rokumi’s note : this chapter is the continuation of Whimsical Reads’ Chapter 53 (the latest chapter on NU before I published my translations), but you might also want to check out Chapter 25 and Chapter 26 because Whimsical Reads’ Chapter 46 correlates to raw (and my translation of) Chapter 24 but their Chapter 47 correlates to raw’s Chapter 27.
These days, there are people who win big in the lottery, but for most people, it’s just news they see when they open their computers, or something they hear others mention with surprise. No one would believe it could happen to them. Zhou Jianguo’s first move was to carefully examine the scratch card. After confirming that Luo Bei had indeed won 50,000 yuan, he returned it to her. He sighed and said, “What luck you have.”
Luo Bei was delighted and said, “The fortune teller said I was born with the fate to be rich and prosperous. I didn’t believe it before, but maybe my fortune has just begun?”
Born with the fate to be rich and prosperous?
Zhou Jianguo wanted to laugh, but when he saw the scratch card in her hand, he didn’t know what he was laughing at. He never believed in destiny, but Luo Bei’s experience was a rare face slap. After all, it was him who gave her the five yuan to buy the scratch card, and he never expected her to win 50,000 yuan.
What does 50,000 yuan mean?
For rich people, it’s not a big deal, but for most salaried workers, it’s not a small sum.
Zhou Jianguo quickly calmed down, and he didn’t understand why he wasn’t moved by the huge sum of 50,000 yuan….
“Are you planning to invest it all in a business? That’s probably too risky.”
Compared to those who win five or ten million in the lottery, this 50,000 yuan may not be much, but taxes still need to be paid. After paying taxes, they would still have 40,000 yuan left. The unmanned store currently did not require such a large investment, as it was just a trial.
“How much money do you have on hand?” Luo Bei asked. “How much money do we need to open this store?”
Zhou Jianguo calculated for her, “Finding a storefront with a rent of less than 2,000 yuan should not be difficult. As for the vending machines, we can prepare two of them first, at a cost of around 20,000 yuan. We also need to buy some inventory, which would probably cost a few thousand yuan. In any case, all miscellaneous expenses added up would be around 40,000 yuan. I have 20,000 yuan in liquid funds…”
Hearing him say liquid funds, Luo Bei couldn’t help but smile. This person really has an interesting way of speaking.
Zhou Jianguo : “You just need to invest another 20,000 yuan. I’ll see if there are any suitable second-hand vending machines. Since the budget is now 40,000 yuan, if you’re really sure about partnering with me, we’ll split the shares 4:6.”
Luo Bei : “4:6?”
Zhou Jianguo nodded. “After all, I am not a local, and there are many things that you would have to handle. In name, you will be the boss, but we will sign a contract in private. What do you think?”
He did not even know who he was, and if it was found out that he was holding a fake ID, it would cause trouble.
He naturally didn’t want to give up this one share, but now there was nothing he could do.
Luo Bei was skeptical, but looking at Zhou Jianguo’s sincere eyes, she said, “This is not fair to you, we can also do a 4:6 split, but I’ll put in 24,000 and you put in 16,000.”
“Okay, okay, CEO Luo, it’s deal!”
Who would have thought that Luo Bei would have such an opportunity? Zhou Jianguo suddenly invited her to partner in business, and just when she was still hesitant, she won a big prize of 50,000 yuan. Now, after taking out the investment, she could still keep 16,000 yuan?
It was already evening and the place was bustling with people.
They had been walking side by side, but Zhou Jianguo suddenly stopped and looked at Luo Bei, “I think this business can work, Luo Bei, thank you for believing in me.”
Luo Bei raised her eyebrows and smiled, “Believe it or not, maybe I’m the living maneki neko1 of this shop, after all, I was born with the fate to be rich and prosperous.”
“Okay, maneki neko, we’ll count on you to make our business prosperous from now on.”
After returning home, Luo Bei lay on her bed. The more she thought about it, the more she felt how miraculous everything was. It seemed that even the Gods supported her partnership with Zhou Jianguo. Otherwise, why did she only win the lottery this time, despite having bought so many scratch cards before? It was precisely because she had won the lottery that she had made up her mind to partner with Zhou Jianguo to do business.
Over the past month, Luo Bei and Zhou Jianguo almost met every day to discuss their plan to become wealthy.
Sometimes they would be at Zhou’s rented house, sometimes at the dessert shop, and sometimes just taking a walk in the park. Even Grandma Luo almost believed that the two were dating.
But what was the truth?
When a man and a woman can discuss in detail whether or not certain “products” sell well, and whether or not they are aesthetically pleasing, without any embarrassment or awkwardness, it means they are still ten thousand miles away from being a couple.
“Beibei, just admit it. I’ve seen you go out with Xiao Zhou several times when I went downstairs to buy something!”
During this summer, baby Chen had already learned to crawl and was always restless. Zhao Pianpian had to multitask, taking care of the child while also trying to get Luo Bei to confess.
Meanwhile, Luo Bei was chatting with Zhou Jianguo on WeChat, naturally discussing their products.
She looked up at Zhao Pianpian and sincerely suggested, “Although there’s no chance between me and Xiao Jiang, if you insist on linking me and Xiao Zhou together, I think you might as well say that I have an affair with Xiao Jiang.”
This way is more acceptable to her.
“By the way, I won’t be back for dinner this afternoon. I have something to do,” said Luo Bei.
Zhao Pianpian looked out the window and saw that it was dark and gloomy, and it looked like a heavy rain was about to fall. “It’s going to rain heavily today. What are you going out for?”
If it wasn’t going to rain heavily, the construction site where Zhou Jianguo was located would continue to work, and he would naturally have no time.
“I’m going out precisely because it’s raining.”
Perhaps influenced by Zhou Jianguo, Luo Bei is now full of passion for entrepreneurship. She feels like she’s been injected with chicken blood every day. It’s not that she expects to make a fortune from it, but that she’s doing something she never thought she could do before, and the curiosity and freshness in it are not understandable except for the person involved.
Zhou Jianguo doesn’t have the habit of carrying an umbrella, so Luo Bei took a big black umbrella from home, which is enough for two people.
Two people went around the urban village to investigate unmanned stores. In fact, even in the urban village, these types of stores are not very common, at least not as common as restaurants.
A man and a woman walked into an unmanned store together. People passing by couldn’t help but take a glance and show a “you know what this is” look.
In the past, Luo Bei felt embarrassed about this, but now that she is learning about the source of goods and discussing merchandise with Zhou Jianguo, she has become more thick-skinned. She doesn’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
“Hey, do you think…” Luo Bei and Zhou Jianguo were looking at the undescribed goods in front of the vending machine when she suddenly turned her head and asked, “If I have a boyfriend someday, and I know more about this topic than him, would it be a bad thing? Would he think I’m not a serious person?”
Zhou Jianguo: “Uh…”
“What are you sighing about?” Luo Bei asked.
“If a girl who knows about this kind of thing is considered not serious, then what about guys who have watched so many movies?” Zhou Jianguo said, laughing, “That’s even less serious, the least serious.”
“Not bad, I like your statement.”
As the two were about to leave, a sudden downpour started. Although Luo Bei had brought an umbrella, she decided to wait until the rain subsided a bit before leaving.
The area of the unmanned store was not large, and there was no one coming over at the moment. It was the best place to take shelter from the rain.
After standing for a while, Luo Bei’s legs felt a little sore, and she said, “I’ll buy two small stools when I get back. They’ll come in handy in situations like this.”
“Are you tired?” Zhou Jianguo walked out of the store, looked around, and waved to Luo Bei inside, “There’s a bubble tea shop across the street with available seating. Let me treat you to a drink.”
Luo Bei readily agreed.
The two of them held an umbrella and crossed the street. The rain was too heavy, and although Zhou Jianguo deliberately moved the umbrella towards her, her sleeves still got a bit wet, and her clothes clung to her skin, making her feel uncomfortable.
Inside the shop, Zhou Jianguo didn’t want to drink bubble tea, so Luo Bei ordered one cup of pearl milk tea. The two of them sat on high stools and chatted aimlessly.
Zhou Jianguo’s hands were actually quite attractive, with distinct bone structure and slender fingers. However, perhaps due to his line of work, he was not fair-skinned, and his hands were the same, even appearing a bit rough.
There were scabbed wounds on the back of his hand.
Luo Bei took a sip of her pearl milk tea, the sweet and sticky taste filling her mouth. “Don’t you feel tired working on the construction site every day?”
“Tired.” Zhou Jianguo showed her his palm. “When I first started working on the construction site, my hand was probably even smoother than yours. But look at it now, calloused.”
“Then why do you still do this? With your abilities, even without a diploma, you can find a decent job.” Luo Bei’s words were a recognition of Zhou Jianguo. A diploma is a key, but Zhou Jianguo’s language proficiency and ability were enough to overlook his “shortcomings” in the eyes of others.
“That’s why I’m planning to start my own business.” Zhou Jianguo turned his head to look outside. Since waking up and forgetting everything, he had been busy adapting to his new life. Every day, he woke up and worked hard to earn money, and was too exhausted to think about anything else when he came home. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about his past.
What kind of person was he before? Did he have any relatives?
If so, why hadn’t anyone found him or recognized him?
The internet has been so developed nowadays and he is an adult. If someone really wanted to find him, it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to post a message on the internet.
It’s not him bragging, but his coworkers all said that he was even more handsome than a celebrity. If his photo was posted online with a missing persons notice, someone would surely repost it, right?
Why hadn’t he seen any messages looking for him to this day?
Zhou Jianguo couldn’t help but sink into deep thought. Even if he was an orphan, he must have had a few friends in his life. Or was his personality so bad that even if he disappeared from this world, no one would care?
That would be too sad, and too miserable.
- that white or golden cat whose one hand holds a gold coin with Chinese characters (usually words related to wealth) written on it, and the other hand is raised up like beckoning someone. It’s usually placed in the entrance of a store in belief to bring good luck to the store. ↩︎
Well, there’s stories of people finding their long lost family through social media. But, such cases are far in between. The most reliable and cost saving method is still to report it to the police. Aside from posting the missing people notice in police offices all over the country, they also have access to get some information from civil bureau, hospital, etc. So, the police is a good starting point for ZJG to look for his identity.
Regardless of missing people report, as ZJG is an adult. The police can try to match his fingerprint, teeth record, irises record, and his other biometric data to the existing data in civil bureau or any other related authoritative bureau. It might take a while for them to find his identity. But, if the system and the officers worked well, it should take them less than a year to do than. Meanwhile, they could help him get some temporary identity for convenience (and surveillance 😅). If they couldn’t find his record, he might be a civilian of another country and they can hand over his case to the related bureau. 🥲😅🥲
Ok why luo bei is eing renamed to Robbe?
Sorry about that, I’ve corrected them…. thanks for pointing out