Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 117 Bowling (Bonus chapter 410 for the Silver Alliance's Talking Elbow)

Perhaps looking back on his entire entrepreneurial history, Yan Hui has rarely experienced such tranquility.

Over the next few days, Yan Hui began working on setting up his company.

Yan Hui found an agency to handle the matter and agreed on an all-inclusive fee of 800 yuan, but a problem arose on Wednesday.

Yan Hui is not an adult.

According to the law, only persons with full civil capacity can establish a company. Among them, minors who are 16 years of age or older and are able to support themselves primarily through their own labor income can be considered persons with full civil capacity.

Therefore, Yan Hui needs to prove his income.

Yan Hui had no idea how to prove it, and the agent said it could be done for an extra 300 yuan.

Yan Hui had no choice. He knew this person was a bit unreliable, but he had already paid 800 yuan, so he could only grit his teeth and pay another 300 yuan.

In industries you don't understand, even getting scammed a little is tuition.
Once the money was paid, things moved quickly. The agent said they could get everything done for the company within 10 days, and then I contacted Yan Hui to confirm the company name.

Yan Hui waved his hand and wrote the name "Jianye Dazhan Hongtu Trading Co., Ltd."

Most companies in the market are in the "timber" and "trading" sectors, but Yan Hui thinks the trading sector has a more sophisticated feel to it!
Next is waiting.

Yan Hui really likes Nanjing's climate.

March is neither too hot nor too cold, while the Northeast should still be in the dead of winter right now. Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable.

What kind of suffering have I endured these past two years?!
Yan Hui is only about 1.75 meters tall now because the food in Northeast China is so poor, and he doesn't get enough nutrition. When he finally manages to eat something high in calories, most of the energy goes towards keeping warm.
Whenever Yan Hui thought of this, he would go to President Teng's restaurant for a big meal.

He had already decided that when he met Su Jin on Saturday, he would bring her over for a meal!

Anyway, he needed to make his "presence" at "Jinling Pavilion," and Yan Hui didn't plan to contact President Teng without spending more than a thousand yuan.

I'll wait until I become a regular customer before I talk about it.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

On the afternoon of March 7th (Friday), Yan Hui received a pager. The message read 03080900, and Yan Hui immediately understood what it meant.

Su Jin couldn't come on Friday, so she arranged to meet Yan Hui at 9 a.m. the following day.

Now that Yan Hui had the exact information, there was no need for him to call back.

But upon seeing the message, he suddenly realized that tomorrow is Women's Day.

Normally, high school students don't celebrate Women's Day, but it's still a holiday. After thinking about it, Yan Hui didn't plan to prepare any gifts. After all, they had just met and were just ordinary friends. Having a meal together tomorrow would be fine.

When he had nothing to do in the evening, Yan Hui inquired around and found a bowling alley.

Before this, Yan Hui had never seen a bowling ball before. He originally thought it was called a "bowl ball," which meant that it would make a bell sound when thrown. But when he arrived, he found out that it had nothing to do with making a bell sound.

Because it was Friday, the stadium was quite crowded, with people on most of the fairways. Yan Hui looked for a long time but couldn't understand anything.

Simply put, it's about sticking your finger into the bowling ball's hole and throwing it to knock down 10 pins, the more the better. It's easy to understand, but the scoring rules seem complicated.

After thinking for a while, Yan Hui found the boss and inquired about the price of coaching.

"Our sparring partners cost 20 yuan an hour," the owner said. "Huh?" Yan Hui hadn't expected sparring partners to be so expensive. Back in 1997, some people earned less than 20 yuan a day.

“We are professional coaches; an hour is enough for you to learn,” the owner explained.

At this time, Yan Hui didn't know anything about golf; in his mind, bowling was a sport for the rich. But anyway, it looked fun, so he decided to learn it.

“Alright, I’ll choose a coach.” Yan Hui gritted his teeth.

"This fee is for the coach only, not for the use of the fairway," the owner said, pointing to the price list.

"Okay." Yan Hui stopped worrying about it.

Soon, the boss found Yan Hui a handsome coach. The coach was about 1.83 meters tall and had well-proportioned muscles, which Yan Hui found somewhat enviable.

Can you get a physique like that just by bowling? I'd like that too.

"Hello boss, I'm Coach Wang. Are you a beginner or do you have some experience?" the coach asked.

"This is my first time here, I don't understand anything, I need to listen to the specific rules," Yan Hui said quickly. Time is precious!

"Seeking a coach on your first visit? The boss has excellent taste! Without further ado, please take a look. This line is called the foul line. Players must bowl behind this line; crossing it is a foul, and no points are scored. This area is the approach area, where you can run up and prepare to bowl. This lane is where the bowling ball rolls; it's very smooth, and generally the ball will move in a straight line, but if the ball has spin, it might deviate. The last area is called the pin pits, with 10 pins in total. Bowling, knocking down as many pins as possible, it's that simple." The coach explained briefly.

To hold a bowling ball, insert your thumb into the hole, then insert your middle and ring fingers into the second joint, then drag the ball to your chest, get ready, and then start your run-up.

The approach run also requires careful consideration, which will not be elaborated upon here.

Bowling lanes are a full 60 feet long, or more than 18 meters, so the standards for the run-up and the throw are very high.

"Why is it called bowling?" Yan Hui asked, puzzled after hearing all the rules.

"It's a transliteration; in foreign countries it's called 'bowling,' and 'bowl' means rolling ball." After explaining, the coach began to guide Yan Hui in hitting the ball.

The two most difficult aspects of bowling are the run-up and the throw. In addition, the scoring rules are also quite complicated, which Yan Hui couldn't understand at all. After trying a few games with the coach, he finally got a general idea.

Unlike other sports, bowling balls come in different weights, ranging from 6 to 16 pounds (one pound is about 0.9 catties), and bowlers can choose the weight freely.

Beginners generally choose smaller ones, while experienced users generally choose larger ones, but that doesn't mean the bigger the better, or the more suitable it is for you.

"Your power generation is pretty good," the coach said after giving Yan Hui several rounds of guidance, discovering that Yan Hui was quite talented.

Yan Hui assumed the coach was just praising him to get him to "buy more lessons," so he simply smiled gratefully and continued to correct his movements.

Compared to his peers, Yan Hui, who had done two years of manual labor, was indeed more suited to bowling than the average person.

Moving logs is a tiring job that requires maintaining balance, while removing sawdust requires speed, accuracy, and stability—it's all about feeling.

When Yan Hui first started using a stick to remove sawdust, he could have four or five pieces of stick cut off by the band saw every day. Later, he wouldn't have any pieces cut off for four or five days, and his accuracy was very good.

After more than half an hour, Yan Hui's movements gradually became more standard, and he began to try using a 10-pound ball.

Unlike the 8-pound ball, the 10-pound ball felt much better to handle. Yan Hui was able to generate power very smoothly. On his first switch to the 10-pound ball, he knocked down 10 pins in one go. Even the coach was stunned: "You really haven't practiced this before?"

(End of this chapter)