The sun hadn't even fully risen when Zheng Wei crouched beside the warehouse's rusted electronics pile. Dust-covered radios, broken wires, cracked switches — to the other workers, it was junk. But to him, it was inventory.
"Business starts where others stop thinking," he whispered, picking up a broken transistor radio.
He opened the back panel with a makeshift screwdriver — an old spoon he'd sharpened on stone — and peered inside. Wires were fried, coil bent, capacitor loose. But not impossible.
Behind him, Chen Rui watched in silence.
"You're going to fix that?" she asked.
"I'm going to sell it," he replied without looking up. "But first I have to fix it."
---
🧠 BUSINESS PRINCIPLE #1: "Solve a problem before selling a product."
Most new businesses fail because they try to sell things people don't need.
Zheng Wei remembered his own startup pitch in 2011 — an app that failed because it didn't solve anything.
Here, in this world, people didn't want innovation. They wanted function.
Radios were a status symbol. A tool for news. A luxury item.
A working radio meant power.
---
He spent the entire morning dissecting two broken radios to build one working unit. Carefully swapped parts. Rewound a coil using thin copper thread. Tested every wire by feel and instinct.
Sweat trickled down his temple. His fingers were black with dust. But when he hit the power switch and static buzzed through the air — it was beautiful.
"It works!" Rui gasped.
Zheng Wei grinned. "It talks. That means it sells."
---
🛠️ BUSINESS PRINCIPLE #2: "Profit is made at the buy, not the sell."
He didn't spend a single yuan. He acquired materials that others threw away — zero investment, infinite margin. It was the kind of thinking his billionaire mind used to overlook in favor of flashy charts.
"Want to help me sell it?" he asked Rui.
She raised an eyebrow. "You want me to sell?"
"They trust locals more than they trust me. You have a better chance."
"And what will I get?" she teased.
Zheng Wei smiled. "50%."
She stared. "Really?"
"In business, fair partnerships last longer than forced ones."
She didn't reply — but she took the radio.
---
🪙 Later That Day
Zheng Wei sat under a banyan tree near the warehouse gates. The dirt path was dry. His shirt clung to his back. He waited.
An hour later, Rui returned — a quiet smile on her lips.
She dropped 18 yuan in his palm.
"He paid 20. I gave 2 back for repair guarantee."
Zheng Wei laughed. Not a businessman's smirk — but an honest, grateful laugh.
"That's better customer service than most CEOs give."
Rui didn't laugh back. She just stared at him and said:
"Who are you, really?"
He looked at her — this girl with sleeves rolled up, dirt on her cheeks, and the clearest eyes he'd ever seen.
"Someone who made it once… and now has to do it right."
---
That night, under a candle stub, he scribbled into his notebook again:
Revenue: 20
Cost: 0
Profit: 20
Split: 10 each
Model: Repair & Resell
Need: High
Risk: Low
He drew a circle around the word at the bottom:
"SCALE."