Looking at the timeline, it was in 2019 that my father's lymphoma was diagnosed. Counting from then, he has about seven years, and if considering the possible latency period, he might actually have about four or five years of good health left.
Cancer is no longer considered an absolutely incurable disease nowadays. If detected early and treated promptly, the long-term survival rate is still quite high, but the premise is that you have to be willing to spend money.
In my past life, I had also learned online about certain targeted cancer therapies, and specialized treatments, each costing tens or even hundreds of thousands per course.
The compensation from the demolition, twenty or thirty thousand, sounds like a lot, but for a terminal illness like cancer, even if spent wisely, whether it's enough for treatment is still a big concern!
What frustrated Zhang Yang even more was that in the latter half of 2021, a 1.2 million per shot anti-cancer drug successfully saved a cancer patient with the same disease as his father, making headlines!
If there was enough money, even if it wasn't completely cured initially, as long as my father could hold on until 2021, there would be a great chance of curing the disease and surviving!
In his previous life, Zhang Yang was a wastrel and a prodigal son, but now reborn, he would never just sit by and watch his father die due to lack of money for treatment!
Making money! The first priority is to make a substantial amount of money!
Zhang Yang secretly made a firm determination in his heart!
After making the decision, Zhang Yang felt lost about how to proceed with the specifics.
In many urban rebirth novels, the protagonist either has extraordinary knowledge or unbeatable memory. After reincarnating, they can quickly accumulate their first pot of gold by relying on their foresight, navigating the business world with ease, surrounded by beautiful women, and creating a sensation.
But for Zhang Yang, these plots are thrilling in a novel, but implementing them personally is too unrealistic.
He is just an ordinary young man from a small town, with a high school diploma that doesn't help in job hunting. In his past life, he focused all his energy on fishing and had limited experience and insight in other areas.
He can't remember any lottery numbers, can't differentiate stock market fluctuations over time, and has no clear concept of the country's policy and economic development trends.
Zhang Yang patiently recalled for a long time and simply jotted down some memorable major events in his diary.
The village's houses will be demolished after August 2014, and real estate prices in most parts of the country will continue to rise.
Pork prices will rise to thirty yuan per jin in 2019.
Also, on February 22, 2021, the value of Bitcoin will soar to an all-time high of $58,000 per coin.
Each of these major events is an opportunity. Grasping any of them could allow Zhang Yang to make a substantial amount of money.
But apart from the information about demolition, all other opportunities on the timeline are after his father's cancer diagnosis.
The demolition in the village is based on the number of people and the area of villagers' own houses. There's room to make some legitimate gains, but the profit margin isn't significant!
Thinking of these things, Zhang Yang felt they were too distant. The urgent task now is to choose a suitable direction for him and start accumulating his first pot of gold!
Knowing a lot doesn't help; only with money in hand can he seize future opportunities!
Realizing this, Zhang Yang's mind started to work again.
Given my abilities, what's the most efficient way to make money? Get a job? A monthly salary of two or three thousand is not enough for anything!
Or maybe find a way to open a fishing tackle shop again? It's a business that Zhang Yang is good at and can be profitable!
Thinking about fishing made Zhang Yang hesitate.
In his previous life, it was his obsession with professional fishing that gradually led his family into the abyss. Does he want to continue down this same old road in this life?
Despite hesitating, after some rational thinking, Zhang Yang still felt this was the field he was most familiar with!
First of all, fishing is a widely popular outdoor leisure activity in China, with a broad mass base.
Statistics show that there are tens of millions of anglers in the country, and the market potential of the industry is enormous!
The local fishery resources in Zhang Yang's northern third-tier city seem relatively abundant in the short term, and the market environment is favorable.
Secondly, small fishing tackle shops require low investment, have high gross margins, quick inventory turnover, and as long as the operator is proficient in fishing and understands the industry, the entry barriers are low!
In his previous life, Zhang Yang genuinely made money in the first few months of opening his shop,
Even though he was a bit inexperienced in managing the shop early on, during the peak fishing season, he could net a profit of six to seven thousand a month, with an annual income of fifty to sixty thousand, which was better than having a regular job back in 2015.
Besides having a clear understanding of running a fishing tackle shop, the level of professional fishing skills he possessed in last life's nine years ago was also top-notch.
In his previous life, Zhang Yang had almost fully experienced the series of developments and industry transformations in the sport of fishing,
Even though he didn't get to capitalize on the major industry events happening during that time, he closely observed and profoundly understood the intricacies within.
Just taking the future hottest commercial fishing grounds (black pits) as an example, presents an enormous commercial potential.
Locally, after 2013, due to drought and water reservoir regulation upstream, the water level of the Wen River downstream declined, and the wild fishing resources began to gradually dwindle,
With fewer places to fish, there was an explosive development of pay-to-fish commercial ponds in the local and nearby cities,
As the commercial fishing model became popular, bait specifically designed for commercial fisheries also had breakthrough developments!
In the latter half of 2014, the little Huang Mianmian from Ji City debuted and immediately took the whole country by storm.
Around 2017, the yellow storm bait started appearing, launching a new wave of competition in the black fishing pond market.
Around 2019, malt syrup fermented bait emerged out of the blue, sweeping several major national black pond competitions that year, earning awards left and right.
These viral baits were highly popular among anglers due to their novel concept and remarkable effectiveness, creating many overnight wealth legends at that time.
In fact, the threshold for making related baits wasn't high; the true value of viral baits lay more in the enhancement and application of fishing bait concepts!
Aside from bait innovations, there were also cannon pond fishing frenzies, nationwide fishing car competitions, WeChat public account bonuses, Yingke Live, Kuaishou live-streaming sales, fishing gear industry revolution, among others...
For Zhang Yang, baits like Huang Mianmian, the first-generation viral bait, could be perfectly replicated by slightly experimenting with the basic raw materials and key appetite attractant ratios using his profound understanding of these baits!
Thinking of this, Zhang Yang couldn't contain his excitement.
If done well, the fishing path is undoubtedly a path where one can earn big money even with their eyes closed.
More importantly, Zhang Yang had walked this path, liked it, and excelled at it!
...
Firm in his decision, Zhang Yang started planning the next steps.
He definitely had to visit the textile factory for an interview, as his uncle had helped him out! Even if he didn't plan to work there, he needed to give his family an explanation.
Setting this issue aside, the initial costs of opening a fishing gear store became Zhang Yang's first challenge.
He had been staying home for half a year since graduating high school, with only 13.5 yuan, just pocket money his mom gave him.
How to earn that first pot of gold? Zhang Yang frowned and thought.
He spent all afternoon without coming up with a good solution.
His parents were just honest rural folks, and the family had meager savings; a few ten thousand yuan could surely be scraped together.
But Zhang Yang didn't want to use his family's money for his business venture; this little family savings was a security for all family members and couldn't be taken lightly in the name of entrepreneurship.
Even if Zhang Yang asked, traditional parents might not support him, after all, Zhang Yang had no work experience and was just a high school kid in adults' eyes half a year ago.
The memory of secretly taking money from home and coincidentally when his dad got diagnosed with cancer, was like a thorn stuck in Zhang Yang's throat, even now, reborn, he dared not touch it.
Rely on oneself! Everything must be self-reliant!
While Zhang Yang was clueless, the corn stalks sun-dried by his mom in the yard caught his attention.
In his previous life, Zhang Yang had followed those anglers chasing competitions, spending money and entertaining, but had truly learned valuable things.
Among them, what benefited him the most was a recipe for brewing wine-soaked fishing rice he obtained from a Hebei angler he invited for drinks.
This recipe used corn grits or millet as the base, added common Chinese herbs like licorice, fennel, and frankincense, and was brewed with high-alcohol liquor.
When the herbal combination was done properly, the Chinese herbal rice was exceptionally effective for attracting and catching crucian carp, and it was indeed a trump card for Zhang Yang, many of his competition victories owed to this homemade herbal wine-soaked rice.
The family had five acres of land, the corn was homegrown and worthless; these herbal ingredients were also common herbs in pharmacies, you could grind them before brewing, and the wine-soaked rice would be ready for use in a week.
With a complete pack of herbs, for a little over twenty yuan, you could brew ten kilograms of wine! And one kilogram of wine could soak four kilograms of rice, combined, ten kilograms of wine-soaked rice would yield fifty kilograms of finished herbal rice.
Calculating the cost, forty kilograms of corn grits cost thirty yuan, a set of herbs twenty yuan, and ten kilograms of cheap liquor fifty yuan!
The total cost is a hundred yuan, roughly converting to two yuan per kilogram of wine-soaked rice!
According to the fishing gear store sales price for baiting wine-soaked rice, 500g sells for 10-12 yuan.
Zhang Yang's wine-soaked rice was effective, adding a premium of three yuan per kilogram could easily be sold at a high price of fifteen yuan per kilogram.
Based on this pricing, fifty kilograms could sell for 750 yuan, with a gross profit of 650 yuan.
Some might complain now, it's true that one earns a lot, but it has to be sold, can it really be sold?
Zhang Yang was very confident about this!
Anglers, as long as baiting rice attracts fish well, are not frugal.
This wine-soaked rice works in high-level competitions, let alone competing with relatively backward commercial baiting materials at present, it's a blatant dimensional reduction attack.
With a concrete plan, Zhang Yang jumped up planning to go out, but touching his pocket, he realized he only had a little over ten yuan, still not enough!
Ask his mother for money? Zhang Yang dismissed this thought almost instantly,
Isn't it just earning some small money? He'll figure it out himself!