Chapter 16: Contracting Rat Extermination Services
Of course, that doesn't mean Yang Wendong was already a professional. Even though he came from the internet era of the future, he still lacked real-world experience in this field.
But expertise isn't just about technique—it's also about attitude.
In a warehouse or other company, employees already have their own duties. Who would willingly spend extra time and energy doing unrelated work? Unless it's ordered by a superior, no one wants to take on extra problems for no reason.
What's more, internal staff generally lacked experience with things like rat extermination.
Brian thought for a moment and then asked, "Elena told me you've never been to school?"
"That's right," Yang Wendong nodded. "But recently I've started learning how to read."
This was true. Literacy was a basic requirement for integrating into any grassroots society. The reason mainland China could later develop into the world's factory and become second in global GDP was because of a massive literate population.
For most illiterate people, learning to read was difficult. But for Yang Wendong, who already knew simplified Chinese, learning traditional characters just required some extra memorization.
Now, after half a month since he arrived in this time, he could already understand most of the newspaper. Even if he didn't know a few characters, it didn't stop him from grasping the general meaning of the sentences.
Writing in traditional characters was still a challenge, so he focused on practicing writing his name, dates, and other commonly used terms that he might need for business.
Brian asked again, "Then how did you come to know so much about rats? Was your family in this business?"
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "I figured it out myself. I also went out of my way to ask many elderly folks. They have a lot of experience."
That was the explanation he gave not only to outsiders but to people around him as well. His rapid improvement lately was too obvious, so he just said he had always been interested in the topic.
Brian was a bit surprised and said, "That makes sense. Elderly people do have a wealth of experience. But I doubt many young people would bother asking them like you did."
"Thanks for the compliment," Yang Wendong replied with a smile.
Brian continued, "Mr. Yang, back to business. I don't expect all the rats to be wiped out, but as long as you can significantly reduce them, that's good enough."
"Alright, I'd be happy to give it a try," Yang Wendong agreed.
Completely wiping out the rats would be almost impossible, but reducing their numbers significantly was within his ability.
The mouse-catching tube was just a small tool—at most, it could help him escape extreme poverty. Making big money from it wasn't realistic.
When the time was right, he'd have to look for other opportunities. Starting a rat extermination company modeled after those from his future world seemed like a promising new venture.
Brian thought for a moment and asked, "So how should we set the price?"
"Well..." Yang Wendong hesitated. He wasn't sure what price to suggest, so he said, "How about we base it on one person's labor cost?"
Brian nodded and said, "Alright. The workers here at the warehouse earn about 3 dollars a day. We'll settle weekly—how about 20 dollars a week?"
"Sounds good," Yang Wendong nodded. The wages at a big warehouse were indeed decent—3 dollars a day was roughly the average in Hong Kong.
Still, he knew it wasn't easy for an average person to land a job here. You had to be strong and at least know some basic Chinese and English, which already eliminated half the population.
…
After chatting a while longer, Brian left—he clearly had plenty of other business to attend to.
Not long after, Zhao Liming and Su Yiyi returned after finishing their tasks.
Yang Wendong told them about the agreement he had made with Brian.
Zhao Liming laughed and said, "Brother Dong, are you planning to get into this rat extermination business?"
Yang Wendong replied, "How long do you think we can keep selling these mouse-catching tubes?"
"Should be able to sell them for a while, right?" Zhao Liming thought for a bit and said, "There are others making the same kind of tubes, but their... uh, as you said last time, their execution is poor. None of them have the guts to set up a street stall like us."
As they walked back, Yang Wendong said, "Sure, those folks might not have the ability now, but give it some time—eventually, someone will start selling them too. Think about those storefront shops along the street, or even regular produce vendors—what's to stop them from adding a few rat traps to their stalls?"
"True!" Zhao Liming nodded.
Su Yiyi asked, "Brother Dong, didn't you also say before that it's okay for everyone to sell them together? Just like how different vendors sell rice or vegetables?"
Yang Wendong said, "That's true. But those good times we had before will be gone. We might still earn a little by setting up stalls in the future, but just enough to scrape by.
"For example, if Elena finds out that these tubes are being sold everywhere, do you think she'd still choose us?"
Su Yiyi nodded. "So we need to continue getting more orders from Elena to avoid competing with others at the East Market?"
"Exactly. Good analysis," Yang Wendong said. "But we can't rely on Elena forever either. We shouldn't count on outsiders—we need to take action ourselves and find other ways."
Su Yiyi thought for a moment and said, "You're right. Brother Dong, you always seem to think of these problems ahead of time."
"Well, that's how we'll all get rich together," Yang Wendong laughed. Then he added, "Actually, there's no perfect way to catch rats. Our tube isn't necessarily better than a cage—the biggest advantage is that it's cheap.
"But when we delivered 1,000 tubes today, didn't you notice the downside?"
Su Yiyi thought for a moment and answered, "Takes up too much space? And we have to assemble them ourselves?"
Yang Wendong nodded. "Exactly. The biggest flaw is that they're not in a standard shape. The ropes are elastic, and when transported in bulk, it's a real problem. That means it's impossible to scale up.
"They're fine for small vendors to sell, but if we wanted to ship them like mouse cages or traps to distant places, it's practically impossible.
"Honestly, if metal weren't so expensive in Hong Kong, we wouldn't even have a chance to sell them on the street."
"So... are we giving up on the tubes?" Zhao Liming asked.
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Not exactly. But we don't need to spend our own time making them anymore. We'll let the others in the dorm make them. We'll just buy them from them.
"Our focus going forward will be on long-term extermination jobs for warehouses, office buildings, and apartment complexes."
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