Awakening the Daily Intelligence System - Chapter 56

55, the odd and quirky classmate group._1

Translator: 549690339

After the video call connected, it displayed a poor network signal on the other side, and it took a few seconds for a laggy image to appear.

From the blurry background, it was clear that Lin Changshui was not at home but outdoors, without any lights, and intermittent noises could be heard around him.

Lin Xiaoxiao curiously asked, “Grandpa, where are you?”

“Grandpa’s outside, what’s up, my sweet granddaughter?”

“I miss you, when are you going to come to visit me? And bring Auntie and Grandma too.”

“How about Grandpa finishes up his work in the next couple of days and then comes to see you, is that alright?”

“Mm, then it’s settled. Dad took us to buy a car today, it’s so nice and comfortable, and we went to the supermarket, bought Mom gold…”

Lin Xiaoxiao narrated today’s entire day vividly to the phone.

“How about Grandpa calls you back when I get home, okay? The signal here is too bad.”

“Mm, alright then… goodbye, Grandpa.”

The call was sporadic, and it took a lot of effort to understand what the other person was saying.

Before Lin Mo had a chance to ask about the construction payment, the video call was already disconnected.

Feeling somewhat uneasy, he took the phone and sent a message, the gist of which was that if the payment for the construction couldn’t be received, they should let it go; if anything came up, he definitely had to be told in advance, and no rash actions should be taken.

After a little while, Lin Changshui replied with a brief message.

[Got it.]

Lin Mo helplessly said, “This old man… I really don’t know what he’s busy with all day.”

After a moment of thought, Li Jinwen said, “Husband, how about this? When the lottery shop opens, let’s have Dad mind the shop?”

“He’s getting older, he can’t be doing heavy physical work anymore.”

“By then, Mom and I can go out and sell scratch cards, I’ve looked it up, as long as I get the lottery sales qualification, I can sell them in a designated area.”

“We don’t need to make too much money, if Mom and I can make two or three hundred yuan a day, that would be quite nice.”

After giving it some thought, Lin Mo realized it was indeed a good idea.

He smiled and said, “Why do you and Mom need to set up a stall? Let’s do it together, let them mind the shop. If we can make money, then we can also ask your sister to open one, and none of us would need to work anymore!”

“Mhm, that sounds great! But, let’s discuss this further once we’ve started up! Right now, there’s not even a beginning to this!”

The couple happily envisioned a bright future.

A while later, seeing it was getting late, Li Jinwen stood up from the sofa and said to Lin Xiaoxiao, “Xiaoxiao, go take a bath with Mom!”

“Ah… I want to play a little longer…”

“You’ve been playing all day, tonight I still have to wash your clothes. You can play again tomorrow. Have you finished your homework?”

“I finished it…”

“Quick, go with your mom, don’t keep her waiting.”

“Alright then!”

Lin Mo watched as the mother and daughter went into the washroom and then picked up his phone to start dealing with the procedures for opening a lottery shop.

The process wasn’t complicated,

The requirement for the shop was to be larger than 4 square meters, and the distance from other betting stations had to be more than 500 meters. The shop needed a dedicated line installed for acquiring sales rights and transmitting sales data, to facilitate communication, etc.

Employees needed to have at least a junior high school education, and there was also a 30,000 yuan deposit required for the betting equipment.

“I’ll negotiate a few suitable storefronts first, decide on the approximate location tomorrow, and then apply for the qualification at the sports lottery center.”

With an idea in mind, Lin Mo opened the 58.com app and began searching for suitable storefronts nearby.

Without searching, one wouldn’t know, but once he did, it became apparent that there were many stores being transferred.

Even half the shops on the street outside their community were up for transfer.

“In the post-pandemic era, everyone’s having a tough time.”

While Lin Mo didn’t find a lottery shop being directly transferred, there were quite a number of storefronts of an appropriate size.

He tried calling a few numbers, told the agents he wanted to open a lottery shop, and they recommended several suitable spots, assuring they would meet the sports lottery center’s requirements.

Moreover, if Lin Mo was available, even though it was nearly 10 pm, they were still willing to take him to see the shops.

“I had heard that the competition in the real estate agency sector was fierce, but I hadn’t imagined it to be to this extent…”

Lin Mo didn’t rush to view the shops, instead arranging to meet the agents at around 8 am the next day at the entrance to the community.

“I’ll go check out the locations tomorrow and then apply for the qualification. If all goes well, in the next few days the lottery shop should be up and running, and the family can finally be together again.”

“The next step is to continue exploring the system, waiting for more money-making tips, slowly saving up, buying a house, living a good life.”

“Mmm… our days are getting better and better!”

Soon after, Li Jinwen and Lin Xiaoxiao came out of the washroom.

“Husband, go take a bath, you’ve been tired all day. Let’s sleep early today; we still need to get up early tomorrow to take Xiaoxiao to school.”

“Mm.”

Lin Mo stretched, feeling exhausted as he got up from the sofa and entered the washroom.

…..

By the time he came out of the bath, it was nearly 11 pm. Back in the bedroom, he saw Li Jinwen lying on the bed, still fiddling with the gold necklace they had bought that day.

“Haven’t you had enough of it yet?”

Lin Mo climbed into bed and shivered, “Brrr… it’s getting colder and colder.”

Li Jinwen shifted to the side, giving the warm spot to Lin Mo, and happily looked at the necklace, “Of course, I can’t get enough. This is the most precious gift I’ve received in 30 years.”

Lin Mo teased, “Since you like it so much, why didn’t you buy more today? Didn’t you also like that plain bracelet with the ancient design?”

“That’s too expensive!” Li Jinwen carefully placed the necklace and ring into the jewelry box on the bedside table. “Where’s your ring? Give it to me quickly, don’t wear it to sleep.”

“Here you go,” Lin Mo said with a wry smile, shaking his head as he took off the ring and handed it over.

Before he had such things, Lin Mo always thought that gold rings looked so tacky on others.

Now that he had bought one for himself, he suddenly felt that the little glistening object was actually quite attractive.

“Be careful with it, gold is very soft and it’s easy to get scratches on it,” Li Jinwen said as she placed Lin Mo’s gold ring into the jewelry box, then cuddled up in his arms and spoke, “Husband, I’ve been thinking, let’s save up to buy a house first. After we’ve bought the house, then we can buy gold bars from the bank to make bracelets. It’ll save us quite a lot of money.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll listen to you,” Lin Mo nodded, suddenly hugged Li Jinwen tightly, and laughingly said, “Wife, I’ve bought you all three golds, you better take good care of your husband today.”

Chilled to the bone, Li Jinwen’s delicate body shivered as she quickly said, “Stop it, you’re too cold.”

“Not today, my stomach feels a bit uncomfortable, I think it’s coming.”

“Huh?” Lin Mo said puzzledly, “It’s only the 22nd today, isn’t it early?”

“I don’t know, I’ve just been feeling uncomfortable lately.”

“Could it be that you’re…?”

“Ah?”

“Maybe we should buy a test tomorrow?”

“It shouldn’t be… How could it happen so coincidentally, it was just that one time I didn’t wear it…”

“You never know!”

“Don’t scare me…”

“Hahaha…”

While they were chatting, the phone on the bedside table kept vibrating intermittently.

Li Jinwen reminded him, “Your phone keeps vibrating, is someone looking for you?”

“I’ll check, it’s probably the chat group.”

Lin Mo casually picked up the phone, unlocked the screen to enter the WeChat interface, and said with a smile after a quick glance, “I told you it was the group. It’s the classmate group chat, I wonder what they’re talking about now, they even mentioned everyone.”

As soon as the classmate group was mentioned, Li Jinwen became somewhat annoyed and said indifferently, “You haven’t left that group yet? Tired of their incessant prattle, isn’t it annoying?”

“Why leave? It’s actually quite interesting to look at when I’m bored.”

As he spoke, Lin Mo opened the chat group and scrolled up to find today’s first message, then began to read.

Although she didn’t say it out loud, Li Jinwen also glanced over.

Helpless,

Gossip is human nature.

[Dear classmates, my anime studio has hit some financial trouble; anyone interested in investing? I’m willing to offer shares and dividends. We have some excellent projects in hand, and with some investment, we could reap substantial profits later on.]

Without even checking the name, Lin Mo could guess that the sender was definitely their classmate, Zhang Yihua.

They weren’t close during school, but Lin Mo knew he had been an anime fan since college, never missing an anime convention, constantly reading manga before and after class, and seemed to have been exploring how to start an anime studio since his sophomore year.

Later on, Zhang Yihua made some waves; though he didn’t manage to start a studio, he became an Bilibili Uploader with, I think, around thirty to forty thousand followers.

Just regular updates with anime recommendations and such.

Though the follower count wasn’t high, for these college students who could earn their own money—and not a small amount at that—it was quite impressive.

But after graduation, everyone went their separate ways, and the connection was lost.

Their current situation was unknown.

Li Jinwen also had an impression of Zhang Yihua and said in surprise, “It’s been so long since we graduated, and he’s still into anime?”

Lin Mo nodded without saying much and continued to scroll down.

[Yo, Mr. Zhang, when did you set up a studio? Why didn’t you share the news with us classmates?]

[Isn’t that investment going to cost millions?]

[@Wang Ming, Brother Ming, you’re the richest among us classmates. Shouldn’t you invest? If Zhang Yihua gets famous, we can leech off his success too!]

[@Wang Ming, Mr. Wang definitely has the capability, just go to him!]

[Wang Ming: Hehe, if you want to invest, go ahead, but I don’t have that kind of disposable income. And I’m not being hard on you, Zhang, but how many years has it been? Still chasing your dreams? You’re 30 now, don’t you plan to get married and have children?]

[There are three unfilial acts: the greatest is to have no descendants!]

[He’s into arts, unlike us mundane people; who knows, maybe he’ll really make it big someday!]

[Let me be honest, if he was going to be successful, it would have happened already. At our age, we should have given up on those damn dreams a long time ago.]

Li Jinwen frowned after reading for a while, “These days, it’s really the same old sarcasm, no positivity. Husband, you should leave these groups sooner, people are so opportunistic now, irritating and laughable at the same time, it’ll just make you angrier the more you look.”

“You forgot the last class reunion when the classmates all gathered around Wang Ming like stars around the moon, as if he could give them something.”

“Hmm, I’ll leave later,” Lin Mo put his phone on silent, then casually placed it on the bedside table and laughed, “Actually, who cares what they say? It’s just entertainment. As long as our life is getting better, that’s all that matters.”

“It’s almost 12, let’s sleep!”

Click…

Lin Mo switched off the lights by hand and went to sleep, holding Li Jinwen.

Not long after, a familiar electronic tone from the system echoed in Lin Mo’s mind.

[Ding.]

[Today’s information has been refreshed.]

Lin Mo briefly skimmed through today’s information, his face immediately lighting up with a happy and excited smile, and his heartbeat even sped up a little. “Today’s info is interesting, got everything I need!”

“And hey, old classmate, I, Wang Duoyu… oops, I mean, I, Lin Duoyu, am in for the investment!”