Chapter 12: The Arrogant Rogue

  Lorin often "teased" Lanlan in class, and Lanlan was deeply aware of Lorin's thick skin. However, this time Lorin's words made Lanlan feel sweet inside.

  "Fate... destined by heaven in the vastness of time... This stinker, every time we meet he says something that makes me blush."

  Lanlan didn't say a word, and Luolin burst out laughing and changed the subject: "Lanlan, what are you doing here? Why don't you stay at home during the National Day holiday and be a house girl for a few days?"

  She pointed to the alley entrance: "I'm here to surf the internet, my home is near the school..." After a slight pause, she seemed to have some difficulty speaking and said, "My family doesn't have a computer, so I want to go online, but can only go to an internet cafe..."

  Luoluo suddenly realized that Lanlan's family was quite ordinary, even a bit poor. In the prestigious Municipal No. 1 High School where rich kids dominated, she must have had some inferiority complex. As for not having a computer at home, this was also understandable. Looking at Lanlan who now hung her head and didn't dare to look Luoluo straight in the eye, Luoluo couldn't help but feel a little bit of heartache.

  Alas, this little girl, her heart is as pure and innocent as her appearance. In the future, when she goes out into society, she will definitely be taken advantage of, no way, how can I bear to see such a good girl being corrupted by the world full of coppery smell? From now on, this young master will protect you!

  Lorraine awkwardly said: "What a coincidence! I'm also here to surf the internet. See, I told you we're fated!"

  "What? Really? Don't you have a computer at home?"

  This girl...only asks these uninteresting questions...

  "Oh dear, my home had a power outage today, so I came out to surf the internet... But Blue Lan, it seems we might not be able to get online today, all the internet cafes around school are packed."

  "Ha ha, I'm not afraid," said Lanlan with a smile. She pulled out a small card from her bag, "There's a small internet cafe inside the alley that nobody goes to, and it only costs one yuan per hour. I've got a membership, so it's just 50 cents an hour, isn't that a great deal?"

  Small internet cafe? How was I supposed to know?

  Lorraine's eyes suddenly lit up, and she smiled: "Not bad, then I'll trouble you to lead the way. Blue Orchid, let's go to this internet cafe together."

  Lanlan nodded with a red face and didn't say anything, walking ahead to lead the way.

  This is her first time surfing the internet with a boy... Does this count as a date? Although this date is quite casual... but maybe it's really fate, just like that bad guy said.

  Two people walked into the internet cafe Blue Orchid, one in front of the other.

  As soon as Lorraine entered, she suddenly realized why the fee was so low and there were so few people coming. At a glance, there were no more than twenty computers with different configurations, cement floor, earth wall with old white paint, two light bulbs hung randomly on the top of the house emitting dim light, no air conditioning, only an old fan creaking and spinning hard. There was no business license hanging in the room either. The customers of the internet cafe were also of different ages, including high school or vocational students, children, and some middle-aged people wearing shabby clothes.

  To put it simply, this is a cheap and shoddy internet cafe for poor people.

  A middle-aged woman with a plump figure, sitting beside a wooden table similar to a bar counter, holding a fan and fanning herself from time to time, with beads of sweat constantly seeping out on her forehead.

  "Blue Orchid, is that you?"

  When she saw Lan and Lorraine come in, this middle-aged woman even took the initiative to greet them warmly.

  "Ah, Auntie Zhang, good afternoon. Here's my membership card." Lanlan placed the membership card on the table.

  "Blue Orchid, I've told you many times, whether you bring your membership card or not, I'll charge you the member price," said Aunt Zhang, waving her hand. She took Blue Orchid's membership card and registered it in a notebook before handing it back to her.

  Lanlan smiled and took over the membership card: "It's nothing, just a card, it doesn't take up space. ...Oh, right, Auntie Zhang, this is my classmate, his home has a power outage today, so he can only come out to surf the internet, set him up with a computer too, put it on my membership card."

  Aunt Zhang shifted her gaze to Lorraine, her eyes narrowing as she took in the girl's appearance. With one glance, she could tell that Lorraine didn't come from a poor family - so why was she surfing the internet at this run-down cyber cafe? She probably couldn't get a spot at those other crowded cafes outside, but still, Lorraine didn't look like some kind of pauper...so why did Blue Lan's little girl invite her out for dinner? Could it be that she was some kind of emotional scammer?

  Thinking of this, Zhang Ayi hesitated and didn't respond to Lan's words for a long time.

  Lorraine had been observing the internet cafe environment in silence, not saying a word. At this moment, she looked at Zhang Ayi's eyes and understood the meaning behind them. She immediately walked forward, took out two 100-yuan bills from her pocket and handed them to Zhang Ayi: "Auntie, use one hundred yuan to make me a member, and put the other hundred yuan into Lanlan's membership card."

  Aunt Zhang snapped out of it, and her eyes immediately lit up with excitement. Two 100-yuan notes! This was no small income for this run-down internet cafe.

  "Alright!" Aunt Zhang quickly took the 200 yuan and put it in the drawer, then simply registered and handed the membership card to Roland, "Young man, you and Lanlan can play as much as you want, only 50 cents for an hour!"

  "......" Lorraine was speechless for a moment, what did this fat auntie say, what do you mean by letting me and Lanlan go all out, what's the meaning of one hour for only five cents, this sentence is so easy to be misunderstood.

  Zhang Aunt just finished speaking and was stunned, apparently noticing the problem with her own words. Fortunately, the person involved, Lanlan, had a simple mind and couldn't think of anything crooked.

  Lanlan's face turned red as she hastily said: "Luo Lin, how could you spend so much money to recharge for me..."

  Before Lorraine could speak, Aunt Zhang seemed to worry that Lorraine would regret it and hurriedly pointed to the two rows of computers in front: "Young man, I've opened them for you, one is No. 8 and the other is No. 9."

  Lorraine nodded and without saying a word, directly pulled Blue Lan's small hand and walked forward.

  Lanlan didn't struggle free. Uh, okay, it was she who didn't want to struggle free. She only felt a warm and thick palm suddenly wrapping around her delicate hand that was slightly chilly in all four seasons, and soon arrived at the empty machine beside, but unfortunately found that the only two machines left vacant in the small house, although next to each other, were somewhat far apart.

  Lorraine shrugged helplessly, gave Blue Orchid a sly smile, and then walked towards Machine No. 9.

  Lanlan's face was burning as she sat on seat No. 8, her heart pounding wildly.

  This stinky guy... actually... actually held my hand, Mom said girls can't casually hold hands with boys... am I a very casual girl? Thinking of this, Blue Orchid felt a hint of shame, as if being held by Roland was like she had seduced him.

  Blue Orchid, Blue Orchid, just now he held your hand, why didn't you want to let go?

  But... his hand is so warm and big, and there's a faint scent of tobacco on him, smells really good...

  At this time, Blue Orchid was in internal conflict, even divided into two entangled camps, but on the surface, she stared blankly at the computer screen, with a maiden's lovesick appearance.

  Actually, her good impression of Lorrain was still quite vague a month or two ago. She only liked the occasional mischievous smile on his face. But over the past month, she found that Lorrain's temperament had completely changed, becoming extremely attractive, like a mysterious black hole that made people want to fall in involuntarily. It seemed to have gotten worse, yet not so bad...

  Lorraine was acting as if nothing had happened. Sitting in front of the computer, casually browsing through news and messages, she started to think about this internet cafe. Although it only had less than 20 computers, its configuration was basically okay, able to run popular online games at that time. If it were decorated nicely and made more formal, even if the area was a bit small, it would definitely attract more customers, after all, this place was also considered a golden location around the school. The only thing was that the price had to be cheaper than those outside internet cafes.

  The charges for those medium to large-sized internet cafes outside are mostly around 2-3 yuan per hour, and after becoming a member, it's 1 yuan or 1.5 yuan per hour. When the time comes, we can set the price according to the amount of investment, in short, the membership price must be below 1 yuan, thin profit and sell more, that's all.

  I currently have over 400,000 yuan in spare change on my card. If I scrape together some small shares, I should be able to buy this internet cafe. As long as it doesn't exceed 600,000 yuan, it's still reasonable. The key is that if we renovate again, it will cost a lot of money. Overall, if we want to revamp and reopen the internet cafe, we'll need at least 1 million yuan, which is a conservative estimate.

  The question is... who will be invited to join with a small stake?

  After some thought, there was only one name in Lorraine's mind: Qin Yuanshu.

  But now the relationship between the two is a bit unclear, and Lorraine doesn't want to talk to her for the time being. Who should she look for then?...

  Lorraine stretched deeply and rubbed her temples.

  "Haha, big sister, so idle? Have you eaten?"

  Just then, three men with dyed yellow hair suddenly walked in at the door, chuckling and heading towards internet cafe owner Zhang Dajie.

  Zhang's sister took a look at the visitors, and a hint of fear flashed in her eyes. She forced a smile and said: "Three brothers, it's just the beginning of the month, National Day holiday, there are fewer people coming to surf the internet... can you delay for a few days?"

  "No, no."

  The leader waved his hand: "This is not in line with the rules, you should know that all the shops around this school without regular business procedures are protected by our Dragon Brother, otherwise they would have been shut down by the relevant departments. You say you don't pay taxes? Then I'm afraid I won't be able to protect you, brother. Today when I go back, I'll report to Dragon Brother, and I won't dare say whether there will be a visit from the relevant departments in the next two days to seal off your shop."

  Zhang's sister heard this and her face changed in shock, hastily opening the drawer and pulling out all the red tickets.

  "Big brother, it's just this much for now."

  Huang Mao, with a proud smile on his face, snatched the red bills and smacked his lips: "How can it be just 400? It's still short of 100!"

  "Really, that's all I have. If it wasn't for someone recharging 200 yuan of membership today, I wouldn't even be able to take out this 400 yuan."

  At this time, the people around who were surfing the internet saw this situation and turned their heads back, not daring to glance at the three blondes. Blue Orchid often surfed the internet here, but it was her first time encountering such a situation, and she stared at the three blondes with wide, watery eyes, completely inexperienced in worldly matters.

  "Wow? Fresh."

  The yellow-haired guy with the earring, noticing the angry gaze cast by Lanlan, sneered: "A crappy internet cafe like this actually has a lovely little girl hiding in it. I'm telling you, little sister, what do you think of me? Don't you think big brother is handsome and majestic? Want to come with me for a good time tonight?"

  Haha...

  The other two yellow-haired men followed with catcalls and lewd laughter.