Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 483 - 355: Role Reversal

It must be admitted, Teng Wenli, this neighbor is truly thoughtful. In just a few days, he found such an opportunity for Qu Jianlei.

As for the deposit... it’s not much, just a thousand silver coins.

Converted into standard units, that’s half a square meter of a house in the downtown area.

But for an ordinary family, this deposit is indeed quite hefty.

Not comparing with others, just comparing with Qu Jianlei himself, this temporary librarian has a monthly salary of four hundred silver coins!

He would have to neither eat nor drink for two and a half months to earn the deposit money.

The librarian’s job is relatively easy, so the income is relatively low, which is understandable, and even lower for temporary workers.

Sofia and her sister, as tour guides, make only fifty coins a day, even with providing their own vehicle.

The two beauties are sisters, and working a full month still only earns them fifteen hundred coins. Evidently, making money is tough.

But the sisters did make an exception for Qu Jianlei this time.

This was a job from a luxury hotel suite, and the client was a handsome guy, so they offered a relatively low price.

Even if nothing happens, the wealthy guy would surely tip generously. In fact, the sisters received gifts worth a few hundred silver coins.

Teng Wenli thought the same, believing that someone who could rent a house for two thousand silver coins a month wouldn’t be short on cash.

On a side note, a temporary librarian would have to neither eat nor drink for five months to afford the monthly rent of this villa...

In short, Qu Jianlei is very grateful, and Teng Wenli feels his effort hasn’t been in vain, naturally feeling very pleased.

The dinner that night was enjoyed by both host and guest alike.

The next morning at the crack of dawn, Teng Wenli took Qu Jianlei to the Old Town Library and completed the employment procedures before noon.

After getting his identity token, he was supposed to start work the next day, but Qu Jianlei didn’t rush home. Instead, he stayed at the District Library to familiarize himself with the environment.

Although it’s just a district library, the Old City District covers an area of over a hundred square kilometers with a population of over a million.

The library isn’t small either, occupying about twenty thousand square meters, consisting of one main building, two annexes, three buildings in total, plus a dormitory, with nice landscaping.

As for high security clearance... that’s just talk. There are plenty of monitors and alarms, but many are in disrepair.

The next morning, Qu Jianlei formally reported for duty. The person responsible for him was a middle-aged man named Dave.

Dave is very robust, but not very talkative, leading Qu Jianlei to suspect that this guy might have an issue with him.

Perceiving the other person’s emotions, he indeed didn’t sense any negativity, which put him at ease.

By the time all the precautions were explained, it was about time to get off work in the afternoon.

Dave told him to be on time tomorrow to take over the work and finally muttered, "I wonder how long you can hold on."

Only then did Qu Jianlei understand that this fellow was a bit worried he wouldn’t be able to endure the poverty.

However, the earnings are indeed not much. The library does provide lunch, but the taste is truly indescribable.

On the next day, just as daylight broke, Qu Jianlei drove to the library to start his day’s work.

The work of a librarian is actually quite easy, sweeping the floors, dusting the tables and chairs, categorizing the books, organizing borrowing records.

If it weren’t for the surveillance at the entrance, Qu Jianlei would have directly used his Wind Attribute Technique to clean up.

But the preparation didn’t take much time either, and after he finished everything, there was still an hour until the library opened.

He then picked up the library’s reference materials and started reading them slowly.

Since he was new here, he didn’t plan to shirk work immediately; anyway, getting familiar with the collection in the library was never wrong.

Unknowingly, it was opening time, but there really weren’t many visitors.

Throughout the entire morning, only about ten people came, three borrowed books, and the rest chose to read in the library.

Among them were two young couples, displaying great affection, making one wonder if they were there to read or to romance.

But Qu Jianlei didn’t concern himself with these matters, as long as they didn’t cause trouble or make too much noise.

Dave came once around noon and found Qu Jianlei looking through the references, nodding with satisfaction.

Then he went to a nearby cabinet, pulled out a cup, casually poured himself a cup of tea from the kettle.

Despite his burly appearance, he was actually quite discerning, and after a few sips, he raised his eyebrows.

"This tea... is delicious!"

Qu Jianlei, eyes on the reference materials in his hand, casually replied, "It’s just a hobby of mine."

Dave nodded, "No wonder you don’t care about the salary; this money isn’t even enough for your tea. What made you think of coming here?"

"Avoiding the hustle and bustle," Qu Jianlei replied without raising his head, "I don’t have much going on for now, and I am not hard up for money."

By noon, when everyone had left the library, he didn’t go for lunch but instead took stock of the books.

The library reopened late in the afternoon, and after organizing the books, he began planning how he would get through the collection here.

The day flew by in an instant; it’s undeniable that the reason librarian salaries are low is because there’s really not much to do.

The next day... also flew by in an instant.

On the third day, Qu Jianlei finally began his book-crunching mission.

As for his duties, he could do them while being distracted. Reaching A-level, multi-threaded thinking was second nature.

Reading like this was really enjoyable. Eventually, he found it too slow to swap books back and forth and might as well just bring a stack to the table at once.

The next day at noon, because he didn’t eat lunch, he simply didn’t close the library door, just sat there reading a book.

As he read, he felt the light dimming and turned his head to look outside the door: Is it going to rain?

Unexpectedly, what he saw was a tall woman with a distinguished demeanor, looking around thirty years old.

The woman had a rare slim tall physique for the Imperial, with big eyes looking at him curiously, "Not closed?"

"Closed," Qu Jianlei replied deeply, "Got so engrossed in reading, forgot to close the door."

The woman blinked twice and continued to ask, "Then aren’t you having lunch?"

I’ve already given up on having lunch here! Qu Jianlei was taken aback and instead asked, "What are you here for?"

"I’m here to check some materials," the woman took out a borrowing certificate, "Can I enter?"

"No," Qu Jianlei shook his head without hesitation, "The library isn’t open at this time."

He then lowered his head and continued reading.

Actually, he could find an excuse, like saying the borrowing system can’t log in, to avoid offending people.

But he was too lazy to find excuses—rules are rules, if everyone makes special cases, what’s the point of rules?

The woman’s voice came again, "Do you know who I am?"

"Nope," Qu Jianlei replied without looking up, "Do you know who I am?"

The woman seemed a bit displeased, "I’m a professor from Green Water Academy, here to check some materials, I’m in a hurry."

Qu Jianlei still didn’t look up, "I’m a librarian, just temporary... I don’t have the authority for exceptions!"

The woman raised her voice a bit, "Then could you please take a look at the permissions on my borrowing certificate?"

Upon hearing this, Qu Jianlei finally raised his head and then reached out his hand, "Bring it here."

The woman didn’t hand the borrowing certificate to him, but rather placed it on the desk.

Qu Jianlei stared at it for a while, picked up the borrowing certificate and scanned it, then put it back on the certificate holder, "Go ahead and check."

This borrowing certificate had very high permissions, only second to the Director and Deputy Director, half a level higher than the librarian.

The librarian could read many books, but couldn’t borrow some levels of books, whereas this certificate could.

However, the woman wasn’t in a hurry to leave, quickly speaking, "Where can I find the data on the mechanical transmission alloy formula from a hundred years ago?"

Qu Jianlei lowered his head again, "Third room on the fourth floor, second shelf of the sixth bookcase, seventh and ninth bookcases also have some."

Upon hearing this, the woman froze, "You don’t need to check the catalog?"

Qu Jianlei paused his book flipping hand, somewhat helplessly countered, "Aren’t you in a hurry?"

Frankly, his personality really wasn’t suited for the service industry.

"Strange person," the woman muttered softly, quickly heading into the building.

Listening to her walk upstairs, Qu Jianlei then raised his head, looking at the open door: Should I close it now?

But on second thought, though there were people working in the building, they had gone to lunch, and then would rest.

If he closed the door now, then only a man and a woman would be left in the entire building, which seemed not quite right.

So he decided to continue reading.

The woman left at the end of the workday, not forgetting to say "Thank you" before she left.

But for Qu Jianlei, it was just a small episode, he nodded slightly to show he acknowledged it.

The next two days flew by swiftly, on the third day, light rain started to fall.

At noon, Qu Jianlei was still reading at the entrance because he liked the fresh air and didn’t close the door.

As he was absorbed in his book, he felt something was off, so he raised his head and suspiciously looked outside.

Immediately following that, a piercing alarm sound rang out, coming from "Rare Books Tower."

Rare Books Tower was one of two annex buildings, previously a place storing rare books—considered rare for Star No. 2.

Later, all rare books were moved to the City Library, but the name was retained, storing copies of rare books.

"Not my business," Qu Jianlei reacted, and then continued to lower his head and read.

He was never one to stir up trouble, now with a monthly salary of only four hundred, and having to pay a thousand as a deposit—would be crazy to get involved.

Soon after, someone shouted out, "Kid, you’re asking for trouble, daring to steal here!"

Judging by the voice and the Energy Fluctuation, it seemed to be an A-level.

But this wasn’t too surprising, the library’s security, though far inferior to its confidentiality level, having an A-level on duty was normal.

Qu Jianlei found it somewhat amusing, before it was him raiding the Attribute Research Institute, now someone else was stealing from the library.

Only the roles of offense and defense had switched.

However, to him, earning money equated to putting out effort, he just reached out his hand to activate the main building defense.

His authority was only enough to activate intermediate defense, and that was with his librarian privilege premise.

It truly wasn’t him being lethargic; his position was just this high.

Then shortly afterward, there was a dull sound, the ground shook twice.

(Updating to, summoning monthly tickets, subscriptions, and recommendation tickets.)