Perhaps it was because of honest dealing, or perhaps the local seafood was so abundant that prices were truly cheap, so both buyers and sellers treated it as a daily routine, without the formality and fussiness of buying pork.

The atmosphere was quite harmonious.

It seemed someone brought up the topic of “promoting lactation,” which caused a burst of laughter among the older sisters along the river.

Huh? Promoting lactation?

Forget it, people were already pointing and whispering about me—better leave quickly.

With this figure and this face, it was just too easy to attract attention.

The new cinema was no longer new, and the old cinema was being demolished. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single piece of construction machinery in sight, as would be common in later years. In the dead of winter, quite a few men were shirtless, shouting as they used thick nylon ropes to haul out wooden beams, while countless small carts carried away broken bricks.

A lot of people were watching the commotion—not just the elderly and children, but many men in their prime were also standing there, watching the spectacle.

There were about as many people in Zhongshan suits as in Western suits, and very few wore down jackets. Young people, it seemed, preferred leather jackets, just like me. For David Brooks, this was a bit of a scene in itself.

Thirty years from now, how rare would it be to see a bunch of idle men hanging around on the street, doing nothing but watching the excitement? —It’s all about money; no one can afford to be idle anymore!

David Brooks simply turned off the engine again, leaned on the hood, and really started watching the show.

This year is ’91, next year will be ’92, and the year after that, ’93...

So, in the nineties, what did people rely on to build their fortunes?

Honestly, after circling this old city, David Brooks felt that, most likely, it had something to do with food and drink.

With the economy just starting to take off, some ordinary folks were beginning to have a little money, so eating and drinking became important. More crucially, business travel was becoming more and more frequent, so it was probably the perfect time for convenience foods to rise.

Bottled water? Soft drinks? Cola? Instant noodles? Or maybe sausage?

But damn, I don’t know how to run a factory!

And I can’t afford to...

All I learned in my previous life was how to write code. I read plenty of rebirth novels, but who would have thought that one day, what I’d read would actually come in handy?

Forgotten, pretty much all forgotten.

I vaguely remember, though, that someone got rich making spicy strips?

How do you even make those? Can you really get rich off them?

Tsk... Thinking it over, the best idea now is to go apply for a job at a big company.

Get out there first, get in touch with the bigger world, and maybe one day, I’ll suddenly come up with a way to make money—anyway, staying cooped up in this small county town is definitely not the answer.

If your father is strong, you become a high official; if your family is poor, you roam the world!

My own dad is just a deputy director at the local police station. Being able to pull some strings to get me into the county government’s motor pool as a temp is already pretty much the limit of his abilities—doesn’t really count as a “strong father.”

No chance of becoming a county Brahmin.

Staying in this small county town, it’s hard to shake off everyone’s impression of the original host as a simpleton!

At this point, the only tech companies in the country even remotely related to my field are probably Lenovo? Kingsoft?

Going to Huawei is obviously out—they do hardware.

What else is there?

The internet doesn’t even exist yet. Jack Ma probably hasn’t even started out yet—he’s probably still teaching!

After thinking it over, right, I should just leave!

First go to the capital, Shanghai, Shenzhen—these are definitely the most developed places in the country right now.

Right, there are probably already foreign companies in those places, and my foreign language skills are decent...

When was Oracle founded again? Do they have a general distributor in China yet? IBM is definitely making a killing right now. What stage are Intel’s processors at? Has Jensen Huang’s Nvidia been founded yet?

“...I’m telling you, you just can’t buy them, really can’t! There are only a few stocks in total right now—how could it be our turn? You don’t know, do you? To buy stocks, you have to buy subscription certificates first!”

Uh... subscription certificates?

Lost in a jumble of thoughts, both excited and a bit anxious, my ears still subconsciously picked up something. David Brooks snapped back to reality and turned to look.

Chapter 4: The Scroll of History Unfolds

It was two middle-aged men in suits.

They seemed to be old acquaintances, also watching the demolition of the old cinema. They ran into each other by chance and, before they knew it, started talking about stocks.

At this point in time, this was the most normal thing in the world.

Stocks, the stock market—these were the hottest topics in the country in the past year or two, with nationwide attention.

Even the original host, who was practically muscle-brained, was very familiar with many hot news stories about stocks—though he’d mostly heard them second- or third-hand from the motor pool.

Ever since stocks appeared in China, they had always been the hottest thing in the economic field, and a constant topic of discussion among the public. Especially since the stock market had only officially existed for about a year, yet had already created countless overnight riches, making it an even hotter topic.

Everyone was envious!