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Chen Pingsheng got home at six in the evening.
Song Yanxi was busy preparing the New Year's Eve dinner in the kitchen, as the whole family would still eat together that night.
Little An'an, holding her tablet, walked with an air of ignoring everyone and everything.
With the tablet in hand, she had her games, and no one's calls could pry her away.
Chen Pingsheng, meanwhile, took his newly purchased laptop into his room, plugged in the ethernet cable, and booted it up.
All along the way, he had been pondering one issue.
Given his current income and disregarding the random multipliers from Golden Finger, his annual earnings basically ranged from two hundred fifty to three hundred thousand yuan.
Street vending durians and doing various odd jobs, that was about the limit.
If one factored in the random multiplier, taking an average, he could probably net between one million two hundred thousand and one million five hundred thousand yuan a year.
Even in a talent-packed place like Capital City, this income was definitely not low.
A solidly high-income earner.
But Chen Pingsheng felt it wasn't enough, especially if he wanted to buy a two hundred square meter house within six months.
Around the third ring road, a full payment would cost about six million, requiring a thirty percent down payment of one million eight hundred thousand yuan.
His current savings were just over three hundred thousand, which meant he needed to save up an additional one million five hundred thousand in the next six months.
This was undoubtedly a daunting challenge, especially since durians weren't as easy to sell after the New Year.
It was impossible to make eighty or ninety thousand in ten days like during the holiday season.
It seemed he needed to look for more opportunities to make money.
If he really did buy a big house, he wanted to move his younger sister and parents to Capital City to live with them.
Browsing online, he saw that almost every tycoon was talking about the dawn of the mobile internet era.
The best business was to get into people's smartphones.
The principle wasn't hard to grasp, but the key issue was that he simply didn't have the capability.
The three internet giants, BAT, were locked in fierce competition for mobile platforms, almost fighting tooth and nail.
Investments were easily in the tens or hundreds of billions.
Food delivery, bike-sharing, and any opportunity associated with the newest trends were capitalist feasts.
They subsidized wildly to seize market share.
All of these were beyond his current reach, and he would have to look for opportunities as he went along.
After checking and finding the new laptop quite useful, Chen Pingsheng came out to wrap dumplings.
No matter what, first thing was to get through the New Year.
After dinner, they all watched the Spring Festival Gala together.
In 2012, Yang Mi rose to top-tier fame through her role in the imperial palace drama.
Liu Shishi also succeeded in establishing a classic drama of her own with "Scarlet Heart."
Following closely were Tang Yan and others, with three of the "Eighty-Five Flower" actresses already making their mark.
The one with the strongest acting skills was still living with them in their modest home, enjoying the simplest and warmest New Year's Eve dinner.
On the first day of the new year, Chen Pingsheng didn't go anywhere; he stayed at home and watched TV with his wife and kids.
According to their customs, they were not supposed to go out on the first day, nor sweep out the trash from the house, as it could affect their financial luck for the year.
On the second day, under the warm winter sun, he and Zhang Tao took the tricycle out to sell durians.
The income had indeed plummeted after coming back from selling all day, as business really slowed down after the holidays.
Still, the net income was nearly a thousand yuan.
During the daytime, Song Yanxi took Little An'an to visit the Great Imperial Palace since they had recently bought a car and the little one hadn't visited the place before. They took advantage of the holiday, when the crowds were smaller, to have some fun.
The kid was thrilled and started to chatter nonstop as soon as they got home.
"Honey, how come I heard people in the courtyard saying that the big fruit supermarket that just opened is up for transfer?" she asked.
Not far from them was an old residential area housing some two or three thousand households. Because of the high number of residents, the shop fronts in the area were in high demand.
The newly opened fruit store was a typical case of someone with money to spare—they took over four of the best shop fronts and knocked them through to create a space exclusively for selling fruit.
When it first opened, Chen Pingsheng could still hear the small fruit stall vendors saying that the investment couldn't start without a million yuan.
He hadn't expected that, in less than three months, rumors of its closure would spread.
This was not surprising to Chen Pingsheng. During his years selling durians, he had seen many outsiders who thought fruit selling was a gold mine.
Many dove headfirst into the business without understanding anything about it.
And then they ran off, as bare as they came.
He had actually checked out the store when it first opened; the decor was definitely the best in the area.
The investor was most likely some second-generation rich kid whose family had some money but not an excessive amount.
"You know already, that means they really can't keep it going over there."
Song Yanxi brewed a cup of hot tea for him. He had gone out to earn money on the second day of the New Year, so naturally, she wanted to fulfill her wifely duties at home.
But she had other ideas on her mind.
"Honey, what do you think about that location? Do you think we could take it over and make it successful?"
After being married for so many years, he knew precisely what she was thinking just from the way she tilted her behind.
Now that she brought it up, Chen Pingsheng understood—she had plans.
Pondering a little, he said, "The location is certainly no issue. Remember how busy it was when they first opened? The reason it couldn't survive three months, I think, is mainly because the owner didn't understand the business. Additionally, he didn't put his heart into it. In his store, they didn't even sort out the rotten fruits, which really affected the customer experience. After a while, of course, no one wanted to go there anymore."
Song Yanxi clenched her teeth, "Then, honey, how about we take it over?"
"How come you suddenly became so bold?"
Chen Pingsheng was surprised, "That store requires an investment of over a million; just the transfer fee cost over three hundred thousand. Add in the decoration and cold storage, and if we want to take it over, we'll need at least five or six hundred thousand."
"I just feel that you have the ability to make it work."
Song Yanxi took his hand, "Who else knows you better than I do? All these years, had it not been for our marriage weighing you down, you would have definitely started your own business by now. With such a good opportunity, we should at least give it a try."
"Besides, haven't you been working in the fruit industry for three or four years? If we're going to start a business, what could be more suitable than opening a fruit supermarket?"
She did have a point.
Chen Pingsheng was indeed tempted by his wife's suggestion.
For people like him who sold fruit, most ended up opening a fruit store towards the end.
Or they went into wholesaling.
Wholesaling was out of the question without a few million to get started.
A fruit supermarket thus seemed like the best choice.
Though he couldn't single-handedly come up with five or six hundred thousand, asking for help was easy—Zhang Tao and the others could each lend ten thousand without a hassle.
If his wife supported him, he could really consider it.
Chen Pingsheng said, "Wife, if I fail, we can forget about buying a house within six months. Worse, we might even have to sell the Audi."
"Then we'll sell it."
Song Yanxi stated firmly, "Husband, you're turning thirty this year. In the past ten years, you've helped the family build a house, and then you've been the one sheltering our daughter and me. Now it's time for you to fight for yourself. If we fail, I'll sell the car and join you to push a tricycle and sell durians on the street."
With his wife speaking like this, if he still hesitated, he wouldn't be much of a man.
Besides, he was truly interested.
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