Chapter 20

Chapter 21: Do what you have never done

His father, Su Licheng, and his mother, Zeng Ke, both stared blankly at Su Can. They could not believe he could say something like that, yet his words gave them plenty to think about.

Su Can knew his parents were wavering, and he needed to add fuel to the fire. He immediately pressed further. "Even if General Manager Huang can turn the company around right now, what about the future? What about later? This is a state-owned enterprise, with fierce internal struggles. How long can General Manager Huang guarantee he'll keep his position? Who can guarantee the same upheaval won't happen again?"

Alarm flashed in his mother's eyes. This one upheaval at the company was already hard enough to bear. Every day, people made a scene in the company offices, demanding a resolution, and she faced the constant pressure of unemployment. Fortunately, her son had not been adding to her worries, or Zeng Ke did not know how much more miserable she might have been.

Besides, her son's words had touched something deep inside her. In fact, she was a woman with a subconscious desire for independence. She had run a clothing shop herself before, but for various reasons, it had never taken off. After that, even her husband, Su Licheng, had lost faith in her abilities, and she had lost her own confidence too. So she had gone on to spend fifteen years of her youth at this company, from the days when everyone called her "Xiao Zeng" to now, when they called her "Sister Zeng." She had gained a certain standing, but the company was nearing its end too.

His stubborn father had served in the army and clung tenaciously to his own views. But Su Can's statement that "their family's fate was always in someone else's hands!" could not help moving him a little in the face of such turmoil.

Would making Zeng Ke stay at that company really be the right choice?

Su Licheng gave a grunt. "Su Can, you're still young. A lot of things aren't as simple as you think. Look at your mother's previous attempts to go into business. She only ever lost money, never made any. She has no luck in business!"

Faced with his father's stubborn, sweeping pronouncements, Su Can did not get angry. On the contrary, the fact that Su Licheng was willing to let him participate in a family discussion rather than chase him out of the bedroom already showed that he had truly begun to see his son differently.

"You say your mother should take those tens of thousands in severance pay, but what would she do? Does she think selling clothes is still as easy as it used to be? That's impossible! Business is all about outwitting and deceiving people. Someone as honest as your mother isn't suited to it!"

His father was still stuck in his old way of thinking, unaware that in the future, integrity would largely become a basic standard in business.

"Luck in business depends on the kind of business too. Maybe Mom hasn't accomplished anything in clothing and doesn't have a good eye for it, but what about other fields? What about other ways to make money?" Su Can smiled faintly.

His mother immediately cast him a grateful look. Her husband was always saying she had no luck in business, and she felt wronged by it. Now, however, her son had great confidence in her, easing the knot in her heart a little. "I really don't have a good eye. Otherwise, I wouldn't have married a man like your father, who never understands what support means!"

As she spoke, Zeng Ke began to feel aggrieved, and tears welled in her eyes.

His father grew anxious too, his voice taking on an edge of anger. "Then tell me, what would you do? What can you do well? This boy is about to start high school, and he still has university ahead of him. Zeng Ke, how can we afford to let you fall again? If we have to borrow money from your brother again, I can't stand that humiliation!"

His father was only a low-level clerk at a construction company, and neither parent earned much. Su Can could not afford to compete with others over whose father had more clout. Whenever the family had a major expense they could not immediately cover, they borrowed from his eldest maternal uncle. His uncle already looked down on his father. Although his father never said anything, he felt bad about it, and now he had finally spoken.

"Mom, I heard from a classmate that one of his relatives started a stationery shop, and the business turned out surprisingly well. I've also had a look recently. There aren't many stationery shops in Xiahai City. Only the general stores outside school gates sell school supplies, but their stock is all mixed together, and there isn't much variety. If you want some good pens, you have to go to a bookstore or a department store, which is too much trouble for a lot of people. Besides, no one in our neighborhood is doing this business. The profit margins aren't very high, but the volume makes up for it. If we did this, I believe business would be very good, and it would have real prospects!"

His mother stopped wiping her tears and stared at Su Can. "Really? That classmate's relative runs a stationery shop?"

Of course, Su Can was making it all up. If he simply claimed that stationery shops made money, how would his parents believe his word alone and invest everything the family had in one?

At the time, Xiahai City had very few dedicated stationery shops in the true sense. The industry had yet to develop on any scale, and this was its golden period for growth. As he remembered it, his mother had missed this golden period precisely because she had been working for someone else. Later, even after she started her own business, she had never been able to expand it, only raise the family's standard of living a notch. His eldest uncle had also brought this up every time to needle his father, whose company later could not pay its wages. Without his mother's stationery shop, Su Can might not even have finished university.

That showed just how difficult every step had been for the family back then.

Su Can realized that the first opportunity to change his family's fate had arrived.

"Oh, really!" His father snorted. "So few people are doing this now. If it made money, wouldn't everyone else be doing it already?"

That was his father's greatest flaw: he was always too conservative, unwilling to move forward or change. Otherwise, he would not have remained a clerk in an organization that could barely pay its wages even as he approached retirement.

"Dad, your ideas are too outdated. In the future, companies, even entire industries, will demand innovation. There's an advertisement that says it too: 'Do what you have never done!' In a future where ideas and jobs are both saturated, only innovation and breaking new ground will let you fight your way through a field packed with competitors!" Su Can did not know where his anger had come from. Since his rebirth, the results of his revision in all his subjects had, to some extent, supplied him with a steady stream of confidence, while also giving him an urgent desire to change his family's circumstances.

"Other people haven't done it precisely because, like you, they haven't thought of how profitable it could be. Someone always has to be the first to try something new. Besides, this wouldn't even be an experiment for you. There's already an example to follow. My classmate's relative made a net profit of a hundred thousand after running a stationery shop for just one year, and now they're preparing to open a branch. Don't wait until there are shops everywhere before remembering every word I said today!"

The people who had opened a stationery shop before his parents were Mei Lan, a relative of his aunt by marriage whom they called Second Sister, and her husband, Jia Zheng. The mere mention of those two made Su Can grit his teeth.

They were utterly obsessed with money, the sort of relatives who schemed against their own family both openly and behind their backs. Back when they wanted to rent a good storefront, they had not hesitated to beg his eldest uncle to intervene and use his connections on their behalf. Later, once their business grew, they became so arrogant that they would not even show his uncle any respect. They had once brought him bags upon bags of gifts on holidays, but after he was stripped of his authority, they would not even greet him if they met him on the street.

When his mother wanted to open a stationery shop too, not only had they refused to help, they had obstructed her at every turn, using all kinds of connections to rent the storefronts she wanted before she could. Later, after his mother opened her own shop, some contacts his eldest uncle had introduced came to patronize it. This Second Sister actually barged into their shop and poached those customers. The two families had nearly come to blows over it, causing quite a commotion.

Thinking back now on their ugly readiness to trim their sails to the wind, their obsession with money, and their willingness to exploit any connection at any cost, Su Can felt utterly disgusted. He also intended to help his mother get established and nip all of this in the bud.

Su Can's somewhat stern, impassioned speech immediately stunned his parents. The son before them had suddenly grown mature, and his words left them with no inclination to argue.

Zeng Ke finally took the idea seriously and began discussing it with Su Licheng. "How about I speak to Sister Yin? We could take the severance pay, borrow a little more from them, and just open a stationery shop. Working for other people all our lives isn't a solution, after all. Our son is right. We shouldn't wait for someone else to hand us our fate!"

Sister Yin was his eldest uncle's wife, the influential figure who controlled the finances in his uncle's household.

His father, Su Licheng, thought for a moment, then nodded. "All right. It's not that I don't support you. You just need to find something you're good at. I've thought carefully about that stationery shop our son mentioned, and it could work. How about you go and talk to Sister Yin tomorrow?"

Su Can knew there was nothing more for him to do now. Fate had changed, and his mother had caught a ride on the golden age.

"By the way, son, what was that 'doo' something, 'it doo' you said just now? What did it mean? Our son's getting so learned now, saying things in English we can't even understand..." His father gave an embarrassed smile, looking very handsome.

"Do what you have never done." Su Can turned back. "Do something you've never done before."

Over the next few days, his parents contacted his eldest uncle's family. His uncle was surprised by his mother's decision to take a service buyout and go into business herself. Her bold choice did make him see her in a new light. What Su Can had not expected, however, was that the first obstacle would come from his aunt and older cousin, who would be so supportive of his mother in the years to come.

With his mother planning to go into business several years early, they were the first to come forward with objections.

There was another family gathering.

At this point, only one week remained before the high school entrance examination results were released on July 1.