Chapter Forty: Gathering Strength

Lu Xueping produced her identification documents, which Li Mu had the staff copy before putting them away carefully. Once everything was done, Li Mu paid the fees and walked with Lu Xueping to the China Construction Bank across the street, where he filled out a remittance slip for one hundred thousand yuan.

Li Mu’s bank card was still from another city, but that hardly mattered. He didn’t care about the small service fee, nor did he see any need to transfer the money to a local card—he’d be leaving home in less than two months anyway.

Once Lu Xueping confirmed that the money had arrived, she couldn’t help sizing up Li Mu, guessing that he must be the child of a wealthy family. In any case, the world of the truly rich was beyond her comprehension. What did it matter? As long as she got the money, that was enough.

In those days, the phrase “second-generation rich” hadn’t yet become popular.

Li Mu kept the remittance receipt, and Lu Xueping said, “My tenants have already moved out, but the lease doesn’t expire for another three days. I’ll go over to reclaim the place then, and once I’m done, I’ll contact you. We can meet up, I’ll give you the keys, and you can start the renovations.”

Li Mu nodded with a smile. “Sister Lu, you’re very efficient—it’s a pleasure working with someone like you.”

Lu Xueping looked at him awkwardly. “You’re even more efficient, aren’t you? I’d just sat down at the mahjong table when you called, and I came right out to sign the contract.”

Li Mu laughed. “That’s for the best—saves us both time.”

The property Lu Xueping owned was listed at a total of one hundred and sixty-five square meters on the title deed. In Haizhou’s busiest areas, this was about as large as ground-floor commercial spaces got. Anything bigger would require combining two units, but so far, no store had shown that kind of ambition.

If Metersbonwe could open before September, it would undoubtedly be the largest clothing store in Haizhou—bar none. None of the others could compare.

With the contract in hand, Li Mu realized that the store’s size exceeded Metersbonwe’s official requirements by more than double. He still had over six hundred thousand yuan in savings sitting in his bank account. Renovations would cost a little over a hundred thousand, merchandise another hundred thousand or so. All in all, it would come to around three hundred thousand. He could easily leave another hundred thousand for his parents to use for stocking and cash flow.

Even if he didn’t make a profit all summer, he’d still have over a hundred thousand to invest. The eting project would need some funding, but as Zhang Kexuan had said, the four of them would contribute both money and effort. If necessary, Li Mu could write him two more songs, and that would settle things.

If it came to it, he could always come up with other ways to make money over the summer.

Before leaving on her motorcycle, Lu Xueping asked curiously, “Li, what kind of shop are you planning to open?”

“Metersbonwe,” Li Mu answered, now that the contract was signed.

Lu Xueping nodded with a smile. “You young people have your tastes—I can’t really keep track of all these names. But I did hear that a brand called Yishion is about to start renovations too, right across from my shop.”

“Oh? How big is their store?”

“About a hundred square meters, maybe less.”

“That’s great. West Gate will gradually become a street full of clothing stores.”

…

With the property settled, Li Mu immediately contacted Metersbonwe’s headquarters, expressing his intention to cooperate and providing the store’s address. The customer service representative gave him a fax number and a bank account—he needed to fax over his ID, the lease agreement, and the property certificate, and transfer a three-thousand-yuan inspection fee. They’d reply within forty-eight hours after receiving the documents, and if everything was in order, they’d arrange an on-site inspection.

Li Mu returned to the print shop, prepared all the required documents, and faxed them. Then he rushed to the Industrial and Commercial Bank to transfer the inspection fee.

Now all that was left was to wait for a response.

Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief. Once home, he began working on his music portal, eting.

His goal for eting was simple: to create the best music streaming and download site in the country. With his modern perspective and mastery of advanced technology, Li Mu was confident he could achieve this. He would handle the technical development, but he’d also need substantial server space and bandwidth—something Haizhou couldn’t provide. He’d have to go to Jinling to buy servers and find a hosting company.

Still, it would take time. Website development involved everything from design to graphics, slicing, and front-end and back-end programming. Coding alone would take a while, so there was no rush to get the servers set up. For now, he could get a machine in Haizhou for temporary use.

He turned on his computer and logged into QQ, his personal messaging account. He saw he’d received a message. When he noticed the pink, flower-shaped penguin icon blinking in the lower right corner, his heart skipped a beat—it had to be Su Yingxue. It had to be her!

He was right. The message was from “snow”: “Li Mu, Jin’an Driving School is open for registration. When do you have time to go together?”

Then, another message: “By the way, my phone number is 138... If I'm not online, call me.”

Li Mu replied quickly, “Let’s sign up today. When are you free?”

About ten seconds later, “snow” responded: “Two o’clock—twenty minutes from now. Can you make it?”

“Plenty of time,” Li Mu replied. “I’ll leave now.”

“Okay.”

After closing the chat with Su Yingxue, Li Mu noticed another avatar blinking in the lower right corner—a cartoon girl with blond hair and winking eyes.

Clicking it open, he found a string of messages from Chen Wan, whose screen name was “Sailor Moon.”

“Where are you, brat? The house phone isn’t working either!”

“Where are you? Not online, not at home? Don’t you dare disappear on me—come out, your big sister needs you!”

“Li Mu! You made so much money selling ‘Li Bai’—why haven’t you bought a cell phone yet?”

“You little rascal, you’re driving me crazy!”

Li Mu suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten to give Chen Wan his new phone number. That was careless—she was clearly worried. If she found out he’d already bought a phone but hadn’t told her, she’d probably eat him alive.

He checked the timestamps—the first message was from two hours ago, the last from ten minutes earlier.

On a sudden impulse, Li Mu didn’t reply by message. Instead, he pulled out his phone and called Chen Wan.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Sister Wan, it’s Xiao Mu. I just bought a phone—I’m calling to give you my number.”

“You brat!” Chen Wan blurted out. “I’ve been trying to reach you everywhere—at home, online. You were out buying a phone?”

“Yeah.” Li Mu kept his composure. “This is the first call I’m making. Who else but my beautiful big sister?”

Chen Wan giggled, clearly pleased with his answer. “I need you for something urgent. My brother called this morning—they’re competing in the preliminaries at Jinling University Gymnasium tonight at eight.”

“Oh!” Li Mu laughed. “Then wish them good luck for me.”

Chen Wan quickly replied, “My brother called because he wants me to bring you along. He said everyone’s nervous and hopes you’ll come to lend them some support.”

“You’re kidding…” Li Mu felt a bit embarrassed.

“It’s true! He sounded so pitiful.”

“It’s almost two now,” Li Mu checked the time. “If we leave now, we won’t make it back tonight.”

“That’s fine,” Chen Wan said. “If we can’t come back, you can stay with my cousin. He owns several houses in Jinling.”

Li Mu feigned disappointment. “Sister Wan, why not invite me to stay at your place? If you did, I might consider it.”

Chen Wan chuckled. “Keep dreaming. My parents are in Jinling these days—even if I invited you, would you dare?”

“In that case, forget it.”

“You should really come with me. You already gave them ‘Li Bai’—if they can’t even make it past the preliminaries, wouldn’t that be a pity?”

“You’re right,” Li Mu sighed. He had given them the song. If a good song didn’t make a splash right away, it would be hard to get famous later. Even if it became a hit years down the road, it would probably be thanks to someone else’s cover version.

Although “Li Bai” wasn’t a classic masterpiece, it was definitely an excellent pop song—cutting-edge and appealing enough to have a market in this era, just like Jay Chou’s music.

Li Mu wanted to use a few more songs to build good relationships with Zhang Kexuan and the other second-generation heirs—just in case he needed them in the future. If they were eliminated in the preliminaries, what would be the point?

“All right. Are we driving or taking the train?”

“Driving. You drive.”

“Okay, I’ll come pick you up.”

“Aren’t you out buying a phone?”

“I’m already on my way back. I’ll be at our neighborhood gate soon.”

“Fine.”