Chapter 532: – How to ruin your interest
One week later, Xia Tian resigned.
Then he moved into a rental apartment with a kitchen, paying a monthly rent of one thousand. He also got a job as a kitchen assistant at a relatively high end hotel.
To be honest, if he were to work as a kitchen assistant, he wouldn’t be able to learn any cooking at all in the first few months. But Xia Tian figured that since he was going to open his own shop, he didn’t necessarily have to be the chef himself. All he needed was to know some basics so that he wouldn’t get scammed by the chef, then learn all the stuff about running a business.
Lin Jin let him do whatever he wanted, and she completely took over the live stream.
Xia Tian’s new place was in the same community as Lin Jin’s. It was a one bedroom apartment with a living room and kitchen. The rent every month was pretty cheap, and the money Xia Tian had saved was more than enough.
The hotel was half an hour’s bus ride away, located right on the edge of Wanda Plaza. It was called New Century Hotel and seemed to be a four star hotel.
Since Xia Tian wanted to focus on learning to cook and how to open a shop, even though he got off work at nine every night, he would start reading various books about starting a business as soon as he got home. Or he would use his phone to look up things to watch out for when opening a shop. Through live streaming and his job, he had saved up almost a hundred thousand yuan. Even though it might be a bit tough to open a shop with that amount, if his family gave him a bit of support as well as what Lin Jin’s streams brought in, he could probably open a small place near the school.
It would just be a little shop in some side alley, likely focusing on delivery orders.
While Xia Tian was doing his best towards his dream of opening a shop and making a lot of money, Lin Jin was still living her usual salted fish life, school, home, Xia Tian’s place. It just revolved around these three places.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make more money or anything. It was just that as a student, being able to make over ten thousand a month from streaming part time was already really good. She can’t also be expected to go do food delivery jobs or something as well, right? Besides, Lin Jin needed to upload one dance video every week, and these dance videos had also started making money. Some websites shared advertising revenue based on video clicks. Even if the earnings per click weren’t much, it all added up to several thousand.
That day, Xia Tian had just returned from the hotel. He was covered in the smell of cooking oil and smoke as he tiredly walked into the bathroom of his new apartment. After taking a shower, he changed into a pair of loose fitting pajamas and then went into the bedroom.
“Lin Jin, are you streaming?”
“Mhm.” Lin Jin was focusing on streaming her game and nodded without even looking up.
Xia Tian sat down next to Lin Jin and, without thinking, put his hand around her waist.
“Today, the hotel’s head chef got fired." Xia Tian started to talk about his day “The boss promoted someone else, but that new head chef’s skills are somewhat bad.”
“They didn’t promote you?”
“I’ve only been there a few days, right?” Xia Tian shook his head with a smile.
Xia Tian had started smiling a lot more after Lin Jin had insisted and as a result, his relationships with people at work were pretty good, though most of his smiles felt kind of forced.
But at least in front of Lin Jin, his smile was always genuine. After all, they had been together for a long time and Lin Jin could tell right away whether his smile was real or not.
“What have you learned recently? How much more money do you still need for the shop?” Lin Jin casually asked.
“I learned how to cut and wash vegetables." Xia Tian said seriously. “I think I learned quite well.”
“Pfft.”
Lin Jin let out a helpless laugh.
“It’s still about a hundred to two hundred thousand short I think. I don’t want it to be one of those delivery only shops, opening a store by the street is still better. The location doesn’t have to be too good, people will come if the food tastes good, right?”
“If it’s too far, I’m not going no matter how delicious it is.” Lin Jin rolled her eyes at him.
“That’s true, but a storefront in a good location is too expensive.” Xia Tian frowned in distress. He let go of Lin Jin’s waist and lowered his head in thought.
Lin Jin had never stopped or questioned Xia Tian’s ideas to open a shop, even helping him whenever she could. To someone outside, it almost looked as if she was worried he wouldn’t go bankrupt fast enough.
And indeed, it wasn’t smart for a newcomer to society like Xia Tian, who had just graduated about a year ago, to invest his limited funds into opening a shop.
“I heard that shops can get a small loan, it’s supported by the government and has no interest.” Xia Tian suddenly looked up and said to Lin Jin “I saw it online.”
“Oh, just do any online loans.” Lin Jin pouted. She basically had zero positive feelings about things like loans. After all, it didn’t feel good to owe money, even if it was to a bank.
“It’s from the government, not those online loans." Xia Tian said seriously. “It’s the Entrepreneurship Loan Guarantee Center. I searched it up and saw there’s a branch in Luoyang and Anyang. I’m not sure if there’s one in Xiamen. I’ll ask around when I have time off in a couple days.”
“Mhm.” Lin Jin finally finished her game. She very naturally leaned against Xia Tian and yawned, complaining. “Seriously, I usually only play two or three games at most a day. But covering for your stream lately means I have to play four to five hours every day. I’m tired to death.”
“And when I’m tired of playing, I can only think of ways to chat with the viewers to stall out time. But that’s actually even more tiring.” Lin Jin looked up at Xia Tian. “If it really doesn’t work out, maybe you shouldn’t start a business? Most people who start a business don’t make money.”
“I heard my cousin opened a milk tea shop and then it went bankrupt. He lost more than two hundred thousand." Lin Jin looked worriedly at Xia Tian.
“It’s okay, we can afford to lose two thousand. The stream earns at least ten to twenty thousand a month, right?”
“So we should wait until we have two hundred something thousand before opening a shop. We don’t even have a hundred thousand right now.”
Although Lin Jin was supportive of Xia Tian’s ambitions, she was also worried about the future. She was especially afraid that if Xia Tian lost everything, his mentality would explode and end up like her dad had been back then, gambling, drinking, and such.
When Xia Tian heard what Lin Jin said, he frowned and hesitated.
Even though he had thought about starting a business, it really might not be the time yet.
“So you keep streaming while I properly learn." Xia Tian sighed. “Otherwise, we can’t just keep living in a rental, right? Or live with your family? That would be like marrying into your family.”
“Marry in if you have to. Anyway, I don’t care.”
“I don’t mind either, but my parents do.” Xia Tian gave Lin Jin a look. “I’ll stream the rest, you take a break.”
“Great!” Lin Jin had been waiting for those words. She jumped out of the computer chair and flopped onto the bed.
Xia Tian helplessly shook his head. He sat before the computer and greeted the viewers.
Xia Tian was currently not so busy that he couldn’t help out with streaming. But if he got busy in the future, Lin Jin, who usually only gamed a couple hours a day at most, would really be tortured to death.
After all, Lin Jin wasn’t the kind of person who could play all day. She might have been before, but she had long lost interest.
Besides, when she was streaming, gaming was not just playing, but working.
And it was said that the best way to kill an interest was to turn it into your job.