Chapter Ninety-Four: Where Dreams Take Flight

In the days that followed, I spent most of my daytime making rounds at the shop space in the eastern district of the city. I sketched out the floor plan with a pen, then went home to study the renovation scheme in detail. At night, I would occasionally seek out Zhao Kewen to help me think through marketing ideas, and I planned to handle the early publicity on my own as much as possible.

After hearing my thoughts, Zhao Kewen agreed without the slightest hesitation that she would do everything she could, through her own channels, to expand my shop’s sales avenues. Her nod made me even more hopeful about the shop’s future, because the marketing of Far Shore Bar had been extremely successful by then and had firmly attracted a loyal following. Although I was only opening a cold-drinks shop, seemingly with nothing at all to do with her bar, I could still borrow the name of an affiliated little shop under Far Shore Bar and use it as a roundabout way to spread the word. Besides, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain. Once the customer base of the cold-drinks shop grew to a certain size, there might even come a day when I could seriously consider cooperating with Kewen-jie, for example by launching themed events or creating interaction between the two shops. Those were all excellent win-win possibilities.

Kewen-jie’s help made me far more confident about starting a business, yet her behavior during that period was a little strange. Every day she kept her phone in her hands, I had no idea who she was talking to. I remembered that the last time she had been so absorbed in chatting was before her breakup. Ever since her relationship fell apart, I had rarely seen her fussing with her phone. Could it be that Kewen-jie had something going on?

From time to time, I would ask her casually, “Sis, business is really busy lately, isn’t it? Which boss are you talking deals with?”

Zhao Kewen, however, always answered smoothly, never letting me get anything useful out of her. “I’ve set my sights on a pretty young boy,” she said. “I’m planning to take him down in a few days.” As she spoke, she even licked her lips in a particularly seductive way.

I could only shake my head in exasperation and smile wryly. I knew very well that Zhao Kewen was most likely joking, but I still couldn’t help letting my thoughts wander. Before I knew it, I was convinced once again that Kewen-jie must have been some kind of female demon reborn. No matter how serious the matter or how solemn the words, once they came out of her mouth they always sounded so full of hidden temptation and impossible to ignore.

The lease was signed on an afternoon when autumn rain was falling. Shi Yu-jie, dressed in a pale-yellow women’s coat, remained as gentle and elegant as ever. During this signing, she showed once more her astonishing gift with words and her talent for business, leaving Zhou Chang speechless on many details and quietly driving the price down again and again. From the shop’s location to its interior style, nothing escaped Shi Yu-jie’s pressure on the price. In less than an hour, Zhou Chang finally gave in and signed the final rental contract with me.

Looking at the copy of the contract in my hand, I felt my heart fill with excitement and exhilaration, because all my dreams would begin to take shape within this one-hundred-square-meter little shop. I looked at Shi Yu-jie but did not say another word of thanks, because to me, all such words would only be an insult to the bond between Shi Yu and me.

“This was a real bargain. Renting it for a full year only comes to a little over sixty thousand, and with the extra half year free, we only need to pay thirty thousand for the whole year to get such a large shop!” I said, sheltering under my umbrella and giving Shi Yu a thumbs-up with great excitement. “Sis, you really saved me. All the problems tied to capital have been solved now.”

Shi Yu walked beside me at an unhurried pace and smiled with confidence. “Of course. You should at least know who I am.”

“You pushed the price down that hard. Weren’t you afraid he’d refuse to rent it to us?” I asked, glancing at the world around us, washed even brighter by the heavy rain.

Shi Yu took out her phone and gave it a little shake before explaining, “If he dared not rent it to us, I’d have a way to make sure he couldn’t rent it out to anyone else. Besides, I’d already checked earlier. This place has actually been vacant for quite a while. I’m sure Zhou Chang was more anxious than we were. With all these conditions in place, if I still didn’t bargain, wouldn’t that make me a fool?”

“Sis... I’m starting to realize you can be pretty wicked sometimes,” I said, laughing as I looked at her.

“Ha? Isn’t it all because you’ve influenced me?” Shi Yu shot me a mock-glowering look, then lightly slapped me.

I pretended to dodge, and Shi Yu was briefly exposed to the rain. Then she ran after me again, continuing our playful scuffling.

The cold raindrops, which had seemed icy at first, somehow grew warm in the midst of our teasing and laughter. The sky was hazy and gray, yet my heart was full of sunshine at that moment. Watching both Shi Yu and myself gradually get soaked as we played around, I laughed out loud with genuine ease. We were like a couple enjoying our life together in the rain, savoring our own happiness.

After the payment for the property was settled, I immediately began making intensive preparations on the equipment side. But when it came to these rather technical matters, I was a complete amateur. After much thought, I decided to hand the equipment purchase over to Yang Xiaoyu without hesitation. She knew far more than I did, and she could judge more accurately the cost-performance ratio of each piece of equipment.

Originally, I had prepared a whole set of persuasive arguments before going to see Yang Xiaoyu, but to my surprise she agreed with almost no hesitation at all. Her reason, however, made me break into a slight sweat. “I’m helping you only because I want to see how far your shabby little shop can actually go.”

I muttered to myself, Would there really be employees who talk to their boss like that?

Once I handed the equipment purchase over to Yang Xiaoyu, a great deal of pressure was lifted from my shoulders. In truth, I hadn’t made these plans recklessly. Before this, I had gone to see Rose again. At first, I had hoped to get help from her, but she very calmly told me to go find Xiaoyu instead, which was what finally made me decide.

As for staffing, I still wanted Yang Xiaoyu to help me for the time being, while I would take on the role of a waiter myself. That way, I could save a large sum of money, and it was also the safer option. After all, the shop was still under construction, and nobody could guarantee what the future would look like. If profits really turned out badly, at least I would avoid the ridiculous outcome of going bankrupt in a single month.

I had already told Yang Xiaoyu about this decision long before. After all, expecting just the two of us to run a shop of more than one hundred square meters sounded almost fantastical. If she thought it was unreasonable, we could still discuss it further. The fewer people we had, the greater her workload would be, and I couldn’t let her bear too much pressure just because I was afraid of losing money or wanted to earn more. I had a responsibility to tell her exactly what I was thinking.

When Yang Xiaoyu heard that the shop would only have the two of us, she did not look especially surprised. It was only when I said I would be the waiter that she burst out laughing. “You’re exactly the kind of old-style village miser from the old days, the sort who gets stingier the richer he becomes.”

I could only smile bitterly and not know how to explain myself. The reality was just like that, and it was not unreasonable for her to think that way.

Still, Yang Xiaoyu was very reasonable. She did not make any further demands for higher pay or other benefits. After mocking me for a while, she nodded to show she understood. In her words, “Making cold drinks is actually the same as writing or painting. It isn’t just about chasing output; quality matters even more. Even if you hired a few more people, it might not necessarily produce any better results.”

After several rounds of discussion, the staffing and equipment issue was finally settled between Yang Xiaoyu and me. She would help me choose, in the shortest possible time, the various machines and materials she considered suitable, while the final decision would still be mine. Although I felt a little embarrassed, I had no better solution for the time being.

In the end, the most crucial part left was the renovation of the shop, which was also the part I had thought about most and in the greatest detail. From the signboard to the flooring, I pondered every detail again and again before daring to finalize anything.

My idea could be summed up in two words: originality.

The shop’s main color scheme would be black and white: pure white walls, a pitch-black ceiling and floor, cups with black patterns, and custom-made tables and chairs all in black-and-white tones. In the main hall, I planned to design multiple folding panels so that the layout could be changed according to different ideas and inspirations, allowing for much greater freedom in how the space was used.

When I explained this idea to Shi Yu, who had come to the shop with me, she hesitated for a long while before saying, “If you really decorate it according to your idea, then it won’t just be what you call originality. I think it’ll be more like eccentricity. I’ve never seen a cold-drinks parlor like this before—it’s practically unheard of.”

“I want to express the concept of a road,” I said, doing my best to explain myself. “Everyone walking along the road of life is bound to encounter different joys and hardships, just like those cups of cold drinks. Every turn leads to a different flavor. Some people are seeking family happiness, some are seeking the peak of their careers, and some want to live without regrets. Along these roads, each person chooses different flavors of cold drinks according to their own preferences—some sour, some sweet, some bitter, some astringent. That’s life. Whether you succeed or not is not measured by how far you’ve walked, but by what it is you are looking for.”

“In other words, it’s the concept of ‘searching’ that you were talking about?” Shi Yu was very smart and immediately grasped the key point.

“That’s right!” I said with a smile. “It’s about seeking. The shop will be called Seek, and inside it there will be countless roads. As for what flavor to choose, that’s entirely up to the customers themselves.”

“The idea is indeed very good... but using only black and white to express so much, I think very few customers will really understand what it means.” Shi Yu rested her chin in her hand and spoke while thinking. “If the meaning and positioning of the shop aren’t clear enough, people may well end up feeling it’s neither fish nor fowl.”

“I thought about that too,” I said. “In the end, I decided to solve it in the simplest way possible.” I pointed at the pure white walls. “I’ll directly write out the meaning of Seek and the concept of the road, so that when people come in, they can immediately understand the significance of the colors and the meaning of the name. In that way, this decorating style that may seem strange at first could gradually be accepted by everyone. And I believe that once it is accepted, our shop will definitely be remembered by the customers forever.”

Looking at the empty room, I felt excited and restless, with the sense that everything was ready except for the final push. Since I had chosen to do this in the first place, then I would do it to the very best of my ability. Even if the future was impossible to predict, I had to keep an unwavering faith in victory. I kept cheering myself on. After struggling for so long, the process no longer mattered. All I cared about was the result.

Whether this place could help me realize my ambitions, I did not know. But I was certain of one thing: this little room, still plain and unremarkable at that moment, was the place where my dreams would take flight.