Guide To Lying Flat And Getting Rich As A Kept Alpha - Chapter 12

12

Li Baitian: “It doesn’t matter if the video hall makes money or not, but movies! They are absolutely supreme!”

Luo Hetu nodded perfunctorily. She wasn’t particularly passionate about movies, but seeing Li Baitian like this, she suddenly felt like saying a bit more.

“Your family must be pretty wealthy, right? If you love movies so much, why not study to become a director or cinematographer?”

“My dad says I’m wasting my time on frivolous things. With so many people in my family, it’s normal that they don’t pay much attention to me. I’m just an ordinary beta. We’ve got top-tier betas and omegas at home, and my grades are average. I’m used to being on the sidelines, and honestly, I think it’s fine. No one has any expectations of me anyway.”

“Oh. That’s not bad, then.” Luo Hetu replied.

Li Baitian grinned. “You’re an interesting person.”

“Me?” Luo Hetu wasn’t sure what she meant, but she genuinely envied her. “A life where you can just lie back and have money is my ultimate dream. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that video recorders are about to become obsolete. Soon, a kind of disc player will hit the market. It’s much cheaper than a VCR, and the discs will be dozens of times cheaper than videotapes. They’re easier to produce and distribute, too. If you want to get into that business, you should either sell those players or the VCD discs.”

Li Baitian looked utterly confused. “What’s a… V-C-what?”

Luo Hetu sighed and explained again.

“With how fast VCDs will spread, people won’t need to go to video halls to watch movies anymore. They’ll just buy discs to watch at home. Of course, they’ll mostly be pirated discs, super cheap, but it’ll let tons of movies reach countless households. When that happens, video halls and tapes will lose their market. If you love movies and want most people to have access to good ones, you should open an audio-visual shop now and sell all kinds of discs. The demand will definitely be huge.”

Li Baitian’s drunken eyes suddenly lit up.

A new fried food shop opened in the east side of the city. Ye Qingzhu went to buy some and brought it along with a bottle of liquor to visit Luo Hetu that evening.

In just a few months, she’d earned more money than she ever did as a small-time thug in the south side. Even the joss paper she burned at her grandmother’s grave had gotten fancier. She knocked on Luo Hetu’s door with food in hand, only to find she wasn’t home.

The next morning, she knocked again and finally roused a disheveled Luo Hetu.

“Where were you last night?”

“Drinking with Li Baitian.”

“Li Baitian?” Ye Qingzhu frowned, thinking. “The landlord?”

Luo Hetu let out an “ah,” yawned, and gestured her inside. “Come in, sit.”

The room, unventilated overnight, was filled with the faint scent of even a “useless” alpha’s pheromones. As soon as Ye Qingzhu stepped in, she wrinkled her nose. “Open the window, open the window.”

Luo Hetu looked at her silently, pouting. “You’re rejecting me.”

Ye Qingzhu: “It’s a normal physiological reaction. Alpha pheromones naturally repel each other.”

“Even a useless alpha’s pheromones have an effect?”

“Of course they do!” Ye Qingzhu frowned. “Stop calling yourself a useless alpha. You’re amazing.”

Luo Hetu, soothed by Ye Qingzhu’s words, perked up. She’d almost mimicked the coy, manipulative demeanor of Chun Yuyan, but decided she’d better not try that again.

Ye Qingzhu had brought breakfast and set it out like she owned the place. The two sat in the small living room, sipping soybean milk. Ye Qingzhu mentioned that she’d gone to the south side market the day before and saw some of her old “brothers and sisters.”

When she opened her milk tea shop, it was too small to employ everyone, so she picked two people to join her and told the rest to find their own jobs. Now, revisiting the market, she found that hardly any of them had. Most were still loitering, collecting protection fees.

Luo Hetu frowned. “Why? Can’t they find work?”

“They don’t have education or skills. Construction sites won’t hire thugs—they think they’re too rowdy and unreliable. Plus, they don’t exactly want to work regular jobs. A day’s hard labor doesn’t earn much, and they’re used to the free, idle life, like I was before.”

Luo Hetu knew she brought this up for a reason. Taking a sip of soybean milk, she asked, “So, what are you thinking?”

They were, after all, her old crew, and hearing this made Ye Qingzhu uneasy. After a moment of silence, she said, “Is there a way to find them some kind of work? Maybe let them join the milk tea shop?”

“The shop doesn’t need that many people.”

Ye Qingzhu knew that, of course. A small milk tea shop with a dozen tough-looking employees would be absurd.

After breakfast, seeing Ye Qingzhu’s troubled expression, Luo Hetu comforted her. “Alright, you’re loyal and righteous. If you can’t stand seeing them like this, I can give you some money to ask if they want to pool it together and start a small business. If they work hard, they’ll earn more than odd jobs.”

Ye Qingzhu, full of pride, replied, “No way. I’m not broke. If I want to help them, I’ll do it myself.”

After Ye Qingzhu left, Luo Hetu rubbed her chin, deep in thought.

Those thugs had good physical strength and could fight. If they kept clinging to the carefree thug life, they’d end up in the kind of trouble Luo Hetu had warned Ye Qingzhu about—or worse, they’d get roped into doing dirty work for Zhang Sheng, the story’s destined protagonist, becoming his tools. Though she was only close with Ye Qingzhu, Luo Hetu didn’t want any of them to become pawns in Zhang Sheng’s game, not even one.

Ye Qingzhu, preoccupied with her thoughts, forgot to ask what Luo Hetu had been up to. She was rarely at the shop, dropping off books for them to sell but disappearing soon after.

Luo Hetu was busy scouting properties and spending time with Li Baitian, talking endlessly about the future of VCDs.

“You know when this thing will come out? I’ve noticed the video hall business is still decent—lots of people come to watch movies. If it’s really like you said, with discs costing just 10 yuan or so, tons of people will buy them to watch at home.”

“Trust me, it’s the inevitable trend of progress. If I’m not mistaken, it’s probably already in development and promotion stages. It should hit the market soon.”

Li Baitian scratched her head. “Soon? How soon?”

Luo Hetu vaguely recalled a mention in the original novel: the Cheng Corporation monopolized the first batch of VCD production in China, dominating the market for years until DVDs appeared.

“You know anyone from the Cheng Corporation? You could ask around privately. But even if you don’t, I’d guess… probably this winter, maybe before the New Year, as part of holiday shopping.”

Li Baitian looked at her skeptically. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but that’s a pretty specific guess. How’d you come up with it?”

Luo Hetu fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist, putting on a mysterious air. “Believe it or not. It’s just a rough guess. You could always check for yourself.”

That night, Li Baitian went home.

Though she seemed a bit like a puppy slinking back after playing outside, her parents only asked a few perfunctory questions about what she’d been up to, grumbled about her not studying and wasting time on useless things, then let her be.

After dinner with her family, she asked her dad, “Is big brother coming home today?”

Her biological brother, Li Baiwu, a top-tier beta, was the deputy director of the city’s Commerce and Industry Bureau.

“Your brother’s so busy. Where would he find time to come home for dinner?” her mother said.

Li Baitian pursed her lips. After dinner, she made an excuse and slipped out, heading to her brother’s place to loiter.

Li Baiwu didn’t get home until 11 p.m., dropped off by a Santana from his workplace. The drunken male beta nearly jumped out of his skin when he spotted a shady figure lingering nearby.