Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 24 My Boss Is Taking Me to Work? (5k2)

We trekked through mountains and rivers for a whole day.

The car broke down once and we had to rest five times along the way, taking nearly 24 hours. I thought taking the bus would save us some time, but it took us an hour longer than the train.

Huo Xiaowen got out of the car behind Chen Xuebing, stretching and cursing, "Eh... damn it, if I don't make a million this time, I'm not going back. This trip is deadly!"

What appears to be a complaint is actually a wish.

Chen Xuebing also felt somewhat emotional.

In the past, carriages and horses were indeed very slow.

We still have to take a plane.

Wait, what the hell is there to miss?

The first time he played the computer game StarCraft, he would enter the resource password at the start of each game: Show me the money!

When you're out making money, speed is key!

As soon as he stepped out of the station and left the chaotic area, Chen Xuebing immediately took out the money in his pocket and counted it. After all, he already had 1,000 yuan prepared for the fare, plus 2,000 yuan from his uncle. He had spent more than 400 yuan on the fare and service area, leaving him with more than 2500 yuan. These days, when you're out and about carrying cash, you have to keep an eye on whether you still have the money.

There was a huge stack of 2500 banknotes, which were from two sets of Renminbi. The fourth set was still in circulation. Among the money my uncle gave me, there were two gray 100-yuan notes with the four leaders on the front and Jinggang Mountain on the back, as well as two green 2-yuan notes.

After counting the money, Chen Xuebing found that none was missing. He then sorted the money into different categories, putting the larger bills on one side and the smaller ones on the other, making it easier to pay for things.

It's too late, but it's soon.

"Hey bro! Want to book? It's 58 yuan! Add 20 and I can stay overnight!"

A sharp-eyed woman with a Northeastern accent spotted Chen Xuebing counting money and immediately came over:
"The massages here are so comfortable! We even have services from people from our hometown! Massage girls from Tianjin, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Harbin—we have them all! Where are you from, bro?"

People from Northeast China are really suited for sales. They're quick-witted and can get people involved easily. Chen Xuebing stood there without saying a word, and the other person had already finished introducing the business.

"No, no!" Chen Xuebing waved his hand.

You've got my hands on all that money. If I go to your place, won't you try to scam me?
The older sister tried to pester him again, but Huo Xiaowen glanced at her.

This guy had a buzz cut, the length of a convict, and he even had an earring; he didn't look like a good person.

The older sister glanced at him, then walked away dejectedly.

But before they could take two steps, a girl stopped them again with a newspaper.

"Hey bro, looking for a job? Check out the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily! They have job postings from companies and factories!"

This time, Chen Xuebing actually bought a ticket and walked around looking at it.

These two actions brought out the feeling of a fast-paced city.

They'll either force you to spend money or urge you to go to work.

Shenzhen doesn't support idlers.

Chen Xuebing glanced at the newspaper and saw that most of the job postings were in Luohu District, with the phrase "talent market" appearing repeatedly.

However, he had done his research beforehand and planned to go straight to Futian.

Chen Xuebing had been to Shenzhen in his previous life, during the peak of the "Once you're here, you're a Shenzhener" slogan campaign, which could be seen everywhere on the streets.

However, Shenzhen is still a city where you must apply for a temporary residence permit if you stay for more than 20 days; otherwise, you will be sent back to your place of origin.

His previous understanding of Shenzhen was rather macroscopic.

It was a window to reform and opening up, a testing ground for economic policies, a hub for migrant workers, and the economic center of southern China.

Two days ago, he looked up some information at an internet cafe, and with the report on the back of this newspaper, document No. 200 of the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Village Redevelopment Project, he was able to slightly sense that the pace of development was still in a stage of gradual increase.

What a great era!

As a benchmark for urban renewal, Dachong Village in Nanshan offers compensation of 2500 yuan per square meter, and he even wanted to bring his uncle here to do business.

Shenzhen's urban villages, what's the difference between this and giving away money?
Double the amount released will double the profit!

Let's not even talk about the future. In three or four years, without 11,000 yuan per square meter, will this land be able to be acquired?
The two took a taxi to Huaqiangbei. Along the way, countless buildings sprang up from the ground, and tower cranes could be seen every now and then. Yet, they could still see large areas of undeveloped land next to those buildings.

This place is on par with Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but it is very different from them. Shenzhen has only 20 years of urban development history. More than 20 years ago, this place was still a fishing village.

A small fishing village has developed into a special economic zone. Land is the biggest dividend, followed by the industry gaps and consumer gaps created by explosive growth. A special economic zone newspaper uses an entire page to publish job postings, all from large companies. He couldn't help but recall the slogans often played at the supermarket entrance:
"Hurry and grab yours, first come, first served."

……

Shenzhen has a small area, less than 2000 square kilometers.

For comparison, Shanghai has 6340, Guangzhou has 7434, Beijing has 1.64, and Chongqing has 8.2.

So even though the driver took several detours after hearing Huo Xiaowen's less-than-standard Mandarin, they arrived at the entrance of a Gome Appliances store in less than 20 minutes.

"We're here, handsome."

The driver pointed ahead: "You can't get through over there, just walk in, it'll cost 40 yuan."

"So expensive?" Huo Xiaowen frowned upon hearing the price, somewhat displeased.

"Never mind, people are already calling you handsome."

Not wanting to waste any more time, Chen Xuebing paid the fare and pulled Huo Xiaowen out of the car.

Once he got off the taxi, Huo Xiaowen realized that the price of the ride wasn't the most shocking today.

A huge crowd had gathered in front of Gome, where a young man in a red vest was holding up a large red sign that read "CHANGHONG Changhong," with the following text below:

Changhong's 40-inch ultra-thin digital LCD TV is priced at 17999 yuan, and comes with a free digital DVD.

17999, white text, very large.

The two stared at the sign for a long time without saying a word. Huo Xiaowen, who was about to get off the bus to buy a bottle of water, hesitated when he saw the price, wondering if there was something wrong with the exchange rate of the Shenzhen dollar.

There are still so many people going in to watch. This isn't spending money, it's throwing money away.

"This Jiba TV will definitely not sell in Chongqing." Huo Xiaowen didn't know whether he was cursing or praising.

Chen Xuebing also shook his head with his hands on his hips.

No wonder Lao Huang has become the richest man in the past two years.

"Let's go in and take a look."

……

The SEG Plaza is indeed very imposing, standing out from the crowd. You don't even need to look for it; it's the tallest building. The sign for the electronics market is right across from the building.

There were so many people that it was like a small pot with dozens of dumplings in it, and it was much hotter here. In Chongqing it was around 10 degrees Celsius, but here it was at least 20 degrees Celsius.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm going to buy a bottle..." Huo Xiaowen took off her coat because she was hot, but then stopped abruptly.

"Yo?"

Huo Xiaowen patted Chen Xuebing on the shoulder and looked in one direction: "Look, damn it, nobody's doing anything about this?"

Chen Xuebing looked closely and saw several people squatting by the entrance of the electronics market. The one in front was holding a white wooden board with four characters written on it:
Professional debt collection.

There's another phone number below.

Chen Xuebing was also a little curious, but he could control himself from being too curious.

"There's a convenience store right next door. If you need to buy water, just go there. It'll be dark soon. We've finished our market survey today, and we still have important business to attend to tomorrow."

Chen Xuebing urged, and Huo Xiaowen nodded, "What do you want to drink? It's on me."

"Iced black tea, from Uni-President."

"Hmm." Huo Xiaowen went to the small shop next to the market, but kept turning his head to look at those people.

I ordered a bottle of water, and it still hasn't come out after several minutes.

Chen Xuebing couldn't help but go over to take a look and found that this guy was talking to the owner behind the counter of the convenience store and pointing at those people.

The people at the door all saw him, but he wasn't afraid.

Judging from their posture, they might even want to go directly to those people and ask them questions.

Chen Xuebing covered his forehead, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

That son of a bitch is indulging in his old ways.

"Huo Xiaowen, your mom is calling you home for dinner!"

Chen Xuebing yelled, and the guy finally came out.

His eyes still gleamed with golden light.

"Holy crap, holy crap!" Huo Xiaowen exclaimed as he approached, "Nobody cares! And business is booming here collecting debts!"

Seeing his ecstatic excitement, as if he had entered paradise, Chen Xuebing was speechless: "You son of a bitch, you're only fit to eat prison food, do some legitimate business, and live a normal life, can't you?"

"Screw you." Huo Xiaowen waved his hand. "How many of those cheap phones you're buying are stolen? Don't you know? Besides, I'm just helping the police out! Hey, let me tell you, I just asked around, there are tons of bad debts here, lots of people scamming others and running away. A lot of people go to the police station to report it, but the police can't handle it all. They don't even handle these kinds of cases anymore, they only deal with public order. If you get scammed, you can only go to court. For debt collection services, if the person is still there, it's 15 to 25 percent; if they've run away, it's 50 percent! And if it's a debt of 100,000 or 200,000…"

Huo Xiaowen's eyes lit up, and he raised his chin at Chen Xuebing.

Chen Xuebing shook his head firmly.

In his previous life, he would have fought his way through the entire street to get this job.

But he can earn more money than he can in his lifetime, so there's no need to leave a criminal record for such quick money.

However, knowing that Huo Xiaowen was still up to no good after his direct refusal, Chen Xuebing could only look around warily and say seriously:
“This kind of highly profitable business, even if the police don’t care, someone else will. It’s their territory, and we’re unfamiliar with it. If you mess with their business, you’ll cross the line and get into trouble.”

Huo Xiaowen remained silent for a while.

"Yes, we still need to pay our respects to the mountain peak."

Chen Xuebing was speechless: "You're going to pay respects to the mountain strongholds all by yourself? I'll beat you to death! If you want to do this, you'll have to obediently be their lackey! You'll do the work, and you'll only get a small commission! What's the difference between that and collecting cell phones? At least I give you a guaranteed minimum wage!"

The light in Huo Xiaowen's eyes finally faded. "Forget it."

Chen Xuebing breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to enter the market building.

"You have to help me make money! I also need to treat my mom's foot!" Huo Xiaowen shouted again.

The sound was quite loud, startling several debt collectors nearby, who glared at him with hostility.

Huo Xiaowen had just been persuaded by Chen Xuebing to stay on the right path, and was still annoyed that these people had "stolen" his lucrative business. When he noticed them looking over, he immediately glared at them.

"What are you looking at!"

The Chongqing accent is more forceful than the Cantonese accent.

Huo Xiaowen took off his coat, revealing a tight-fitting T-shirt underneath. When the other person stood up, he saw some of Huo Xiaowen's tattoos and didn't move for a moment.

People from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing have a pretty fierce reputation in Guangdong. They stick together and local motorcycle gangs don't dare to mess with them.

When Chen Xuebing turned around, the two sides were already locked in a stalemate.

He quickly went over and pulled Huo Xiaowen inside, saying, "Damn, I promise I'll help you make money, a lot of money! Okay?"

"Row!"

Huo Xiaowen followed Chen Xuebing with a displeased expression, and the others did not follow.

……

Less than 20 minutes later, Chen Xuebing came out of there cursing.

"Selling dog meat under the guise of mutton!"

They went inside and looked around, only to find that there were no mobile phone counters at all. After asking several people, they learned that all the wholesalers of brand new mobile phones are now concentrated in the newly opened Yuanwang Digital City.

Huo Xiaowen followed behind, looking around: "Where is that 'distant view' that the person just mentioned?"

After leaving the market and looking around for a while, Chen Xuebing vaguely spotted the intersection that the person had pointed out to him about two or three hundred meters away.

"It should be over there!"

Chen Xuebing pointed and turned his head to find Huo Xiaowen staring at the group of people by the door again.

"I told you not to look at me! Look again and I'll kill you all!"

Huo Xiaowen made a slapping gesture at the leader.

"Excuse me, excuse me! My brother just got out of the mental hospital!" Chen Xuebing hurriedly stepped forward, grabbed Huo Xiaowen, and left.

Those men finally saw Huo Xiaowen's full-back tattoo and looked embarrassed when they heard Chen Xuebing's words.

"These Sichuan people are just weird!"

That was an insult.

Chen Xuebing and Huo Xiaowen were both quite calm, and even seemed to want to laugh.

I'm sorry, I embarrassed my fellow Sichuanese while traveling.

Hahahaha.

...

Upon arriving at the entrance of Yuanwang Digital City, I realized that this was where the real crowds of people gathered.

Vans and delivery boxes were everywhere on both sides and behind the digital mall.

It was almost lunchtime, but the scene was bustling with activity.

Next to the building, there was a man who collected cell phones with a sign hanging around his neck, and people would often approach him with their hands behind their backs to ask him questions.

Chen Xuebing deliberately moved closer and listened for a while, discovering that some wanted to buy and others wanted to sell.

"There are quite a lot of people here. Will I be collecting cell phones here from now on?" Huo Xiaowen leaned closer with his hands behind his back and asked in a low voice.

"Not necessarily." Chen Xuebing shook his head: "This place mainly deals in new phones and knock-offs. I heard that the second-hand market is mainly in Huaqiang South now, but it's not very concentrated. Let's go in and take a look at this market first."

These days, there's very little online information about Huaqiang Road, and Chen Xuebing isn't sure about the market situation on both the north and south sides. His understanding of the area from his previous life mainly came from a friend. That friend had been working in Huaqiangbei for several years, but in 13, Huaqiangbei was closed for subway construction, and the friend had made enough money to return to his hometown of Chongqing to recuperate. During a meal together, the friend told many stories about getting rich in the area.

Out of curiosity, Chen Xuebing also paid attention to this information later.

However, he discovered that the market was developing rapidly, with new markets constantly opening, and the current situation was completely different from what he knew in his previous life.

He needs a source of intelligence.

The two walked up and looked around. It didn't seem like the first floor was selling mobile phones, but there were many people around. They followed the crowd upstairs, and Chen Xuebing finally saw the legendary one-meter counter.

One meter is one square meter.

Looking out over the entire first floor, all you see are counters, with phones piled up on and off the counters. The cramped space encloses countless business owners, with some counters only big enough for two people to stand in. Passersby point and whisper about the business owners, their words filled with envy.

"Don't let its small size fool you, it costs over two hundred thousand a year..."

"The size doesn't matter... what I'm buying is the right to do business here."

"Hehe, I heard that a stall application form costs 50,000. By reselling the stalls, you can make a 50,000 profit from just one transaction. The stall owners here are all at least a millionaire!"

People browsing the shops may not be able to see the exact profits these shop owners make, but the rent for their stalls alone is enough to make people talk about it.

The market was packed with people. Chen Xuebing was swept along by the crowd, feeling like he was on a bus, with only the space in front of the counters available for him to stop.

I walked a short distance, got off at another stop, and looked around for a while.

Chen Xuebing didn't ask the question himself, but heard someone next to him ask.

A bespectacled man stared at the glass for a long time before pointing at it.

"Boss, is this Sony genuine? 1500 yuan?"

The proprietress glanced at him and waved her hand, "This is a wholesale market, we don't sell individually! For retail, go upstairs!"

The young man frowned: "That's not right, is it? I saw someone take one and leave when I came here!"

"That's my relative!"

Chen Xuebing chuckled and continued leading Huo Xiaowen forward.

He knew why the boss wouldn't sell.

They do sell new phones here, but they're all grey market imports—meaning they're manufactured overseas and smuggled in through various channels.

There are also some refurbished phones that are sold as grey market goods.

There are also counterfeit products from brands with outdated technology.

There is no after-sales service or warranty, and it doesn't sell to genuine consumers; this is where they source their goods.

Before coming, he read an online report that revealed that these kinds of phones of dubious origin now occupy one-third of the entire mobile phone market.

The sheer scale of this place alone demonstrates just how significant its market share is.

Chen Xuebing currently lacks capital and plans to start by selling the secondhand goods he acquires. However, once his business grows, he will definitely enter the grey market for refurbished and grey-market phones. Right now, he needs to accomplish two things:
First, understand market conditions.

Secondly, learn how to identify mobile phones. At the very least, you should know what type of mobile phone it is, whether it is a grey market import, a refurbished phone, or a counterfeit brand.

Thinking about it, I continued walking forward and saw a young man with long hair walk up to a counter and tap on the glass with his finger. I quickly followed him and listened.

"Sister Song, open a 3100."

The questioning was simple, and the boss's procedure was also straightforward. He looked through a box under him, didn't seem to find it, then wrote out a form, stamped it, and handed it to him.

The young man took the bill and left without paying, heading straight downstairs.

It seems like the place where they get their goods isn't here.

Chen Xuebing felt that the market was filled with a sense of xenophobia, as if some kind of threshold was being intentionally set up.

"Hey, hey." After turning around, Huo Xiaowen patted him on the shoulder from behind: "I heard they say the apartments upstairs can be sold separately, should we go check it out?"

Chen Xuebing thought for a moment, then shook his head: "The ones upstairs are definitely more expensive. No need to look anymore, let's go."

Huo Xiaowen was stunned: "They're leaving already?"

Chen Xuebing suddenly remembered what he saw when he entered the room.

"Go downstairs."

……

Looking at the wall above the main entrance, one sees a dense array of job postings.

Chen Xuebing took out paper and pen from his bag, identified the information on the wall, and then copied down the phone number.

Huo Xiaowen was a little confused by his actions. After thinking for a while, she suddenly laughed and said, "Oh! You're planning to contact these bosses directly, right? That's clever!"

Chen Xuebing smiled.

Somewhat clever, but not very clever.

"You're overthinking it. I'm just looking for a place to take you to work."

I'll take you with me.

go with.

beat.

work.

Huo Xiaowen stood there helplessly, a triple thought echoing in his mind.

"You paid me to come here and work with you?!"

(End of this chapter)