Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 143 Utopia's Terrifying Profitability
At Lu Wei's insistence, Zhai Da managed to recite twelve volumes of "The Long Road of Lu".

You know what, culture really does have weight!

However, no matter how he calculated it, he was losing money. He could have simply asked Phoenix Media to send him a box.

The agreed royalty rate is 8%, which is already the maximum preferential treatment for a new writer compared to the market standard of 5-10%.

The price of "The Long Road of Lü" is 38.8 yuan, which is considered high for the book's length and the author's status as a new author. The design and quality of the book play a role in this price.

Therefore, his personal royalty income from selling one copy is only a little over 3 yuan.

But when Lu Wei bought it at the bookstore, it cost nearly 40 yuan a copy, so Xiao Mutou spent almost 500 yuan.

This was the biggest expense he had ever spent on Lu Wei since he met her!
It can't be said to be completely meaningless.
At least GDP went up!
Carrying the heavy "culture" in his arms, Zhai Da hailed a taxi and headed to No. 99 Luochuan Road.

With a long time to go to university, he couldn't afford to let his "utopia," to which he had poured his heart and soul, go to waste.

As soon as I entered the courtyard, I saw my friends having a lively discussion, chattering away.

Upon seeing the person in question, the crowd immediately surrounded him: "The top scholar! The top scholar has arrived!"

Someone immediately reminded her, "There's another one! Lu Wei was also the top scorer!"

"The top scholar's wife is here too! Welcome, top scholar's wife!"

Looking around, there are an unusually large number of people in Utopia today. In fact, there are only twelve people who have officially joined Utopia, and even counting Wu Yue and Fan Junwei, there are at least nearly forty people today.

There were classmates from Class 8, friends from other classes, and even friends from other schools.

There was a startup going on here, and many of the senior high school students in Dongyang County knew about it, but no one was so bored as to come all the way here. At most, they would ask about it on QQ. Today, they were obviously here for Zhai Da.

Zhai Da couldn't refuse everyone's request, after all, they were theoretically classmates.
They're all his potential clients!

Brother, judging from your face, you must be ashamed of your score and have some unspeakable reason. How about some college application tutoring worth 2000 yuan?
Zhai Da quickly blended in with the crowd, while Lu Wei obediently took the tote bag full of "The Long Road of Lü" and stood quietly at the edge.

I couldn't resist taking a book out of the bag and quietly reading it.

I love it no matter how I look at it!

But she was quickly mistaken; she was the main character today too!
A dozen or so girls naturally gathered around, and Lingzhen immediately started chatting: "Senior Lu Wei, right? Hello, hello, I'm Liu Naiwei from No. 1 Middle School. Our names both have the character 'Wei' in them!"

"I'm Wang Man, are you from the previous year, senior? We're both from Maofang Middle School!"

"I'm Lin Shuyao from Class 8, Grade 12. We're all girls!"

Lu Wei was completely unfamiliar with this situation and froze there, stammering, "Hello... um."

Then I didn't know what to do. Coupled with the lack of a friendly smile on his face, and the absence of any awkwardness or social anxiety, he just seemed very cold.
Especially in the eyes of girls.

"Is this a book written by Zhai Da? I heard someone in the group say that they haven't had a chance to buy it yet!"

Wow! So many! Can I buy one?

This time Lu Wei reacted, pulling the bag close to her chest warily and turning to the side: "They're all mine."

All the girls:
This female top scorer seems a bit off. She's so beautiful, but she seems like a bookworm?

Well, that doesn't seem surprising, otherwise, he wouldn't be the top scorer!

More and more people gathered, getting closer and closer, and Lu Wei could only...
Back, back, back!

They retreated all the way to the corner of the wall.

Fortunately, a girl shouted in time: "Everyone, don't move forward! This courtyard is so big, you're forcing everyone into a corner."

Lu Wei looked in the direction of the sound and surprisingly recognized the girl.
At the same bus stop, there was that girl who always rejected confessions of love. She just said her name was Lin something?
It's a woman.

Lin Shuyao had some prestige among the girls, and it was indeed inappropriate for the top female student to be cornered against the wall, so the crowd dispersed.

Lin Shuyao was also secretly observing Lu Wei.

Undeniably, this senior student, Ms. Lu, is exceptionally beautiful, not just because of her clothes and makeup, but because of her looks.
Her facial features are strikingly beautiful.

Really beautiful.

The overall feel can be summed up in one word: clean. If I had to add anything else, it would be: simple and aloof.

It's hard to imagine these two feelings coexisting in the same person, but given her status as the top female scorer, her appearance actually becomes a secondary label.
If you're talking about investing time and effort in your appearance, and having the ambition to compete, then you're a top female student.
Reincarnation probably won't help.

Is this the legendary girlfriend of Zhai Da?
Judging from their behavior just now, it seems that the two of them are not exactly close, but they are definitely not. It is said that they always come and go together.

Lin Shuyao noticed that Lu Wei was staring at her, her gaze even more intense than her own, and she felt a little embarrassed: "Senior, why are you looking at me like that?"

Lu Wei shook her head.

Just as Lin Shuyao was about to ask a few more questions, Zhai Da clapped his hands in the center of the crowd and announced loudly:

"Everyone, thank you for coming to Utopia. However, we still have a trial class to teach. If you are interested, you can stay and listen in. It's just a matter of adding a chair. But we have to go to work now."

The "official employees" of Utopia immediately got to work. Zhai Da and Lu Wei were their colleagues who spent every day together, so there was no need for them to exchange pleasantries for a while.

However, some people who wanted to join in the fun shouted, "Student Zhai, we also want to join Utopia to work."

"Yes, I wish I could do without a salary!"

The conversation stirred up the crowd again. Lin Shuyao, no longer caring why Lu Wei was staring at her, ran over and raised her hand, saying, "Me too!"

Zhai Da: "Sorry, we can't recruit that many people. If you're interested, you can contact Li Haili. We might add more people depending on the situation."

Li Haili, sitting in the corner, seemed to be thinking about something and lowered her head.
Hehe ~
It's true that we're short-staffed, but it's impossible to have everyone, as the quality varies greatly.

Look at Li Haili, her "screening" process is very strict.

For most of the next day, Utopia continued to operate normally. Some people were at No. 99 Luochuan Road, while others took new flyers printed with "Foundation of Top Scholar, Secrets of Top Scholar, Teaching by Top Scholar" and went to the previous fixed locations to promote the project.

In the past, a stack of flyers could be handed out for two hours, but today they were all snapped up in half an hour.

"Hey~ I didn't believe it when I heard it this morning, but a top scholar who didn't even pass the imperial examination really came from Dongyang? And a top scholar who even teaches people?!"

Wu Xiaomei said confidently, "Of course, Uncle, you should bring your child along. We have exclusive learning techniques to teach you, which can correct your study habits."

That's incredibly convincing!
What's the difference between this and Mike Tyson teaching you boxing, or an NBA ambassador teaching you basketball?!

The flyers were quickly snapped up. There was no need to hand them out; in fact, people had to pull them back: "One for each person, how can you take three? Give them back to me!" Stack after stack, the flyer distributors rushed to reprint them, and the printing machines at the shop were burning hot.

In the end, Zhai Da called a halt to the matter in the afternoon, for no other reason than that, given the current situation, Utopia's enrollment would soon exceed their operational capacity.

The trial class at No. 99 Luochuan Road was also packed today, with an astonishing conversion rate of 70%. Some people even came to block the door on the same day without making an appointment after receiving the flyer.

The number of students is increasing far beyond the actual number that can be absorbed, and not a single course has been taught yet. Zhai Da is worried that something might go wrong.

At 5 p.m., after the last trial class, Zhai Da found Wu Yue, who was in charge of sales.

Wu Yue pressed the calculator buttons repeatedly, adding, adding:

"We had four trial classes today, serving a total of 84 people. Fifty-seven people paid on the spot, which is more than all the previous enrollments combined."

"Sales revenue of 171,000 yuan in one day! My goodness! The average order value is around 3000 yuan. If I had known it would be this good, I should have rented a proper building! This place is too small!"

Zhai Da rolled his eyes: "You think you're so great? Even if we can fill the entire building, do you think we can manage it?"

"The larger the scale, the more things there are; the more things there are, the more chaotic the management becomes; the more chaotic the management becomes, the smaller the scale becomes. Therefore, the larger the scale, the smaller the scale."

"There are nine rooms on Luochuan Road. Excluding the correction room and office, there are seven rooms left. If we manage them well, the class schedule will be more reasonable, the morning and evening hours will be longer, and we can squeeze out some more capacity."

The seven classrooms are fully occupied with 210 people, but if you squeeze in, 250 people can also sit down. There are ten class periods a day (plus two more in the evening), which means you can digest 2500 class periods every day.

Of course, this is assuming all students are enrolled and the class schedule is well-planned.

A lesson costs forty yuan, which means that the "theoretical income" in a day can reach 100,000 yuan, and the "volunteer tutoring" will not take up too much space.

Utopia's summer surprise program, in theory, would run for at least two months, generating several million in revenue.

In 08, people's views on money were still relatively simple; several million was already an astronomical figure.
It was created by a group of students in a small county town.

No wonder Wu and Yue were astonished.

Zhai Da said, "Classes will officially begin tomorrow. Let's stabilize things first. I'll give you a list later, and then we can visit more teachers, or ask teachers we already work with to introduce some. We need to cover all subjects."

"I understand that we need to develop on both ends."

After the two finished reconciling the accounts, Zhai Da walked out of the office and looked downstairs. There was a large group of people in the courtyard again. Many of the people who had come to join the fun in the morning had left, but some had stayed all day.

They help out here and do odd jobs there; they have plenty of time.

Zhai Da said, "You take them out for a meal and reimburse them through the company account. I won't go, otherwise we don't know how late it will go on."

"What about you? You need to eat too, right?"

"Me? I'll just ask Lu Wei to bring me some. I promised someone I'd go learn something today."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

As night fell, 99 Luochuan Road returned to its quiet state.

The playful and excited boys and girls went off to eat, chattering excitedly.
At the intersection, in a workshop with its roller shutter door open, an old man watched a group of people leave with longing in his eyes.

But in the end, no one stopped, so he disappointedly looked away, lowered his head, and lit a cigarette.

When I looked up again, a figure was already standing in front of me.

Xu Xuejun looked up and wanted to say something in praise, but the words that came out were just "the original flavor".

"You still know to come?"

Zhai Da shrugged: "Am I some kind of forgetful person? I said I'd come today."

Xu Xuejun took a drag of his cigarette: "Your college entrance exam results are out?"

"Out."

"Can you go to university?"

"The top scorer in the provincial college entrance examination."

Xu Xuejun's hand trembled slightly, but he calmly said, "I didn't let Master Yu down."

"Will praising me shorten your lifespan or something?"

Xu Xuejun tossed him a pair of gloves: "Put these on, don't be silly and get hurt."

Your hands are precious.

Without wasting words, Zhai Da put on his gloves and asked, "What do you have to say today?"

"I'll first familiarize you with the basic tools, and then today you'll try filing, starting with the most basic ones."

Half an hour later, Lu Wei arrived with a takeout meal.

Zhai Da is filing a hammer.

Xu Xuejun sat to the side, smoking and giving instructions.

Zhai Da's hands were steady and focused, so much so that he didn't even notice Lu Wei's arrival.

After placing the food aside, Lu Wei found a spot and quietly sat down to read.

I only occasionally hear strange noises.

Lu Wei looked up at the roadside trees.

It's the sound of cicadas.
"Squeak, squeak."
As the view slowly zooms out, this small workshop seems to be the only light in the night, on the somewhat desolate road.

Behind us, at No. 99 Luochuan Road, the occasional chirping of insects can be heard; further away, the sounds of laughter and chatter fill the air at the chicken hotpot restaurant.
But none of them can compare to the authenticity found here.

The two newly crowned top scorers in the college entrance examination chose to spend their second day as champions in this small workshop in peace and quiet.

Despite his extravagant lifestyle, he remained humble.

Three flowers on his head, picking up fireworks.

　Asking for a monthly ticket~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)