Chapter 42 General Election

The No. 306 steam bus stopped running at 8 o'clock. For this kind of steam bus that runs every half an hour, if Chen Yan didn't run faster, he would have to run ten kilometers home.

Fortunately, there is also a bus stop for the 306 steam bus on High Street.

He quickly left the high street and came to the platform outside the high street east. After waiting patiently for more than 20 minutes, he finally waited for the last steam bus No. 306.

There were not many passengers in the car, so Chen Yan no longer needed to smell the ubiquitous pungent body odor of the Imperial people.

Chen Yan sat in the front seat in a daze, and didn't come back to his senses until he heard someone speaking to him.

"hello."

After he calmed down, he realized that the person speaking was the steam bus driver, a white-skinned man who looked to be in his fifties.

"Young man, did you know that the imperial election, which is held every four years for the past four years, is about to begin!"

The imperial election... Chen Yan didn't know much about it.

He only knew that the imperial election was a voting event conducted by citizens of the entire empire. People would elect the mayor of each city, the governor of each state, and the president of the empire.

In fact, every time Chen Yan thinks about this, he feels very strange.

Shouldn't the head of the "empire" be the "emperor"?

Why is it the president?

I don’t know, I don’t understand, whatever, it’s none of my business.

Chen Yan scratched his numb face:

"Ah, ah, yes, I heard about it...but I am a new immigrant and I don't seem to be eligible to vote."

After Chen Yan said this, he calmed down a little and was able to raise his head and look at the uncle's appearance in the rearview mirror.

He has an ordinary face like most imperial uncles, with a big nose and a big mouth, fair and rosy skin, black hair mixed with about a third of white hair, and very energetic eyes.

Chen Yan subconsciously wondered if this uncle was also a transcendent...

The driver's next words proved his worries.

"Where do you work, young man?"

Chen Yan looked around and found that he was the only passenger on the last bus.

This shows that the driver uncle is indeed talking to him.

"In Central Forest Park."

He answered vaguely.

The Byron Weiss Zoo was originally part of Central Forest Park, so there seemed to be nothing wrong with his answer.

When the uncle heard his answer, he immediately became energetic and his tone was full of anger.

"You have a job, which means you have a vote. This is the power given to you by the law and belongs to you!"

When the uncle said the word "power", he used a plosive sound and spit bubbles flying everywhere.

Chen Yan thought to himself, it's a good thing that steam buses don't have such a thing as accelerators, otherwise the uncle would be so excited when talking like this, what if he stepped on the accelerator...

Perhaps because he knew that "Chen Yan had votes", the uncle became more attentive.

"When you live in this city, you must hope that your living environment will get better and better.

In this case, you need to choose a policy that is beneficial to you——

Young man, have you decided who to vote for?"

Who to vote for?

Poor Chen Yan has just been in Yanan City for a month. Let alone the mayor or governor, except for the nosy street police chief Klein Justice, he doesn't even have the next door neighbor at No. 33 Walker Street.

I can’t even pronounce the name!

The uncle driver glanced at the rearview mirror, and after seeing Chen Yan's confused eyes, he showed a confident smile.

"The three parties in Yanan City now, the Liberal Democratic Party, are just a joke, and there are not many of them. Let's not talk about it for now, let's just talk about the Conservative Party and the Labor Party... Boy, where do you get off?"

"Walker Street, Mr. Driver."

"Oh! Walker Street! That's a great place! You can't find cheaper ale in all of Yharnam than the Walker Street pub!"

“…the cost of living on Walker Street is really not high (which is why I chose to settle there).”

"But if the Conservative Party comes to power, the price of ale will rise! Not only the price of ale will rise, but also brown bread, mint paste, canned beef, cheese, butter, sugar, tea, salt, potatoes... everything will rise in price!

Prices are skyrocketing! Boy!

The rich hoard things, making ordinary things rarer and rarer, and the poor have to endure this unfair thing - but the Conservatives don't care at all!

The Conservative Party is the mouthpiece of the rich, and the rich think the current policies are good, and society needs to continue like this!"

The uncle cursed loudly, and Chen Yan automatically ignored the abusive slang and dirty words that the uncle mixed in his words.

After the No. 306 steam bus passed Yanan City Public University Station, the uncle was almost satisfied with the scolding and stopped slightly.

"The Labor Party is the voice of us workers!"

The uncle's attitude is completely different from before.

"The Labor Party speaks for workers and helps us get more wages, longer holidays, and social benefits that were previously unthinkable!"

The uncle got so excited that he almost flew up from the driver's seat.

Fortunately, the steam bus moved on fixed rails and had no such thing as a steering wheel.

He was obviously aware of his gaffe, so he sat down slightly awkwardly and used a loud voice to cover up his embarrassment.

"Enough rest time, reasonable social insurance, and even a pension!"

"You lived on Walker Street, oh, damn Walker Street, I used to live there for a while,

The residents on Walker Street are all hard-working workers. They left their hometowns and the fields they had cultivated for decades and hundreds of years, and came to the prosperous Yanan City to become hard-working migrant workers.

They eat black bread that is harder than fucking gallstones every morning, drink mush that even mules disdain, and work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, working more than 13 hours a day, dreaming of living in the city one day.

Big house in the center, ha!

What a dream!”

He changed his tone: "Before the emergence of the Labor Party, I also had such a dream. Young man, I got up at 5:30 every morning with head pain and red eyes to cook for the children. I imagined that I could work two less hours a day.

At that time, I never thought that my dream could come true!”

"In the election four years ago, the Labor Party won two seats among the ruling council members of Yanan City. The interests of workers were protected by legislation and justice was done!"

Chen Yan still didn't understand the electoral system of the empire, so he didn't understand the Labor Party's method of fighting for the interests of workers.

He didn't answer the driver's words because his tired brain was no longer enough.

He looked out the window. The street lights were already on. It was snowing lightly in the sky. Groups of pedestrians were walking through the not-so-heavy snowstorm. They were the first batch of workers to get off work. Most of them were workers in light industrial factories in the old city.

Get off work a little earlier.

Another group of people headed in the opposite direction, they were workers working the night shift.

The shift system has created huge benefits for the empire, and the workers have received more night shift wages. Everything seems reasonable, except for the increasingly tired body and the dark circles under the eyes that cannot be eliminated.

Walker Street bus stop, here we are.

Before getting off the bus, the driver gave Chen Yan a thumbs up:

"Boy, never forget that you are a worker and you must work hard to fight for the interests of workers!"
Chapter completed!