Chapter 1 Looking for a Job

In the summer of 2003, the heat seemed to have gone mad. Under the blazing red sun, the ground looked as if it were on fire, with wisps of heat rising, neither quite cloud nor mist.

At the Jiangzhou City Talent Market in Jiangnan Province, the heat was just as maddening as midsummer. In the nearly ten-thousand-square-meter job fair, job seekers were everywhere. A sea of people—wherever you looked, it was nothing but a dense crowd of heads, and outside the main entrance, people kept pouring in.

Holding a job application letter in his hand and carrying a shoulder bag, Jack Carter glanced at the seemingly endless sea of people. The corners of his mouth couldn’t help but show a bitter smile. He shook his head and walked toward the exit.

Since the university enrollment expansion in 1999, college students, once called the favored children of heaven, had become less and less valuable, just like the devaluing of currency. The employment situation grew more severe each year, and this year happened to be the first year that the initial batch of expanded-enrollment college graduates entered society. The surging army of job seekers instantly exposed the sharp employment crisis, and the employment problem of college graduates suddenly became the hottest social issue of the moment.

Jack Carter was not a college student; he was only a technical secondary school graduate, equivalent to a high school diploma, so his employment situation was even more difficult than that of college graduates.

Once outside the job fair, the air immediately became fresher. Jack Carter couldn’t help but let out a long breath, then turned to look at a recruitment booth set up at the entrance. A sign stood on the booth, listing the number of positions, job titles, and of course, the requirements. The very first requirement was “formal college degree or above.”

Among the nearly one thousand recruiting companies at the fair, the vast majority had this requirement.

Looking at the first line under job requirements, Jack Carter felt that line of text was especially glaring and felt particularly helpless, because he was only a technical secondary school graduate. It was this simple line that set up a high threshold, ruthlessly and coldly blocking him from the door of employment.

The whole morning, Jack Carter had only managed to submit three job applications. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to apply to more companies, but as soon as they saw his education level, they wouldn’t even accept his materials.

Leaving the talent market, Jack Carter looked up at the blazing sun overhead, then felt his pocket, which only had a hundred yuan left. He couldn’t help but have a fleeting thought of using sorcery to make some quick money to solve his urgent needs, but as soon as the thought arose, he immediately suppressed it.

“Sigh, looks like I’ll have to go back to the construction site and move bricks for a few more days,” Jack Carter thought to himself with helpless resignation.

Although Jack Carter really didn’t want to step onto those dusty, machine-roaring construction sites again, he even more didn’t want to disappoint his master, an old sorcerer now resting in the afterlife.

With helplessness in his heart, Jack Carter moved his legs and, braving the scorching sun, walked quickly toward the north of the city, where there was currently a lot of construction and development going on. When Jack Carter first arrived in Jiangzhou, he had spent some time in that area because he couldn’t find a job, so he was quite familiar with it and knew a few foremen. Finding a job moving bricks or similar work there was very easy, as long as you had strength.

Although Jack Carter had a low level of education, he was extremely, extremely strong!

It was noon, and the blazing sun was baking the earth. There were few pedestrians on the road, and those who were out hurried along, as if afraid that if they walked any slower, they’d be roasted by the sun.

As Jack Carter was walking, he saw from a distance a young woman coming toward him, holding a sun umbrella and carrying a bag.

The woman was wearing a cropped floral T-shirt and blue denim shorts. Her long, shapely legs and the strip of snow-white skin at her waist glowed with youthful health in the dazzling sunlight.

A graceful lady is the desire of a gentleman. Jack Carter was twenty years old this year, at the age when he was full of longing for the opposite sex. Seeing a woman dressed coolly and attractively walking toward him, it was only natural that he would take a second look. But before Jack Carter could get a good look, a motorcycle suddenly sped up from behind the woman. As the motorcycle passed her, the rider suddenly reached out and snatched the bag hanging from her arm.

The woman staggered from the force and almost fell, but she reacted quickly, immediately shouting, “Thief! Someone snatched my bag!” as she chased after the thief.

However, she was wearing mid-heeled crystal sandals, and after only a couple of steps, she cried out “Ah!” and fell to the ground, having twisted her ankle. The bag snatcher, meanwhile, sped off on the motorcycle. By the time the woman fell, he was already dozens of meters away. As for the pedestrians on the road, seeing the motorcycle speeding by, they barely had time to dodge, let alone try to stop him.