Chapter 35: 35: Golden Spoon Cafe.
The taxi slowly pulled up beside the road near Golden Spoon Café.
After paying the usual 50¥ fare, he stepped out of the car.
Across the street, Golden Spoon Café was already open for business.
Through the windows, he could see customers sitting inside while the employees were moving busily between tables.
As he walked toward the entrance, a thought of buying a car passed his mind.
The idea wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
After all, he now had over fifty-six million yuan sitting in his bank account.
Taking taxis everywhere felt a little strange.
Of course, actually spending money on himself still felt even stranger.
Benny was still pondering the matter when his phone suddenly rang.
When he glanced at the screen, he noticed it was from an unknown number.
After a moment’s hesitation, he decision answer it first.
"Hello?"
A professional female voice immediately sounded from the other side.
"Mr. Benny, congratulations on achieving our Diamond Sovereign Tier."
Benny blinked.
Diamond what?
The woman continued smoothly.
"My name is Lin Mei. I am your newly assigned personal relationship manager."
Benny became even more confused and before he could speak, the woman continued.
"Your current balance of fifty-six million yuan is sitting in a non interest bearing checking account. It is effectively losing value every hour.
I have already arranged a private meeting room for you at our Bund Branch today.
Our Chief Investment Officer has also prepared a bespoke capital-growth portfolio exclusively for you."
Benny stopped walking, the woman continued enthusiastically.
"We believe we can help optimize your asset allocation while achieving superior long-term returns—"
Click.
Benny hung up and then stared at his phone.
A few seconds later, he nodded to himself.
Hackers nowadays are getting more creative with their ways.
He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Meanwhile, several kilometers away, a woman in a private office stared at her disconnected phone.
"..."
She slowly lowered it and scross from her, a senior executive looked up.
"How did it go?"
The woman hesitated, then answered honestly.
"He hung up."
The executive frowned.
"What did you say?"
"I congratulated him on becoming a Diamond Sovereign client."
"And then?"
"I explained that we could help grow his wealth."
The office became silent, neither of them understood what had gone wrong.
After all, in their experience, wealthy clients usually became interested the moment they heard the words ’grow your wealth.’
The executive sighed.
For most clients, obtaining a dedicated relationship manager was considered a privilege.
For a client with fifty-six million yuan in liquid assets to immediately hang up was practically unheard of.
After a moment, the executive made a decision.
"Arrange a meeting."
Lin Mei blinked.
"A meeting?"
"Yes."
"If he won’t come to us, then we’ll go to him."
Lin Mei nodded before suddenly asking,
"Are the source of his funds verified?"
The executive gave an immediate nod.
"Multiple times."
He tapped the folder.
"The funds originated from legitimate overseas corporate transfers. Everything passed compliance review. There are no irregularities."
The executive continued.
"A young man with that level of liquidity is precisely the type of client we want. We’re not merely selling products. We’re building a relationship."
His gaze dropped toward the file once more.
"Do your homework. I want to know where he spends his time, what industries he’s interested in and what his future plans are."
Lin Mei nodded.
"Understood."
Meanwhile.
Completely unaware, Benny pushed open the door to Golden Spoon Cafe.
A cheerful bell rang overhead.
The familiar aroma of coffee and freshly baked food immediately greeted him.
Benny pushed open the café door and stepped inside.
The familiar aroma of food immediately greeted him.
The café looked much the same as it always had.
Customers occupied most of the tables while waiters moved busily between them carrying trays of food.
Benny’s gaze naturally drifted toward the dishes being served.
Every time he saw those portions, he felt a sense of reassurance.
At this rate, the café should continue losing money for years.
Just then, a familiar voice called out.
"You’re here again, Mister."
Benny turned and immediately recognized the waitress from his previous visits.
"Yes."
He nodded.
"Is your sister in?"
"She is."
The waitress smiled.
"Sarah is currently talking with the chef about expansion plans."
Expansion?
A smile slowly spread across his face.
"That sounds excellent."
The waitress blinked at his unusually pleased reaction.
Benny looked at her.
"Oh, right. I’ve been here three times already, and I still don’t know your name."
The waitress laughed softly.
"My name is right here."
She pointed toward the name tag pinned to her uniform.
"Karina."
Benny looked down and nodded.
"Alright, Karina."
He gave her a thumbs up.
"Work hard."
Karina smiled.
"I will."
Satisfied, Benny headed toward the manager’s office.
Upon arriving, Benny knocked once before pushing open the office door.
Inside, Sarah was seated across from a man in his thirties wearing a chef’s uniform.
The two appeared to be in the middle of a discussion.
"...I’m telling you, if we’re going to expand, we’ll need more money than that," the chef said.
Sarah rubbed her forehead.
"We’ll figure it out one step at a time."
The chef shook his head.
"One step at a time isn’t a plan."
Before Sarah could respond, she noticed Benny standing by the door.
Her eyes immediately brightened.
"Benny!"
She stood up.
"When did you get here?"
"Just now."
Benny smiled.
"I didn’t mean to interrupt."
The chef turned around and his expression immediately darkened.
"Who is this?"
Sarah blinked.
"This is Benny."
The chef frowned.
"Benny who?"
Sarah answered.
"The café’s investors."
The chef’s eyebrows immediately shot up.
"An investor?"
His gaze swept over Benny from head to toe clearly looking unconvinced.
Then he laughed.
"You’re letting someone like this invest?"
Benny looked around.
Someone like what?
The chef continued before anyone could answer.
"No wonder things are such a mess around here."
Sarah’s expression turned cold.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
The chef snorted.
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
He pointed toward the café outside.
"The kitchen is very much understaffed and as I’ve said before, the portions are ridiculous yet every time I bring up fixing those problems, nobody listens."
Sarah folded her arms.
"We’ve discussed this already."
"No."
The chef shook his head.
"You ignored it."
Sarah’s patience visibly began running out.
The chef wasn’t finished.
"And now you’ve brought in a kid investor, at this point, I don’t even know why I bother."
Sarah immediately shot back.
"Then don’t."
The room suddenly became quiet and the chef froze.
"What?"
Sarah pointed toward the door.
"If you’re that unhappy, then quit."
The chef stared at her.
Clearly, that wasn’t the response he expected.
For several seconds, nobody spoke, then he laughed.
"You think I won’t?"
Sarah didn’t back down.
"Go ahead."
The chef’s expression stiffened, he had actually expected her to compromise.
Instead, she was looking at him as though she had already made up her mind.
The chef suddenly stood.
"Fine."
He grabbed his jacket.
"Then I quit.
"Okay."
Sarah nodded.
The chef blinked.
That was it? Are you not even going to stop me?
His face turned red.
Without another word, he stormed toward the door.
And when he reached it, he stopped and then his gaze landed on Benny.
For some reason, the chef seemed to have decided that this entire situation was Benny’s fault.
"I don’t know who you are but I’ll remember you and I’ll make sure you remember what happens when you stick your nose into other people’s business."
Benny looked genuinely confused.
He hadn’t said a single word since entering the room.
Not one.
The chef glared at him for another second before finally storming out.
The office door slammed shut behind him.
