"Sir, I'd like an order of xiaolongbao."
"You got it." The owner was a man in his thirties. Seeing that Lu Fan had ordered xiaolongbao, he quickly started packing them up.
Lu Fan then asked, "Sir, your shop must do pretty good business, right?"
"It's alright. There used to be more people around here, but the foot traffic has died down a bit." The owner chuckled. "Anyway, when there are lots of customers, I'm busy. When there aren't, I get to take it easy."
"What if I wanted to buy this shop from you? I wonder what price you'd ask for it," Lu Fan proposed.
The owner froze when he heard this. "Huh? You want to buy my shop?"
"That's right." Lu Fan nodded.
"Well..." The owner had never expected anyone to want to buy his shop, so he'd never even considered a price.
He gave an awkward laugh. "I spent tens of thousands on renovations... and while this little bun business isn't super profitable, it's enough to support my family, so..."
The owner was about to politely turn Lu Fan down.
But Lu Fan cut straight to the point. "Three hundred thousand. I guarantee you won't take a loss. In fact, you'll make quite a nice profit."
"What?!" The owner's eyes flew open. He asked in astonishment, "Are you saying you'll pay three hundred thousand to buy my shop?"
"Yes."
The owner stammered, "But... this is just a small-time bun shop. For you to spend three hundred thousand..."
"Sir, don't you worry about that," Lu Fan explained. "I'm just bored, and I've taken a liking to your storefront. Thought I'd open a bun shop for fun."
Only after hearing this did the owner realize that Lu Fan was someone for whom money was no object.
In truth, Lu Fan couldn't be bothered to haggle.
As long as he offered a price that was too good to refuse, it didn't matter if it was 200,000 or 300,000. To Lu Fan, it was just a number.
The owner immediately brightened up. "Great, great, great! Then it's a deal."
"I'll have someone come over to sign the contract with you in a bit. Leave me a bank account number, and I'll have the money wired over."
"No problem, no problem! Thank you, sir."
And just like that, in a little over ten minutes, Lu Fan had bought himself a bun shop.
Of course, he didn't care how much money the bun shop could make. His main goal was to get closer to Jiang Yixia.
From this location, all he had to do was look up to see everything going on inside the flower shop.
For this strategic location alone, three hundred thousand was a worthy price to pay.
After leaving, Lu Fan had his assistant, Jiali, handle the contract for the bun shop.
Before he left, he glanced at Jiang Yixia's flower shop and smiled. 'Tomorrow, we'll be neighbors, right across from each other.'
With that thought, he got into his car and headed for the parking apron where his private jet was waiting.
...
「That evening.」
After dinner, Jiang Sifan took a bus to an upscale residential complex.
Following the address information from WeChat, he arrived at the door of the apartment and rang the bell.
A couple of days earlier, he had posted his information on a tutoring website.
Soon after, Jiang Sifan received a message from a parent.
After a brief chat, he learned that the parent had a daughter who was a senior in high school.
Her math grades were abysmal; on a test with a perfect score of 150, she only managed to get a 13.
Even though Jiang Sifan felt a headache coming on when he heard that score.
'A 13 in the first semester of her senior year? You could probably score higher than that by throwing the answer sheet on the floor and stepping on it a few times.'
But he had to do it—to lighten his mother's burden, to save up for his own laptop, and also because Huang Hui wanted a new iPhone.
For all those reasons, Jiang Sifan had no choice but to agree to the interview.
Soon after he rang the bell, the door opened.
A middle-aged woman answered the door.
Though her face showed some signs of age, her figure and overall bearing were impeccably maintained.
You could tell at a glance that she came from a wealthy family.
She looked at Jiang Sifan and asked, "You must be Sifan, right? The college student who applied for the tutoring position?"
"Hello, ma'am. I'm Jiang Sifan," he replied politely.
"Hello, hello! Please, come in." The woman gestured for him to enter.
Jiang Sifan stepped inside and glanced around.
He realized the home of the student he was here to teach was huge—over 150 square meters, by his estimate.
In a place like the Jinling City District, where every inch of land is gold, an apartment like this had to be worth millions.
Seeing this, Jiang Sifan was reminded of the house where he, his mother, and his sister had lived when he was younger.
Although his mother had always kept their home neat and tidy, it was a world away from the spaciousness of his current surroundings.
Jiang Sifan didn't feel discouraged by the contrast. Instead, it strengthened his resolve.
'I have to study hard, graduate, and make a lot of money. I'll buy an even bigger house for Mom and my sister.'
He wasn't afraid of hard work, only of letting his mother and sister suffer.
Of course, he was also afraid of Huang Hui suffering. After all, she was the only one at school who had ever shown him any concern.
Thinking of this, Jiang Sifan knew he had to perform well and land this part-time tutoring job.
"Hello, Sifan. You can call me Aunt Zhang," she said. "Let me tell you a bit about my daughter. She has an extreme aversion to math. She's been bad at it since middle school; she probably doesn't even know the Pythagorean theorem."
"I have a bachelor's degree myself, but I honestly don't know how to teach her anymore. Plus, I've forgotten most of the high school material, so I'm entrusting her to you, Teacher Jiang," Aunt Zhang explained.
Jiang Sifan nodded. "Okay, Aunt Zhang, you can rest assured. I scored a 137 on the math portion of my college entrance exam. It's my strong suit."
"I'm not expecting her to get a 120 or 130—that's unrealistic. If she can just get a 50 or 60 on her final exams, I'll be thrilled. Then, with more hard work, if she could somehow score above an 80 on the college entrance exam, it would be a miracle," Aunt Zhang said tentatively. "She's still very resistant to the idea of tutoring, so please keep in close communication with me, okay?"
"Will do."
Aunt Zhang then turned and called towards a bedroom door, "Lingyi, come out! The tutor Mom hired for you is here."
A girl's voice drifted out from the room. "I don't want a tutor! I don't want to study math! I can't get it, so stop wasting money!"
From her tone, Jiang Sifan could tell the girl had truly given up all hope when it came to math.
'Sometimes, math is just like that,' he thought. 'No matter how hard you try, how much you study, your mind just goes blank when you're faced with a problem. Then one day, it all suddenly clicks. The logic just falls into place, and you realize that math was actually simple all along.'
So, he walked over to the girl's bedroom door and knocked. "Hello? How about this: I'll give you one trial lesson. You can see if you get anything out of it. If not, you and your mother can discuss what to do next. How does that sound?"
The room was silent for a few seconds before the lock finally clicked open.
The girl, who had been sullen and silent, had an exasperated look on her face. But the moment she lifted her head and saw Jiang Sifan, her eyes brightened ever so slightly.
She took a step back, a slight blush on her cheeks, and said, "Then... I'll have to trouble you, Teacher."
"It's no trouble." With that, Jiang Sifan walked in.
Aunt Zhang, watching from the side, seemed to have anticipated this all along.
As they say, no one knows a daughter better than her mother.
She had chosen Jiang Sifan as the tutor not only because of his 137 on the college entrance exam's math section, but mainly because when she saw his photo, she thought he was quite handsome.
And Aunt Zhang knew her daughter had a particular weakness.
A thing for handsome guys.
'She gets that from me.'