Returning to '97, creating a new life

"Look, it's really sold out. I'll come back after school tonight and tomorrow at noon. Don't worry if you need it, you won't be able to buy it."

At 12:30, with only 20 minutes left in the lunch break, all the apples Xu Kai brought for good luck were sold out.

Watching those figures leave with regret, he knew that the most golden sales period was tonight.

Many students will inevitably choose to buy their own apples and their own colored paper packaging. There will even be imitators tomorrow. At noon, Xu Kai noticed that some adults were asking him questions in front of his tricycle. There are no technical barriers. As long as you make money, your new idea will be imitated instantly.

"Take as much as you can tonight, and ask Mom for help."

Muttering to himself, he rode his empty bike home. By noon, he had sold nearly half of the items and broken even. From then on, every "gift" he gave away would be pure profit.

I washed my face, added fuel to the stove, and sat on a small stool in front of the fire to warm myself for a while. I was planning to soak two packets of instant noodles in the hot water in the pot, but after checking the time, I gave up.

I skipped all the afternoon classes.

First, I took the money to the bank and deposited some of it. With my newly issued ID card, I now had my own bank account again. (These days, you can get an ID card at sixteen (by the traditional Chinese age reckoning), but this doesn't apply to all areas; I personally got mine in my third year of junior high school.)

He took a car to the small commodity wholesale market. At the entrance, Xu Kai ate two bowls of fried rice noodles and four tea eggs. Feeling full, warm, and comfortable, he went inside, asked a few questions, and sighed slightly.

Apple itself moved up its prices two days in advance, thus avoiding the significant cost increase that occurred early this morning.

The goods in front of me weren't stocked up in advance. After a deep chat with the shop owner I know, I learned that the price does change every day, and it will be even more expensive by tomorrow morning.

Prices will drop the day after tomorrow, and plummet the day after that.

Santa hats, handheld star-shaped flashlights, and all gifts with Christmas themes have all gone up in price.

Just as Xu Kai was hesitating, a vague memory buried deep in his mind flashed back. He couldn't remember it no matter how hard he tried before, but as the day approached, the scene flashed back into his memory.

This day is a bit special.

Christmas Day was a Saturday, which is why Xu Kai had some memories of it. His mother went to his maternal grandmother's house for a party and played mahjong all night. He and Wang Lei went to a computer room for an all-nighter. Neither of them had any female classmates they were interested in walking around with. It just so happened that a heavy snowstorm started that afternoon. In previous years, the streets were full of people going to the river to watch fireworks, to the church to feel the Christmas atmosphere, and to celebrate the holiday together in the crowd.

There are far fewer people now.

He spent his time in the computer room.

"Xiao Xu, we've known each other for a long time. If you're buying in bulk, I'll give you a discount, based on yesterday's wholesale price."

Xu Kai smiled and said, "Okay, uncle, I'll take another look."

These words are just meant to be taken with a grain of salt; there's absolutely no truth to them.

They start stocking up a month or two in advance. Similar products sell well every year, so they are not afraid of not being able to sell them. If there are any leftovers, they will keep them and sell them again at this time next year.

Unlike Xu Kai and many others who just want to earn some extra cash on this day, those who have been doing this business year-round have goods that, if unsold, are practically worthless. Few can keep them to sell the following year. Even if they could, it's hard to say whether they would be willing to brave the cold winter winds and snow to sell their goods on the streets at night.

Selling special products on special holidays can yield huge profits. Even if the cost of purchasing goods is high, it doesn't prevent them from selling at a good price on special holidays. However, to earn this "hot money," one must bear the corresponding "time-sensitive" cost.

The heavy snow fell all night, causing students to complain when they returned to school. Fireworks were not set off, the church was not open to the public, and many restaurants even raised their prices, making their trip unpleasant.

Images with special memory points gradually emerge, piecing together the blurry images from the flashback memories.

After going around in circles, the prices were all on the high side. Especially with today's sunny weather and the favorable weather forecast, these wholesale vendors were looking forward to Christmas this year and were keeping their prices tight, unwilling to budge.

Xu Kai witnessed firsthand that almost everyone who bought goods had no choice but to accept the prices offered by the stall owners.

[Forget it, too little is pointless, too much will just be a burden. I'll just take a break.]

Having made up my mind to completely cut off all attention to this matter, I left the wholesale market and went to the bank to deposit all the money I hadn't saved before, which I had intended to use as capital for purchasing goods. I only had about a hundred yuan in change on me. I took the bus to my junior high and senior high schools, which were about a 30-minute tricycle ride from my home, and browsed around the grocery stores and convenience stores near the schools.

There's a concept of "peace apples" and people are doing this business, but not many are packaged directly. I reckon it will spread today, and tomorrow someone will imitate their model.

This business can only be done once, and time is of the essence.

Xu Kai's plan to carefully package the apples for the market fell through, so he went home and placed the wrapped apples into boxes. When it was time to leave, he loaded all the boxes onto the tricycle at once. He also prepared the apples to be displayed on the wooden planks. With the weather getting warmer, he didn't need to cover himself with two blankets, and he wasn't worried about them getting cold while selling them. He just didn't know what the temperature would be like at night.

When Sun Xiuyun got off work, Xu Kai took her out to a restaurant for a meal. After learning that her son had made back his investment and still had more than half of the apples left, Sun Xiuyun repeatedly asked her son in a low voice during the meal if it was true.

A plate of braised pork slices, a plate of spicy shredded pork, and a plate of mapo tofu. Sun Xiuyun grumbled that it was a waste of money, but Xu Kai replied directly, "Mom, this is my wages. After you've eaten, you have to help me out tonight and come with me to sell goods."

Even if he doesn't say anything, Sun Xiuyun will follow her son's lead. She usually thinks that carrying a schoolbag and taking an old bed sheet is just earning some pocket money. This time, she invested more than 2,000 yuan in the "peace apple" project. She couldn't concentrate on work all day. If she hadn't come back and seen that she had made her money back, she would have kept muttering to herself.

Worried that her son would be tired, and wanting to do her part, she felt safer having an adult around late at night, completely forgetting that her son's tall figure was far more intimidating than her own.

The No. 2 Middle School dismisses students earliest in the evening, leaving only a sales window of about ten minutes. Those who don't buy leave immediately after school, while those who do buy sell out within those ten or eight minutes.

Upon arriving at the destination, Xu Kai smiled, thinking that there's no shortage of quick-witted people in this world.

One person on a bicycle and another pushing a tricycle came to steal business; an afternoon was enough for those with good intentions to prepare the appropriate gift packages for the "peace apples".

This is just the beginning. Before long, more and more laid-off workers will become small vendors, and more and more people will find that students' money is easy to earn. Near the school gates, outside the range of gatekeepers, security personnel, and teachers from the education department, small vendors will directly surround the students.

Let alone buying things, from chicken soup tofu skewers to grilled meat skewers, from grilled balut to various snacks, all the way to Xu Kai's rebirth, this is the main battlefield of competition. At most, after the city's strict management, it will be a shift from street stalls to indoor stalls in nearby shops.

The golden ten or so minutes after school are enough for many businesses to make a living.

Xu Kai's familiar face became an advantage at this moment. First, his classmates gathered around to support him. Then, among the unfamiliar vendors and campus celebrities, Xu Kai had a huge advantage. It wasn't until the two vendors started shouting for even lower prices that they managed to steal some customers away from him.

Xu Kai no longer cared. The golden window of opportunity had passed, and he had almost exhausted all the potential customers at his own school. Even if there were still some customers who hadn't bought or given gifts tomorrow, he could just buy an apple tonight, get some wrapping paper from the school store, wrap it up at home, and he would still look presentable tomorrow.

We need to race against time.

The school at Tieyi Middle School was letting out an hour late, so the mother and son didn't have time to check the money and had to quickly move on to another location.

During the day, the sun shines brightly and the weather warms up, but at night, the cold wind blows, and the ground that melted during the day becomes even more muddy. The melted snow and mud, with a hard crust on the surface, are then crushed and trampled, mixing with the snow and mud that has not yet frozen, making it even more difficult to move by human power. One must also be careful to avoid the mud and water splashed by motor vehicles on the road.

Sun Xiuyun lowered her head, her eyes moist. It wasn't tears of joy, but tears of sorrow. She was thinking of her son, the one who braved the wind and snow to buy goods alone yesterday morning and this morning. He was so young, yet he was shouldering such a heavy burden. It was because she hadn't given him a comfortable life that he had to grow up so early, losing his happy student life and experiencing the hardships of making money in society at such a young age.

Similarly, there are now competitors.

As night deepened and the temperature dropped sharply, the mother and son were fully bundled up, with everything except their eyes hidden under warm clothing.

After school, Dong Bin and other acquaintances would only come over to say hello. In such cold weather, even standing for a minute felt like being frozen to the bone. Being young and just beginning to learn about "fashion," he didn't want to wear bulky, thick cotton pants, which made him even less resistant to the cold.

Ten minutes later, the milk sales were quite good, a stark contrast to the midday sales. Xu Kai ran to the nearby state-run supply and marketing cooperative, bought two bags of hot milk, one for himself and one for his mother, and drank them down in one gulp to warm themselves up from the inside out. He then quickly rode his bike to the more distant No. 1 High School.

That was the battlefield that Xu Kai felt was more important.

When they couldn't ride any further on the road, Xu Kai pushed the tricycle, and Sun Xiuyun also got off her bicycle, holding it with her right hand and pushing it while placing her left hand on the side of the tricycle. The slight resistance helped push the tricycle more smoothly.

At a high school, students in grades 10 and 11 are dismissed around 8:50, and grade 12 is dismissed at 9:50. The two had just arrived when grades 10 and 11 were dismissed. Xu Kai, holding a megaphone, stood about ten meters away from the school gate and continued his widespread advertising of his boyfriend.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the first day of Christmas. Give a peace apple to someone important in your life, wishing them good health, peace, and happiness. Share the peace apple with your parents when you get home, so that peace may accompany everyone around you…