Chapter 9
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Chapter 9: Work
After school that day, Zhang Yu, Zhou Tianyi, and Bai Zhenzhen sat together in the cafeteria for dinner.
Bai Zhenzhen remained her usual icy self, silently and calmly attacking the mountain of food before her.
Zhou Tianyi glanced at Zhang Yu and said, “Your financial situation seems a bit dire lately.”
“Is it that obvious?” Zhang Yu was slightly taken aback. He wondered if the debt collectors had already started calling his classmates. Did this mean his 700,000 Yuan debt was about to be exposed at school?
Zhou Tianyi surveyed Bai Zhenzhen’s lavish dinner that was complete with chicken, duck, fish, and meat, then looked at Zhang Yu’s five-yuan ‘Poor Man’s Special’.
He stroked his chin and said, “Based on my three months of observing this cafeteria, what a person eats can accurately reflect their financial situation and even their cultivation level during that time.”
“For example, someone who eats ten pounds of food in one sitting would never sit at the same table as someone who only eats three.”
“This is because they are on completely different levels, occupying the upper and lower rungs of the campus social hierarchy.”
“So it’s just because I’m eating so little,” Zhang Yu thought with relief, glad that his identity as a destitute student had not been exposed.
He turned to Bai Zhenzhen and stared curiously at the dozen chicken drumsticks in her food container. “A-Zhen, those drumsticks look amazing. Can I try one?”
Bai Zhenzhen replied without even lifting her head, “Scram.”
From his seat, Zhou Tianyi chuckled and picked a duck leg from his own bowl, offering it to Zhang Yu. “Zhenzhen must be starving after all that exercise today. You should try mine.”
“You’re a true brother!” Zhang Yu gave Zhou Tianyi a thumbs-up, then snatched the duck leg and began to tear into it.
Watching Zhang Yu’s ravenous eating, Zhou Tianyi smiled faintly. “If you ever find yourself short on funds, I can lend you some.”
Zhang Yu waved his hand and said, “No need. I’ll handle it myself.”
Despite being buried in debt, Zhang Yu had no intention of borrowing from his classmates. Besides, asking them for money would not solve his massive debt in one go. What he needed was a sustainable way to earn money and continuously pay it down.
“At the very least, I need to cover the monthly interest so the collection agency doesn’t escalate its tactics.”
Zhang Yu knew that the longer his payment was overdue, the more ruthless the company’s methods would become. They would move from online insults to real-world harassment, with each step growing more aggressive than the last.
“And then there’s rent, utilities, and food.”
The thought made his head begin to throb.
Just after Zhou Tianyi left, Bai Zhenzhen suddenly spoke up. “Based on my observations of you and Zhou Tianyi over the past three months, he treats you exceptionally well.”
“He does?” Zhang Yu asked.
Bai Zhenzhen chuckled. “A man smiling while giving the duck leg from his bowl to another man? In my eighteen years, I’ve only seen that happen in two situations.”
“The first is when they are father and son.”
“And the other… hehehe.”
Zhang Yu raised an eyebrow. “A-Zhen, you certainly watch some pretty… strange things.”
“Yu Zi, there’s no need to be afraid,” Bai Zhenzhen said. “After all, in this school, you’re the one who would be in control.”
With that, Bai Zhenzhen pushed her tray over to Zhang Yu. “Ugh, I can’t finish all this. You can have these leftovers. It’s a gift, since you’re my good little boy after all.”
“Get lost.” Zhang Yu snatched the tray. A quick glance revealed a neatly arranged and untouched portion of food that took up nearly half the tray.
Just as he looked up to thank her, he saw only Bai Zhenzhen retreating as she left the cafeteria.
Once outside, Bai Zhenzhen’s expression grew distant again. She thought to herself, “Yu Zi, there is actually a third situation where that happens.”
She turned her gaze to the cafeteria entrance, where a cafeteria aunty was pouring leftovers from a slop bucket into a cat’s bowl on the steps.
After leaving the school, Zhang Yu began to plan how he could earn some money.
“My rent is 1500 yuan, utilities are around 200 a month, and the monthly loan repayment is 15,000 yuan…”
He drew a sharp breath. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
“I need to earn at least twenty thousand yuan a month. An ordinary job won’t be enough.”
With a turn of his thoughts, the Feather Book unfolded before him.
Zhang Yu
Dao Heart – Level 1
Magic Power – 7.7
Physical Strength – 0.84
Martial Arts – Thirty-Six Forms of Body Strengthening Level 2 (17/20), Freehand Combat Level 1, High School Basic Sword Technique Level 0
Dao Arts – Basic Breathing Method Level 1, Basic Heart Refining Method Level 1
Seeing the newly added entry for ‘High School Basic Sword Technique, Level 0,’ Zhang Yu’s mind flashed back to today’s Martial Arts Class.
The Martial Arts Class was where students learned various combat techniques. Practical combat made up 80 out of 100 points for the Freshman class.
First-year students, for instance, were required to master one unarmed combat art and one weapon-based combat art.
This High School Basic Sword Technique was what he had learned in today’s Martial Arts Class. It seemed that because he had not truly mastered it, it was still displayed as Level 0.
But Zhang Yu tried it out and found that even this High School Basic Sword Technique (Level 0) could be dragged and focused on.
He estimated that if he focused on this martial art, he could use his potential to master it quickly and then level it up rapidly.
These thoughts flashed through his mind as Zhang Yu continued to stare at his panel, pondering what kind of work he could do.
“Even though I’ve only just set foot on the path of cultivation, I am an official student at Songyang High School, after all…”
After a moment, Zhang Yu began using his phone to contact the cram school he had attended before.
It was after studying at this very cram school that the original Zhang Yu had gained admission to Songyang High School.
A cram school like this should pay well, and since I’m an official student at Songyang High School, I should have an advantage.
However, after he inquired, the teacher at the cram school told him they were already full and suggested he try other cram schools.
So Zhang Yu began contacting other cram schools.
“Hello, I’d like to apply for a part-time tutoring position. I’m a first-year student at Songyang High School…”
“May I ask which elementary and middle schools you graduated from?”
“But I’m already an official student at Songyang High School!”
“I’m sorry, but there are many tutors with credentials from key high schools. For a first-year student like you who hasn’t even graduated, parents place a lot of importance on your elementary and middle school academic records.”
After learning which elementary and middle schools Zhang Yu had attended, the person on the other end stopped responding.
After this conversation was repeated five or six times, Zhang Yu gradually began to understand the situation.
“Damn it!”
“Why are they all so strict about elementary and middle school records?”
“Has the competition for tutoring positions become this intense?”
Zhang Yu felt as if his elementary and middle school records were two ugly labels branded onto his face, making it incredibly difficult for him to even find a part-time tutoring job.
Zhang Yu had to temporarily abandon the cram school route and turn to his backup plan.
“I guess I’ll have to try temporary work for now.”
Actually, the original Zhang Yu had already learned a bit about this path of temporary work during the three months since school had started.
Of course, the temporary work mentioned here was not the kind sought by ordinary people. It was the kind of work sought by those who had already embarked on the Path of Immortality.
High school students made up a significant portion of this group. After all, not every high school student was a rich kid, and many of them needed to earn their own money to ease their families’ burdens or to buy things they wanted.
And because high school students lacked a high school diploma and needed to attend classes most of the time, they could often only take on temporary part-time jobs.
Zhang Yu had spent the last two days looking into these channels. He immediately added an agent and asked if there were any jobs available.
“You’re a bit late. The jobs for today have all been taken for now.”
“Why don’t you come over here and wait? You’ll be able to grab any new jobs as soon as they’re posted.”
Half an hour later, Zhang Yu arrived at a small square.
Even from a distance, he could see people scattered about the square. Some were sitting and others were lying down, a mix of young and old, men and women. Some were taking a nap right on the ground, while others, still in their school uniforms, sat cross-legged practicing their breathing techniques.
Following the address he was given, Zhang Yu found a human resources company in a corner of the square.
The company was small, and its storefront resembled a real estate agency. Its dirty glass windows were plastered with all kinds of crudely printed recruitment notices.
Glancing at the faded sign, Zhang Yu pushed open the door and was immediately hit by a thick wave of smoke that made him frown.
Behind a cluttered desk, a middle-aged man smoking a cigarette looked up, glanced at Zhang Yu, and said, “Are you the high school student who just inquired?”
After Zhang Yu nodded, the man introduced himself as Old Wang, the agent here. He pulled out a few sheets of paper and said, “Fill out this application. I’ll get you registered in a bit.”
Zhang Yu took the form and saw that in addition to some personal information, he had to list the Martial Arts and Dao Arts he had learned, their levels, and his academic performance from school.
After filling out the form, he handed it back and asked, “How long does it usually take to find work? And what’s the pay like?”
Old Wang scratched his messy hair and replied casually, “The minimum hourly rate is a few hundred yuan. But how long it takes to find work is hard to say. It’s normal to have no work for a week if your luck is bad.”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, “The pay here is so high? If that’s the case, working two or three hours a day should be enough to cover my loan payments and living expenses!”
A surge of joy welled up in his heart at the thought.
But then he heard Old Wang say that work was hard to find, and he asked curiously, “Why?”
He emphasized his background. “I was in the top ten of my first-year class at a Key High School. Is it still hard for someone like me to find work?”
Old Wang chuckled and pointed outside, saying, “See those people in the square? Besides high school students like you, the rest are all high school graduates.”
Zhang Yu was startled and found it hard to believe. “Impossible! They’ve already graduated from high school and are cultivators, so why would they still come here for temporary jobs?”
Old Wang shrugged. “They didn’t get into university. Not every high school student can get into university, you know.”
“If you don’t get into university, you’ll be stuck in the Qi Refining Stage for life and will never be able to advance to the second layer of Kunxu. You can only spend year after year scraping by on this First Layer.”
Zhang Yu still didn’t understand. “But they could find a permanent job on the First Layer. Why bother with temporary work?”
Old Wang explained, “They don’t need to sleep. After they finish their regular daytime jobs, if their company doesn’t have overtime, they come here to find some temporary work.”
“How else would they pay off their loans? And how else would they have enough money to maintain their cultivation?”
These words from Old Wang sent ripples through Zhang Yu’s heart. His previous memories had never hinted that high school graduates had it so tough.
He had always imagined that after graduating, even if they didn’t get into university, they would still be sitting in air-conditioned offices in downtown skyscrapers, sipping tea and earning a decent salary.
So that was how it was. Twenty-four seven studying before graduation, and twenty-four seven working after. The suffering only gets worse, doesn’t it?
Old Wang looked at Zhang Yu’s resume and chuckled. “Oh, Songyang High School? We’re alumni then. I went there too but dropped out in my third year.”
Zhang Yu echoed, “Dropped out?”
Old Wang shrugged. “I knew I couldn’t get into university, so I figured there was no point wasting more money. I only finished paying off my high school loans the year before last.”
“Since we’re fellow alumni, let me give you some advice.”
“In high school, know your limits. If you feel you can’t make it into university, cut your losses early. Don’t end up like some people who get buried in so much debt that it ruins their entire lives.”
After Zhang Yu finished filling out the form, Old Wang told him to wait outside and that he would notify him as soon as a job became available.
Zhang Yu asked, “Competing with all these high school graduates, will a job ever come my way?”
Old Wang reassured him, “Don’t worry. Some jobs are specifically for currently enrolled high school students.”