"Hey, Old Jia!"

Lu Fan walked into the shop with a smile. "Here to deliver our water?"

When Jiasheng saw him enter, he wanted to seize the initiative and strike first.

But for some reason, whenever he met Lu Fan’s gaze, he couldn’t help but feel inferior.

The other man’s presence simply overwhelmed him.

But Jiasheng glanced at Jiang Yixia and, deciding to fight for his future happiness, stressed, "I’m delivering water for Yixia. I’ve been doing it for two years now."

"Thanks, Old Jia," Lu Fan said cheerfully. "It must be tiring, but at least you can earn some extra cash. It’s making me think I should open my own water delivery service."

Jiang Yixia knew Lu Fan was teasing Jiasheng, so she said to the latter, "Thank you, Brother Jia. I’ll transfer you the money for the water on WeChat later."

"Okay, no problem." Jiasheng knew he couldn’t win a war of words with Lu Fan, so he picked up the empty jug and left.

Once he was gone, Jiang Yixia frowned and demanded, "Lu Fan, what’s wrong with you? The guy was just delivering water, and you still had to make a couple of wisecracks."

"I didn’t," Lu Fan explained. "I’m serious. I think a water delivery service has real potential. From now on, I’ll be the one delivering water to your shop."

"Ridiculous." Jiang Yixia couldn’t be bothered to engage with him, deciding to just treat him like he was thin air.

But Lu Fan stuck to her like glue, pulling a bottle of medicinal liniment from his pocket. "Yixia, here’s your liniment. I bought you a new bottle. If you’re feeling sore anywhere, just rub some on."

"I’m not using it," Jiang Yixia replied coldly.

"I’ll just leave the liniment on the table for you." Ignoring her, Lu Fan placed the bottle on the table.

As he spoke, he took out his phone and scanned the QR code on the wall.

BEEP! WeChat payment received: 2,000 yuan!

Jiang Yixia immediately put down the flowers she was holding and demanded, "What do you think you’re doing?"

"It’s nothing. Next time you give Sifan his allowance, give him this two thousand from me, but do it in your name. He’s a bit short on cash right now, and he’ll accept it if it comes from you," Lu Fan explained.

Hearing this, Jiang Yixia grew suspicious. "Why?"

It dawned on her. "Do you know something about Sifan? What’s happened to him?"

"He’s starting a business," Lu Fan said with a small smile. "I didn’t realize our son was so ambitious, starting a company while he’s still in school."

"A business?" Although the phrase "our son" annoyed her, she couldn’t dwell on it right now. She pressed on, "What kind of business? Why didn’t he ever tell me? How did you find out?"

"I have my ways," Lu Fan chuckled. "My guess is Sifan wants to wait until it’s successful and making money before he tells you. He probably wants to surprise you."

Jiang Yixia was rendered speechless. "That boy... not even telling me he’s starting a business..."

Then she frowned, her anger flaring up. "And why are you only telling me this now?"

"Well, I couldn’t find the right opportunity to talk to you," Lu Fan said, feigning grievance. "Sigh. I have to work up all my courage just to speak with you."

Jiang Yixia rolled her eyes at him, deciding to ignore him.

But Lu Fan just dangled another hook. "You should remind him, though, that starting a business is risky. His venture is highly likely to fail."

As expected, she took the bait.

She stood up and asked, "What exactly is he doing? Hurry up and tell me."

"To put it simply, he’s helping some of the local businesses near campus with services like bookkeeping and tax filing in exchange for a fee," Lu Fan explained.

In truth, he didn’t tell Jiang Yixia the details about Sifan getting caught in a "pig-butchering" scam or his senior classmate setting him up.

Lu Fan was worried that if he revealed everything, Jiang Yixia, being so far away in Yangcheng, would only become more anxious.

Besides, he was personally keeping an eye on Sifan.

There was no way he’d let anything go wrong.

And after hearing his explanation, Jiang Yixia finally relaxed.

’As long as it isn’t some dangerous venture, it’s fine.’

Seeing that Lu Fan had finished, she gestured towards the door. "Alright, you can go now."

"Huh?" Lu Fan feigned surprise. "Yixia, I worked so hard to bring you this intel. By the way, I’m craving some pork rib soup today."

"You’ll drink whatever soup I make. We only have three days left before our agreement is over!" Jiang Yixia stressed.

Just as she was about to shoo Lu Fan out, an elderly couple walked in.

"Xiaojiang," the man called out as he entered the shop.

When Jiang Yixia saw the elderly couple, she immediately greeted them. "Aunt Liu, Uncle Wu, what brings you here?"

"We just came to see how you’re doing." Uncle Wu glanced at Lu Fan first, looking him up and down, before turning to Jiang Yixia with a smile. "Business has been alright lately?"

"It’s been fine. Here, please have a seat." Jiang Yixia quickly welcomed them, all the while shooting Lu Fan a look that clearly told him to leave.

But Lu Fan, ever thick-skinned, simply remained standing off to the side.

This left Jiang Yixia fuming.

After Uncle Wu sat down, he seemed to want to say something but didn’t know where to begin.

Sensing that something was amiss, Jiang Yixia asked, "Aunt Liu, Uncle Wu, is everything okay?"

"Let me talk. You’re too slow, old man." Aunt Liu shot her husband a look of disdain before turning to Jiang Yixia. "Here’s the thing, Xiaojiang. We need you to see if you can find another place and move your shop out this month."

"Huh?" Jiang Yixia was stunned. "Aunt Liu, what’s going on?"

"A relative of ours has taken a liking to this storefront and insists on taking it over for their own business. We had no choice but to agree. So, we need you to figure out a time to vacate the premises," Aunt Liu explained.

Jiang Yixia replied, "But Aunt Liu, we just renewed the lease for another two years last month. This is... Where am I supposed to find a new location on such short notice?"

Uncle Wu added awkwardly, "We’re really sorry, Xiaojiang. How about this? I won’t charge you rent for this month, just please try to move out as quickly as possible."

Jiang Yixia was at a complete loss, unsure of what to do.

Just then, Lu Fan, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up. "Excuse me, Sir, but since you signed a contract, you have to abide by its terms. Whoever breaches the contract is liable for a penalty. Just waiving this month’s rent... that’s not going to cut it, is it?"

"And who are you?" Aunt Liu frowned. "This is between us and our tenant. It’s none of your business."

"She’s my wife. You tell me if it’s my business," Lu Fan said with a smile.

The moment Jiang Yixia heard this, she shot him a glare, silently telling him to shut up.

She then turned back to Aunt Liu. "Auntie, does your relative absolutely have to have this specific location? I have so much inventory, and it would be a huge hassle to move. Besides, we just renewed the lease."

"I don’t care about any of that! You have to be out by the end of the month, or I’ll have people come and throw all these flowers and plants out myself!" Aunt Liu decided to play dirty, planting her hands on her hips and starting to rant. "This is my property! I can rent it to whoever I want!"

At that, Lu Fan calmly took out his phone and made a call.

"Hello, Jiali? Get the entire legal team from the Yangcheng branch over here. That’s right, everyone from the legal department. Even if there are 7,000 of them, bring them all. Oh, and call the police while you’re at it."