42: The instinctive hostility between Gu Wanzhou and Rao Shiyun

Li Meifeng was very fond of Li Zhiyan, after all, he had helped her a lot before.

"Okay."

"Alright, then we'll go see him together."

Li Meifeng continued, "How about tomorrow? I'm free tomorrow, and I'll call Gu Wanzhou to ask if she's available."

"We all like this kid, so it's best if we all go together to give him a red envelope."

"Okay, I'll come to your company to find you then."

Rao Shiyun felt a bit reluctant to go with Gu Wanzhou.

Li Meifeng thought about what Gu Wanzhou had asked her.

She was a little worried.

"Oh, and one more thing, the Internet Cafe this kid bought is in a terrible location. The original owner couldn't even keep it going. Gu Wanzhou asked me if I knew anyone who owned an Internet Cafe, hoping to find some ways to revive it."

"It seems this kid is in trouble."

Gu Wanzhou was very worried. Although the kid was talented, he knew nothing about doing business.

The location of an Internet Cafe is crucial, and Li Zhiyan clearly stepped on a landmine; his savings might be completely lost.

"I'll also make some calls and see if I have any friends in the Internet Cafe business. If I can help Li Zhiyan, I will."

After hanging up the phone, she felt a bit dazed. What was wrong with her? She and Gu Wanzhou used to be the best of friends.

But now, she felt a bit hostile towards her.

Could it be because of what Li Meifeng had just said?

Did she really want to be with Li Zhiyan?

Thinking back to when Li Meifeng asked her whether to choose her husband or that kid, her heart seemed to stop for a moment.

Things seemed to be developing in a strange direction.

"I can't overthink this anymore..."

"I should focus on how to help this kid get his Internet Cafe up and running."

Rao Shiyun knew that she and her husband had been together for twenty years, and they were going to discuss remarrying at the end of the year. Overthinking really wasn't fair to her husband and son.

However, she always felt uneasy.

She felt a pang of jealousy because of Gu Wanzhou.

Why did Li Zhiyan tell Gu Wanzhou about buying the Internet Cafe, but not her?

Was it really because, in his heart, Gu Wanzhou's position was more important than hers?

After a long while, she dialed Li Zhiyan's number.

Their contact had actually decreased a bit recently, due to what happened under the willow tree last time.

It often echoed in Rao Shiyun's mind.

It was hard for her to forget; every time she chatted with Li Zhiyan, it would resurface in her thoughts.

She even taught Li Zhiyan how to kiss and find her tongue.

It was truly embarrassing to think about.

"Hello, Aunt Rao."

After Li Zhiyan's voice, sounding like he had just woken up, came through, Rao Shiyun asked, "Li Zhiyan, did Auntie wake you up?"

"No, Aunt Rao, I just fell asleep for a little while. It's fine, I'm young and full of energy."

Rao Shiyun remembered when Li Zhiyan kept trying to find her tongue.

He certainly had a lot of energy.

"I heard you opened an Internet Cafe."

"Yes, Aunt Rao, how did you know?"

Li Zhiyan was a little surprised; currently, only Gu Wanzhou knew about this.

"Your Aunt Gu told me. If Gu Wanzhou hadn't told me, how long were you planning to keep it from me?"

At this moment, Li Zhiyan also heard that Rao Shiyun was jealous.

"Aunt Rao, it's not that I didn't want to tell you; I didn't tell anyone."

"Then how would your Aunt Gu know?"

"Aunt Rao, because the original Internet Cafe owner is Aunt Gu's cousin, so she was there when I bought the Internet Cafe."

"That's how she found out first."

Lying on the headboard, Rao Shiyun felt a sense of relief. It seemed she had overthought things.

Li Zhiyan didn't specifically tell Gu Wanzhou.

At least, Gu Wanzhou's position in his heart wasn't that special. Although he was pursuing Gu Wanzhou, it was impossible for Gu Wanzhou to agree to be with Li Zhiyan.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Auntie heard that the location of your Internet Cafe isn't very good, is that right?"

Li Zhiyan, who had just sat up and was leaning against the headboard, felt a warmth in his heart. Aunts were just better than young girls; they always thought about his troubles and how to help him solve them.

Young girls, on the other hand, thought about how to get money from him and exploit his value.

"Yes, that's right, but Auntie, don't worry, I have a way to solve it."

Rao Shiyun felt that Li Zhiyan was probably putting on a brave face, as young kids always want to appear strong in front of elders. She didn't expose him.

"Okay, Li Zhiyan, get some rest. Tomorrow, Aunt Li and I will go to your Internet Cafe to take a look."

"Okay, Aunt Rao, you also get some good rest."

After ending the call with Li Zhiyan, Rao Shiyun was in a good mood. It seemed this kid wasn't as overly close to Gu Wanzhou as she had imagined, only telling her about buying an Internet Cafe.

"Rao Shiyun, Rao Shiyun, what's wrong with you? Are you really falling for a kid?"

A sense of guilt spontaneously arose.

She felt truly sorry for her husband; not only did she kiss a kid 24 years younger than her, but she also seemed to be developing some different feelings for him.

...

The next day, Li Zhiyan opened the system and saw that the marketing had begun to show results.

The system had already set up a complete top-up bonus system and an on-machine check-in Internet fee system.

Moreover, the Internet Cafe's management system was replaced with a system-customized one.

It included features such as game saves, remembering QQ, private disk space, and Kuaibo lightning-fast downloads.

Looking at the system's introduction, Li Zhiyan was a little envious.

Why didn't he have such a good Internet Cafe when he was young?

Especially Kuaibo lightning-fast downloads—this was simply the Internet Cafe of his dreams!

According to the system's prompts,

the entire Internet Cafe would be full by around 1 PM that afternoon and would remain full every day thereafter.

"It seems I'll really be making a stable profit of thirty thousand yuan a day now, with a thousand yuan deposited every morning when I wake up!"

"Spending two hundred thousand was truly a huge profit!"

Thinking this, Li Zhiyan couldn't help but admire his 20 again.

When Li Zhiyan arrived at Brothers Internet Cafe that morning, he saw Li Shiyu sitting there, lost in thought with a worried expression.

"Manager, why aren't you playing games?"

This severely addicted Internet user idling without playing games really surprised Li Zhiyan. Normally, he should be drinking cola and exploiting bugs in New Year Square.

"Brother Yan, I have a headache. Although our business has improved a bit, usually only a dozen or twenty people are sitting here. If this continues, plus employee salaries, we're going to lose money."

"No wonder Sun Ziyi wanted to sell the Internet Cafe. Buying an Internet Cafe for two hundred thousand was indeed too cheap. Even with good renovations and fast machines, it seems there's not much use."

Li Zhiyan sat down and said nonchalantly, "No need to worry."

"I guarantee business will pick up very soon because I've already done market marketing. Alright, stop looking so gloomy."

"Let's go online and play a couple rounds of CF."

As he spoke, Li Zhiyan felt a bit of regret. Of Tencent Games' three giants, only two were available now.

LOL was only available on the North American server, and the Chinese server wouldn't be online until next year. Otherwise, he could have played a couple rounds of LOL. With his experience, bullying the new players who just joined the game and becoming a casual king shouldn't be a problem.

"Alright, if Brother Yan says so, I'm relieved!"

Li Shiyu logged into CF and played with Li Zhiyan. The female Internet Cafe manager standing at the counter looked at Li Zhiyan with longing in her eyes.

At this moment, a system task was released again.

"Because your Internet Cafe is very popular, Gu Wanzhou and Rao Shiyun are very curious why your Internet Cafe became popular. Please explain the reason in detail."

"Task Reward: 20,000 yuan in cash."

This task was incredibly simple, making Li Zhiyan feel like he was picking up money...

...

Around 9 AM, Rao Shiyun's Audi A6 parked downstairs at Li Meifeng's company.

Upon arriving at the general manager's office, she saw Li Meifeng intently studying something on the computer.

"Meifeng, can we leave now?"

"Wait, I'm looking at colors."

Li Meifeng seemed very focused.

"What color?"

"It's just skin color."

"Mine is coffee bean color."

"Rao Dazhen, what color is your skin?"

Rao Shiyun didn't expect Li Meifeng to be so crazy now. She checked her own skin, which was the first type, peach pink.

"You, always looking at these strange things online."

"No wonder your thoughts are getting more and more... that."

"Let's go quickly!"

Li Meifeng stood up, feeling more and more envious the more she looked at Rao Shiyun.

"Rao Dazhen, I really envy you and Gu Wanzhou."

"The older you get, the more feminine you become, unlike me, unwanted."

"Let's go meet up with Gu Wanzhou first. We'll go together later. Zhang Hongbin is also there, and it seems there's another Internet Cafe owner who came along, wanting to give some pointers to your kid."

Rao Shiyun felt a little surprised. She called and couldn't find anyone who owned an Internet Cafe in her circle of friends.

She didn't expect Gu Wanzhou to have found someone.

In any case, she could finally help Li Zhiyan.

"Alright, let's go then."

"Just take my car."

After driving Li Meifeng to the agreed location, she saw Gu Wanzhou's Benz E, followed by a BMW 5 Series. She recognized the car; it was Zhang Hongbin's.

Zhang Hongbin was standing there, talking animatedly with Gu Wanzhou.

"My friend, Brother Wang, owns a professional chain of Internet Cafes."

"Brother Wang only came here from Zhejiang Province after I pleaded with him for a long time."

"He currently owns more than a dozen Internet Cafes, more than enough to help that kid."

Last time at Xin Yuan Hotel, Zhang Hongbin was quite impressed with Li Zhiyan because he was Gu Wanzhou's suitor.

He was his love rival. At first, he didn't take it seriously, but after seeing Li Zhiyan solve Liu Yan's problem, he felt a sense of crisis.

This time, after hearing that Gu Wanzhou was looking for help with the Internet Cafe, he invited his friend General Wang from Zhejiang Province.

After all, this was a rare opportunity to get closer to Gu Wanzhou and also let her understand that while the kid was young, he wasn't reliable. When problems arose, only a mature man like himself could be depended on.

"Wanzhou."

"Shiyun."

Two exquisite mature women, due to Li Meifeng's constant instigation, both harbored a subtle, underlying hostility towards each other in their hearts. They both wanted Li Zhiyan to be closer to them.

Although for various realistic reasons, neither of them could make up their minds to develop anything with Li Zhiyan,

their instinctive possessiveness still caused a subtle rift to form between Gu Wanzhou and Rao Shiyun.

When General Wang saw Rao Shiyun, his eyes lit up.

This friend of Zhang Hongbin's was quite something; so beautiful and curvaceous, exactly his type.

"Hello, my name is General Wang, and I run a chain of Internet Cafes in Zhejiang Province."

"Hello, Rao Shiyun, and this is Li Meifeng."

After exchanging a few pleasantries,

General Wang felt he had a chance with this woman. He would go to that kid's Internet Cafe later, give some pointers, show off his abilities, and get Rao Shiyun's contact information first.

Men are always like this; even at 60, they will still want to show off in front of beautiful women, and General Wang was no exception.

"Let's go."

Having not seen Li Zhiyan recently, Rao Shiyun truly missed him.

The awkwardness of the kiss had mostly faded, and it was time for her to have a good talk with Li Zhiyan.

The three cars, forming a perfect 56E, drove all the way to the entrance of Brothers Internet Cafe.

After getting out of the car, Rao Shiyun saw Li Zhiyan's back inside the Internet Cafe. For some reason, the image of teaching Li Zhiyan how to lick her tongue resurfaced in her mind.

It made her face flush slightly.

Li Zhiyan also saw the three cars parked outside. He exited his game and came out to welcome them inside.

"Aunt Gu, Aunt Rao."

"Hello, uncles."

Li Zhiyan remembered Zhang Hongbin, and although he didn't have a good impression of him, Zhang Hongbin was clearly with Gu Wanzhou, so he couldn't offend Gu Wanzhou.

Rao Shiyun had a lot to say to Li Zhiyan, but it was clearly not convenient at the moment, and she didn't know where to begin.

"The location of this Internet Cafe really isn't good at all."

"It's extremely remote, no wonder business is so bad."

"Li Zhiyan, taking over this Internet Cafe, you're basically going to be stuck with it."

Zhang Hongbin immediately started belittling Li Zhiyan. Although he was just a kid, he was pursuing Gu Wanzhou, so Zhang Hongbin harbored deep hostility towards Li Zhiyan.

Especially after seeing Gu Wanzhou lean so close to Li Zhiyan as soon as she arrived, he felt an even stronger sense of crisis. Gu Wanzhou had many suitors.

But this kid truly made him feel a sense of danger.

"Yes, Uncle is right."

Li Zhiyan didn't feel like talking so much with him.

Looking at Rao Shiyun in front of him,

he also recalled what happened under the willow tree. It was really hard to get close to Aunt Gu, after all, Aunt Gu's bust was too astonishing.

He only realized how magnificent a woman's bosom could be after experiencing it firsthand.

"Brother Zhang, this kid is a junior of my friend."

"He's young and doesn't know better, so he bought an Internet Cafe like this."

"Can you give him some pointers?"

"Save this Internet Cafe. The kid doesn't have much money; he can't afford to lose it."

General Wang looked around, seemingly deep in thought.

"I have over a dozen chain Internet Cafes under my belt, but I've never seen a situation like this. Before I open an Internet Cafe, I always choose the location carefully and research the distribution of nearby Internet Cafes."

"I've never done something so reckless."

"I need to think hard about this."

Li Zhiyan was already used to this kind of low-level showing off.

In reality, most ordinary people are impatient and like to show off everywhere.

That kind of low-key, unassuming, and unexpressive temperament is only achieved by a very small number of people with extremely high cultivation.

He also noticed that General Wang's eyes occasionally lingered on Aunt Rao.

What a femme fatale; there were truly too many men who liked Aunt Rao and Aunt Gu.

However, his impression in Aunt Rao's heart must have already soured. Aunt Rao wasn't short on money, so this kind of showing off wouldn't impress her.

He glanced at Rao Shiyun, and sure enough, Rao Shiyun's eyes already held a faint, almost imperceptible hint of disgust towards General Wang.

You can think what you want, but why specifically mention that you own over a dozen chain Internet Cafes...

At the same time, upon seeing the Internet Cafe's business situation,

Rao Shiyun's mood completely soured. This kid had created a huge problem for her!

"Guaiguai, congratulations on the opening of your Internet Cafe. Auntie has prepared a red envelope for you."

Gu Wanzhou pulled out a thick red envelope from her bag. It looked like it contained about three thousand yuan.