Several days passed, and Yu Zi didn’t tell Xie Dongcheng what word he had actually heard.

The answer was only known to Yu Zi himself; he hadn’t heard anything at all. He just found it interesting to see the guy looking so tense.

The bank recommended by Sheng Chuan approved the loan quickly, and the money was disbursed before Yu Zi even went to pay the first rent.

Yu Zi finally breathed a sigh of relief, resolving the urgent matter. After paying the rent, the landlord handed over the keys to the shop to him and also gave him a layout design of the house when it was purchased. Yu Zi began to frantically search for a renovation company. In short, these few days had been extremely busy.

The cold wind was biting, and they had to rely on taxis when going out. The HelloKitty scooter was locked in the shed, all alone.

Soon, the designer from the renovation company presented the first draft design. Yu Zi received it while sitting on the sofa in the living room doing accounts. After looking at it, he was not very satisfied, frowning all the while.

Xie Dongcheng walked up behind him, glanced at it but couldn’t understand why he wasn’t satisfied. “Isn’t this designed very well?”

The arrangement of tables and chairs in the picture was neat, with several sofa chairs placed in the center of the hall and a long table with high stools by the window.

“We shouldn’t set it up like this by the window,” Yu Zi pointed at the long table with glass stuck to the window side on the drawing.

“Don’t most convenience stores do it this way? It’s common to have many people sitting like this,” Xie Dongcheng had seen several shops on the street decorated similarly.

“The problem is, we’re not a convenience store. The best position by the window should have more sofas and round tables to accommodate more customers.”

Yu Zi took out his favorite black pen and made several circles and lines on the design drawing.

The decoration of such a small shop seemed simple but was actually complicated. After visiting the site several times with Xie Dongcheng, Yu Zi discovered many lingering issues. Part of the ceiling wasn’t made of light steel keel but wooden boards, and over time, many of them had been eaten by insects and needed to be removed and reinstalled.

The paint in several corners had been soaked with water by the previous tenants, and the wall covering had peeled off. These details hadn’t been discussed with the renovation company initially. If they were to be done separately, it would be a considerable expense. Moreover, finding workers willing to come in the cold winter was also a problem.

Xie Dongcheng didn’t think it was a big deal; he could handle all of this overtime. But Yu Zi didn’t let him do it alone.

“We need some help,” Yu Zi sat by the window, flipping through his phone, calculating, “We need to hire waiters and chefs ourselves.”

He explained, “The waiters can start first and help us deal with all of this together. We’ll pay them by the day.”

Once the opening date was set, the first issue to address was the staffing problem.

Just relying on him and Xie Dongcheng was definitely not enough. They didn’t have professional chefs, and they wouldn’t be able to handle that many customers.

As for the chef, Yu Zi had someone in mind, the chef Zhao who had cooked for him in the villa on the outskirts before. When Zhao was young, he had been an executive chef in a five-star hotel, proficient in pastries and baking, which was in line with the positioning of their restaurant.

Waiters should be easier to hire in theory, but Yu Zi had picked up a few online, and after meeting them, none of them seemed ideal. Either they were too old, or their Mandarin wasn’t standard, none of them were what he had imagined. They would be serving white-collar and gold-collar customers. The restaurant’s style was also a bit higher than the surrounding area. Waiters needed to be more savvy to attract repeat customers.

Xie Dongcheng walked up behind him, thinking of something, and said to him, “I do know someone, should I have him come over and give it a try?”

Yu Zi turned to look at him, “Who?”

Xie Dongcheng: “My childhood friend.”

This was the first time Yu Zi had heard him mention his social circle.

“Okay. Let him come and interview.”

The next morning, they met at a coffee shop not far from the shop.

Yu Zi heard the sound of the glass door being pushed open and looked over. He saw a slender young man walking in from outside. He looked a little younger than Xie Dongcheng, perhaps only eighteen or nineteen.

As Yu Zi watched him enter, he felt that describing him as slender was a bit inaccurate; he was actually too skinny. Even though he was wearing a thick cotton jacket, he still looked like a thin sheet of paper, floating in.

Although the young man was weak, he was very enthusiastic. He first saw Xie Dongcheng, then waved his arm twice, “Hey! Dongy.”

When he approached, Xie Dongcheng stood up quickly and introduced him to Yu Zi, “This is our boss Yu.”

Yu Zi pulled his arm, “Just call me by my name. Yu Zi.”

The young man nodded several times busily, “Okay, Boss Yu.”

Yu Zi was speechless for a moment. No wonder these two were childhood friends; their way of speaking was the same.

The heating in the coffee shop was very sufficient. As soon as the young man sat down opposite them, he unzipped his jacket, revealing a cotton T-shirt inside, so thin that you could even see the shape of his ribs.

Yu Zi cleared his throat, “What should I call you?”

“I’m Liu Ye. Just call me Xiao Liu.”

Liu Ye, his name suited him. He looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind.

“Not Ye as in leaf, but the ‘Ye’ next to the fire character,” Xiao Liu explained quickly when he saw his expression, as if he was used to people getting his name wrong.

Yu Zi remembered and nodded.

This Xiao Liu seemed to be a bit more clever than the previous few people. Although he was a little thin, he was young and had a handsome appearance. Yu Zi already had an idea in mind.

He didn’t ask too many questions about the job, just told him about the current situation.

“Before we open, we might need your help with the decoration of the shop.”

“Oh, no problem at all. I used to do carpentry work before. It’s nothing.” Xiao Liu smiled happily and waved his hand.

Yu Zi breathed a sigh of relief, “You can rest assured that we’ll pay you by the day first.”

Xiao Liu’s eyes widened, “No need, we’ll settle it together later. Helping Dongy is what I should do. I don’t need money.”

Listening to this, Yu Zi felt that the two of them seemed to have a close relationship. In the past, he was unwilling to inquire about people’s privacy, but today he asked, “How did you two meet?”

Xie Dongcheng sat beside him, suddenly picked up the cup and took a sip of water, causing Yu Zi to glance at him.

“We… ” Xiao Liu had just been chatting away, but now he suddenly stuttered a bit, “We… we were… we were classmates.”

“We attended classes together when we were young,” Xie Dongcheng quickly picked up the conversation for him.

Yu Zi nodded, but after a while, he felt a bit strange. If they were classmates, just say they were classmates. What does ‘attended classes together’ mean? Could it be some kind of training class in the Youth Palace?

But looking at the expressions of the two of them, he didn’t continue to ask.

The three of them chatted for a few more sentences, and Yu Zi learned that Xiao Liu was already twenty-two, just one year younger than Xie Dongcheng. Probably due to long-term malnutrition, he always looked like a child.

Yu Zi ordered coffee for Xiao Liu, but he only took a sip and kept it on the table.

“I’m not used to this taste.” Xiao Liu touched the delicate cup and said straightforwardly, “It’s bitter and sour.”

But he couldn’t waste it, so he held his breath, drank all of it in one gulp, and left a little coffee stain on his lips. Yu Zi handed him a tissue, and he wiped it off somewhat embarrassedly.

Seeing Xiao Liu wipe his mouth clean, Yu Zi said to him, “In the future, our shop will also serve coffee. When the time comes, I’ll find a barista to train you. You don’t have to drink it, but you have to know how to make it.”

“Okay, okay. I know these kinds of training in the city have to pay money. Boss Yu, you’re a good person.” Xiao Liu’s eyes lit up.

The next morning, Xiao Liu came to the shop early, dressed warmly. It was expensive and difficult to find painters at the end of the year, so Xiao Liu took the initiative to help with painting.

A bucket of paint weighed more than ten kilograms, but Xiao Liu lifted it with one hand and ran. Yu Zi was a little stunned. He was as thin as a sheet of paper, but he was as strong as an ox.

Seeing Yu Zi’s surprised expression, Xiao Liu explained, “Boss Yu, I’ve done a lot of hard work before. Just give me any heavy work.”

Xie Dongcheng borrowed a wooden ladder from next door, sat on top, and used a roller brush to repaint the wall. When he saw Yu Zi standing below, he called out to him, “Find a place to rest, it’s dusty here.”

Yu Zi looked up at him, but instead of going out, he took off his coat and placed it on the chair by the window. Then he also found a roller brush, rolled up his sleeves, and started painting the wall with him.

Xiao Liu had been in high spirits all along. Seeing Yu Zi joining their team of workers, he smiled and asked, “Boss Yu, I heard Dongy say you used to be his boss?”

“Pfft.” Yu Zi heard someone call him “boss” for the first time and couldn’t help but let out an expression, “I’m not really a boss, he just used to work for me.”

“That makes you a boss!” Xiao Liu was very certain, “No wonder you look so elegant, unlike us.”

Yu Zi just shook his head and didn’t respond.

After Xiao Liu finished moving two buckets of paint, he walked to the door and brought in the third one.

It was then that he noticed Yu Zi and Xie Dongcheng hadn’t driven here; there wasn’t a single car in the parking lot outside the store.

“Dongy, where’s your car?” Xiao Liu walked into the store and asked him.

Xie Dongcheng realized he was asking about the used Corolla, scratching his head, “Sold it.”

“Why would you sell it?”

“It was scrapped.” Xie Dongcheng didn’t see any reason to hide it and just said it straight.

Xiao Liu looked even more lost, “But that car was pretty good, how did it get scrapped?”

Xie Dongcheng didn’t say anything more.

It was already midday, and the sun was shining on the asphalt road, bringing some warmth to the street.

Xiao Liu casually asked him, “So how did you come here this morning?”

Xie Dongcheng was busy patching a gap in the paint next to the beam and didn’t hear what he said clearly, so he didn’t answer.

“We took a taxi,” Yu Zi stood next to him and answered for him.

“Huh? You came together?” Xiao Liu put down the paint bucket and looked surprised.

“Yeah,” Yu Zi nodded.

Just then, the large glass door of the shop was pushed open, and the delivery person arrived. A large pile of cardboard boxes was brought into the empty hall, covered with a layer of dustproof plastic.

“Mr. Yo, your ordered goods have arrived,” the leading woman waved to Yu Zi.

Yu Zi quickly wiped his hands and took the delivery note, signing it, “Okay, just put it there.”

Continuing the previous topic, Xiao Liu looked up and asked, “Dongy, do you two live together?”

Xie Dongcheng had just finished his work and finally heard what they were saying. He hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“Yu Zi, you’re really nice, providing accommodation for your employees. Can I stay in the dormitory in the future?” Xiao Liu looked forward to it.

Yu Zi shook his head, “No, it’s me who lives at his place.”

Xiao Liu was a little confused, as if he was recalling the layout of Xie Dongcheng’s house, “That’s not right. Dongy, your house is just one room and one bed, right?”

After a while, he suddenly realized and exclaimed loudly, “Wow, you two sleep together?”

Instantly, five or six movers standing in the room all turned to look at the two of them.