Chapter Seventeen Internet Cafe

  "Older brother, what are you trying to do?" Su Jin asked lightly as he lay on the bed.

  Su Yun was taken aback, seemingly not expecting Su Jian to still care about this. In his eyes, Su Jian was still a child, and his daily work was just playing around. These adult matters had nothing to do with him.

  "Oh, I didn't think of doing anything, just wanted to find a job that could make ends meet and not let my family worry!" Su Yun replied casually.

  "If it's like that, I have an idea, don't know if you're willing or not!" Su Zhen said leisurely.

  "What's the idea?" Su Yun was really surprised this time, and secretly thought: "Could it be that this kid really has some ideas? At home, I heard my parents say that Xiao Jin is now capable and even wrote a book. I didn't quite believe it myself, but today when I saw him, my first impression was that he had become more mature. Now he's telling me he has an idea, I'd like to hear what it is!"

  "Let's make a deal!" Su Jin said, turning his body and looking at Su Yun.

  "Want to do business?" Su Yun's enthusiasm was not high, and his tone carried a hint of disappointment. He thought: "It seems that Xiao Jin just casually brought up the topic and didn't really have any ideas. Talking about doing business is too broad, and I've thought about it before, but now everyone can be seen doing business, and many people have made a fortune from it. But I don't have the capital or experience, so what's the point of doing business? Moreover, while some people have made a fortune from doing business, more have gone bankrupt! Now my main priority is to find a stable job. My parents are getting older, and they should be able to rest easy now. I shouldn't let them worry about me anymore!"

  "Hehe, brother don't be in a hurry, listen to me finish, I said doing business is my idea, you first listen before making a decision!" Although Su Yun's tone was not obvious, Su Zhen, who had known her for two lifetimes, could still hear her thoughts and immediately spoke up.

  "Oh, what's on your mind?" Su Yun said calmly.

  "What I want to do is open an internet cafe!" Su Jin said, ignoring Su Yun's attitude.

  "Internet cafe?" Su Yun furrowed his brow, he hadn't expected Su Jian to mention this. Internet cafes were a new thing that had just started to become popular this year, and Su Yun had already retired from the Jianghu for two years now. He didn't go out much, and even if he was still in the Jianghu, he probably wouldn't have gone to an internet cafe many times. After all, he was a somewhat famous figure in the Jianghu, usually going to places like song halls and KTVs. Places like internet cafes and game centers were where those small-time hooligans hung out, not somewhere they would go.

  However, he does know about internet cafes, which are similar to game centers. His appearance in the past half year has had a significant impact on the city's game centers, with 80% of them closing down within just six months. Even the remaining 20% are barely scraping by!

  He had thought of this before, but when he asked some friends about it, they told him that although the business was very popular at first, soon after the first one became popular, small and large internet cafes sprouted up everywhere. By now, there are nearly six hundred internet cafes in the whole ancient city. Due to the excessive number of internet cafes, they had to engage in vicious competition, and the current internet fee has dropped from five yuan per hour at the beginning to one yuan per hour now!

  While the corresponding network maintenance fees, machine repair fees, rent and so on have not changed, the current Internet cafe has no big profit. Moreover, opening an internet cafe also requires purchasing a batch of computers, now even a cheap computer costs 4-5 thousand yuan, where can you get that much money!

  Su Jin saw Su Yun frowning and not speaking, so he knew what he was thinking about. However, he didn't have any good ideas either. He also wanted to open an internet cafe early on, but who let him be reborn at this time? If only he could have been reborn a year earlier, or even just half a year earlier, opening an internet cafe would have been more profitable than robbing a bank! At that time, the internet cafe was like "making a fortune overnight"! Unfortunately, when one is reborn is something that only the legendary Heavenly Way can decide. As for himself... Alas, he thought too much and decided to wash up and go to sleep instead.

  However, Su Jin had his own thoughts on the matter. In his memory, the internet cafes in the ancient city would soon face a large-scale crackdown. Due to unlicensed operations and inducing young people, especially students, to become addicted to the internet, among other reasons, the Municipal Public Security Bureau decided to investigate all internet cafes in the city!

  In fact, the movement to ban internet cafes in ancient cities is spreading like wildfire across the country! Within a short span of two months, over 90% of the 600 internet cafes in this ancient city have closed down, and those that remain are only operating secretly underground, never to regain their former glory.

  But people from later generations all know that in the era when the Internet was not popular, this kind of thing could not be eradicated! For Su Jin, who witnessed the entire development process of internet cafes, even in the most difficult times, he could still find a way to surf the internet in an internet cafe!

  It can be said that internet cafes have played an indispensable role in the promotion of China's Internet! It seems that even the government knows it is impossible to completely eradicate internet cafes, so they quickly changed their strategy from banning to controlling. They required all internet cafes to obtain business licenses from the government and undergo regular inspections. Later, there was a regulation that every individual must use their ID card to go online.

  Even with such repression, it wasn't until after 2010, when home computers and laptops became widespread and household broadband coverage reached nearly 99%, that internet cafes gradually declined.

  However, whether the internet cafe will decline is clearly not what Su Jian cares about, he only needs the prosperity of the internet cafe! After all, he needs the internet cafe and although there are some other considerations, the main reason is still because he needs the internet cafe as an early cash cow.

  He knew that he was engaged in the cultural industry, and the early stage of the cultural industry is very difficult to make a profit. Just like Dream Net Bar, at least four or five years later, he didn't expect it to make money, and occasionally making a lot of money could maintain the operation of the website. In fact, even if it were in the future, he did not hope that Dream Net would make money. In his plan, this website was best used as a platform for cultivating authors and providing creativity. There are many ways to make money, and it's not lacking this one!

  So he needed a cash cow to supply development in the early days, and was there a better choice than internet cafes during this period? As for others' concerns about so-called price competition, not being in the best period, etc., Su Jin didn't put them in his heart at all. Relying on the cultural achievement system, his own competitiveness, he was fundamentally not on the same level as those small bosses of internet cafes!

  But opening an internet cafe isn't something that can be done casually, at least not for Su Zhen. The person helping him open the internet cafe must first be honest and reliable, worthy of his trust. Second, they need to have some social connections, not necessarily high-end ones, just a general understanding of how things work in the underworld, because as the successor to game rooms, internet cafes are often "taken care of" by many hoodlums!

  Originally, Su Jin was worried about who to find, but today he suddenly saw Su Yun and was overjoyed. It's really "searching everywhere without finding the right person, but then coming across them effortlessly!" Isn't Su Yun his best candidate after all!

  But how to persuade Su Yun is a problem for Su Jian, who understands Su Yun very well and knows what he thinks. And he can't tell him his true thoughts, if he really tells him the reason, not to mention that he won't believe it at all, even if he believes it, how can he explain these sources? So Su Jian needs a suitable excuse!

  "Hey, brother, you know I recently published a book and earned some money, but I didn't know what to do with it. Coincidentally, the president of the publishing house that issued my book wanted to open an internet cafe and asked me if I wanted to invest. On a whim, I decided to join in. As for you, finding a job is something my dad has already agreed to help you with, but it's not something that can be done overnight. It depends on luck and opportunity. Since you're free right now, why don't you come help me out first? When you find a job, you can just leave then."

  Su Jin thought for a moment and said, "No way, at the critical moment, I still have to pull out General Huang's tiger skin! However, Su Jin was not afraid of being exposed, this kind of thing just needs to be mentioned to General Huang when the time comes!"

  "Is the boss of that big publishing house also opening an internet cafe?" Su Yun shook her head in disbelief. Of course, Fatong was a number one figure in the ancient city, how could he come to do such a business!

  "Haha, brother, you don't know this, small business do small, big business do big! Like our Wang boss wants to open an internet cafe, he's not just opening one, he's planning to make it a chain. The initial plan is to occupy the entire ancient city market! As for the internet cafe that's currently open, it's just a test point!" Su Jin said with a smile.

  "Is that so?" Su Yun thought for a moment, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with this big boss wanting to open a chain store. Before opening one, trying out a pilot store first seemed reasonable, so she said: "Alright then, I agree!"

  Su Jin suddenly burst out laughing, his smile as sly as a fox, making Su Yun somewhat regretful, wondering if he had been deceived. Seeing Su Yun's expression, Su Jin seemed to realize he was being too smug and quickly composed himself, saying: "No problem, it's settled then. If Big Brother is free, tell the family and come over. I'll let you know what to do when the time comes!"