Chapter 20: Youth
The military training at No. 1 Middle School in the city lasts for seven days and is completely closed.

But most of the students are locals, and the majority are general students. The closed training means that they have to live on campus. The school originally had plenty of dormitories, but it couldn't withstand nearly a thousand general students competing for space. However, this little thing was not difficult for the wise and powerful school leaders. They came up with a bad idea: the dormitories were for girls, and all the boys slept on the floor in the fourth teaching building.

The fourth teaching building is near the library and adjacent to the cafeteria. It is a somewhat dark teaching building in the former Soviet style. The outer walls have been eroded by time beyond recognition and are covered with lush ivy. It looks old and desolate, and can be said to be dilapidated and lifeless.

Zhang Yunqi's dormitory with a large dormitory bed is in classroom 318 of the fourth teaching building. When he arrived, many students had already arrived, most of them accompanied by their parents. The poor living environment made these parents quite complain. After all, most of the students of Jiangchuan Middle School have very good family conditions, and their parents are among the small group of people who became rich first due to reform and opening up.

Rural students like Zhang Yunqi who came from poor backgrounds could not afford to be so particular. He found an empty space at the foot of the wall and simply spread a mat on the floor which served as a bed.

"Hey, buddy, where are you from?" A tall and thin boy next to him greeted Zhang Yunqi.

"Zhang Yunqi is from Fengyang County."

"My name is Wang Xiaokai, would you like one?"

The tall and thin boy offered a cigarette to Zhang Yunqi, but Zhang Yunqi was not used to this kind of gangster-like approach and refused.

It is rare to see boys smoking in the first year of high school, but Wang Xiaokai does it in a very open manner. And from his accent, we can tell that this guy is from Jiangchuan City. He is not shy and acts like a local.

When Zhang Yunqi was sleeping on the floor, he lay aside and said, "Brother, are you from the countryside?"

Zhang Yunqi nodded.

Wang Xiaokai said: "Then you must have very good grades."

Zhang Yunqi asked: "Why do you say that?"

Wang Xiaokai said: "It is impossible for a student from a rural county town to come to Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School and not have good grades."

Zhang Yunqi laughed and said, "You have a good eye."

Wang Xiaokai said, "It's OK. I'm from the city. I studied in the No. 1 Middle School for three years in junior high school. Let me tell you, studying in the No. 1 Middle School is pretty easy. You can go out of the school gate whenever you want, and go to evening self-study whenever you want. It's okay to go out and play arcade games all night occasionally. But the military training is so perverted. Damn, the school is closed for seven days, and you have to stand in the sun every day and eat pig food in the cafeteria. Brother, be prepared for a hard battle."

Zhang Yunqi thought this guy was quite funny: "Military training is only seven days long, just bear with it and it will pass. If you don't have the spirit of hard work and perseverance, how can you contribute to the Four Modernizations and build a strong socialist country in the future?"

"Well, I'll leave this difficult and great task to you good students. I played games all night last night, so I'll go back to sleep first."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said yes. After Wang Xiaokai got into bed, he made the bed by himself, then left the school to have lunch at his sister's house. Military training would start tomorrow and the school would be closed for a week.

He left home five days in advance. Except for the first day when he went to Guiping County Prison to visit his father, he stayed in Jiangchuan City for the other four days. He stayed at his sister's house at night and hung out outside during the day, hoping to find a good project to make some money.

It is said that there were opportunities to make money everywhere in the 2000s. This is true. Opening restaurants, game halls, and all kinds of industries are profitable, but the problem is that you need capital. Before he left home, he had more than 1200 yuan in his pocket, which was the reward for reporting the murderer of the rape and murder case. Now he only has more than yuan left. It seems that this amount of money can't do anything except set up a street stall.

Zhang Yunqi took the bus to the compound of the Longjingyuan Cannery. His mother-in-law was the only one at home, and his sister and brother-in-law were not there, so Zhang Yunqi had no intention of staying.

After dinner, Zhang Yunqi chatted with his mother-in-law for a while and prepared to go back to school. When he was walking downstairs to the gate of the compound, he suddenly heard someone shouting from behind: "Isn't this Brother Qiulan? Hey, Xiao Zhang, wait, wait."

Zhang Yunqi turned his head and saw a tall and strong young man coming out of a low bungalow and waving at him. It was Wang Guibing, the guy who was blocked at home by seven or eight young men and had things smashed and demanded money last time. He was a well-known prodigal son in the factory. He was originally an ordinary worker in the factory, but was fired for fighting with others.

He heard from his mother-in-law that Wang Guibing went to Shencun to work this year, but came back after just two months without earning a penny. He was left with a lot of debts, and his mother was so angry that she was admitted to the hospital.

Zhang Yunqi didn't know what Wang Guibing was looking for, so he walked over and asked, "What's the matter?"

Wang Guibing put out the cigarette on the sole of his shoe and said with a chuckle, "Xiao Zhang, I have something good here, come in!"

Wang Guibing led Zhang Yunqi into the room, pulled out a snakeskin bag from under the bed and opened it, revealing dozens of square-shaped plastic boxes with black and white display screens on them.

Zhang Yunqi was stunned: "Tetris handheld."

Wang Guibing gave a thumbs up: "You know what you're talking about! This thing has only been out in Shenzhen for a short time, and it hasn't flowed into the mainland yet. Not many people in Jiangchuan know about it. Xiao Zhang, you have a good eye." "I've only seen it on TV." Zhang Yunqi smiled. Tetris is the memory of his generation. It would be strange if he didn't know about it.

In his impression, the game Tetris seemed to have been born in 1984. However, it was not until the late 80s that the game giant Nintendo installed the game Tetris on GAME and BOY, which achieved huge success worldwide.

But China is not among them.

Because GB was too expensive, the price of the machine alone was as high as 8000 yen, which was more than 100 yuan in RMB at the time, and the price of the game cartridge was between 200-90 yuan. Therefore, the sales of GB in China in the early s were very average, and the families who could afford GB must be very wealthy families.

So what are the popular games among ordinary Chinese players?

Tetris Handheld!

This is a knockoff product between Game, Watch and GAME, BOY, which is completely in line with the Chinese game market. It does not require game cartridges and is very cheap, ranging from 20 yuan to hundreds of yuan. The one in Wang Guibing's hand is one of them.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yunqi asked, "Brother Wang, why are you showing this to me?"

Wang Guibing rubbed his hands and smiled, "Xiao Zhang, don't you students all like to play Tetris on the Famicom? This handheld game console is more convenient and the price is also very cheap. Why don't you ask my classmates if anyone wants to buy it? Of course, I won't treat you unfairly..."

Hearing this, Zhang Yunqi suddenly had an idea in his mind.

Reselling handheld devices!
This is the most suitable and reliable business for me at the moment, with low cost and quick money making.

So he said to Wang Guibing: "Yes. I want to buy one. How much is one?"

Wang Guibing held up four fingers: "Forty."

Zhang Yunqi said nothing. He took a Tetris handheld game console from Wang Guibing, installed the battery, played with it, and said, "The quality is OK, but the game screen is not mechanically fixed like the Game & Watch. The resolution is a bit low, a bit like a dot matrix LCD, and the game content is only Tetris. There are no derivative games such as Robot Fighting and Shooting Planes. Brother Wang, I think it doesn't have to be so expensive, right?"

Wang Guibing looked at Zhang Yunqi in surprise. This kid spoke very logically and seemed to know a lot at such a young age. "How about you name a price?"

Zhang Yunqi did not mention the price, but instead asked tentatively: "Brother Wang, you didn't buy this Russian handheld phone, did you?"

Wang Guibing's face changed: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Yunqi laughed and said, "It's just a joke, it's nothing serious."

There were at least 20 or 20 Russian handheld devices in the snakeskin bag. Based on his knowledge of counterfeit electronic products in Shenzhen at that time, the cost of such handheld devices would not exceed 70 yuan. But even if it was 1400 yuan per device, devices would cost yuan. This was a huge sum of money at the time. He did not believe that Wang Guibing could afford it, so it was very likely that Wang Guibing had obtained these handheld devices from other channels.

Of course, he was not interested in this. Both parties were doing normal business and he just wanted to feel at ease. But after figuring this out, he could probably guess Wang Guibing's bottom price. Besides, this guy owed a lot of debts and needed money.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yunqi took out more than ten 100-yuan notes from his pocket and slapped them on the table, then said to Wang Guibing: "How about this, Brother Wang, I want all the Tetris handheld games you have, but you have to satisfy me with the price, or you can make another offer?"

Wang Guibing was dumbfounded.

Are all students these days so awesome?
He can easily take out thousands of dollars from his pocket, and it doesn't seem like Qiulan's family is rich.

Wang Guibing was very puzzled. The boy's tone and manner made him feel a little guilty. He was really in urgent need of money. Not only did he owe a lot of debts from playing cards, but his mother was sent to the hospital because of him. He couldn't even afford the medical expenses. However, he had these dozens of handheld computers for half a month and didn't know how to sell them. Now this boy wanted to buy them all, and he was very happy to do so. He said in a tentative tone: "25, 25 each."

Zhang Yunqi smiled slightly: "One price, 15."

Wang Guibing's face turned green at that time. Is this guy Zhou Baopi? Others bargained by cutting the price in half, but he just cut the soles of the feet.

Wang Guibing said: "20! No less."

******
(End of this chapter)