Chapter 40

Lu Xueping took out her relevant documents, and Li Mu had someone in the store make copies, which he then kept.

After finishing all of this, Li Mu paid and went with Lu Xueping to the Construction Bank across the street, where he filled out a remittance form for 100,000 yuan.

Li Mu's card was from another city, but it didn't matter; he didn't care about the small handling fee, nor did he need to transfer the money to a local card, as he would be leaving home in less than two months.

Lu Xueping confirmed that the money had arrived and began to size up Li Mu, guessing that he must be from a wealthy family. She didn't really understand the world of the truly rich, but it didn't matter; as long as the money was there.

In those days, the term "rich second generation" hadn't become popular yet.

Li Mu kept the remittance receipt, and Lu Xueping said, "The tenant on my side has already moved out, but the lease won't expire for three more days. I'll go and take over the property then, and contact you afterward. You can come over, and we'll go over everything. I'll give you the keys, and you can start the renovation."

Li Mu nodded and smiled, "Sister Lu, you're very efficient. It's a pleasure to work with someone like you."

Lu Xueping looked at Li Mu awkwardly, "You're even more efficient. I had just sat down at the mahjong table when you called, and I came out to sign the contract."

"Ha ha," Li Mu laughed, "This is the best way to save each other time."

The commercial space Lu Xueping owned was 165 square meters according to the property deed. In those days, this was the largest layout for a commercial space in the bustling area of Haizhou. To get a larger space, one would have to rent two and connect them, but no store had the courage to do so yet.

If Li Mu could open a Metersbonwe store by September, it would definitely be the largest clothing store in Haizhou, with no other store coming close.

Li Mu had already exceeded Metersbonwe's official requirements for the commercial space by more than double. He still had over 600,000 yuan in his bank account. He planned to spend about 100,000 yuan on renovation and another 100,000 yuan on inventory, totaling around 300,000 yuan. He would leave another 100,000 yuan for his parents to use for inventory turnover, which would be enough.

Even if he didn't make any money over the summer, he still had over 100,000 yuan to play with. The Eting and Yiting projects would require some investment, but Zhang Kexuan had said that the four of them would contribute both money and effort. Li Mu could just write a couple more songs for him, and that would be enough.

If that didn't work, he could think of other ways to make money over the summer.

Before leaving on her motorcycle, Lu Xueping asked curiously, "Little Li, what kind of store are you planning to open?"

"Metersbonwe," Li Mu replied, as the contract was already signed, and there was no need to hide it.

Lu Xueping nodded and smiled, "I don't really understand what young people like, and I can't even remember the names clearly. But I heard that a brand called Yishun is also starting to renovate, right across the street from my commercial space."

"Oh? How big is it?"

"About 100 square meters, maybe less."

"That's good. The West Gate will gradually become a clothing business street."

...

Having settled the property, Li Mu immediately contacted Metersbonwe's headquarters, expressing his intention to collaborate. He provided the address, and the customer service representative gave him a fax number and an account. He needed to send his personal identification, the rental contract, and the property deed via fax, and transfer 3,000 yuan as an inspection fee. They would respond within 48 hours of receiving the documents. If the documents were approved, they would arrange for an on-site inspection.

Li Mu returned to the print shop, organized the relevant documents, and faxed them. He then rushed to the Industrial and Commercial Bank and transferred 3,000 yuan as the inspection fee.

All that was left was to wait for a response.

Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief. After returning home, he prepared to start building his music portal, Eting.

Li Mu's vision for Eting was simple: to create the best music listening and downloading website in China. With his knowledge of the future and advanced technology, he was confident that this goal was not difficult to achieve.

On one hand, he would handle the technical development, and on the other, he would need a large server space and bandwidth. This was something that Haizhou couldn't handle, so he would have to buy a server in Jinling and find a hosting company.

However, this was not an easy task. The website development would take time, from design to graphics, slicing, and front and back-end programming. Just writing the code would take some time. As for the server, he could get one in Haizhou for now and use it temporarily.

He turned on his computer and logged into his QQ, noticing that someone had left him a message. Seeing the pink-flowered little penguin icon flashing in the lower right corner, his heart raced. It must be Su Yingxue!

Li Mu was right. The message was from Snow: "Li Mu, Jinan Driving School is now accepting applications. When are you free to go and sign up?"

She then added, "By the way, my phone number is 138... Call me if I'm not online."

Li Mu replied, "Let's go today. When are you free?"

About ten seconds later, Snow replied, "How about 2 PM? It's 20 minutes away. Can you make it?"

"Sure," Li Mu replied, "I'm leaving now."

"Okay."

After closing the chat with Su Yingxue, Li Mu noticed another flashing icon in the lower right corner, a cartoon girl with yellow hair and blinking eyes.

When he clicked on it, he saw that it was "Usagi Tsukino" (Chen Wan) who had left him several messages.

"Where is that brat? I can't even get through to your home phone!"

"Where are you? Not online and not at home? Don't disappear on me, come out, sister needs you!"

"Li Mu! You made so much money from 'Li Bai,' why didn't you buy a phone!"

"Damn brat, you're driving me crazy!"

Li Mu suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to tell Chen Wan his phone number. What a mistake! She must be so worried. If she found out that he had already bought a phone but didn't tell her, she might eat him alive!

He checked the time; the first message was from two hours ago, and the last one was from ten minutes ago.

Li Mu had a sudden idea. Instead of replying, he took out his phone and called Chen Wan.

"Hello."

"Hello, Sister Wan, it's me, Xiao Mu. I just bought a phone and wanted to let you know. Remember my number."

"Brat!" Chen Wan said, "I was so worried about you. You weren't at home or online. Did you go to buy a phone?"

"Yep," Li Mu said calmly, "I bought a phone, and the first call I made was to you. Who else do I have but you, my beautiful sister?"

Chen Wan giggled, seemingly very satisfied with Li Mu's explanation. "I have an urgent matter. My brother called me this morning and said they have a preliminary round at the Jinling University Stadium at 8 PM."

"Oh!" Li Mu laughed, "Wish them good luck then."

Chen Wan quickly added, "They called me because they want you to come along. My brother said everyone is very nervous and hopes you can be there to cheer them on."

"Really?" Li Mu was taken aback.

"Really! My brother sounded very pitiful."

"It's almost 2 PM," Li Mu checked the time. "If we go now, we won't be back tonight."

"That's fine," Chen Wan said, "If we can't come back, you can stay with my cousin. He has several apartments in Jinling."

Li Mu pretended to be disappointed, "Sister Wan, why didn't you invite me to stay at your place? If you had, I might have considered it."

Chen Wan giggled, "Dream on! My parents are in Jinling these days. Even if I invited you, would you dare to come?"

"Ah, forget it then."

"Come with me anyway. You gave them 'Li Bai.' If they can't even pass the preliminary round, wouldn't that be a waste?"

"You're right," Li Mu sighed. After all, it was his song. If a good song didn't become a hit, it would be hard to become popular later, even if it did, it would likely be through someone else's cover.

"Li Bai" wasn't a classic song, but it was definitely an excellent pop song. In this era, a forward-thinking and appealing music style was very marketable, like Jay Chou's.

Li Mu planned to use a few more songs to build a good friendship with Zhang Kexuan and other rich second-generation individuals, just in case he needed them in the future. If they were eliminated in the preliminary round, it would be a waste.

"Okay, by car or by train?"

"By car, you drive."

"Alright, come pick me up at my place."

"Aren't you buying a phone?"

"I'm on my way back. I'll be at our neighborhood entrance soon."

"Okay."