Ruan Bei stayed in the store to help his father with some work. Ruan Licheng didn't let him do the heavy work, but he was fine with things like handling the cash register.
When the rain stopped, it was already dinnertime. Ruan Bei had helped out for a while, and as soon as he had a little free time, Ruan Licheng urged him to go home quickly.
Urged on, Ruan Bei cleared away the table of dishes and saw that the flow of people had indeed decreased. He then washed his hands and said goodbye to his father and Aunt Liu.
The bus stop was at the entrance of the old commercial street. His home was just two or three stops away. It was rush hour, and Ruan Bei was too lazy to squeeze onto the bus, so he simply walked back slowly.
The air after the rain was filled with a layer of moisture, making for a pleasant stroll. Especially for Ruan Bei, who had returned after seven years, seeing these street scenes again gave him a strange feeling of being in another world.
As he walked, Ruan Bei compared his future to seven years later, while also pondering if there were any ways to make money.
He had carefully considered the matter over the past few days. He realized that his family's misfortune could be said to have started with the death of that diner a few months later, and avoiding that incident was essential.
It wasn't difficult to avoid this, as he had made more than one mark in advance on his calendar, phone calendar, memo app, and other similar apps.
When the time is approaching, or a month in advance, I'll have my dad close the shop.
As for the reason, whether it was faking illness or something else, he knew that as long as he persisted, he could eventually make his father give in.
If it weren't for the fact that he would be a senior in high school in the second half of the year, his parents would never have left him alone at home. Sending his parents on a trip would have been a good excuse.
Besides this disaster, the Lu family's attempt to reunite with their relatives is also a problem.
It's not that he's talking behind people's backs, Lu Sibai... is really incompatible with the Ruan family.
In his previous life, his mother was lying in the hospital, and he never visited her once. He never swept his father's grave during the Qingming Festival, and he avoided his sister like the plague.
Lu Minghai and Feng Zhihui were very satisfied, feeling that they had raised the child in vain, and they hoped that Lu Sibai would not have any contact with the Ruan family.
Yes, Ruan's parents didn't raise him, but at least they gave him a life. They didn't expect him to do anything for the broken Ruan family, but they hoped he could at least visit his mother who gave birth to him and burn some paper money for his father...
At that time, Ruan Bei secretly went to see his mother. He earned money and divided it into three parts: one part for his own living expenses, one part to save and return to the Lu family in the future, and one part for his sister to pay for their mother's medical expenses.
Sometimes he would think that Lu Sibai looked down on the Ruan family, and he... he didn't want to stay in the Lu family either! He couldn't treat the Lu family members the way he treated his parents and sister.
Thinking about it this way, he seems to be just as bad as Lu Sibai.
That being said, in the previous life, because of the Ruan family's predicament, they were not given a choice. In this life, things are probably not so simple to sort out.
If he only considered himself, he would rather the Lu family never found out that the children had been switched at birth. He didn't want to be the young master of the Lu family, nor did he want to leave his own home.
Unfortunately, he couldn't change this. He didn't even know how the Lu family discovered the mix-up; no one told him, and he didn't dare to ask.
Lu Sibai probably thought the same thing, but unfortunately, he had no say in the Lu family. Lu Minghai didn't want the Lu family's descendants to be left to suffer a "hard life," which was a shameful thing for him.
Mom and Dad might be reluctant to part with Lu Sibai, and they would be happy to keep both children. But if they had to choose one, Ruan Bei shamelessly thought that he had a better chance of winning.
The most difficult part is that he and his parents have little say in dealing with the Lu family.
When the Lu family came looking for him, he was still six months shy of turning eighteen. As an underage person, he couldn't make many decisions for himself, especially since they were his own parents.
Fortunately, in this life he doesn't have to bend down and reach out to accept the "child support" from the Lu family. If he insists, and Lu Sibai also insists, perhaps things will develop in the direction he hopes for.
Both of these things are still far off, so we can make plans for them early, but we don't need to worry about them all the time.
There are two long-term plans that need to be implemented now.
One is his studies.
He wasn't the type of person who was particularly good at studying, but he had achieved decent grades through his own efforts since childhood. If he worked hard in high school, getting into a top-tier university wouldn't be a problem.
However, in her previous life, she suffered a series of setbacks during the crucial time of her senior year of high school. First, something happened at home, and then she was taken back to the Lu family.
Lu Minghai disliked his previous school and transferred him to the private high school that Lu Sibai attended. That school had more international classes for students preparing to study abroad than regular classes, and the curriculum was very different from his previous school.
With the sudden change of environment, family matters, and his mother's illness weighing on his mind, Ruan Bei's grades plummeted.
Before the college entrance examination, he was pushed into a swimming pool and held underwater for a long time. He also fell seriously ill and failed to even reach the undergraduate admission line.
Lu Minghai felt ashamed of him and wanted to send him abroad to study preparatory courses first, and then apply to foreign schools.
Ruan Bei refused to leave no matter what. It was really hard for her sister to take care of her mother all by herself. If it weren't for the help from her uncles, she would have been unable to hold on for a long time.
In the end, Lu Minghai used his family connections to get him into a bottom-ranked second-tier university, where he studied Chinese language and literature, a major that had absolutely nothing to do with the Lu family's company.
Ruan Bei knew that he was wary of him, and he hadn't originally thought about the Lu family's business.
He quite liked this major and studied it diligently, but it's really not easy to make money in this field, and he was short of funds.
He was using the Lu family's money, so he could never stand up straight in front of them. They humiliated and despised him, and he could only endure it. After all, he was using their money.
Or perhaps they are his biological parents, and they should support him.
But after repeated favoritism and neglect, Ruan Bei no longer considered them his family. Since they weren't his family, he should make a clear distinction between them.
At his poorest, Ruan Bei carried a bank card given to him by the Lu family. He didn't know how much money was in the card, but it was at least a million.
He sent all the money he earned to the hospital. He worked as a bricklayer for a few days, earning daily wages and a free lunch.
He knew that his behavior seemed foolish to others. When he was a child, his mother said that Xiao Bei was too soft-hearted and would be bullied.
Dad disagreed, saying he was stubborn, seemingly gentle but inflexible, and wouldn't listen to reason.
He was right. His biological parents and brother looked down on him, suppressed him, and were wary of him, so he stubbornly refused to bow down and please them first.
When he was bullied, he told Lu Minghai, who told him to stop causing trouble. After that, he never contacted his parents again. Where would he find parents to contact?
Thinking about the past made Ruan Bei feel bad, but then he thought that those things would never happen again, and he felt that he could do it again.
He definitely needs to study hard. After his rebirth, he experienced a lot of emotional ups and downs and fell ill, so he took leave from school. He should go back to school tomorrow or the day after.
We should start thinking about making money. Although our family isn't poor, we're not exactly rich either.
My mother's health wasn't good before. She had a difficult childbirth when she gave birth to him—no, Lu Sibai—and her health has been poor ever since. It's cost a lot of money to take care of her over the years.
My father is the only breadwinner in the family. A few years ago, he emptied his savings to buy this shop and even borrowed some money from my uncle. If anything happens, you really can't do without money.
Although he was reborn, he really didn't have any way to get rich quick. He had never paid attention to the lottery or anything like that, and he couldn't get involved in any of the profitable industries he knew of, as he didn't even meet the investment threshold.
Ruan Bei thought to himself that he didn't expect to be rich, but he wanted to earn some money first, so that he would feel at ease if he had money in hand.
After that, he should study hard, get into a good university, and study a major such as medicine, construction, or accounting. He is not very talented, but fortunately he is patient and willing to learn and practice. He is also willing to work hard and learn steadily. With his skills, he will not be afraid of going hungry.
With both he and his sister working, he had a reason to persuade his father to close the shop, rent it out, and earn wages so that his parents could travel and have fun while they were still able to. This was the best life he could dream of.
As Ruan Bei walked and pondered, her gaze swept over the milk tea shops on the street, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
His family's small shop also sells drinks, but sales are so-so; they're basically sold as a side dish.
His father learned the old-fashioned craft, and the desserts in the shop are mostly red bean paste, mung bean soup, or white fungus and black rice. Basically, only diners who come to eat will buy a bowl of these, and very few people come specifically to buy these things.
However, in the old commercial street, there are many people shopping, especially young women. They buy a cup of milk tea while shopping, or sit down at a milk tea shop when they are thirsty or tired. They would not go into a restaurant specifically to order a bowl of porridge or sweet soup.
Ruan Bei had never owned a milk tea shop, but he had worked short-term jobs in one, so he knew the profit margins and how to make some popular milk teas.
He didn't want his dad to open a bubble tea shop; instead, he was thinking about whether they could get a sealing machine and sell cup-packaged drinks on the side.
A sealing machine isn't expensive. If the beverage business is successful, we can develop more product varieties.
This kind of product allows you to buy and leave immediately, taking up no space and not interfering with the store's food business.
That's a good approach. Ruan Bei stepped aside, took out his phone, and wrote it down in the notes app, planning to discuss it with his father sometime.
In just a short while, before the phone could even be put away, raindrops were already falling on the screen.
Ruan Bei looked up and saw dark clouds gathering, the sky suddenly darkening, and the raindrops falling became more and more frequent.
Oh no, I left the umbrella at the store.
He didn't expect that it would start raining again so soon after he left.
It wasn't far from home, less than a five-minute run away, but he had just recovered from his illness and didn't dare rush home in the rain, so he found a shop with shelter at the entrance to take shelter from the rain.
Soon, more people came in twos and threes to take shelter from the rain, almost filling up the small space. To Ruan Bei's right was a young girl wearing a short skirt, who looked very cold.
He felt embarrassed to get too close to people, so he deliberately kept a distance.
Just then, more pedestrians braved the rain and walked this way. Ruan Bei assumed they were also there to take shelter from the rain, and noticed that there was still some space next to him.
So he smiled apologetically at the girl, moved two steps toward her, and then pointed to the empty space he had made in the rain, indicating that he should come and take shelter from the rain.
Ruan Bei, who had already turned his head away, didn't see it. When she received his smile, the girl blushed for a moment. Then, seeing his action, she curiously followed his gaze into the rain.
The area under the rain was deserted. The girl glanced at Ruan Bei strangely, felt a chill in her heart, and quietly moved to the side.
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