Chapter 129 – Isn’t This a Milk Tea Shop?

Song Xia looked at Chen Mo in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

“Aren’t you trying to sublet this place? I think the shop is pretty nice, so I’ve decided to rent it,” Chen Mo explained.

Since he had already made up his mind to open a coffee shop, there was no need to hesitate.

“You’re going to rent it? For what?”

Song Xia hadn’t expected Chen Mo to want to take over her shop, nor did she understand what he planned to do with it.

“A coffee shop, of course. To be honest with you, that ‘friend’ I mentioned was made up. I’ve made a bit of money from running a factory and now I want to invest in a different industry. I think the coffee shop business has a promising future, so I’ve decided to invest.”

Chen Mo came clean directly. After all, Song Xia wasn’t like the older relatives in the family—she was more open-minded and capable of accepting the truth.

Besides, he had another plan in mind:

He wanted to hire Song Xia as the shop manager. She’d managed to run her milk tea shop into the ground—which, sure, had a lot to do with heavy competition—but that also meant her management skills likely weren’t great either.

Otherwise, why were other milk tea shops surviving under the same competition?

Clearly, this milk tea shop’s failure had something to do with Song Xia herself.

So if he picked her to be the manager, it would be like combining two losing formulas—loss + loss = epic loss.

What a perfect “talent” to send to his doorstep!

In the name of losing money, he had no choice but to tell her the truth.

“You’re opening a coffee shop?”

Song Xia tried to digest what she’d just heard and then looked at Chen Mo oddly.

“Didn’t you see that the coffee shop next door just closed down?”

“Also, didn’t you say yesterday that you were going to open a milk tea shop?”

She clearly remembered Chen Mo saying that his ‘friend’ wanted to open a milk tea shop. Now that she knew that friend was fake, that meant he was the one who wanted to open a milk tea shop.

So why had it suddenly become a coffee shop? And right next door, a coffee shop had just gone out of business.

She really couldn’t figure out what Chen Mo was thinking.

Whether it was milk tea or coffee, either way, opening a shop here would lose money!

“Yeah, but I think a coffee shop has more potential. The milk tea market here is too saturated, but there are only two other coffee shops. Clearly, it’ll be easier to compete in the coffee market,” Chen Mo replied casually with a made-up excuse.

Song Xia was speechless. That Starbucks alone was tougher competition than ten milk tea shops combined—and don’t forget Luckin.

All in all, opening a coffee shop here was even harder than running a milk tea shop.

Her sister had asked him to watch over her, but Chen Mo turned out to be even more unreliable than she was.

He knew he would lose money and still insisted on opening a shop—and a coffee shop, which came with even higher costs.

“I think you should reconsider. Opening a coffee shop here really won’t work. I’ve talked to the owner of the one that closed down—she said it was a good day if she got more than ten customers. And that’s after she lowered her prices to match Starbucks. Without that price drop, most people were scared off just by the price.”

Song Xia tried to persuade him. After all, Chen Mo was her brother-in-law’s younger brother. She couldn’t just watch him walk into a money-losing trap.

Wow, it’s really that bad? That’s amazing!

Chen Mo was secretly delighted. When the time came, he’d raise the prices even more and slap a giant price board right at the entrance to scare off every potential customer.

Not a single customer walking through that door—that’d be perfect.

But for now, he still had to win Song Xia over.

“That coffee shop closed down because the business model was wrong,” Chen Mo said seriously. “If you’re a specialty coffee shop, you can’t just lower your prices. She messed up the positioning entirely.”

“A specialty coffee shop trying to compete with commercial chains on price—it was doomed to fail.”

Song Xia listened and felt like his words made some sense. She looked up at him.

“So what should you do then?”

“It’s simple: compete on craftsmanship. We need to increase costs—better coffee machines, better beans, better ambiance, and yes, higher prices.”

“We’ll beat those commercial chains in taste. Once customers realize our coffee is better, they’ll slowly switch over.”

Chen Mo said it with conviction.

But in his heart—

Most people drink coffee just to stay awake. How many actually know what good coffee tastes like? Even if it tastes better than Starbucks, that sky-high price will scare people off for sure.

So his theory only worked in theory. In practice? It was a recipe for losing money.

Seeing Song Xia deep in thought, Chen Mo decided to give her one more push.

“Honestly, I think your milk tea shop failed simply because of bad luck. You didn’t even get the chance to show your true management skills. That’s why I’ve decided—when the coffee shop opens, I want you to be the manager. What do you think?”

“Huh?!”

Song Xia yelped in surprise. She’d been lost in thought, considering Chen Mo’s points. They seemed somewhat reasonable, though still a bit off.

Then he suddenly dropped that bomb—he wanted to make her the manager? That was a complete surprise.

A manager!

Her biggest dream had always been to run her own little shop. That’s why she took out a loan after graduation to open the milk tea place. She never expected it to end in failure and closure.

She thought that dream was dead—that she’d never own or run another shop again. The last failure made her too scared to take another risk.

But now Chen Mo was giving her another chance.

Should she accept?

She hesitated. Even though this time she wouldn’t be the owner, just a manager…

But the investor was her sister’s brother-in-law. If this venture also failed, and the family found out, she’d have no face left to go back to either side of the family.

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep the shop opening a secret for now—won’t tell the family. And the money is all mine, earned from my factory. Even if it loses money, I’ve still got the factory backing me. There’s no problem.”

Seeing her hesitation, Chen Mo kept persuading.

“…Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

Song Xia finally gave in. Hearing his reassurance, her heart eased a little.

“Great, then we have a deal!” Chen Mo smiled.

“Deal,” Song Xia replied, then added, “I’ll go ahead and transfer the lease to you. But opening your own shop involves a lot of paperwork and procedures. Are you familiar with all of that?”

“Uh…”

Chen Mo froze. He didn’t really know the details. But that was fine—he had professionals to handle it.

With that thought, he immediately called Tang Qiu.

Why not just ask a lawyer directly what needed to be done?

A few moments later,

Chen Mo hung up and turned to Song Xia.

“Let’s go inside and wait for a bit. A lawyer will be coming over to help out.”

“Your friend?” Song Xia looked at him curiously. She hadn’t expected him to have such connections—he could just call a lawyer like that and have them come right over.