Rovno Oblast, Ukraine.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, at the shift change time, thousands of people entered and exited the doors of various factories. Even though most of them were young people, the sudden temperature change inside and outside the factory still made many people who left subconsciously shrank their necks.

In December, Rifney had a heavy snowfall recently, for four consecutive days. Although it was sunny now, the temperature during the day also fell by more than ten degrees below minus ten degrees.

Yelina Bodminskaya and Marie Ravikin are ordinary two of the countless workers.

The two girls are the same age, both 23 years old, from Nikolayev Prefecture in southern Ukraine. Because they both have university degrees, they were able to settle in Rivni, where the restrictions are currently very strict, and successfully entered the Nokia factory.

In Ukraine today, it is not easy to find such a stable job.

Even if you smuggle to Western Europe, according to the feedback from some wandering relatives and friends, you can only do the lowest-level work. Because it is a gangster, you will not only be subject to various exploitation from your boss, but you may also face arrest and repatriation from immigration agencies at any time. Many people live like rats, and there are countless people who go astray.

Pursuing stability is human nature. If there is a choice, no one will be willing to leave their hometown.

Therefore, the sudden prosperity of Rovno Oblast is no less attractive to the current declining Ukraine than to go far away from Western Europe.

Yelina and Marie came to the bicycle shed of the factory with the abortion. Their boyfriends, Alexander Kuzminko and Sergey Bolteev, had already picked up the car and waited for it, and were chatting with several other people whom they knew.

After everyone greeted each other, the two boys rode their bikes and took their girlfriends to leave the factory together.

As the bicycle was moving, Ye Lina, who was sitting in the back seat of her boyfriend Alexander's car, had an additional piece of information, a promotional poster about the recruitment of civil servants by the Rovno State government.

Next, we have to go to the supermarket. When the two pairs of men and women leave the noisy factory territory, Marie, who sat in the back seat in parallel on the other side, had already read the information and asked Ye Lina next to her: "Do you think we can try it?"

Yelina's tone was mixed with expectation and entanglement: "This time, we only recruited 500 people, and we will definitely be robbed. We have enough education, but we are not locals in Rovno, and we are not as good as those guys with connections."

Mary was not discouraged and said, "It's okay to try it. The recruitment exam is a month later. Well, I don't know what else to prepare for?"

After Mary finished speaking, her boyfriend Sergei said, "Just just now, Boris and the others said that there is a special training class, and a month of training costs about 1,000 hryvnia, which is very expensive."

The two girls couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.

The current salary of the four is about 1,300 hryvnia, which also includes some night shifts or full attendance subsidies. According to the current Ukrainian currency ratio of 46 to 1 against the US dollar, it is actually only about US$28.

Among them is the element that the Ukrainian currency has been depreciated by the financial crisis since last year, but it is actually enough for them to live in this city safely.

Now, if you want to climb up a little, you will have to pay about one month's salary for a course. Considering the high failure rate, you will immediately hesitate.

Ye Lina's boyfriend Alexander listened to the two girls' talk and advised: "Let's ask again recently. Maybe we can secretly find some materials to read by ourselves without having to go to class."

Ye Lina heard this and said in some conspiracy theory: "I think it is definitely not possible. Maybe someone wants to earn this training fee. If we don't attend classes, we will take the exam, and we may be directly mocked down by then."

"That's right," Mary couldn't help but agree, and hugged her boyfriend who was riding a bicycle: "Last time Sergey applied for the position of that power plant, she failed the first round of exams. Sergey graduated from a standard electrical engineering major."

Listening to his girlfriend's upset, Sergei could only smile foolishly.

Actually, when he applied for the job last year, he performed really badly, because he had just arrived in Rifney at that time, and he easily entered the Nokia factory with his own education. He became stable and was inevitably slacking off. He didn't expect that there would be such a good opportunity.

I can imagine regrets.

If you could enter that power plant, it would probably be less different from that of civil servants. Maybe you have saved enough money to marry your girlfriend now and you don’t need to share an apartment with four people.

Hesitantly discussed, crossing the newly built asphalt road in the northeast of the city in recent years, he soon came to the supermarket adjacent to the community they lived in.

To be precise, it is not just a supermarket, but also schools, hospitals, theaters and other places around it. It is the super resettlement community built by the Westeros system invested $200 million three years ago. Compared with the initial plan, the resettlement community that is still expanding to the surrounding area is completely a new city with complete supporting facilities, and the population of residents has doubled compared to the original plan, reaching a huge amount of 300,000.

Even so, apartments in this area are in short supply.

Because the four young people joined the Nokia factory in Rifny, they also have good education and sufficient work qualifications, they only obtained the rental qualifications of a two-bedroom apartment here after several applications.

Because there is a subsidy here.

After subsidies, only 1,200 hryvn is required to pay for four people. Although it is equivalent to their monthly salary, each person is only 300 hryvnn. Moreover, compared with those latecomers who are crowded in a collective dormitory of eight people, they can live in a well-equipped apartment. Even if the inevitable water, electricity, and gas are higher, this is the life that normal people live after all.

The next goal of the four young people is to be able to move to a one-bedroom and one-living room where they can pass the two-person world.

Then you can get married and be completely stable.

Of course, this is not easy.

After all, it will be more than just increasing the rent at that time, so it is best to change to a more promising job such as a civil servant.

In any case, the situation is much better than the situation of other cities in this country that is easy to see in newspapers, even the capital Kiev is not as good as here.

The four of them parked their cars in the supermarket and entered the mall with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters and a total of three floors. Every time they looked at the dazzling array of goods around them, the four young people who grew up in the former Soviet Union inevitably felt a little like a different life.

And, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy.

Because the economy collapsed again after last year's crisis, the entire former Soviet Union is currently in a state of material scarcity. As the big brother, Russia, an important daily life for many people is to line up in long queues to buy limited-supply cheap bread, and Rifny's side is simply two worlds.

Because of Saturday, there were a lot of people around. Four people finally grabbed two carts before rushing into the shopping crowd.

Basically, the next week of purchases were purchased. In addition to bread, fruit and beverages, there were also some daily necessities needed for washing. Finally, I turned around in the clothing and shoes area. The two girls couldn't help but buy a pair of discounted leather boots.

After checking out, it was more than an hour later.

Thinking about the situation in other regions of this country, looking at how I can buy so many daily necessities at a very affordable price, even the two boys who are born to not like shopping are quite satisfied.

Carrying a bunch of shopping bags and discussing a little, they didn't go back directly. The two boys really wanted to go online and play games for a while. The four of them were all like members with a membership card. Ye Lina didn't want to go, so she voted, three to one, and the few obeyed the majority.

Two boys couldn't get away if they got stuck on the computer. They played "Counter-Strike OL" from the United States. They had only planned to be two hours, but they walked out of a large Internet cafe with hundreds of computers. The sky was completely dark outside.

After holding a large bag and discussing it, I simply went to a Chinese restaurant nearby for dinner.

The thing called "hot pot" here is simply customized for winter, and it is full every day at this time.

Even though the restaurant occupied a whole five-story building, the four of them still lined up for more than ten minutes before they got the position.

After ordering the meal and waiting for the waiter to serve the food, Mary couldn't help but think about it and said to her boyfriend, "Sergey, we seem to have overspent again today."

Sergey and Alexander had already had a glass of strong wine. After hearing what his girlfriend said, he continued: "Yes, if you don't buy those shoes."

Mary was immediately guilty and couldn't help but retort: ​​"Don't you think those leather boots are beautiful, and they're still 50% off."

What else can Sergei say?

In fact, the two have been quietly accumulating marriage funds. The initial plan was to leave 20% of their salary every month so that they could save 6,000 hryvn in a year. Two or three years later, even if they still have the luxury of buying a house, they still have the confidence to change houses, get married and have children.

As a result, from the time we came to this city last year to now, almost a year and a half, the two of them have only saved less than 2,000 hryvns in their small vault.

This is the result of the two people consciously saving.

However, if you think about it carefully, it’s like you can’t help but go to the Internet cafe to play games, it’s like you’ve unknowingly entered this Chinese restaurant. In the past year, there have been countless times, and you can’t help but go to the surrounding karaoke bars, bars, cafes, and cinemas...

It’s like falling into a circle, and before you know it, you spend as much as you earn.

The couple across the dining table also knew what they planned. They also thought about saving money to get married, but unfortunately they just thought about it. There was not much money left in their hands at the moment. If both of them wanted to apply for civil servant training classes, they might have to borrow some money from their acquaintances or even ask their family to support them so that they would not be able to make ends meet.

Alexander is a person with a broad mind. He lives so comfortable now. He wants to do so much. When he sees the two of them quarrel, he still joins in the fun: "In this case, you two, will you go to the resort to ski tomorrow?"

The hot spring resort in northern Rifney is the destination of countless young people in this city.

However, according to their income level, it is a luxury to be able to go once a month or two. And when they go, they can only do some of the most basic affordable consumption, and even overnight needs to be carefully considered. The hotel is very expensive.

Because it snowed a few days ago, it was a good season for skiing, so I planned to go again.

Alexander asked, Mary hesitated a little, and Sergey nodded decisively: "Go, you must go."

The two people on the opposite side suddenly laughed.

After laughing for a while, Ye Lina suddenly took out the salary card of Rifny Commercial Bank and shook it opposite her: "Mary, if you really want to save money, I can give you a suggestion."

"Um?"

"Don't always swipe your card," Ye Lina said: "No matter what you buy, try to use cash."

Mary wondered: "What does it mean?"

Ye Lina played with the blue card in her hand and said, "I initially thought that this card could be swiped with anything I bought here. It was really convenient. It was just like those developed countries. However, after thinking about it recently, I felt that this was something that some people deliberately."

"Intentionally?"

"We deliberately use this convenience to make us consume unconsciously and spend all our money without knowing it."

Sergei said: "There is no such conspiracy theory. Since that's the case, why don't you and Alec use cash directly? I just saw you swipe your card to buy shoes."

Ye Lina was confident: "I don't want to save money."

“…”

After looking at each other for a moment, Mary said helplessly: "Maybe we should find another job."

Ye Lina shook her head directly: "The one that can't be found, the scarcest thing in Rifny is now is job opportunities. Why is our factory not working overtime now? It can only last eight hours a day because they can hire enough workers and there is no need to pay extra fees to get us to work overtime."

Alexander also said: "Not only that, there are many illegal workers smuggled from neighboring countries in Rifni now. Romania, Belarus, Russia, and even Azerbaijan have people coming here. They work 12 hours a day to get five or six hundred hryvns. We should be glad that Nokia is a big brand, and we are worried that we will have stable jobs when we encounter public pressure when using illegal workers."

Mary also heard about this vaguely and sighed: "Why didn't they go to Western Europe?"

"Do you think Western Europe is so easy," Ye Lina curled her lips: "Now the snake head clearly marked the price. If you go to Germany, you will have 20,000 hryvnia. Can you give it? Moreover, even if you can successfully arrive, if you don't have relatives and friends there, it's hard to say whether you will be abducted and sold to a slave factory."

"But, I think, five or six hundred hryvnia is a little less?"

"It's very good. Those factories are responsible for food and accommodation, which are better than staying in their hometown and not having enough food," Alexander said, laughing again: "It must be more than we have saved."

Sergei interrupted at this time: "Anyway, I will never do it. I only get half of our salary for 12 hours a day. Even if I can save all of it, it is not a normal life at all."

Ye Lina has some angry young people: "For normal people's lives, there are still a few normal countries in the entire CIS region, Russia almost collapsed. Here, only Rovno Prefecture is better."

Before the others could express their opinions, the waiter brought the food and everyone shut up their mouths and started eating.
Chapter completed!