Chapter 2

"John, you know, our family's situation might be a bit more comfortable than yours, after all, both my father and my older brother are earning money. However, $40 is not a small amount for us either. Personally, I don't have that much money and can only ask my parents for help. I don't know how much they can contribute, but I will try my best to persuade them. However, John, you need to tell me first, how do you plan to pay back this money after you complete your business school studies?" Scrooge said.

"Scrooge, you've really changed a lot. You're actually thinking about so many issues now. When I was your age, I didn't consider so many things," John Rockefeller said. "If I start my own company in the future, I will definitely find you as a partner. I've already investigated, and there are many new companies opening up now. Other staff members are relatively easy to find, but there is a shortage of people who can keep accounts. So, if I complete my business school studies, finding a job shouldn't be too difficult. Nowadays, a person with basic accounting skills can earn a monthly salary of $5 to $6 in the first year. My monthly expenses do not exceed $2, so it will only take me a little over a year to pay off the debt."

"That sounds good," Scrooge said. "I think I'm convinced. I will try to persuade my parents..."

At this moment, the middle school was already in sight not far ahead. The two of them walked through the school gate and all the way to the classroom where Scrooge's class was. John Rockefeller handed the backpack he had been carrying for Scrooge to him: "Alright, we're here. Oh, by the way, I haven't told anyone else about this yet, so please keep it a secret for now..."

Scrooge nodded and then entered the classroom. There were already some people inside, but the teacher had not arrived yet. As soon as Scrooge entered, the classroom immediately became lively.

"Hey, Scrooge! I heard you fell out of a tree, you idiot?" A boy with some red freckles on his nose shouted first.

"Scrooge, it seems your family's leather is really tough!" A boy with light-colored hair reached out and pinched Scrooge's face, saying, "Look, it's so thick!"

"Stop it, Tom!" A small boy stood up, "Bullying a sick person, you have no future at all!"

"You really don't understand humor, Carter," the light-haired boy named Tom looked at the small boy, pouted, and said, "I was just joking with Scrooge, no harm intended."

"You are bullying Scrooge while he is sick!" The small boy named Carter said coldly, "And you, Rom, you are the same, a bully with no future!"

"I won't argue with a guy who has no sense of humor!" The boy with freckles on his nose also sat down sullenly.

The small boy looked at Scrooge again and said, "Scrooge, I heard you hit your head and can't remember some things. Is that true?"

"Yes," Scrooge replied.

"Can you still remember where you sit? Do you remember our names?" Carter asked.

Scrooge shook his head.

"You don't remember anything?" Carter shook his head. "Do you still remember how to solve those math problems?"

"I think I still remember," Scrooge thought, considering that there was no such thing as Olympiad math in this era, he was quite confident in solving the math problems of this era's middle school.

"That's great!" Carter smiled. "Hurry up and catch up on what you missed—relying on you for the final exam in a month!... Alright, guys, now, I'll give each of you three minutes to introduce yourselves to our Scrooge. Let's start with me!"

"My name is Carter, and I have a strange illness—I don't feel pain," Carter began his introduction. "My greatest strength is my strength and fighting skills. My grades in all subjects except physical education are not very good, just barely passing. If you get to know me well, you'll find that I'm easy to get along with."

After Carter finished his introduction, he looked around the classroom and said, "Tom, you're next!"

"Um, I'm Tom, actually we are old friends. I sometimes like to joke around, but everyone knows I don't mean any harm. Well, the final exam depends on you!"

"Jessica, you're next..."

"My name is Jessica, my father is..."

Perhaps there weren't many people who went to school back then, even though people kept coming, the total number of classmates was not large. So, these introductions were just finished before the class started.

The first class was math, which the original Scrooge was very good at. As expected, the math of this era's middle school was extremely simple compared to the current Scrooge, so simple that Scrooge could directly report the answer with just a glance. Such a class inevitably made him distracted. Scrooge propped his cheek with one hand, pretending to look at the blackboard, but his mind began to plan his future.

"The Civil War seems to be about to break out, if I remember correctly, it should be around 1861. War is definitely a good opportunity to make money. What ways can I use to make money? First, speculation. If I remember correctly, wasn't Morgan's first ill-gotten wealth earned by speculating on gold during the Civil War? But... let's forget it, I'm not like Morgan, who always gets insider information and can play on Wall Street. It's better to stick to real industries...

...Oil should be a good business. Once the Civil War starts, without the South's agriculture, cities will have no lamp oil for lighting. All ships will be used for the war, including whaling ships, so whale oil for lubrication will also be gone. These problems can only be solved by the extraction and refining of oil. Rockefeller made his fortune this way, and by sticking closely to him, I might also benefit. However, Rockefeller... historically, he was known for kicking his partners out of the company. Even as a穿越者, I can't guarantee that won't happen... What about making weapons? Before I came here, I was an engineer at a Northern industrial company. Although my main research project was a bit too advanced for this era, I am very familiar with firearms. As a side business to make money from foreigners, I know a lot about bolt-action sniper rifles, pump-action shotguns, various automatic rifles, machine guns, and all kinds of knock-off automatic and revolver pistols. With the first start-up capital, it's not impossible to produce these things. I just don't know about the material standards of this era, but considering that the Germans will create the Mauser rifle in 1866, completing the transition from modern to contemporary rifles, it seems that even if making automatic rifles is difficult, producing an old-style Mauser rifle is still possible. Even the old Mauser 1871 is much better than the muzzle-loading rifles used in the Civil War...

However, breech-loading rifles have always been rejected by some old-fashioned people. I remember a prominent figure in Europe even declared that he would rather lose the war than use such 'unmanly' weapons. Of course, it might be that these old fossils were paid off by the manufacturers of muzzle-loading rifles. If that's the case, I might face the same problem in America. Without solving it, I can't effectively make money from the war... What if I sell these weapons to the South first? If the South can use these things to beat the North, the North will definitely buy them in large quantities. There's a saying, isn't there? 'A real arms dealer doesn't sell weapons to strike their own country's army.' Yes, I must let the North bleed enough first, then let the South bleed even more, and then there will be an opportunity..."

"Scrooge, answer this question... Scrooge! Scrooge! What are you doing!" Just as Scrooge was thinking wildly, a voice rang in his ear.

Math teacher Rodriguez was standing next to Scrooge. In fact, because Scrooge had been staring at the blackboard, Teacher Rodriguez didn't immediately notice that he was distracted. After writing a slightly difficult problem on the blackboard, he randomly called a few students, but they all answered dumbly. So, Teacher Rodriguez habitually called out Scrooge's name. This call made Teacher Rodriguez realize that Scrooge was distracted.

"Ah, I, I was thinking," Scrooge was startled.

Teacher Rodriguez's attitude softened because he knew Scrooge had just hit his head and seemed to have memory problems, plus he had missed a lot of classes. Such a problem might really be too difficult for him to answer immediately. His anger just now was just a habitual gesture—facing those little rascals, he had to show anger to keep them in line.

"Oh, Scrooge, do you understand today's content?" Teacher Rodriguez asked gently.

"Um, it's okay," Scrooge said.

"Can you solve the problem on the blackboard?"

"Ah, the problem on the blackboard?" Scrooge quickly glanced at the blackboard. It was a common problem about speed, distance, and time, which would be at a high primary school level in the future.

"One hour and fifteen minutes," Scrooge almost instantly got the answer, but he didn't say it out loud, instead, he shook his head—right now, he didn't want to stand out too much.

"Um, that's fine, Scrooge. After all, you've missed a lot of classes. Sit down and listen carefully," Teacher Rodriguez said.

...The first day of classes passed without incident. Unlike most穿越者, Scrooge performed very ordinarily and did not do anything to shock his classmates. Scrooge knew that it was meaningless, his stage was not here. The Civil War was only five and a half years away, and he didn't have much time to waste in such a school. Maybe he should drop out and start a business like Rockefeller.