Chapter 49: Chapter 49: It’s Settled, We’re Opening a Supermarket

「The next day, in the afternoon.」

Since Sunday was his only day off, Su Zhuyun had a rare day at home from work.

The three of them gathered at home for a cozy milk tea session.

"Mmm~ This milk tea and these flower pastries are actually pretty good. Delicious!" Chen Shufen leaned back on the sofa, a cup of milk tea in one hand and a flower pastry in the other, savoring every bite.

Meanwhile, Su Zhuyun, who was beside them, felt a pang of regret. He looked at the tea leaves Su Chen had discarded in the trash and smacked his lips.

"Xiaochen, isn’t it a bit of a waste to use such good tea for milk tea? How about you save some for me to drink?"

Seeing his father’s pained expression, Su Chen was a bit baffled.

"What’s wrong, Dad? This tea didn’t cost much. Why do you look so pained?"

At this question, Su Zhuyun perked up. He cleared his throat, pointed at the tea leaves in the trash can, and said, "This is a black tea from Yunnan Province. Judging by the quality, it must be from the first harvest of the year. Even after being boiled, it gives off a faint aroma of grass and wood. It’s a top-grade Dianhong tea. On the market, it’s worth several hundred!"

"Look at you... look how much tea you used for just a little milk tea. The stuff I usually drink costs a few dozen yuan a pound. How could I not be pained by this?"

Su Chen was taken aback. He had only a superficial understanding of tea, knowing only whether it tasted good or not. If you were to ask him about tea varieties, Su Chen would admit he only knew of black tea, green tea, dark tea, and white tea!

"Ahem... Dad, there are still several pounds of this tea in the storage cabinet. If you like it, just take it!"

Hearing this, Su Zhuyun shot up from the sofa and strode toward the storage cabinet, muttering...

"You little rascal, you don’t know how to appreciate the good things in life! How could you put such precious tea in a utility cabinet!"

Soon enough, Su Zhuyun returned carrying a large bag with a smug look on his face. He’d found some small, resealable plastic baggies from somewhere and was portioning the tea out, one bag at a time.

Watching his dad’s meticulous work, Su Chen leaned over to Chen Shufen and whispered, "Mom, what’s Dad doing? You don’t need to be this elaborate just to store tea, do you?"

Chen Shufen glanced at the gleeful Su Zhuyun. "Store it? He’s packing it up to show off at work. The guys in his motorcade all love tea. Just imagine when your dad pulls out this premium stuff... tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Su Chen instantly pictured the scene in his mind: a crowd of people gathered around Su Zhuyun, all eagerly saying, "Brother Su, let me try some of that good tea of yours!"

He could imagine how satisfying that would feel just by thinking about it.

Su Chen glanced at Su Zhuyun, who was busy bagging the tea, and thought to himself, ’I didn’t expect Dad to be into this sort of thing.’

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Hearing the knock, Su Chen figured it must be his second and third uncles. He quickly got up and went to the door.

CLICK.

The door opened, and two somewhat weather-beaten faces appeared before him.

"Second Uncle, Third Uncle!"

Su Zhiqi and Su Zhixin were also taken aback. They hadn’t expected Su Chen to be the one to open the door.

"Xiaochen, what are you doing home? Weren’t you in Shanghai? When did you get back?" Second Uncle Su Zhiqi asked, his face full of confusion.

Meanwhile, Su Zhixin, who was standing behind him, had a flash of surprise in his eyes when he saw Su Chen.

"I just got back yesterday!" Su Chen said with a smile.

"Get in here and talk! What are you doing just standing in the doorway!" Su Zhuyun’s booming voice rang out.

Hearing this, Su Zhiqi didn’t press the matter. The two men changed their shoes and headed into the living room.

"Big Brother, Sister-in-law!"

Su Zhuyun waved them over to sit down and poured each of them a cup of milk tea.

"Have a taste. Xiaochen brought it back from Lijiang. It’s pretty good!"

The two didn’t stand on ceremony. They sat right down next to Su Zhuyun, picked up their milk tea, and started drinking.

For the two middle-aged men, milk tea was something of a novelty; after all, they’d never had it before.

"Mmm... This is actually pretty good. The tea flavor is especially strong!"

Once the two had had their fill, Su Zhuyun cleared his throat. He looked at Su Zhiqi and Su Zhixin beside him and said, "I called you two over today to discuss something."

"Big Brother, what’s up? Why’d you have to make us come all the way over here?" his second brother, Su Zhiqi, asked, confused.

Su Zhuyun didn’t answer right away. Instead, he turned to the silent Su Zhixin and said, "Your daughter must have called you, right?"

Su Zhixin nodded silently, his eyes, when they fell on Su Chen, full of delighted surprise.

"Big Brother, Third Brother, what are you two talking about?" Su Zhiqi, sitting beside them, was completely in the dark.

"Our Su family’s ancestral graves are billowing smoke!" Su Zhuyun could no longer contain his grin.

"The ancestral graves are billowing smoke?" Su Zhiqi looked at his eldest brother, then at his third brother, who was looking as cool as a cucumber. So he was the only one being kept in the dark.

"Big Brother, stop beating around the bush and just tell me... What’s going on?"

Su Zhuyun glanced at Su Chen, who was sitting on the sofa. "Xiaochen made a lot of money in Shanghai," he said. "He came back this time to start a business for the Su family."

Without giving the two a chance to interject, Su Zhuyun continued, "Xiaochen and I discussed it, and we’re planning to open a chain of supermarkets. Our three families will each own a share! With Fuzhou’s rapid development in recent years, a lot of new apartment complexes are being built. We plan to open the supermarkets in these new developments!"

Fuzhou had also shed its official designation as an impoverished city this year. All sectors were developing rapidly, and perhaps they could still catch this express train of opportunity.

"Big Brother, opening a supermarket is still pretty risky. The main issue is the cost of rent. You’re guaranteed to lose money at the beginning, and if things go south, the entire investment could go down the drain!" Su Zhiqi had experience in this area; after all, he was currently struggling with rent himself.

"We’re not planning to rent. We’ll buy," Su Chen interjected out of the blue.

"Buy? How much would that cost? Xiaochen, you..." Su Zhiqi trailed off, as if something had just clicked.

He looked at his eldest brother and his third brother. Both looked perfectly calm, as if they had known all along.

’His eldest brother knowing made sense, but why did his third brother have that same expression?’

Recalling what his eldest brother had said to their third brother when they first arrived, he realized he’d have to be a real fool not to understand now.

’Su Chen must have made a fortune in Shanghai!’

The rest was simple. The three brothers began discussing the supermarket, even having a small argument over the division of shares.

Initially, Su Zhuyun’s idea was for the three brothers to split the shares evenly. But Su Zhiqi and Su Zhixin were dead set against it. They said it was more than enough that Su Chen, having struck it rich, was even thinking of them; they couldn’t possibly accept so many shares.

In the end, they negotiated a deal: Su Zhuyun’s family would take sixty percent of the shares, while the second and third brothers would each take twenty percent.

Just as Su Chen was planning to start scouting locations for the first supermarket in the next few days, a phone call threw a wrench in his plans.