Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-Fifth Period of Great Change

People talk about it all day long after the workers at the Scrooge Factory have mastered the phenomenon of weightlessness and driven the Scrooge out of the factory.Workers in other factories also went to the astronauts, and when they came back, they also arranged for weightlessness in their own factories.The workers in some factories were so brave that they even took power without mastering weightlessness and drove out the boss. The police were so frightened by what had happened that they dared not oppose the workers any longer.Many policemen threw away their guns, buried their police uniforms and helmets in the ground, and went to work in factories in the clothes of ordinary little men.It's a lot more enjoyable, they say, than flying around in zero gravity, getting burned and maimed.

Workers were earning far more at their jobs because they no longer had to hand over a portion of their earnings to the rich, and goods were much cheaper.As a result, everyone eats well and buys more.As the demand for goods increased, all factories began to increase their production, and for this more workers were required.The unemployed will soon be gone, and anyone who will work will find a job.No one wants to be a slave to the rich anymore.The maids, the cleaners, the laundrymen, the janitors, the floor-sweepers, and above all the cooks, all left the homes of the rich.Both male and female chefs would rather work in a canteen or restaurant these days, where they are the masters themselves.There are more and more canteens and restaurants, because many people these days don't want to make their own poor meals at home.Everyone has enough money to eat in restaurants or to buy meals from cafeterias to take home.

The poor miser, who lost all his funds before his factory was taken, is now at a loss as to what to do.At the beginning, he went to eat at the house of acquaintances, but later he saw that the acquaintances did not welcome him very much.In the end he had to go to work in his old macaroni factory.No one was against him in this respect.We all know he loves the macaroni business and expect him to be serious about his work. Scrooge worked a few days as a handyman on a dough mixer, and then he was put to work on a macaroni rolling machine.The miser's job here is to watch the rolling mill that presses the pasta, and adjust the dryness and thickness of the pasta.If the dough was too runny, which was immediately reflected in the thickness of the macaroni, he signaled to the kneaders to add flour, and if the dough was too dry, he signaled to add water.When the macaroni is the length it should be, the miser presses a button, and the electric knife cuts the macaroni.Then, it is sent into a steamer, steamed with moist hot steam, and then transported into a dryer by a conveyor belt.Scrooge, who had been working on the rolling mill for about a week, had the idea of ​​putting a little wheel on the rolling mill with a little bump on it.While the small wheel was spinning, the electric knife was activated by pressing the button with the small bump from time to time.Thanks to this measure of rationalization, the miser does not have to press a button every time when the macaroni has reached the necessary length, and he can already manage not one but two rolling mills at the same time.He said he wouldn't stop there, but that the machine would automatically adjust the thickness of the macaroni dough, adding as much flour and water as needed.Now, when the miser has to do the work himself, he clearly understands how important it is to lighten the labor intensity of the worker.Anyway, he liked working, and there were always little ones around, with whom he could talk, joke, and discuss things.

Now, after a day at work, he often buys a large loaf of bread and puts it under his arm to go for a walk in the zoo.He is very fond of watching animals, especially waterfowl.When he saw the ducks swimming in the pond, he laughed with joy and cried, "Look, ducks! Ducks!" He broke the bread into pieces and threw it by the pond.The ducks immediately swam up to peck at the food he served.The ducks gradually got used to it and got to know the miser. When they saw his black top hat from a distance, they hurried to swim to the pond.This moved the miser quite a bit. After feeding half a loaf of bread to the ducks, he would always say:

"Now you go, dear, go swimming, I'll bring you something to eat tomorrow." Then he came to the small zoo.Here he fed the bears what was left of his bread, and if there were not many people around, he begged the animal caretaker to let him in to pet the animals.The watchman sometimes promised him.At this time, the miser climbed over the fence, petted each little animal one by one, and kissed the cute little bear before leaving, and walked home happily. In his free days he often went out of town with his new friends: to the woods or to the river.There he breathes fresh air, listens to birds, and looks at flowers.Gradually, he memorized many flower names. For him, it was not just blue flowers, red flowers or yellow flowers, but forget-me-nots, chamomiles, water lilies, lilies of the valley, bellflowers, marigolds, February flowers. Orchids, dandelions, cornflowers or pansies.Ever since Miser could call flowers by their names, they seemed to have grown closer to him, and he was very happy when he saw them.

"What a wonderful world!" he said. "How beautiful nature is! I have never seen all this before: neither the flowers, nor the grass, nor the birds, nor the pretty river with its beautiful banks. I don't have time. All I think about is how to save more money. I don't have time for anything else. If I lie, I'll be shot! But now I know that the real value is not money , but the beautiful surroundings that can neither be put in a pocket, nor eaten, nor locked in a box!" Many rich people lost their factories and thus lost their income, and they had to participate in labor.They finally realize that it's even better, that they don't have to spend all day and night trying to figure out money, sleep badly, eat badly, and just think about deceiving people.

However, there are also rich people who have lost their factories but still hold funds.The workers believed that the money rightfully belonged to the people because the rich had accumulated it by cheating and forcing others to work for them.So the workers issued orders to take the ill-gotten gains into public ownership and use them to build theaters, museums, galleries, stadiums, swimming pools, hospitals, and yachts. These wealthy people had to hand over their funds to the public.But some of them played tricks and hid part of the money for themselves.The world-famous factory owner, the giant octopus, belongs to this category of people.No one knows exactly how much money he has.So, he only handed over half of the money and kept half for himself.He was counting on it.With money, he can live a life of getting nothing for nothing as before.

But it is simply impossible to live a life of free reaping and be honest at the same time.Every dwarf needs help from others, that is to say, he himself has something to do for others.The big octopus thought that he would do nothing for others, but let others work for him.He first needed someone to cook for him, but since the servants had all left him, he ate in the mess hall.At first he was let to eat, but one day the head chef came up and said, "Listen, big octopus, we're working for you, cooking all kinds of meals for you, but you don't do anything for us. Do it, don't work all day, just know how to eat."

"But I spend money on food," retorted the big octopus. "If you don't work, where do you get the money? Maybe you haven't handed over all the money you robbed the people?" Of course the big octopus would not admit that he had hidden part of the money, so he said, "No, I paid it all. I only have a few Fieldings left, and I've eaten them all. I'm going to work soon." After that, instead of going to the cafeteria, he went to the store and bought eggs, potatoes, and various other things to take home.Half of the eggs were broken by him on the road. He wanted to use the remaining half of the eggs to make fried eggs, but he accidentally fried the eggs.So he boiled the potatoes in a bowl, and the potatoes were boiled again, until they were boiled like paste for wallpapering, which was inedible.In short, no matter what he does, he always does it badly, and he doesn't know what to do, and he can't do it.When cooking, he either undercooked or overcooked; when frying, he either undercooked or overcooked, either raw or burnt.He used to get stomach aches from eating this stuff all the time, and it made him mad like a mad dog.

His house is like a pig's nest, because no one cleans it now, and the big octopus doesn't bother to clean it with a broom and mop.Besides, he doesn't like washing dishes and dishes.After breakfast, lunch, or dinner, he put the dirty dishes on a corner of the floor and took the clean ones from the cupboard the next day.Because he has a lot of tableware, every corner is full of dirty bowls, saucers, glasses, spoons, forks, knives, plates, soup plates, spice jars, teapots, coffee pots, milk jugs, etc. Cold dishes, cold water jugs and an assortment of old tins and bottles of different shapes and sizes.On the table, on the window sill, and even on the chairs, there are greasy saucepans, iron pans, steamers, lunch boxes, milk pans, salt shakers, frying pans, and there are spoiled meals in them.Lemon peels, orange peels, banana peels, egg peels, walnut shells, scraps of paper, empty paper bags, dry bread heads covered with green hair, apple cores, chicken bones, fish heads and tails were piled all over the floor.It should be said that not only these fish heads and tails can be seen thrown on the floor, but even whole fish bones can be seen, even on chairs, tables, cupboards, window sills, bookshelves, and even sofas and armchairs. You can also see it on the backrest.

These messy leftovers give off an unpleasant smell and attract swarms of flies.Mr. Big Octopus stayed in this dirty environment, thinking that the new system would not last long, and everything would gradually return to its original state. At that time, he would have servants to clean up his house again.However, time passed, but no change happened, and Mr. Big Octopus still continued to look forward to something, without even noticing that he was almost staying in Qi Ergen's dirty thing. As the saying goes: Misfortunes never come singly.Not long after, Big Octopus's reserve of coal ran out, but the stove needed something to burn, so he started burning furniture.On the floor, in addition to the old heaps of various filth, there was now a heap of fabric torn from sofas and armchairs, springs, felts, smashed ottomans, glass cabinets and chairs etc.All in all, it looked as if a bomb had gone off in the house or a fight had been fought. However, the big octopus didn't seem to see these destructive actions he carried out at all.From time to time he sneaked out of the house to replenish his food reserves.But it was not easy, because he was a famous person: after all, he had been a billionaire in the past, the chairman of the Big Madness, the owner of many sugar factories and the famous giant octopus factory.Not so long ago, his picture was in the newspapers almost every day, so people knew him well.As soon as he entered a store, salesmen and women laughed at him and made all kinds of jokes with him; Work and make yourself an honest little man. "Look, Mr. Octopus," they said to him, "change your mind, my dear, and we won't sell you food if you keep eating like this." Usually the big octopus would be so angry that he would answer in silence, or else he would say that he was not a big octopus at all, but some other dwarf, which made the salesmen open new orders to him. joke.This situation annoyed the Octopus all the more, and since the ridicule, instead of stopping, was getting worse every day, he decided to go out into the streets as little as possible, and to slip out of the house only in cases of extreme necessity. One evening, while the giant octopus was staying at home, someone knocked at the door.The big octopus went down the stairs, opened the door, and in the light of the street lamp saw a short man with a dark, wide-cheeked face, a small black beard trimmed neatly on his upper lip, and a small man on his chin. With the same small black pointed beard, a pair of small black eyes frightened and turning around. The big octopus felt that this face was completely unfamiliar, but when someone called him the big liar, the big octopus began to remember where he had heard his name. The big octopus let the big liar into the house and said, "I seem to know your name. Can't you remind me where we met?" "Meet? No," replied the great liar, looking around in amazement at the mountains of rubbish, broken furniture, and fish bones. "I'm just helping you a little bit when you want to deal with the big plant companies." "Oh, yes!" said the big octopus loudly. "I remember, however, that you took a good deal of money from me for this service. Three million Fieldings, if I remember correctly." "Not three million," said the great liar indifferently. "It's two million. But I haven't lost a penny of the millions Fielding, because the miser bastard hit me on the head with his cane, and the two bastards, Blink and Crab, knocked me out." The man left in the woods and ran away with all his money. Since then, I have been wandering around looking for that beast, Little Blink, and now I come to see you to find out where you can find that beast, Little Crab." "Unfortunately, I can't satisfy your curiosity, because the little crab has already run away from me, and has stolen from me about a million Fielding's money," replied the big octopus. "In that case, won't you let me have supper, because if I don't fill my stomach, I might commit a crime: I haven't eaten anything since morning," explained the great liar. "I can only treat you to an egg," muttered the big octopus dryly. The big octopus came to the kitchen with the guests, split a pair of chairs to light the fire, and then broke an egg.But instead of cracking the egg into the frying pan, he spilled it on his pants.The big liar saw that if this went on he would not be able to eat his supper, so he took the eggs from the big octopus and made them himself.He picked a larger frying pan, spread out a large pot of eggs with twenty eggs, and sat down with the big octopus to eat.The big octopus praised vigorously while eating, because he hadn't eaten such a well-done egg spread for a long time. Considering that the big liar might be useful to him, the big octopus suggested that he stay here because he could go shopping and help cook.The Big Liar agreed, and since then, Big Octopus's life has gotten a little more organized.Buying things from the store is all arranged by the big swindler, and three meals a day are cooked by two people together, but the big octopus does some rough work, that is, chopping the furniture as "firewood", lighting the stove, peeling potatoes, onions, Carrots and noodles; the big liar is in charge of cooking. In addition to cooking, the big liar also shows care about cleaning. "My dear, we have a lot of dirt accumulated in this room," he said to the big octopus one day. "But it ain't worth cleaning it up. Let's just move to another room, and when we've got that dirty, we'll move to a third, and then a fourth, until we've got the whole building down, Let's talk about it then." It was cold at night, and they were too lazy to have another fire, and the big liar figured out a way to sleep in a box instead of a bed.Get into the box with a duvet, cover the box lid, and use the exhaled air to warm the air, so that you don't feel cold when you sleep. During that time, for Mr. Big Liar and Mr. Big Octopus, the most pleasant thing was to sit in front of the TV in the dark and curse the new system after finishing the day's work.At that time, it was often shown on TV how the workers managed the factory independently, without the gentlemen.It is particularly interesting that many production processes are now carried out in zero gravity.Mr. Big Octopus and Mr. Big Liar can't help but calculate how much money they can earn if it is not the workers but the rich who get the weightlessness.Such a calculation simply pissed them off.What made them even more angry was the discussion about large plants.It is true that this plant grows not day by day, but hour by hour.Today, large ripening cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, beets, watermelons, and cantaloupe are shown on television every day, and these large plants are planted on land taken from the rich.The big octopus and the big trickster are uncomfortable at the sight of the long ears of earth wheat that are filling the grains. "Look at it! Look at it, where does this thing that kills us grow!" The big octopus said, spitting and staring, waving its fist at the TV screen. "It's all over!" said the great liar, waving his hands sadly. "There is now no hope of restoring the old regime!" At one point, the announcer announced that the show would be relayed from the space city built by the astronauts in a short while.Big Octopus and Big Liar couldn't sit still, they couldn't wait to see their enemies as soon as possible.Later, the jack-of-all-trades appeared on the screen.He introduced the astronaut friends who flew to the moon with him to the TV audience, and showed them several comfortable small houses that the astronauts built for themselves.Viewers also saw the interior of one of the buildings.Various scientific instruments were then displayed.Fuchsia tells the story of the academic work performed by astronauts on the Moon.The small tin tube showed the moonman a few landscape paintings on the earth that he drew here, explaining the difference between life on the big earth and life on the moon.Afterwards, performed by the harpsichord, he played several pieces on the flute, in order to introduce to the lunar people the music popular among the dwarfs of the earth. After music was played during the break, TV viewers saw the experimental vegetable garden with ripening vegetables, notably the giant watermelon. The know-it-all said that all these vegetables grew no smaller than they usually do on the big earth, and even a little bigger, because of the lower gravity on the moon.Behind the vegetable garden is a wheat field, which the lunar people at first regarded as a magical forest.Finally, the space rocket that carried out this unprecedented interstellar voyage was shown to the TV audience.The rockets are no longer placed in the open air as they used to be, but are placed in a dedicated gantry behind the wheat field. When the big octopus saw the rocket, his face turned pale with anger. "It's all because of the damn rocket!" he said hoarsely. "If I had dynamite, I'd have no regrets blowing it up! If it weren't for this rocket, everything would be the same here as before, and we'd live contentedly instead of staying here forever. Cooking this nasty meal all night." "I have dynamite, that is, I can get it," said the great liar. He then related to the Octopus that he had once kept a store of goods of all calibres, and sold in great quantities long guns, muskets, gunpowder, nitrocellulose, dynamite, and other explosives. "Then I sold the shop," said the great liar, "and as I was in such a hurry to get out of Squeeze that I didn't have time to remove all the goods, I left a few kegs of powder and two chests in a secret place in the warehouse. The best glycerine dynamite. I believe that no one knows about this secret place so far, and we can go there quietly. For this purpose, we must go to the city of squeeze." "Let's go tomorrow!" shouted the big octopus anxiously jumping up from the chair. "I'm going to teach them a lesson! I can't take it anymore! I'm going to blow them all up to the sky!" The TV broadcast of Universe City is over.A comedy about the life of a former rich man begins to show on television.The rich man didn't want to work, but because the cafeteria refused to sell him food, he decided to cook for himself, but with a lot of effort, nothing came of it.He put the eggs he bought on the chair, and then sat on the eggs. A packet of butter fell to the floor, and he stepped on it immediately. He slipped and grabbed the boiling kettle, and the boiling water splashed directly on the bald head. .He spent the night in the kitchen, finally fell asleep in an empty box, and went to work the next day. "What is this?" The big octopus shouted angrily. "It's about me! How dare they do that? Have they forgotten who I am? I'm not a wretch to them! I'm a big octopus! I used to discipline them if they fell into my hands." Theirs! Who am I now? Who am I, I ask! To them, I am nobody now, 'cause the hell is it all! Once upon a time, they cooked me and dressed me clothes, bathe me, make my bed, drive my car, dust me, clean up my mess, do everything I can to serve me. Hmph! But now I have to serve myself, I have to do these things by myself Excuse me, why is this? Why? In the past, people admired me, respected me, bowed and flattered me because of my wealth, but now they laugh at me and make comedies about me It's an insult! I can't stand it! I'm going to teach them a lesson! I'm going to blow them to pieces for this! Blow them to pieces! Where's the glycerin? Give me the glycerin! We'll get the glycerin tomorrow Dynamite!" He continued to yell like this for a long time.The big liar managed to calm him down, promised to fetch the dynamite the next morning, and put him in a box to sleep.