“Forget it.” Since temptation didn’t work, it was time to show his true colors. Qi Lei waved them over. “Take out all your money.”
“What for?”
Though extremely reluctant, Tang Yi still asked while pulling out a bunch of odds and ends from his pants pocket—there were one-yuan and five-yuan bills, as well as tens and fifties.
“That’s all I’ve got.”
Wu Ning also emptied his pockets but was very unwilling. “I just squeezed twenty out of Old Wu this morning. You’re not… taking it all, are you?”
Qi Lei didn’t respond, instead gathering all the money together. The difference was immediately apparent.
Wu Ning had just over twenty yuan, including small change. Meanwhile, Tang Yi had more than eighty, and this guy definitely hadn’t emptied everything.
This was far from enough. Qi Lei stared straight at them. “Bring out as much as you have!”
Tang Yi was shocked. “Fuck! That’s enough. A hundred yuan! Isn’t that enough for you to blow?”
“Stop the nonsense! Tang’s Dad came home last night and splurged on you too, didn’t he?”
“No way, no way!” Tang Xiaoyi was completely frantic. “Old Tang hardly ever comes back, and he only gave me a thousand, saying that’s all for the whole summer. Don’t even think about it!?”
“A thousand!?”
Wu Ning was also shocked and started licking his lips. This summer was going to be comfortable.
As for Qi Lei, he was simply speechless.
In these times, what kid had pocket money reaching a thousand? It was a miracle Tang Yi hadn’t been spoiled into a rich brat by Old Tang.
However, this reminded Qi Lei. He rummaged through his desk drawer and pulled out a piggy bank.
If Qi Lei remembered correctly, there was treasure inside—quite a bit, actually.
With a crash, he smashed it to pieces. Inside were four Old Man Head bills, plus some fives and tens, totaling less than five hundred.
This was his New Year’s money, saved until now.
It had to be said, this was the trio’s only virtue—none of them spent money recklessly, thanks to Cui Yumin’s upbringing since childhood.
Seeing Qi Lei even bringing out his emergency savings, Wu Ning finally got serious. “Shitou, what exactly are you trying to do?”
While counting the money, Qi Lei replied, “Didn’t I say? I want to earn some myself, to see what it feels like to spend my own money.”
He waved them over. “Hurry up, bring out all your savings. Consider it a loan from me.”
Tang Yi had at least a thousand, and if he smashed a piggy bank or something, there might be even more.
As for Wu Ning, this guy was cunning—he’d only have more than Qi Lei, not less.
Wu Ning was almost in tears. “Brother Shitou! I’m calling you brother now! I was saving that to buy a Walkman!”
Hearing this, Qi Lei thought—a Sony Walkman?
“Wait a year! MP3s are out. Who still uses portable cassette players?”
“What?” Wu Ning didn’t quite understand. “What’s an MP3?”
“Even if I explained, you wouldn’t get it. Just hand over the money!”
Wu Ning conceded. Though extremely reluctant, he didn’t hesitate. Together with Tang Yi, they obediently went to get their money.
Soon, each returned carrying a piggy bank, with Tang Yi also clutching ten brand-new Old Man Head bills.
Looking as if they’d lost their parents, he said, “There’s over six hundred here. You’re not taking it all, are you?”
Wu Ning added, “I’ve got over seven hundred.”
Qi Lei hadn’t done the math before, but now he was shocked. Were the three of them this rich? Almost two to three thousand!
But this was also their entire life savings.
After thinking it over, Qi Lei decided he didn’t need that much. He took 500 from Tang Yi and 500 from Wu Ning.
“Consider it a loan from me!”
“Don’t!” Wu Ning immediately stopped him. “With your shabby appearance, what could you possibly use to pay back?”
Then he added, “Are you really going to earn money? Not doing anything else?”
Seeing Qi Lei nod, Wu Ning gritted his teeth. “Then count us two as investors.”
“Deal!”
Qi Lei secretly gloated, knowing this would be the outcome—he understood these two too well.
“Perfect timing. You put in 500, you put in 500, and I’ll put in 500. That makes 1500 total as our capital.”
Wu Ning immediately glared. “Where would you get 500!? You only have 420!”
He had counted when Qi Lei smashed the piggy bank earlier.
Unexpectedly, Qi Lei was shameless, lumping those odds and ends of small bills into his own pile. “Isn’t this 500 now?”
Wu Ning: “…”
Fine, he shouldn’t have bothered being so precise.
Feeling exasperated to the point of gritting his teeth, he said, “We can give you the money, but you have to explain clearly—what exactly are you planning to do?”
Tang Yi also cast a curious look. “Yeah, even my dad has to draft a plan before opening a factory!”
Qi Lei just gave a mysterious smile. “Guess?”
As a result, Wu Ning, that clever guy, actually started thinking hard.
“Is it hard to guess? First, it’s definitely not taking a job—no one would hire you anyway. You don’t know a thing, even worse than me!”
“If not a job… then you must be starting your own business, right? But with just 1500, what kind of business can you do? At most, set up a street stall.”
His eyes widened. “Damn! You’re not thinking of setting up a stall at the morning or night market, are you? Bro, I can’t afford to lose face with you!”
Hearing this, Tang Yi looked like he was about to cry. “No way? I’m out!”
He grabbed his money and was about to run.
What a joke—a young master from a wealthy family like him, setting up a street stall? And in a small place like Shangbei, where everyone knows everyone from one end of town to the other? If word got out, how could he ever hold his head up in society?
Qi Lei pulled them back, wearing a fake smile. “What? Ashamed? Damn, if you can’t even handle setting up a stall, what else are you two capable of?”
The two of them wouldn’t listen, shaking their heads vigorously. “No street stalls, no matter what!”
“Hey!!” Qi Lei was seriously displeased. “Now you’re looking down on certain jobs?”
Mentally, Qi Lei was miles ahead of these two.
He snatched the money back. “Too late to back out now—you already agreed earlier!”
Tang Yi and Wu Ning felt chills down their spines.
Honestly, the two of them were completely unprepared—they had never imagined that someone from their kind of family would need to set up a street stall. They would never do such a thing in their lives!
Tang Xiaoyi was planning to mooch off his family forever, and Wu Xiaojian wasn’t much better—Old Wu had already saved up for his study abroad!
But, as Qi Lei said, they had already agreed. A real man stands by his word—would going back on it be something a man does?
After a morning of internal struggle, plus Qi Lei’s incessant nagging drilling into their brains, the two gritted their teeth. “Let’s do it! So what if it’s setting up a stall? If anyone sees us, we’ll just say we’re working to support our studies—they’ll even think we’re responsible kids!”
They reluctantly went along with Qi Lei’s terrible idea.
“But, let’s be clear upfront!” As soon as they agreed, Qi Lei immediately laid down the rules. “We can’t let our families know about this for now.”
“Duh!” Tang Xiaoyi and Wu Xiaojian said almost in unison. “Of course we can’t let our families know!”
If their parents found out they smashed their piggy banks to go fool around like this, who knows how they’d punish them!
Besides, is setting up a street stall something to be proud of? Why would they want their families to know?
“Whoever says it is asking for death! My Old Tang hasn’t beaten me for several days.” Tang Xiaoyi smacked his lips, looking rather nostalgic.
Wu Xiaojian, who had been confused all morning, finally began to catch on: “Right, setting up a stall is fine, but what should we sell?”
Tang Yi immediately got excited again upon hearing this, “Sell discs! Best to get some adult material, we’ll definitely make money!”
“Get lost!!” Wu Ning wanted to kick him.
Damn, the sons of wealthy families and department heads setting up stalls would be called inspirational.
Setting up a stall selling porn discs? That’s just asking for trouble!
Although he disagreed with Tang Yi’s nonsense, it reminded Wu Ning, who suggested: “Night markets are quite hot with stalls selling cassettes and novel magazines now. How about we try that too?” Unfortunately, he only stayed serious for a moment before revealing his true colors, grinning, “If we can’t sell them, we can always keep them for ourselves.”
Qi Lei sneered at this.
Whether selling discs, novels, or cassettes, these were all things their age group was interested in, but they wouldn’t be that popular anyway.
Besides, this era was no longer like the 80s or early 90s, when traders could make fortunes by bringing back bags of fashionable clothes and cassettes from Guangdong to set up stalls.
By the late 90s, the wave of layoffs had already conquered this last bastion of state-owned enterprises in Northeast China. Many laid-off workers had nowhere to make a living and had to take to the streets to survive. Setting up street stalls was no longer a lucrative business—it could only provide basic sustenance, just an alternative way out.
For conventional stall setups, forget about earning tens of thousands—just breaking even was already difficult.
Therefore, Qi Lei hadn’t planned to follow this era’s conventions from the start.
He shook his head, rejecting both their suggestions.
This made Tang Yi anxious again, “Then what exactly do you want to do?”
Qi Lei gave a mysterious smile, “Sell socks.”
“Sell—”
The two brothers choked, “Sell socks?”
“Socks…”
“Socks!”
Tang Xiaoyi automatically imagined three dashing young men waving various silk stockings, fishnets, and thigh-highs while hawking.
Wu Xiaojian was even worse—he pictured three young men wearing silk stockings and fishnet stockings, peddling by the street.
Hmm, with a couple leg hairs showing too—it gave him goosebumps!
“Goodbye!” The two immediately jumped up and ran off.
“We can’t afford to lose face like this!”
…
Thank you to old friend “Geng Longyang” for the alliance leader support—no more words needed, continuing explosive updates!
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