Chapter 85: The Game Room Was Thriving

Wonderful. From now on he could devote himself fully to the game room.

Wang Qiang roughly did the math. If business at the game room stayed decent, he should be able to earn enough before school started to reach ten thousand yuan.

Perhaps because the rain had washed everything clean, the road looked spotless. Wang Qiang was in excellent spirits. Looking up at the dim sky and its dull yellow hue, he caught a faint fragrance mingled with earth and flowers. Turning his head to search for it, he found it coming from the osmanthus trees in the green strip beside the road not far away. At that moment he felt very happy, as if something had struck his heart and knocked loose the dust that had long settled there. He suddenly felt much lighter.

Back at the Friendship Guesthouse, Sun Weixing was sitting behind the counter arranging lodging for a woman. When he saw Wang Qiang come in, he said, "Xiao Wang, you look great. Good news, huh?"

Wang Qiang looked at him in surprise. "How did you know?"

"I could hear you humming all the way from outside," Sun Weixing said with a laugh.

The woman urged, "Boss, hurry up."

"All right, all right." Sun Weixing bent his head and hurriedly made the registration.

Wang Qiang glanced over, then headed straight up the stairs on the left toward his room.

On the second floor, he took out the key, opened the door, rushed inside, and locked it behind him at once.

He took out all the money and spread it on the bed, beginning to count. Wang Qiang wanted to make sure how much was still lacking from the sum he had promised his mother. Back then, his mother had given him twenty-eight hundred yuan, and when he returned home, he would need to have twelve thousand eight hundred yuan to count the mission as complete.

As always, he started with the larger bills. There were forty-three notes in all. Then he counted the loose bills, bringing the total to about five hundred yuan. Wang Qiang murmured, "Four thousand eight hundred, plus the six thousand five hundred I had left before, so I still need to earn another fifteen hundred?" He had spent a little on clothes for the elders; otherwise, he would only need to earn about a thousand yuan to finish the task.

The forty-one portable cassette players had all been sold at one hundred and ten yuan each. Only two or three tapes remained, so they had almost been sold out as well. He calculated carefully. Counting today, there were only five days left. For the game room to help him complete the task, it would need to bring in three hundred yuan in profit every day.

Fifteen hundred yuan.

Compared with the existing eleven thousand three hundred, it was not much.

But Wang Qiang only held a seventy percent share in the game room. To get fifteen hundred, the game room would need to earn twenty-one hundred and fifty in five days, or about four hundred and thirty each day.

At the thought of that, Wang Qiang felt a headache coming on. The shop had only opened yesterday, and there had been almost no business. At noon today, when he left, business had been pretty good, but making four hundred and thirty a day still seemed risky. A machine could charge at most three yuan an hour, and with eleven hours of business a day, it would be hard to pull off unless occupancy was close to ninety percent.

There was no time to go back to Deep Harbor City either.

In truth, Wang Qiang understood that aside from relying on the game room, he had no other way.

Forget it. He would just leave it to fate.

He hid the money away, stood up, and headed for the game room.

At five in the afternoon, on Qinghai Road, Wang Qiang bought two or three prepared dishes and four steamed buns from a nearby market before going upstairs. Since the couple had entrusted their son to him, he could not treat the boy poorly.

He climbed the stairs.

Only two or three steps remained before the game room, when bursts of noise drifted out from inside.

"Hit it, hit it!"

"My turn, my turn!"

"When's my spot coming up?"

From the sound of it, there seemed to be quite a crowd. Wang Qiang was slightly surprised. Just as he reached the door and was about to step in, he abruptly stopped and stared inside in disbelief.

Not only were all twenty machines occupied, but several people were standing beside each one, watching. It had the feel of an old arcade in its heyday.

What was going on?

He was a little dumbfounded.

Business this hot on the second day of opening?

Delighted as he was, his first reaction was that it was impossible. How could there be so many customers so quickly?

The place was noisy and crowded, nearly half of them elementary school students.

Wang Qiang carried the buns and prepared dishes to the counter and saw Zhu Xiaofeng sweating profusely as he kept the accounts. He clicked his tongue. "Xiaofeng, our business is this good?"

Zhu Xiaofeng looked up, panting. "Xiao Wang uncle, you’re finally here. I’m exhausted." Leaning back against the chair, he said, "This counts as good business?"

Wang Qiang was somewhat at a loss. He pointed at the densely packed crowd. "And this isn’t good?"

"Just average," Zhu Xiaofeng smacked his lips. "There’s a game room in Xuhui whose business on its second day was even better than ours. And it’s summer vacation right now. If business isn’t good now, when will it be?"

Hearing that, Wang Qiang finally came back to himself.

That was right.

It was summer vacation.

Not to mention 1994, when entertainment options were still scarce; even in 2017, with entertainment far more abundant, internet cafes would still be packed during summer and winter holidays. Even newly opened cafes would have crowds of people turning up out of nowhere to play.

Then, thinking back to the seven or eight residential compounds around the game room, the catchment area really did seem quite good. Those youngsters and children who had played here yesterday would surely go back and mention it to their friends, then agree to come together today.

His game room may have picked up quickly because it was summer vacation and because it served a broad area. It was just that once the vacation ended, business would probably fall again.

Still, that was enough.

What Wang Qiang needed was only a sum of money in the short term. After that, as long as the game room did not lose money, it would be fine. He still had other ways to make money.

"Come, eat first," he said.

"Xiao Wang uncle, don’t just think about eating," Zhu Xiaofeng complained. Lifting the notebook he used to record time, he said, "Several machines are almost out of time. I’ve been running myself ragged all afternoon. Hurry up and get them off the machines."

Wang Qiang felt a bit embarrassed. Leaving Zhu Xiaofeng alone in the game room did seem rather too much. He took the notebook. "All right, I’ll go remind them. We’ll eat after that."

He checked his watch. It was five oh five. Comparing that with the times recorded in the notebook, machine number three had been started at four oh eight; machine sixteen had already run out of time; and machine nineteen seemed nearly there as well.

So he squeezed through the crowd and went inside.

"Excuse me, make way please."

"Kid, move over a bit and let me through."

There were simply too many people, all crowded around the machines. Wang Qiang could hardly get in. After finally calling aside two children, he reached machine number three against the left wall and patted the shoulders of two ten-odd-year-old kids who were utterly absorbed in the game. "Time’s up. Get off the machine."

"Oh." The child in the red shirt reluctantly put down the controller.

The other child, in yellow, also stood up.

But the moment they rose, two other elementary school students of eleven or twelve eagerly took their places. "It’s our turn."

The four or five people who had failed to beat them to the seats all showed looks of annoyance.

Wang Qiang sweated a little and hurriedly said, "Pay first, then get on."

Without even turning around, the buzz-cut elementary student on the left held up three yuan and said, "Here’s your money."

After collecting the money, Wang Qiang recorded the time in the notebook and then called for machine sixteen to be vacated. Several people were eyeing it covetously; once the young man playing the role-playing game got off, they were ready to rush in.

But they were disappointed.

That young man was far too absorbed in the game "Fire Emblem" and paid three yuan to extend his time.

Machine nineteen was nearby.

A young man with dyed blond hair was at it.

Wang Qiang walked over and saw that the screen showed "Dragon Quest"; it looked like he was fighting a boss. He reminded him, "Handsome, your time is almost up. Are you extending, or are you going to save and get off?"

The blond-haired youth ignored him entirely, eyes fixed on the screen.

Thinking that beating a boss was not easy, Wang Qiang simply kept quiet and waited a little.

About three minutes later, the boss was defeated.

He reminded him again. "Handsome, time’s up."

The blond-haired youth said irritably, "Stop bothering me."

Wang Qiang frowned. He knew that when running a game room, he was bound to run into this sort of thing. Still, his tone remained very polite. "Your time is up. Are you extending, or are you getting off?"

"Are you annoying or what?" The blond-haired youth turned back and muttered, "Add another hour."

There was no helping it. He could not expect everyone to have a high level of manners. Wang Qiang chose to ignore it. At his age, he would not bicker with people at every turn like a young man. As the saying went, harmony brings wealth. Besides, the blond-haired youth had not really done anything; his tone was just unpleasant. Wang Qiang said, "All right, three yuan."

The blond-haired youth groped around in his trouser pocket. After a long while, he finally pulled out two yuan and fifty cents, tossed them onto the table, and said, "Only two-fifty. Give me an hour."

Wang Qiang already did not care for him, and with so many people watching beside him, if everyone tried to stiff him for fifty cents, how was he supposed to do business? So he said, "Sorry, our margins are thin. Two-fifty only gets you fifty minutes."

The blond-haired youth snorted without speaking, taking that as agreement.

Wang Qiang took the money and recorded the time in the notebook.

Then he turned and returned to the counter.

Zhu Xiaofeng had already opened the prepared dishes.

After shouting all afternoon, Wang Qiang was long since hungry. He pulled over a long bench and sat down. "Let’s eat."

Zhu Xiaofeng looked at the three meat dishes happily. "Xiao Wang uncle, you hit the jackpot today. Chicken and duck both?"

The portable cassette players had sold out, and the game room business was good. Wang Qiang was naturally in a fine mood. He picked up a steamed bun and smiled. "Just eat yours."

The two chatted as they ate.

Perhaps because it was the final stretch of summer vacation, business that afternoon was indeed very good.

When they closed and settled the accounts, he was astonished to find that yesterday plus today had brought in a total of 402 yuan.

In truth, yesterday’s turnover had been only thirty or forty yuan. That meant that today, the average machine occupancy time for the twenty machines had reached nearly six hours.

It had only been open for two days, and the average occupancy time had already reached six hours?

With four days of summer vacation left, and the eleven thousand three hundred yuan he had accumulated from selling portable cassette players, it seemed possible that he could complete the twelve thousand eight hundred yuan target before school started. And if business at the game room stayed strong, he might even land a big deal with Old Yao’s side. Wang Qiang felt filled with hope.

The business in the last few days of summer vacation had to get even better.

He could hardly wait to go home, bring his mother over, and then finally set his grand plans in motion!