Entertainment Era: Starting with Teaching Sister Meng to Sing

When I go out with Aunt Zhao, I don't need to take a taxi anymore. She has a red Golf, which is still parked in the underground garage. In the dead of winter, it's warm as soon as you get in. The features are top-of-the-line.

With three young men in tow, Aunt Zhao drove to a closed shop on the main street of the county.

Although my driving skills aren't great, at least I'm not the kind of driver who brakes with my left foot and accelerates with my right; I can get to my destination safely.

There were already people waiting at the shop entrance. With their eager anticipation, Aunt Zhao led Wang Xiaozhou and the other two out of the car, and the other party quickly came over to shake hands.

"Is Boss Zhao thinking of expanding his business?"

"What do you want to do with this shop you rent from me?"

"I'm not just bragging, but there aren't many shops this big in our county. As long as we invest enough and upgrade the quality, we can make anything we do a hit."

Faced with the shop owner's long string of words, Aunt Zhao let go of his hand, not rushing to respond, but turning to look at Wang Xiaozhou:

"How do you feel about this place? Is it suitable for your business?"

Upon hearing Aunt Zhao's words, the shop owner realized he had misunderstood her intentions and looked in Wang Xiaozhou's direction, his expression immediately turning sour.

If Aunt Zhao hadn't had an excellent reputation for doing business in the county, he would have really thought that Aunt Zhao was lying to him. What kind of big business could such a young person do?

Before Wang Xiaozhou could respond, the shop owner laid out the unpleasant truth upfront:

"Is this young man looking to rent a shop? We need to make things clear first. These three shops on the two floors can only be rented together; I absolutely will not rent them separately."

The selling point of this place is that it's big enough. If you rent one or two rooms, I won't be able to rent out the rest.

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiaozhou smiled and replied, "Don't worry, boss. I'd rather have one or two rooms than three. It's just that the price..."

The shop owner thought Wang Xiaozhou was bragging, so instead of answering his question directly, he asked in return:

"May I ask you, young boss, what kind of business are you looking to start? If I combine these three shops, two floors in total, it would be over a thousand square meters. Is that not enough for you?"

Wang Xiaozhou had nothing to hide and told the truth directly: "I'm opening a supermarket."

"Does a supermarket need such a large space?"

"Boss, you may have misunderstood. I was talking about the large supermarkets in the city."

Wang Xiaozhou initially thought the shop owner was ignorant, hence the comment about needing such a large space to open a supermarket. However, to his surprise, the owner shook his head after hearing Wang Xiaozhou's words.

"Big supermarkets won't work in our small county. We don't have that kind of scale. Look at those big international chains, they only go into first-tier cities, they don't even go into prefecture-level cities, let alone a small county like ours. How much money could we make in a day if we opened a big supermarket here?"

He's quite a knowledgeable expert.

Wang Xiaozhou smiled, not paying too much attention, and directly started negotiating the price:

"That's settled then, three rooms are fine, not too much pressure. Boss, name your price?"

Seeing that Wang Xiaozhou was truly willing to make a move, the shop owner didn't put on airs too much. After a moment's thought, he spoke:

"The advantage of my three shops is that they are connected. As long as you don't touch the load-bearing walls, you can make any changes inside. So, if you rent all three together, I will charge 10,000 yuan more than the market price, making the annual rent 190,000 yuan."

In the county town, a rent of 60,000 yuan a year for a shop is not cheap, but it is not expensive either. Moreover, the shop owner made it clear that because of the advantage of the three shops being connected, he would charge an extra 10,000 yuan. Therefore, Wang Xiaozhou did not object and immediately settled the matter.

"Then it's 190,000, I won't haggle, but you need to give me half a month to renovate, is that alright?"

The shop owner was silent for a moment before agreeing. The grace period for renovations had already been discussed, and the rent had been agreed to decisively without mentioning a single penny. Asking for a few more days for renovations was not unreasonable. To keep arguing would only make one seem petty.

Both sides were efficient people, so Aunt Zhao immediately drove to a copy shop to print out the contract, and after signing it, the money was transferred directly.

Before parting ways, Wang Xiaozhou specifically asked the shop owner to help contact the owners of the two neighboring shops, as he wanted to combine all five shops together if possible.

After settling things over here, Aunt Zhao took Wang Xiaozhou to the factory she had contacted earlier. It was only a few hundred meters away from the shop they had just rented, and the price wasn't high, so they finalized the deal on the spot.

Both sides signed five-year contracts, and the matter was resolved perfectly. I called my dad and asked him to contact my uncle to see if he could find a suitable renovation team.

Upon learning that his son had arranged the shop so quickly, Wang Jianguo was extremely excited. This was the first time his family had ever researched doing business, and he immediately went out to make contacts with great enthusiasm.

Wang Xiaozhou then had Aunt Zhao take Huang Mao home first, while he took Liu Weiguang to the shopping mall in the very center of the county town.

When asking someone for a favor, regardless of the relationship, you should show your appreciation once the favor is done.

Many people just don't understand this point. They think that since she's their brother's mother, what's wrong with helping out? Doing all this would be like being a stranger.

People who think like this are simply immature. Let alone brothers, even the closest relatives have turned against each other countless times because of interests. Being able to settle things with a little money in these details is much easier to handle than if disputes arise later.

Gold prices are still quite low this year, around 300 yuan.

Wang Xiaozhou directly asked the salesperson to arrange a 50-gram bracelet, and then he and Liu Weiguang went downstairs to buy a few gift boxes to make up an even number before taking a taxi back to Huang Mao's residential area.

He knocked on the door and went inside. Aunt Zhao opened it and looked at Wang Xiaozhou with a reproachful expression when she saw what he was carrying.

"I already bought some things here, what's this all about? Why won't you come in?"

Wang Xiaozhou smiled as he squeezed past Aunt Zhao into the room, placed the inexpensive gift box on the ground, and stuffed the gold bracelet into his pocket.

"It's Chinese New Year, and I just spent several hundred thousand yuan. What's wrong with giving you a little something as a token of my respect? Let me see what delicious food we have for dinner tonight."

Aunt Zhao doesn't like to cook much, so when guests come over, she usually orders food from outside.

Although her son's friends were all quite young, Aunt Zhao didn't treat them with disrespect. There were six dishes on the table, all considered main courses, and they were just waiting for Wang Xiaozhou and Liu Weiguang to arrive before starting the meal.

So, at Huang Mao's invitation, Wang Xiaozhou quickly sat down, waving his hands repeatedly but unable to refuse the bottle of wine that Huang Mao offered.

Aunt Zhao had been doing business outside for years and had a decent capacity for alcohol, so Wang Xiaozhou, unable to refuse, drank some with everyone.

Seeing that Huang Mao and Liu Weiguang were getting drunk, Wang Xiaozhou was worried that they would be too inconvenient to handle if they drank too much, so he took out the bracelet he had just bought from his pocket and handed it to Aunt Zhao.

"Aunt Zhao, it's the New Year, and you've done me such a big favor. I specially went to the mall to pick out a small gift for you. Please don't think it's not pretty."