Chapter 39: Cybercafe

Chen Chuan, Chen Sun, and Ling Jiao exchanged toasts in the room and drank quite a lot.

Chen Chuan did not explain clearly why he could suddenly buy two good cars and why his family could suddenly have so much money. This was because his parents would be the ones who would discuss whether they should tell their relatives, and when to tell them about the incident where they had earned over 20 million from stone gambling.

Chen Sun was still curious and asked several times.

Chen Chuan only said that he had gotten lucky, and something good had happened.

Chen Sun was envious. “My dear, perhaps you really caught on something good, you’re so lucky. God opened his eyes. It must be because of the prayers to the ancestors previously, so grandpa has blessed you. When will it be my turn when it comes to such a good thing?”

Ling Jiao rolled her eyes again. “Your cousin is helping you now, so isn’t this already a good thing? Without him, when will your salary ever rise to 8000 yuan? Stop trying to dig deeper into it, they’ll say naturally when the time comes.”

“Yes, yes, let’s continue drinking,” said Chen Sun.

Buzz buzz!

Another message came in, it was from Chongqing Jiaotong University’s Deng Yaoyao.

“Brother Chen, your car is here. I’ve already led them to place it at the underground parking of Jade Apartment.”

Chen Chuan replied, “Thank you.”

…

Chen Chuan returned to university after the holidays.

During an afternoon class, he saw He Jinglan in the classroom.

She wore a lady-like satin silk shirt with a short skirt, which gave her a good temperament. She winked at Chen Chuan when she entered the classroom.

Zhou Mumin noticed this and looked at Chen Chuan in surprise, “You, you and He Jinglan?”

Chen Chuan was peeling the pecans he had bought online and said as he ate, “You may not believe it. That time during the vacation, I… Forget it.”

“I’ll strangle you to death!” Zhou Mumin rushed over.

Chen Chuan finished his classes in the afternoon. He then went to the west gate of the university, turned on a computer at Qianlong Cybercafe, and sat down.

A fat young man ran over. His name was Awei, the store manager.

“Boss, you’re here. Here, have a smoke.” Ah Wei offered Chen Chuan a Huanghelou with both hands.

He explained with a smile as he saw Chen Chuan looking at the cigarette, “I’ve prepared two boxes. This box of Huanghelou was prepared specially for you because I guessed that you’ll be coming soon.”

Chen Chuan saw that there were not many customers in the cybercafe. It looked as if the cybercafe industry was sluggish. He asked, “How’s the business?”

“It’s alright, it’s alright… It’s just that, recently, a few people are playing a shooting game called PUBG on steam, and commented that it can’t be loaded with our store’s current hardware. I downloaded it earlier and found it to be very fun. Boss, I have a suggestion,” Ah Wei said as he wiped his sweat.

“Say it.”

“I suggest updating our computers. I found the hardware table for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on the Internet and translated it. Our hardware is not up to standard. I think this game may become popular, so can we make some preparations first?” asked Ah Wei.

Chen Chuan felt that Ah Wei’s thought was not bad. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is indeed getting popular and it brought 30 billion revenue to the Blue Hole. On the other hand, within the country, Penguin spent 400 million to get its rights.

Although Chen Chuan has the expenditure cash return, he could not take such a big step. He could not take much of the profits, but it was still possible for him to update the hardware of the cybercafe. After all, he had some issues with cybercafes because when he was in school, he was set up by some nearby.

Therefore, the reason that he came to this cybercafe was that he already had the plan to update its hardware.

“Let me see the hardware list you have prepared.”

Ah Wei presented a piece of A4 paper with both hands. On it was a list of hardware written with messy handwriting.

“I5 7500 CPU, 1399 yuan wholesale price, Colorful 1050ti Graphics Card, 1199 yuan. ASUS board… 5,700 yuan with a monitor?” Chen Chuan took a look.

Ah Wei wiped his sweat and said, “Is it a bit expensive? However, there’ll be no issues to play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds with this set of hardware. Or should I change it again and use the I3 4150? That processor is also good, its wholesale price is 699 yuan. So the whole computer will be 5,000 yuan.”

Chen Chuan said, “You don’t need to downgrade the hardware. If we want to do it then we’ll do it at any cost. Let’s increase the budget to 15,000 yuan and tell me the hardware you want most in your heart.”

“Brother, add, add it to 15,000 yuan… In that case, we’ll add the I7 7700, 2399 yuan each. ASUS Z270PLUS board is 1,200 yuan, and the Colorful iGame GeForce GTX1080 graphics card, 4,500 yuan… 10,500 yuan without the monitor, it’ll be 12,000 yuan including the monitor. This is too much, I don’t dare to go all out like this,” said Ah Wei.

“You’re using a 1,500 yuan monitor with a 10,500 yuan mainframe?” Chen Chuan said, “you need to at least get a 3000 yuan one. For the Dell 31.5-inch 144HZ display monitor, the whole computer is 14,000 yuan, excluding the other peripheral devices. According to Razer, the standard keyboard and mouse for competitions are 2000 yuan,” said Chen Chuan.

“16,000 yuan!” Ah Wei looked at this new boss with shocked eyes.

“Besides that, you can contact the left and right stores because the cybercafe is now too small and needs to be expanded. The area will be tripled. The number of computers should reach 400. Once the overall renovation has been completed and the hardware updated, we need to do some advertising.”

“400 computers?” Ah Wei calculated mentally, 400 high-end computers of 16,000 yuan each, which meant a total of 6.4 million yuan.

“Boss, don’t worry, I’ll go negotiate.” Ah Wei patted his chest and said, “By the way, boss, there’s a gathering in the evening, so I want to invite you for dinner, hehe.”

“I’m not going.”

“There’ll be girls…”

“Where is it?”

“Jufu Restaurant. I’ve invited a few buddies, and three cashier girls from our cybercafe. There’ll be no outsiders. It’s my invitation, so I’ll treat you to a drink, and let’s go sing in the evening?” Ah Wei flattered.

He continued as he saw that Chen Chuan did not seem to be interested, “There’s also a dance goddess that my buddy knows and she’s from your school. She’s really good, my buddy pursued her for half a year yet he still couldn’t get her, so now they’re just normal friends. She might be coming too.”

At that moment, the phone rang. It was He Jinglan who called.

Ah Wei blinked and said with a smile, “Hey brother, do you have plans for the evening already?”

Chen Chuan answered He Jinglan’s call.

He Jinglan said on the phone, “Last time at my cousin’s wedding banquet, I think you didn’t eat much. After all, you invited me once, so I want to treat you too. You decide where we are going tonight and I’ll definitely satisfy you.”

Ah Wei listened at the side, hearing the gentle and delicate voice of the girl, and vaguely heard the words ‘satisfy you’. Suddenly, he looked at his boss in awe.

“Alright.”

Chen Chuan hung up the phone, rejected Ah Wei’s invitation, and agreed to have dinner with He Jinglan.

At night.

The place the two decided to eat at was Mr. Pizza outside the West Gate.

This store had also been bought over by Chen Chuan. Only the store manager knew Chen Chuan’s identity.

The store manager was a professional woman in her early thirties and had a lot of experience in the food and beverage industry.

Seeing that the boss did not say hello and just came in suddenly, she was very nervous. She asked the chef to use their best cooking skills, and whether it was the steak, pizza, or fruit salad, all of them had to be made with the best quality ingredients.

She cleaned up her appearance and put on lipstick before personally serving the food. She also quickly ordered a bouquet of roses and delivered it together with the dishes.

“Hello, sir and miss, you two are the 1314th[1] guests of this restaurant. We specially present these flowers, small gifts, and a discount of 10%. I hope you have a good meal,” said the store manager politely.

He Jinglan covered her mouth, unable to hide her surprise. She could smell the fragrance of flowers as she looked at the delicate bouquet.

“What good luck, the 1314th guest! I don’t know what to say, but thank your restaurant,” He Jinglan said happily.

Chen Chuan rolled his eyes at the store manager and thought in his heart, ‘What’s the matter with you? Who gave you the idea to arrange something about 1314.’

When the store manager realized Chen Chuan’s eyes, she knew that she had messed up.

She overestimated herself. She thought that based on her observation, she could do it beautifully, so she did not expect her flattery to fail.

“Slow, please eat slowly…” The store manager turned pale as she backed away nervously.

After a while, Chen Chuan received a private message from the store manager. “Boss, I’m sorry…”

A crying sticker was placed at the end of the message.

She was already in her 30s, yet she still knew how to act cute.

[1] 1314 has a similar pronunciation to the phrase ‘for one’s whole life’ in Chinese