Chapter 82: This Job Is Very Lucrative
Zhang Dezhen was the one who had privately messaged Zhou Qi in the chat group yesterday. After the initial rush of excitement from their conversation wore off, he started to grow worried.
It wasn’t that he’d never seen a fast food restaurant do home delivery, but it was usually the owner or an employee handling nearby orders. They typically didn’t accept orders from far away.
But this Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was actually hiring dedicated delivery staff—and three of them at once.
If that wasn’t surprising enough, when he arrived today, he saw a whole swarm of six other delivery people inside, which made him apprehensive.
’Could this be some new kind of scam? Will leaving my ID with the boss cause any problems?’
He even felt an impulse to ask for his ID back and just leave, but then he saw the dishes on the hot food counter and hesitated.
’The food looks pretty good... Maybe I’ll eat first and then decide to leave?’
In the moment he hesitated, someone shoved a tray into his hands and led him to the serving line. With a few loud SCOOPS, they filled his plate until it was piled high like a small mountain. They even enthusiastically asked if it was enough, telling him he could get more if he was still hungry.
’Well, things have already come to this. I’ll just eat first and figure things out later!’
The juicy and tender braised chicken, the soft and smooth steamed egg with a savory meat patty, the delicious home-style tofu...
After the meal, Zhang Dezhen completely forgot about getting his ID back and leaving. He followed the main group as they marched in a grand procession to the Hai City Library.
Zhang Dezhen and the other two new hires weren’t familiar with the area, so Xu An had Old Han and a few others guide them for the day. Zhang Dezhen was assigned to follow Old Han.
"Qingya District... that’s a bit far," Old Han remarked as he took the order slip. He then reached for the meal boxes. To his surprise, there were fourteen of them for Qingya District today!
How bizarre. There were usually only two meal boxes for that location. Why were there so many today?
On the way, Old Han explained the surrounding area to Zhang Dezhen, pointing out various companies and residential complexes with the clarity of an expert.
Listening to him, Zhang Dezhen’s worries mostly subsided. ’This sounds pretty legit,’ he thought. ’It really does seem to be just a delivery job, not some shady scam.’
Just as they rounded a corner, they could see a group of people standing at the entrance to Qingya District, craning their necks in anticipation. The moment they spotted Old Han and his companion, the group rushed over to meet them.
"Young men, over here! Over here! Yes, we’re the ones."
Old Han had barely gotten off his electric bike when the delivery container on the back was flung open. A dozen or so people chattered away as they snatched up every last meal box, completely emptying the container. Only Zhang Dezhen’s container still held two meal boxes, which were for the customer in Building 1, Apartment 601.
The group of seniors took their meal boxes and walked over to the stone benches under a large banyan tree, leaving one elderly man behind to settle the bill.
After the payment was settled, Old Han led Zhang Dezhen toward the first building. "This is Building 1, you’ll need to remember it," he said as they walked. "If the order is for less than ten meals, it’s a one-person delivery. You might end up handling this route by yourself in the future."
Zhang Dezhen nodded, feeling a little dazed. This delivery method was completely different from what he had imagined.
He had assumed the restaurant would take an order by phone, prepare the food, and give it to him to deliver to the customer. At that rate, he’d be delivering twenty or thirty meals over the entire lunch rush at most.
But now, in less than ten minutes, twelve of the fourteen meals had already been handed off. Once they delivered the last two, they could head back for the next batch of orders.
’Barely ten minutes, and I’ve already earned three-fifty?’ Zhang Dezhen found it hard to believe.
Old Han had delivered meals to Ye Ning several times, so he was quite familiar with the man’s peculiar way of receiving his food.
He rang the doorbell and held the meal box at just the right height. A hand shot out from behind the door with lightning speed, grabbed the box, and then the door slammed shut.
"Hey, wait! Mr. Ye, you haven’t paid yet!"
At his words, the door opened a tiny crack. Neatly folded bills were passed through the opening. As Old Han took the money, he noticed a small note tucked inside.
’Could you please take out the trash in the corner? The extra yuan is for your trouble.’
Old Han instinctively glanced toward the corner. Sure enough, there was a small bag of trash.
’Hey, a little side cash!’
Grinning from ear to ear, he picked up the bag of trash and led Zhang Dezhen downstairs.
With that extra yuan, the total fee for this trip came to eight yuan. Split between the two of them, that was four yuan each. That wasn’t a small amount at all. Sweet!
Ye Ning stood behind his door, waiting until their footsteps had completely faded away. He then checked the peephole to make sure the coast was clear before cautiously opening the door and poking his head out to look at the corner of the hallway.
The spot where the bag of trash should have been was now empty.
’Perfect! I’m a genius!’
A few days ago, after Xu An himself had delivered his meal, Ye Ning had intended to take out the trash the following afternoon. But when he opened his door, he discovered the bag he’d left outside was already gone.
It was only then, slow on the uptake, that he recalled the delivery person—Xu An—muttering something about taking the trash out for him.
This sparked a little idea. ’Maybe I can ask the delivery guys to take out my trash for me!’
But then he thought, ’Why would they help me for no reason?’ Suddenly, he remembered the fifty-cent delivery fee per meal. ’I can pay someone to do it for me!’
After mulling it over, he decided that one yuan would be a suitable price.
One yuan a day was just thirty yuan a month. Totally manageable.
He had written the note at eleven o’clock and waited nervously. He was so anxious, in fact, that he had forgotten to hand over the money when he grabbed his food.
But! The plan had worked! He would never have to leave his apartment to take out the trash again!
He carried the meal box to his desk, feeling utterly delighted, and dug in.
Under the large banyan tree, the group of seniors took out their meals, spread them across the stone table, and began to eat, clucking their tongues in appreciation.
"This tofu is fried perfectly—crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They didn’t cut any corners at all."
"How did they make this chicken? I’ve never had it cooked this way before, it’s quite a novelty. Oh, wow, the potatoes are so flavorful."
"The sauce is delicious mixed with the rice, too. So fragrant."
"..."
The group chatted as they ate. For many, it was the liveliest meal they’d had since retiring, outside of major holidays. Everyone was beaming with joy; they couldn’t be happier.
After their meal, the crowd lingered, strolling around the banyan tree to digest and chat. Suddenly, one of them proposed, "Why don’t we all order from this restaurant from now on? We can all eat together at noon. It would be so lively and nice!"
As soon as the words were out, everyone else chimed in with agreement.
At one o’clock, all seven hundred and thirty-six meal boxes had been delivered. Zhang Dezhen followed Old Han and the others back to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.
Once they were back at the restaurant, the first thing Xu An did was return the IDs he had collected from the new hires.
Getting his ID back, Zhang Dezhen finally felt completely at ease.
Next, Xu An began to calculate everyone’s pay based on the number of orders they had delivered.
"Old Han, Zhang Dezhen, you two delivered a hundred and sixty orders in total. That comes to eighty yuan in delivery fees, so forty for each of you." Xu An counted out forty yuan for each of them from his fanny pack, then pulled out another five-yuan bill and handed it to Old Han. "This is your bonus for training a new recruit."
After Old Han accepted the money, Xu An started settling the day’s wages with the other drivers.
Zhang Dezhen stared at the forty yuan in his hand, a look of bewilderment on his face.
’In... in just a little over two hours, I made forty yuan? It’s actually this much!’
He had come over yesterday thinking that at this fast food place, he could get a full meal and maybe earn twenty or thirty yuan a day to help with rent. The hours were short and wouldn’t interfere with his main job search.
But he had just worked for a little over two hours and already earned forty yuan. At this rate, that was twelve hundred yuan a month!
While it wasn’t as high as the salary from his previous hotel job, this was for just over two hours of work!
Just then, Old Han clapped Zhang Dezhen on the shoulder and said with a grin, "Keep at it. We lost a little time today because I was showing you the routes. On a normal day, I can deliver over a hundred meals on my own. My take-home is usually sixty or seventy yuan."
Zhang Dezhen gasped. Sixty or seventy yuan in two hours! That was almost two thousand a month!
That was comparable to his wages as a helper at the hotel!
Zhang Dezhen’s breathing quickened. This new job... it seemed to have a very lucrative future!
’If I find another part-time job for the mornings or afternoons, wouldn’t my total monthly income be three or four thousand?’
His breath grew more and more ragged.