Making Money in the Nineties: A Journal

Yang Bailu was suddenly bound to a Pinduoduo app. While catching cicadas, he jolted in surprise and fell out of a tree, earning himself a week of bed rest.

But Yang Bailu didn't feel any pain at all, because he'd used a single cent to get ten candies on the app!

Normally, just one piece of candy was enough to make Yang Bailu happy, but now he wasn't satisfied. Looking at the app's dazzling array of candies and snacks, many of which he'd never even heard of, he wanted to try this and that.

But he was always spending recklessly, and money was hard to come by. Making money wasn't easy for a child, either.

Yang Bailu, who usually hated thinking, set his mind racing. In the end, his gaze fell on the jasmine flowers covering the hills.

There might be a business opportunity here...

*

One day during summer vacation, while Yang Bailu and his sisters were busy making money, a call came in from Guangshi. His parents, who were working away from home, wanted to take Yang Bailu to live with them.

Yang Bailu asked, “What about my sisters?”

His parents hesitated. “It's fine for them to go to school in the countryside. We don't have enough money for everyone.”

Money? How hard could that be? After a month in business, Yang Bailu had already become a little tycoon. He waved a hand and said, “I'm not going. I'll take my sisters there later.”

Wasn't making money to move to the city easy? What was so hard about it?

From selling jasmine flowers to running a corner shop, then buying a house and becoming a landlord, Yang Bailu took his sisters from the countryside to the city and onto a different path in life.

1. Contains author-created details; the protagonist starts making money as a child.

2. A slow-paced slice-of-life story about everyday family life.

Theme: Work hard to build a better life