"Let's go, let's hit the cafeteria first,"
Shen Yuan patted his growling stomach, not understanding why he was so hungry; he had just had breakfast around 9 o'clock.
Could it be that he had expended too much energy last night?
They say women in their thirties are like wolves and in their forties like tigers, but Fang Minhui was only in her early twenties. How had she unlocked that level already?
Shen Yuan sighed softly. It seemed he needed to exercise more regularly, or else he wouldn't be able to handle such a seductress.
"That damn Old Cao went to bed at the same time as me last night, at three in the morning, and he's still lying in bed."
By now, Huang Haibao had finished brushing his teeth, cleaned his face, and was putting on his glasses from the desk.
"That son of a gun can eat and sleep, and on top of that, he snores like a bear. Seriously deserves to die."
Shen Yuan looked at Cao Shunjin, who was snoring thunderously, remembered how many times that guy had kept him awake at night, and felt mischievous. He climbed the bunk ladder and yanked off the covers, "Fire! Fire! Get up!"
Cao Shunjin jerked awake with a start, sitting up immediately, "Where's the fire? Where is it?"
He looked around, disoriented, realizing there was no altercation. Only two jerks in the room were laughing at him, and he cursed furiously, "Are you trying to kill me?!"
Cao Shunjin's expression was a sight to behold—confused from being half asleep, panicked from the scare, and a bit of rage for being rudely awakened from a sweet dream.
"Hurry up and get out of bed. Let's go downstairs for breakfast," Shen Yuan said with a laugh.
With such a ruckus, Cao Shunjin was now wide awake and could no longer sleep. Grumbling, he got up, took care of his hygiene in a matter of minutes, and followed Shen Yuan downstairs to the cafeteria.
Once at the cafeteria and after getting their meals, they sat down when Cao Shunjin suddenly remembered something, "There's a class dinner tonight. You guys going?"
Shen Yuan paused, perplexed. What was the point of a dinner when everyone saw each other in class every day? What was there to gather for?
Huang Haibao's head shook like a bobblehead, "Nope, not going."
Cao Shunjin asked while eating.
"Didn't you see the group chat for our class? Li Zhanpeng, that bastard, went to the 4S shop this morning and booked a BMW. He even posted the booking contract in the group," Huang Haibao said indignantly.
"I suspect he suggested the class rep schedule the dinner specifically for today," added Huang Haibao.
Shen Yuan normally didn't pay attention to the class group chat; he had it muted, and Cao Shunjin had just woken up and hadn't noticed the messages either.
Both of them took out their phones simultaneously to check the class chat and indeed found 99+ unread messages.
They scrolled to the top of the chat history, and sure enough, there was Li Zhanpeng's smug message, "The weather is nice this weekend, I suggest everyone go out and enjoy it."
But the real kicker was the picture he attached. At a glance, it was just a clear blue sky, but in the bottom right-hand corner, you could see the stand from a BMW 4S shop with a clear BMW logo. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novelꞁire.net
After that picture was posted, people started replying immediately, "Damn, Brother Peng is picking up a BMW?"
"Brother Peng is the man. Which BMW model did you book?"
"No matter which model, it gotta be at least 300k, right?"
"Man, even ten years after graduation, I probably won't be able to afford a BMW."
"Brother Peng, I only have one question: are the female sales reps at the BMW 4S shop hot?"
Many more sycophantic messages followed, and Li Zhanpeng, amidst everyone's shock, coolly dropped another line with a picture of the booking contract.
"It's not that expensive; BMW is giving big discounts now."
Shen Yuan opened the picture: the model was a BMW 3 Series 325Li model, costing 280,000 on the road, and the key detail was the payment method: one-time payment.
Once that was out, there was another round of shock and awe in the group chat.
"See? That's what the dinner will be tonight—probably just another one-man show by Li Zhanpeng," Huang Haibao muttered contemptuously, thinking that the dinner would only serve as a showcase for Li Zhanpeng to flaunt his wealth. Was he expected to go there and be part of the audience?
Especially since their dorm room 503 was not on good terms with Li Zhanpeng.
Now that Old Third had fallen to the status of a debt-burdened generation, there was no one left in the class to put a damper on Li's arrogance.
"If we don't go, wouldn't our class fees of two hundred per semester be in vain?"
Cao Shunjin's eyebrows drooped. Every semester, two hundred in fees were collected, which were mostly spent on these meals that weren't even filling. But the thought of not attending and letting the others splurge his money on food and drink made him feel even worse.
"Damn! The class rep and the Youth League secretary never ask our opinions about these dinners," Huang Haibao cursed, realizing this problem.
Shen Yuan couldn't help but laugh at the lively conversation in the class group chat, finding Li Zhanpeng's attempts at showing off rather fucking adorable.
But then again, back when everyone was still in school, getting around by bus or bicycle was the norm, with very few even riding electric scooters.
Under such circumstances, having a classmate who could already drive a BMW was indeed something worth boasting about.
Shen Yuan wasn't exempt from vanity either; when he bought his 4 Series, a bit of show-off was definitely part of the appeal.
But these were all toys Li Zhanpeng had played and done with, and besides, Shen Yuan didn't bother with such low-level boasting, let alone fucking posting the car booking contract in the group chat.
Shen Yuan thought that a get-together with such a backdrop was pointless, and since the classmates saw each other every day, he shook his head, "Go ahead if you like, I'm not going."
Upon hearing this, Huang Haibao and Cao Shunjin exchanged a look as if they had realized something.
After a long silence, Huang Haibao sighed, patted Shen Yuan on the shoulder, and offered words of comfort, "Old Third, we understand."
They all knew that Shen Yuan's family had gone bankrupt and had sold their house and car.
Furthermore, Li Zhanpeng had always been outshone by Old Third, which is why he had never liked him.
Now that Li Zhanpeng had booked a car, he was at the peak of his arrogance and might say some sarcastic shit about Old Third in the evening.
With so many classmates around that night and Old Third being someone who cared about face, it was better not to attend at all.
"You don't know shit!" Shen Yuan said irritably.
After high school graduation, Shen Yuan had attended one get-together, which had been truly boring.
Their class was an advanced class filled with top students; half of them were admitted to top universities such as those ranked under 985 and 211 project, and there were even two who met the Tsinghua University and Peking University admission scores. Even the ones who fell short were accepted into first-tier universities.
As for someone like Shen Yuan who only made it into a second-tier university, there were only three or four others, and he really didn't stand out in that group.
After all, student life wasn't like society; once you enter society, people measure you by your annual income or social status.
In high school, the discussions were all about exam scores and problem-solving methods.
Plainly put, back then, it was a chance for the top students to show off.
Of course, they were now juniors in college, which is like stepping halfway into society, and many had already adopted the antics of societal folks, beginning to judge friends based on utilitarian values.
For instance, some would assess whether a person was worth befriending based on their family background and social status.
Like the few people who were just kissing Li Zhanpeng's ass in the group chat, it was clear they were just brown-nosing.
Everybody wasn't stupid; actually, not many liked hanging out with someone of Li Zhanpeng's nature, but they thought his wealthy family background was worth getting on his good side ahead of time.
So at tonight's gathering, it was likely to be filled with those "seasoned" classmates kissing Li Zhanpeng's ass.
Meanwhile, Shen Yuan's WeChat "ding-dong" suddenly rang, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He opened it and saw that it was a voice message from "Three-Year-Old" Li Yuhang.
Shen Yuan played it, the voice was groggy, almost unclear about what he was saying, probably just after waking up.
The gist was, "How the hell do you know I'm short on cash lately, you damn timely motherfucker?" followed by an invitation for Shen Yuan to come over for dinner and hit the bars that night, just to chill.
Shen Yuan wasn't interested in clubbing or dancing at the moment and was about to send a voice message to politely decline, but then, he suddenly heard the System's voice in his head.
[Mission: A perfect life needs not only the favor of the opposite sex, but also a strong career foundation.]
[Timed Mission: The host will receive an exclusive investment fund of 1 million, and must invest all of it within one week.]
[Mission Reward: Any income earned from commercial activities will be doubled.]
Shen Yuan was intrigued; the System's task had arrived again, and this time it was career-oriented.
In fact, he had also been worrying about this issue for the last couple of days, considering all the money in his account needed to be spent frequently, there had to be a source, right?
Otherwise, people might suspect he got the money through improper means.
So he really needed to invest in a business to cover up his rapidly swelling assets.
Shen Yuan observed the panel carefully, noting that the System's rewards were very generous as well. As long as he made a profit, he would receive double the cashback.
This meant that any business venture he invested in, as long as it was profitable, would see decent returns even if the margins were slim, thanks to this doubling effect.
Upon more thought, even losing money could turn a profit.
For example, suppose a store's daily revenue is 10,000, but the operating costs are 12,000, resulting in a loss of 2,000;
However, with the System's double revenue cashback, one could make 20,000, minus the 12,000 operating costs, netting a profit of 8,000. That's a profit of 66.6%!