1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 10 The Second Pot of Gold
After sending away the neighbors who were watching, it was almost midnight.

Zhai Yuan yawned, sat at the table, and began to accept Zhao Meizhen's interrogation.

Except for not mentioning the blood-stained clothes incident that caused a sensation in Kowloon Tong, Zhai Yuan told her the whole story in general, which finally dispelled her uneasiness.

When she has no money, she hopes her son will become successful, but when she has some money, she becomes worried and anxious. This is Zhao Meizhen's personality.

In comparison, she was not worried about the gangsters from Genie Lamp coming to seek revenge.

Although the problems of Hong Kong gangs were serious at that time, they basically did not affect the normal lives of ordinary citizens.

The so-called village offices, fire brigades, plumbers, and huts basically all have community backgrounds. If they are all bossy and have bad tempers, they will be replaced in no time due to complaints from citizens.

The ultimate goal of the young and dangerous gang is to make money. If they really do something vicious, they will no longer be able to stay in this area.

"What's the point of buying something like this?"

After finding out that Zhai Yuan's money came from a legitimate source, Zhao Meizhen turned her attack around as if to demonstrate her authority as an elder.

"Of course it works!"

Zhai Yuan tried to assemble a universal plug, but unfortunately his hands were too clumsy and he failed after several attempts.

He simply threw the parts on the table, raised his head and smiled at Zhao Meizhen, then nodded in the direction of his sister Zhai Yao: "Look how happy Yao is."

The TV was playing the night show "Happy Tonight" hosted by Shen Dianxia.

When Zhai Yao heard what Zhai Yuan said, she turned around and bared her fangs at him.

"Okay, I'm going back to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow."

Zhai Yuan stood up and stretched himself. When he passed by Zhai Yao, he patted her on the head and said, "Hey, don't watch too late. Don't turn off the lights. Be careful of myopia."

He wanted to say don't get too close, but the cramped room left him with no room to move around.

Zhai Yao slapped his hand away and said in a dissatisfied tone: "Let's go! When did it become so troublesome!"

Zhai Yuan curled his lips. It was a rare opportunity for him to show off his authority as a big brother, but he was actually despised.

He returned to his room in two or three steps.

Zhai Yuan sat on the steel bed. Instead of getting into bed, he changed into clean clothes first.

Taking a shower in the housing estate is rather troublesome. One has to go to a public bathroom a few hundred meters downstairs and queue up. He was too lazy to climb the stairs, so he just poured some hot water and wiped his triangular area.

After finishing everything, Zhai Yuan took out his homework book and began to plan the projects for today's inspection.

He used a pen to draw a vertical line on the homework paper, dividing it into two.

Write the word cost on the left:
For a TV, the cheapest Pingba brand costs 700 yuan, and the most expensive Lanbao brand costs 3,600 yuan.

A VCR, regardless of brand, costs at least three thousand yuan.

The rent for a 7-square-meter public housing unit is at least 300 yuan a month.

This was the data he got from the dealer when he bought the TV just now.

After a pause, Zhai Yuan wrote the income on the right:

A public house can accommodate two bunk beds and about eight guests.

Each guest is charged three dollars for admission, and the profit is twenty-four dollars.

A movie is 90 minutes long, and if it is conservatively shown ten times a day, that would cost 240 yuan.

“And consider the cost of the videotapes.”

Thinking of this, Zhai Yuan added a few items to the cost column: ninety yuan per box of videotapes.

"The cost and benefit can be directly proportional, but in practice it's probably not that simple, otherwise there would be video halls everywhere in Hong Kong."

Staring at the two rows of numbers on the exercise book, Zhai Yuan calculated silently in his mind.

That’s right, the second pot of gold he planned to earn was to open a video hall.

A bag of youth may not be clear.

The real birthplace of video halls is in the mainland, and they are a product of the era of rapid economic growth after the reform and opening up.

In the same era, there was only one type of small screening room overseas called a second-run theater that was similar to it.

It was not until after the millennium that the mainland economy stabilized and video halls began to grow in Vietnam, Africa and other regions.

As far as Zhai Yuan can remember, the first time he went to a video hall was in the mid-1990s in his previous life.

He was very young at that time, and was bewitched by the older children in the welfare home. Taking the ten-yuan New Year's red envelope given by the director, he followed them through twists and turns into an alley and into a dark and damp room.

At that time, most of the movies shown in video halls were Hong Kong films, with Chan Ka Kui, Wong Fei Hung, Mark Ho and Zhao Shanhe appearing alternately on the screen.

The bloodbath was so intense that it made the sky dark and the earth dark, and the rivers of blood flowed. You ask why I remember it so clearly?
Because later on, Zhai Yuan fell asleep on the sofa in the video room and when he woke up it was already night.

You won’t see the swordplay that happens during the day on the screen.

There was only a man and a woman, tied together like buffaloes in the countryside. The woman howled like a pig being slaughtered, and the man gasped like a bellows.

It left an indelible impression on his young mind.

"You have to rent a venue. It's better to have two or three public housing units. Otherwise, you won't be able to stretch your legs."

"The TV and VCR are too expensive, and if they break, you lose everything. We need to think about how to save money."

"It shouldn't be difficult to apply for a license. Putting up a teahouse sign and offering free movie tickets for tea can help avoid some risks."

"And the film rights... Never mind, that's not even a consideration."

The licensing fee for a movie could easily be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, and even if Zhai Yuan had the money, he wasn't going to pay it.

Do you know the value of an iron rooster?
When Mr. Zhai read online articles, he would download pirated TXT formats and transfer them to MP3. Otherwise, how could he have a thousand degrees of myopia?

"If you really don't give me permission to show it, I'll just shoot it myself! Come on, mother, I'll be the leading actor in this pornographic movie myself!"

From this perspective, the biggest cost pressures, apart from the venue, are only television and VCR.

Zhai Yuan bit the tip of his pen, thinking about how to reduce costs.

Televisions are slightly better. There are already copycat factories in the country that produce color screens for a few hundred yuan.

VCRs are different. Home models have only been available in Europe and the United States for five or six years, and have been introduced to Hong Kong even shorter. Even the magnetic heads are made of titanium. They are truly high-tech products and are expensive.

"What if it's rented?"

Zhai Yuan recalled the conversation he had with the dealer when he bought a TV at the electronics store.

At that time, the leasing business in Hong Kong was booming, and many small shops used their own capital to buy goods and then leased them out.

From newspapers and comic books to home appliances and cars, everything is available.

These include televisions and VCRs.

Last year, there was a famous news story that Dibona, the wife of superstar Xie Si Ge, made a rental advertisement for a science and technology company, which triggered a wave of rentals.

But renting a plane is not cost-effective.

For example, if a TV costs one thousand yuan, you need to sign a contract with the rental company and pay one hundred yuan in rent every month for at least twelve months.

After the lease expires, you can choose to spend an additional 200 yuan to buy the machine, and the total price will increase from 1,000 yuan to 1,400 yuan.

But what Zhai Yuan really cares about is not the cheap monthly rent.

Even during the rental period, you can still enjoy free warranty service if the machine fails.

"What if I rent a new machine, get a faulty machine, swap parts between the two machines, and take the faulty machine for repair or return?"

As for where the faulty machine came from.

A scene that he often saw when he was a child suddenly appeared in Zhai Yuan's mind.

A man in a sweatshirt rode a tricycle and walked through the streets, shouting: "We are buying back old air conditioners, old refrigerators, old TVs, old washing machines at high prices..."

Only those who really understand it know how much money these garbage collectors who recycle home appliances make.

In addition to being repaired and then sold again, old home appliances can also be disassembled and sold separately. At worst, the precious metal components can be taken out and smelted.

Taking advantage of the policy of bringing home appliances to the countryside, one can make a lot of money just by cheating for subsidies.

Thinking of this, Zhai Yuan suddenly felt that opening a video hall was not so attractive.

It was as if he just wanted to order some fast food, but when he opened the door, there was a crying and making a fuss teacher standing outside.

"No, we still have to proceed steadily and use the video hall to accumulate initial capital first, and then consider whether to enter the garbage market later."

Zhai Yuan drove the goal of being the garbage king out of his mind.

There is no end to business. If you try to get involved in everything, you will probably end up accomplishing nothing.

For example, the famous Western fable about the little boy picking wheat ears.

The little boy picked and chose along the way, always thinking that the next ear of wheat would be bigger, but in the end he left the wheat field empty-handed.

In fact, as long as he was willing to bend down to pick it up, he could at least harvest one ear of wheat.

And a pope.

(End of this chapter)