Chapter 14: The Hiring - 14
After eating, Zhou Fan headed upstairs to take a long rest in preparation for the hiring tomorrow.
When the sunlight fell on him through the window, Zhou Fan woke up. He headed down to have breakfast before leaving the inn.
It wasn't long before Zhou Fan reached the library. Going inside, he walked up to an attendant and asked where he should go.
"Go up to the 5th floor and find a seat. The hiring process will begin in 2 hours."
"Thank you."
When Zhou Fan made it to the 5th floor, it was nearly empty. Contrary to the last time he was here, there were no scientists. Instead, there were 4 people sitting in chairs lined up on the floor. Of the four, 3 were old men, and the other was a middle-aged man.
When he walked in, the four of them glanced at him at the same time. When they saw his appearance, they were surprised.
Although he had begun to look older, Zhou Fan still didn't seem a day over 15. In fact, he only started looking like this after reaching the 10th stage of foundation establishment.
He could literally feel himself aging while he was compressing his foundation. At first, Zhou Fan was terrified. However, he felt no threat to him. Instead, it felt as though the Qi was helping him. After pondering for a while, Zhou Fan had come to the conclusion that his 10-year-old body was holding him back.
He estimated that by the time he finished compressing his foundation, his appearance would change to that of an 18-year-old.
Bringing himself away from his thoughts, Zhou Fan noticed that the 4 men didn't pay any more attention to him. Although a 15-year-old registering for an elite job was weird, it wasn't the first time it had happened. Of course, the four men had no way to tell that he was only 10.
Zhou Fan walked to a seat in the front row and sat down. Since he had two hours to wait, Zhou Fan closed his eyes and started cultivating.
Thinking about it, this was the first time Zhou Fan had ever cultivated in front of anyone. After a while, Zhou Fan opened his eyes to see if anyone was showing a reaction.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Zhou Fan turned back around and continued to cultivate.
Even after cultivating for two hours, Zhou Fan didn't feel any noticeable difference. Maybe it was 3% more complete at most.
A loud bell suddenly brought everyone to attention. Standing on the table was three old men. They all had grey hair and long beards.
"Attention candidates! The hiring will now begin."
After saying that, 5 attendants came up with a stack of papers. They started handing them out to everyone along with a pencil.
"You will have an hour to finish this test. As long as you get half right, you will move on to the next round of testing."
Although Zhou Fan felt that 50% was rather low, he didn't waste any time before starting the test.
The test had 100 questions, and all of them were open-ended. Zhou Fan quickly sped through the test until the 78th question when he finally saw something he didn't know. Clearly, it wasn't information that was accesible on the first through the fifth floor.
Zhou Fan wrote some random nonsense on the off chance he was right and continued on. Besides the 85th, 91st, and the 99th question, Zhou Fan knew the rest of the answers.
Although he had finished in 5 minutes, Zhou Fan waited until 50 minutes had gone by before handing in his test. Even then, he was the first to do so.
The head examiner nodded his head while taking the test from Zhou Fans hands.
"I hope you turned it in early because you're finished and not because you gave up."
Nodding back at the man, Zhou Fan headed back to his seat and waited until the remaining time was up. The examiners collected the test and said that they would be done grading them in 3 hours.
Since he had time, Zhou Fan left the library and found a random stall. He bought a good smelling bun and ate it before he went back to the library. Even with his lunch break, he still had to wait 2 hours before the examiners came back.
Of the 25 people taking the test, only 5 passed. Zhou Fan, two of the three old men he saw earlier, the middle-aged man he saw, and a woman that looked around 35.
"Follow me," beckoned the head examiner before leading us upstairs.
On the way, he mentioned that the highest score was a 96. Although he didn't say it, it was naturally Zhou Fans.
After a few staircases, they arrived at the 8th floor.
The 8th floor looked just like the 5th floor. The only difference was that the lab was bigger and seemed more advanced.
Instead of an empty lab, Zhou Fan and the others were greeted with the sight of three people on a higher surface. It was like a judges booth.
The lady in the middle glanced at them before saying instructions.
"Each of us will take turns asking each of you questions. Our questions will only consist of information on the 1st - 5th floors. If you answer incorrectly, you will be removed. We will continue asking questions until there are only two of you left. Any questions?"
No one said anything. They then sat in one of the 5 chairs before them.
"All right. You in chair number one, this is your question. What is the name of the founder of the wishan kingdom?"
"Ling Yangchen"
"Correct"
The lady continued like that until she got to chair number 4. Chair number 4 was Zhou Fans chair.
"What is the name of the author of the book - The Rising Emperor -?"
"Jang Hong"
"Correct"
Zhou Fan and the rest continued in this fashion for 5 more rounds before the first person was kicked out.
" Who is the author of - The Black Chairiot-"
"Wang Yuan?" The middle-aged man said unconfidently.
"Incorrect"
The man was then escorted out by the head examiner.
When the man failed, the others started getting nervous. Zhou Fan, on the other hand, wasn't. Since the questions were based on the first 5 floors, Zhou Fan had absolute confidence that he would win.
Chapter 15: New Job - 15
The examiner continued asking questions after the first man was removed. After he lost, the questions seemed to get harder. Of course, Zhou Fan still had no problem getting through.
It wasn't too much longer until the next person lost. It was the middle-aged lady.
With three people remaining, the tension was high.
Finally, the middle-aged man lost.
"Who was the 4th emperor of the truth empire?"
"Bing Yonshun?"
"Incorrect. Please take your leave."
With his loss, only Zhou Fan and one of the old men were left.
"Congratulations. You two have passed. Please tell us your names"
The old man went first, "My name is metor emphilios."
'Sounds like royalty', Zhou Fan thought to himself.
"My name is Zhou Fan."
"It is a pleasure to meet you two. Please follow me, and I will lead you two to the registration."
Both Zhou Fan and the old man immediately got up and followed her downstairs.
While walking, the lady started talking to Zhou Fan.
"It's not very often that someone your age gets hired here. How old are you?"
"17," said Zhou Fan.
Zhou Fan had chosen 17 because once his foundation finishes molding, he estimated he would look 18.
"Really? You look quite young"
"I didn't have time to fix my hair this morning," Zhou Fan said, lying through his teeth.
Zhou Fans hair was 2 inches long. He didn't even have the ability to fix up his hair.
Speaking of Zhou Fans hair, something weird had been going on. As his body was rapidly growing older, his hair showed signs of turning grey. Initially, Zhou Fan thought that it was a side effect of his rapid aging.
However, when he realized that his hair wasn't growing longer, Zhou Fan decided that it was unlikely. Instead, Zhou Fan came to the conclusion that it was a result of cultivation.
He came to such a conclusion after noticing that his hair was the same shade of grey as Qi itself. Perhaps cultivation isn't free from side effects?
In the midst of his thoughts, Zhou Fan and the other two reached the first floor. Zhou Fan decided to think about cultivation later.
They quickly reached the front desk. The lady pulled out a key and inserted it into the door next to it.
Stepping inside, Zhou Fan saw a big room. The walls were white, and there were a few other people sitting in chairs around a circular table.
The lady who led them to the room turned around and started talking to Zhou Fan and the old man, "Come over here and sign this contract. After signing it, you will receive an advance pay of 10 silver and a silver library card that will grant you access to the 5th - 10th floors."
After hearing that he would be able to get a silver card as a signing bonus, Zhou Fan was excited. A silver card cost 1 gold. Even if Zhou Fan saved up every silver he earned at this job, it would take more than half a year to obtain a gold coin.
"You should have saw on the sign that you will be paid 3 silver a week. What the sign didn't say was that based on your contributions to the library, you can gain even more."
"How do you contribute to the library?"the old man asked.
"You can contribute by either writing books or outstanding performance."
Zhou Fan was glad to hear that. Even though 3 silver a week was more than enough to live off of, he would prefer to be richer. Zhou Fan was also interested in writing a book. Although he had no idea what he would write, he could figure that out another day.
After reading through the contract and making sure he wasn't being scammed, Zhou Fan signed it.
"All right. Both of you will start next week. Although there is no dress code, please wear something nice."
Hearing that, Zhou Fan decided to head to the clothing store and buy something nice with his 10 silver. He didn't plan to spend it all ,however. Zhou Fan also needed to move out of the inn. Although it was fairly clean and came with breakfast, Zhou Fan preferred privacy.
There wasn't much of that when you could hear through the thin walls.
Zhou Fan left the library and made his way to the inn. Zhou Fan hadn't brought much to the city besides his sword and horse. Remembering the horse, Zhou Fan decided to sell it. He had no plans to venture out of the city for a while, and even if he did, he was much faster than the horse.
After asking the patrons of the inn, Zhou Fan found someone willing to buy it for 50 copper. A reasonable price.
Zhou Fan chose to keep the sword. It was quite good at wide range attacks after all. After eating dinner at the inn, Zhou Fan started walking to the Lang Yang clothing shop in order to buy some work clothes.
When he walked in, he saw the same lady he saw last time.
"Hello, how can I help you?" the shopping attendant asked.
"Hello, I would like to buy some nice looking work clothes. Something around 5 silver."
"Okay, please follow me"
Zhou Fan and the attendant soon came to a good-looking section of the shop.
"These are all fine noble clothes. Their prices range from 3 silver to 1 gold."
Zhou Fan scanned the clothes and quickly found some nice looking blue clothes. 2 of them would cost 6 silver. Although above his initial limit, Zhou Fan decided that it was worth it.
The buying process was quick and easy. It wasn't long before he was back at the inn.
After putting his clothes up, Zhou Fan headed out to look for a house for sale. Although he didn't come across any, he did stumble upon a real estate agency. When he walked in, he noticed five other people were there, forming a line. At the front was a lady behind a desk.
Zhou Fan walked to the back of the line and waited his turn.
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