I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

After finishing his conversation with Zhou Man, Shen Kang hung up the phone. President Wang and President Feng also finally put down their phones and returned to normal.

Shen Kang checked the time; it was already past five o'clock. So he got up and left the dormitory to go and keep an eye on the laundry room.

He predicted that the peak period would begin at 5 a.m., based on the activity patterns of university students.

……

Kong Lin walked nervously along the campus path, heading towards Jiahe Chain Laundry, with Wu Chenhui beside him.

Kong Lin no longer has the cards to play for family harmony.

He didn't know when he lost it, after all, he had been to too many places that afternoon and shown and passed the cards to too many people. By the time he realized it was gone, the cards were nowhere to be found, no matter how hard he looked.

"Do you think they'll recognize me when I don't even remember my own number?"

Kong Lin couldn't help but ask Wu Chenhui, who was standing next to him, "What if they think I never actually went to their store to have my clothes washed and just went there to claim the clothes without permission?"

He wasn't worried about the 10 yuan material cost he had to pay after losing his hand card; rather, he was afraid that Jiahe wouldn't be able to confirm that he was the owner of the laundry and wouldn't give him the items, which would be much more expensive than the 10 yuan material cost.

Wu Chenhui hesitated for a moment: "It shouldn't be... If you tell them what you washed, they can look it up, and if it matches, wouldn't that prove it's yours? It's like when someone finds a wallet, and the owner can tell them how much money was inside, which also proves the wallet is theirs."

Kong Lin smiled wryly: "But the sheets I sent for washing were ones that the school bought."

The bed sheets purchased by the school are the blue and white striped single bed sheets. Many students buy the same style. It is estimated that more than 10,000 students in the entire Yangko University of Science and Technology use the same bed sheets. There is no uniqueness at all, and it is impossible to prove that the bed sheet belongs to him.

Wu Chenhui opened his mouth, unsure of what to say, and finally said, "Let's go take a look first. If it really doesn't work... we'll just have to accept our bad luck."

Kong Lin sighed, said nothing, and silently continued on his way.

When I arrived at Jiahe Laundry Chain, I found that there were a lot of customers, coming and going in a steady stream. Some were there to drop off their clothes for cleaning, while others were there to pick them up.

After the customer in front of Kong Lin paid, took the tag, and left, Kong Lin stepped forward, somewhat nervously: "Hello, I came to deliver laundry today, but I lost my tag and I don't remember what number I am."

"Could you please wait a moment? We're a bit busy right now, but an employee will be here to help you find your clothes soon," the cashier said.

Kong Lin felt a little relieved, but not completely at ease. He and Wu Chenhui went to the side to observe the situation in the shop and wait.

Shen Kang was already in the store and witnessed this scene.

Instead of going over to deal with the classmate who had lost his wristband, he went over to help the sorting worker push the clothes to be washed, and also helped push the washed laundry bags to the collection area, putting them away one by one according to their numbers.

With Shen Kang's help, Lin Mian, the sorting worker who had been working tirelessly to earn overtime pay, finally managed to free up some time and called out to Kong Lin, who was waiting there, "Hey, the one who dropped the hand card, come here for a second!"

Kong Lin quickly walked over, with Wu Chenhui following closely behind.

Lin Mian was already operating a computer in the laundry area. After Kong Lin came over, he asked, "Student, do you remember what time you came to drop off your laundry? The more detailed the time, the better."

Kong Lin quickly recalled and reported: "Around 10 a.m. today, it should be between 10:30 and 11 a.m."

Lin Mian operated the screen, turning it towards Kong Lin who was standing outside the counter. It displayed a surveillance video. "Student, find yourself. Once you see yourself, pause the video and call me."

After saying that, Lin Mian went back to work.

Following Lin Mian's instructions, Kong Lin took the mouse, clicked fast forward, and started looking for himself in the surveillance footage. He quickly found it and pressed pause.

"Found it!"

Lin Mian pushed another cart out of the work area and Shen Kang took over the task, then Lin Mian went over there himself.

He compared the footage with Kong Lin in front of him and confirmed that it was the same person. Finally, by reviewing the surveillance footage, he pinpointed the exact time Kong Lin's laundry bag was put into storage, and from that time, he found the laundry bag's number in the system.

"Student, you are number 28."

Lin Mian gave Kong Lin's laundry bag number, but instead of picking it up immediately, he asked, "What kind of clothes did you send in for cleaning?"

Kong Lin quickly replied, "The bed sheets are from the school, the blue and white striped kind."

Lin Mian then went to the wooden shelf behind him and found laundry bag number 28 in the corresponding numbered compartment. When he opened it, it was indeed a blue and white striped laundry bag.

"Since you lost your hand cards, please pay 10 yuan for materials, student."

Kong Lin quickly took out the 10 yuan he had prepared and gave it to him, and Lin Mian also handed over the washed bed sheet to Kong Lin.

After leaving the laundry room, Kong Lin couldn't help but sigh, "I thought I'd never get it back. Luckily, this store had security cameras."

Wu Chenhui accompanied him throughout the process, and seeing this, he felt even more at ease with the laundry.

Shen Kang was helping out in the shop, so he naturally witnessed the whole thing.

He deliberately didn't help check the surveillance footage, just to give these employees a chance to practice. This "lost hand card" handling procedure was also part of their training.

As for allowing students to operate the monitoring screen themselves and search for themselves, there's no fear that students might cause any trouble, because the computer has been locked. Students can only play, fast forward, rewind, and pause, but cannot perform any other operations.

Thanks to thorough preparations before opening, everything is proceeding smoothly so far.

"Cancel inventory number 28."

Shen Kang went to the cashier's area to give instructions, and after watching the cashier's work was completed, he went to help out.

He initially ordered 3000 hand cards. Assuming that 750 cards could be drawn each day, and the cards were sold out on the 28th, then card number 751 would take over, and so on.

After helping out for more than an hour, seeing that the staff were managing to handle the peak hours, Shen Kang left. He didn't return to the store until 10:50 p.m.

There were no customers left in the store, and the three employees were preparing to leave.

Shen Kang went to the cashier's computer to check the data and found that a total of 531 laundry bags had been collected and washed today, more than the 500 he had expected.

Of course, this is a benefit brought by the novelty of the game, but the social frenzy will have a peak and then subside, at which point the benefits brought by the social attributes will fade. However, laundry is a basic necessity, not just a trendy product, so even if the trend fades, it can still maintain a basic volume.

As for the profit per laundry bag, it works like this: if 10 laundry bags are washed together, the cost of water, electricity and laundry detergent for one wash is more than 7 yuan, and the revenue is 10*3=30 yuan. So, when spread out to 1 laundry bag, the gross profit is 2.3 yuan, which is a gross profit margin of 76%.

A gross profit margin of 76% seems high, but the investment is also large. The initial investment for this store was 200,000 yuan, and there are fixed costs every month (rent, labor, equipment depreciation, etc.), money to be shared with the school, and three months of the year when the store cannot operate due to winter and summer vacations, and so on.

Based on today's 531 laundry bags, after deducting the daily fixed cost of 533 yuan, the net income is 688 yuan, which is 20,000 yuan per month. However, after deducting the money distributed to the school and the winter and summer vacations, it will take until April 2010, the year after next, to break even. That's a full 19 months, which is already shorter than the average payback period of 10 to 18 months in the laundry industry.

Of course, 531 laundry bags per day is not the daily limit for this store; there is still room for profit improvement.

If the daily capacity of 750 laundry bags can be maintained long-term, the payback period will be significantly shortened to just 12 months, meaning it would be back to its original cost by this time next year. Adding value-added services would further shorten this period.

Overall, we got off to a good start today.

"Let's call them over, it's on me, let's go out for some late-night snacks to celebrate!"

Shen Kang waved his hand, and the shop assistants cheered.

He also sent a text message to Wang Pan, saying that he wouldn't be going back tonight and that he shouldn't write his name down when registering people who weren't going home at night, since this was a condition that Shen Kang had agreed upon when he helped Wang Pan run for class monitor.