At the same time, Lu Fan received a timely call from his bodyguard.

"Boss, the young master has entered the building. He’s about to pay."

Lu Fan listened, then replied, "Good. Keep an eye on him. As long as his life isn’t in danger, try to stay out of sight."

"Yes, Boss."

After hanging up, Lu Fan sat in his chair, watching a movie.

He was exceptionally relaxed today.

Old Luo, standing to the side, asked, "Boss, you don’t seem nervous at all."

"A young man has to get scammed once or twice to grow up." Lu Fan chuckled. "Otherwise, how could I ever feel at ease handing over my company to him in the future?"

"If he grows up coddled in a greenhouse, even if he has other people from the system assisting him later, there will always be someone trying to trip him up from behind. You know as well as I do, if you’re not even a little bit vigilant in this country, you can end up losing everything."

"Besides, even if I told him the truth right now—that it’s a ’pig-butchering’ scam and they’re just conning him—he wouldn’t believe me. It’s better to wait until that kid, Sifan, has truly hit a wall. When I step in then, I might even earn some goodwill as his old man," Lu Fan explained.

Old Luo listened and nodded in agreement. "That’s true. I’m just worried the young master might be so crushed by this that he’ll never recover."

"Don’t you worry about that, Old Luo." Lu Fan laughed. "You don’t know him. His temperament is exactly like mine when I was young. Stubborn. Incredibly stubborn. If he fails at something, he won’t stop until he succeeds."

Old Luo laughed as well. "That’s also true. In all these years, I’ve rarely met anyone whose talent could compare to yours, Boss."

"Hey, hey, don’t flatter me." Lu Fan waved his hand dismissively. "You and I both know full well that most of my success today is thanks to that system. That includes you, Jiali, and the others—you were all assigned to help me by the system. Even though it disappeared five years ago, I’m well aware that going from 0 to 1 is much, much harder than going from 1 to 100."

"That guy Chen He is helping me keep an eye on Sifan. Come on, Old Luo, let’s go for a swim." With that, he stood up.

Old Luo looked troubled. "Boss, how could an old man like me keep up with you in a swim? Besides, with this body of mine, my skin is all wrinkly when I take my clothes off. Why don’t I get Jiali to accompany you?"

"Don’t bother with her. She’d have to change into a swimsuit and all that. It’s a hassle. You’ll do! Come on, get undressed. Let me thrash you a bit."

...

Meanwhile, Jiang Sifan was led by the receptionist to an office.

"Senior Lin Dong, Senior Jinhua, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting." Jiang Sifan was the first to speak after entering, bowing as he did.

Seeing this, Pan Lindong immediately smiled. "Ah, Junior Sifan, you’re finally here! Come, come, have a seat."

Jiang Sifan then sat down between the two of them.

But Liang Jinhua remained silent, turning his head away.

Jiang Sifan was a little confused by this and looked at Pan Lindong.

Pan Lindong immediately whispered, "Senior Jinhua is angry. He thinks he had such high hopes for you, but you kept dragging your feet and were reluctant to move forward with this startup project. He’s considering whether he should find a new partner."

Jiang Sifan grew anxious the moment he heard this.

He quickly explained, "I’m sorry, Senior Jinhua. This was indeed my fault. I apologize."

Pan Lindong also put on the expression of a peacemaker. "Come on, Senior, don’t be angry. The startup capital is a full 10,000 yuan. Our Junior Sifan is only a freshman. You asked him to scrape together so much money in just a few days. He’s already done his best."

"Senior, I’m truly sorry. But I really want to start this business, I really want to make money. Senior Jinhua, please forgive me." After speaking, Jiang Sifan even stood up and bowed deeply.

Seeing him remain bowed without any intention of looking up, Liang Jinhua exchanged a glance with Pan Lindong, then waved his hand dismissively. "Alright. I know it’s not easy for a freshman like you to raise so much money. It’s just that with business opportunities like this, being even one day late could mean missing the entire wave of profits. I’ll be lenient this once, seeing as you’re a junior from my own department."

Jiang Sifan was overjoyed to hear this. "Thank you, Senior! Once I start making money, I’ll definitely treat you and Senior Lin Dong to a meal!"

"Then we’ll be waiting for that meal!" Pan Lindong chuckled. "By the way, for the transfer, just scan this QR code. It goes into the company account. We do everything through the corporate account here."

"Okay." Jiang Sifan nodded, taking out his phone to scan the code and pay. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

At that, Liang Jinhua, who was standing to the side, suggested, "Then just transfer 9,998. It’s for good luck. Let’s hope your first venture is a resounding success!"

"Thank you, Senior!"

Even though it was only a saving of two yuan, to Jiang Sifan, it held extraordinary significance.

’After today,’ he thought, ’will I be a business owner?’

’Will I succeed in my venture and start making 20,000 a month?’

’Then Mom won’t have to work so hard anymore.’

’My sister can buy whatever she wants.’

The thought of it all made Jiang Sifan’s heart race with excitement.

"Senior, I’ve transferred the money."

After confirming the money had arrived, Liang Jinhua nodded and motioned for Pan Lindong to teach Jiang Sifan the next steps.

"From now on, Lin Dong will be your company contact. I have another meeting, so I’ll get going." With that, Liang Jinhua left.

Jiang Sifan was stunned for a moment. After Liang Jinhua was gone, he looked at Pan Lindong and asked, "Senior Lin Dong, are you also part of the company?"

"Of course. You’re underestimating me," he said, leading Jiang Sifan over to a computer. "Come on, I’ll show you."

"Let me familiarize you with this accounting software. This one is Kingdee, this one is Yonyou... The annual fees for these are very expensive, so Senior Jinhua barely made any commission from you."

Then, Pan Lindong handed Jiang Sifan a thick business proposal on micro-enterprise finance and taxation for the campus vicinity. "What you need to do now is hurry up and get a handle on all these procedures. Later, I’ll send you the information for the shops and small businesses near the Jinling Institute of Technology."

Jiang Sifan took the business proposal, asking with some confusion, "So... do I have any staff?"

"Staff?" Pan Lindong explained, "That’s up to you. If you want to earn more, you do it yourself. If you can’t handle it, find some classmates to help and just share the money with them. Anyway, if there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me."

"Okay, thank you, Senior Lin Dong." Just as Jiang Sifan was about to ask something else, Pan Lindong glanced at the time and said, "Oops, I have to go too. Let’s call it a day. Go home and read through the entire startup project workflow first."

"Oh?... Okay."

And just like that, Jiang Sifan left the company, holding a business proposal.

As he rode the elevator down, he began looking through the document.

The proposal’s pages weren’t new; they looked like they had been used for a long time.

This made him a little suspicious.

However, the content was indeed about finance and taxation for small and micro-enterprises in the campus area, so Jiang Sifan decided to go to the library tonight and study it thoroughly.

Just as he was about to head back to school, he got a call from Huang Hui.

Huang Hui asked from the other end of the line, "Babe, are you downtown?"

"I’m downtown, why? I was just talking with my seniors about the startup project," Jiang Sifan explained.

"I don’t have class this afternoon. How about I take a Didi to come find you? I want to eat downtown," Huang Hui replied.

Jiang Sifan remembered he had just handed over 10,000 yuan and was now practically broke. He hesitated. "Huihui, um... I..."

"I know you’re out of money right now, so I’m treating you," Huang Hui said with a smile.

"Okay."

After hanging up, a warm feeling spread through Jiang Sifan’s chest.

’Was I overthinking things before?’ he wondered.

Meanwhile, Huang Hui was gathering her things. Before she left, she glanced at the handbag on her desk.

’He has no idea how much this bag costs anyway,’ she thought. ’Even if I told him I bought it for twenty yuan, he wouldn’t suspect a thing.’

And with that, Huang Hui slung the bag Lin Qiang had given her over her shoulder.