By the time Francis returned to Verrocchio's studio, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

He hadn't even had breakfast or lunch, technically speaking, he hadn't eaten for more than two: fourteen hours.

But now he has no appetite. Betrayed by someone he trusted filled Francis with rage and grief. Especially Arrow—he was brought into the gang by Francis himself.

He had met Herrault at the time, in the dark quarters of Florence. The so-called black area refers to the area adjacent to the slum area and the factory area. The Sardinian Civil Code stipulates that the factory shall pay workers the wages commensurate with the working hours. Each district here has corresponding standard requirements due to different prices and regional policies, which are not fixed.

For example, according to the regulations of the Florence district, there are three types of apprentices: four-hour, eight-hour, and twelve-hour. The corresponding standard wages are pennies, sixpence, and tenpence, while underage workers are paid two pennies a day no matter how many hours they work. However, ordinary factories only recruit second- and third-category workers, and there are relatively few first-class workers, and basically no female workers. Except for some special types of factories, in other cases, the 24-hour shift is not allowed, and the entire factory should be shut down before 9:00 pm.

As for technicians, sub-hourly wages are awarded according to the rating. Taking bleachers and dyers as an example, the hourly salary of second-class bleachers is five pence, while that of first-class bleachers is twelve pence. Bleaching and dyeing masters generally do not use factories, but sell recipes and craftsmanship directly, and collect money on a monthly basis with technology shares. According to the prices in Florence, the price of a newspaper is as high as fifteen pence-in the last two years it has risen to sixteen pence. A standard practical skills book that is one student large and **** wide costs five to eight small gold florins, with a minimum of two hundred pence per book. Meat and wine were much cheaper. The price of a pound of beef is about four pennies, and a pound of fresh fish is two pennies. If you buy it at night, it can be as cheap as one and a half pennies. A pot of soil. Cheaper than beer for half a penny. And the most sold bottled Portuguese wine costs eight to twelve pennies a bottle.

As for grains, local grains in Sardinia are even more expensive than meat. Wheat semolina is generally sold by the liter, and when converted into pounds, it costs twelve shillings, which is equivalent to sixty times that of beef of the same weight. This price is obviously beyond the reach of ordinary workers. The Teutonic wheat that people like is only half the price of ordinary wheat.

After the March Act, people can no longer buy Teutonic wheat. This not only lowered the local price of wheat, but raised it by a shilling a pound. People would rather choose to buy egg fish milk, and the merchants quickly raised the price by 50% to 10%...

Those skilled workers are still... But those workers in the slums are struggling to live even if they bring their children to work and ask for an extra salary for auxiliary workers.

And this is the meaning of the existence of the black area.

Although the law expressly prohibits starting work after nine o'clock, generally speaking, the local police stations still report the attitude of "no prosecution, no prosecution". After all, the owners of those factories set up factories here, and their taxes have to be paid to the local area. The more they earn. The more taxes paid, the more money the police department has. Whether it is to replace maintenance equipment in real time, to encourage more young people to join, or to pay detectives and informants for adjustment fees, it is a lot of money. Therefore, if someone reports that the construction of the factory at night is too disturbing to the people, the police will naturally be dispatched, but this is generally limited to urban areas. The police station is built in the center of the city, and the slums are far away from the city. Generally, no one will make a special trip to the police station to report the crime. So if you build a factory here, you can start working 24 hours a day without stopping. Of course, factories built in black areas are ready to run away at any time, and naturally there are no safety protection and sanitation regulations. On the other hand, it can save the cost of preparing protective measures for workers.

And this cost can even be said to be very large. Now that this amazing expense is saved, the factories in the district can charge higher prices to the workers. Generally speaking, ordinary workers pay a penny more per day than city factories, and skilled workers pay a penny more every two hours.

Therefore, many workers in the slums have to return to the black factories in the slums to continue working after working in the city during the day. Because the factory owner is worried about life and accidents, underage auxiliary workers are generally not accepted.

After all, children die and adults die. The intensity of the police investigation is different. The church might even sue—and that would certainly cost money.

The reason why the factory owners have such a consensus is not because they have found out in conscience... but because someone has touched porcelain like this before. There are some impoverished families with six or seven children who can't support their children no matter what, and don't even have time for them to go to school. Even if reading is free... But after finishing school, you can't compete, so when someone is about to die of poverty, they will send their children, or even their adopted children, to factories in black areas. In such a dangerous environment, usually about three months, the child will be injured and disabled, or even die directly. Such as being splashed in the face and eyes with acid, losing your voice by burning your throat with dangerous chemicals, having your wrists cut off, or simply being blown to death. Only minor injuries such as chronic poisoning, sores and festering, or severed fingers are nothing, it is a kind of "failed sacrifice". If something happens to their young son, their parents will go to the factory owner to ask for a sum money. Generally, factory owners in black areas are worried that they will file a lawsuit - there are always lawyers who like this kind of public prosecution case to gain reputation, and since these I factory owners are under illegal pressure to open factories in black areas, they will naturally not hire lawyers idle money. I would have been fooled by a sum of money... Of course, this money is much less than the compensation from the lawsuit. But the advantage is that no one knows.

So they can take care of the children's injuries and then send them to other factories for recycling. After such incidents became intensive to a certain extent, the factory owners in the district reacted immediately and began to reject auxiliary workers. The assistants who had been recruited were all driven out by them. And Arrow—he was a helper who had been kicked out.

His father was originally a journeyman in a zinc smelter. Later, he got sick and was unable to work and was fired. His mother ordered Ailuo to come to the sulfuric acid factory to "sell a hand or an eye", but Ailuo never dared to do it because of his courage.

He had at least three chances to pretend to be wrong and blind himself...but he hesitated for two months and still didn't dare.

Not long after, his father died, and his mother remarried with his younger brother before that, and also took away all the money in the family, but Aero was relieved afterwards. Because no one will ask him to hurt himself anymore, he can also earn money from his work, and even buy some candy or ham to eat... But at this moment, the factory owner just caught up with the child laborers who drove them away out. A large number of laborers from the slums poured into the factories in the city, and they soon announced that they would no longer recruit child labor. And Arrow didn't work. Without a support person, he can only live on the so-called meat porridge from the orphanage every day. It is to mix minced meat and barley together and cook, basically you can't see a few dices of meat when you dig it down with a spoon.

But such Arrow, with only his last dozen pennies on him, bought a fish with two of them, and fed it to the stray cats by the roadside.

Francis passing by was confused by this. After questioning, he was very moved by his kindness—he paid for the burial of Arrow's father, sent his younger brother to Solomon's school full-time, paid him a salary, taught him to read, and let him Be your own assistant. In Francis' opinion, if a person is so poor and can feed some of his little money to the wild cats, he must be an upright and caring person. To put it in a more philistine way. He will definitely repay himself in the future.

But Leonardo, who was still young at the time, reminded him: "Be careful of the child you are talking about."'

"He's not as kind as you think.