Chapter 246: Took the Bait

The so-called “bright path” really just meant finding someone—someone inside the steel factory, or someone at the subdistrict office.

Both routes were accessible for Zhou Dafu.

After all, there were people from Zhoujiazhuang working inside the steel factory, including Uncle Sixteen and Zhou Dazhong. As for the subdistrict office, he was even more familiar with them. Lately, he had been frequently sending them meat.

Back then, the subdistrict office had even promised that if any job openings came up, they would consider him.

For now, he didn’t want to trouble Uncle Sixteen, so he decided to check in with the subdistrict office instead.

Zhou Dafu arrived at the place the gatekeeper had mentioned—the subdistrict office.

He was already familiar with the elderly guard at the door; he came by often with meat deliveries. Who at the subdistrict office didn’t know him? Most of them had eaten the wild game he brought.

“Dafu, Director Li just stepped out,” the old man told him.

He knew that guy usually came looking for Director Li.

Zhou Dafu paused. Director Li wasn’t in?

“Uncle Guo, I came today mainly to ask if there are any job openings. I plan to buy one.” Zhou Dafu was straightforward with Uncle Guo since they were familiar.

The gatekeeper thought for a moment, then pointed toward a nearby office and said, “Then go see Officer Huang in there. Ask him. No need to trouble Director Li for this.”

If it were about job assignments, that would indeed require Director Li. But if someone came with money, then as long as someone could help make the connection, it wasn’t that hard. There was always someone who, for one reason or another, needed to transfer their family’s job post.

“Okay, thank you, Uncle Guo,” Zhou Dafu said gratefully.

Following the directions, he headed to the office and knocked.

The person inside looked up and, recognizing Zhou Dafu, smiled and asked, “Dafu, what brings you here?”

“Officer Huang, I wanted to ask if there are any job positions being transferred right now. I want to get one,” Zhou Dafu got straight to the point.

Officer Huang hadn’t expected him to be so direct, but quickly said, “Wait a moment. Let me check for you.”

Even apprentice-level positions were going for four or five hundred yuan these days. Official worker posts were even pricier—at least six or seven hundred yuan. And since so few people were selling, with so many buyers, some high-benefit jobs could even be speculated up to over a thousand yuan.

After a while, he told Zhou Dafu, “There are still four positions available. You can take a look.”

Zhou Dafu asked, “Officer Huang, do any of them happen to be at the steel factory?”

The steel factory was his top choice. Its benefits and pay were among the best in the entire Forty-Nine City.

Officer Huang glanced down and replied, “Steel factory jobs are extremely sought after and rarely become available.

What we have right now are apprentice-level positions at the instant noodle factory, the coking plant, the textile mill, and the flour mill.

The instant noodle factory is the most expensive—six hundred yuan. The cheapest is the coking plant at four hundred eighty. The flour mill and textile mill are both five hundred twenty.”

Zhou Dafu felt disappointed. None of them were the steel factory job he wanted.

Now he had a clearer sense of the job market. Just thinking about how Uncle Sixteen had offered him a job—just one position alone was worth six hundred yuan. Ten of them would be six thousand! That was practically reaching the level of a ten-thousand-yuan household.

When he calculated it, he was stunned and clicked his tongue inwardly. Uncle Sixteen really was rich.

“Officer Huang, I’d like to go back and think it over,” Zhou Dafu said cautiously.

He was worried that saying he wanted to think might upset Officer Huang.

But it only proved Zhou Dafu was overthinking. After all, buying a job post was a serious matter. It was normal to go back and discuss it.

Officer Huang said, “No problem! But don’t take too long to decide. Otherwise, if someone else buys it first, you’ll miss out!”

“Alright, I’ll go discuss it and come back tomorrow.”

With that, he left the subdistrict office—but didn’t notice someone was quietly following him.

Zhou Dafu figured, since he was already in town, he might as well stroll around Forty-Nine City a bit. Although he had come into the city frequently lately, he hadn’t really had time to wander—he was always rushing in and rushing back out.

Just then, he spotted two men sneaking into an alley, looking suspicious. They seemed like enemy agents, and he couldn’t resist following them.

If they really were enemy agents, reporting them would surely earn him a reward. The crackdown on enemy agents was pretty intense these days.

Zhou Dafu followed carefully, keeping his steps light to avoid alerting them.

What he didn’t know was that they had already noticed him. In fact, they were baiting him on purpose.

The two had overheard his chat with the steel factory gatekeeper and could tell he was from the countryside. After a quick discussion, they came up with this scam—to trick Zhou Dafu into handing over money for a fake job post, then flee Forty-Nine City before they got caught.

One of the younger men said, “Hey! Can you lower the price on that steel factory job? You want eight hundred yuan, but my family really can’t afford that much. How about six hundred?”

The middle-aged man immediately snapped, “Six hundred yuan? No way.

You have to understand, a steel factory position is super competitive—it goes for at least eight hundred. There’s no shortage of people wanting it. If I weren’t getting old and my son hadn’t asked me to go south to take care of my grandkid, I’d never be selling this.”

They were local hustlers who knew all the going rates for jobs in various factories. They just didn’t have the money to buy one.

“Comrade, this is my final offer. If it works, great. If not, there’s nothing I can do—six hundred eighty,” the younger man said.

Then he made a show of preparing to leave.

The middle-aged man didn’t try to stop him. Just like that, the younger man walked off.

Zhou Dafu, who had been eavesdropping, immediately felt deflated.

He had thought he was on the verge of catching enemy agents, only to find out it was just people haggling over a job post. As the footsteps drew closer, he panicked and ducked into a corner to avoid being seen.

But then he suddenly realized—hadn’t he come into the city to buy a job post? And it just happened to be for the steel factory, the one he wanted most.

Still, wasn’t this all a little too convenient? He had just arrived in the city to look for a job, and someone happened to appear, offering exactly what he wanted?

Thinking carefully, he realized he didn’t know either of those two people, and they didn’t know he had been eavesdropping. It didn’t seem fake…

Once the young man had walked away, Zhou Dafu finally stepped out and hurried over to find the middle-aged man, who was just ahead. He quickly caught up.

The moment the man saw Zhou Dafu coming after him, a faint, knowing smile curled at the corner of his lips.

He knew it—the out-of-towners just couldn’t resist the temptation of a steel factory job. They were bound to fall into his hands. And here he was, walking right into the trap.

(End of Chapter)

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—A coking plant is a facility where coal is heated without air to produce coke, a carbon-rich fuel used mainly in steelmaking. It also produces by-products like coal tar and gas.