Chapter 336: Chapter 261: The Girl with the Straw Chapter 336: Chapter 261: The Girl with the Straw “I have the heart of a lioness, keen to sll the roses.” — Sigfried Sassoon.
…
At this mont, the young couple stood inside the lottery ticket shop, scratching the two scratch cards they had just bought.
One had the ambition of Cheng Zhu, the other the heart of Little Lu.
They just didn’t know if the God of Wealth would favor them this ti.
The welfare lottery shop provided those bottle openers for scratching the cards, with a rope tied to one end and secured to the table to prevent them from getting lost.
In the past, everyone used coins from their pockets to scratch off the tickets, but nowadays, people don’t carry cash anymore; even paper notes seem troubleso, let alone coins.
Lin Lu had her eyes closed all this while, her face serious as if praying to her own God of Wealth.
After opening her eyes, she gripped the bottle opener in her right hand and furiously scratched the card, as if by exuding force, she could guarantee a prize!
The owner of the welfare lottery shop couldn’t help but be amused by this pretty, cute girl.
“Looking at her clothes and style, she seems to be well-off. Scratching a fifty-yuan card and even praying first—could she be a little money-grubber?” the middle-aged uncle thought to himself.
Ha, middle-aged straight man, you know nothing.
Cheng Zhu saw that Lin Lu had started scratching, muttering sothing under her breath like a chant, so he began to scratch his card too.
His efficiency in scratching was higher than Lin Lu’s. While the energetic girl insisted on scratching each box slowly and carefully, Cheng Zhu swept through lines at a rapid pace.
“Eh? Nice! Won fifty yuan, just enough to break even!” Cheng Zhu exclaid, startled.
He had always had a low chance of winning anything since childhood, never hitting the jackpot at the small store in front of his school and even needing full luck value to get a guaranteed prize in “Honor of Kings.”
Lin Lu paused in her scratching, turned to glance at Cheng Zhu, then slightly knitted her delicate brows.
Just breaking even didn’t feel particularly auspicious.
“It’s up to now!” Her grip on the bottle opener tightened.
Cheng Zhu turned to look at her and noticed her face tensing up, her lips pressed firmly together, as if she was putting effort into her entire expression!
“No need, no need. Don’t scratch the card to pieces,” Cheng Zhu said with a laugh.
Lin Lu paid him no heed, continuously murmuring to herself: “Win! Win! Win!”
Whether it was truly a case of fools having foolish luck or that she actually had a strong side fortune, as she scratched on, she miraculously managed to make a profit of one hundred, revealing a win of 150!
The middle-aged owner imdiately asked, “Would the handso guy and the pretty lady like to exchange for a few more cards to scratch? The lady seems to have good luck!”
“No, no!” Lin Lu gestured with her hand, vehently declining.
I’m not falling for that little trick!
After transferring the money, Lin Lu happily walked away with the two now-useless scratch cards in hand.
“Here, my card is for you, and yours… just give it to ,” Lin Lu even made an exchange, not allowing Cheng Zhu to throw his away.
“Jeez, you really do have good luck!” Cheng Zhu was sowhat impressed.
“That’s right! The fortune-teller said so. They said I bring luck to others!” Lin Lu boasted, continuing to say, “They ntioned I bring prosperity to my family before marriage and to my husband after marriage!”
She declared with an air of smugness, “In any case, I’m simply very lucky!”
“Wow, bringing luck to a husband now.” In front of her, Cheng Zhu teasingly flipped his own scratch card.
You gave this scratch card to bring luck, right?
So…
A playful, flirtatious atmosphere began to spread in the air, and Lin Lu suddenly realized what was happening. Her face instantly reddened, and she awkwardly started looking for sothing to do, reaching up to adjust the scarf around her neck.
Cheng Zhu decided not to tease her any further, and shifted the topic by saying, “Then I’ll just put this scratch card in the cashier’s drawer as a good luck charm for the shop.”
“Sure!” Lin Lu imdiately bead, her eyes sparkling, and her entire deanor seed to brighten up.
…
…
Minutes later, Cheng Zhu and Lin Lu got into the parked Land Rover in the basent and headed back to Xinhang Apartnt together.
Looking at Building B where Cheng Zhu rented his apartnt, Lin Lu grumbled, “Cheng Zhu, you rented a place and didn’t invite everyone over for a visit, to have so fun like a dinner together?”
“Fun for what? I haven’t even bought pots and pans yet, so I’m not planning on cooking at ho any ti soon,” Cheng Zhu waved his hand dismissively.
His family ran a small eatery, and Cheng, his father, was an excellent cook who had learned from Cheng Zhu’s grandfather, so Cheng Zhu was sort of a “third-generation chef.”
He actually had a knack for cooking, and the food he made was tasty, but he rarely did the cooking himself.
Within their circle of friends, only Jiang Wanzhou had tasted his cooking, and even Wang Anquan, who grew up with him, had never experienced Cheng Zhu’s dishes.
These days, the number of girls who could cook was indeed dwindling, while many boys had at least so culinary skills.
Sowhere along the line, being able to cook beca a desirable trait for n, and so used this skill to attract girls.
Looking back at his previous life, it seed that only Yiyi had ever tasted Cheng Zhu’s cooking, while others had only experienced… his other “talents.”
At this mont, Cheng Zhu looked at her and asked, “What? Want to go up and take a look?”
“Yeah,” Lin Lu nodded, unafraid.
“Then let’s go. I’ll make you a cup of milk tea,” Cheng Zhu smiled.
This was the first ti he had invited a guest to his small apartnt.
The two got out of the car and walked into the elevator, which required a keycard to access the designated floors.
Once inside the apartnt, Lin Lu’s gaze was imdiately caught by the milk tea equipnt on the table.
“So many machines!” She had not expected there would be so much equipnt.
“This is nothing,” Cheng Zhu said with a smile.
Currently, Youu Tea’s approach resembled that of many popular milk tea shops at this stage in his previous life, with milk tea primarily made by hand.
Because of the nurous products popular milk tea shops had, involving all sorts of ingredients like fresh fruit, milk caps, taro paste, and the like, the process was more complex.
Moreover, these shops constantly innovated, often experinting with niche fruits to stand out, and thus, there would be new products every month, adding many new production steps.
This made it difficult to rely on chanization.
But a few years later, as tastes changed and the fruit sector could no longer intensify competition through innovation, shops would shift to a model like Chagee’s, focusing on fresh milk and fresh tea with only a few main products.
At that point, machinery could be more heavily relied upon.
Indeed, Chagee’s production efficiency was much higher than that of Hey Tea and Nai Xue because it relied mostly on machines, allowing fewer staff while being faster!
This was the path Cheng Zhu intended to take three or four years later.
But that was sothing to do when the milk tea industry entered the 4.0 era; currently, it hadn’t even reached the 3.0 era.
So these considerations could wait.
This also involved a complex transition in the tastes of the consur market.
Cheng Zhu had always felt that being too far ahead of the tis wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Leading the tis by a small step was enough; that was already innovation.
He approached the milk tea apparatus and cheerfully asked, “What would you like to drink?”
“Can you make that roasted Black Sugar bubble milk you made for last ti?”
“That probably won’t work; just boiling the Black Sugar bubbles would take a long ti.”
“Then just freestyle sothing,” Lin Lu suggested.
“Alright.”
Cheng Zhu busied himself with the tea-making equipnt, while Lin Lu placed her hands behind her back and browsed around the apartnt.
She didn’t dare to peek into Cheng Zhu’s bedroom alone, so she simply stood with her back turned, leaning forward slightly, and took a few secretive glances inside.
After completing her tour of the entire place, Lin Lu curiously asked him, “Speaking of which, why rent a two-bedroom apartnt when you live alone? Xinhang Apartnt even offers one-bedroom layouts.”
She found it puzzling, considering an extra room to be a re waste.
“I need to sleep on two beds; you wouldn’t understand,” Cheng Zhu replied as he made tea.
For him, one bed indeed wasn’t always sufficient because of the need for—separation of wet and dry.
Nowadays, many young couples choose to book twin rooms in hotels for safety since hidden caras tend to target double rooms more and also for the practicality of separating wet from dry.
Brother, I’m not short on the little extra rent each month.
He even considered renting a three-bedroom apartnt at the beginning…
The milk tea was quickly ready, and he made Lin Lu a cup of taro ball milk tea.
“Here, taro ball milk,” Cheng Zhu handed over the steaming cup of tea.
Lin Lu accepted it, feeling the temperature. She dared not drink it imdiately, fearing it would be too hot.
She held the milk tea in her hands, using it as a hand warr.
In winter, her pretty hands were always cold, and every night, her feet were chilly too.
“Only he, like a massive heater, can just walk in and take off his coat, even complaining about the heat,” she murmured to herself, holding the milk tea close to her lips, too wary of the heat to drink right away, and internally criticizing Cheng Zhu.
“But if we dated, it would probably be really warm, right?” The thought unexpectedly popped into her head.
Lin Lu, who was straightforward and passionate, thought to herself, Why shouldn’t I dare to have such thoughts if I like him?
With those thoughts, she sipped lightly from the straw and almost brought the tea to her mouth, but her instincts warned her it might still be too hot, so she refrained and let the tea fall back into the cup.
She repeated this small action unconsciously several tis.
Cheng Zhu watched her, noticing a little detail.
Baby Lu seems to… really like nibbling on straws?
…
(PS: First update, ask for monthly tickets!)
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