Xu Dengming pondered, though the test paper hadn’t given a result, she should have become the ability holder Zhao Bainiao had mentioned.
She wasn’t sure what other ability holders were busy with in their daily lives, but for Xu Dengming, compared to trying every means to enhance her ability, she had more down-to-earth matters to consider at the moment. Like earning a living.
After finishing her research on the skill, Xu Dengming logged onto the school’s official website forum.
She had intended to see if there were any new job fairs recently, only to find that the job-seeking section was always closed.
It was probably because the incident at Nest Park had left a deep shadow on the management bureau, so they had taken certain preventive measures.
Xu Dengming had no choice but to wander around the water-posting area.
As expected, it was filled with complaints from soon-to-be graduates, mainly about the difficulty of finding jobs recently, and secondly about the “cafeteria price hike” and “supermarket price increase.”
She flipped through some recent posts and then wore a thoughtful expression.
Since entering Nestle Park, Xu Dengming hadn’t eaten out for a long time.
But as someone who had lived on her own at an early age, she had a basic understanding of prices.
For example, in the current season, the market value of a kilogram of ordinary blue radish was at most fifteen city coins.
Selling it for twenty city coins was considered a high price, and selling it for thirty city coins was a disregard for the common sense of buyers.
But in just these past few days, the price of blue radish had risen to thirty-five city coins per kilogram, and the prices of other vegetables, fruits, and necessities had also increased accordingly.
Xu Dengming remembered that her account balance was only three thousand two hundred city coins.
She couldn’t even afford to eat a hundred pounds of radish.
Even without considering rent and utilities, she was on the brink of starvation.
The issue of making a living suddenly became particularly urgent.
In Xu Dengming’s original idea, Triangle Banyan City was only a second-tier city.
As long as she didn’t go to the inner city, the cost of living would be very limited.
But the situation had clearly changed now.
After the great disaster, human food had once been in very short supply.
However, the survivors quickly cultivated a batch of more resilient and disaster-resistant edible animals and plants, including blue radish.
Now, the food people grew could meet the needs of the urban population.
There were planting areas in all cities.
Some third-tier cities’ main business was food cultivation.
The residents there needed to regularly supply food to higher-level cities or the core city.
In return, they could exchange for daily necessities at a relatively cheaper price.
Xu Dengming was a native of Triangle Banyan City.
In her memory, every price increase had a significant reason.
Once, due to environmental changes, several important food supply areas had acid rain for several months.
Many people, including the then young Xu Dengming, could only survive on diluted nutritional fluid.
She hoped that the situation this time wouldn’t be too bad.
Xu Dengming closed the forum, planning to find a job that could support herself through other channels first.
Unfortunately, the influence of Nest Park was too widespread.
The website that closed the job-seeking section was not only the campus network of E University.
After browsing the city network for a long time, Xu Dengming found that all job-seeking web pages were desolate.
For a moment, she had the illusion that the labor market had already been saturated and didn’t need fresh blood.
Xu Dengming felt that she had already stood at a crossroads in life and had to make a difficult choice between being killed by the dungeon or being killed by poverty.
She was curious about what other ability holders usually lived on.
When Zhao Bainiao came to visit her, she mentioned that teacher-type ability holders had a great advantage in the technical industry, which fully proved that special power could be combined with daily life.
So what about other types of ability holders?
Xu Dengming recalled the functions of the [Observation Eye], [Fate Box (Variant)], and [Foreknowledge].
She remembered that before the great disaster, there was a profession called fortune-telling stall, which was so relevant to personal ability that Xu Dengming felt she was born in the wrong era.
As for now, Xu Dengming thought she could only first foresee her future career direction to reduce unnecessary detours in the job-seeking process.
She casually took out a resume that had been printed earlier as the “related item” to activate the skill, then focused her spirit and activated [Foreknowledge].
The skill began to take effect, and Xu Dengming felt as if she was detaching from reality and immersing herself in a river connecting the past and the future.
Her consciousness gradually crossed the track of time and stopped before the result she wanted to understand.
The image that formed in her consciousness this time was not very clear, but it was not so blurry as to be unrecognizable.
Xu Dengming’s eyes slightly moved, and her expression was a bit strange.
In that instant, she seemed to have seen a set of uniforms belonging to the management bureau in the not-so-distant future.
Entering the management bureau was not Xu Dengming’s only option, but it was her most likely path.
She planned to pay attention to the recruitment situation.
During this period, relying on the experience she had accumulated from part-time jobs during her school years, she received two small orders to modify drawings.
With the soaring prices, the income from part-time jobs had decreased by a third, leaving Xu Dengming’s dining table with only boiled bread nearing its expiration date and vitamin tablets, in addition to a few wilted vegetables and eggs.
Compared to relying entirely on nutritional fluid for survival, Xu Dengming was satisfied with her diet.
The nutritional fluid in Triangle Banyan City had once had a very serious safety issue.
Although the management bureau had issued several announcements afterwards stating that the situation had improved, residents still preferred natural food.
The money earned from part-time jobs covered the cost of food with almost no surplus.
Although there was still some money in Xu Dengming’s personal account, she, who had rich experience in struggling with poverty, was not very willing to touch her savings unless she really encountered an emergency.
The reduction in pay was bad news, and the rise in prices was also bad news.
Fortunately, Xu Dengming received the good news that Wang Yanxing was about to be discharged from the hospital.
Xu Dengming wanted to go and pick up her classmate.
At this moment, her mobile phone received a text message.
Wang Yanxing’s home was in the inner city.
Because she didn’t want her parents to worry about her experience, she never told her family about the difficulties she encountered in job hunting.
After being discharged from the hospital, she went straight back to her apartment.
As she got off the hospital car, her mobile phone vibrated slightly, and she received a text message from the “management bureau.”
“Ms. Wang Yanxing, hello. We are pleased to inform you that your resume has passed the preliminary screening of the management bureau.”
“If you are interested in joining us, please bring your relevant documents and report to the second floor of No. 27, Dujian Street within three working days during working hours.”
Wang Yanxing:”…..”
She was stunned for a moment, then directly put her luggage back into her room on the third floor, and then ran upstairs to room 403.
Because it was on the top floor, the lighting conditions of room 403 had always been very good.
The not-so-large living room was cleaned very neatly by the owner, and there was even a bunch of origami flowers in the white vase on the table.
“I also received such a text message,” Xu Dengming made a simple reply after listening to Wang Yanxing’s intention, and then got up to pour a glass of plain boiled water for her long-lost classmate.
Wang Yanxing looked distressed:
“I actually never thought of working for the management bureau. What do you think?”
Xu Dengming: “I think it’s not bad, at least it’s stable.”
If she hadn’t awakened her special power, Xu Dengming’s attitude might have been more cautious now.
However, she had already touched another side of the world and urgently needed to expand her channels for obtaining relevant knowledge.
Joining an official institution was a good way.
Moreover, Xu Dengming really needed a continuous way to make money.
Her first three years at E University were busy and fulfilling.
Xu Dengming paid off her student loan in advance at the cost of chronic sleep deprivation and overwork.
But now that she was about to graduate and lose her student status, she would face high taxes.
Anyway, official institutions also allowed resignation.
If the work really didn’t go well, she could still choose to leave with her luggage.
Wang Yanxing looked thoughtful.
She preferred a job with higher freedom, but after the experience in Nest Park, except for the absolute inability to agree to go home to help, she didn’t have much insistence on her career.
Since a classmate was going to apply for the job, she was naturally very willing to go and see the situation with her.
The two quickly reached an agreement.
On the day after receiving the text message, they tidied up their resumes and prepared to take the bus to Dujian Street.
When Xu Dengming went out, she also took the time to check the prices of vegetables for the day.
As expected, the food was still very expensive today.
Fortunately, the upward trend had been temporarily curbed, giving citizens some confidence.
There were fewer pedestrians on the road, and fewer vehicles as well.
But according to the newspaper, the fare for the public transportation system was not much different from before.
It was just that the departure time had become longer than before, which was quite a test of the patience of those waiting.
Xu Dengming was glad that she had reserved enough time for the interview.
Thirty minutes later, the bus finally arrived at the station.
Xu Dengming and Wang Yanxing chose seats next to each other.
Outside the bus window, the food vendors on both sides of the street had all disappeared, and many restaurant doors had wooden signs hanging, indicating that they were temporarily closed.
A child dressed in ill-fitting clothes ran with his head down on the sidewalk, accidentally bumping into a passerby’s arm.
A pack of compressed biscuits rolled out from under his clothes.
The child mumbled an apology, bent down to pick up the fallen compressed biscuits, and continued to run away without looking back.
Wang Yanxing sighed, “It’s too desolate. I feel like our neighborhood will be abandoned soon.”
Xu Dengming nodded, “Many people who worked in the suburban factories used to live around the Sunflower Apartments. Now there are fewer and fewer of them.”
Wang Yanxing: “If we don’t succeed in the interview today, should we go to the inner city to try our luck?”
The pronoun she used was not “I,” but “we.”
Xu Dengming: “Didn’t you always not want to go home?”
Wang Yanxing: “Sometimes you can compromise with survival.”
Xu Dengming seemed to smile and shook her head, “It’s not that bad yet.”
The distance from Dujian Street to the two girls’ apartment was not close.
They set off right after lunch and spent two bumpy hours on the bus before finally arriving at their destination.
Xu Dengming had checked before coming.
The address of the management bureau was actually No. 22, Dujian Street.
Due to the expansion of personnel and the fact that some nearby shops had moved away one after another because of poor management, the management bureau had set up several additional office locations next to the headquarters.
“The vehicle is about to arrive at the station…………”
The electronic announcement of the bus woke Xu Dengming up a bit from her drowsy state.
She pushed Wang Yanxing, who was already dreaming with her bag in her arms, and pulled her up from the seat.
The street of Dujian Street was quite wide, with gene-improved plane trees planted on both sides after the great disaster.
The trees had slender trunks, but the downside was that they didn’t grow many leaves, which was not very friendly to pedestrians who wanted to avoid the sun.
No. 27 was behind No. 22.
The exterior wall of this building was an old brick red.
There was no sign hanging at the entrance, and the metal door was slightly open, with a glimpse of the dimly lit interior.
Xu Dengming tried to knock on the door.
As soon as her hand touched the outer door, the door opened directly.
Inside No. 27, there was a reception area near the door, but there was no staff behind it.
If it weren’t for the signs of human activity around and the knowledge that the headquarters of the management bureau in the outer city of Triangle Banyan City was not far away, Xu Dengming, a college student who had not yet graduated, would definitely have turned around and left with her companion.