Under the post, replies kept refreshing.
“6666”
“Only one person I don’t recognize, impressive!”
“It’s normal to recognize An Siyao and Liu Manman. Recognizing Yan Wei from Baiyue Academy is also understandable. Recognizing Xia Youxue from Huafu High School is barely acceptable, but why do you know Yin Ling from the elementary section?”
“Obviously someone who often stares at the elementary department, scary.”
“I’m more curious about that beautiful aunt. Although she’s beautiful, could she possibly be a cross-dresser?”
“I know that one. She was Yu Ming’s former assistant, often appeared with Yu Ming in newspapers!”
“Wow, I’m going to move this post to the forums of Baiyue Academy, Huafu High School, and the elementary school.”
“Breaking news: The student council president also went there!”
“Guys, let’s team up and go check it out! Hurry, group number 906666858.”
Although most people would only get excited online, there were still some who preferred to see things with their own eyes.
If only one of these six women appeared, they wouldn’t be particularly excited to go see her; they could enjoy the photoshopped pictures of the girls online.
But with all six appearing together, ranging from elementary school students to career women, they couldn’t help but get restless.
Some timid people joined the group to organize a visit, while some bold ones went directly to the bubble tea shop.
Their influx made the originally spacious bubble tea shop suddenly crowded.
Xia Yu, who had planned to idly wait until closing time, was also taken aback.
The line in front of him had already reached outside the door.
Although making the bubble tea was handled by Duan Yi Kangkang and Yan Wei, even just handing it out was exhausting.
Without time to think about where these people came from, Xia Yu immersed himself in the busy work.
At the same time the crowd became uncontrollable, a different kind of chaos occurred behind the scenes that Xia Yu didn’t notice.
Yan Wei made a cup of bubble tea and handed it to Duan Yi.
Taking a sip, Duan Yi was amazed.
“This should have less syrup; it overpowers the sweetness of the tea…” Yan Wei began modifying the recipe.
Duan Yi nodded continuously, marveling at how Xia Yu had brought in such an expert for the bubble tea shop and attracted so many customers. It was truly going all out.
Was her ten percent share too stingy?
But now wasn’t the time to think about that.
Duan Yi continued to immerse herself in the busy work. She had learned the new proportions from Yan Wei and began making the new bubble tea, thanking Yan Wei enthusiastically.
Yan Wei smiled in response. She felt happy inside, feeling that going to her senior to learn bubble tea making was indeed the right decision.
This bubble tea shop belonged to Xia Yu. She was sure to gain a lot of points by being able to help him.
However, Yan Wei completely misunderstood Xia Yu. Xia Yu was now hoping for the bubble tea shop to go bankrupt as soon as possible.
Looking at the increasingly long line and the customers who said, “Wow, this is so good!” after drinking, Xia Yu felt very confused.
They were busy until ten o’clock at night. Xia Yu took off his staff uniform and handed the work back to Duan Yi and Kangkang.
It was already late. Yu Ningmeng took An Siyao and Yin Ling to leave first. Yan Wei also left the bubble tea shop. Those still in the shop were only Xia Yu, Youxue, and a few other girls helping out.
Xia Yu finally had time to analyze this strange popularity.
He found the post on the forum and realized that this popularity was entirely brought by himself.
He had underestimated his ability to attract people.
However, attracting people was only a temporary strategy. To sustain the business long-term, real ability was needed.
In the food and beverage industry, that ability was taste.
When he came at noon, Xia Yu had already tasted the bubble tea. At that time, the taste was just average, but now, it could be described as excellent.
With both traffic and taste, Xia Yu couldn’t imagine what bubble tea shop could be more popular than this one.
The location of the bubble tea shop wasn’t bad either, only having competitors on both sides. But now, the competitors could no longer be considered competitors. This bubble tea shop had become the unrivaled standout near the university town.
Xia Yu waited until midnight for the shop to close. He wanted to see how much profit there was for the day.
By 11:30, there were hardly any customers left. Duan Yi and the other girls counted the money together.
At midnight, Duan Yi calculated the day’s profit.
“Ten thousand!” Duan Yi excitedly told Xia Yu.
Ten thousand was already very high. In this world, takeout hadn’t emerged yet, and there were no online orders. It all relied on offline sales.
The following days wouldn’t be this popular, but it could maintain a high level. It would take about a year to recoup the investment, and the rest would be pure profit.
This sales figure astonished all the girls present. Youxue seriously counted on her fingers. If they could earn 600,000 in a month, she could buy ten cameras like the one she currently had!
If it was a complete set of equipment, she could probably only afford four or five sets!
Youxue was very tempted. She thought about whether to persuade her older brother to open more stores.
“Don’t think too much. These days are just the peak. Later, making a few thousand a day would be good.” Xia Yu discouraged them.
“But even so, it’s still tens of thousands a month.” Kangkang said.
Hearing that a month’s earnings could only buy one camera, maybe not even a complete set, Youxue’s enthusiasm immediately diminished.
It wasn’t worth making her older brother work so hard just for the price of one camera.
Unaware that the camera he had bought for Youxue had already become the girl’s standard for measuring value, Xia Yu looked at the cheerful Duan Yi and sighed in his heart.
He hadn’t expected that a bubble tea shop destined to fail would actually succeed. Fortunately, he still had a backup plan.
Taking his share of the profit, Xia Yu casually handed it to Youxue.
Youxue happily accepted the money.
The two returned to the villa together.
The next day, Xia Yu didn’t go to the bubble tea shop anymore. But with Yan Wei’s help, the bubble tea shop had already fully taken off, maintaining a daily profit of five to six thousand.
Three days later, the news finally came from the Yi Yang Catering Management Company.
On the financial section of the local newspaper’s front page, it reported that the Yi Yang Company had declared bankruptcy.
The company’s main product was the Yi Yang bubble tea shop. According to Yu Ningmeng, the bubble tea shop had been losing money all along, relying solely on recruiting franchisees to collect franchise fees and material fees. Now that they had made enough money, it was time to run away.
Under the newspaper article, there was another report about the company, mentioning the legal traps in the contracts signed by the company that had scammed a group of franchisees.
Xia Yu didn’t continue reading. He threw the newspaper aside and looked at his phone.
Five minutes later, Duan Yi sent him a message.
“Cold.”
The text contained merely two words, yet they were profoundly significant. “Cold” conveyed both the literal temperature and her emotional state—a clever double entendre. The “了” served not only as a grammatical particle but also symbolized resignation. The period signified finality, mirroring the preceding “cold” to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
Xia Yu felt he couldn’t invite her right away. He needed to show some restraint.
He directly called Duan Yi.
The ringtone played for five seconds before Duan Yi answered the phone.
“What’s the specific situation?” Xia Yu asked.
“Everything is gone. All the equipment was bought from that company and has now been seized. We have to go through procedures to get it back.” Duan Yi explained, thinking Xia Yu didn’t know. “I don’t really understand the details, but basically, there were traps in the contract. The boss had already planned to run away. The bubble tea shop probably can’t continue. We might have to pay a little compensation, but the money we earned these days can cover it.”
Xia Yu expressed his sorrow and offered his condolences to Duan Yi.
Then he extended an invitation to Duan Yi: “It’s nothing to fail temporarily. Since your project has failed, why not come and work with me?”
“What would we do?” Duan Yi asked somewhat dispiritedly.
She had just been on top of the world when suddenly hit by an unexpected situation, leaving her wondering whether to get up quickly or stay on the ground for a while.
“Let’s make mobile games.” Xia Yu said.
“Mobile games? What’s that?” Duan Yi was puzzled; there was no concept of mobile games in this world.
“Mobile phone games.”
“You mean games like Landlord and Mahjong? Why would you want to start that now? Everyone’s already used to the old factory’s card and mahjong apps. Who would switch to a new platform?” Duan Yi couldn’t understand.
“Not Landlord or Mahjong. I mean games like computer mini-games. Don’t worry about the details. Are you in or not?” Xia Yu couldn’t explain it clearly. In this world, not only were there no pay-to-win mobile games, but even pay-to-win online games hadn’t appeared yet. Games were still based on time cards and one-time purchases.
“I don’t have money to invest anymore.” Duan Yi said.
“You don’t need to invest. I want you.” After saying that, Xia Yu felt something was off, so he added, “I mean, I want your abilities.”
“Okay, after all, you don’t care about profit or loss, right?” Duan Yi had observed three days ago when Xia Yu was with the six girls. The clothes and accessories of An Siyao and Liu Manman were all expensive.
Even the camera Youxue used for photography was a well-known high-end brand.
Thus, Xia Yu successfully recruited Duan Yi. He assigned her a task to go to the Computer Science College and recruit a group of technically competent programmers, preferably those with game development experience.
“Okay.” Duan Yi readily agreed.
Putting down the phone, Xia Yu also began preparing. He started writing the gameplay and main modules of the game.
Most importantly, he needed to set up the monetization module.
It had seemed simple when he played before, but writing down the key points proved somewhat difficult.
After three hours, Xia Yu finished writing the proposal and started coding.
He would create a framework and then divide it into various tasks for other programmers.
A game involved too much programming. If he wanted to complete it alone, he would have to become an emotionless coding machine.
At this moment, his phone rang.
Picking up the phone, Xia Yu found it was Duan Yi calling.
“I’ve brought you the programmers!” Duan Yi said excitedly, indicating that the bubble tea shop incident hadn’t affected her much.
Feeling relieved about her mood, Xia Yu became puzzled.
Duan Yi acted so quickly?
“How many did you bring?” Xia Yu asked.
“Two, both juniors. Is that too many? Should I send one back?” Duan Yi answered. In reality, she hadn’t actually recruited anyone yet; she had just asked if they were available to help.
Xia Yu hadn’t told Duan Yi the scale and investment of the project. She regarded this project as a casual activity, so she felt that two programmers helping in their spare time would be sufficient.
Xia Yu hadn’t told Duan Yi these details because he hadn’t finished writing the game plan yet, and he hadn’t expected Duan Yi to get involved so quickly.
If it were just a regular pay-to-win game with illustrations, two skilled programmers would be enough. However, Xia Yu currently had nearly 40 million and wanted to create something high-end.
He silently took a screenshot of his bank balance and sent it to Duan Yi.
“All of this can be invested into the game if needed.”
“!!!” Duan Yi had originally thought Xia Yu was just moderately wealthy with some family connections, but she hadn’t expected Xia Yu to be this rich.
“I’ll make a plan today. You can start recruiting tomorrow.”
After saying that, Xia Yu continued writing the proposal.
In the middle, An Siyao came to take a look. She wanted to tell Xia Yu that her grandfather was coming and specifically wanted to meet Xia Yu, but seeing Xia Yu busy, she didn’t interrupt.
Coming to the piano room, An Siyao lifted the lid and placed her hands on the keys.
A series of cheerful rhythms emerged under her fingers.
This was the “Silent Princess” that Xia Yu had previously given her. The Silent Princess was the name of a legendary flower.
In a vast grassland, amidst endless green fields, the blue Silent Princess was hidden among them, swaying in the wind.
She played on, the camera slowly zooming in on that small blue flower.
When she reached the third part, where the blue flower filled the entire screen, An Siyao paused briefly before continuing to play.
In her mind, she recalled how Xia Yu initially treated her as a tool, and how their relationship gradually became more ambiguous.
Was the unusually cheerful and melodious rhythm of this third part merely due to the observer’s joy at seeing the blue flower?
That blue flower was also happy about moving from the corner of the frame to occupying the entire screen.
After finishing the piece, An Siyao closed the piano lid and leaned on it with her elbows, resting her chin on her hands.
In the music, the Silent Princess gained the observer’s full attention, making her happy. But in reality, she seemed not to have gained Xia Yu’s full attention.
She sat up a bit, swinging her legs while thinking about this.
She couldn’t come up with an answer because she wasn’t good at providing answers, whether for others or herself.
As she was troubled, a pair of hands grabbed her waist.
Lifting An Siyao from the stool and pulling her into his arms, Xia Yu looked at the girl with a grin.
Xia Yu felt that when he touched An Siyao, her body instantly tensed, indicating that his surprise was successful.
An Siyao didn’t get angry because of this. She held Xia Yu’s hand, her body pressing even closer to his embrace.
She thought about the secondary reason she came this time.
“Grandpa wants to see you,” she said to Xia Yu.
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