1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 26 Video Hall's Extended Business
The following time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was time for Hong Kong’s annual Advanced Level Examination.

That was two weeks after Zhai Yuan’s video studio opened.

But Zhai Yuan felt that there was no need for him to take the exam.

He originally thought that with the accumulation of his previous experience as a graduate of an ordinary second-tier university, if he worked hard, he might have a chance to go to college.

But when I was bored some time ago, I simply flipped through Hong Kong's textbooks and immediately gave up this idea.

The admission score line of Hong Kong University is based on A, B, C, D, ABCD. To pass the line, students must pass at least five subjects, with the English subject being at least Class C.

This alone was enough to keep Zhai Yuan out.

How can we describe Zhai Yuan's English level? For example, when he opened the CET-4 and CET-6 dictionaries, the word he was most familiar with was abandon.

However, in addition to government schools, Hong Kong has also seen the establishment of many private universities, commonly known as colleges, in the past two years.

Private universities do not have strict requirements for English scores, but because they use the unified examination papers, all test questions for subjects other than Chinese and history are in English.

For example, the math paper looks like this:
Zhai Yuan said that if I could understand, I would be an eggplant.

You should focus on your business. Once you have money, you can be a college student, not to mention going to university.

Liang Zhichao ran to take the exam happily without any self-awareness.

Before he went to take the exam, Zhai Yuan told him: "If the entire Xiumaoping Middle School can produce one college student this year, Principal Huang will be so happy that his face will break."

Liang Zhichao replied seriously: "Brother Yuan, why can't that person be me?"

Zhai Yuan was choked up and patted his shoulder: "Come on, I'll go to the video hall to collect tickets. Don't come back after you get into college."

After half a month of promotion, the video hall's business has gradually gotten on track.

Ten movies can be shown steadily twenty-four hours a day, four during the day and six at night.

Use the extra time to clean and give the machine a rest.

At that time, serious movies were a maximum of ninety minutes long, and non-serious ones were even shorter. Sometimes the directors of Category IV films also had their own artistic pursuits and wanted to insert some big scenes into the movies, but the funds were obviously insufficient, so you would often see movies like "Sex on the East Asian Island: Ten Thousand Urgent Issues", which claimed to be Category IV war movies, but in fact most of the war clips in them were edited and spliced in from other movies or documentaries, which was very awkward.

Under the influence of his surroundings, Zhai Yuan is now considered a half-master of Category IV films.

For most movies, he can tell the quality and whether it is worth purchasing just by watching the opening credits.

Liang Zhichao goes to the market more often to purchase goods and has already reached the master stage.

When you hear the opening song, you can tell exactly which production company in Taiwan produced this film. For every line an actor speaks, he can easily say the second line.

It is said that he is now practicing to memorize each actress' figure, appearance, scars, birthmarks, acting skills and voice, so that he can explain them to the guests at any time.

Zhai Yuan felt that when he succeeded, he could become a terrestrial immortal.

"Ayuan, this is the sales of my video studio yesterday."

As soon as Zhai Yuan arrived at the door of the video room, a tall young man in a black jacket came up to him.

He is Liang Zhichao's cousin, his name is Chen Jiale.

Just like Zixuan in later generations, the two words Jiale are so common that if you shout them without the surname in a housing estate, you will get dozens of responses.

Chen Jiale is 21 years old this year, a few years older than Zhai Yuan. He has been unemployed at home since graduating from Xiu Mauping Secondary School. During this period, he found several jobs but did not stay in them for long.

His family opened a pork stall, and his father wanted him to inherit the family business, but unfortunately Chen Jiale was not interested in this and always felt that he could have better development opportunities.

Until that day his cousin Liang Zhichao mentioned to him that his classmates had opened two video halls and were now in need of a clerk to look after the shops, and wanted to invite him to try it out.

At first, Carlos Chan was disdainful of what a 17-year-old student could do.

But after he spent a few hours in the video hall, watching the group of monkey guys lining up and paying money, while his cousin Liang Zhichao didn't have to do anything but collect money and show movies, and there were free movies to watch, he suddenly felt that this job was tailor-made for him.

Although the money is not much, but there is less work! It is much easier than working in a factory. By the way, Zhai Yuan gave Chen Jiale a monthly salary of 1,200 yuan, and Liang Zhichao gave him 1,500 yuan, which is equivalent to the salary of a cashier at a department store at that time.

At this time, Zhai Yuan took the stack of Hong Kong dollars handed to him by Chen Jiale and put it in his pocket without counting.

Seeing this, Chen Jiale took the initiative to add: "The total is 352 yuan. Three of the ten shows yesterday were not full, otherwise it would be more."

"Well, Jiale brother has worked hard."

Zhai Yuan nodded, and while chatting with him casually, he opened the door of the video room, picked up the broom against the wall and prepared to clean the room.

Although we have been repeatedly warned not to take off pants in the video room, there is always new toilet paper on the floor every day.

"Ayuan, let me do it."

After all, Chen Jiale is a few years older than him and understands the ways of the world. Although Zhai Yuan is a few years younger than him, he is the boss who pays the salary. It is not right for him to let the boss do things while he just watches.

Of course, another important reason is that he is not that familiar with Zhai Yuan.

If it were Liang Zhichao, he would not only watch Zhai Yuan clean the house, but also point to the corner and say: Brother Yuan, that place has not been cleaned yet.

"Why did you come here in person today? Where's Ah Chao?"

Chen Jiale asked as he swept the floor.

Zhai Yuan leaned against the door frame and lit a cigarette: "Brother Chao is very hardworking. He took part in the school's advanced level examination today and plans to go to university to study."

Chen Jiale paused in sweeping the floor and shook his head: "It's really New Year's Eve to thank the Kitchen God, it's good to do it or not."

After cleaning up the room, it was time for the official opening, but it was still morning and there were almost no customers during the day.

"Ayuan, there is something I want to discuss with you."

Chen Jiale put down the broom, packed up the garbage on the ground, and prepared to take it away when he left.

"Tell me." Zhai Yuan bit the cigarette butt and raised his chin towards him.

"I had a girlfriend who changed her career and became a prostitute. She knew a group of prostitutes. As you know, the economy is bad now, and prostitutes can't just sit at home and wait for business to come to them. So she discussed with me whether she could go to the video parlor with the prostitutes to attract some customers."

Fengjie is a lady who works in a building.

At that time, Hong Kong launched a comprehensive anti-pornography campaign. In order to suppress the rampant pornography scene, such venues were not allowed to be organized or registered as companies. There was also legislation that if there were more than one person selling sex in a house, the police would have the right to raid and arrest.

Thus, the model of one prostitute per floor, which exploits loopholes in the Legislative Council, came into being.

Since you said that it is illegal only when there is 'more than one person', then I will break the whole into smaller pieces and live alone in a house. It just so happens that I have many boyfriends and they often come to see me, and it just so happens that every time they leave me a few hundred yuan for living expenses.

Are you blowing me up?
"Not good." Zhai Yuan frowned: "We are doing serious business."

Chen Jiale said: "But she promised that we can take 10% of the commission for every deal we make."

Zhai Yuan asked: "How much is that?"

Chen Jiale replied: "About 10-20 yuan, it depends on what set meal the customer ordered from her."

"You made such a fuss."

Zhai Yuan smiled awkwardly, then coughed twice: "Brother Jiale, I am a serious businessman, I will never do such a thing."

Chen Jiale was stunned for a moment, and said "oh" with some disappointment.

"but!"

Zhai Yuan changed the subject: "I am me, you are you. If you insist on doing it, I can't do anything about it. Also, isn't your salary too high? I'm definitely not saying that I'm going to use the money you've collected to offset your salary. I definitely don't mean that. But you've worked here for so long and have accumulated a lot of work experience. Shouldn't you also consider paying a training fee to the boss every month?"

Isn't it normal to pay for work? Why do you call others capitalists?
(End of this chapter)