On the evening of the monthly exam, the New Year's Day Gala was held.
Fang Bai did not go to the gala, and what he didn't know was that the skit performed by the first-year students, using his advertising lines, was quite popular.
However, some informed students in the audience cursed them for plagiarizing others' lines, and even whistled and booed, causing a chaotic scene for a while.
Below the stage, several students from the First Repeat Class shouted, defending Fang Bai: "These advertising lines were recorded by Fang Bai from our class; it's plagiarism."
"That's right, they plagiarized without Fang Bai's permission, and even claimed it was their own design. Have they no shame?"
Students from other classes, upon hearing the students from the First Repeat Class say that the street stall lines were recorded by Fang Bai from their class, asked more questions out of curiosity and then became informed.
"Isn't Fang Bai from your class often absent? And now he's pulled this stunt again!"
Fang Bai was quite famous among the teachers and students of several repeat classes, partly because teachers promoted him a lot, which discouraged many students.
Many teachers often said in class: "You must study hard to get into university!"
You are not Fang Bai from Class One, who often skips class!
Don't learn from him; he's different from you. He doesn't come to class, but still ranks third in the grade."
Because of frequent absences, a broken finger, and yet excellent grades, Fang Bai became a legendary figure, making more teachers and students curious to learn about him.
Therefore, at school, even the two students who outranked him in grades were not as well-known as Fang Bai.
On stage, the performance continued.
Off stage, many students chatted about Fang Bai's advertising lines.
Through this commotion, after the performance, more students from the repeat classes learned that these lines were from Fang Bai of the First Repeat Class's recorded advertisement, and that his family sold televisions.
...
On December 31st, the school had a two-day holiday for New Year's Day.
Fang Bai's family also didn't set up their stall to sell televisions; the whole family celebrated the holiday at home.
Each time they set up the stall, televisions were snapped up by citizens, so there was no need for promotions for now. They weren't in a hurry for these two days and let the students rest.
However, Fang Bai didn't stop anyone who wanted to come for TV repairs.
If the capitalist gives you a holiday and you don't want to rest, he can't be blamed.
This is somewhat like the piece-rate wages of later generations, where workers desperately worked overtime to earn more money.
Yet, unbeknownst to them, they worked themselves to death, and the boss lowered the unit price, still earning the same amount.
Ultimately, the boss was the beneficiary; he must have been overjoyed.
Fang Bai still had some conscience and didn't do that. The unit price wouldn't change, and the task was still five TVs a day.
However, it was not piece-rate wages.
Doing it too fast was also not good; products could easily have quality issues. Each TV had to be repaired well and be neat and clean.
Yesterday, Fang Bai asked his mother to buy some fruit candies and biscuits as holiday gifts to give to these part-time students, and at the same time announced a two-day holiday.
The students were overjoyed when they received holiday gifts for the first time.
Fang Bai read books at home, and a day quietly passed. 1991 arrived.
In the early morning, the cold wind howled outside the window.
Last night, there was a light snowfall.
After Fang Bai woke up, he lay nestled in his quilt, pondering some matters.
Three months had passed since his rebirth, during which he discovered many things, and overall, it had been relatively smooth.
He also missed many major events, such as the 11th Asian Games held in the imperial capital, the first comprehensive international sports event hosted by the country.
In early December, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was established, marking the official operation of the national stock market.
1991 had arrived, and he had no impression of the major events of this year, only remembering that the Great Bear in the north disintegrated. He couldn't join in on that excitement, nor did he want to take risks.
Some people were still debating whether market or planned economy was better, and a certain topic debate about what was 'surname' reached a fever pitch. Most people were unclear about the future.
He just wanted to do his own thing and earn money discreetly.
Currently, his family had sold five batches of televisions in total, and Fang Bai's personal wealth had reached 780,000 yuan, with only 220,000 yuan left until his Golden Finger upgrade.
He still had over 410,000 yuan in cash.
After some time, he would become a millionaire.
What was the concept of a millionaire in this era?
How much wealth would that be equivalent to thirty years later?
Fang Bai compared it and felt it was quite a lot.
This depended on what one bought. If it was a car, it wasn't much, actually.
But if it was used to buy houses in Shanghai, one could buy four or five units of around one hundred square meters each.
Thinking of this, he was quite satisfied.
In reality, many families with current millionaire wealth, owning a Santana, lived a life of infinite glory, but because their business did not take off, twenty years later, their superficial wealth did not change much, and their actual wealth continuously depreciated. Such families truly declined.
Fang Bai thought for a while, then got up to rinse his mouth, brush his teeth, and eat breakfast.
A bowl of hot lean meat porridge, an egg, some pickles, and a cup of milk made from milk powder—this was Fang Bai's breakfast.
For this era, it was too luxurious.
Most families were still working hard to earn money to buy meat, while Fang Bai had already begun to live the life of a "nouveau riche."
"Son, would you like another bowl?" Liu Fengqing asked caringly when she saw her son finish a bowl of porridge.
Two or three months ago, breakfast at home consisted only of plain porridge and pickles.
Now, with meat at every meal, her son was tired of it and said he wanted some variety, not always pork.
"Mom, I'm full. I'm going out to buy a camera later."
Fang Bai wanted to photograph the construction of his family's appliance store, the street stall, the shop, his family, Qin Shuyu...
He wanted to capture every beautiful moment of this era, and when he was old, to take them out and look at them—they would be beautiful memories.
Every photo from this era, preserved for future generations, would be extremely precious, an incalculable spiritual wealth.
If he had even more money, he would also want to hire a professional photographer, buy several high-end cameras, and record the changes of the 90s, which would also be a treasure for countless future generations.
This was different from collecting old objects; time was a wealth that money could not buy.
Fang Bai believed that this was the true wealth of the era, something very few people did.
When one had money, their thoughts would also change, and they would want to do something meaningful.
"Oh, buying a camera, that must cost a lot, right?"
"I'm not too sure, probably a thousand yuan or so, depends on the brand."
Fang Bai smiled nonchalantly, stood up, and collected the dishes and chopsticks, washing them himself.
He put on gloves and a hat, then rode his motorcycle out.
Two hours later, he returned with a camera.
Phoenix 205, 280 yuan; Seagull 206-A, 120 yuan...
There were cameras ranging from over a hundred yuan to over a thousand, and even high-end cameras costing tens of thousands.
Fang Bai chose a Japanese Ricoh XR-x2000 SLR camera, which he heard was just released last year, priced at 3500 yuan.
Fujifilm color film cost 25 yuan a box, and he bought twenty boxes at once.
Fang Bai knew how to use an SLR, and he quickly familiarized himself with the new SLR in some time.
When Liu Fengqing learned that her son spent several thousand yuan on a camera, she didn't say anything, but when she heard that he spent five hundred yuan on film, she cried out in pain.
"Twenty-five yuan a box, and it can't even take many photos. It's too much of a money sink!"
Fang Bai chuckled, casually taking a few photos of his own shop and his parents.
Fang Tingting, who had just woken up from sleeping in, heard that her brother had bought a camera and, as if hearing about a new continent, clamored to learn how to take pictures.
On New Year's Day, the family played with the camera, using up over a dozen rolls of film. Many were taken by Fang Tingting, so many negatives were bound to be wasted.
Each shot used up one negative, and a roll could take a maximum of 36 photos.
Whether the photos turned out well was unknown until they were developed. Some beginners only realized after finishing a roll that the lens cap hadn't been removed, resulting in all black photos.
The next day, January 2nd.
Oubei Middle School, First Repeat Class.
The faint morning winter sunlight streamed through the window cracks, scattering onto the desks, illuminating the quiet space.
...
Morning, first class.
The homeroom teacher, Zhan Feng, walked into the classroom podium with a smile, glancing at Fang Bai's desk. Fang Bai wasn't there, nor was his deskmate.
However, this did not affect her mood. She spread out the scores compiled for the two-day holiday and said loudly:
"Fang Bai, Chinese 110, English 138, Math 120, Physics 100, Chemistry 115, total score 583. First in class, first in grade.
I would like to specially commend student Fang Bai here. Not only did his academic performance improve quickly, but also, after knowing about Wang Dakai's family matter at the first opportunity, he came to ask me about Wang Dakai's family situation right after the exam and visited him on the same day. This spirit of cherishing classmates' friendship is worthy of admiration.
Students, we must not only learn the knowledge in textbooks but also learn about human relations."
On Fang Bai, Zhan Feng saw that his handling of interpersonal relations was displayed to the fullest; he was too mature, impenetrable.
Zhan Feng scanned the silent students below the stage, feeling a great difference from Fang Bai.
This was normal. Fang Bai was an anomaly. He had worked in a factory, entered society early, and experienced a major disaster. His temperament was steady, and he might have already mastered human relations, not acting like a student.
This fellow, today, when the total scores were compiled, he still didn't come to school.
Could it be that he was reviewing at home?
What Zhan Feng was most satisfied with was Fang Bai's high score in English, which improved very quickly.
It was just that, as an English teacher, she didn't seem to have taught Fang Bai much.
But this wasn't important; many teachers thought she had tutored him, which made her very proud.
The students below the stage were very shocked to hear Fang Bai's scores.
He was actually first in the grade!
With a total score of 583, getting into a key university was solid.
And, 138 in English, how exaggerated!
Did the homeroom teacher specifically tutor him?
Some students thought so. After all, Fang Bai often went to the homeroom teacher's office whenever he had time. It seemed they should also go to the homeroom teacher for questions when they had time.
Two classes quickly ended. As soon as Zhan Feng left the classroom and returned to her office, two students walked in, saying they wanted to ask questions.
She was still a bit suspicious. Normally, she didn't see students so actively asking questions, and suddenly two came.
As a teacher, when students came to ask questions, she naturally had to patiently explain to them.
It was just that the questions were so simple and lacked technical content. She felt that these two students hadn't listened carefully in class.
At this moment, Fang Bai stood on the construction site of the appliance store, observing the progress of construction. Standing beside him was Chen Gong from the design institute.
"Mr. Fang, the main structure has been poured. After a few days, the formwork can be removed, and decoration can begin."
Fang Bai nodded, walking around the exterior of the main building of the store.
His Golden Finger had no effect on architecture, otherwise he could check for problems.
Although the main structure was built, other work couldn't be done until the formwork was removed. However, there was still a lot of work to do on site, such as paving the cement ground in front of the shop, marking out parking spaces for bicycles and motorcycles, and welding a ten-centimeter high steel pipe in the parking area for bicycle owners to lock their bikes.
These fragmented projects were all contracted to Lu Dahai, the foreman.
After the formwork was removed, Fang Bai would pay Lu Dahai a batch of engineering fees.
Fang Bai had already contacted the door and window renovation company and customized the display cabinets. After the formwork was removed, they could enter the site and start work.
He had put a lot of effort into the appliance store, hoping it would be a huge success upon opening.
Next, he and his father would start looking for appliance suppliers.
Currently, refurbished televisions were the core, but they also sold new televisions, as well as refrigerators, washing machines, fans, gas stoves, rice cookers, electric pressure cookers, and other home appliances.
Finding suppliers was very difficult now. He needed a considerable quantity and planned to negotiate directly with manufacturers.
If there were regional agents and distributors, then he could only approach them first.
The appliance companies Fang Bai knew included Haier, Lihua, and Chunlan, among others. Gree was only established this year.
His appliance store, at the beginning, was destined not to have too many categories of home appliances. He would take it slowly, first accumulating popularity with refurbished televisions.
This was the store he left for his parents. Once this store was well-established, there would temporarily be no major investments in Wen City.
In the future, his goal would still be Shanghai.
The last time he went to Shanghai, seeing that undeveloped treasure land, his eyes turned red.