Chapter Thirty: Investigating Leads

  After connecting the phone call, Qin Yan's soft and pleasant voice came through.

  "Yefeng, it's so late, I guess you should have finished dinner with your former colleagues and friends. Where are you now? I'll drive to pick you up."

  "No need, Lawyer Qin. Don't bother driving out. Just tell me your address and I can take the bus to find you. Mingzhu has many night buses, it's quite convenient."

  "Alright, don't be polite with me. You're in Changjiang District and I'm in Xiahui District, it's quite far apart. You'll have to take several buses. Quickly tell me the location, I'll head over right away. It's so late, aren't you afraid of worrying your aunt?"

  Hearing her say this, Ye Feng also couldn't refuse anymore, and immediately told her the address of the villa district.

  "Alright, isn't that the place where you used to work? I've been there a few times before and after. Besides, I have a good friend who lives in the same area, her house is just across from the villa district in Hongding community. I'm very familiar with the area, so just wait for me at the entrance of Hongding community, it'll take me at most 40 minutes to get there."

  After hanging up the phone, Ye Feng thought that Qin Yan would still take about 40 minutes to arrive. With nothing else to do, he went to a cold drink stall at the entrance of Hongding Community, which was just across the street from the villa district, and bought a glass of soda water and a copy of the Mingzhu Evening News. He drank and read the newspaper while waiting for Qin Yan.

  He didn't buy the newspaper to read about gossip, entertainment or major domestic and international events. Ye Feng mainly wanted to take a look at the classifieds section to see if there were any job openings that suited him.

  Although there's no rush to find a job, it's still necessary to prepare ahead of time. Besides, Ye Feng has already decided not to work on construction sites anymore and plans to switch to a new occupation and environment.

  For Ye Feng, a high school graduate with no big ambitions, the requirements for finding a job are not high, and he doesn't have any thoughts of being overly proud or humble. His principle is simple: as long as the work is relatively stable, it's fine even if it's hard and tiring; even if the income is low, it's okay as long as the salary is paid on time.

  After reading the entire page of job postings, Ye Feng felt somewhat disappointed. The vast majority of jobs were not suitable for him. Firstly, the requirement of at least a college degree was an insurmountable barrier. Secondly, many jobs required sales skills, good looks, and experience, such as clerks, sales representatives, insurance agents, and promoters. As someone who had spent years working on construction sites, he couldn't suddenly transform into a suit-and-tie-wearing urban white-collar worker, at least not in the short term.

  Moreover, most of these jobs require a probationary period of at least three months, during which the salary is very low. Ye Feng thinks that if he really goes to those places to work, it's equivalent to giving away three months' worth of labor for free, which doesn't seem like a good deal. He also wonders why those ivory-tower elites always flock to these companies.

  Ye Feng's ideas may be a bit biased, but to him, he thinks his ideas are correct because he has a good understanding of himself. This is not self-abasement or pretentiousness; he is just an ordinary worker who doesn't have any grand ambitions for his job. Even if he wants to have ambitions, that would be something to consider much later, at least after he has some free time to obtain a degree certificate.

  Ye Feng's request is simple, work has no distinction of high or low, as long as the salary is paid on time, he has a large family to support, and his parents' and grandparents' annual living expenses and medical expenses are a huge hole for him, he must work day and night without complaint to fill this hole, where does he have the mind to care about so much.

  After looking around, there was finally a job that Ye Feng thought was still quite suitable for himself.

  This is a job posting for a water delivery worker, the company name is Mengyuan Water Industry, which is quite fitting and symbolic. From the recruitment ad, it can be seen that the company's business scope and work area cover the entire Yangtze River Delta region and part of the Xuhui District, it seems that Mengyuan Water Industry has a considerable business influence.

  Mengyuan Water Industry clearly stated in this evening newspaper's recruitment advertisement that it is recruiting 12 water delivery workers, requiring healthy males aged between 20 and 40 with a high school diploma or above. As long as you are a legitimate citizen of the Republic of China, you can come to apply, with no other restrictive conditions.

  The calculation method for the salary is also very simple. If you deliver more than 400 buckets of water per month, you can get a monthly base salary of 2,000 yuan. This salary level is actually relatively low in Mingzhu City, but it's just the base salary. The company also stipulates that for every additional bucket of water delivered after exceeding 400 buckets per month, an extra 3 yuan will be added to the salary. So, if Ye Feng delivers an additional 100 buckets of water per month, he can get an extra 300 yuan, and if he delivers an additional 1,000 buckets of water, he can get an extra 3,000 yuan.

  To put it bluntly, what Huayuan Water Industry is recruiting is actually a piecework water delivery worker. The monthly guaranteed salary is calculated at 5 yuan per barrel of water, and if you deliver 400 barrels of water in a month, you can earn up to 2,000 yuan. If you want to make more money, you need to deliver more water every month, with an additional 3 yuan for each extra barrel delivered. The more you deliver, the more you earn.

  This kind of work is actually a physically demanding job, most young people are unwilling or unable to do this kind of hard labor, while older people have the heart but not the strength.

  But even so, hard and seemingly despicable work, Ye Feng believes that many people will still scramble to do it.

  There are too many people in this society who live at the bottom of society like him and carry such pressures on their shoulders.

  After seeing this recruitment advertisement, Ye Feng's mood suddenly became relaxed. Yes, this job may be bitter and tiring for others, but for him, it was a simple matter.

  With his current ability, let alone a month's worth of 400 barrels of water, he can probably finish this amount in less than a day.

  This piecework job is really the most suitable for him at present.

  He can even spare a lot of time to cultivate, collect and accumulate the four values after easily completing his daily work tasks.

  No matter how you look at it, this job is a good one that allows him to have his cake and eat it too.

  Ye Feng saved the phone records of Miao Yuan Company on his mobile phone and remembered the address of Miao Yuan Company.

  Looking at the time on her phone, Qin Yan would be able to arrive in about twenty minutes.

  Ye Feng was thinking in his heart whether to go to the Mengyuan company tomorrow to register, so as not to miss the opportunity, and then take a break for one or two days, rent a house, send his mother back to her hometown in Hebei Province, and start working formally.

  Ye Feng was pondering while picking up the empty soda bottle to return it to the boss, and also wanted another bottle of soda. However, just as he stepped out with his leg, before he could lift his head, he felt a sudden tightness in his calf, and a figure rushed past his leg, followed by a cry of "ah".

  Ye Feng lifted his head and only then realized that it was him who had just stretched out his leg and tripped someone.

  Originally, with Ye Feng's current sensory and reaction abilities, he could have easily avoided it, but his mind was preoccupied with the water delivery task just now, and he subconsciously stepped forward, without any perception of the outside world.

  Besides, it's so late, how could Ye Feng have thought that someone would rush towards the soda stall in a hurry?

  Ye Feng hastily put down the soda bottle and walked three or two steps to the person he had tripped, wanting to help him up first.

  It was then that Ye Feng discovered that the person he had tripped over was actually a woman.

  The woman was wearing a pale blue short-sleeved round-necked top that clung to her body, and a pale blue skirt that fell just above the knee. She was lying on her side on the ground, perhaps because she had fallen heavily, and her skirt had ridden up, revealing a pair of slender white legs. The hem of her skirt had been pushed up to the top of her thighs, so when Ye Feng squatted down to help her up, he could even see the pink edge of her underwear in the light of the street lamps, which made him feel dizzy and unable to look directly at her.

  As for the woman's appearance, he couldn't see clearly. Her long hair covered half of her face after she fell to the ground. He could only vaguely see that her face was as white and tender as her legs.

  The woman slowly got up after crying out in pain twice, her right hand supporting the ground and her left hand rubbing her left buttock.

  The man hastily reached out to support her and said: "Miss, I'm really sorry. I didn't see you just now and tripped you up. Are you okay?"

  Her arm was just touched by Ye Feng's hand when she pushed it away with her own. She raised her head, looked at Ye Feng and said: "You're really something..."

  But she just said a few words and suddenly stopped speaking, her gaze shifted to behind Ye Feng.

  And what she did next made Ye Feng feel both surprised and somewhat uneasy all over.