The next morning, Wang Peng arrived at the bus station in Li Longfei's car.
The video arcade has already opened, right across from Zhang's video arcade.
There was a television directly in front of us, playing Uncle Nine's Mr. Vampire. The video rental shop was in the next room.
Opposite the television was a row of wooden chairs, all of which were occupied by men; there wasn't a single woman in the room.
That's normal.
People have developed a stereotype about pornography in video arcades, and no normal girl would go to such a place.
Snap!
An older man lit a cigarette and took two comfortable puffs.
The room was filled with smoke, and Wang Peng had the urge to turn around and leave; he couldn't stand the smell.
At this moment, three middle-aged men carrying bags bought tickets.
The person in charge of selling tickets is Li Mengjiao, who used to be Wang Peng's second aunt. Recently, she has been busy with her daughter's wedding, and Li Mengjiao is helping her.
Three middle-aged men bought tickets for 1.5 yuan and found an empty seat.
Wang Peng went over to strike up a conversation and offered them cigarettes from his cigarette case.
"Uncle, I'm the owner here. Did you just come back from working outside?" he said with a smile.
The three then accepted the cigarettes.
The man with a thick beard laughed and said, "No, we're going to build houses on a construction site in the south. Our train is at two in the morning."
Wang Peng understood; these three were from the neighboring county.
There is no train station in the neighboring county, so they took a bus here in advance. The main reason for watching the video was to have a place to rest.
"Uncle, do you think a ticket price of 50 cents is expensive?" Wang Peng asked.
"It's alright, cheaper than in the south," the bearded man said.
Wang Peng nodded, chatted with them for a few more minutes, and pointed to the thermos in the corner, saying, "There's hot water there, it's free."
"Okay." The bearded man immediately took a cup from his bag and got up to get hot water.
The movies were shown frequently, and the clients enjoyed them immensely, often bursting into laughter.
Wang Peng wandered around the video arcade twice, then opened the door to the adjacent screening room.
The lights were on in the screening room, and you could see outside through the glass, as well as whether the movie had ended.
Li Longfei crossed his legs and drank tea.
"Xiao Peng, business has been pretty good these past two days. Take a look at the ledger." He opened the drawer and took out the ledger and ticket stubs.
“Business is definitely good as the year draws to a close.” Wang Peng pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, casually flipping through the ledger.
During the eight-day trial operation, the busiest day served more than 300 customers, while the lowest day served less than 200, averaging 250 people per day.
Tickets cost 50 cents each, and the total revenue was 1,250 yuan.
After deducting operating costs such as rent, the profit reached 1,000 yuan.
"Good heavens!" Wang Peng was a little dumbfounded.
He knew the video arcade business was good, but he never expected it to be this good, with a profit of one hundred yuan a day.
"From now on, we'll distribute profits every ten days."
Li Longfei took out his wallet from his pocket and gave Wang Peng two hundred yuan.
He laughed and said, "If we keep this profit margin, we should break even in a year and a half at most."
"I hope business is this good every day." Wang Peng put the ledger on the table and put the two hundred yuan bonus into his pocket.
Just then, someone outside shouted, "Boss, change the film, it's over."
"Okay! Just a moment!" Li Longfei stood up and changed to another copy of Wong Fei-hung's "A Man Should Be Self-reliant".
The movie started, and the guests quieted down again.
"Uncle, do you need the car today?" Wang Peng pointed to the car keys on the table.
"Where are you going?" Li Longfei handed the keys to Wang Peng.
“A friend from the provincial capital came to visit. She’s a painter, so I took her to paint by the Yellow River.” Wang Peng put the keys in his pocket.
"A painter? That's interesting," Li Longfei said. "What kind of painting? Sketches? Oil paintings?"
“She can do a few things, but mainly sketches. The portrait in my bedroom was drawn by her,” Wang Peng said.
The two chatted while drinking tea.
After another movie ended, Wang Peng checked his watch; it was already 9:50.
The train will arrive in ten minutes.
He walked out of the screening room, out of the video hall, and to the ticket booth outside.
Li Mengjiao put down the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in her hand, opened the door to let Wang Peng in, and gave him a chair.
You can see the exit from the pavilion.
"Wang Peng, did Li Mingzhu call you yesterday?" Li Mengjiao asked. "Are you really dating her?"
"We're not dating, just ordinary friends." Wang Peng smiled slightly. "You were eavesdropping on my phone call?"
"I only heard a little bit, not much," Li Mengjiao said. "Wang Peng, don't let this kind of thing affect your studies."
Wang Peng's phone is an extension of Li's phone; if both people pick up the receiver at the same time, they can hear what the other person is saying.
"Don't worry, I'm a person with self-control."
Despite having the soul of a middle-aged man residing within him, Wang Peng knew his limits.
Li Mengjiao nodded and continued reading her Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Just then, a voice came over the train station's loudspeaker that the train from the provincial capital to the special economic zone had arrived.
A moment later, passengers carrying their luggage walked out of the station exit.
Wang Peng saw a group of children carrying drawing boards coming out of the station and hurriedly went outside the pavilion to greet them.
"Hi, Wang Peng." Li Mingzhu stepped forward with her drawing board on her back and jogged up to Wang Peng.
"Mingzhu." Painting teacher Du Rui hurriedly led the group over, looking at Wang Peng with a slightly wary expression.
“Teacher Du, this is my pen pal,” Li Mingzhu hurriedly introduced. “He is a student at Ping’an No. 1 Middle School and won first prize in the provincial mathematics league.”
"Hello, Teacher Du." Wang Peng shook hands with her and smiled, "How are you planning to get to the Yellow River?"
A first-place winner in the provincial mathematics league is definitely a good student, and Du Rui finally felt relieved.
"There are ten of us in total, and we'll take a three-wheeled vehicle over," Du Rui said, pointing to the farm tricycle parked outside the train station.
The vehicle had a canopy on it; it was a low-end taxi.
Wang Peng pointed to the Santana sedan and said, "The farm vehicle's brakes are faulty, I'll take you there."
The Yellow River is not too far from the county seat, only about ten miles away.
"Is this your car?" Du Rui was completely stunned. It was a Santana sedan worth over 200,000 yuan.
Wang Peng nodded, "However, only five people can sit at a time. The rest of you can go to my video room to watch movies first."
"Is this the video rental shop you own?" Du Rui was completely dumbfounded.
Six of the nine students were girls, and they all looked at Li Mingzhu with envious eyes.
Young, rich, tall, and handsome—he's the epitome of a "tall, rich, and handsome" guy.
Li Mingzhu smiled, her vanity satisfied.
"No need for that trouble." Du Rui hurriedly waved her hand, "Five people can ride in your car, and I'll find a three-wheeled motorcycle."
Wang Peng nodded and opened the car door for Li Mingzhu to sit in the passenger seat.
The girls hurriedly scrambled for the back row, and four girls squeezed in at once.
It's overloaded.
However, since they are not checking for overloaded buses now, Wang Peng started the car and led them out first.
They soon arrived at the Yellow River, and everyone got off the bus.
Wow! Is this our mother river?
Li Mingzhu opened her arms to embrace the Yellow River.
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