"Did it really appear?" Qin Yun felt a surge of joy as he sensed the magical light in his hand.
A little over a year ago, he had picked up a copper coin by chance, and shortly after, a strange message about the Wealth System appeared in his mind.
From the initial shock and confusion, it took him over a month to accept such a mystical occurrence.
However, the activation of the Wealth System required making money. He spent over a year working part-time while studying and finally earned enough to collect ten thousand yuan. Now, he had actually activated a Wealth Gathering Array!
"System, what function does this Wealth Gathering Array serve?"
Qin Yun asked as he looked at the light.
"The Wealth Gathering Array is a formation. You can choose to set it up in an area to gather wealth,"
came the mechanical voice in his mind in response to his query.
"Set it up in an area?"
Qin Yun's heart stirred at these words.
Although wealth was an abstract concept, everything he experienced felt very fantastical, so he didn't have much doubt.
"If I set up the Wealth Gathering Array over a shop, wouldn't I be able to earn more money than usual?"
After a moment's thought, Qin Yun asked, his heart secretly excited.
"Yes," the mechanical voice replied.
"It works!"
Upon hearing the affirmative response, Qin Yun was overjoyed.
Nowadays, it's getting increasingly difficult to make money outside; the market is saturated. To earn money, one can only work a job, and starting a business is even harder.
Many stores outside have closed down. Qin Yun knew that a large hotpot restaurant in Qingwu County was bustling at its opening, but it shut down after just five months.
It's said that the owner lost over a million yuan.
There are countless similar cases.
If Qin Yun opened a shop himself, he believed his chances of failure would be high too, but now with a level one Wealth Gathering Array, he had a high chance of success.
Thinking about his family's situation, Qin Yun felt even more eager, wishing he could open a shop immediately.
But considering his own situation, Qin Yun felt a sense of helplessness.
"I only have over ten thousand yuan right now. It's impossible to open a shop."
Even the smallest shop would require tens of thousands to start.
"We're home." Suddenly, Qin Yun looked ahead.
This was a dilapidated residential area, a low-maintenance district, built over twenty years ago. It looked quite run-down in the ever-developing Qingwu County.
Despite its condition, the rent here was very cheap.
"Yun, you're back?" At home, a middle-aged woman was busy in the kitchen. Hearing the commotion outside, she immediately smiled and said.
The middle-aged woman appeared to be in her fifties, slightly hunched, looking utterly exhausted.
"Mom," Qin Yun called out, "Smells great, I can smell the aroma of stewed ribs."
He sniffed the air and smiled.
The middle-aged woman was his mother, Zhao Mei.
Zhao Mei smiled and said, "Your college entrance exam is coming up, so I've made something nourishing for you."
"Creak."
After a while, the door opened, and a middle-aged man walked in, looking visibly worn from a long day of hard work. His skin was tanned, his hair a mess, and his worn-out clothes were covered in dust.
These clothes were Qin Yun's old school uniform.
"Dad." Seeing the man, Qin Yun immediately called out.
This was his father, Qin Guodong.
At this moment, Zhao Mei brought out the last dish.
A bowl of rib soup, a bowl of cucumber salad, a bowl of celery, and a bowl of lettuce. For the Qin family, this was considered a feast.
During the meal, Zhao Mei looked at Qin Guodong and asked, "What did Boss Qian at the construction site say?"
"I asked today, and they promised to pay me 5,000 yuan before the 20th," Qin Guodong said with a laugh.
His face was dark and rough, with strands of gray hair appearing, much like Zhao Mei's hair, which was also graying.
Seeing his parents looking so weathered, Qin Yun felt a deep pang of sympathy.
His parents weren't even fifty yet, but they seemed almost sixty. The burden of life was too heavy on them.
The Qin family had five members. Qin Yun had two older sisters; the eldest was married, the second was in college, and Qin Yun was a senior in high school.
Although the financial situation of the Qin family wasn't great, supporting Qin Yun and his second sister through school wasn't too burdensome. The real pressure came from the house.
In recent years, house prices in Qingwu County had skyrocketed, increasing by two to three thousand yuan per square meter annually. In this small county, barely considered a fifth-tier city, house prices exceeded 8,000 yuan, with prices in central areas even surpassing 10,000 yuan.
Nowadays, having a house in the city was almost a prerequisite for marriage.
Qin Guodong and Zhao Mei were anxious. With the current rate of increase, they wondered what house prices would be like by the time Qin Yun married.
They heard that in big cities, house prices were several tens of thousands per square meter.
So they borrowed money and made a down payment on an apartment in Qingwu County. The total price was 800,000 yuan, with a 240,000 yuan down payment. That left over 500,000 yuan in loans to pay off over thirty years, with interest making the total repayment over a million!
"Dad works on the construction site, earning hard and laborious money, unwilling to take a day off because every day off costs a day's wage. Mom doesn't have much education, so her job pays very little."
The intense societal pressure and the burden of providing education for their children and paying the mortgage weighed entirely on his parents.
When they were younger, they managed, but as they grew older, they became more desperate, living even harder lives.
"I have the Wealth System, which could completely change my parents' lives," Qin Yun thought to himself.
For this reason, he spent the past year doing various part-time jobs. He distributed flyers, moved packages, cleaned tables, and washed dishes in small restaurants.
After the meal, Qin Guodong rested for a few minutes, then stood up and said, "I'm heading to the construction site."
The construction site where Qin Guodong worked wasn't far from there, so he chose to walk home for meals, saving ten yuan on takeout.
"Yun, study well at home. If you go out, make sure to lock the door."
After his father left, his mother, Zhao Mei, busied herself for a bit and quickly left, as she had work to do in the afternoon.
…
"How exactly should I set up this Wealth Gathering Array?" Qin Yun wasn't staying home as he also had a part-time job in the afternoon.
As he walked, he pondered silently.
He now understood the function of the Wealth Gathering Array but had nowhere to set it up. He couldn't just place it anywhere else, could he?
Otherwise, any money earned would be lost to him. So opening his own shop was the best option.
But he currently had no money, and his parents had nothing to spare; opening a shop was out of reach.
"Huh?"
As he was worrying, Qin Yun suddenly noticed something.
"Ten yuan?"
There was a ten-yuan bill on the grass by the roadside.
Checking around to make sure no one else was there, he stepped forward to pick it up.
Qin Yun continued walking, and after ten minutes, he was dumbfounded by what he saw ahead.
He found another five-yuan bill in the grass.
(New book release, one chapter at midnight, one chapter at noon.)