17: Chapter 17 There's always a way out!

Seeing Shen Yan spacing out, the old man waved a hand in front of him.

"Why'd you go quiet, young man? Come! You helped me find my money, so I'm treating you to tea!"

Shen Yan happened to be tired, so he decided to rest inside for a bit before heading to work.

Once inside the house, the old man invited him into the living room.

"Take a seat. Where exactly did you find my money?"

Shen Yan squeezed out three words through his teeth: "The garbage dump."

Even though he was now far away from the dump, that smell still lingered under his nose, refusing to dissipate.

Hearing this, the old man burst out laughing.

"No wonder you smell so bad!"

"Drink some tea, drink some tea."

Shen Yan nodded and picked up the teacup, just about to take a sip.

A sharp curse rang out in his ear.

"You old geezer! You actually dared to hide private savings behind my back!"

It was the old woman scolding Zhao Qian.

Zhao Qian said with a guilty face, "I didn't hide private savings. That money was given to me by Xiao Ba; I just put it away..."

The old woman didn't believe him at all.

She walked over, grabbed Zhao Qian's ear, and said, "You still dare to argue! If it weren't for this kind-hearted person returning the lost money to us, your money would be gone!"

Zhao Qian grumbled in a low voice, "That's only because you... why did you have to clean the warehouse for no reason..."

Shen Yan watched them bicker with great amusement.

"You two have such a great relationship."

The old woman's face turned red, and she turned away with a huff. "Who has a good relationship with him?!"

Zhao Qian rubbed his ear, grimacing as he said, "Right, right, right. She's so fierce; my relationship with her isn't good at all!"

Looking at the scene before him, Shen Yan felt a bit sentimental.

His parents used to be like this too.

Though they always bickered over small things, their bond was actually as solid as gold.

Not wanting to dwell on sad memories, Shen Yan changed the subject. "The tea at your home is really delicious."

At the mention of tea, Zhao Qian's expression changed.

He replied with a face full of pride, "Of course! This is tea we specifically imported!"

"Sigh... it's just a pity that there aren't many supply channels right now."

Shen Yan raised an eyebrow and asked, "No supply channels?"

Zhao Qian nodded, pouring tea for Shen Yan as he replied, "This tea is called Yellow Biluochun Green Tea. It's a specialty from another province; almost no one imports it here."

"Even if they do, the price has been driven up very high."

Shen Yan blinked and took another taste of the tea in his hand.

Seeing this, Zhao Qian thought he really liked it and immediately said, "Although I don't have much left, if you like it, you can take some back with you when you leave."

Shen Yan shook his head and replied, "No, that's not what I meant... wait a moment!"

With those words, he walked to the side to call Brother Sun.

The other party answered his call instantly.

"What's up, Little Shen?"

Shen Yan got straight to the point.

"Brother Sun, is the variety of tea you have in your hands called Yellow Biluochun Green Tea?"

Brother Sun's hearty voice came through the phone.

"That's right! It's called Yellow Biluochun Green Tea. How about it? The name sounds nice, right?"

Shen Yan didn't respond to that and asked instead, "So, how much of that tea do you have in total?"

Although Brother Sun found it a bit strange, he still answered.

"Actually, not that much, just about a hundred kilograms."

Having gotten his answer, Shen Yan replied, "Alright, I got it."

With that, he hung up the phone and walked back to the tea table.

"Mr. Zhao, I'd like to talk business with you."

Zhao Qian was stunned for a moment.

"Talk business? Why the sudden talk of business?"

Shen Yan replied, "Because I happen to have Yellow Biluochun Green Tea in my hands. Didn't you want a supply channel? I have one right here."

Zhao Qian set down his teacup and leaned back against his chair.

"Such a coincidence? Then how much tea do you have?"

Shen Yan held up one finger. After seeing it, Zhao Qian asked, "A thousand kilograms?"

A thousand kilograms?!

Shen Yan's eyes widened; he seemed to have underestimated the scale of Zhao Qian's business.

After a brief moment of surprise, he spoke the real number truthfully.

"I have a hundred kilograms on hand."

The next second, Zhao Qian laughed.

"Pfft, hahaha! You only have that tiny bit of tea and you want to do business with me?"

Shen Yan immediately followed up, "I don't have much tea right now, but I have a stable supply channel. As long as we can continue to cooperate, I can definitely provide the quantity you want."

Zhao Qian fell silent.

Shen Yan knew he was considering it, so he didn't disturb him and let him think.

After a long while, Zhao Qian asked, "What about the price?"

Regarding the market price of tea, Shen Yan knew absolutely nothing.

He didn't dare to offer a price easily.

He feared that if he quoted too low, Brother Sun would lose a fortune.

"I don't have much else, but I have plenty of sincerity. How about this: you quote a price first, and I'll see if I can accept it."

Zhao Qian didn't think too much of it, assuming Shen Yan just found it hard to speak up.

"Fine, then... forty per catty?"

Shen Yan narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

Zhao Qian thought he was dissatisfied, so he raised the price again.

"Fifty per catty?"

"Sixty. That is the highest price I can offer!"

As soon as these words were out, Shen Yan immediately agreed.

"Deal! Sixty per catty it is!"

Seeing him agree so readily, Zhao Qian immediately realized his quote was far higher than Shen Yan's psychological expectation.

"You young man... Fine! You were able to return lost money, which shows you have good character. I trust you. Find some time tomorrow or the day after to bring the goods over for my people to inspect."

Shen Yan agreed wholeheartedly, and then he and Zhao Qian exchanged phone numbers.

With the business done and his rest over,

Shen Yan felt it was time to leave.

"Mr. Zhao, I have other things to attend to, so I won't continue to disturb you here."

Zhao Qian nodded, stood up, and saw Shen Yan out of the house.

Just as Shen Yan was preparing to go home to take a shower and change his clothes, Chen Guangke called him.

"Hey, Old Shen! Get to the studio quick! Something big happened!"

Hearing this, Shen Yan didn't hesitate to hail a taxi and rush to the studio.

"No, no, no, I really have to leave!"

"Oh, my dear lady, please just stay a little longer. Old Shen will be here very soon!"

As soon as he walked in, Shen Yan heard the above dialogue.

He set his things aside and asked Wu Ya, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Wu Ya took a deep breath and replied, "I regret it. I want to resign."

Shen Yan's expression turned stern; this was indeed a major issue.

How could the person they finally managed to recruit run away before they even started working?!

"Don't do that. Do you have some concerns? Tell us, and we'll solve them for you."

Wu Ya gave a fake smile and pointed at the wall. "Even though I knew you were just a small studio, I didn't expect your studio to be this sketchy! This is just a warehouse!"

Chapter 18

"Don't get excited yet. Although our studio is just a small warehouse right now, once we get the software up and running, we'll definitely have a company in the future!"

Shen Yan began to paint a rosy picture.

After all, having been a boss before, painting such pictures was second nature to him.

Unfortunately, Wu Ya wasn't buying it.

"Then come find me after you've established your company. I'll be going now."

As she spoke, Wu Ya began packing her things.

Seeing that he couldn't stop her, Shen Yan stood to the side with downcast eyes, saying nothing.

Chen Guangke thought Shen Yan had given up. He walked to Shen Yan's ear and said anxiously, "Say something! We can't just let the person we finally recruited run away like this!"

Shen Yan nudged Chen Guangke with his elbow, signaling him to keep quiet for now.

Chen Guangke didn't understand why and stood there stomping his feet in anxiety.

When Wu Ya finished packing, she found the two of them standing by the wall, lost in thought.

"What are you two standing there for?"

Shen Yan covered his face with his hand and replied, "Don't mind whether we live or die. You can go."

Since he put it that way, how could Wu Ya possibly leave?

"It's not... without me, you can still find someone else."

Chen Guangke couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed a handful of his hair and replied, "The point is, except for you, no one else is willing to come to our studio!"

Wu Ya was speechless; it turned out she was the only one willing to be such a sucker.

Shen Yan cleared his throat and added, "It's okay, really. You go ahead. Just stay for the sake of me saving your dog."

Wu Ya was left speechless.

Wasn't Shen Yan's point exactly that she should stay because he saved her dog?!

After a long while, she sighed and put her things down.

"Fine. If it weren't for you, Xiaobao wouldn't have been found. I'll stay."

Hearing this, Chen Guangke was overjoyed.

Seeing this, Wu Ya added, "Don't be happy too soon. If the studio's situation doesn't turn out as good as you say, I'll still leave in a few months."

Shen Yan replied firmly, "Don't worry, I'm a man of my word!"

Crisis successfully averted.

Both Shen Yan and Chen Guangke breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as they were about to start working, Wu Ya suddenly asked, "Is there a garbage dump nearby?"

Chen Guangke looked back at Shen Yan, looking completely bewildered. "No. Do you need to throw out some trash?"

Wu Ya covered her nose and replied, "No, it's just that for some reason, I keep smelling garbage."

At those words, Shen Yan immediately remembered that he had just come back from the garbage dump.

"Sorry, the smell of garbage is on me. I'll go home and shower before coming back."

Chen Guangke's mouth dropped open in disbelief.

"You went scavenging for trash?!"

Shen Yan nodded, then shook his head.

"It's a long story. Anyway, I went to the garbage dump because I had business there."

Chen Guangke's lips moved as he asked in a low voice, "It couldn't be that the cooperation fell through and you're going to rely on scavenging to support our little studio, right?"

Shen Yan couldn't help but give Chen Guangke a flick on the forehead.

"Shut your jinx of a mouth!"

After going home and showering, Shen Yan received a Bank notification.

[Your account ending in 837 received a transfer of 300,000.00 yuan on May 12th. Available balance is 303,587.89 yuan...]

Seeing the message, the corners of Shen Yan's mouth curled up.

The advance payment had arrived; he could finally go all out.

This time, he was definitely going to take back everything he had lost!

Hengtian Company had only given them one month.

They didn't have much time left and had to work overtime to develop the software first.

After going to the studio to assign the work, he began working overtime there to develop the software.

It wasn't until twelve at night that he realized it was late and he needed to go home.

...

"Why isn't Little Shen back yet? It's already twelve at night..."

"Yeah, I saw Grandma Liu leave already. He couldn't be staying out tonight, could he?"

As soon as Shen Yan reached the bottom of his apartment building, he saw Brother Sun and Sister-in-law Sun chatting by his door.

"Brother Sun, Sister-in-law Sun."

Seeing him, Brother Sun and Sister-in-law Sun hurriedly stood up from the stairwell.

"You're finally back. We've been waiting for you all evening."

Hearing this, Shen Yan was a bit surprised.

"You guys already know?"

Sister-in-law Sun looked at Brother Sun, a bit confused. "Know what?"

Shen Yan replied, "About finding a partner..."

Brother Sun nodded and said, "That's right. We came to find you just to tell you that we've already found a partner."

Shen Yan frowned. He walked to his door, opened it, put his things inside, and then stepped back out. "Brother Sun, Sister-in-law Sun, let's talk in your place."