3: Chapter 3: A $5,000 Startup Plan!

The school the two attended was called St. Martin's Elementary, a very ordinary public school.

It was about a mile away from the Lin family restaurant.

In this era, you simply couldn't see cars on the street; after all, that thing hadn't been invented yet.

Early in the morning, only horse-drawn carriages carrying goods passed by the roadside, making a clip-clop sound.

On the road, you could also see some young people wearing newsboy caps, hurrying to nearby factories to work.

After walking for forty minutes, the two entered the school gate.

They walked all the way to the classroom door before the little fatty, Harvey, managed to squeeze out a sentence:

"Bruce, you had better reconsider the matter of dropping out; at least discuss it with Uncle Lin."

"I will." Lin Tian nodded.

Hearing this, Harvey was visibly relieved.

There were already many people in the classroom, and the teacher hadn't arrived yet.

As soon as they saw Bruce and Harvey walk in, the room instantly exploded.

"Hahaha, Bruce, I heard you fell into the lake and drank your fill of water yesterday!"

A freckled boy laughed loudly.

Another boy with messy yellow hair followed suit and egged him on:

"Isn't that right? I heard you almost drowned. I thought you would end up like those coolies with pigtails, dying outside!"

The yellow-haired boy was named Andy.

The "coolies" he referred to were the Chinese workers building the Pacific Railroad.

Every kilometer of that railroad was stained with the blood of Chinese workers; no one knew how many compatriots had died of exhaustion right on the tracks.

As soon as the words fell, a dark shadow lunged out, and a fist slammed hard into Andy's face.

Andy screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his nose.

"Andy, apologize to Bruce right now!"

Harvey roared with a red face.

Looking at his angry appearance, it was even more intense than Lin Tian himself.

Andy, who had fallen to the ground, was completely stunned.

Usually, Harvey was the most timid and always getting bullied, yet today he actually dared to strike first.

Once he reacted, Andy was so angry that he scrambled up and got into a scuffle with Harvey.

The students on the side were all yelling and watching the fun.

Just as Lin Tian was about to go up and help, he was stopped by Harvey in the middle of the scuffle.

"Brother, trust me, I can handle him!"

Seeing that Harvey already had a swollen punch mark on his face, Lin Tian stopped his footsteps.

Since his friend had said so, he chose to trust him completely.

Seeing that Lin Tian didn't intervene, Andy felt a surge of relief.

Everyone knew how well Lin Tian could fight at school; if they really fought, Andy would definitely lose.

Now that Harvey had jumped out to seek trouble himself, Andy intended to use the little fatty to establish his authority.

But he had calculated completely wrong.

Seeing that Lin Tian really hadn't moved, Harvey became even fiercer, as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

After only a few moves, Harvey relied on his weight advantage to pin Andy under him, raised his fist, and smashed it a few times, making the other party scream and beg for mercy repeatedly.

Harvey himself also got a black eye, but he turned his head and grinned at Lin Tian.

The meaning was clear: "See, brother, I beat him down!"

The whole classroom was silent.

No one had expected the little fatty to have such strong combat power.

The freckled boy who had just mocked Bruce looked at Harvey's swollen face, then at Andy, who had been beaten into a pig's head on the ground, and swallowed hard in fear.

"Carter, and you Andy, apologize to Bruce right now!"

Harvey, riding on Andy, shouted loudly.

Andy gasped in pain and stuttered:

"I... I'm sorry, Bruce, I was wrong, I won't dare to do it again!"

"I, I'm sorry!"

The freckled boy, Carter, lowered his head, shivering with fear.

The farce didn't end until the teacher walked in.

Harvey and Andy were both called to the office together.

It wasn't until halfway through the first math class that the two walked back to the classroom.

Lin Tian immediately gave the fatty a thumbs up.

Harvey sat in his seat, enduring the pain and smiling honestly.

The math teacher was an old man with graying whiskers named Otis, wearing an oversized red plaid suit.

He wrote a few elementary multiplication problems on the blackboard.

Just as Lin Tian had expected, the math of this era was too basic; he only glanced at it and calculated the answer in his mind.

The old man called on Lin Tian to answer the question, and Lin Tian stood up and reported the correct number directly.

But he had no intention of listening to the lecture now; his mind was full of calculating his future path.

"First, draw the blueprints for the safety razor, apply for a patent immediately, and then find an OEM factory to produce it."

"In any case, I must earn ten thousand dollars as soon as possible to upgrade the family status!"

...

Teacher Otis glanced at the seated Lin Tian.

As a teacher, he didn't care about outside gossip.

To be honest, he admired Lin Tian very much.

His brain worked well, and his math grades were among the best in the school.

Facing such a good student, Otis would never have prejudices because of skin color.

"The answer is completely correct. However, Bruce, pay attention in class and don't get distracted."

"I know, Teacher Otis."

Lin Tian immediately collected his thoughts and refocused his gaze on the blackboard.

...

The day's classes passed just like that.

Returning home at night, after dinner, Lin Tian sat at his desk, using the dim light of the kerosene lamp to draw on paper with a pencil.

Fortunately, the structure of the safety razor and disposable blades was not complicated.

After some modifications, in less than half an hour, he had finished the drawings.

The dimensions, materials, and structure were clearly marked.

Jiang Meier sat on the edge of the bed, mending clothes by the same lamp.

She thought the young master was doing the homework assigned by the teacher.

Looking at Lin Tian's back, Jiang Meier sighed inwardly:

"The young master seems to have become much more sensible again!"

After a while, the restaurant in front closed.

Lin Shi pushed the door and walked into his son's room.

Seeing Lin Shi come in, Jiang Meier was about to stand up, but was stopped by Lin Shi's wave.

He walked behind Lin Tian and leaned over to see how his son's homework was going.

As a result, he saw at a glance that Lin Tian was sketching the last few details of the razor on the drawing, and couldn't help asking in surprise:

"What is this thing you are drawing?"

Hearing the voice, Lin Tian finally came back to his senses, stopped the pencil in his hand, and looked up at his curious father.

"This is a razor design I figured out myself."

"What the heck?"

The old man looked disbelieving, staring at the drawing of the three-piece handle and blade on the table.

"This is a new type of razor!"

Lin Tian nodded and began to introduce it to his father:

"Unlike those antique razors on the market, this is called a safety razor. The structure is very stable, as safe as the meat-filled burgers sold by the Germans on the street."

After listening to his son's detailed explanation, Lin Shi finally understood the benefits of this thing.

"I plan to apply for the patent first, and then you, Dad, provide the money to build a factory for production!"

Lin Tian laid his cards on the table.

Hearing this, Lin Shi frowned and calculated for a while before asking:

"How much money would it cost to build a factory to produce this thing?"

"I estimate it will take at least five thousand dollars. We need to buy machines, rent a factory, and purchase raw materials!"

"Five thousand dollars? That's not a small amount of money!"

Lin Shi began to have second thoughts.

He did have this money on hand, but it accounted for two-thirds of the wealth he had saved for most of his life.

To throw it all into a line of business he didn't understand at all, the risk was too high.

Although he felt that the drawing his son made was indeed ingenious, this kind of business where he had to bet his entire life's savings had to be handled with extreme caution.

So he pondered for a moment and said:

"How about this, tomorrow night I will take you to see John to discuss it. He is well-informed and might be able to give some practical advice."

Lin Tian could only agree.

After all, asking his father to take out his life savings to engage in cross-industry investment, anyone would hesitate.

If it hadn't been his own son who brought it up, his father would probably have refused outright long ago.