Pursuing Her Best Friend after Confession Failed

"You’re the child I carried for ten months. If I don’t dote on you, who will? How could I possibly bear to watch you be pushed into a pit of fire by your own father..."

Zhong Tingyue, moved to tears, hugged Gu Lanxin and cried out with a choked voice, "Mom!"

Gu Lanxin stroked Zhong Tingyue’s soft hair and smiled. "Silly girl, stop crying. You won’t look pretty if your face is streaked with tears."

"Okay! I won’t cry!" Zhong Tingyue lifted her head and nestled in her mother’s arms.

Gu Lanxin then said, "By the way, Little Moon, Li Yuan said that he opened this Tea Color Moonlight milk tea shop with you. Do you have shares in it?"

Zhong Tingyue asked, puzzled, "Mom, why would you ask that?"

A hint of embarrassment flashed through Gu Lanxin’s eyes. She laughed it off and explained, "It’s nothing, I was just asking casually."

After she asked, Zhong Tingyue glanced at her mother’s expression and knew what she was thinking.

As her father’s "mistress," her mother had only received a house in Sucheng, a car, and a bit of monthly spending money from that man. He hadn’t given her any other assets... Of course, that man didn’t have many assets himself. From her current perspective, the Zhong Family wasn’t as powerful as she had once imagined, either. After all, what truly powerful family would need to sacrifice their own daughter for something like that?

Zhong Tingyue looked at Gu Lanxin and decided to explain, "Mom, I own 10% of the shares in Tea Color Moonlight. Li Yuan originally wanted to give me more, but I refused."

Gu Lanxin asked, confused, "Why did you refuse? Isn’t that a good thing?"

Zhong Tingyue shook her head. "Mom, Li Yuan initially wanted to give me 40%, but I thought that was too much."

Sensing Gu Lanxin didn’t understand, Zhong Tingyue asked another question, "Mom, do you know how much money Li Yuan invested in Tea Color Moonlight?"

Gu Lanxin shook her head and ventured a guess, "A few million?"

Zhong Tingyue smiled. "Mom, let me put it this way: just to purchase the initial ten stores, Li Yuan invested 10,000,000 in cash. Adding in the other supporting facilities, raw materials, and staff wages, it came to around 13,000,000...

"Recently, Li Yuan invested about another 30,000,000 to expand to thirty new stores, including raw material processing workshops and so on...

"Just 10% of the capital Li Yuan has invested already amounts to four to five million.

"And Tea Color Moonlight’s current valuation has easily surpassed one hundred million, with daily revenue in the millions. Mom, do you know what that means?"

Even though Gu Lanxin knew nothing about business, hearing Zhong Tingyue’s explanation made her realize that the 10% stake Li Yuan had given her daughter was an incredibly significant sum.

Full of confidence, Zhong Tingyue said, "Mom, based on Tea Color Moonlight’s current growth rate, I’m confident I can turn it into a company with a market value of over a billion within a year..."

Gu Lanxin was stunned, completely astonished by Zhong Tingyue’s confident tone. "A market value of a billion? Doesn’t that mean, Little Moon, that your net worth is at least in the hundreds of millions?"

Zhong Tingyue nodded with a smile.

Having spent the past month or so studying the milk tea market and managing the shop, she had a premonition that the market would only become more massive and popular in the future. Based on the current trend, as long as they could continuously enhance Tea Color Moonlight’s brand effect, it wasn’t impossible to make it the "Starbucks" of China...

"Haha, Little Moon, you’re really amazing! I don’t know how much money the Old Zhong’s House in Sucheng has, but your dad’s entire net worth, all added up, definitely doesn’t exceed one hundred million." Gu Lanxin exclaimed, laughing with pride and joy for her precious daughter. "Based on what you’ve said, Li Yuan really does treat you well, giving you shares worth tens of millions just like that."

A look of deep love filled Zhong Tingyue’s eyes. "Mmm, he’s really, really good to me."

Gu Lanxin smiled. "As long as that’s the case, I can rest easy."

"By the way, your dad might come to Modu to see you soon. When he does, make your mom proud. Let him see what an amazing daughter I raised..."

Hearing her father might be coming, Zhong Tingyue looked a little panicked. "He’s coming to see me?"

Gu Lanxin nodded. "He heard from somewhere you were apparently dating and got worried, so he insisted on coming to see for himself. I stopped him, telling him I’d come to Modu first to check on the situation and give you a heads-up..."

"Mom, thank you!" Zhong Tingyue said, moved.

Gu Lanxin laughed. "There’s no need for thanks between mother and daughter. Now that I see you’re doing well, I’m relieved."

"Mom, you should stay in Modu for a few more days this time," Zhong Tingyue said.

Gu Lanxin chuckled teasingly, "If I stay here every day, won’t I get in the way of your dates with Little Li?"

Zhong Tingyue’s face flushed, and she said coaxingly, "Mom, Li Yuan and I don’t usually come here anyway. You can stay here with peace of mind."

"You don’t come here?" Gu Lanxin asked in surprise. "Then where do you go?"

Zhong Tingyue’s face grew redder as she answered, "Umm... he has other houses."

...

Over the next few days, Li Yuan took Zhong Tingyue and Bai Weixi to meet his father separately. Since they were both his girlfriends, he had to treat them equally, so he had them both meet his father.

Time passed leisurely. Amidst the busyness, half a month passed in the blink of an eye, bringing them to mid-to-late December.

The thirty newly expanded stores had finished renovations, and the newly recruited staff had all started their positions.

The total revenue for Tea Color Moonlight’s first month was finally out.

It had to be said that the milk tea industry was an incredibly profitable one, especially when enhanced by brand power, benefiting from Li Yuan’s fame and the fervent support of his fans.

The total sales revenue for Tea Color Moonlight’s ten stores in the first month reached an astonishing figure of over 30,000,000. Even after deducting costs for raw materials, labor, and other expenses, the net profit was still over 20,000,000.

In just one month, the total investment for the ten milk tea shops had been earned back with plenty to spare.

Such figures left even Li Yuan himself a little shaken, to say nothing of Zhong Tingyue, Bai Weixi, and Su Yunting.

They could only secretly marvel at how terrifyingly devoted fans were to their idols...