Bet

Chen Hao knew that in June 2002, the Blue Speed Incident would have an enormous impact on internet cafés.

Because of it, the entire internet café industry would temporarily be put on pause, slowing its future growth.

After minors were banned from going online, his family's internet café business was instantly cut in half.

Then SARS hit in 2003, and the internet café had to close for a period. They had expanded too aggressively, their cash flow became tight, and the family ultimately failed to hold on. In the end, they sold off the depreciated computers, transferred the shop, and ended up losing money.

After he graduated from college, his family had scraped together 2,000 yuan to send him to the capital to make his way. His dad had said that if he could support himself in a big city, he should keep striving there. Otherwise, he could come back and become an ordinary employee. Eight hundred yuan a month was enough to live on, and with some connections, he might even get a secure government position.

But from then on, his dad lost his drive. He went to and from work as usual, except he smoked even more than before and gradually became a man of few words.

A few years later, his mom's workplace underwent restructuring. Before she was even forty-five, she was forced into early retirement. Though she received a small severance payment, it was barely enough to matter. Later, she ran a stall and sold insurance, always wanting to do something to supplement the household income. In the end, the strain wore her down, and she died of cancer before reaching sixty.

Since heaven had allowed him to be reborn at this point in time, he would save this family himself!

"I don't think it's a good idea!" Chen Hao spoke up seriously.

"Son, you'll be graduating in another year. At first, I planned to use this money to buy a house in Ice City. Later, your dad said we should open another shop instead. The money would come in faster, and by the time you graduated, we could earn enough for a house. I did the math and agreed." Seeing her son unusually serious, Wu Xiuhua glanced at her husband and tried to persuade him.

After all, in Northeast China families, women generally worried about minor matters, while men made the decisions on major ones.

Chen Hao shook his head gravely. "I still don't think it's good. The risk is... huge!" He enunciated the final four words one by one.

"Oh?" Chen Xingguo set down his teacup at this unexpected answer. Rather than being displeased, he looked at his son with interest, wanting to hear his reasoning. "Why?"

"I admit that internet cafés currently look like a blue ocean market—a rising industry with massive room for future growth.

"But the problem is that over half of their customers are minors. Young people lack self-restraint. They can become addicted to the internet, affecting their studies at best and their character development at worst.

"Family education is an important factor. Improper control and discipline create these internet-addicted youths, but those arrogant parents never think they're the ones at fault. Their way of solving problems is simple and direct: if they can't solve the person causing the problem, then they solve the tool that created the problem instead!

"Novels were like that before. Television was like that. Arcade halls were like that. And internet cafés are the same now!

"When enough small incidents pile up into something major, there will always be one final straw that breaks the camel's back. In today's society, the power to shape public opinion lies in the hands of those parents.

"Under pressure from public opinion, the government will introduce policies restricting minors from going online. Without minors as customers, Dad, would you still be so confident about internet cafés then?"

Wu Xiuhua kept nodding as she listened, deeply relating to his words. "Exactly. I only agreed to your idea of opening this internet café after our son went to college. Otherwise, don't even think about it. I can already imagine it—if Haohao were at the crucial stage of high school and our family opened an internet café, his grades definitely wouldn't be good.

"Though judging by Haohao's grades back then, there wasn't much room left for them to drop."

Chen Hao pressed a hand to his forehead. Mom, it would've been fine if you'd left out that last part.

Chen Xingguo shook his head. "You're using a Qing dynasty sword to kill a Ming dynasty official. I don't agree with using an unknown future to reason backward about the present.

"Putting aside whether the government will actually introduce such a policy, let's assume it does. They would first seek opinions from multiple sides, use them as references, conduct trials, make adjustments, and only then officially implement it. After that, local governments would still need to put it into practice. Even if I estimate two years, that's already fast enough. We'd still make money.

"With our current profitability, we'd recover our investment in another year, and nearly double it in two. What other industry has profits this huge? Even if things turn out exactly as you say, we can just sell the internet café cheaply and still make money! The odds of what you're describing are too low. When the odds of winning are over seventy percent, I think it's worth trying!"

That was indeed the normal process, and his dad wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, public opinion had been overwhelming then, and exceptional circumstances had been handled exceptionally! Who could have predicted that?

Besides the Blue Speed Incident coming in just a few months, there would also be SARS next year. Though Chen Hao knew internet cafés would enjoy more than a decade of golden development, how many could survive the darkness before dawn?

All he could say was that it was fate, not a failure of effort.

If things continued as they had before, his family would still become cannon fodder in the darkness.

Even though he could build his own career and give his family a prosperous life, he could never make up for the physical and emotional damage his parents would suffer.

So he had to make his dad change his mind.

Seeing that his dad had clearly made up his mind, Chen Hao could only resort to his final move.

"Then, Dad, do you dare make a bet with me?"

"How do you want to bet?" Chen Xingguo immediately became interested. He enjoyed playing cards with coworkers and relatives, though never for much money. That had also been one of Chen Hao's main sources of pocket money.

"How much does our internet café make in a day right now?"

"Between 700 and 1,000 yuan." Wu Xiuhua answered without hesitation. She knew this one.

Giving his mom a mental thumbs-up, Chen Hao continued, "Today is the twenty-second. There are five days until school starts. Let's calculate based on the upper limit of 1,000 yuan in daily revenue—fair enough, right? That makes 5,000 yuan. Let's bet on whether I can make our internet café's income surge dramatically."

Chen Xingguo pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "No bet. It's two votes to one now, and I've got the advantage. Why should I bet with you and add unnecessary risk? It's not worth it."

"Maybe you didn't understand what I meant by 'surge dramatically.' I mean I can multiply our internet café's revenue over these next few days."

"Double it? Still no."

"I mean multiply it by ten!"

"Five thousand times ten... fifty thousand? Th-That's impossible!" Wu Xiuhua was stunned.

Chen Xingguo was completely confident. If he still refused such a sure-win bet, he would seem overly timid as a father.

"Fine! It's a bet!" Truthfully, he was also curious what gave his boy the confidence to make such a bold claim.

"One more condition. If I win, I get one-tenth of the revenue!"

Perhaps certain that Chen Hao would lose, Chen Xingguo agreed without the slightest hesitation. "No problem!"

"A gentleman's word."

"A horse can't catch it!"

Father and son clapped hands to seal the deal, with Wu Xiuhua serving as the witness.

"Starting tomorrow, I'll have control over the internet café for five days. Call Old Ban later and let him know. We'll see who wins five days from now." Chen Hao spoke calmly.

Chen Xingguo wore the air of someone who had crossed more bridges than his son had walked roads. "Fine, no problem. When the time comes, I'll make you lose so thoroughly that you'll be convinced! It's good for a newborn calf not to fear a tiger, but people often forget how the story ends—the calf gets eaten by the tiger in one bite."

Wu Xiuhua, on the other hand, was curious about her son. "Haohao, what are you planning to do?"

Chen Hao curled his lips and lifted his chin slightly, putting on a mysterious air. "This humble master has his own brilliant plan!"

"I'll show you 'humble master,' and I'll show you 'brilliant plan.' You were just starting to act mature, and now you're fooling around again. You're already twenty-two. When I was your age, I—"

"Mom, I was wrong! Don't hit my face!"

Chen Xingguo sat calmly to the side, secretly chuckling. Brat, now you get a taste of the iron fist of the household tyrant.

The facts proved that showing off in front of your parents got you smacked down.

That evening, he watched television with his parents for a while. The program was boring, but his parents enjoyed it, and Chen Hao was happy too.

Near ten o'clock, Chen Hao returned to his tiny bedroom, took out a small notebook from the drawer, and began writing and sketching.

Though he had a general plan in mind, multiplying the revenue tenfold still made him uneasy. Multiplying it fivefold would have been a sure thing, but he'd worried that the old man wouldn't take the bait, so he had ruthlessly said tenfold instead. Now he had put himself on the hot seat as well.

Recalling the various methods for running an internet café, it seemed he would have to plan carefully, lest he fail before even beginning.