Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

Li Zhao smiled and stopped. "Hello, sir!"

"You silly child, you ran off before you finished speaking, and you haven't come looking for me all this time." The old man smiled and tried to lead the two of them to his shop.

However, Li Zhao remained standing, and Chen Nian naturally stood as well, so the three of them stood and chatted on the side of the pedestrian street.

"Why should I look for you, old man?"

"Didn't you say last time that your uncle, or something like that, had considered buying a storefront?"

"My uncle."

"Yes, yes, how did you say it? Did you go back and tell him?"

Li Zhao nodded. "I gave him a brief explanation, but he's been quite busy lately and hasn't asked me anything yet."

The old man chuckled and shook his head. "You almost ruined your uncle's plans. Let me tell you, someone recently contacted me saying they wanted to buy my shop for 600,000 yuan. I was thinking you should come and talk to me first, but..."

"Sell it to him."

Li Zhao acted so decisively that even Chen Nian didn't have time to react.

"What?"

"Six hundred thousand, isn't that the money the old man wants? It would be great if someone wanted it, you can just sell it to him."

In its previous life, this shop was still in the form of a lease and was never sold.

Only Li Zhao and the old man knew about it; it wasn't spread around. Even the butterfly effect has its basic principles.

It's impossible for someone to want the store just because Li Zhao made an offer.

The fact that the old man was so proactive in contacting Li Zhao clearly showed that he was anxious because he couldn't sell the products.

After all, without a third eye, this shop is just a piece of junk property.

The old man was stunned, and Chen Nian was also stunned.

"Sir, if there's nothing else, we'll head back now."

"Uh, this, this..." The old man's fingers kept trembling in the air. "That person is actually hesitating, but if I lower the price to 550,000, he'll make a move. We talked last time, and I think you're a very interesting kid. We're destined to meet, so if your uncle wants it, I'll talk to him about it."

"We can't go higher than 550,000."

"Oh dear, little one, you should have your uncle handle these things with me..."

"My uncle wasn't interested at all. He wouldn't have bothered to buy it if I hadn't kept pestering him. He even refused the 500,000 yuan offer outright."

"So tell me, how much money do you think your uncle would be willing to pay?"

"Four hundred thousand, a fixed price. I'll just pull out cash and rent out this unwanted shop. Four hundred thousand is a good amount, sir."

The old man finally squinted at Li Zhao.

For him, who has poor eyesight, squinting is equivalent to looking directly at someone.

So, this brat knew exactly what was going on...

He originally thought that Li Zhao would either quote a price close to 500,000, or something like 480,000 or 490,000, which he thought was a bargain, and he would agree immediately and then ask Li Zhao's uncle to discuss it in person; or Li Zhao would go on a crazy bargaining spree and quote an outrageous number, which he could then use to pressure him with "you don't know anything"...

Four hundred thousand.

That's a really upsetting number.

The old man could verbally ask for 500,000, but his actual acceptable price was 450,000.

Anyway, I'm going abroad, and this store needs to be repaired and nobody wants it, so leaving it hanging is just a hassle. What's important is to make some money to retire abroad.

The old man hesitated, but Li Zhao was in no hurry at all and slowly looked at the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the convenience store next door.

"Little friend," the old man's tone changed slightly, "it's hard to say about money right now. How about this, write down my phone number, and have your uncle contact me later, okay? You want this brand, don't you? I'll buy it for you."

"I don't want it." Li Zhao refused decisively. "Uncle, you've already asked me for a number, which is four hundred thousand. If you agree, I'll go and pester my uncle relentlessly."

Good lad, he's completely stubborn.

"Okay, then write down my phone number."

This time, Li Zhaozhen took out a piece of paper and wrote it down, but before the old man left with a complicated expression, Li Zhaozhen added one more sentence:

"I'll come with my uncle then. If you say it's more than 400,000, I'll pester you until you tell my uncle to go home."

The old man shuddered.

He couldn't understand how his seemingly invincible offensive had ended up being countered by a primary school student.

Chen Nian was equally puzzled, and he was still holding his head in his hands even when Li Zhao reached the bus stop.

"What's wrong?"

"No, I just don't understand," Chen Nian stood up, frowning. "Why doesn't Yu-Gi-Oh! want it?"

"..."

Li Zhao solemnly placed his hand on Chen Nian's shoulder, then burst into laughter.

"I don't really care about this pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! games," Chen Nian said seriously. "Ah Zhao, what's the point of your acting with the old man? He was even offering to buy you Yu-Gi-Oh! games and you refused. Was it just an act?"

"Didn't they cut the price by 200,000?"

"Oh dear, those are all fake..." Chen Nian suddenly stammered.

He looked at Li Zhao's calm and composed demeanor, and shock gradually became written all over his face.

"Seriously? Are you serious?"

Li Zhao simply extended his finger – "Shh."

That night, Chen Nian dreamed for the first time about becoming a business elite.

When Li Zhao got back to his apartment building, he first found the mailbox key, which he rarely used, took the royalty statement, stuffed it deep into his backpack, and then continued climbing the tiring eight flights of stairs.

But he wasn't ready to rashly discuss buying a storefront with his family.

Even if we manage to negotiate down to 400,000, and even if my family actually has that kind of money, it would still be too difficult to convince my parents, who have been saving for 15 years to buy a house, and to fight against their obsession with buying a nice house all these years.

Be natural, create an opportunity that feels like a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and make it happen in one fell swoop.

So after finishing his homework, Li Zhao deliberately left his bedroom door open and started looking at the planning book he had bought earlier on his desk. He also spread out the printed pedestrian street plan and started writing and drawing on it.

Li Changlin and Zhou Xiaoyun were already very curious about their son's daily life.

It can be said that even with a straight hook, the fish still took the bait.

Soon, Li Changlin's expression turned slightly puzzled, which successfully transformed into curiosity before he went to sleep.

However, he didn't ask any more questions, but just whispered a few words to Zhou Xiaoyun.

Li Zhao wasn't just acting; he certainly couldn't remember the pedestrian street's layout, so this was more like a recap.

Although few people would actually look at the planning drawings that were published online in 08, those who are interested in buying a shop in the pedestrian street should not ignore them.

What is it that makes everyone overlook the value of this shop?

Planning changes.

The pedestrian street planning map in Li Zhao's hand set up two nodes at the front of the pedestrian street. One was a huge south gate entrance plaza that led to the main road of the pedestrian street, so the storefronts on both sides of the main road were particularly valuable.

Meanwhile, on the southeast side of the pedestrian street, a pocket park was built in conjunction with the green space on the other side, which connects to the alley next to the storefront that later became a major fire.

Judging from the blueprints alone, it's no wonder that the golden facade is now pure black iron.

However, the final pedestrian street had a slightly different main entrance, which expanded the pocket park on the southeast side. The main entrance became the alley where the old man's shop was located. The old red brick houses on the other side were demolished, the alley was widened, and it was transformed into a charming old-style alley, becoming the node with the highest traffic flow.

Rumor has it that the reason why the residents of Namdaemun, who had originally agreed on the demolition compensation, decided to raise their prices on the spot.

Then New Taipei City decided not to indulge them.

They simply combined the green space to create an urban park, and the pedestrian street entrance was conveniently located around it, striving to create an integrated node of natural and cultural landscape.

"Hmm..." Li Zhao already had a story in mind.

Two nights later, Li Changlin finally couldn't contain his curiosity and knocked on Li Zhao's half-open door, pulling over a red plastic stool:

"Son, what have you been watching lately?"

Li Zhao slapped his forehead:

"Perfect timing, Dad. I recently heard some news. How about I test you on it?"