To make money, to earn a fortune.

Fang Chang'an turned around to see Cheng Mengfei riding her electric scooter into the courtyard with Shen Mo on the back. He smiled and called out, "Hello, Teacher Cheng."

Cheng Mengfei nodded, but Shen Mo pouted in dissatisfaction, saying, "I was the one who greeted you first."

"When did you become so petty?" Cheng Mengfei stopped the scooter, glancing amusedly at her little niece climbing off the back seat. Shen Mo pouted and said nothing. Fang Chang'an asked, "Teacher Cheng, did you two really ride all the way to the county?"

"Do you think I'm that silly?" Cheng Mengfei shot him a look. "We rode to catch the bus."

"Oh, I thought so," Fang Chang'an laughed. Cheng Mengfei said, "What are you all doing standing at the door? Come inside and talk."

Fang Chang'an didn’t have much to discuss with Shen Chengyan at the moment. After exchanging a few polite words inside, he went upstairs to the study, found "Lu Xun 3," and picked up "To Live." He hadn't read the latter yet but had heard much about it.

Shen Mo followed him upstairs, intending to sit and read. Seeing Fang Chang'an flipping through the books and then putting them away as if preparing to leave, she asked, "Aren’t you staying for dinner?"

"I can’t just keep freeloading every time, can I?" Fang Chang'an smiled, waved to her, and turned to leave the study. Shen Mo hesitated, then followed him downstairs, where Shen Chengyan and Cheng Mengfei were talking in the living room.

"Auntie, Fang Chang'an is leaving," Shen Mo spoke up before Fang Chang'an could, her tone oddly reminiscent of tattling.

The couple turned to look. Cheng Mengfei asked in surprise, "Do you have something to do at home?"

Fang Chang'an shook his head, but before he could answer, Shen Chengyan waved his hand and said, "If you’ve nothing urgent, why go back? Go read your book, have dinner here, and then leave. I still have something to ask you."

Fang Chang'an did feel it was a bit much to freeload every time, but since Shen Chengyan said he had something to discuss, he couldn’t refuse.

Cheng Mengfei noticed his hesitation and smiled warmly, "Don’t treat this like a stranger’s house. Every time you take something, haven’t I always let you? Mo Mo will be staying for dinner too."

The last sentence sounded a bit odd, but Fang Chang'an didn't overthink it. He nodded. "Thank you, Teacher Cheng. Thank you, Uncle Shen."

"Alright, go read your books now," Shen Chengyan said, waving his hand again.

Fang Chang'an nodded and returned upstairs, the little girl trailing after him with a look of smug satisfaction.

Fang Chang'an found it secretly amusing and asked, "Are you really that happy?"

"No, why would I be happy?" The little girl shook her head immediately and sat at her half of the desk, opening "The Little Prince." Worried he’d press the question, she emphasized, "I’m going to read now."

Fang Chang'an nodded and sat at the other side, starting to read "To Live."

Shen Chengyan did not come up. The door to the study was left open, and occasionally faint voices could be heard from downstairs. At first, Shen Mo flipped through "Lu Xun" looking for interesting parts, but soon lost interest.

But she found "The Little Prince" quite engaging and became so absorbed she lost track of time, only vaguely hearing Fang Chang'an sigh at one point, which she thought she’d imagined.

She read a few more lines before turning to look at Fang Chang'an, seeing him reading intently. She asked, "What’s wrong?"

Fang Chang'an looked up, hesitated, and said, "The protagonist’s father died."

"Oh…" The little girl nodded. After a while, she thought she heard another barely audible sigh from Fang Chang'an.

She asked again, "What is it?"

"The main character’s mother died."

"Oh…"

After some time, Fang Chang'an let out a gentle breath. The little girl turned, blinking her big eyes in confusion.

"The protagonist’s son died."

"Oh…"

Another while passed, and Fang Chang'an clenched his fist softly and took a breath.

Shen Mo looked at him again, her expression asking, "Who died now?"

"This time, the protagonist’s daughter got married."

"Oh."

After a while, Shen Mo heard Fang Chang'an seem to tap the table softly and looked over in confusion once more.

"The wife was paralyzed, the daughter died," Fang Chang'an let out a breath. "She died in childbirth, but there was a grandson."

"Mm."

After some time—

"The wife died."

"…"

"The son-in-law died."

"But at least there’s a grandson left for company."

"…"

"The grandson died too…"

"…"

The little girl’s bright eyes blinked repeatedly before she finally asked, "What’s this book called?"

Fang Chang'an showed her the cover: "To Live."

She blinked in confusion. "But didn’t everyone die?"

"The main character is still alive."

"Oh." The little girl nodded, memorized the book’s title, and silently created a "never read even if beaten" list in her mind, adding this book to it.

Shen Chengyan had said he had something to discuss, but only came up to call them for dinner. Fang Chang'an didn’t ask what the matter was. After dinner, he went upstairs, picked up two books, and prepared to leave.

Seeing him pick up the book where everyone died again, Shen Mo asked, "Didn’t you finish it?"

"I’m going to read it again."

The little girl gave him a very strange look. Fang Chang'an explained helplessly, "Even though everyone dies, it’s truly a great book. When you’re older, you should read it too."

Shen Mo pouted and turned her face away. "I won’t!"

"That just means you’re still young."

As usual, Shen Chengyan drove Fang Chang'an and Shen Mo back to school. Cheng Mengfei prepared to continue her experience with the big bicycle.

Because orders for the next week’s buns were all pre-arranged, Fang Chang'an didn’t wait until after evening study to take orders. Instead, he registered them before self-study began, and just before the warning bell, he went alone to Class Three, knocked lightly on the podium.

The whole class looked at him in confusion, though a few recognized him—after all, the daily commotion over buns in recent days was hard to miss. Class Three was sandwiched between One, Two, and Four; it would be hard not to notice.

"Hello everyone, my name is Fang Chang'an. I’m from Class Four next door. Some of you may know me; for others, I may be a stranger."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I want to talk about something. Everyone knows what the cafeteria food is like. I’ve contacted a bun shop outside that can deliver buns to the school—ten cents each. They’re bigger than the ones on the street; some of you may have seen them."

"If you want any, you can sign up with me. Orders are for one week—five days. I’ll be waiting in the corridor. If no one comes, I’ll leave. You can find me before the second evening self-study session today."

When Fang Chang'an finished, he didn’t wait to see the reaction, simply walked out to the corridor. Inside, several students looked at each other, clearly tempted, then someone took the lead and came out.

He hadn’t appointed a class rep for orders in Class Three—he could handle it himself for now and would hand it over to someone suitable later. In Class Four, he planned to let Wang Ke take over; she was already helping, just still collecting money.

In Class Four, Shen Mo helped with orders. Fang Chang'an waited at Class Three’s door until nearly class time. Thanks to the groundwork laid over the past two weeks, nearly twenty students in Class Three placed orders, totaling over 130 buns.

After the second evening self-study, he tallied up the numbers: from last week’s total of around 1,400 buns, orders had risen to over 2,100, an increase of more than 700, with the biggest jump coming from Grade Two.

On Shen Chengyan’s side, he had first recruited two people: Xu Jing’s nephew, Peng Liangliang, and a relative of Zhang Fei’s—a man in his early thirties. Both were inexperienced, but as Shen Chengyan commented, they were obedient and hardworking, which satisfied him.

Beyond personnel, after days of contacting, screening, and calculations, Shen Chengyan had basically finalized long-term supply sources—meat and flour being the main ones.

He was well-connected and had a special status. Even if he made no profit, people were still willing to be friends with him. Though not a natural businessman, he knew enough to let others have some profit, never relying on status to pressure prices.

Even so, the prices he got were much lower than what Zhang Fei’s group originally paid.

After calculating, the material costs surprised Shen Chengyan. Based on the original size of the buns, the total material cost per bun averaged about three cents. If he wanted to cut corners, he could go even lower!

Which meant, just at No. 2 Middle School, selling 2,000 buns a day at current material costs, he was making 1.40 yuan a day, or 4,200 a month, with over 1,000 left after rent and wages.

The profit wasn’t huge, but this was the "market" Fang Chang'an had left behind; the real expansion hadn’t even started. Future growth would be pure profit.

This made Shen Chengyan uneasy. On Tuesday morning, he drove his BMW over, and after Zhang Fei left, he called Fang Chang'an into the car to discuss lowering the bun price.

After listening, Fang Chang'an asked, "Uncle Shen, do you feel uneasy making this much money?"

Shen Chengyan scratched his chin and sighed, "A bit. I thought a fifty percent profit was high—never expected this. Seventeen times the cost!"

Fang Chang'an thought for a moment and asked, "Have you heard the story of Zilu saving someone?"

Shen Chengyan blinked in confusion. He seemed to rack his brains but drew a blank and nodded, "I think I’ve heard it, but I can’t recall."

Fang Chang'an didn’t press him and explained, "At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Lu, the country where Confucius was born, issued a law: if a Lu citizen, while in another country, encountered a fellow Lu person in trouble—like being enslaved—and paid to redeem them, the state would compensate and reward the redeemer."

"Confucius’ student Zigong, a man of great virtue, redeemed Lu people from other countries but refused the state’s reward. When Confucius heard, he said Zigong was wrong. Accepting the reward wouldn’t damage his character, but refusing it would bring harm: everyone would praise Zigong and scorn those who accepted the reward, so nobody would want to help suffering Lu people in future."

"Another student, Zilu, once saved a drowning man. The man thanked him with a cow, and Zilu accepted it. Confucius was pleased, saying from then on, Lu people would be much more willing to help those who fell into water."

Shen Chengyan felt the situation was rather odd, as if their roles had reversed—he was no longer "Uncle Shen," but Fang Chang'an was "Uncle Fang," imparting life lessons to little Shen Chengyan.

But he never cared much for titles. More importantly, he felt Fang Chang'an had a point—especially since it was Confucius who said it. Who would dare disagree?

Fang Chang'an looked at Shen Chengyan earnestly. "Uncle Shen, when I first started reselling buns, it was just to fill my belly. You did this business to compete with the cafeteria, to keep them from mistreating students—to help countless kids like me."

"But honestly, no matter how hard you try, or how much money you have, how many students can you reach?"

"How many school cafeterias in all of China are like this? How many students suffer?"

"Just relying on us isn’t enough. That’s why you need to make a profit, and preferably a big one—so big that newspapers and TV come to report on you. When others see it, they’ll see a business opportunity and start doing the same."

"We don’t need them to reach our level—just breaking the monopoly and creating competition with school cafeterias benefits the students."

As Shen Chengyan listened, it was as if he experienced a profound soul-cleansing, feeling a heavy sense of responsibility settle on his shoulders. His expression grew grave and solemn, and he nodded slowly.