After dinner, the four Class Committee members returned to their dormitory and eagerly announced the investment decision made by the Class Leader to their roommates.
This news instantly spread throughout the entire class, and every dormitory erupted in excitement, with students rushing to other dormitories to share the thrilling news.
"Brothers, big news! I have good news for everyone: the Class Leader is investing 300,000 yuan, and the entire class will participate in the operation, with everyone getting dividends!"
"Oh my god, the Class Leader is investing 300,000 yuan? You guys didn't mishear, did you?!"
"The Class Committee members had a meeting together. Li Kai and the others just came back and said it has been confirmed multiple times."
"Then we'll have to ask properly; don't joke around."
Before long, students from Class 3 of Mechanics who were in their dormitories rushed to the dormitory of Li Kai, the Youth League Branch Secretary, to discuss the news enthusiastically, along with Class Committee members Wu Shengyang and Lin Luochen.
Li Kai saw his dormitory filled with classmates, all pressing him to confirm if the news was true.
At that time, while the Class Leader was still there, the four of them held back their excitement, but as soon as the Class Leader left, they couldn't help but excitedly announce the news loudly.
Now, they were still incredibly excited.
"What everyone heard is true; we're not joking. You'll know when the Class Leader comes to class tomorrow and you ask him," Li Kai said excitedly, pulling 2,000 yuan from his backpack, each bill a hundred-yuan note, and waving them, "The Class Leader advanced us 2,000 yuan for initial activity funds, and a portion of the wages will be distributed first according to everyone's work and tasks."
"They're all hundred-yuan bills. To be honest, it's my first time seeing them with my own eyes; I've only ever touched ten-yuan bills."
"Me too."
"What kind of business does the Class Leader's family do to be so rich?"
Li Kai clapped his hands to quiet everyone down.
"I'll say it one more time and won't repeat myself. For roommates who haven't returned, you can inform them. I've been asked so many times my mouth is numb."
"It's like this: the Class Leader plans to invest 300,000 yuan..."
As soon as he finished speaking, a student asked, "Li Kai, what is an open-style student supermarket?"
"According to the Class Leader, it means you can enter the store and pick items from the shelves yourself, rather than having staff provide them as it is now. It sounds quite new to me. I'll ask the Class Leader for more details later," Li Kai replied.
"So that means we're all small shareholders, and we all get dividends!"
"Don't get too happy too soon. If it doesn't make money, no one will get a single cent, only a wage of one yuan per hour."
"One yuan an hour isn't low either. I'm not counting on dividends."
Wu Shengyang criticized, "If it doesn't make money, the 300,000 yuan the Class Leader invested will be wasted. You still want to keep working? This is something the Class Leader invested in to help us solve our financial difficulties. Do you think his money just falls from the sky?"
"Old Wu, you misunderstood. What I mean is, getting wages is enough; I'll still do it even without dividends."
Li Kai explained, "With dividends, everyone will work more actively."
"There are 60 people in the class. Excluding the Class Leader, the 59 of us will get a good amount of dividends. In reality, the Class Leader isn't taking much money. Even if he didn't give us dividends, there are plenty of students who would rush to do a job that pays one yuan an hour."
"That's true. The school's work-study quotas are limited, and it's not much money a month, not even enough for food, but still many students rush to do it."
"If you want to be a tutor, you need to be eloquent. If you're a bit ugly, parents might be afraid of scaring their children."
"The Class Leader's goal isn't just three stores, but to open more chain stores, so everyone's income will be higher."
"If we just stick to wages, relying on enthusiasm won't last long," Li Kai explained again.
That evening, all the students in Class 3 of Mechanics were discussing the supermarket investment, and the classmates urged the Class Committee to quickly arrange tasks.
Lin Luochen, the academic Class Committee member, specifically reminded, "The Class Leader particularly emphasized that starting a business should not affect studies. Failing subjects will result in a deduction from dividends, while good grades will lead to more dividends. Everyone must reasonably utilize their time for study and entrepreneurship. When it's time to study, you must study hard and be less distracted."
"When it's time to work, do a good job and make good use of every minute."
"Once the plan is finalized, everyone must work hard to get things done after school. The Class Leader's intention is to open the first store within two months. Brothers, we must be united and serious when doing things. This is also for your own entrepreneurship. If you don't perform well, and the final dividends are low, you can't blame the Class Leader," Li Kai also reminded.
At that moment, all the classmates expressed their commitment to work diligently and not let down the Class Leader's support.
Yang Tan watched the entire class filled with passion and knew that from today onwards, Fang Bai's position in the class was unshakable, even if he no longer served as the Class Leader.
No one could resist this temptation, including himself.
He wasn't particularly short on living expenses, but when it came to dating and buying expensive gifts, he was just as poor.
In other words, the money he saved in a month wasn't even enough for him to treat all his roommates to a meal at the restaurant where Fang Bai treated them.
According to Fang Bai, if the profit from a 300,000 yuan investment was less than 300,000 yuan a year, it would truly be a wasted effort.
If the 300,000 yuan profit was all distributed as dividends, each student could receive 3,000 yuan!
His monthly living expenses were less than 100 yuan. If he had an extra two or three hundred yuan a month, a college student's life would be very comfortable.
And precisely because of this, the classmates were full of passion, chatting late into the night.
In just one night, the news of Class 3 of Mechanics' entire class starting a business and Fang Bai investing 300,000 yuan quickly spread to the adjacent dormitories and then rapidly to other students.
At ten o'clock that night, Fang Bai left the school library and simply didn't return to the dormitory to sleep. He had slept in the dormitory for a few nights and finally figured out one thing.
Teacher Qin was a female teacher and only occasionally came to check the dormitories; it was impossible for her to check the male dormitories every night.
But precisely on this night, just as the student dormitories were about to have their unified lights-out, Teacher Qin came to check the dormitory situation again.
She knocked twice on Fang Bai's dormitory door before entering, fearing that students might be shirtless or even naked.
Upon entering, she saw that Fang Bai was not in the dormitory and asked Yang Tan, who was sitting on the lower bunk, "It's almost lights out. Has Fang Bai not returned yet?"
"The Class Leader usually reads in the library quite late. He's probably out for a walk now and will be back in a bit," Yang Tan said truthfully. Indeed, Fang Bai returned very late every night, and on Saturday and Sunday nights, he didn't return at all.
Teacher Qin nodded, glanced at the student who seemed to be pretending to read, and said, "I heard several dormitories discussing starting a business. Your main focus in freshman year should be to study hard. Starting a business isn't that easy. If it fails, that's a waste of your parents' hard-earned money."
"Teacher Qin, we're just chatting," Wang Yifei quickly explained, while also giving a look to his other roommates.
Yang Tan quickly chimed in, "Yes, just chatting."
The other roommates didn't know what to say, so they simply kept quiet.
"Hmm, who wrote the couplet outside the dormitory door? And 'mechanical eight oddities,' haha."
Mei Xihu replied with slight worry, "Teacher Qin, I wrote it. Is there any problem with it? Each character in the vertical couplet represents the name of one of our eight roommates, and the entire couplet symbolizes the cohesion of the eight people in our dormitory."
Teacher Qin stepped out and read it again, and indeed it was so. She couldn't help but praise, "Your calligraphy is very good. The school has calligraphy competitions you can participate in."
"This couplet is very creative. I hope your friendship lasts forever."
After saying a few more things, she went to check other dormitories. Seeing no major issues, she left the male dormitory building.
Wang Yifei put on his slippers, saw Teacher Qin leave the second floor, closed the door upon returning to the room, and announced with a chuckle, "Brothers, Teacher Qin finally left. The Class Leader still hasn't returned."
"Don't worry about the Class Leader; he has a place to stay outside of school. My only worry is, will the counselor stop us once she knows we're starting a business?"
"She probably won't stop us. The school encourages students to participate in social practice during holidays, and our entrepreneurship also falls under social practice. Besides, we're not doing anything bad. This is to lighten the burden on our families, and we don't have to compete with students from other classes for work-study quotas."
"She's probably just worried about students failing in their ventures and wasting their parents' money."
"If she knew how big we're playing, I wonder what her expression would be, haha."
"She'll find out eventually. Maybe tomorrow, all the freshmen in the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering will know. This kind of thing can't be kept a secret."
"Students from other classes are probably just envious and jealous that our class has such a good Class Leader, hehe."
Teacher Qin, who had just left the male dormitory building, looked back at the male dormitory, deep in thought, feeling that something was off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
At that moment, she wanted to go back and check again.
She frowned, then simply turned back.
Suddenly, she remembered the couplet of the mechanical eight oddities and found it quite interesting, and she couldn't help but smile again.