Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!
Chapter 336 - Chapter 336 Chapter 261 The Girl with the Straw

Chapter 336: Chapter 261: The Girl with the Straw Chapter 336: Chapter 261: The Girl with the Straw “I have the heart of a lioness, keen to smell the roses.” — Sigfried Sassoon.

…

At this moment, the young couple stood inside the lottery ticket shop, scratching the two scratch cards they had just bought.

One had the ambition of Cheng Zhu, the other the heart of Little Lu.

They just didn’t know if the God of Wealth would favor them this time.

The welfare lottery shop provided those bottle openers for scratching the cards, with a rope tied to one end and secured to the table to prevent them from getting lost.

In the past, everyone used coins from their pockets to scratch off the tickets, but nowadays, people don’t carry cash anymore; even paper notes seem troublesome, let alone coins.

Lin Lu had her eyes closed all this while, her face serious as if praying to her own God of Wealth.

After opening her eyes, she gripped the bottle opener in her right hand and furiously scratched the card, as if by exuding force, she could guarantee a prize!

The owner of the welfare lottery shop couldn’t help but be amused by this pretty, cute girl.

“Looking at her clothes and style, she seems to be well-off. Scratching a fifty-yuan card and even praying first–could she be a little money-grubber?” the middle-aged uncle thought to himself.

Ha, middle-aged straight man, you know nothing.

Cheng Zhu saw that Lin Lu had started scratching, muttering something under her breath like a chant, so he began to scratch his card too.

His efficiency in scratching was higher than Lin Lu’s. While the energetic girl insisted on scratching each box slowly and carefully, Cheng Zhu swept through lines at a rapid pace.

“Eh? Nice! Won fifty yuan, just enough to break even!” Cheng Zhu exclaimed, startled.

He had always had a low chance of winning anything since childhood, never hitting the jackpot at the small store in front of his school and even needing full luck value to get a guaranteed prize in “Honor of Kings.”

Lin Lu paused in her scratching, turned to glance at Cheng Zhu, then slightly knitted her delicate brows.

Just breaking even didn’t feel particularly auspicious.

“It’s up to me now!” Her grip on the bottle opener tightened.

Cheng Zhu turned to look at her and noticed her face tensing up, her lips pressed firmly together, as if she was putting effort into her entire expression!

“No need, no need. Don’t scratch the card to pieces,” Cheng Zhu said with a laugh.

Lin Lu paid him no heed, continuously murmuring to herself: “Win! Win! Win!”

Whether it was truly a case of fools having foolish luck or that she actually had a strong side fortune, as she scratched on, she miraculously managed to make a profit of one hundred, revealing a win of 150!

The middle-aged owner immediately asked, “Would the handsome guy and the pretty lady like to exchange for a few more cards to scratch? The lady seems to have good luck!”

“No, no!” Lin Lu gestured with her hand, vehemently declining.

I’m not falling for that little trick!

After transferring the money, Lin Lu happily walked away with the two now-useless scratch cards in hand.

“Here, my card is for you, and yours… just give it to me,” Lin Lu even made an exchange, not allowing Cheng Zhu to throw his away.

“Jeez, you really do have good luck!” Cheng Zhu was somewhat impressed.

“That’s right! The fortune-teller said so. They said I bring luck to others!” Lin Lu boasted, continuing to say, “They mentioned I bring prosperity to my family before marriage and to my husband after marriage!”

She declared with an air of smugness, “In any case, I’m simply very lucky!”

“Wow, bringing luck to a husband now.” In front of her, Cheng Zhu teasingly flipped his own scratch card.

You gave me this scratch card to bring me luck, right?

So…

A playful, flirtatious atmosphere began to spread in the air, and Lin Lu suddenly realized what was happening. Her face instantly reddened, and she awkwardly started looking for something to do, reaching up to adjust the scarf around her neck.

Cheng Zhu decided not to tease her any further, and shifted the topic by saying, “Then I’ll just put this scratch card in the cashier’s drawer as a good luck charm for the shop.”

“Sure!” Lin Lu immediately beamed, her eyes sparkling, and her entire demeanor seemed to brighten up.

…

…

Minutes later, Cheng Zhu and Lin Lu got into the parked Land Rover in the basement and headed back to Xinhang Apartment together.

Looking at Building B where Cheng Zhu rented his apartment, Lin Lu grumbled, “Cheng Zhu, you rented a place and didn’t invite everyone over for a visit, to have some fun like a dinner together?”

“Fun for what? I haven’t even bought pots and pans yet, so I’m not planning on cooking at home any time soon,” Cheng Zhu waved his hand dismissively.

His family ran a small eatery, and Cheng, his father, was an excellent cook who had learned from Cheng Zhu’s grandfather, so Cheng Zhu was sort of a “third-generation chef.”

He actually had a knack for cooking, and the food he made was tasty, but he rarely did the cooking himself.

Within their circle of friends, only Jiang Wanzhou had tasted his cooking, and even Wang Anquan, who grew up with him, had never experienced Cheng Zhu’s dishes.

These days, the number of girls who could cook was indeed dwindling, while many boys had at least some culinary skills.

Somewhere along the line, being able to cook became a desirable trait for men, and some used this skill to attract girls.

Looking back at his previous life, it seemed that only Yiyi had ever tasted Cheng Zhu’s cooking, while others had only experienced… his other “talents.”

At this moment, Cheng Zhu looked at her and asked, “What? Want to go up and take a look?”

“Yeah,” Lin Lu nodded, unafraid.

“Then let’s go. I’ll make you a cup of milk tea,” Cheng Zhu smiled.

This was the first time he had invited a guest to his small apartment.

The two got out of the car and walked into the elevator, which required a keycard to access the designated floors.

Once inside the apartment, Lin Lu’s gaze was immediately caught by the milk tea equipment on the table.

“So many machines!” She had not expected there would be so much equipment.

“This is nothing,” Cheng Zhu said with a smile.

Currently, Youu Tea’s approach resembled that of many popular milk tea shops at this stage in his previous life, with milk tea primarily made by hand.

Because of the numerous products popular milk tea shops had, involving all sorts of ingredients like fresh fruit, milk caps, taro paste, and the like, the process was more complex.

Moreover, these shops constantly innovated, often experimenting with niche fruits to stand out, and thus, there would be new products every month, adding many new production steps.

This made it difficult to rely on mechanization.

But a few years later, as tastes changed and the fruit sector could no longer intensify competition through innovation, shops would shift to a model like Chagee’s, focusing on fresh milk and fresh tea with only a few main products.

At that point, machinery could be more heavily relied upon.

Indeed, Chagee’s production efficiency was much higher than that of Hey Tea and Nai Xue because it relied mostly on machines, allowing fewer staff while being faster!

This was the path Cheng Zhu intended to take three or four years later.

But that was something to do when the milk tea industry entered the 4.0 era; currently, it hadn’t even reached the 3.0 era.

So these considerations could wait.

This also involved a complex transition in the tastes of the consumer market.

Cheng Zhu had always felt that being too far ahead of the times wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Leading the times by a small step was enough; that was already innovation.

He approached the milk tea apparatus and cheerfully asked, “What would you like to drink?”

“Can you make that roasted Black Sugar bubble milk you made for me last time?”

“That probably won’t work; just boiling the Black Sugar bubbles would take a long time.”

“Then just freestyle something,” Lin Lu suggested.

“Alright.”

Cheng Zhu busied himself with the tea-making equipment, while Lin Lu placed her hands behind her back and browsed around the apartment.

She didn’t dare to peek into Cheng Zhu’s bedroom alone, so she simply stood with her back turned, leaning forward slightly, and took a few secretive glances inside.

After completing her tour of the entire place, Lin Lu curiously asked him, “Speaking of which, why rent a two-bedroom apartment when you live alone? Xinhang Apartment even offers one-bedroom layouts.”

She found it puzzling, considering an extra room to be a mere waste.

“I need to sleep on two beds; you wouldn’t understand,” Cheng Zhu replied as he made tea.

For him, one bed indeed wasn’t always sufficient because of the need for–separation of wet and dry.

Nowadays, many young couples choose to book twin rooms in hotels for safety since hidden cameras tend to target double rooms more and also for the practicality of separating wet from dry.

Brother, I’m not short on the little extra rent each month.

He even considered renting a three-bedroom apartment at the beginning…

The milk tea was quickly ready, and he made Lin Lu a cup of taro ball milk tea.

“Here, taro ball milk,” Cheng Zhu handed over the steaming cup of tea.

Lin Lu accepted it, feeling the temperature. She dared not drink it immediately, fearing it would be too hot.

She held the milk tea in her hands, using it as a hand warmer.

In winter, her pretty hands were always cold, and every night, her feet were chilly too.

“Only he, like a massive heater, can just walk in and take off his coat, even complaining about the heat,” she murmured to herself, holding the milk tea close to her lips, too wary of the heat to drink right away, and internally criticizing Cheng Zhu.

“But if we dated, it would probably be really warm, right?” The thought unexpectedly popped into her head.

Lin Lu, who was straightforward and passionate, thought to herself, Why shouldn’t I dare to have such thoughts if I like him?

With those thoughts, she sipped lightly from the straw and almost brought the tea to her mouth, but her instincts warned her it might still be too hot, so she refrained and let the tea fall back into the cup.

She repeated this small action unconsciously several times.

Cheng Zhu watched her, noticing a little detail.

Baby Lu seems to… really like nibbling on straws?

…

(PS: First update, ask for monthly tickets!)