Thirty-Nine Million and a Cup of Broken Tea

Early the next morning, Lu Chuan called Fang Zhiyuan first.

When the call connected, it was quiet on Fang Zhiyuan's end.

"Uncle Fang, it's me."

"Mm, go ahead."

Lu Chuan stood in the living room at Quiet Garden, with the paper he had used to tally his accounts the night before still beside him.

"About the loan, sorry to trouble you, but could you contact Manager Chen for me? I'm planning to pay the remaining balance in one lump sum and settle it early."

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

Fang Zhiyuan didn't ask where the money had come from. He asked only one question.

"The funds came through?"

"They did," Lu Chuan said. "Since I can pay it off, there's no point dragging it out. The interest isn't low. No need to give the bank money for nothing."

He said it so casually, as though he were working out an everyday expense, not talking about a balance of more than ten million.

After hearing him out, Fang Zhiyuan smiled instead.

"All right, I'll contact her. Will you still be at Quiet Garden this afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll see you this afternoon."

After the call ended, Lu Chuan put down his phone and glanced at his account again.

Thirty-nine million.

Sitting there, clean and clear.

In his previous life, he would probably have already started thinking about how to celebrate. He would have found the most expensive bar in the city and booked the most conspicuous booth, wishing he could plaster "I made money" across his face. But now, the first thought that came to him was a practical one.

If he could save on the interest for Quiet Garden, he would.

Money wasn't for making a fuss. It was for taking fewer detours.

A little after three that afternoon, the doorbell rang.

Fang Zhiyuan and Manager Chen came in one after the other. Manager Chen was dressed in the same sharp style as last time. Folder in hand, she nodded to Lu Chuan when she entered, then went straight to business.

"For early settlement, I'll first need to verify the account and the source of the funds. I'll also follow up on the release of the mortgage afterward."

"All right." Lu Chuan handed her his bank card.

Manager Chen sat down at the long table and opened her laptop and the bank's back-end system. At first, her expression was perfectly normal. But when the page loaded, her fingers noticeably paused.

The account balance was substantial.

What gave her even more pause was the source of the recent large deposit.

A futures settlement account.

She stared at those words for two seconds, even holding her breath a little.

No one in financial circles was unaware of the recent swings in crude oil. And precisely because she knew about them, she understood all the more how astonishing that sum was.

It wasn't enough to simply bet on the right direction. When to enter, when to add to the position, when to cash out-one wrong step, and there was no way the profit could have reached this level.

Thirty-nine million in just a few weeks.

This was no longer a matter of good luck.

Manager Chen looked up at Lu Chuan.

He sat there without a change in expression, as though the money in his account were something he had earned in passing, not worth bringing up.

The polite regard she had felt toward him had slowly turned into something else by now.

"It can be done." Manager Chen closed one of the documents, her tone a little steadier. "The remaining balance is over thirteen million. We can complete the payment today. I'll keep an eye on the early settlement certificate and the mortgage release afterward. There won't be any delays."

"Sorry for the trouble," Lu Chuan said.

"It's my job."

The rest of the process wasn't complicated.

Verify his identity, confirm the amount, sign the additional documents, and transfer the funds.

At the final step, Manager Chen pushed the machine and documents over together, her movements a little gentler than before. Lu Chuan bowed his head to sign, press his fingerprint, and enter his password. There wasn't a moment of hesitation in the entire process.

The moment the machine confirmed the transaction, the remaining balance on the house at Quiet Garden was finally paid off in full.

Manager Chen gathered the documents. As she stood, she smiled at Lu Chuan first, then said goodbye to Fang Zhiyuan.

"I'll follow up on the remaining formalities. You two can rest easy."

She knew when to take her leave. Once the business was done, she left without lingering. When the door closed, the living room fell quiet again.

Fang Zhiyuan was in a good mood today.

Rather than hurry to say anything else, he turned and went to the long table, taking a plain-colored tea tin from inside his clothes. The tin was ordinary, not at all conspicuous among the other objects.

But Fang Zhiyuan handled it very carefully.

The water soon came to a boil.

After the tea leaves went in, the aroma slowly rose. It wasn't sharp, but it was rich and full. Fang Zhiyuan poured Lu Chuan a cup and pushed it over.

"Try it."

Lu Chuan picked it up and took a sip. He paused, then looked down at the cup.

The tea tasted much like the broken tea leaves brewed by the old man who lived next to the entrance of the alley when Lu Chuan was a child. He would steep a big handful of tea dust in an enamel mug, and the flavor was strong. Lu Chuan had liked drinking it, but unfortunately it was no longer produced.

Fang Zhiyuan asked, "Not to your taste?"

"No." Lu Chuan put down the cup, his tone sincere. "It tastes much like what I drank back home in the Capital. Uncle Fang, this tea must be hard to get, right?"

Fang Zhiyuan looked up at him.

As soon as the words fell, the cup in Fang Zhiyuan's hand came to a slight stop.

No one knew better than he did where this tin of tea had come from.

It wasn't some famous tea available on the market, nor was it something one could get someone to obtain with money. If he were to speak frankly, people who could get their hands on this kind of tea weren't operating on the level of "buying" it in the first place.

Never mind Jiangcheng-even in the Capital, it wasn't something an ordinary family could drink often.

But what had Lu Chuan just said?

It tasted much like what he drank back home.

To Fang Zhiyuan's ears, those words meant something entirely different.

He had already thought Lu Chuan's background was not simple. Now, that one remark had all but confirmed his judgment.

The Capital, home, being used to drinking this sort of thing—and speaking of it so casually, without the slightest intention of showing off.

That could only mean one thing.

The place this young man had grown up in was far higher than he had previously imagined.

Fang Zhiyuan suppressed the shock in his heart and replied with just one sentence.

"Yes, it really is hard to get now."

He paused, then added a few more words.

"As long as it's to your taste."

Lu Chuan nodded and took another sip. He really didn't think there was much more to it. To him, the flavor was an old alley, an old courtyard, a summer afternoon, and the enamel mug in the old man's hand.

Seeing him like this, Fang Zhiyuan felt even more certain.

At that level, many things were no longer rarities but part of daily life. Only then would Lu Chuan speak of them so lightly.

The two sat and drank a few sips of tea. In the end, Fang Zhiyuan couldn't hold back and asked, as though in passing:

"You paid off that balance pretty quickly. Did the elders in your family approve the funds for you?"

Lu Chuan put down his cup. He didn't want to tell Fang Zhiyuan that both his parents had died and he had no relatives left.

"No."

"Then where did it come from?"

"There were a few opportunities in the market recently," Lu Chuan said. "I casually made a few trades myself and earned it."

Fang Zhiyuan looked at him for several seconds without speaking.

That statement alone was astonishing enough. Add to it the look Manager Chen had given him before leaving, and the picture became even clearer. A young man from the Capital who ordinarily kept his mountains and waters hidden had, when he finally made a move, brought in tens of millions in profit.

On top of that, there had been the test with the cup of tea. Fang Zhiyuan could no longer suppress the thoughts in his heart.

This was no ordinary rich second generation.

Nor was it simply a case of his family having money in the usual sense.

This was a young man from the kind of family whose roots went very deep indeed if one traced them upward.

His breadth of knowledge, his ambition, and his sense of measure in handling things were not what an eighteen-year-old could have learned out in the world.

Fang Zhiyuan picked up his teacup and slowly took a sip before he suppressed those feelings.

"Very good," he said. "You have judgment and ability. That's rare at your age."

Lu Chuan smiled and didn't pursue the subject.

Since he didn't explain, Fang Zhiyuan asked no further questions. Once things had reached this point, pressing further would have been impolite.

After sitting a little longer, Lu Chuan stood and took his leave.

"Uncle Fang, if there's nothing else, I'll get going. Sorry to trouble you and Manager Chen with the mortgage release afterward."

"All right." Fang Zhiyuan stood as well. "I happen to have something to do too."

Fang Zhiyuan followed Lu Chuan, who picked up his car keys, out the door and downstairs. The white Continental GT soon drove out of Quiet Garden, its taillights turning away at the intersection.

Fang Zhiyuan didn't get into his car right away.

He stood by the road, watching the car disappear from sight. After a few seconds, he slowly turned around.

He was silent for a moment, then took out his phone and dialed a number.

When the call connected, a somewhat weary middle-aged man's voice came from the other end.

"Old Fang, what is it?"

Fang Zhiyuan's tone was even, but a little more serious than usual.

"Old Chen, don't say I never look out for you."

The man on the other end laughed.

"What, are you trying to palm off more calligraphy exhibition tickets on me?"

"Not tickets." Fang Zhiyuan looked into the distance and said slowly, "An extraordinary young man has joined this year's incoming class at Jiangcheng University."

There was a pause on the other end.

"Who?"

"I'll send you his name later," Fang Zhiyuan said. "Mention it to the people under you when you get a chance. Tell them to keep their eyes open. If someone really makes an eyeless fool of themselves, your university will be the one embarrassed."

President Chen was clearly taken aback.

Fang Zhiyuan wasn't normally one to exaggerate. The fact that he had called specifically to give this warning made its weight clear enough.

"All right." The tone on the other end grew serious too. "I understand."

Fang Zhiyuan hung up, but he still couldn't help marveling to himself.

A young man from the Capital.

He really was extraordinary.

Meanwhile, Lu Chuan had already driven out of Quiet Garden and was preparing to buy a few outfits to wear to school.