This night, Mi Cai and I sat in front of the dressing table feeling melancholic for a while, then moved to the bed and felt melancholic again, gazing at each other for a long time, still confused and troubled. Eventually, Mi Cai became tired before me, and after lying under the covers, she quickly fell asleep. Indeed, compared to my opening a coffee shop, she had temporarily found a job and started preparing for the civil service exam, which practically wasn’t even an issue, so naturally she was much more stable than me.
Looking at her sleeping face, I smiled and pointed at her, saying, “You without team spirit… how can you sleep so soundly!”
Suddenly, I was reminded by my own unexpected action. She couldn’t be so calm under my worries; the reason she could be like this must be because she had already made up her mind. Then I saw the key to her Q7 on the cabinet, instantly realizing that she probably wanted to sell the car, and the current market value of this car would be enough for me to realize my idea of opening a coffee shop.
Selling the car seemed to be the best way to resolve this issue, but I couldn’t let her do it because the significance of this car was greater than many things. Therefore, I quietly got out of bed and put the car key in a drawer that could be locked.
After lying back on the bed, I once again entered a state of contemplation. This time, I had to solve the funding problem for the coffee shop by myself. Perhaps I should adjust my thinking, break away from conventional thought patterns, and not determine the investment cost of the coffee shop based on the standards I had during my time at Lukou. Instead, my model should be similar to Xia Fanye’s “West of the Old City” coffee shop, which he had invested only a few ten thousand RMB in. However, significantly reducing the investment would make profitability a risky proposition. In this regard, “West of the Old City” was also a template; such unprofitability had nearly destroyed Xia Fanye’s faith.
My consciousness became blurred in this back-and-forth thinking, and shortly after, I fell asleep.
…
The next morning, I woke up to the intermittent sounds of someone rummaging around in the room. Sure enough, I saw Mi Cai with her back to me, squatting on the floor and peering into the gap beneath the cabinet. My mind wasn’t fully awake yet, and I instinctively asked, “What are you clattering around looking for?”
Mi Cai turned around and looked at me, asking, “Have you seen my car key?… I clearly remember putting it on the cabinet last night.”
I finally became alert but replied without hesitation, “I locked the car key up… Use Ban Da’s car for these few days; anyway, he’s already on annual leave and hardly needs the car.”
Mi Cai slightly furrowed her brows, “Why did you lock up the car key?”
“Let’s just keep this between us… Be good, go borrow Ban Da’s car if you need one. Plus, the fuel cost for his car is subsidized by his company; it’s free to use, so why not!”
“Zhaoyang, what you did is not right…”
“The more you say that, the more it proves you have the intention to sell the car… Preventing you from doing this is the correct thing for me to do.”
“But what about your coffee shop?”
“So you admit it then?”
“500,000 isn’t a small amount for us right now. Rather than mortgaging the house for a loan, it’s better to sell a car that we don’t use much… Think about it, after I start working, I can’t possibly drive that car to work, right?… It would definitely invite gossip from colleagues, which isn’t good.”
“We’ll talk about what happens after you start working later on… Anyway, I won’t agree to you selling that car. You have to believe me. Within a month at most, I’ll find a way to open my coffee shop, and it will definitely be profitable!”
Mi Cai looked at me with skepticism… At this moment, my mom was already calling us to eat outside. I didn’t let her focus on this matter anymore, got up from the bed, and pushed her towards the living room, then put on my sweater and coat before going to the bathroom to wash up.
…
That morning, Mi Cai ultimately couldn’t convince me otherwise, so she drove Ban Da’s car with my mom to the market, and the market was just the beginning; she would gradually become familiar with this industrial city.
Even in winter, Ban Da’s passion for fishing remained undiminished. He had left home before my mom and Mi Cai, so the house was left with only me. Naturally, I didn’t idle away my time either. I sat in Ban Da’s study and began searching the local classifieds website for shop transfer information, hoping to find a breakthrough there.
Often, transfer information on local classifieds websites reflects the local market, from which I could gather a lot of information… In fact, most coffee shops surviving in Xuzhou relied on their geographical advantages in the commercial districts, and they were almost all combined cafes offering Western cuisine. For a city like Xuzhou, the conditions for independent coffee shops were not optimistic, and there had been attempts before, but most ended up poorly managed, which was why I saw many transfer listings for unique coffee shops on the local classifieds website.
Lighting a cigarette, I began doubting myself. In fact, the coffee shop we had invested in during my time at Lukou wasn’t a traditional unique coffee shop either. We had created its unique character while also catering to the local market. The coffee shop in Xuzhou operated under Lukou also offered light meals and occupied a prime location, which allowed it to remain profitable.
After this brief self-doubt, I still refused to give up on running a unique coffee shop. I believed that as long as my marketing strategies were appropriate, I could successfully run a profitable unique coffee shop in this city with a population of several million.
After stubbing out the cigarette, I recorded all the addresses of the coffee shops listed for transfer. At ten o’clock in the morning, I started riding my mom’s electric bike to visit each one, hoping to find a coffee shop with a location I liked that I could temporarily take over. I believed that amidst the generally bleak situation for unique coffee shops, I might find an opportunity among these shops looking for a new owner.
…
From morning until dusk, I visited each of these coffee shops one by one, but the results left me somewhat disappointed. There was always some reason or another why they weren’t satisfactory, or the owners felt my commitment wasn’t strong enough and refused my offer.
There were only two coffee shops left that I hadn’t visited yet, and I headed toward one of them…
On the way, I was adjusting my plans in my mind while recalling whether any of the visited coffee shops were worth taking over. Honestly, taking over would be a risk because their transfer fees weren’t low. I also noticed that when they originally opened, they all had ideas for their unique coffee shops, so their investments weren’t small. However, the flat market didn’t give them many opportunities, and they weren’t willing to accept losses, so they shifted the burden onto the next person taking over… But the buyers weren’t foolish either. As long as they could wait patiently for the right opportunity, there would always be someone who couldn’t bear the losses anymore and would sell the coffee shop cheaply.
This dusk had no sunset. I rode my electric bike over the snow, gradually approaching the northernmost part of the city, where the urban atmosphere was almost gone, but the air here was noticeably better than in the city. At least along the way, I had already seen two small man-made lakes, and the surrounding greenery was quite good. Although it was a bit remote, the developers hadn’t given up on this area either. There were two zones nearby that had already been designated for real estate development.
Finally, I found the coffee shop called “Black as White” in a newly built residential area on the first floor of a commercial district… At first glance, it was hard to imagine someone opening a coffee shop in a place near the suburbs that hadn’t formed a commercial area yet. But I admired the owner’s courage; it took not only bravery but also a kind of absurd artistic spirit…
I didn’t immediately enter the coffee shop but instead looked around… From a distance, I faintly saw a large chimney emitting smoke, and the whole world suddenly felt empty, yet my imagination ran wild… This feeling was very subtle! So much so that it felt as if something on my heart had peeled away, emitting a transparent glow that pierced the distance, piercing through the horizon, piercing through the world…
I stood there for quite a while before finally entering the coffee shop. The interior layout was very simple, but the items inside were quite scattered—there was a black and white television, a gourd painted black, and white chairs and tables… and so on. Although scattered, the colors were unusually monotonous, except for the colorful hair clip worn by the owner’s wife.
Having worked in this industry for over a year, I had seen many unique coffee shops, but I had never seen one with such visual impact as the one in front of me. If the lights were off, it felt as if you were placed in the transition between night and day, feeling lonely and melancholic…
I didn’t immediately state my purpose. After choosing a window seat, I said to the owner’s wife, “Please bring me a cup of your signature coffee, Black as White.”
The owner’s wife simply nodded, then adjusted the wooden-framed glasses on her face. While she was making the coffee, I couldn’t help but observe her. If beauty were the standard for judging women, she would hardly be considered beautiful. Her appearance was quite ordinary, her figure small and slightly short, but her fair skin added a bit of charm to her…
My attention was no longer on her, and I once again looked out the window at the outside world. Surprisingly, I could see all the way to the farthest point without any obstruction…
I saw again the tall chimney in the distance, reduced to the length of a finger… My mood began to change chaotically, as if I had returned to the industrial era, far away from the current civilization… My heart suddenly became calm, then melancholic and lonely… All of these feelings were brought to me by the unique scenery outside the window. In this coffee shop, I seemed to have lost Mi Cai, unable to feel her presence… This was the reason for my loneliness and melancholy. This place was a separate world, but I was also clearly aware that as long as I wanted to, I could easily return to the world beyond this, easily find Mi Cai, so I felt a sense of security again… This feeling was truly extraordinary, and this coffee shop was also very strange.
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