Chapter 6

Shen Huaiyu was starting to regret telling Cheng Lang about his family selling the house.

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." Watching Shen Huaiyu say no one moment and that there was no need the next, Cheng Lang suddenly asked, "Do you know how those debt collection companies collect debts?"

Shen Huaiyu froze, unable to understand why Cheng Lang had suddenly brought up such an unrelated topic.

Cheng Lang patiently explained, "Some companies run into bad debts they can't recover. They hand those debts over to collection agencies and let them collect the money. Whatever gets recovered is split between the two sides."

Cheng Lang spun his nonsense smoothly. "Let's sign a contract too. If we recover those four million, we split it fifty-fifty. I'm willing to wade into this mess for the profit. It doesn't have much to do with you."

Shen Huaiyu was speechless. "What four million... Cheng Lang, stop messing around. Don't try to fool me with that. I appreciate your kindness, but there really is no need for you to get involved in this—"

"What appreciation?" Cheng Lang cut him off, pretending to be impatient. "We're talking about money right now."

Cheng Lang looked at Shen Huaiyu. "You don't want your parents' lifetime of hard-earned money to be swallowed up just like that, do you? And don't forget, your brother is still lying in the hospital. His medical bills alone, plus the cost of hiring a caregiver, come to nearly two hundred thousand a month, right? You only have a little over a million left. How many months can that keep him alive?"

Although Shen Huaiyu's younger brother was a real piece of work, before he woke up, he was still Shen Huaiyu's only weakness.

Sure enough, once Cheng Lang mentioned his brother, Shen Huaiyu fell silent.

Cheng Lang said, "Leave this to me. You won't need to show your face. Best case, we get the money back. Even if we can't, at least we tried. It's that simple. What are you worried about?"

Shen Huaiyu said, "I'm worried about you—"

"There's nothing to worry about." Cheng Lang took it all on himself. "I grew up in an orphanage. I've seen plenty of people. Even by seniority, your uncle wouldn't rank among the worst of them."

Shen Huaiyu said nothing.

Cheng Lang said, "Relax. I've gone collecting debts with collection agencies before. I've run into plenty of tough cases. Compared to those bastards, your uncle doesn't even make the list. Nothing will happen. Trust me."

Inside his mind, the system was utterly speechless. [Are you really going to help Shen Huaiyu collect that debt?]

"Relax." Cheng Lang brushed the system off. "It's just a minor detour. It won't affect the plot."

By the time they finished signing the contract, it was almost eight. They both had classes to attend. Before they parted, Cheng Lang reminded him, "Wait for my call at noon."

The moment classes ended at noon, Cheng Lang followed a crowd of hungry students charging out of the classroom. But the destination at the end of his universe was not the cafeteria—it was the milk tea shop across from the school.

"Is this place up for transfer?" Cheng Lang looked around the shop. It was his first time inside this milk tea shop. The interior décor was similar to the exterior, mostly green in tone, with a fresh, artsy style. The tables and chairs were exquisitely cute. It was easy to imagine that the owner had put a great deal of care into opening it.

But not everything in this world yielded good results just because one put care into it, especially business. Take milk tea shops like this one. In recent years, more and more people had rushed to open them. Near Cheng Lang's school alone, three or four had opened in a single year. Everyone thought such shops required little investment and offered high profits, and that students' money was easy to earn. Yet before the year was even over, some had gone out of business while others were being transferred.

—Without any core selling point, how could a business hope to survive fierce market competition? Doing business was never that easy.

"I haven't decided yet..." The milk tea shop owner was a girl of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight. She had large eyes and seemed a little shy when she looked at Cheng Lang. "Do you want to take it over?"

Cheng Lang nodded with a smile.

The milk tea shop owner looked conflicted. "I don't want to keep doing this. Business has been terrible lately. But I'm a little reluctant to let it go... I've put over a million into this shop."

The young woman was still unwilling to accept it, and she rambled on to Cheng Lang. "You have no idea how awful those students are. My shop is decorated so nicely, and even the tea leaves I use are premium. Da Hong Pao, Tieguanyin, Oolong tea... a tael of tea leaves costs at least several hundred yuan, yet they actually said my milk tea wasn't as good as that six-yuan-a-cup Milk Tea Powder sold outside! Isn't that outrageous?"

The young woman huffed. "They don't know quality when they see it."

Cheng Lang raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You don't believe me?" Seeing Cheng Lang's expression, the young woman immediately perked up. "Just wait!"

As she spoke, the young woman ran behind the counter to make some milk tea. Cheng Lang took the chance to inspect the ingredients she used. They really were of excellent quality.

More than ten minutes later, the milk tea shop owner handed Cheng Lang a steaming cup of Da Hong Pao milk tea. "Try it."

Cheng Lang took the milk tea and had a sip.

In that instant, Cheng Lang's expression became spectacular. As the milk tea entered his mouth, he felt as though he had personally experienced the fleeting nature of life and the cycle of reincarnation—half his life nearly got sent away.

"Is it... really that bad?" Watching Cheng Lang's reaction, the female owner looked somewhat guilty, yet also unconvinced. "It can't be that bad, right?"

"I'm curious too." Cheng Lang swallowed that mouthful of milk tea with difficulty and asked, "Logically speaking, tea this good should taste great even brewed with plain water." How did you manage to make milk tea this awful?

At this level, it was no longer a question of whether it was expensive or not. This stuff was deadly!

The milk tea shop owner fell silent for a while, then guiltily changed the subject. "Didn't you say you wanted to take over the milk tea shop? Let's discuss the terms."

Author's note:

Cheng Lang: "Horses don't grow fat without night grass, and people don't get rich without windfalls."

Chapter 6

"What?" A shriek shattered the milk tea shop's quiet atmosphere. The female owner stared at Cheng Lang in disbelief. "My shop is decorated so well, and the location is great too, yet you only want to offer two hundred thousand for the transfer?"