Ch 22 - A clever negotiation

TL-ed by weiisnothere

There’s only a few days of break left. Luo Lin was swamped with the renovation work for the internet cafe, and it wasn’t as easy as he imagined. The various materials and design plans confused him to no end.

However, funds were no longer an issue. Luo Lin originally intended to find people to invest in stocks, but later on, he lied to his mother about wanting to play overseas during the holidays. Without a second word, she transferred $50,000 to him with no questions asked.

When the matter was resolved, Luo Lin didn't heave a sigh of relief. Instead, he felt an inexplicable sense of inferiority arise within his heart.

‘...In the end, I’m still a worthless and incapable rich second generation.’

Once that thought flashed in Luo Lin’s mind, the deep scar hidden within once again resurfaced.

When Pan Jiajun, who was the leader of the Capital’s Four Pincesl, was at his age, he was capable of calling forth rain and wind in the business world and more. However, Luo Lin still had to ask his mother for money just to open up an internet cafe. There was no comparison at all.

Luo Lin took a deep breath and calmly laid down on the sofa. He reminisced about the emotions he felt when he first returned and he couldn’t help but let out a deprecating laugh: 'It’s easy to say that but it’s harder to put it into action.'

'So what if I’ve undergone a rebirth? So what if I possessed knowledge of the future?'

'I still have to work hard.'

'All plans are floating clouds. I should take a step at a time and be down to earth, that is the right way.’

Luo Lin aspires to become a tycoon that’s capable of holding up a piece of heaven. Once he achieves that, he will head to the capital and pit himself against those arrogant rich heirs.

Unfortunately, the current him isn’t good enough.

However, when Luo Lin thought about it in another perspective, he realized something. Whether someone was poor or rich, it all began from the status of a civilian.

In current times, those who were rich resorted to money as a means to differentiate themselves with tiers and positions. To put it frankly, we were all merely upstarts from a third world country.

These words were spoken by the elderly who passed down the authentic Taiji Palm method to Luo Lin during his former life. Even when he thought about it now, those were words of wisdom worth analyzing.

Those were coarse words, but the meaning contained within were not.

Luo Lin laid down with his hands behind his head. The memories of both lives seemed to have blurred, he couldn’t tell which was real and which was fake.

After some time, Luo Lin’s churning thoughts finally subsided, and his mind gradually calmed down.

On his face, the unique smile that belonged to him emerged: ‘All of these are groundless fears. If I'm a man, then I just need to fu*king do things properly. No matter how much I think, it’s all a waste of time in the end.'

"Ring ring ring..."

All of a sudden, Luo Lin's cellphone rang. It was from an unknown number, but he picked it up without much thought.

The call went through and even though the other party hadn’t spoken, Luo Lin had already guessed who it was from.

However, he didn’t speak and with a smack, he hung up the phone.

After a few moments passed, his phone rang again. Luo Lin turned on the loudspeaker function and placed the phone on the table.

As expected, the other party remained silent.

Luo Lin smiled and hung up the phone.

This went on for 4 to 5 times, and as Luo Lin was about to hang up the phone for the 6th time, the other party ran out of patience and spewed angrily: "Obedient Little Luo, you’re pretty patient aren’t you huh."

It was a woman's voice, and within the anger was a tinge of a sharpness belonging to that of a beautiful older woman. Luo Lin knew he made the right guess, but he didn’t answer her question, he simply stated: "Lady, I’m not Obedient Little Luo, my name is Luo Lin."

"So what are you going to do about it? I just love calling you Obedient Little Luo."

The woman on the phone rebuked in an unquestionable tone before chuckling, "Did you forget? I mentioned that if you don't pick up my phone calls, I will spill the beans about you taking advantage of me that night to your Qin... cough cough, I will tell your Aunt Qin. Little buddy, are you afraid now?"

At the end, she let out "he he he" sounding waves of laughter. She seemed very interested in regards to Luo Lin calling Qin Wanshu "Aunt Qin".

Luo Lin spoke calmly: "Miss Song, I have picked up your phone, but whether I choose to hang up is my freedom right?"

Miss Song rebuked in an unsatisfactory manner: "It's Song Meiyuan!"

"Yes yes yes, (Song Meiyuan) Sending US Dollars? Can you send me some Euros instead? I heard that US Dollars had been depreciating, I don't dare to keep it."

TL Note: Luo Lin played a pun on Song Meiyuan’s name. It sounds similar to sending US dollars.

Song Meiyuan didn’t respond as he wished and switched the subject: "Little Fellow, a big beauty like me is calling you personally, aren’t you going to show some gratitude?"

"What gratitude? Treating you to dinner? I'm sorry beauty, I'm very busy."

Luo Lin didn’t lie. As the internet cafe has recently been taken over, he needs to spend a lot of time obtaining a business license and renovation.

The campus was re-opening tomorrow, so he had no time to cultivate any sentiments with this sister. Even if he wished to cultivate sentiments, then it must be with his dear Qin Wanshu isn’t that right?

However, Song Meiyuan's next words surprised Luo Lin. When she heard Luo Lin mentioning being busy, she chuckled: "Busy with what? Busy working on your internet cafe business procedures? Or is it the renovations? Or did your followers invite you for a massage?"

This time, it was Luo Lin who went silent. Song Meiyuan wasn’t in a hurry either so she waited for Luo Lin to take the initiative to speak.

After some time, Luo Lin's indifferent voice sounded: "You investigated me? That’s not a very good habit."

Song Meiyuan chuckled: "Obedient Little Luo, are you angry?"

"I am Luo Lin."

"Haha, I can find stuff about you with a little search... Not only these, but I also know that you’re the young master of Luo Enterprise. Your uncle is our Zhengzhou City's Municipal Committee Secretary, as for your grandpa... I don't need to go on do I?”

“On the campus, you’re a delinquent. You do nothing all day, and hang out with the biker gangs at the Night Market Street. You gave our Wanshu a lot of headache. She asked me a lot of times regarding a problematic youth like you, and how she could educate you. Tsk tsk”

At this time, Luo Lin smiled instead of being mad. What she said was true, Luo Lin's background wasn’t a secret. All it took was a little search and you can find everything about him.

However, he doesn’t know what Song Meiyuan planned on doing, what was she planning to do to a minor like him?

"Miss Song, are you that idle, why are you harassing me?"

"It sounds so bad when you put it like that, but you shouldn’t think toward those unhealthy aspects. I have no interest in you. It's all because of my kind and innocent Wanshu... sigh little fellow, I finally know how a high school student like you could tug Qin Wanshu's heartstrings when so many princelings couldn’t."

"It doesn't seem to be any business of yours?" Luo Lin realized that his voice lacked a little confidence, "Then again, Aunt Qin and I have a very pure relationship."

"Don't spew nonsense with me, I can see through the little thoughts of yours. Wanshu is too pure, she wouldn’t know even if she was lied to by you. I’ve been sisters with Wanshu for more than ten years, how could I watch her enter the tiger's den without doing anything?"

'What the heck is this?'

Luo Lin was starting to get impatient. He has a good relationship with Aunt Qin so what was this woman blabbering about.

"Are you done? If you're done speaking then I'm hanging up."

"Oh, stop, hold on." Song Meiyuan was still smiling, "Don't you wish to settle the issues with your internet cafe? If you’re willing to cede to my request, then I'll help you with the renovation and it would be half of what the market price is offering.”

“Anyways, a rich young master like you won’t care about these spare change right? It’s just money used for fooling around right? Coincidentally, I have nothing to do as well so let's work together."

These words tugged heavily on Luo Lin's heart. He was worried about these matters, but if it could be settled easily, then he could hand everything to Little Chuan with assurance. After that, he would be able to focus on more important matters.

It must be said that Song Meiyuan was a master at negotiation, she was amazing at picking out weaknesses.

'...but, there’s one issue, what was she after?' What was her motive?’

According to Song Meiyuan’s words, she was worried that Qin Wanshu might be fooled, but that excuse was so bad that even a kid wouldn’t be fooled.

Luo Lin's voice turned cold: "I don't like your way of negotiation, give me a reasonable statement or this phone call will be our last conversation."

Song Meiyuan could tell that Luo Lin was getting impatient so she stopped joking around and spoke truthfully: "To tell you the truth, I’m from Beijing. I came to Zheng Zhou City this year to attain my master's degree. Therefore I wanted to find something to do. At the same time, it’s so I could inspect you.”

“I want to see how far you’d be able to develop. I’ll help you with all the procedures, but I want 30% of the stakes.”

“In the future, we’ll be business partners. Doing some stuff in Zheng Zhou City will keep me from boredom. The most important thing is that with me here, you won’t be able to do anything bad to my family’s Wanshu. God knows if you'd put drugs in her drinks..."

Speaking of "drugging", Song Meiyuan's tone became a little unnatural and stiff at the end.

In Song Meiyuan's brain, a picture emerged that made her flush red. Within the dimly lit room, Luo Lin pressed her roughly against the bed, he then unbuttoned her clothes to perform acupuncture on her stomach.

During all that, she shamelessly rubbed her body against Luo Lin, and gasped: "Little Obedient Luo, I’m thirsty... I’m thirsty..."

Noticing the silence on the other side, Luo Lin instantly knew what the other party was thinking about.

He then spoke shamelessly: "Don't think of unhealthy things, I have given you acupuncture in a gentlemanly manner that night. If you have any weird sensations, then that’s from the needles poking you, not me poking you. I didn’t do anything."

"Click."

Suddenly, the phone had been hung up.

Luo Lin smacked his lips awkwardly, he had no other meaning. The Chinese language was so wide and profound that a random phrase might contain another layer of meaning. If he said something wrong then it would be embarrassing.

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly and placed his phone to the side. When he recalled the conversation between him and Song Meiyuan, he realized that she could not possibly have any ill intentions. According to the reason she compiled, it is very believable.

According to his knowledge, Aunt Qin didn’t have many friends. If it was a friend she knew for many years, then their family background must be extraordinary.

One must know that when Qin Wanshu was younger, she grew up in a military district courtyard. All of the kids who grew up there were children of officials.

Coincidentally, Song Meiyuan was a smart woman. She came here to study, and wanted to spend some money to operate a business for some income.

If Luo Lin were to work with this woman, he would be freed of all thinking burdens. Business was business, that was for the best.

Also... cough cough, Luo Lin had some goodwill toward Song Meiyuan. She seemed pretty alright as a friend, in the future, there would be two beauties having dinner with him.

The most important aspect was that Song Meiyuan could assist him in alleviating the immediate crisis so why not?

At this moment, his phone rang.

When Luo Lin picked up the phone, he heard Song Meiyuan’s high-spirited voice as though nothing happened earlier: "What, have you decided?"

"I’ll leave the procedures and the renovation to you, everything must be done by the end of the next month. However, I’ll only give you 20% of the stakes." Luo Lin was concise and comprehensive.

Song Meiyuan was also straightforward: "Then it's a deal?"

"I hope our cooperation will be pleasant."