The Farming Saint in the Starry Wasteland (Elizabeth Schofield) novel Chapter 464

Time

Chapter 464 Clocking Out on Time

“You, head to Fruit Stall One You, Fruit Stall Two. You, Vegetable Stall One. You, Vegetable Stall Two. You…”

One by one, the dozen or so of them were assigned to different stalls.

Encla was placed at Fruit Stall One.

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She stood behind the counter, looking at the small mountain of fruit piled in front of her, breathing in the sweet, fresh scent, still feeling a little dazed.

A woman next to her, wearing the same apron, named Daria, smiled and said, “New hire? Don’t be nervous. Here, your job is to pick out the orders and bag them for customers. Whatever they ask for, that’s what you bag, as long as you don’t go over the purchase limit.”

Enola nodded, took a deep breath, and grabbed a bag.

The first customer came up, an older gentleman with gray hair.

“Sweetheart, give me ten apples and 50 strawberries.”

Enola’s hands trembled a little, but she steadied herself and picked through the strawberries one by one, placing them carefully into the bag.

G

Once she finished with the strawberries, she moved on to the apples.

She handed the bag to the older gentleman and said softly, “Here are your apples and strawberries. Be careful with them.”

The older gentleman took the bag, glanced at her, and then suddenly smiled.

“New here, aren’t you? Work hard. This farm’s a good place.”

Enola froze for a second, then nodded hard.

“Thank you!”

The older gentleman waved her off and walked away with his strawberries and apples in hand.

Enola stood there watching his back as he left, and a small smile crept across her face.

Γ

A little ways off, Roger was over at a vegetable stall, bagging potatoes and sweet potatoes for customers with the same kind of unfamiliar awkwardness.

His movements were slow but careful, picking each one with real attention.

Louis was at another vegetable stall, already chatting up the customers, grinning ear to ear.

Lily was over in the fruit section, helping restock, running back and forth with sweat beading on her forehead.

The others were all about the same, every one of them throwing themselves into the work.

Enola pulled her eyes away and turned back to bag the next customer’s order.

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10:40 am P PPO

Chapter 464 Clocking Out on Time

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At 5 p.m. sharp, Fiona picked up the megaphone, her voice carrying across all of Mercury Plaza.

“Attention, customers, we are now closed for the day! Thank you all for your support! We’ll be back open at the same time tomorrow!”

A wave of disappointed murmurs ran through the long time.

“Aw, closing up this early?”

“Good thing I got some fruit. Guess I’ll have to come back tomorrow for the vegetables!”

“Better get here earlier tomorrow…”

Disappointed as they were, the crowd slowly started to disperse.

The ones who had managed to get something walked away satisfied, while the ones who had missed out left with a sigh.

Enola stood behind the fruit stall, watching the crowd thin out, still feeling a little out of it.

They were… clocking out already?

Almost out of habit, she glanced at the time.

It was 5:01 p.m.

There was still half an hour to go before the official end of shift at 5:30 p.m.

Daria smiled and explained, “We still have to pack everything up. By the time we’re done, it’ll be right around closing time anyway.”

Enola felt almost lightheaded.

She thought back to her days at Seafarm Group, where they were supposed to clock out at 6 p.m. but never actually got off at that hour.

Restocking, taking inventory, cleaning up, and end–of–day meetings… by the time they got through the whole routine, getting home by 8 p.m. was considered an early night.

And during the holidays, pulling all–nighters was nothing out of the ordinary.

It was 5:01 p.m.

Forget about it.

Management always said it was called dedication, called taking ownership of your work.

But now…

She looked at the coworkers around her, starting to close down the stalls, and watched them efficiently sort and count the leftover stock, and every single one of them had a smile on their face.

The kind of real, relieved smile that came from knowing the day was actually done.

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10:40 am Pppe

Chapter 464 Clocking Out on Time

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What are you standing there for?” Daria gave her shoulder a friendly pat. “Help us close up. Sort the leftover fruit by type and stack it neatly. Somebody will come around to collect everything into the storage button.”

Enola snapped out of it and nodded quickly. “Oh, oh, okay!”

She got moving, packing the leftover fruit into boxes and stacking them in neat rows.

At the stalls nearby, Roger and the others were doing the same.

Within ten or 15 minutes, everything was packed up and put away.

And then…

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