Chapter 4

Again sighing over the weakness of his age, Wu Tian picked up a copy of *Journey to the West* and absentmindedly flipped through it. Before he knew it, his eyelids started to droop—he was sleepy.

"Xiao Tian, if you're sleepy, go to bed." Chu Yumei said, pulling Wu Tian into the inner room. Without a word, she carried him to the edge of the bed and started to take off his clothes.

Poor Wu Tian instantly became alert. "What the heck, I'm almost forty, how can I let my mom undress me? Not to mention, this mom is only in her early thirties, and her age is just right for my mental age..."

"I'll undress myself!" Wu Tian hurriedly shouted.

"Can you undress yourself?" Chu Yumei asked.

"Don't worry, I'll undress myself!" Wu Tian stubbornly refused his mom's help and started to unbutton his coat. The outer coat was easy, but the key was the old-style handmade cotton jacket. The buttons were small knots made from cloth strips, and they were extremely difficult to undo. It took a long time just to unbutton one. Not to mention, after taking off the cotton jacket, the cotton pants were even harder to remove. Poor Wu Tian, being small and weak, couldn't take off the thick cotton pants. In the end, his mom had to help, and he was scolded in the process.

Then Wu Tian realized a more serious problem—there were only two beds in the house. The small bed by the front window belonged to Wu Yuan, and he had to sleep with his parents on the big bed by the back wall!

Embarrassing.

This word might not mean much to a six-year-old, but the problem was that Wu Tian's six-year-old body housed the soul of a middle-aged man. As a self-proclaimed thoughtful and profound uncle, Wu Tian couldn't accept sleeping in the same bed with his parents in their early thirties—what if they did something intimate in the middle of the night?

What you fear will come to pass!

In the middle of the night, the half-asleep Wu Tian felt his father's arm stretch from his right side to the left. Then he heard his mother whisper, "Be careful with the child..."

"He's asleep, it's fine..." Wu Jianguo responded, pushing Wu Tian to change positions.

"I need to pee!" Wu Tian sat up in a flash.

"Uh..." Wu Jianguo was embarrassed and, with a mix of anger and helplessness, put on his clothes, carried his naked son out of bed, and after a series of troubles, settled down again. The cold made him lose any thoughts of doing anything naughty.

Poor Wu Tian still couldn't sleep soundly. This issue of sleep quality needed to be resolved immediately; otherwise, even if he was a genius, he would be tormented to the point of achieving nothing, and his rebirth would be in vain.

However, the housing problem was no small matter. In this era, there were no commercial properties. Urban residents either lived in ancestral homes or welfare housing provided by their employers. To improve living conditions, one had to wait for the employer to build public housing and then queue up for allocation based on seniority.

As for buying a house, it was almost impossible. Although house prices were low, a three-room house with a small yard in the suburbs cost only a few thousand yuan. The problem was that the average monthly salary was only fifty to sixty yuan, and the most significant part of the consumption was food and drink. The money left after covering basic needs was very limited. Saving to buy a house was something ordinary families could only dream about.

Wu Tian remembered that when he was in the first grade, his father, as a newly appointed deputy editor, was allocated a welfare house by his employer, but it was only a fifty to sixty square meter two-bedroom apartment. Wu Tian still had to share a room with his sister. It wasn't until several years later, when his father's position was further elevated and the employer built a collective housing project, that they managed to buy an eighty-plus square meter three-bedroom apartment. Only then did Wu Tian have his own room in middle school.

Although it was only a year or two before his family would get their first new house, the problem was that Wu Tian wasn't the naive child he used to be. He couldn't bear such living conditions for even a day. Even if he couldn't buy a big house tomorrow, he at least needed to get a bed to escape from his parents' "squeeze."

Hmm, how much would a single bed cost? Although prices were low, it would still cost several dozen to a hundred yuan, which was no small sum. His father's monthly salary was less than a hundred yuan, and his mother's was only fifty to sixty yuan. For a six or seven-year-old child, this was undoubtedly a "huge sum"!

He had to earn some money quickly. As a reborn person, if he couldn't even afford a wooden bed, wouldn't it be a waste of his second life?

However, although there were countless ways to make money with his thirty-year-ahead perspective, the problem was that he was just a six or seven-year-old child, and he probably didn't even qualify as a child laborer.

Moreover, he lacked the most important condition—initial capital!

No matter what business he did, without initial capital and startup funds, what could he do?

Making money out of thin air? If he were older, with his silver tongue, it might be possible, but as a child, no matter how persuasive he was, no one would be willing to give him money for free.

Wu Tian lay in the "squeeze" between his parents, thinking hard, but couldn't come up with a solution.

It wasn't until the next Sunday, when his father went to work and his mother went shopping, that Wu Tian, with nothing to do, started flipping through picture books and suddenly had an idea.

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"Sis, do you want to make money?" Wu Tian asked with a tempting smile, pulling his sister who was about to do her winter vacation homework.

"Make money?" Wu Yuan asked, confused. The word "make money" wasn't something children usually thought about.

"Hehe, just make money, fill your pockets with RMB, buy whatever you want, eat whatever you want..." Wu Tian tempted her, "Um, face cream, buy two boxes, one of Friendship and one of Baidu, so you don't have to steal Mom's anymore..."

"Spit, you're the one who steals Mom's face cream!" Wu Yuan said, feeling a bit guilty.

"Hey, I'm serious. I really have a way to make you a lot of money. Don't you want to earn some money and buy your own box?" Wu Tian continued to persuade her.

Wu Yuan finally became interested and asked, "How to make money?"

"Sell couplets!" Wu Tian said, pointing to the roll of couplets written by his grandfather.

"Do you want to get beaten? If you sell Grandpa's couplets, what will we use for the New Year?" Wu Yuan rolled her eyes.

"No, I mean, I'll write the couplets and sell them on the street!" Wu Tian said.

In this era, printed couplets weren't cheaper than hand-written ones, and they weren't as beautiful as the colorful and patterned couplets of later times. The fonts were also not as lively as hand-written ones. Therefore, most people preferred to buy hand-written couplets written on the spot, and this business was quite popular during the New Year.

"You write? Can you even write?" Wu Yuan rolled her eyes again.

Wu Tian scratched his head. Although he had attended kindergarten at the age of three and learned many characters, and his mother worked in a library, his father was a newspaper editor, and his grandfather was a professor, he recognized more characters than his peers. By the age of five or six, he could勉强 read picture books and comic books. However, writing the complex traditional characters on couplets was still a challenge, let alone using a brush pen. Although he had practiced some basic calligraphy with his grandfather from the age of four or five, his writing was only passable, far from being considered calligraphy art.

However, to make money, he couldn't be too picky. A six-year-old writing Spring Festival couplets was slightly unconventional but not too shocking. For his first pot of gold, he was willing to pretend to be a prodigy.

"Look down on me!" Wu Tian shouted at his sister, "It's just writing couplets, copying them, what's so difficult? Just say if you want to make money!"

"Can writing couplets really make money?" Wu Yuan asked a practical question.

Wu Tian, seeing a glimmer of hope, became more enthusiastic: "Of course it can! Let me do the math. How much do the couplets outside cost?"

"Twenty cents," Wu Yuan said.

"How much does a large red paper cost?" Wu Tian asked.

"Twenty cents," Wu Yuan said.

"Right, a large red paper can be cut into seven or eight, or even ten couplets. Even with ink and other costs, how much profit can you make per couplet? You do the math!" Wu Tian said.

Wu Yuan counted on her fingers and was thoroughly convinced, but she still had doubts: "Can your couplets be sold?"

Wu Tian smiled proudly. What did he do in his previous life? As a reborn advertising professional, selling a few couplets was no big deal. He patted his chest and said, "I can't guarantee everything, but my couplets will definitely sell like hotcakes!"

Wu Yuan pouted, "You're just boasting!"

"Never mind if I'm boasting, do you want to do it or not?" Wu Tian asked.

Wu Yuan hesitated, "How do we do it?"

"Simple, you provide the money, I provide the effort, and we split the profits equally!" Wu Tian said.

"Ah? Do we need money?" Wu Yuan hesitated again.

Wu Tian was speechless. His sister was a notorious miser when she was young. Although neither of them had pocket money, their parents would give them a few cents for school supplies, and his sister would save every penny, making him very envious.

Now he was still envious—this was exactly what he was thinking about, getting some startup funds from his sister.

Although he was a child and couldn't trick adults, tricking a ten-year-old girl wasn't too difficult.

"Listen, sis, to sell couplets, we need to write them, right? We have a brush pen, but we need to buy red paper. Just give me ten or eight yuan, and we can start the business!" Wu Tian said confidently.

"I don't have that much money!" Wu Yuan exclaimed.

"How much do you have?" Wu Tian asked.

"I only have a little over two yuan..." Wu Yuan said.

"Tsk, although it's a bit less, it will do..." Wu Tian said.

"No, I can't give you all my money. What if the couplets don't sell?" Wu Yuan said.

"Tsk, I told you they will definitely sell. If we lose, I'll take the loss. I'll pay you back with my New Year's money!" Wu Tian said.

"Hmph, your New Year's money will all go to Mom. I'll give you one yuan, or forget it!" Wu Yuan said.

Wu Tian, frustrated, gritted his teeth and said, "One yuan it is, let's start!"