Movie: Get Alpha Dog at the start

Gou Changzi might look unremarkable—wearing a floral shirt and baggy shorts, he walked with a swaying gait—but he was surprisingly efficient when it came to getting things done. Ever since taking on Cui Guomin's debt collection job, he hadn't been idle, working from dawn till dusk, spending his days in the office buildings of various state-owned factories, using every trick in the book, from gentle persuasion to relentless pressure. At first, Cui Guomin was skeptical, wondering if this scoundrel could actually get his money back. But to his surprise, in just over twenty days, Gou Changzi found him in a flurry of activity.

"Boss Cui, here, this is two hundred thousand. Count it." Gou Changzi threw a bulging black plastic bag onto the table in front of Cui Guomin, his tone smug. The scars on his face seemed more prominent than before, and there was still a trace of bruising at the corner of his mouth; clearly, this two hundred thousand wouldn't be so easy to get back.

Cui Guomin was so excited his hands trembled. He quickly opened the plastic bag, inside which were neatly stacked stacks of brand-new RMB banknotes. He counted them one by one, three times, to make sure it was correct—exactly 200,000. After deducting the previously agreed-upon 30% handling fee, he would still receive 140,000. At this moment, half of the heavy weight on his heart was finally lifted.

"Thanks!" Cui Guomin clutched the money tightly, a long-lost smile appearing on his face.

Gou Changzi waved his hand, picked up a cigarette from the table and lit it: "No need for thanks, just following the rules." After saying that, he picked up his 60,000 yuan, turned around and left, still with that same carefree attitude.

When Li Xiaozhen got home from get off work and heard that she had gotten 200,000 yuan back, she was about to be happy, but when she heard that 60,000 yuan had been deducted as a handling fee, she couldn't help but feel a little heartache: "These scoundrels are too greedy! They only ran around for more than 20 days and only got 60,000 yuan? This money is too easy to earn!"

Cui Guomin quickly advised, "Alright, it's good enough that you can get the money back. I spent half a month running around those state-owned factories and didn't get a single penny. If that guy can get it back, he must have some skills. He should keep the 60,000."

Li Xiaozhen was still somewhat unhappy, muttering, "Even if you're capable, you can't take so much. This is our hard-earned money."

But a few days later, Li Xiaozhen's resentment completely disappeared. That day, on her way home from get off work, she passed by the vegetable market and saw a familiar figure in the distance, leaning on a cane, walking with a limp, his face covered in bruises, and his arm wrapped in bandages.

Watching Gou Changzi's struggling figure, Li Xiaozhen felt a mix of emotions. She took Cui Guomin's arm and whispered, "Forget it, he deserves the money. Judging from his appearance, he must have suffered a lot to collect the debt."

Cui Guomin nodded: "I told you, this money won't be easy to get."

With the 140,000 yuan, plus the 100,000 yuan raised from selling the imported machine tools at a low price, Cui Guomin was finally able to pay off most of his debts. He also finally redeemed the house he had mortgaged. The moment she received the property certificate, Li Xiaozhen clutched it tightly, her eyes reddening. The days of anxiety and fear were finally over. She thought she could finally live a peaceful life and slowly pay off the remaining debts, but Cui Guomin couldn't stay idle.

That evening, Cui Guomin sat on the sofa and sighed, "It's not good for me to just stay at home all day doing nothing. A person can't be idle forever; they have to find something to do."

Li Xiaozhen's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly said, "It's better for you to stay at home and behave yourself! Don't you know what our situation is like right now? We're still in debt. If you keep causing trouble, Mengmeng and I will really have to sleep on the streets!"

She was truly terrified. Cui Guomin's actions had resulted in her losing everything, and she couldn't withstand such a blow again.

"Don't worry this time!" Cui Guomin immediately declared, patting his chest and saying, "I won't spend a single penny of my family's money. I'll just do business with no costs, and I guarantee I won't cause you any more trouble."

Li Xiaozhen still felt uneasy, but looking at Cui Guomin's determined eyes, she didn't know how to refute him. It wasn't until early the next morning, when she saw Cui Guomin leaving with a chess set, that she secretly breathed a sigh of relief. What risks could there be in playing chess? At most, she'd lose some pocket money; it wouldn't mean accumulating a mountain of debt again.

To her surprise, before noon, her office phone rang. Li Xiaozhen's heart tightened; she had a bad feeling. After answering the phone and hearing the police officer's words, she felt a wave of dizziness and almost fainted.

She quickly asked Huo Dongfeng for leave and rushed to the police station. As soon as she entered the police station, she saw Cui Guomin sitting in a chair with his head down, like a child who had done something wrong. Next to him sat an old man with a bandage on his forehead and a pale face.

"Officer, what exactly happened?" Li Xiaozhen asked anxiously.

The policeman sighed and explained the whole story. It turned out that Cui Guomin had taken a chess set to the park early that morning and set up chess puzzles, which initially made him some money. The puzzles he created looked complicated, but they were actually copied from chess manuals, and most people couldn't solve them, so he won several tens of yuan in no time.

Later, an elderly man came along. He looked quite energetic and sat down to play chess with him without saying a word. Unexpectedly, the old man's chess skills were amazing. He won several games in a row, not only making Cui Guomin give back all the tens of yuan he had won before, but also leaving him with a debt of more than one hundred yuan.

Cui Guomin only had ten yuan in his pocket, which wasn't enough to cover the losses. Seeing the old man getting more and more aggressive, he panicked and, taking advantage of the old man's momentary lapse in concentration while drinking tea, ran away, even leaving the chess pieces behind.

Seeing this, the old man was furious and got up to chase after him. But being old, his legs were not nimble, and he fell after only a few steps, hitting his forehead on a stone and bleeding profusely.

Cui Guomin hadn't run far when he saw the old man fall. Feeling guilty, he went back and took the old man to the hospital. When the old man's son arrived at the hospital and saw his father injured, he was furious and called the police. Cui Guomin was then taken to the police station to give a statement.

"You!" Li Xiaozhen was so angry that she trembled all over, pointing at Cui Guomin's nose, unable to say a word for a long time.

Well, she didn't make any money and ended up injuring someone, costing several hundred yuan in medical expenses alone. Although she was angry, she couldn't just stand by and watch Cui Guomin spend the night in detention, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and call Qin Hao to borrow money to get Cui Guomin out.

Qin Hao was checking the accounts at the cake shop when he received the call. After hearing Li Xiaozhen's words, he was speechless. Cui Guomin's luck was just too bad! His first half of life was smooth sailing, how could he be so unlucky in middle age? Even drinking cold water would cause him trouble.

Leaving the police station, Li Xiaozhen could no longer contain her anger and yelled at Cui Guomin, "Cui Guomin! Can you stop causing me trouble? I told you to stay home and behave yourself, but you wouldn't listen! Now look what happened! We haven't paid off our old debts and we've added new ones. At this rate, when will we ever be able to pay off our debts?"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Cui Guomin lowered his head, not daring to utter a single word in rebuttal. He could only keep giving Qin Hao meaningful glances, begging him to help him out of the predicament.

Qin Hao patted Cui Guomin on the shoulder and said to Li Xiaozhen, "Sister-in-law, you go back to work first. Leave this to me. I'll find a place to talk to Brother Cui and try to persuade him."

Li Xiaozhen sighed helplessly, her eyes red-rimmed. "Ji Qiang, then I'll have to trouble you. Please help me persuade him, even if it's just to postpone this for a couple of years, so I can catch my breath. I really can't take any more of this from him." With that, she wiped away her tears and turned to leave.

After Li Xiaozhen left, Cui Guomin scratched his head in frustration and said with a bitter face, "I don't know why I've been so unlucky lately. Even drinking cold water is a problem. I'm thinking of finding a master to break the curse."

"What? You want to end up like Guo Dapao, getting scammed by a 'master' and then spending two years in jail?" Qin Hao teased.

Choi Kookmin's expression froze, and he completely lost his temper.

Qin Hao led him to their usual barbecue restaurant, found a corner seat, and ordered some skewers and beer.

"Ji Qiang, do you think I'm really unlucky? Who would have thought that old man was the provincial chess champion when he was young?" Cui Guomin picked up a bottle of beer, took a big gulp, and his face was full of grievance.

Looking at him like this, Qin Hao felt no sympathy whatsoever: "You have the nerve to say that? Those chess puzzles you've been using are ancient, long since solved. You think you can make money off of that? That old man probably looked down on your tricks of cheating with chess puzzles from the start, hoping to discourage you. But you lost one game and insisted on playing again. Did you think that old man would let you off the hook?"

Choi Kookmin has a flaw, a flaw that many intelligent people are prone to—overconfidence. He always thinks he's smarter than others, and that with a little research, he can crush ordinary people in a certain field. The thrill of intellectual superiority easily turns his confidence into arrogance, causing him to ignore the fact that there are always people more capable than himself.

After hearing Qin Hao's analysis, Cui Guomin's head immediately drooped, and his tone weakened: "So, according to you, I'm the one who doesn't know what's good for me?"

"What else?" Qin Hao poured Cui Guomin a glass of beer. "Brother Cui, to put it bluntly, you seem easygoing on the surface, but you're actually quite arrogant. You always think you're smarter than others, so you should earn more and live better than them. Do you admit it?"

Choi Kookmin took the glass, took another big gulp, paused for a moment, and nodded: "Yeah, I admit that. But shouldn't it be like this? I'm so smart, why should I live worse than others?"

This is Cui Guomin's truest thought. The reason he worked as an engineer in the factory for more than ten years was not because he loved the job, but because it provided him with a decent life and social status at the time.

But as reform and opening up deepened, he saw that those around him who were not as smart or as educated as him before had all become rich, lived in big houses, and drove cars, while he was still worrying about buying a Xiali car for his daughter. His restless heart could no longer be suppressed.

"Brother Cui, to put it bluntly, intelligence is a relative concept." Qin Hao looked at him seriously and said, "Among the people around us, you may indeed have a higher IQ, but if you look at the national level, are you sure you are definitely among the top few? Not to mention anything else, just look at your classmates who graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, many of them are smarter than you, and more focused and hardworking than you, you admit that, right?"

Cui Guomin's expression changed slightly, and he fell silent. Qin Hao's words had struck a nerve. He knew in his heart that he couldn't reach that level. Back in school, although his grades were good, they weren't the best. Some of his classmates who were more outstanding than him went to research institutes, and some went abroad for further studies. Only he was content with the status quo, working in a state-owned factory for more than ten years.

Qin Hao continued, "Everyone has their own unique talents. Some people may not be very smart, but they may have talents that ordinary people cannot match in a certain field. Take Hongwei for example. He looks simple and honest, but his kung fu skills are amazing. Could you have mastered them? Huo Dongfeng used to be a江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the martial arts world) and didn't have much education, but he managed Dingqinglou and made the business very successful. That's also his skill."

“Ji Qiang, perhaps you’re right.” After a half-minute silence, Cui Guomin said quietly, “But I’m just not reconciled. I want to make money, I want to buy Mengmeng a better car, I want your sister-in-law to live the best life. Am I wrong?”

Seeing his stubbornness, Qin Hao knew he was determined to keep going until he hit a wall, and there was no point in trying to persuade him further. He thought for a moment and said, "Brother Cui, why don't you go south and try your luck?"

"The South?" Cui Guomin hesitated. "Isn't that too far?"

"There are more opportunities in the South. It's at the forefront of reform and opening up, and its economy is much more developed than ours," Qin Hao said. "Once you get there, your horizons will broaden. The more you see and experience, the more likely you are to find a field that truly suits you. It's much better than messing around here."

“In that case, Mengmeng and your sister-in-law…” Cui Guomin hesitated, he couldn’t bear to leave his wife and daughter.

Qin Hao joked, "If you stay here, not only will your wife have to go to work every day, but she'll also be on edge, afraid that you'll cause some trouble again. Go south and try your luck. Even if you don't make any money, at least you can give your wife some peace and quiet."

That evening, Cui Guomin discussed the trip to the south with Li Xiaozhen. To his surprise, Li Xiaozhen agreed without hesitation, and even showed a hint of relief on her face.

"Go ahead, go south and try your luck. You might just make a name for yourself. I'll take care of things at home, so don't worry."

This put Cui Guomin in a difficult position, unable to back down. He had initially hoped Li Xiaozhen would try to persuade him to stay, but her decision was so decisive that if he didn't go, he would appear spineless. Left with no other choice, Cui Guomin began packing his bags, taking the only three hundred yuan he had left with him, and boarded the train heading south.

……

Time flies, and it was 1995 in the blink of an eye.

Donglin City underwent many changes that year. Skyscrapers sprang up, streets widened, and the number of cars on the roads increased dramatically. Qin Hao and Huo Dongfeng's businesses also experienced rapid growth.

Qin Hao's cake shop has grown from a small shop to a chain of twelve stores, spread throughout Donglin City. His cakes are made with high-quality ingredients, taste authentic, and are reasonably priced, making them very popular with the locals. Especially during holidays, long queues form outside each branch. His annual net profit is no less than 800,000 yuan.

Qin Hao had already repaid the money that Old Master Cui had lent him years ago, with interest, as requested by the old man. After receiving the money, the old man returned the portion exceeding the bank interest to Qin Hao.

Qin Hao couldn't go against the old man's wishes, so he had no choice but to take the money back.

Under Huo Dongfeng's leadership, Dingqinglou became the most popular restaurant in Donglin City. Every day during mealtimes, it was impossible to get a seat, and some people even called several days in advance to reserve a table.

Huo Dongfeng has preserved the authentic flavors of Dingqinglou while also introducing new dishes based on customer tastes, which have been well-received. He maintains his high standards for service, ensuring that every customer feels welcome and at ease.

After a year, Dingqinglou's profits exceeded one million yuan. The employees who had raised money to participate in the contracting all received a large bonus, and they were all smiles.

This made the other employees who hadn't invested extremely envious and filled with regret. When Huo Dongfeng first called on everyone to invest, they hesitated, feeling that whether Dingqinglou could be revitalized was still unknown. Now, seeing others receiving dividends, they felt incredibly bitter.

Zhang Xiaomei was one of them. She was a waitress at Dingqinglou and had a good relationship with Li Xiaozhen. Li Xiaozhen had specifically hinted to her that she could take this opportunity to invest, assuring her she would definitely make money later. However, Zhang Xiaomei felt the risk was too great at the time and pretended not to see it, missing the opportunity. Afterwards, seeing how booming Dingqinglou's business was and how the employees who had invested had made a fortune, she became envious and approached Li Xiaozhen, wanting to participate in the investment.

“Xiaomei, it’s not that I don’t want you to invest,” Li Xiaozhen said with great difficulty. “Ji Qiang said long ago that apart from the employees who invested before, only the head chef in the kitchen can invest. No one else can. There’s nothing I can do.”

"Sister-in-law, please help me!" Zhang Xiaomei cried, her tears streaming down her face as she held Li Xiaozhen's hand. "You know our family's situation. With just my and Hailong's meager salaries, we can barely make ends meet. Now Hailong is about to be laid off, and if we can't invest in Dingqinglou, we really won't be able to survive. You and Brother Cui were the ones who arranged our marriage, so please have pity on us and help us!"

Seeing Zhang Xiaomei crying so sadly, Li Xiaozhen felt a little sorry for her. She thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go talk to Ji Qiang and see if he can be lenient. But I can't guarantee it. You know Ji Qiang's temper; he's a man of his word."

Li Xiaozhen didn't dare to delay and went to report the matter to Qin Hao that very day.

Without even thinking, Qin Hao refused outright: "No way! Absolutely not!"

"Their inability to make ends meet is entirely their own doing. Dual-income families with only one child have the nerve to say they can't make ends meet? How are single-income families supposed to survive? When she was given the opportunity, she didn't seize it. Now that she sees others making money, she wants to invest. Is there such a good deal?"

"Besides, once this door is opened, other employees who didn't invest will also want to invest. What am I supposed to do? Agree to them all?"

Li Xiaozhen hesitated, then said, "But I'm afraid Zhang Xiaomei will go back and file for divorce with Hailong. They already argue a lot, and if they get divorced because of this, Hailong's life will be even more difficult."

"Fine, let's get a divorce!" Qin Hao said irritably. "At least Hailong got a son, what's there to be dissatisfied about? Zhang Xiaomei is almost thirty and has already had a child, does she really think she's something special? I'll find Hailong someone in her early twenties after the divorce, I guarantee she'll be prettier and more virtuous than her!"

Seeing Qin Hao's resolute attitude, Li Xiaozhen dared not persuade him any further and could only go back and tell Zhang Xiaomei the truth. Zhang Xiaomei was very unwilling to accept this, but there was nothing she could do, so she could only place her hopes on Zhao Hailong.

The next day, Zhao Hailong and Liu Ye went to find Qin Hao, wanting to treat him to drinks and, incidentally, plead for his help. Qin Hao, seeing their expressions, knew they were there about the shareholding issue and didn't bother arguing with them.

"Stop beating around the bush, you two." Qin Hao sat on the sofa, took a sip of tea, and said bluntly, "If you're here because of Zhang Xiaomei's investment in Dingqinglou, then forget about it. Go back and tell Zhang Xiaomei to give up on that idea. It's not that she wasn't given the opportunity, it's that she couldn't seize it, and now it's too late to regret it."

Zhao Hailong, his face contorted with grief, said, "Ji Qiang, I know we were wrong. We were short-sighted back then. But my wife said that if this doesn't work out, she'll divorce me. I really don't want a divorce, Ji Qiang, please help me!"

"Divorce? You try making her get a divorce!" Qin Hao said irritably. "Who does she think she is? The divorce rate is so high these days. You think you can't find a wife after you leave her? You're almost thirty and still so pretentious. Do you really think you're a hot commodity? I'll find you another one after you leave her. A girl in her early twenties, I guarantee she'll be prettier and more sensible than her!"

Zhao Hailong shook his head, gritting his teeth as he said, "No, I want her. Ji Qiang, I know you're very capable, so please be lenient and let Zhang Xiaomei participate, even if it's just a small share."

Seeing Zhao Hailong's spineless state, Qin Hao was furious: "You're a complete good-for-nothing! A worthless piece of trash! Is it worth it for a woman like this?" He pointed to the door, "Get out of here right now, and don't show your face in front of me again. I'm annoyed just looking at you!"

Just as Liu Ye was about to offer some advice, Qin Hao gave him a wink. Liu Ye hesitated for a moment, knowing that Qin Hao was truly angry, and dared not say anything more, only giving Zhao Hailong a helpless look.

Seeing Qin Hao's resolute attitude, Zhao Hailong knew there was no turning back. He hung his head, like a deflated balloon, and slunk away from Qin Hao's office. (End of Chapter)