Rong Gui’s head on top of it.
“The table, the table!” Finding himself to be laid bare on the basket again, Rong Gui reminded Xiao Mei hurriedly.
Xiao Mei, who looked as if he had just remembered that something was missing, slowly took out a white table from the backpack at the front which was used to hold Rong Gui’s head.
This was the raw stone they picked back home the other day, which was discarded by others. After two days of carving, Xiao Mei finally polished it into a small white table according to Rong Gui’s request. There was also a concave area on the table which Rong Gui’s head could perfectly fit into.
“The mushroom!” Lying on the table with satisfaction, Rong Gui then reminded Xiao Mei again.
Thus, Xiao Mei took an earth bean out of the backpack, and buried it into another dimple on the table surface. He poured some dirt into the dimple, and sprayed two drops of water. Soon, the somewhat wilted little mushroom slowly perked up, and after another short while, it lit up.
Very well, the light bulb is in place – unable to move, Rong Gui caressed the little mushroom next to his head fondly with his eyes.
And then, he called out to Xiao Mei once more:
“The radio~”
This time, Xiao Mei’s hand paused for a moment. It was only after Rong Gui called out to him one more time did he slowly take out that radio in a very reluctant manner from the backpack – fully charged.
Turning on the radio, Xiao Mei put it in the other indented area on the table to the left of Rong Gui’s head. In this way, all three reserved slots on the table were occupied.
With the mushroom on his right, and the radio on his left, Rong Gui in the middle was extremely satisfied.
“Keep up the good work, Xiao Mei! Pay attention to your safety, always wear your miner’s uniform properly, and don’t take off the mask. Even though we are not afraid of air pollution, it will be very hard to do the clean-up if too much dirt gets into the body~”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
As always, Rong Gui was boosting Xiao Mei’s morale before the latter set off to work. Eventually:
“P’ii kjla tfgf obg sbe ab mbwf yjmx. Ktf gjvlb klii jikjsr yf bc. Gbc’a kbggs lo atf gjvlb gecr bea bo qbkfg – P klii xffq rlculcu obg sbe~~”
Ktlr-lr-gfjiis-eccfmfrrjgs.
Vqfjxlcu ab tlwrfio lcafgcjiis kbgv ys kbgv, Wljb Zfl olfgmfis aegcfv jgbecv, jcv atfc kjixfv gfrbieafis abkjgvr atf ibmjalbc tf tjv lvfcalolfv yfobgftjcv.
And the music was already booming behind him. The channel happened to play an unusually upbeat tune at the moment. As the first cheering song for starting to work, it was really –
More than appropriate (Rong Gui ^_^) / Too noisy (Xiao Mei =-=)
Rong Gui loved this kind of lively music the most, so he enjoyed it very much.
The drum beats were heavy and rhythmic. If he still had his legs, he would definitely shake his legs to the rhythm. It was most suitable to play this kind of tunes during one’s regular labor. If Xiao Mei was pounding stones with this kind of music played to his ears, he would perhaps feel less bored in his work?
You see, even the little mushroom on the table was shaking to the beat of the music (←actually, vibrating because of the huge music sounds).
Rong Gui thought with satisfaction.
Rong Gui had originally thought with satisfaction.
However, the next song was a particularly lyrical one, and Rong Gui was immediately discontented: It’s easy to get sleepy by listening to this kind of song at this moment~
Fortunately, a song wouldn’t last long, and it usually would only take three minutes, so Rong Gui decided to put up with it.
The three long and drowsy minutes had finally passed, and Rong Gui was subsequently bumped into…
A very melancholy song.
So melancholy that it would bring down everyone’s tears.
No way, he must do something!
Thus, Rong Gui raised his voice to sing a particularly cheerful song in order to drawn out the song in the radio.
Admittedly, only Rong Gui could do this. At this moment, it was as if the radio served as one strong and wholesome part in a choir consisting of many singers with loud and clear voices, whereas Rong Gui was the only singer belonging to a different part standing in the choir. If he wanted to sing his part well, he needed to resist the strong influence of the singers surrounding him.
It was difficult, but Rong Gui managed to do it.
Yet, after singing a full song like this, he almost felt like he was going schizophrenic.
And then, the radio played the next song, an even sadder one…
Rong Gui was almost about to flip the table! (ノ°Д°）ノ︵
But he couldn’t because he didn’t have hands, arghhhh!
So he could just stare at this radio helplessly without doing anything?
Or continue to sing another song, with the risk of becoming a real schizophrenic?
As if standing at the fork of his life journey, Rong Gui gazed at the radio before him with a solemn expression.
Then –
“Eh?” He suddenly found an inconspicuous line of small words written in the corner of the radio, with a line of numbers following after.
“Free Music On-Demand Service Hotline: 09284…” Rong Gui read out the content of those small words. Once finished, the light bulb inside his head went on again.
“So this is an on-demand music station!” Rong Gui suddenly realized.
He was very familiar to this!
When he was little, the thing he listened to the most was the on-demand music radio! He had no money to buy CDs, so he could only listen to the music radio~ He would listen to whatever songs others had requested. At that time, his biggest wish was to spend a large sum of money on the music station when he became rich, so that he could ask the station to play whatever music he loved to listen. In this way, all the songs played in the entire day would be the ones he liked to hear!
However, when he was in junior high school, the station was gone – likely to have gone bankrupt.
=-=、
At that time, Rong Gui felt so sorry for the closing down of the music station. He had never thought that today, in this place, he found another on-demand music station, and it’s for free!
Wait –
For free?
Rong Gui’s spirits were lifted at once. He suddenly remembered that Xiao Mei once told him there was a telephone function inside their bodies. Although there were regional restrictions, they could indeed have phone calls.
At that time, he treated Xiao Mei’s words rather lightly.
But today’s Rong Gui was no longer the Rong Gui in the past.
He was really in need of that telephone function right now!
Rong Gui could no longer hear the melancholy melody. Very attentively, he checked inside his body to look for his body’s user manual. When he at last found the telephone function, Rong Gui instantly let out a cheer, and then –
He started to make phone calls excitedly.
Who could have thought that the first phone call he made in this alien world was a phone call requesting songs from a radio station~
It’s, so, romantic~
Rong Gui thought merrily.
However, all the time at the other end of the phone, no one was answering.
Rong Gui dialed the number for three times consecutively, yet still no one answered. As the songs in the radio became more and more melancholy, Rong Gui also became more and more discontented. As a result, when the phone was finally picked up –
“Complaint! I’ll file a complaint! Why did it take so long for you to answer the call!!!”
The music hotline immediately became a complaint hotline.
=-=
“Ah…sorry, sorry, I just fell asleep, hehehehe~” At the other end of the phone was a young man with a rather nice voice. As someone who had a soft spot for nice voices, most of Rong Gui’s anger subsided the moment he heard the man’s voice.
But he still needed to speak what ought to be spoken.
“You must have been working while listening to the songs which yourself played on the radio, correct?” Rong Gui asked the man.
“Yes, yes!” The man answered affirmatively in haste.
“That’s why: The music you played was too soothing, and melancholy as well. Even someone as high-spirited as myself would feel sleepy listening to it, let alone others!” With a real example supporting his case, Rong Gui said seriously.
“This music station was specially designed to serve the miners going down the mines, right? It’s apparently very problematic for you to play such music. If you get sleepy, you will only take a nap in your booth at most. But what about miners? They already have a hard enough job to deal with, and it’s monotonous as well. How are they doing while working underground? Do you know what it’s like underground?”
“It’s dark and silent here, and a lot of miners just work on their own, alone in a mine cave. The only sounds around them come through this radio, and the only sounds they can hear are the songs brought to them by this music station. You didn’t play any cheerful tunes to invigorate them – fine, but you actually played soothing songs all the time – soothing, alright, but the songs you are playing now will almost cause a depression!”
Blah, blah, blah, with his righteous indignation, Rong Gui spilled out all his protests.
Perhaps because he was in a dark and silent mine cave at the moment, his words actually sounded very moving.
Since Rong Gui was using the telephone function right now, he didn’t realize that his own voice was coming out from the radio next to his head, together with the voice of the radio station staff member.
In other words, their conversation was heard by all people who were currently using the radio.
Many of the miners who were listening to the radio stopped working and stood still to listen.
“Ah…sorry, your words make a lot of sense. Since no one has ever requested any songs, I just played them randomly, so there must always be a few songs which…which are…rather soothing…” The young radio station DJ hurriedly apologized.
“I don’t mean that you can’t play soothing songs, but you have to pay attention to the moment and timing. For example, that one (miner) in our family* has just begun his work today for no more than an hour, so his spirit is in its prime right now. Yet, once you play a soothing song, his just boosted morale might drop instantly, and he’ll become slow at work. It’s possible that he’ll get drowsy in just a short while.”
*我们家的那位 (that one in our family): an informal way for a wife to address her husband in front of other people ^_^ Rong Gui spoke too fast so he missed the word “矿工 (miner)” at the end.
“And I was referring to a strong-willed man. What about those with rather weak willpower? They might even not be able to work after hearing those songs! If miners are frequently leaving and quitting their works, I reckon 80% are caused by your music station!” Said Rong Gui, casually putting a huge blame on the other party.
“This can’t be? Is our small radio station that important?” The young DJ was dumbfounded by the huge blame thrown upon him.
“Of course it’s important! Even the manager of a mining pit can only manage the miners in his own pit, but your radio station can play music to miners in all mining pits. Your work is too important!” After blaming, Rong Gui didn’t forget to give flattery.
“This…what should I do? I am suddenly so touched!” After being whipped by a stick, the young DJ was given a carrot. Holding this carrot, he was greatly moved: “No one has ever called, and our boss also said that the radio station might close down soon. Perhaps next week I will leave this post and become a miner. You are the first one to call since I took this job. Even my superiors don’t consider it important, but you are telling me that it’s very important. What to do…what to do…my tears are going to fall…”
“What are you crying for?! Why not play a few hype songs quickly? Other miners and I are waiting to listen!” Rong Gui said in a rather righteous manner.
“Heh, here we go – how would you like to be addressed?” At the other end of the phone, someone could be heard blowing his nose.
Thinking prudently for two seconds, Rong Gui said: “Please call me ‘a miner’s family member’. The words I’ve spoken today must be the words that all miners’ family members want to say. It’s just that they don’t have eyesight as good as I do, so they didn’t see the free hotline number on the radio.”
“Haha, is that so? Mr. …Miner’s Family Member.”
“Of course! Actually that’s not your fault. The music hotline on the radio was written in a font way too small, and inconspicuous as well. If I were you, I would talk on the radio to everyone from time to time, and read out the hotline number once in a while.”
“Oh, oh! I will do this right away. Speaking of which…Mr. Miner’s Family Member, is the radio in your household…by your side?”
“Hmm, of course. That one (miner) in our family was worried that I would become bored, so he left me the radio considerately. I will sing to him myself once I’ve learned the songs – I sing better than the radio!”
“Haha! You guys are so sweet together! I really look forward to hearing you sing!” The young man, who was just crying, was now laughing. As expected, music lovers are all emotional people – Rong Gui marveled to himself.
“Well, there’s no rush to this. Quick, play some fast songs. I like fast songs!”
“Okay! Here it comes: Next, we will play a very joyful tune at the request of the Miner’s Family Member -” The voice of the young DJ vibrated though layers and layers of air and reached the ears of all listeners. Immediately after, the vigorous intro of a song burst into everyone’s eardrums!
Rong Gui got off the phone. Listening to the robust music on the radio next to him, and casting a glance in Xiao Mei’s direction, he could finally put his mind at ease.
From that day on, the tunes played on the radio every day were all very happy.
The DJ from the music station would chat with miners every day. From time to time, miners also began to request for songs to be played on the radio.
There were too many people requesting for songs, and Rong Gui now couldn’t get his own call through. But he was not angry this time – he was quite satisfied with the songs now played by the station anyway.
“The Miner’s Family Member” – a term that could refer to either a certain group of people, or a certain individual, had often appeared on the radio ever since. Almost everyone coming to request for songs loved to use this name to address him/herself.
Perhaps because this was the name which changed everything?
And also a name which could bring the most comfort to the miners.
A Gui is such a good influence!! ;w;
THanks for the chapter!!
Seems Rong Gui has made himself very useful. Amazing, he’s just a head and still has the power of changing things.🤣
Are you still translating this? It’s been a while. Hope you’re well!