Chapter 48: Imperial Enjoyment
Kevin's ice cream truck, which was so old that it had lost all its teeth, and it had to be used for at least 30 years, was brought back from the scrap truck disposal plant for 300 dollars.
After pulling back, Kevin and Lip worked together to repair it, Kevin, who was tall and tall, was in charge of sheet metal, and Lip and Yannis, who had been hired temporarily, were in charge of repairing the engine and conveyor system.
Yanis is Kevin and Lip's neighbor, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for eight years and can repair even armored vehicles and tanks, not to mention this old minibus.
When it was repaired for the first time, Yannis was the main force, and Lip just gave him a hand, learning some knowledge about repairing machinery by the way.
Last summer, when the mobile ice cream vending truck started for the second time, it was Lipp who did it by himself, and this year it is the same.
It is precisely because of the experience of repairing this old minibus that Lip dares to buy a scrapped car and disassemble and repair it himself.
In fact, the scrapped car, just in the accident, the engine compartment crashed and scrapped, the rear compartment, basically intact, the front engine compartment disassembled, the damaged parts with the second-hand parts bought, and then the bought second-hand engine can be installed.
No need to make a big move, just stupid kung fu.
Lip plans to use the three months of summer vacation to fix it, and when school starts in September, he can drive it to school.
After turning seventeen, Lip went to get an official driver's license and is now legally able to drive his own vehicle.
In fact, after going to school at the University of Chicago, there were not many places to use this car, and during the school period, Lip planned to lend this car to Fiona for use, and when there was a holiday, he would drive it himself.
Lip and Kevin's mobile ice cream cart business is doing very well, only driving out for two or three hours at three or four o'clock in the afternoon every day, basically making a turnover of five hundred dollars, and about one-third of the net profit.
For Lip, who is now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (after the fall in the value of Bitcoin, Lip's net worth has also shrunk), it is not a lot, but it is better than nothing.
The key is that this business has given Lip more insight into the lives of lower-middle-class Americans in nearby neighborhoods.
The welfare system in the United States is relatively good compared to China, with unemployment subsidies for the unemployed and subsistence allowances for low-income families, but relatively speaking, the consumption level is also very high.
Like the Gallagher family, people who can fix their homes are already a very good situation.
With Fiona in a stable job and Lip's income increasing in all aspects, the Gallagher siblings now double their weekly daily living expenses from $120 when Lip was first reborn to $240.
Before the school was out of the summer, Fiona was too busy with work to cook lunch for Debbie and Carl, so she gave them $5 to $10 a day to buy food.
Ian no longer has to pay living expenses, only needs to share electricity, gas and various taxes, so that he has been working in a small supermarket, and he has more spare money in his hand.
Carl has been helping Lip with iPhone chargers, earning $200 a month in pocket money from Lip.
After Lip opened up the second trade route of Chinese goods, Debbie was developed into a salesman by him, and now she can earn a commission of three or four hundred dollars a month from Lip.
This has greatly eased the economic situation of the Gallagher siblings, and there is a tendency to get rid of the poverty class and move towards the middle class.
After Fiona's work becomes a regular job, she will be eligible for a loan to buy a house, and even if Aunt Jinji's matter is exposed and the current Gallagher House is confiscated, the brothers and sisters will not be reduced to homelessness.
Not to mention, Lip has been prepared for this for a long time, and House 2 has already been prepared.
All in all, as long as Fiona works and doesn't make any trouble, the lives of the Gallagher siblings will get better and better.
Even, even if Fiona follows the plot of "Shameless", her personal life - including relationship and work - will be a mess in the future, and the lives of the brothers and sisters will not return to the past.
Lip's current monthly income has reached about $10,000, which is considered to be a level of affluence beyond the middle class in the United States!
Although most of the speculation is invested in Bitcoin, and the iPhone is not a long-term solution, and the business of selling mobile ice cream trucks can only be done for three months during the summer vacation, the business of being a second-hand seller of Chinese goods can go on for a long time.
With its current size, Lip earns four or five thousand dollars a month, enough to support his siblings.
After Eddie's suicide, Frank is now completely dependent on Sheila, and has been planning to get Eddie's accident insurance premiums for a long time, and has not bothered the lives of the Gallagher siblings for a long time.
After Karen's sex @ love video incident, she and Lip have become completely strangers, and now when they meet on the road, they both ignore each other, as if they were strangers.
Mandy is now also being developed into a salesman by Lip, doing the same job as Debbie, and Lip gives her a higher commission, and she can now earn seven or eight hundred dollars a month from Lip, which is enough to ensure that she can live a very comfortable life on her own.
After getting the first share, Mandy bought a brand new iPhone 4 with 16GB RAM and gave it to Lip as a gift.
Although Lip has been in the business of flipping iPhone 4 in the past few months and has made a lot of money, the mobile phone he uses is still a Nokia 1116 bought from a second-hand store.
It's not that he doesn't have the money to change the iPhone 4, but he doesn't like the phone very much, and he is ready to switch to the iPhone after the iPhone 4S is launched.
Now that he has received a gift from Mandy, Lip has not shied away.
Mandy's relationship with Lip now is more complicated.
Mandy is still Ian's girlfriend in name, but in fact, she has always maintained an intimate relationship with Lip, and during this time, she has been receiving tutoring from Lip, and after a few months, her 10th grade course and test scores have reached B or above.
Some courses in the 9th grade also chose to take make-up exams, and they were also promoted from the previous D and C to B or above.
If you can maintain such results, you will not have much problem applying to a general four-year undergraduate university in the future.
Mandy's life, with Lip's intervention, has changed.
This makes Mandy full of gratitude to Lip, and he is extremely gentle and full of welcome to him in bed, so that Lip has the enjoyment of the emperor.