Still, Wait For Me

Chapter 16: When big words become a joke

Chapter 16: When big words become a joke

The next day, despite the opposition of Mr and Mrs Xu, Xu Tingsheng insisted on returning to school. He knew that if he did not return today on the 17th, his parents would subsequently be even more against his return.

On 18th April, that suspected SARS patient would jump down from a few floors up, escaping from quarantine in the wee hours of the morning. The entire Libei County would descend into pandemonium.

Mr Xu sent Xu Tingsheng to school on his bicycle.

Sitting behind one's father on his bicycle are the childhood memories of many. Xu Tingsheng had not sat like this for a long, long time. He swayed his legs, leisurely surveying his surroundings.

A tall tower that was currently under construction appeared within his line of sight.

Golden City Tower. Although it did not really live up to its name of 'tower', it was still Libei County's first ever building which held more than ten floors. Eventually coming into being here would be Libei County's first world-class hotel, along with its first large scale supermarket.

The running of a hotel required expenses in many additional areas, including networking, establishing contact with external parties and food-related company expenses. These were significant sources of revenue for hotels during this period, but Xu Tingsheng lacked the necessary resources for such.

But as per Xu Tingsheng's memory, all the way till 2015, this supermarket remained one of the mere two large scale supermarkets of Libei County, its business booming.

In such a small county like Libei County, and the other eight counties of Jiannan City as well, perhaps because the market was not large enough, all the way till 2015, no large scale chain supermarkets like Walmart or RT-Mart had yet entered the area.

That was to say that it would be a continually egg-laying golden chicken that would flourish for a long time, which furthermore had space in the markets of the surrounding counties to expand its economic dominance and monopoly.

This thought left Xu Tingsheng excited for a moment. Still, upon recalling his father telling him that the household only had about 30000 yuan in total, his heart cooled back down.

"Dad, looking at such a big tower, what do you think might be a good business to start at its ground floor?" Xu Tingsheng asked with feigned nonchalance.

Mr Xu thought for a moment before replying, "How on earth would I know? No matter what, it's not like I can set up a brick firing kiln here, right."

Xu Tingsheng smiled, "I think that a supermarket would be great. During those few days I was away, I saw a large scale supermarket which sold all sorts of stuff. Customers pushed shopping carts around, choosing all their items before going to the counters to pay. The business was booming; the few cashiers were all overloaded. At our side, there is still no supermarket of this sort. If one could be set up, it would definitely boom."

Mr Xu eyed the tower ahead, did some mental calculations, and shook his head, "How much capital will that require! Our family lacks the ability to start such a business.""

"That's true," Xu Tingsheng considered it and did not pursue the topic.

"No wonder people always say that the first pot of gold is the hardest," Xu Tingsheng felt a little vexed.

In his previous life, he had had no interest in the lottery. How good would it be if he could remember some powerball numbers!

Mr Xu sent Xu Tingsheng to the school gates.