Chapter 33: Arcade Boards And Dinner

Guo Guangyao admired Su Pingnan greatly. His every move and dressing style intentionally or unintentionally copied his boss.

“San, do me a favor.”

A pack of Zhonghua cigarettes was casually tossed into Li San’s lap by Guo Guangyao as if it meant nothing.

“What favor? Brother Guo, do you really need me for this when you look like that?”

Li San felt ashamed in front of him, an embarrassed smile unconsciously spreading across his face.

“I hear your cafeteria’s chef is very skilled? Make a full table of dishes tonight, my boss wants to try his cooking.”

Li San looked troubled. The cafeteria’s food was good, but to have the head chef cook, they had to book a private table, which was not a small expense.

“Hah!”

Guo Guangyao looked at his ex-classmate’s uneasy expression and knew what he feared. He snorted with derision and shoved 200 yuan into Li San’s hand.

“Look at you,” Guo Guangyao said, feeling that seating Su Pingnan with this guy would dishonor his boss.

“No problem.” Li San immediately relaxed and nodded in agreement.

Guo Guangyao patted Li San on the shoulder, “Six o’clock tonight. Get it arranged. I’m off.”

The Gao brothers sat in the auto repair shop staring at each other. A pile of arcade machine motherboards lay in front of them like trash.

“Old Liu, you sure one of these sell for 2,000?” the older brother asked hesitantly as he looking at the dark-skinned man gulping water.

That man was in his thirties, his face furrowed with deep wrinkles like they were engraved into his face—clearly someone used to working at sea.

“How should I know? 2,000 is the cost—these things are pretty valuable.”

Old Liu snapped back at him. Their boss had been conned into buying a whole boatload and was desperate to offload them, so he brought the green-colored boards to the older Gao brother, hoping to use their contacts in Tiannan to deal with them.

“Why not ask Wei San and those guys? They have good intel, maybe they can help.”

“Ask Wei San? Better to ask Little Red Robe—he’s flush with cash now and runs very legitimate businesses. He might have a way.”

The younger Gao brother had a frustrated look on his face. It would take so long to sell this million yuan worth of junk. But they couldn’t offend their upstream supplier—these guys spent long stretches at sea and were too wild-tempered.

Su Pingnan was a little stunned when he got the call from the Gao brothers: “Arcades already exist now?” As far as he could remember, these things didn’t show up until the end of 1993.

The Gao brothers were close with Su Pingnan. He was expanding quickly and had recently bought several cars from them, becoming their biggest customer. So when the Gao brothers needed to settle anything, Su Pingnan was the first person they thought of.

Arcade machines, in the years to come, would be how the youth of Xia Country began defining an entertainment-first culture. Su Pingnan knew how important games would become later. So the question stood: at this point in time, was it worth starting with arcades?

Knowing when to advance and retreat and understanding scale are basic principles for surviving in society. Su Pingnan was ambitious, and after a moment’s thought, he felt he could do it. Since the opportunity was in front of him and he had capital, why not take it and create the country’s earliest electronic sports scene?

Having made up his mind, Su Pingnan acted decisively and called the Gao brothers back, “Hold the goods. I’ll bring people to inspect them. But I need to meet your upstream supplier.”

The Gao brothers agreed at once. They didn’t really care about what Little Red Robe thought of the goods. If Su Pingnan was interested, it was better to quickly hand off these unwanted items to him as soon as possible.

By 6:30 PM, Li San was restless. He’d already paid for the private table. Master Lin had a bad temper and had only agreed after Li San agreed to handle everything and threw in many niceties. If Guo Guangyao didn’t show up it would be a minor issue compared to enraging Master Lin—the money wouldn’t be refunded to him.

After waiting a long time until he was nearly desperate, a jeep drove up. The normally arrogant Guo Guangyao got out properly and opened the door, ushering out a short-haired, sharp-featured young man.

Li San knew that Guo Guangyao was now mingling with the most influential Little Red Robe in Wucheng, which was really a clever guess on his part. The only person who could make this hardened gangster behave so respectfully had to be that Little Red Robe he’d only heard rumors about.

Su Pingnan was polite when he got out of the car, which left Li San pleasantly surprised.

“Brother Red Robe, I’ve arranged everything already. And um, I’m very glad to meet you.”

Li San stammered a little. Su Pingnan glanced at Guo Guangyao—he was fine in many ways but a bit arrogant. Su Pingnan had scolded him many times but the bad habit persisted. Su Pingnan knew the temperament these younger men under him had. They were living overly pampered lives now.

The table wasn’t large. It was in a private room carved out of the knitwear factory’s main canteen. It used to host government officials or the factory’s higher ups, but with the factory’s fortunes plummeting, the table had been empty for a long time.

The three sat down. Guo Guangyao handed over the menu, and Su Pingnan skimmed it, feeling somewhat surprised.

The menu listed a generous sixty dishes—something not often seen in a cafeteria.

“Looks like Master Lin is confident in his skills—bring everything out.”

Li San was stunned, but Guo Guangyao showed no hesitation. Not only would he not flinch if Su Pingnan ordered sixty dishes, he wouldn’t even frown if his own boss decided to burn the cafeteria to the ground.