Chapter 1: Zhang Fan lacks money

Everyone has their own way of going through college life. Some people just go through the motions. Some people party and flirt with the opposite gender every night. Still, most people will properly finish their studies and graduate successfully.

It was currently midsummer in S Province. Although the temperature was 30 degrees Celsius, it was still rather cool under the trees' shade.

Zhang Fan, a clinical student in his fifth year, was unable to feel cool despite standing in the shade. He had been so anxious over the past few days that even his lips had become inflamed.

Everyone else around him was busy preparing their resumes. However, Zhang Fan couldn't focus on preparing a resume, because he had yet to receive his diploma.

Zhang Fan's parents were both ordinary blue-collar employees. He also had a sister who was seven years younger than him, so his family's economic situation wasn't the best. Back when Zhang Fan was accepted into college, many family members and friends had pooled their money together in order for him to afford the tuition.

After Zhang Fan entered college, he didn't want to have to rely on his parents to financially support him. Not only did he actively work part-time at school, he would also work at the market after he finished his studies, selling instant noodles, meat, eggs, and so on. This barely managed to help cover his tuition and living expenses, successfully seeing him through his first four years of college.

But in Zhang Fan's fifth and final year of college, it seemed as if the heavens wanted to give him a trial as incidents kept happening to his family.

Zhang Fan's father, who worked at a chemical plant, suffered a burn injury to his foot. His father stayed at the local city hospital for two weeks, but then the doctor uncaringly stated that the city hospital would be unable to cure the injury, and that his father needed to go to the better provincial hospital in the province capital.

So, all the time and money spent at the city hospital had been wasted.

Right after Zhang Fan's father left the hospital, his mother came down with acute appendicitis. Although her surgery was successful with no problems, Zhang Fan's tuition money all went to pay for her surgery.

Since Zhang Fan was no longer able to afford tuition, his college naturally would refuse to give him his diploma.

His relatives had helped out significantly over the years. Zhang Fan didn't want to be so shameless as to trouble everyone again, so he could only think of something by himself.

The school year was almost over, with graduation right around the corner. Classes were just about finished, with nothing but speeches from the school every day. Students were free to do what they liked in this free time.

Over the past twentyish days, Zhang Fan had been busy working a construction job at day and handing out pamphlets at night. As of now, he was still approximately 2,000 yuan short for his tuition money.

There was no helping it, as he was almost supposed to graduate. Zhang Fan gritted his teeth and returned to his dormitory. Of course, his roommates were also rather poor and unable to lend Zhang Fan any money.

However, the college was different from high school in a small town. There were many rich people here. Not to mention, since graduation was almost upon everyone, there were quite a few who were going wild.

There were some bored and gambling-addicted students that had started gambling sessions in the dormitory.

Although the amount they gambled wasn't much, those who were unlucky could still lose 200 to 300 yuan in a single day. Still, there were plenty of students who participated in this underground gambling.

Zhang Fan wasn't going there to try his luck. He had an absolute guarantee.

Zhang Fan's family came from a small village in the northwest. Just about everyone in the village had been farmers already for countless generations. Even the few factory workers in the village counted as relatively famous people.

In such a small village, there was a certain notorious person that everyone knew about—Zhang Fan's uncle.

Zhang Fan's uncle had been unemployed and up to no good ever since young. He would often steal a neighbor's chicken or dog. At any rate, nobody in the village liked him.

One day, Zhang Fan's uncle injured the neighboring village mayor's son in a fight. Zhang Fan's uncle thus left his hometown due to being afraid of revenge against him.

When Zhang Fan was a teenager, his uncle suddenly returned to his hometown. His uncle no longer acted in such ridiculous fashion like a hoodlum, just as if he had completely changed.

As a teenager, Zhang Fan loved to hang out with his uncle.

His uncle had lots of stories to tell since he had traveled around and seen the outside world. His uncle also knew how to perform many card tricks.

Although these were only ordinary tricks that his uncle wouldn't show to others, perhaps Zhang Fan's uncle enjoyed being idolized by his younger relative. So, his uncle often showed him these card tricks, which Zhang Fan learned over time.

As Zhang Fan grew older, he gradually learned that these card tricks were actually secret cheating techniques for gambling. When bored, Zhang Fan would often practice these techniques with a deck of cards.

One year, when the college student Zhang Fan returned to his village to spend the holidays, he saw some of the youngsters in the village playing cards. Wanting to try his skills, Zhang Fan used his techniques and ended up winning many times over, winning a few dozen yuan in the process. As a result, someone told Zhang Fan's father, and Zhang Fan received a beating that left him bedridden for three days.

Zhang Fan's father was uneducated, and didn't know very much about parenting. The only parenting his father knew was to use brute force. After that, Zhang Fan never participated in gambling again, as the beating had left him with a deep impression.

The clinical department was the largest department in the medical school. There were many rich students who would often get together to play mahjong or cards. These gambling-addicted students would often play for so long that they would forget to eat.

This was the decade of the year 2000, when takeout food deliveries still weren't that commonplace. So, Zhang Fan would often take some instant noodles to sell at these gambling sessions. That was why Zhang Fan knew exactly when and where these gambling sessions would take place.

Room 504 was the room where all the gambling-addicted students would gather. When they opened the door and saw Zhang Fan, someone inside shouted, "Hey, food seller, you haven't been working hard recently. I would have starved to death if you didn't come. Hurry up, I want two instant noodles and two eggs."

Since Zhang Fan often carried a bag filled with instant noodles to sell everywhere, he gradually became known as the "food seller" to everyone.

"I'm sorry. I've been too busy to stock up recently. Since we're all graduating soon, and you all seem to be having fun, I'd like to join in today."

Zhang Fan had already experienced how cruel society could be after four years as a food seller. Every time he spoke, he would always wear a careful smile and never say anything that would displease a customer!

"Oh my, how rare. Even the food seller wants to join in. Hey, everyone, make room for him!" Seven or eight students immediately made some space for Zhang Fan to join in.

They were playing a local poker card game known as "Golden Flower". Three cards of an identical number would be considered a "bomb", with Ace being the biggest, and 2 being the smallest. After that would be card series like 2345 and so on.

After Zhang Fan joined in, he bet small for the first few games while carefully observing everyone.

Finally, he received a good hand and managed to win a little bit of money. Since the winner would be tasked with shuffling, Zhang Fan started using his card trick techniques. All of his card trick techniques were based on shuffling. None of the other students were professional gamblers. Although Zhang Fan hadn't practiced his card techniques for quite a while now, he was still more than skilled enough to fool some students that hadn't even graduated yet.

And so, Zhang Fan won roughly 200 or 300 yuan for the day. He didn't dare to win too much, since everyone wasn't betting much money to begin with. If he kept winning endlessly, nobody here was an idiot who would keep playing. Who would dare to play with someone that only won and never lost?

After another twentyish days, Zhang Fan finally obtained enough tuition money and paid it off. As he looked at the receipt in his hands, he felt like there was something wrong with the world. He barely managed to obtain enough tuition money and living expenses after working so hard for the past four years, but he easily managed to obtain 2000 yuan over three weeks from some underground gambling.

Zhang Fan felt truly helpless. If it hadn't been for his father's beating, perhaps he would have given up on becoming a doctor already to become a gambler instead.

Over the past three weeks, Zhang Fan had been busy every day, attending each gambling session to earn tuition money. Each night, he had to think about how to come up with new tricks so that nobody would notice how he was cheating during the gambling sessions. It was also hard work for him over the past three weeks, so he had forgotten completely about the upcoming company recruitment fair.

Apart from three or four students that had guarantees with postgraduate recommendations, and a few that had connections which would get them into the capital's provincial hospital, most other graduates would either go to city hospitals or become private doctors.

Even going to a city hospital would still require some connections. You would have to prepare at least half a year in advance or even longer. Zhang Fan had such difficulty already with paying tuition, so of course he didn't have the time to set up any connections.

That was why this recruitment fair should have been especially important for Zhang Fan. Even if he couldn't find a job at a hospital, he could have at least found a large and proper company to work for as a private doctor or something.

Zhang Fan was stunned that he had forgotten completely about and missed the recruitment fair. He had obtained his graduation diploma now, but where was he supposed to go to find a job!?