Chapter 675: Too Lazy to Deal with Her
Chapter 675: Too Lazy to Deal with Her
One evening, as the family gathered for dinner, Jiang Xia said to Zhao Chenglei, "Once Second Brother moves into his new house, we can run the telephone line from the balcony on the second floor directly to his living room. This way, he'll have easy access to the phone. I made sure the staff left the line extra long."
Jiang Xia had bought the extra length of cable, planning to run it over to Zhou Chengsen’s house when the time came.
Tian Caifua, hearing this, panicked. She saw her opportunity to make money slipping away and quickly interjected, "Second Brother’s house is so close to yours. Why does he need a phone? He can just walk over and use yours! Xia, why don’t you run the phone line to my house instead?"
Zhou Chengxin, annoyed, retorted, "Can you be any more unreasonable?"
She always found a way to turn every situation to her advantage!
Tian Caifua glared at him. "How am I being unreasonable? What I’m saying is the truth. The houses are so close; why run a phone extension? If you run it to our house, Xia can get help right away if she needs it! And Xia, I’ve thought of a way to make money, …"
Jiang Xia interrupted her, "Sister-in-law, our houses are too far apart for this to work."
Zhou Mu added, "Yeah, the cable isn’t that long."
Tian Caifua insisted, "We can buy more cable! We can extend it. I’ll pay for the cable myself. Lei, can you help me extend the phone line?"
Zhao Chenglei, who was peeling shrimp for Jiang Xia, replied, "I can’t do it."
Jiang Xia explained, "Sister-in-law, our houses are too far apart. If the telecom people find out, we’ll be fined."
Their house and Zhou Chengsen’s were close, sharing a common wall, and they were practically family. Jiang Xia’s parents lived in the house, so it made sense. The distance was only a few dozen meters, so running the cable was easy.
But Tian Caifua’s house was a few hundred meters away. How could they run a cable that far?
Tian Caifua’s request was truly unreasonable.
Zhou Chengxin chimed in, "Just extend it! If there’s a fine, let Sister-in-law pay for it. She has money."
Tian Caifua was speechless. "There will be a fine?"
Zhou Chengxin replied, "What else? The distance is too great. No one would believe you’re one household. If you want a phone, we can apply for one. But what’s the point of having a phone if you don’t have anyone to call? Lei and Xia have a factory, so they need a phone."
People from the production team often said that half of the calls to the team’s phone were for Jiang Xia and Zhao Chenglei.
Using public resources all the time wasn’t good.
"Apply for one? Spend so much money on a phone? I hardly use a phone all year. Do you think I’m stupid?"
Sigh, she regretted not building her house here!
Being close to Jiang Xia would be much better!
Now, all the benefits were going to the second family.
Zhou Chengsen got a phone without spending a cent!
And he lived right next to Jiang Xia, even having better shipping access.
She really wanted to move in with Jiang Xia.
Tian Caifua wasn’t giving up. With the phone already installed, would the telecom people really come knocking?
She tried again, "Xia, I have an idea to make money! We can charge people for using the phone. Two cents per minute. If you’re busy, I can do it. We can run the extension to my house. We can split the profits. Maybe you won’t even have to pay for your phone bills in the future."
Jiang Xia shook her head. "Making money from village calls won’t earn much. If you want to make money, open a small store in the town or the city and install a few public phones. You’ll make a lot more that way."
Tian Caifua replied, "I don’t have time to open a store in town or the city. I can only make money at home!"
Jiang Xia said, "Opening a store at home isn’t practical."
Tian Caifua thought about how much her great-grandfather made from his store in town and asked, "Do you think opening a store in town and installing a phone would make money?"
"Yes, and you could make a lot, even more each year. You might earn back the cost of the phone in one or two years."
Don’t underestimate how quickly a small store can make money. When pagers become popular in a few years, public phones will be even more profitable.
Especially in their city, which is rapidly growing, with many job opportunities and an increasing number of migrant workers.
Jiang Xia had noticed the increase in passenger traffic at the train station this year compared to last year.
Tian Caifua was intrigued. Maybe she could open a store and have her parents help manage it, splitting the profits.
This way, her parents wouldn’t keep complaining about being poor, about not having money to build a house, or about her younger brothers not being able to marry.
They would also stop hinting that she should ask her older and second brothers to go fishing or help with the fish farm.
She dared not ask again!
If she invited her parents, it would be a way to show her filial piety!
"Where do you think it would be best to open a store in town?"
"Near the bus station! That street is the busiest."
Jiang Xia remembered that in a few years, the city would increase the initial installation fee for phones, making it even more expensive in the 1990s.
She advised Tian Caifua, "If you want to install a phone, apply in the next couple of years. It might get more expensive in the future."
Jiang Xia had used her food factory and workshop to apply for a phone, which made the installation fee higher.
Tian Caifua looked at Jiang Xia. "How do you know it will get more expensive?"
Could she have inside information?
Jiang Xia, knowing this from a book but not wanting to say so, explained, "Didn’t the newspaper last year say that our city is working with foreign companies to introduce more advanced programmable switchboard equipment? My phone is a programmable phone, and calls don’t need to be manually connected. It’s still in the trial phase, but the initial installation fee hasn’t increased yet. I think once the equipment is fully installed and the network expands, the fee will go up to recoup the investment."
Zhou Chengxin, to prevent Tian Caifua from constantly trying to use the phone at the fourth brother’s house, suggested, "Why don’t we apply for a phone too?"
Tian Caifua flatly refused, "What’s the point of having a phone at home? Who would you call? We don’t need to make a phone call for ten years. What’s the point of installing one? And walking a few steps to use a phone won’t break your legs or kill you. Only you would waste money like that!"
Zhou Chengxin, exasperated, decided to ignore her.
Tian Caifua then pulled Jiang Xia aside to ask more about opening a store.
Jiang Xia, seeing that she was serious about it and recognizing it as a viable way to make money, shared her thoughts and advice on how to run the store.
(End of Chapter)
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