Chapter 9 - 1.8 Fatal Kindness and a Trap

At noon, Chen Yu went to a small noodle shop in a deep alley and ordered the cheapest bowl of plain noodles for two and a half yuan. The shop owner, a man in his fifties, seeing Chen Yu's down-and-out yet subtly stubborn appearance, gave him an extra marinated egg."Young man, seeing you come here every day, are you looking for a job?" the owner asked with concern while wiping the tables.Chen Yu nodded and said with a bitter smile, "Yeah, but nobody's hiring.""It's really hard to find a job now, the competition is too fierce," the owner sighed. "My son also graduated from a junior college and works in an electronics factory in Shenzhen. He can earn over six hundred yuan a month, with food and lodging included."Over six hundred yuan! Chen Yu's eyes lit up. To him right now, this was a lifesaver. At that time, even a technician with a bachelor's degree only earned about three to four hundred yuan a month."Sir, how did your son find that job?" Chen Yu asked eagerly."Through an introduction from a fellow townsman. In this day and age, it's not easy for a person to be out there alone. You have to rely on fellow townsmen to help each other out," the owner shook his head. "If you really can't find anything, I can ask some of my business friends to see if there's anything suitable."Chen Yu quickly thanked him, a faint glimmer of hope igniting in his heart.The noodle shop owner, Master Wang, didn't know that just three days earlier, a man calling himself "Zhang Qinsheng" had specifically come here. He ordered a bowl of noodles and then casually chatted with Master Wang. Zhang Qinsheng said he was in human resources, specializing in recruiting talent for some overseas companies, with a particular focus on young people who were educated but temporarily unemployed."Master Wang, with so many people coming and going here, you must have seen many young people looking for jobs, right?" Zhang Qinsheng had asked casually at the time, while taking out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket and offering one to Master Wang.In 1997, a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes, which cost over ten yuan, was equivalent to half a day's wages for an ordinary worker. Zhang Qinsheng's generosity left a deep impression on Master Wang. Zhang Qinsheng also left a finely crafted business card, printed with the name of a human resources consulting company in Nanchang, along with a pager number and a landline number."If you come across anyone suitable, you can introduce them to me. Our company offers very good compensation," Zhang Qinsheng had said. "For every successful referral, I'll give you a five-hundred-yuan referral fee."Five hundred yuan! This was a considerable sum at the time. Master Wang, of course, remembered this, and also remembered Zhang Qinsheng's "successful-looking" face.In the afternoon, Chen Yu continued to rush between various job fairs and talent markets. The Nanchang Talent Market was crowded with job seekers just like him, holding a stack of resumes, their eyes shining with anticipation.In a corner of the talent market, Zhang Qinsheng was carefully observing the job seekers coming and going. He had a keen eye, specifically picking out young men who were handsome, of medium build, dressed plainly, and whose eyes revealed a mixture of eagerness and anxiety. Chen Yu's appearance immediately caught his attention.Zhang Qinsheng quietly followed Chen Yu, watching him get rejected by one company after another, watching the light of hope in his face dim bit by bit, and the look of disappointment grow stronger. This was exactly the target he was looking for—desperate enough, eager enough, and easily tempted.When Chen Yu was filling out a job application form, Zhang Qinsheng stood not far away, cross-referencing his name, age, education, and contact information with the file he already had. The photo in the file was handsome, the information indicated a poor family background, and the eagerness and anxiety in the young man's eyes before him perfectly confirmed that he was the ideal "target." A smile tugged at the corner of Zhang Qinsheng's mouth. He paid special attention to the crucial piece of information in the contact section—the landlord's landline number: 0791-4567890.For a professional "headhunter" like Zhang Qinsheng, details determined success or failure. He noticed that although Chen Yu's clothes were neat, they were obviously from a street stall; his watch was a cheap, domestic electronic one; and although his leather shoes were polished, the soles were worn thin. These details all indicated that the young man's financial situation was indeed poor, making him the perfect prey he was looking for.In the evening, Chen Yu dragged his leaden legs back to his rented room. The room was stuffy and hot. He turned on the second-hand electric fan he had bought for 50 yuan. The blades creaked as they turned, blowing out hot air. He lay on the hardboard bed, staring blankly at the water stains on the ceiling.On the wall was a map of China, with several major cities marked in red pen: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. These were all places he had once dreamed of venturing to. The newspapers said opportunities were everywhere there, and salaries were shockingly high. But now it seemed that even gaining a foothold in Nanchang was so difficult, let alone those distant metropolises.It was late. The sound of the television came from the next room; it was the closing theme of the evening news. Listening to the familiar melody, Chen Yu thought of his parents back in the countryside. At this moment, they should have finished their day's farm work and be sitting together in front of his third uncle's 14-inch black-and-white TV, watching the national news."If they knew my current situation, how disappointed they would be." Chen Yu felt a lump in his throat. Guilt, homesickness, and helplessness were tangled together like a messy ball of yarn. In the letter he wrote home last month, he had only reported the good news, saying that everything was fine and he would find a job soon.