money player

Raffles Hotel.

Sin Yiu-man knocked on a door.

A moment later, the door opened a crack, and Fei Baoqi's face came into view.

"Didn't my sister go out?"

As he spoke, Xian Yaowen pushed open the door and entered the room.

He closed the door with his left hand, then put his arm around Fei Baoqi's waist and pulled her into his arms. He gently pinched her cheek with his right hand and said softly, "You're ignoring me and have a long face. Are you upset that I didn't spend time with you last night?"

Fei Baoqi glanced at Xian Yaowen and said sourly, "At most, I'm just your mistress outside. How could I dare to ask you to be with me?"

"Ha." Sin Yiu Man laughed loudly, "Sister is a woman of a thousand faces. Her mood changes every day. Yesterday she was regretting taking that step, but today she is showing her little woman's side. I am very curious about Sister's mental journey last night."

Fei Baoqi turned her head away from Xian Yaowen's hand, pressed her right hand on his chest, pulled her face away from his, and met his gaze with complicated emotions.

After gazing into each other's eyes for a long time, she blinked and whispered, "Yaowen, you were right. Once the floodgates are opened, it's not so easy to close them. I didn't sleep well last night. You were on my mind all night, thinking about what you said and reliving your touch. I... I want it."

Sin Yiu-man gently stroked Fei Po-ki's cheek. "The day's plan starts in the morning. We should do something serious in the morning. At noon, I'll have a drink with my sister until we're slightly tipsy. With the help of the alcohol, my sister can take advantage of me."

Fei Baoqi spat lightly, "How could you say such shameless things?"

"Ha." Xian Yaowen patted Fei Baoqi's plump buttocks. "Go and get ready, then come with me to meet the guests."

"Business customers?"

"You could say you're an engaged couple; having you around makes the atmosphere a bit better."

"Ah."

Fei Baoqi made no attempt to hide her identity. In front of Xian Yaowen, she rummaged through her suitcase and pulled out a brightly colored cheongsam, placing it on the bed. Then, she reached out to unbutton the dark-colored cheongsam she was wearing, speaking as she did so, "Where are you from?"

"Ok?"

"Where are the guests from?"

"The man is a descendant of Jews born in Shanghai, but I'm not sure about the woman."

Fei Baoqi took off her dark cheongsam and put on a brightly colored one. "A European Jew who fled to Shanghai back then?"

"From Kaifeng."

"Oh." Fei Baoqi nodded gently, unhurriedly fastened the buttons on her cheongsam, sat down on the edge of the bed, and said to Xian Yaowen, "Baoshu said you're good at doing hair, help me with this."

Xian Yaowen came to Fei Baoqi's side and stroked her hair. "Your hair is done very well, there's no need to redo it."

Fei Baoqi reached out and pulled at her hair bun, letting her hair cascade down like a waterfall. She tossed her hair and said, "I want to get short, curly bangs so I can look younger."

Sin Yiu-man fiddled with his hair. "Bangs and short hair are fine, but curls are hard to do. We don't have the tools here. Go to the hair salon this afternoon and I'll do it for you."

"Okay." Fei Baoqi brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Now, what do we do?"

"Let me help you with that."

Sin Yiu-man brought a mirror and a comb. He let Fei Po-ki hold the mirror herself, while he used the comb to style her hair.

He styled Fei Baoqi's hair into a side-parted updo with bangs, creating an arched effect on the top of her head, making her head appear more three-dimensional and revealing her full forehead. The wispy strands combed to the sides cleverly framed her face.

Fei Baoqi looked at herself in the mirror, turning her head left and right, feeling very satisfied. "Baoshu was right, you really know how to do hair. This is the first time I've seen this style of styling, and it suits me quite well."

Sin Yiu-man put the comb into his suit pocket and used both hands to fix Fei Baoqi's hair. "No woman's beauty is perfect. Even the most beautiful woman is just a piece of raw jade that needs to be sculpted by a skilled craftsman."

The idea that one's face is determined by genetics is outdated. During World War I, British military doctor Harold Gillies established the first facial reconstruction factory, Queen's Hospital, on the Western Front, where he performed over 11,000 facial reconstruction surgeries.

The face-swapping technology was already somewhat mature at that time.

After arranging her hair in a bun, Xian Yaowen adjusted Fei Baoqi's cheongsam collar. "Heaven is unfair. Some women are born beautiful and cannot hide their beauty, while others are plain-looking and taciturn. But every woman has the right to aspire to beauty. If you are not born with it, you can make up for it with effort."

Tailor-made clothes with a perfect fit; cosmetics that can cover up facial imperfections; glamorous yet understated jewelry, accessories, watches, and bags; high heels that enhance one's overall look; hairstyles designed specifically for one's face shape; and even face transplants, breast augmentation, and breast reduction.

These are all means of making up for lost time, and they are the business I am currently doing and will be doing in the future.

Fei Baoqi turned her head suddenly, surprised, and asked, "Are you going to open a barbershop?"

“It’s not called a hair salon, it’s called a styling salon.” Sin Yiu-man helped Fei Po-ki to her feet and straightened the wrinkles on the back of her cheongsam. “We mainly serve female customers, so the prices will be very high. You have to leave at least $10 when you walk in.”

"10 US dollars!" Fei Baoqi exclaimed, "Are you going to eat people?"

"The salon will not be located on the busiest street, but in a quiet place. We will not do much advertising, but mainly rely on word of mouth. We do not welcome walk-ins, but require advance appointments. A stylist only serves four or five clients a day."

"According to you, even if the starting price is $10, we won't make much money."

"It wasn't originally about making money; it was about extending the brand ecosystem."

Fei Baoqi shook her head. "I don't understand."

"For example, if you buy clothes from me, I'll try every means to get you to buy jewelry, bags, watches, high heels, and cosmetics from me. You spend a lot of money on a bunch of things, but they look terrible on you, which is very detrimental to my brand."

Some women aren't pretty, and they're short, fat, and dark-skinned; even a phoenix coronet and wedding gown wouldn't suit them, but they're rich, spending thousands or even tens of thousands at a time. You can't just turn away customers like that.

"You're encouraging people to get their hair done and their faces altered so they can match your clothes?"

Sin Yiu-man chuckled and said, "The words may be rough, but the meaning is sound. That's roughly the idea. In addition, there's also the idea of ​​cultivating the market, but I won't go into details."

"Go ahead, I want to hear it."

"Okay, let's talk as we walk."

Fei Baoqi took the bag and gave it to Xian Yaowen to carry, and the two walked outside.

Once outside in the corridor, Xian Yaowen continued, "With the outbreak of the world war, many nobles and families of equal status around the world have fallen into ruin. Most of the wealthy people born in the next few years will be the first generation of a family that has been wealthy for several generations or even more than ten generations. Let's call them the first generation of the wealthy."

Making money is hard, and spending it elegantly is not easy either. How do the self-made millionaires who are willing to spend money spend it?

The four words "eating, drinking, whoring, gambling" are enough to summarize it.

Before I became rich, I ate all the foods I craved. I would eat whatever tasted good all the time. Places like foot massage parlors, hotel massage parlors, dance halls, and nightclubs that I used to be reluctant to go to, I can now go to every few days.

Women I could only dream of before, I can now flirt with.

I heard from people at Friendship Film Studio that in the past, only young tycoons would sit in their cars waiting for female artists downstairs at the company and at the film set entrance, but recently there have been more self-made millionaires.

The market for entrepot trade in Hong Kong isn't as good as it was last year, but cotton yarn, garments, smuggling, shipbreaking, shipping, wholesale rice and food, remittance transshipment, and plastic products are all doing well, and many people are making money. Several of the company's female artists are already dating self-made millionaire boyfriends.

"A serious relationship?"

"Hmm." Xian Yaowen nodded slightly. "Judging from his behavior, he is in a serious relationship, even though he already has a wife at home."

Looking for a concubine?

"Correct."

Fei Baoqi scoffed, "You men only think about having three wives and four concubines as soon as you have money."

Sin Yiu-man did not respond to Fei Po-ki's words, but continued, "The self-made rich who are willing to spend money generally spend money in this way, while some of those who are not willing to spend money are more extreme."

Take Sham Shui Po for example. There are many small factories and wholesale shops, and quite a few people are business owners. Many of them earn several thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars a month. I calculated for Guolan Chang, who rented my shop to open a fruit store, that he could earn around two thousand dollars a month in the off-season, and in the peak season, it's hard to say, but he could earn four or five thousand, or even seven or eight thousand.

However, the couple was very frugal. Their meals usually consisted of only one seasonal dish, plus a salted fish or a cheap dead fish. If they didn't have guests, they would buy meat at most twice a month—once to render lard from lard, and once to buy some cheap, low-quality meat. Once I saw pork with rice porridge in Chang's basket; weren't they worried about getting sick from it?

"What kind of meat is 'measly pork'?" Fei Baoqi asked curiously.

Sin Yiu-man said in surprise, "Don't tell me you've never bought groceries before."

Fei Baoqi said shyly, "No."

"No wonder no one knows about 'measly pork'. Measly pork is pork infested with parasites. There are white spots on the meat that look like grains of rice. Those are the adult parasites. High temperatures can kill them, so it's not a big problem. The real danger is the eggs. Once they enter the human body, there's basically no hope of recovery."

Fei Baoqi exclaimed, "So dangerous?"

Sin Yiu-man chuckled and said, "Actually, there is hope. It's not a serious illness. It's just that people who eat pork with rice usually don't have the awareness to go to the hospital to check for parasites. By the time they find something is wrong and they're willing to sell everything they own to send their children to the hospital, they've already missed the best treatment period. What was once a minor illness has become a terminal one."

“That’s true.” Fei Baoqi nodded gently. “Too many people are reluctant to go to the hospital or see a doctor when they are sick. They just take some folk remedies and let a minor ailment turn into a major one.”

"The idea that people are reluctant to spend money is a bit one-sided. The money is actually not too bad. The registration fee at Hong Kong public hospitals is only HK$1. Charitable organizations such as Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Po Leung Kuk, and St. Mary's Hospital often waive the registration fee, and even if they do charge, it is only 5 cents."

But whether it's a public hospital or a charitable organization, they all have one drawback: there are too many people seeking medical treatment. It's normal to wait all day for a consultation, and it's not surprising to wait for several days. If you need to be hospitalized, just go home and wait for a bed. A pulmonary ward bed can take at least six months to get.

I can afford the money for medical treatment, but I can't afford the time or lost work. For minor ailments, a visit to a herbal tea shop is more economical. I stick out my tongue for the shop owner to examine, spend a few cents on a bowl of herbal tea, and even if it doesn't work, I've at least taken care of my mind. With a relaxed mood, I can weather the minor illness.

"Can't herbal tea cure illnesses?" (End of Chapter)