Chapter 4: Fifteen Yuan for a Friendship

“Su Shu, you’ll regret treating me this way! I’m telling you, I will never apologize to you, and I’ll never post a clarification online!”

With that, Li Lian hung up.

Three days later, I went to her noodle shop.

Li Lian had packed up all her things.

She held her seven-year-old son’s hand, glaring at me with hatred.

The boy clutched his mother’s hand, looked at me, and spat.

“You old bitch! This is all your fault! You made my mom move and rent somewhere else!”

I looked at the designer clothes he was wearing.

Back when I still thought of Li Lian as my best friend, I’d treated her son like my own godson.

I bought all his clothes.

Every spring, summer, fall, and winter, I’d buy him more than a dozen outfits—all designer brands.

He used to call me his godmother.

He’d called me that for five years.

And now he was cursing me.

A flicker of sadness rose in my heart, but I quickly pushed it down.

I looked calmly at Li Lian and asked again.

“The market rent is one hundred thousand yuan a month. Are you sure you don’t want to keep renting?”

I offered one last piece of friendly advice.

“Your shop’s food—the noodles, stir-fries, fried rice—is all pretty ordinary. Without the prime location of my family’s property, it would be hard for you to run a successful business.”

Li Lian was still wearing the gold necklace I’d given her.

I watched her livestreams and saw her wear it every day.

When a viewer asked who had given it to her, she even replied, “My boyfriend.”

I didn’t expose her online.

I was waiting for the day she’d come clean on her own.

Seeing her expression grow darker, I continued.

“It’ll be hard to keep your current crowds coming just by riding the temporary fame you got from dragging me online. If you stop renting my place and I rent it to someone else, I won’t take you back later, even if you change your mind. You should really think it over.”

I pointed to Li Lian’s son.

“For your son’s sake, you should consider it carefully.”

That was the last time I tried to be kind to Li Lian.

But she gave a cold laugh, lifted her chin, and looked smug.

“Su Shu, you’re scared, aren’t you? Your reputation is in the gutter. So what if your family has a good location? Do you really think anyone will rent your place?”

“Don’t act like your prime location is one of a kind! I think you came here to talk me into staying because you’re afraid no one else will rent it. And you dare ask for a hundred thousand a month? Looking back, I was already overpaying you at fifty thousand!”

The more she spoke, the more convinced she became that she was right. Her chin tipped higher and higher.

She showed me her follower count.

“I’m an online celebrity now! I stand for justice. My noodle shop will become famous even without that ‘prime location’ you keep bragging about!”

“I’ve already rented a place in an alley on the east side of the city. It’s only ten thousand a month!”

“Su Shu, I’ll say it again: I’m not deleting my post. I’ll keep building my image online. Don’t think you can threaten me into taking it down by raising the rent!”

I gave a cold laugh.

That had been the last bit of mercy I’d offered her.

The area near the entrance of that eastern alley was full of unfinished construction projects and had very few residents.

Who would go all the way there just to eat noodles?

And she thought she could make the shop famous online?

There had been internet-famous barbers and bakers before.

Did any of them stay popular forever?

This wave of attention would soon pass.

Online users would come to their senses.

Internet fame couldn’t make people spend money at a shop forever, no matter what it sold.

I clenched my fists.

No matter how much Li Lian begged later, I would never forgive her.

As for the posts online…

I wasn’t in a hurry.

As I left, Li Lian looked at me triumphantly.

“Su Shu, I’ll wait for the day you regret this! Even if you get down on your knees and beg me to rent your place again, I won’t!”

Then Li Lian hauled away a cart piled with her belongings without looking back.

I immediately posted the property for rent online.

I expected it would take at least a few days for anyone to come view it.

But the very next day, a prospective tenant urgently arranged to see the place.

To my surprise, it was the owner of the city’s number-one noodle-shop chain.

He offered 150,000 yuan a month.

I was astonished when I learned the interested renter was Mr. Wang.

He had opened dozens of branches of the same chain across the city.

Every one of them was doing extremely well.

His family had a secret seasoning recipe. Put the brand name over the door, and customers would keep coming.