Chapter 5

So, less than two months after the semester began, the milk tea shop could no longer stay in business.

Cheng Lang listened quietly, and he had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

"Thank you." As Cheng Lang spoke, he went to the vending machine and bought two bottles of drinks. "You've been talking for so long. You must be thirsty, right? Have some water."

"You're quite thoughtful." The two female students accepted the drinks from Cheng Lang with giggles, then asked curiously, "You want to open a milk tea shop, but do you know how to make milk tea?"

Not only could Cheng Lang make milk tea, he could mix cocktails too. Besides—

Cheng Lang grinned as he glanced at Shen Huaiyu's excessively handsome face. "If I opened a milk tea shop, I'd definitely have a killer weapon ready. Something that would make you come whether you wanted to or not."

The two female students asked curiously, "What killer weapon?"

Cheng Lang kept them in suspense. "I'm not telling you yet. You'll find out when the time comes."

Chapter 5

"Do you really want to open a milk tea shop?" After leaving the cafeteria, Shen Huaiyu asked curiously, "We have classes every day now, and we work at the bar in the evenings and on weekends. If you open another milk tea shop, will you have time to run it?"

"We'll take it one step at a time." Cheng Lang grinned. "We can't just sit around and burn through our savings."

As he spoke, Cheng Lang glanced at Shen Huaiyu again. "Interested in becoming my partner?"

Shen Huaiyu's eyes widened in surprise. After freezing for a moment, he finally came back to himself. "But I don't know how to make milk tea."

"Making milk tea isn't hard. You'll learn after a little practice. Besides, we'd be the bosses. As long as we know how to invest, that's enough. The actual work can be left to the employees." Half-jokingly, Cheng Lang added, "I'd looked into that milk tea shop before. The décor was pretty nice. You could tell they'd spent a lot of money on it. I'm worried the money I have won't be enough, so I want to find a partner to share the burden. And I happen to like the look of you. You need money badly right now too, don't you? You don't know how to do sales, so don't you want to find a way to make money?"

Compared with Cheng Lang, Shen Huaiyu was the one truly living off dwindling savings.

Shen Huaiyu hesitated for a moment. "I still have one million. But that money is for my younger brother's medical treatment. If you need it, I can lend you half first. I know you're smart. Making money is much easier for you than it is for me. So you only need to pay me back within half a year. I don't know how to do anything, so I won't drag you down. If you need my help, just let me know."

Cheng Lang was stunned. He hadn't expected Shen Huaiyu to be so easygoing. He was willing to lend out his younger brother's life-saving money just like that. But—

"Why do you only have one million left?" Cheng Lang asked. "I remember your family's house was downtown, wasn't it? And it was in two top school districts, right? How much did you sell it for?"

"Less than three million." Shen Huaiyu explained, "I asked a relative to help sell it. Since I was in a hurry, I didn't get a good price. My uncle said there weren't many people who could come up with several million in one lump sum."

"..." Cheng Lang clutched his chest and asked in disbelief, "You sold it for only three million? A house over a hundred square meters, downtown, in two top school districts, and you sold it for three million?"

Shen Huaiyu nodded.

Cheng Lang's heart hurt so badly he could barely breathe. The original novel had never mentioned exactly how much the Shen family's house had sold for. It only said that Lu Chengxuan later bought the house back for six million and told Shen Huaiyu that this was the price of selling himself. So Cheng Lang had naturally assumed that Shen Huaiyu had sold the house for more than six million as well.

But thinking about it carefully, if Shen Huaiyu had really sold the house for six million, he would not have been so short on money that he had to work at White Jade Capital.

"That's way too shady." Cheng Lang couldn't help sighing. "What kind of relative is that? He's even more ruthless than Zhou Bapi."

Shen Huaiyu said nothing. There was a trace of gloom and loss in his expression. Of course he knew his uncle had deliberately driven down the price when selling the house. But at the time, he had been in a rush to arrange his parents' funeral and get his younger brother treated. He could only accept it.

"You can't just accept it!" Cheng Lang said. "That was your family's life-saving money. If you accept it now, what will you do if you can't scrape together your brother's medical bills later?"

Shen Huaiyu pursed his lips and remained silent.

Cheng Lang asked again, "Even if it was only a little over three million, you couldn't have spent two million that quickly, could you?"

Shen Huaiyu explained, "Arranging my parents' funeral and buying burial plots cost nearly one million. My younger brother's hospitalization over the past few months cost around six hundred thousand." The rest had gone toward emergency treatment for the four members of the Shen family. Although Shen Huaiyu's parents had not survived, Shen Huaiyu had woken up, and the medical bills still had to be paid.

What kind of funeral cost one million?

Cheng Lang was speechless. "So your uncle was the one who helped arrange your family's funeral too?"

Shen Huaiyu nodded.

Well, that explained everything! Undercutting the price of the house wasn't enough—his uncle had to squeeze them dry inside and out.

Looking at Shen Huaiyu, Cheng Lang couldn't help snapping, "Are you even a man? You're being bullied like this, and you won't fight back at all?"

Shen Huaiyu looked sorrowful and lost. They were his elders, his uncles. Besides, the house had already been sold. How was he supposed to fight back?

"Leave this to me!" Cheng Lang shook his head. Right. Asking someone like Shen Huaiyu to argue with people over money was probably harder than asking him to kill himself.

Shen Huaiyu looked at Cheng Lang with concern. "What are you planning to do? Don't do anything reckless!"

Shen Huaiyu said, "You don't understand. My uncle is the president of the local calligraphy and painting association. He knows a lot of people. Don't go. You'll suffer for it."

Cheng Lang's eyes lit up. So he was a cultured man with some reputation. Cultured men were good! Cultured men always cared about their dignity. But in the Shen family's case, it was either money without dignity or dignity without money. He could only choose one!

Seeing Cheng Lang looking eager to make a move, Shen Huaiyu grew anxious. "Really, don't go. I've already sold the house. The contract has been signed, and the ownership has been transferred. You can't get that money back. I know you're worried about me, but don't get involved in this. I'll find a way to deal with the money myself."

Shen Huaiyu was grateful that Cheng Lang was willing to stand up for him, but he was even more worried that Cheng Lang would get himself burned. His own troubles were his to solve. He could not drag anyone else into them.