Chapter 710: Last Day Of The Year In The Lunar Calendar
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Even though Li Du was very persistent, Tao Zhi Bo was even more persistent than him.
Tao Zhi Bo was being very stubborn right now. As his family had encountered too many problems in the last two years, he had become a little mentally ill from the pressure.
Li Du did not want to take the 100,000 dollars, which was insignificant to him. In the end, after an argument between the two, the plan was changed. Tao Zhi Bo would use the sum of money that he had obtained to build a greenhouse for planting crops and setting up a vegetable company, which Li Du would invest the 100,000 dollars in.
The 100,000 dollars was not a small amount at all. As Tao Zhi Bo still had to pay off his debt and leave a sum of money for emergencies in regards to his parent's health, he was only left with 500,000 to 600,000 to invest in setting up a vegetable company.
Li Du wondered, "Are you sure you want to grow vegetables? And set up a company for it as well?"
"Yeah." Tao Zhi Bo forcefully nodded his head.
Li Du had no choice but to say, "Don't say I didn't warn you. The global economy is in a recession right now. With this sum of money, you might as well make investments."
"No problem, I have a plan," Tao Zhi Bo said firmly. "I want to grow organic vegetables and sell them to the communities in the city."
Li Du didn't understand him. "How?"
Tao Zhi Bo replied, "Not sure if you have been paying attention to e-commerce. I think that China's economy is changing from an FTF economy to a P2P e-commerce economy.
"What I want to do is e-commerce. By means of cellphones and computers, orders are received and the direct selling of clean, high-quality, uncontaminated vegetables will be carried out specifically for the rich communities in the city."
"Will they buy?" Li Du asked.
Tao Zhi Bo nodded. "They will buy. I made observations regarding this matter while I worked in the city. A lot of residents in rich communities are not short of money. What they are short on is clean, high-quality vegetables.
"I will grow this type of vegetable and deliver them using a small cargo van. The vegetables are guaranteed to not have any contaminants and are grown without the use of pesticides and fertilizers. I will start off by supplying to one community before gradually increasing the area that I'm supplying to. This will definitely work."
Li Du pondered for a while and said, "I don't quite understand. However, since you chose to do this, I will support you. Is this sum of money enough?"
Tao Zhi Bo replied, "I'll take one step at a time, but 500,000 is enough for me to build two greenhouses. I will supply to one to two communities first, which will definitely not be a problem."
"If that's the case, then I'm not investing 100,000," Li Du responded. "I'll invest 200,000 and get you a small cargo van that's worth 100,000 dollars. How's that?"
Tao Zhi Bo replied, "Sure, it's settled then."
He paused for a while before speaking to Li Du in a serious manner. "Old Li, trust me, this path is definitely feasible. I dare not say that we can make a fortune, but earning a profit shouldn't be a problem."
"I trust you. However, there's a prerequisite for my investment. You have to also supply my parents with a portion of your contaminant-free vegetables."
Tao Zhi Bo smiled and gladly said, "Is there even a need for you to ask? No problem!"
Just like that, in a school reunion, Li Du had helped an embattled old classmate earn a large sum of money and invested in a new company as well.
Zhang Xue Ning reported the incident in the class group. As special emphasis was placed on Li Du's matchless display of dominance when confronting Zheng Xilin, his old classmates were taken aback while listening to the report.
As the saying goes, "When one is rich, even distant relatives living far away will come to visit." Previously, Li Du had been staying at home with nothing much to do. After this incident, his old classmates invited him one after another to be a guest at their house.
Of course, as they wanted to see if they could earn a large sum of money like how Tao Zhi Bo did, they would also take the opportunity to take out some of the old items in their house and show them so he could have a look.
The first house Li Du went to was Tao Zhi Bo's house. After being informed that the worn-out copper coin that their son had worn since youth had been exchanged for millions, Mr. and Mrs. Tao were shocked and wanted to cook a meal to thank Li Du.
Initially, Li Du did not have much interest in these types of gatherings as his purpose for returning home this time around was to accompany his parents.
In the end, from time to time, there would be an item that possessed time energy among the old items in his old schoolmates' homes, which he could buy and feed to the little bug.
Since Zhang Xue Ning had disseminated the incident where Li Du helped Tao Zhi Bo maximize the profit earned, all of his classmates had a lot of trust in his character. They accepted the prices that he quoted for the ordinary old items.
Just like that, he ate and drank until Chinese New Year's Eve, with Chinese New Year right around the corner.
They put up Spring Festival couplets in the morning. In the past, Li Du and his father would need to step on a stool to put up the couplets. Now, with Godzilla and Big Quinn, they could just shake their legs and the Spring Festival couplets were put up.
Hans held a camera and kept taking photos, which he later posted on his Facebook and Twitter. He continuously posted about Chinese New Year customs that Li Du's village observed, which earned him quite a number of followers.
According to tradition, they ate steamed buns for lunch.
Mrs. Li had spent the whole morning preparing two large pots of steamed buns. They were all large steamed buns the size of an adult's palm and half of them were stuffed with mutton while the other half was stuffed with beef. Since only a little onion, ginger, and garlic were added to the steamed buns, they were all large pure meat steamed buns.
Ultimately, nearly one pot worth of steamed buns was cooked for their meal. As usual, Godzilla and Big Quinn ate the most, with Godzilla eating 12 large steamed buns by himself.
As they needed to worship their ancestors in the afternoon, Li Du followed his father and a relative from his father's side of the family to their ancestors' graves.
The graves of their ancestors had already been moved over. Mr. Li had prepared a string of 1,000 firecrackers and had hung it in a very high place before the firecrackers started going off, which produced crackling sounds.
Li Du was shocked. "Father, why did you get such a large string of firecrackers?"
Mr. Li replied, "Since you are well-to-do now, we have to thank the ancestors for their blessing. I have a feeling that it has something to do with the moving of the graves. Afterward, we still have to go to the ancestors' graves to set off another string of firecrackers."
Li Du was speechless.
Nonetheless, everyone in his family felt that the moving of the ancestors' graves had something to do with him being able to do so well in America and that the new graves might have better Feng Shui, which blessed him.
Today, the site of their ancestors' graves was an expansive neighborhood with blocks of apartments already built on it.
The neighborhood was very modern with rows upon rows of small high-rise apartment buildings built on the ground, a neighborhood park inside, green spaces, and a supermarket and movie theater at the side. The complementary facilities were gradually becoming all-encompassing.
Mr. Li said, "I came with your mother before to the neighborhood to have a look. We wanted to get an apartment for you as your new house if you got married in the future. Now, the housing prices in the county town have increased to insane amounts."
"How much?"
"Four thousand dollars per square foot!" Mr. Li sighed.
Li Du clucked his tongue. In truth, the prices had increased by quite a bit. He remembered that the price was still only 2,000 per square foot when he'd gone to America by himself.
Compared to these new neighborhoods, their village in the city was really hard to look at.
Mr. Li was very depressed as even the site of his ancestors' graves had turned into a modern residential area while the village that they were staying in had surprisingly not been demolished and rebuilt. It was indeed depressing to talk about this.
Li Du could tell that his father was attracted to these new communities. He gave Du Hang a call and asked him to help find an apartment that was to his liking.
As Du Hang could earn money from the sale of an apartment, he gladly said yes.
They went back to prepare for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, which was the most important meal of the year for families in China.
This year, the house was more lively with more people in it, especially with Godzilla and Big Quinn, who had huge appetites. They were the type of people who Mr. and Mrs. Li were fond of.
According to their village's custom, eating more during the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner meant that the harvest next year would be better, so this was a joyous good omen.
After preparing the steamed buns in the morning, Mrs. Li prepared the dishes for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in the afternoon. She prepared more than 20 dishes!
As night fell, the rising and falling of fireworks could be seen in the night sky of the county town. Chinese New Year's Eve night had begun.