The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

After finishing the simple meal, Xu Xi yawned softly, her eyelids drooping listlessly.

"Xiaoxi, let me take you upstairs to rest."

Xu Nian stood up, intending to escort the girl upstairs.

"Waaah... I want to spend New Year's Eve with my brother."

Xu Xi rubbed her eyes, feeling somewhat reluctant to leave.

Since becoming ill, she has become increasingly confused.

It's only a little past seven o'clock, but I'm already so sleepy I can't keep my eyes open.

"It's okay, you need to rest and recuperate. One more day won't make a difference."

Upon hearing this, Xu Xi smiled sweetly.

"That's right. My brother and I will spend next year, the year after, and the year after that... every year thereafter together."

After saying that, she yawned and strolled upstairs.

The atmosphere at the dinner table immediately became tense after the door closed.

If Xu Xi wants to be able to spend every year with her brother, she will need to spend 120 million yuan a year.

Although Xiaoxi Cafeteria estimates that the income from the four campuses can meet the requirement of a monthly income of 100,000 yuan.

However, on-campus food delivery is only available for eight months of the year.

During winter and summer vacations, students are away from school and don't earn a single penny.

But illness doesn't have summer or winter breaks, so what will happen to the remaining 400,000 yuan shortfall?

"Or, how about lowering the wages of some delivery staff?"

Zhao Lin suggested.

It's important to know that Xiaoxi Canteen receives a huge number of takeout orders, but nearly 90% of its profits are paid to part-time students.

Even if you deduct just one cent from each order, it still amounts to a significant profit.

Qi Yu shook his head: "No, we already cut the price by two cents last semester to pay the school's protection fee."

"Many students have already been poached by the school cafeteria's food delivery team."

"If the price drops again, I'm afraid no classmates will come to deliver our meals."

"How about we increase the commission rate for merchants?"

He looked at Wen Yao, who had always been in charge of coordinating and managing the business side.

Wen Yao shook her head vigorously.

"That won't work either. Last year, in order to compete with the cafeteria, Xi Bao and I forced the vendors to lower their prices by 15%, and now everyone is more resentful than ever."

"If we ask for more commission, they'll just quit."

"What about marketing expenses?"

"We can't skimp on this! If no one orders, we won't make any money."

The group shook their heads and sighed.

Because the funds were diverted to buy medicine for Xu Xi, the original off-campus expansion plan was also forced to be delayed.

Wen Yao slammed her hand on the table in anger.

"No way! I'm going to find that old geezer of the school leaders and make him cough up some benefits!"

"Why should they take 60% of our profits without doing anything?"

That being said, they knew perfectly well that not a single penny less of this protection fee was acceptable.

Sixty percent was a price that Xu Xi negotiated with the school for a long time before finally reaching an agreement.

No one present dared to claim that their skills were superior to Xu Xi's.

"I'll go tutor. Many parents of high school students have contacted our classmates from the teachers' college, wanting to hire us to tutor their children."

Qi Yu pushed up his glasses: "If I take time off on weekends to do it, I should be able to earn fifty or sixty thousand a year."

"Oh right, I almost forgot! There are other things we can do!"

Wen Yao slapped her thigh: "Linlin, let's go to Sister Na's place and get some clothes to sell. Anyway, she can't sell them all. Let's open an online store and help her clear out her inventory."

"Great idea!"

Zhao Lin nodded, then frowned as if she had just remembered something.

"But we can't earn that much. Sister Na only sells a maximum of 200,000 a year, and we're lucky if we can sell 150,000."

Upon hearing this, Wen Yao also lowered her head in dejection.

This leaves a shortfall of 200,000.

"Leave the rest to me."

Xu Nian, who had been silent all along, spoke up at this moment.

Earning 1.2 million yuan a year is a pipe dream for him.

Earning 400,000 in a year is completely impossible.

But if he grits his teeth, he still has a chance to achieve the goal of earning 200,000 a year.

Everyone is fighting to save the girl he loves, and he must do his part in it.

"Wen Yao, after school starts, could you please help me list the dumpling restaurant on the school's online food delivery platforms?"

"Okay! I'll give you the highest recommendation spot."

......

And so, everyone had their own goal.

Just a few days after the New Year, Qi Yu started going door-to-door in the school district housing area near the high school to promote himself.

Wen Yao and Zhao Lin acted even faster, thanks to the fact that they were both e-commerce majors, and they quickly mastered the process of opening stores on various e-commerce platforms.

When Li Na learned that they were earning money to save her former model, she generously gave them half of the clothes in her warehouse for free, without taking a penny.

As for Xu Nian, during the winter break, she found a job as a food delivery driver at a food delivery station near Yunnan University.

Although I don't earn as much as I did under Xu Hu, it's more convenient to travel back and forth, and I can take care of Xu Xi.

The busy days continued until the end of February.

That day, Xu Nian brought Xu Xi to the hospital for an IV drip.

"That's good, your sister's condition is under relatively stable control."

Director Huang examined the inspection report in his hand and nodded to Xu Nian in front of him.

"However, she is in poor health, which may be due to malnutrition in her childhood. You need to take good care of her to prevent her condition from worsening."

"Director, is there really no way to cure it completely?"

Xu Nian lowered her head, her chapped lips moving.

Director Huang sighed softly.

"To be honest, I was the one who took care of your sister's mother back then."

"She also chose to give up treatment because she couldn't afford the high medical costs."

"If there were any other way, I wouldn't have stood by and watched her slowly die in front of me."

Xu Nian wiped her eyes: "In all these years, hasn't a single medical institution developed a treatment for this condition?"

"To my knowledge, no organization is developing a treatment for Beppuen syndrome."

Why?

Director Huang smiled helplessly.

"A pharmaceutical company is, first and foremost, a company."

"It's a company; its purpose is to make money."

"The development of a drug or the research of a treatment method costs at least billions of dollars."

"Beppen disease is an extremely rare condition; there are fewer than a hundred patients nationwide."

"Why do pharmaceutical companies choose to research rare diseases—which require high risk, high investment, and low returns—instead of developing drugs for diseases with a large number of patients and higher profits?"

"Even if we succeed in the research, in order to recoup our costs, we'll have to sell it at an extremely high price, making it unaffordable for almost anyone."

"Moreover, your sister's illness is genetic."

"Just like people in our country, we are born with yellow skin and black eyes; these are determined by genes."

"Developing a treatment for this disease is as difficult as turning a yellow-skinned person into a black-skinned person."