Chapter 153 Keeping a Whale Shark in the Swimming Pool

Black understood the importance of educational credentials for ordinary people. They acted like a stepping stone, making it easier for those of humble birth to be accepted by the upper echelons of society.

However, she felt that Su Mu had already achieved dazzling success and no longer needed to waste time attending university. Instead of spending time on that, he would be better off helping her manage the company properly.

Moreover, Black felt quite embarrassed to admit to others that her big boss was still a minor, currently preparing for the SAT exams every day.

Recently, she had been intentionally expanding her network of connections, getting to know quite a few suppliers and component manufacturers who stood in the same camp as IBM. This was primarily to achieve the goal of independently producing personal computers.

Sharing a similar mindset with Su Mu, she likewise felt that helping IBM sell computers held bleak prospects, and creating a new brand was the only way to maintain the company's vitality. She asked with curiosity, "What kind of business does that company you just opened mainly do?

Let me make this clear in advance: don't go siphoning funds from Penguin again. We finally managed to earn enough money to open a factory, yet you took it all to buy shares in that supermarket. Just when will I ever be able to get my stock options? You are holding back our company's development."

Indeed, this was her own fault. Su Mu put down his pen, stretched, and told her, "I will talk to Li and appropriately lower the requirements, okay?

Judging by current developments, I feel that GoGo has even more potential than Penguin. I apologize for taking my money; Spider Software will develop computer programs for me, and it won't cost too much. So once you save up that sum of capital, you should be able to obtain your option shares."

If Black wanted to cash in her stock option rewards, she had to cough up real money to acquire low-priced shares of Penguin. That was why Su Mu told her to save her money. Lately, she was frequently seen buying luxury items like clothes and shoes; given her current salary, saving that amount of money would be quite difficult.

"That's not something you should worry about. Who says GoGo will develop better than Penguin? Just you wait and see!"

Rolling her eyes, Black returned to her office. Don't assume that managing a company was easy; her desk was piled high with various documents.

Through a pane of clear glass, a group of people could be seen bustling about. Recently, they had been continuously spending money to place advertisements in newspapers everywhere, allowing them to sell hundreds of computers daily. On days with occasional good luck, sales could even surpass one thousand units.

Back then, she used to envy Michael Dell for making money; now, the scale of Penguin was far larger than Dell's company...

In June of this year, northern California ushered in a rare and scorching heat wave.

Li Pingan braved the blazing sun, drove his Ford Mustang, and parked it along the side of Sand Hill Road. When he stepped out of the car, he was cradling a plump, chubby orange cat in his arms.

He went upstairs to Su Mu's office, placed the fat cat—named Yuanbao—on the desk, and then turned on the electric fan.

Li Pingan slumped directly onto the sofa and complained, "I can't drive back to Los Angeles next time; I'm completely exhausted. Isn't it strange? My parents refuse to move into the new house and insist on staying in Chinatown, unwilling to move out!"

"It's fine. My grandfather didn't want to move a while ago either, but now he's doing quite well living in Beverly Hills. He's even made friends with several wealthy old men, and recently went out to sea on a friend's yacht to fish. Who knows if he's even back home yet."

With people coming into his office one after another, reading his book became impossible. Su Mu reached out to stroke the listless orange cat and asked Li Pingan with curiosity, "How did Yuanbao end up coming with you?"

"Heaven knows. I drove all the way to Burbank before I realized your cat was lying inside my car. I was too lazy to drive back and drop it off at your place, so I just brought it along.

The contract has already been sent to your house, and I had your dad sign it. Why can't you apply for independence? Always making your parents sign these contracts—isn't it a hassle?"

"Oh, right! Your grandfather brought back a whale shark and is keeping it right in your family swimming pool. He bought it from some fishermen—it's huge, over two meters long!"

Yuanbao was already a grown cat. As the saying goes, "out of ten orange cats, nine are fat, and one is exceptionally obese"—it was the quintessential representative of fat cats.

Clearly only a year old, its weight had already soared to seven kilograms. It felt heavy in one's arms, having packed on the pounds after enjoying good food and comfortable living in Beverly Hills.

Su Mu was stunned upon hearing this. He had assumed it was the kind of goldfish kept in a small fishbowl, but at over two meters in length, it definitely wasn't a goldfish. He asked in skeptical tones, "Are you sure it's a whale shark? The kind with little white spots all over its body?"

"I saw it with my own eyes; could this be fake? Your dad dumped a whole lot of salt into the swimming pool and even talked about releasing it back into the ocean because it eats too much and they can't afford to keep it. They've been buying live shrimp to feed it, costing dozens of dollars a day."

"...I never expected my grandfather's mindset to change so fast. He's actually raising a whale!"

Recalling how his stubborn old man used to pick up plastic water bottles from the street just to take them home and sell them for cash, Su Mu could only conclude that he had gone astray.

Nowadays, whale sharks were not protected animals, so keeping one was legally permissible, though difficult to care for properly. He muttered to himself, "That thing can grow up to twenty-something meters long. Just how large of a pool do I need to buy so it can turn around? I'll go take a look next time I'm home, and after a while, we should send it back to the ocean. My grandfather has raised so many flowers and plants, and in the end, very few survived. This whale shark will most likely meet a grim fate as well."

Finding it merely amusing, he felt not a shred of heartache over the dozens of dollars spent on shrimp. As long as his family members were happy, that was all that mattered.

Currently, Su Mu was the only one in the Su family making money; his mother's salary wasn't even enough to cover the property fees for their house. The last time he went home, he gave them one hundred thousand dollars, leaving very little for himself.

He had intended to give them a bit more to give his grandfather peace of mind—elders loved hoarding a bit of cash for rainy days—but he would just have to wait until he received his next dividend payout.

The breeze blown out by the electric fan still carried stifling heat. Growing increasingly irritable, Li Pingan suggested, "Let's install an air conditioner here. Lots of stores have air conditioning. Next month the weather will be even hotter, and we'll probably pass out from the heat at work."

"Hmm... those supermarkets of mine should probably install air conditioning too. They opened in the autumn last year, so I suppose it wasn't installed.

Wait here, I'll go have a word with Black. When it comes to enjoying something like this, she'll definitely vote in favor with both hands. I really should have made her a shareholder sooner; otherwise, she has no idea how to save money. Every time I think about the rent for this office floor being forty thousand dollars a year, my heart aches so much I want to bang my head against the wall."

Sure enough, when Black heard Su Mu say he wanted to install air conditioning, she immediately nodded in agreement—likely wanting to hooky from work under a legitimate pretext—and decided to go check out the prices right away.

Menlo Park didn't have any stores selling air conditioners. After driving over to Palo Alto, she still couldn't find any, and had to hurry all the way to San Francisco before locating a shop. Upon rushing there, however, she discovered they only sold residential air conditioners for private homes, and did not carry large central cooling systems.

Black was completely distraught. Her back was already damp with sweat, and sitting inside the cool shop, she refused to accompany them to search for another seller any longer, complaining instead:

"Leon, you really should open a supermarket that specializes in selling appliances. It was the same story when we bought the vacuum cleaner last time—I almost had to run all the way to San Jose!"

Listening to this, Su Mu felt it seemed like a pretty decent suggestion and genuinely began to ponder whether there was a market for it...