Returning to my senior year of high school before college, I became addicted to dating.

Next, Lin Feng opened Taobao.

In 2006, Taobao's interface was still very basic, lacking the later fancy features. But it had all the essential functions—opening a store, listing products, payment, and reviews.

Lin Feng registered a store called "Feng Ge Online Game Store".

He first searched on Taobao and found that there weren't many shops selling phone cards and game cards, and most of them shipped manually, meaning buyers had to wait half a day to receive the card code after placing an order.

There are almost no automated delivery services.

This is the opportunity.

Lin Feng then contacted several more suppliers.

Phone cards, China Mobile and China Unicom's Shenzhouxing recharge cards, are sold at a 3% discount from the wholesale price and at a 2% discount online.

You make one yuan on a 100-yuan card, and if you sell a thousand cards a day, you make a thousand yuan.

The same goes for game point cards; people buy them every day in internet cafes for games like Fantasy Westward Journey, World of Warcraft, and Audition Online.

A game card with a face value of thirty yuan has a purchase price of twenty-seven yuan and is sold for twenty-nine yuan, making a profit of two yuan per order.

The key point is that these virtual products do not require inventory.

They obtain key codes from upstream suppliers, list them on Taobao, and receive payment for each code sold, resulting in rapid capital turnover.

Lin Feng negotiated a price with the supplier and then spent money to buy an automatic delivery software—such software already existed in 2006, it was rather rudimentary, but it was sufficient.

He renovated the shop and wrote several eye-catching titles:

Automatic delivery, instant payment.

Lowest price online, ten times compensation for fakes.

Then they held an opening event:

10% off everything, for three days only.

On the first day the store went online, there were zero orders.

Lin Feng wasn't in a hurry. He knew Taobao's rules: new stores with no reputation or sales would be ranked at the very bottom of search results, invisible to everyone. He needed to boost his sales first.

He made a phone call to Tiger.

"Brother Tiger, help me find twenty people. Each of them should place an order on Taobao and leave a positive review. I'll reimburse them."

"Taobao? You can buy things on that?" Tiger's voice was filled with doubt.

"Yes, you can. Just help me find someone, that's all."

"OK."

After three days of boosting sales, the store's sales and reputation improved, and its ranking also improved.

On the fifth day, orders finally exceeded 100.

On the tenth day, we broke 500.

Lin Feng goes to school and dates during the day, processes orders during his lunch break, and packs and ships orders in the evening.

Although virtual products do not need to be packaged, the backend needs to perform the "shipping" operation, which involves filling in the card code.

With a thousand orders, it would take half the night just to fill in the card codes.

Finding it too troublesome, he spent money to buy software for bulk shipping. One-click import, automatic filling of card codes, saving time and effort.

By the third week, "Feng Ge Online Game Store" had stabilized at around 1,000 orders per day. Earning two yuan per order, that's two thousand yuan a day.

This is two months' salary for an ordinary worker in Huanan County. Lin Feng earned that in just one day.

He also implemented a membership system—recharge 100 yuan and get 5 yuan free, recharge 500 yuan and get 30 yuan free, recharge 1,000 yuan and get 100 yuan free.

Members have a high repurchase rate and strong loyalty.

By the fourth week, the average daily orders had reached 1600.

Lin Feng calculated that, after a month, the net profit from phone cards and game points combined was 100,000 yuan.

There's also some activity on the domain name side.

The domains he listed on the trading platform received daily views. Several were bookmarked, and one person even sent him an inquiry email.

The other party asked about jiamusi and offered 50,000.

Lin Feng did not reply.

Fifty thousand is too low.

Jiamusi is a prefecture-level city with dozens of units under the municipal government alone. Which one of them doesn't need a decent domain name?

Want to take 50,000? Dream on.

He countered with a price: 200,000.

The other party did not reply.

Lin Feng wasn't in a hurry. Domain names are something you can't rush.

I'm posting it online, waiting for the right person. Maybe one day a rich person or a high-level executive will take a fancy to it and take away hundreds of thousands of dollars.

His main focus now is on his Taobao store and online entertainment platform.

His goal isn't much; five thousand orders a day is enough.

With a net profit of 10,000 yuan a day, that's 300,000 yuan a month, and he'll have plenty of things to do.

A month has passed, and the account now holds 27 yuan. There is still one week until the World Cup opens.

Although the principal didn't double as expected, it's enough, considering the Taobao store is bringing in several thousand yuan every day.

During this month, in addition to running his Taobao store, he was also juggling relationships with three girls and one woman.

Now Liu Jiaqi and Song Yan have almost accepted each other's existence, and they no longer compete or fight over each other. There was even a time when Lin Feng took the two of them to see a movie and have dinner together.

They both realized that Lin Feng wouldn't give up on any of them. Since they couldn't change Lin Feng's mind, they could only change their own, since neither of them wanted to let go.

Instead of scheming against each other and getting yourself worked up every day, it's better to face each other honestly and openly.

This is also the result of Lin Feng's month-long constant PUA (Pick-Up Artist) tactics on the two of them.

However, Liu Jiaqi and Song Yan were unaware of the existence of Zhang Min and Sun Xiaoli.

Sun Xiaoli and Zhang Min knew that Lin Feng had a girlfriend at school, but they didn't know who she was. They weren't pretentious and didn't ask any questions.

However, recently, that barmaid from the new century has been flirting with him on QQ. Raymond Lam replies when he has time, and doesn't reply when he doesn't.

He could have set up that new-age bar anytime, but he simply doesn't have the energy for it right now.

Let's stock up on it for now! We'll deal with it later.

Outside the window, dusk is slowly settling.

In the distance, someone is setting off firecrackers, crackling and popping; I wonder whose family is celebrating a happy occasion.

My phone vibrated; it was a text message from Liu Jiaqi:

Are you coming to see me tonight?

Raymond Lam replied with a single word: "Come."

He stood up, grabbed his car keys, and went out.

In the evening in Huanan County, the streets are crowded with people. Some are riding bicycles to pick up their children from school, some are carrying groceries home, and a few old men are playing chess by the roadside, with more onlookers than chess players.

Lin Feng turned the steering wheel, and the Audi merged into the traffic.

My phone vibrated again. This time it was Tiger.

"Brother Feng, there's news about the thing you asked me to inquire about."

"explain."

"Li Qiang has been looking for Zhang Min, asking around everywhere. Yesterday he even went to Zhang Min's mother's house, but the old lady scolded him and kicked him out."

Lin Feng frowned and asked, "Did he find out anything?"

"Not yet. He doesn't know where Zhang Min lives, nor does he know it's you."

"Keep an eye on it. Tell me immediately if there's any movement."

"OK."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Feng tossed his phone onto the center console.

Zhang Min's matter isn't over yet. Li Qiang has that volatile temper; he won't let it go so easily. We need to be wary of him resorting to desperate measures.

Lin Feng stepped on the gas, and the Audi sped up and disappeared into the twilight.