Chapter 8: Fifteen Yuan for a Friendship

During the morning, lunch, and evening rushes, customers lined up outside my family’s property, the line stretching as far as I could see.

Mr. Wang told me one number.

“This location alone brings in five million yuan in revenue every month!”

There were more and more articles online about Mr. Wang.

He livestreamed right from each of his shops.

I followed the streams.

Every day, Li Lian tuned in to the one from the shop renting my family’s property.

I knew she still hadn’t given up.

A month later, Li Lian’s noodle shop on the east side of the city closed.

Li Lian’s mother came to our house and cried to my mother.

“She’s divorced and raising her son alone. It hasn’t been easy. Now she’s lost her shop and her stable source of income. How is she supposed to live? She was foolish and did something wrong, and offended Su Shu! I’m apologizing to your family on her behalf. Please, I beg you to forgive her!”

My mother repeated everything Li Lian’s mother had said.

“She was crying so hard. She said she’d made Li Lian delete the post and post a clarification online!”

I looked up Li Lian’s account.

Sure enough, her latest post was a statement setting the record straight.

She’d attached security-camera footage.

It clearly showed that after eating, I got a phone call.

I told her I’d transfer the money later.

She nodded, and only then did I leave.

In her statement, she also wrote:

“Su Shu has been my best friend for more than twenty years. She was the landlord of my previous noodle shop. The market rent was one hundred thousand yuan a month, but she only charged me fifty thousand, for five whole years…

“That day, she came to celebrate my birthday and gave me a thirteen-gram gold necklace!

“She’s helped me so much over the years. I was the one who wronged her. I got carried away by the idea of becoming famous online…”

As soon as Li Lian posted the statement, the comments filled up again.

“Oh my god, so that’s what really happened! At first I thought the owner had gone too far, though maybe she wasn’t exactly wrong. I had no idea she’d been taking advantage of her friend for years. Then, just because her friend forgot to pay once, she ruined her job and reputation and even called the police on her…”

“Good heavens, we need to apologize to that woman!”

“Looks like this woman came out of a disaster better off. Mr. Wang rented her family’s property…and I heard the rent went up! The person who really needs to stay away from friends who take advantage of her is that noodle-shop owner!”

After I finished reading the post, my mother spoke to me over the phone again.

“Sweetheart, Li Lian’s mother also repaid the 300,000 yuan she owed you. She’s over sixty and cried and apologized all afternoon. Maybe we should forgive her.”

“You’ve been friends for years. There’s no need to be so ruthless! Did you really sign a long-term contract with Mr. Wang? Why not rent the place to her again? We can pay a little penalty for breaking the contract!”

My mother tried to persuade me.

I refused without hesitation.

“I’m not helping her again. And I won’t break my word by taking back a property I’ve already rented to Mr. Wang and giving it to her instead.”

My mother disagreed.

“But it’s Li Lian, your friend of so many years. If you won’t help her and you’re this heartless, what will people think of you? Do you really want to live alone, with your relatives and friends avoiding you and no one trusting you?”

Her words didn’t make me hesitate.

“If the price of not being alone is giving up my own interests and helping people who don’t deserve it, I’d rather live alone.”

My mother had nothing more to say.

After Li Lian posted her clarification, the first people to contact me were my former company.

I didn’t answer.

Then my friends, classmates, and former coworkers all tried to reach me. I ignored them too.

I was genuinely very busy with work now.

Mr. Wang had recently promised that if I helped the company meet its business targets, I’d get a year-end bonus of two million yuan on top of my three-million-yuan salary.

For that goal, I didn’t want to waste time on people and things that had nothing to do with it.

What friendship or loyalty could matter more than two million yuan?

I thought Li Lian wouldn’t come looking for me again.

But two months later, she showed up.

This time, she came to Mr. Wang’s company for a job interview.

She even brought her son.

As soon as she saw me, she begged.

“Su Shu, after I posted that clarification online, no company will hire me! I can’t even get a job washing dishes at a noodle shop!”

“I still have to raise my son. You know my mother had to sell our house back home to repay the 300,000 yuan she owed you. I’m really desperate now. I heard Mr. Wang thinks highly of you and that you’re in charge of running the company!”

“Please give me a job. I’d even be willing to clean floors!”

Li Lian’s son looked at me pitifully.