Thanks to the alcohol, Wang Xiaoliang had slept well the night before. His phone alarm woke him on time, and he sat groggily on the edge of the bed for a while.
He got up, went into the bathroom, and turned on the shower.
Once the water reached a comfortable temperature, he stepped under the spray. Warm water poured over his head, clearing his mind considerably.
Only when he came out, drying his hair, did the things Fang Dongxu had said the night before begin flooding back into his mind.
Childhood friends sweet-talking him, a restaurant industry boom, brothers united, easy money in University Town... four hundred thousand yuan of his parents' retirement savings, a hundred and fifty thousand in online loans... working from dawn till dark, front of house and kitchen... a packed restaurant, but no money to be made... no one to be found, reporting it to the police was useless, no contract... hatred, humiliation, Zhou Qiang taking advantage of his misfortune...
One incident after another, one detail after another, spliced together like frames of film.
Wang Xiaoliang walked over to the table, poured himself a glass of cooled boiled water, and drained it in one gulp. He suddenly had a feeling that if the Book of Fate in his possession had been given to Fang Dongxu, even if Fang Dongxu knew only a few of its fate-altering techniques, he would never have ended up here.
"In managing people, begin with doubt, and wait until their work is done."
He remembered this line from the Book of Fate. If Fang Dongxu had understood this principle earlier, he would not have trusted those two childhood friends unquestioningly from the start. He would have questioned the claim that "the restaurant industry is booming" and checked market data instead of taking