Chapter 006: We Know You're Good at Math, Stop Showing Off!

“Do you know how much debt our family owes?” Qin Fei pulled Qin Hongfei aside and asked through clenched teeth.

“How much?” Qin Hongfei honestly had no idea.

“All counted up, it’s over a million yuan,” Qin Fei frowned, giving a vague figure. “I get fifty yuan for being an extra in a scene, so that one million…” She got stuck mid-sentence.

“Sis, fifty yuan per scene means you’d have to do twenty thousand scenes to earn a million,” Qin Hongfei quickly calculated for her. “If you do one scene a day, that’s three hundred sixty-five scenes a year. At that rate, you’d need to be an extra for fifty-four years. Fifty-four plus your current eighteen, you’ll be seventy-two by then. That’s tragic.”

“……”

She knows you’re good at math, but there’s no need to show off!

Looking at her sister’s youthful face and their unreliable mother, Qin Fei knew there was no one to rely on but herself. “We still need to find a way to get some acting jobs. That’s the fastest way to make money.”

Qin Hongfei gazed at her sister in surprise. Impressive! She’d expected a tantrum, but instead Qin Fei was already thinking about how to solve the problem. “Don’t worry, Sis. Earning a million isn’t actually that hard.”

Qin Fei: “…Heh.”

Someone with barely a hundred yuan in their pocket telling her a million isn’t hard to earn? She’d believe it when she saw it.

After the fourth day of the new year, Qin Fei rushed back to the film studio to find acting gigs and earn money, leaving the last three hundred yuan she had for the family’s living expenses.

Qin Hongfei didn’t stop her, mostly because she couldn’t. When she told Qin Fei she could make money, her sister obviously didn't believe her, leaving Hongfei helpless.

During those few days, Qin Hongfei went over the family’s accounts and discovered that, far from making money, her mom was losing thousands every month—sometimes tens of thousands—just on electrical parts and items given away to customers. Something was clearly wrong.

She decided to ask her mother if she could learn at the repair shop, and after two days, she pinpointed the issue.

Her mother’s skills were infamous on the street—if she botched a repair, she’d have to compensate the customer. Over time, some local troublemakers started taking advantage, sending both good and bad items for repair. If the repair failed, it was considered damaged, and her mother had to pay up.

Having identified the problem, Qin Hongfei couldn’t exactly curse those rascals for being heartless, even if their actions were shady. But it wasn’t fair to blame others for preying on her mother’s softness. Her mother’s temperament was a big part of the issue. Solving the problem was more important. “Mom, let me take charge of the shop for these next few days. I want to learn, and see if there’s a way to keep the shop running.”

Upon hearing the shop might survive, her mother had no reason to object.

Qin Hongfei took command of the shop. The boss next door noticed, but didn’t pay much attention; he assumed the Qin family’s repair shop was doomed anyway. But Qin Hongfei put up a bold sign: Appliance Repairs—Tenfold Compensation for Damage!

Not long after the sign went up, an older woman brought in a DVD player. “Sister Qin, I’m here again to have something repaired. Oh, Hongfei, where’s your mother?”

Qin Hongfei said, “My mother’s out. What do you need fixed, auntie? I can look at it for you just the same.”

The woman’s eyes darted. “You? Can you fix it? Don’t break it—this radio was sent from abroad by a relative, it’s worth thousands. If you break it, you’ll have to pay.”

Qin Hongfei tapped the sign on the door. “Oh, that’s a brand-name product. I’ll be careful, but I’m confident. If I break it, I’ll pay you ten times its value.”