Rebirth: Fan Debiao rises from the Liaobei land

Fan Debiao left Wu Derong's office, pondering about Lao Qian's matter.

In their past lives, Wu Derong and Lao Qian fought for years, and in the end, neither of them fared well. Wu Derong went bankrupt, and Victoria went out of business. Lao Qian didn't fare much better; he was later reported for involvement in organized crime and went to jail.

I have to bring these two together in this lifetime, or at least prevent them from fighting each other to the death.

The next morning, Fan Debiao greeted Wu Derong and said he was going to talk to Lao Qian.

Wu Derong waved his hand: "Go ahead, but don't blame me if you get a bad experience."

Fan Debiao went out, drove Mr. Wu's Mercedes-Benz, and headed to Old Qian's place in the west of the city.

Old Qian's place is called "Golden Splendor," bigger and more luxurious than Victoria's. Two burly security guards stand at the entrance, like door gods.

"Who are you looking for?" The security guard stopped Fan Debiao.

"Find Boss Qian," Fan Debiao said. "Victoria's, surname Fan."

The security guard sized Fan Debiao up and down: "Wait here."

After a while, the security guard came out: "Boss Qian is on the third floor, go up."

Fan Debiao went up to the third floor and found the office. He knocked and went in. The room was filled with smoke, and Lao Qian was playing mahjong with a few people.

Old Qian was in his fifties, bald, with a gold chain around his neck and a large gold ring on his hand. He didn't even lift his eyelids when he saw Fan Debiao come in.

"Boss Qian," Fan Debiao said, "I am Fan Debiao of Victoria."

"I know." Old Qian played a card. "That dog Wu Derong, what does he want from me?"

Several people in the room laughed. Fan Debiao didn't pay any attention and continued, "I'd like to talk to Boss Qian about a collaboration."

"A collaboration?" Old Qian chuckled. "Me, collaborate with Wu Derong? Are you out of your mind?"

"Boss Qian," Fan Debiao said, "Kaiyuan is only so big, and the market is only so small. If you fight with General Manager Wu, neither of you will benefit. If we can cooperate and expand the market, it will be good for everyone."

Old Qian pushed his cards aside, stood up, and said, "Fan Debiao, go back and tell Wu Derong, 'Want to cooperate? No way! Not only will I not cooperate with him, I'll kick him out of Kaiyuan, out of Northeast China. You tell him to wait.'"

Fan Debiao wanted to say something more, but Lao Qian waved his hand and said, "Show him out."

Two people came over and pushed Fan Debiao out.

Emerging from the opulent building, Fan Debiao lit a cigarette. Old Qian's attitude was exactly as Wu Derong had described. The two of them were like fighting cocks, always ready to pounce.

But Fan Debiao knew that these two could actually cooperate. If they had joined forces earlier in their past lives, they wouldn't have both collapsed.

Back in Victoria, Fan Debiao went to find Wu Derong.

"How is it?" Wu Derong asked.

"The deal fell through." Fan Debiao sat down. "Old Qian said that not only will he not cooperate, but he will also kick you out of Northeast China."

Wu Derong laughed: "I told you so. Old Qian is like a dog, he'll bite anyone he sees."

Fan Debiao said, "Mr. Wu, since Lao Qian won't cooperate, we have to find a way to expand our business ourselves."

"How do we scale it up?"

Fan Debiao thought for a moment, why did Victoria go bankrupt in his previous life? First, Wu Derong fought with Lao Qian, which damaged its strength. Second, its business methods were too outdated and couldn't retain customers.

"Mr. Wu, I have a few ideas," Fan Debiao said. "First, reduce costs. Our suppliers are all acquaintances, and their prices are high. We need to find new suppliers and compare prices from several of them."

Wu Derong frowned: "Those suppliers have been cooperating with me for many years..."

"We've been working together for years, so I'm going to rip you off even more," Fan Debiao said. "It's easiest to rip off acquaintances."

Wu Derong thought for a moment and nodded: "Go on."

"Secondly," Fan Debiao said, "we need to add something to the bathing area. These days, many guests bring children, but the kids have nowhere to play, and the adults don't stay long either. If we could add a children's play area, even just a few slides and a ball pit, it would keep guests coming back."

"That's a good idea." Wu Derong became interested. "Anything else?"

"Third, offer membership cards," Fan Debiao said. "Now customers pay in cash, and whether they come or not depends on their mood. If we could offer membership cards with a 1,000 yuan deposit and a 100 yuan bonus, or a 2,000 yuan deposit and a 300 yuan bonus, customers would have to come more often in order to use up the money on their cards."

Wu Derong stared at Fan Debiao as if he didn't recognize him: "Debiao, where did you learn these ideas from?"

Fan Debiao laughed and said, "I got it from watching TV."

Wu Derong stood up and paced around the room twice: "Debiao, let me think about your ideas. If they're feasible, let's do it."

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

The waiter poked his head in: "Brother Biao, someone's looking for you."

"Who?"

"A woman, at the front desk."

Fan Debiao was taken aback. A woman? Ma Xiaocui was at school, so who else could she be?

"Go ahead," Wu Derong waved his hand. "I'll think about what you brought up."

Fan Debiao went downstairs and walked towards the front desk. He wondered to himself, who could it be? He hadn't known many women in his past life; besides Ma Xiaocui, there was only…

There was a woman standing at the front desk, wearing a faded blue cotton-padded jacket, her hair a little messy. She was rubbing her hands with her head down, looking quite flustered.

Fan Debiao stopped walking.

That silhouette was so damn familiar. So familiar that he could picture it with his eyes closed.

In his past life, he watched this back view for half his life, from his thirties to his fifties, from black hair to gray hair. This back view was always in his dreams.

"Yu Fen?" Fan Debiao's throat was dry. "Is it Yu Fen?"

The woman turned around.

He had an oval face, large eyes, slightly bruised around his eyes, and a cut on the corner of his mouth. When he saw Fan Debiao, his gaze flickered away.

"De Biao." Her voice was very soft.

Fan Debiao's mind went blank, as if a pot had boiled over. The scene before him, coupled with the background music that automatically started playing in his head—something like "The rain falls in torrents, the old hometown is overgrown with weeds"—made it sound like a music video.

"Yufen, is that really you?" Fan Debiao took two steps forward. "What happened to your face?"

Yu Fen lowered her head: "Niu Er is out."

With just that one sentence, Fan Debiao understood everything.

Niu Er, Yu Fen's ex-husband, was imprisoned for five years for assault. He was released that same year in his previous life, and the first thing he did upon release was cause trouble for Yu Fen. After being beaten, Yu Fen ran away from Majiabaozi and went to the city to find Fan Debiao.

History has fucking repeated itself again.

"Did he hit you again?" Fan Debiao asked.

Yu Fen remained silent, tacitly agreeing.

"Where's Commander Ma?" Fan Debiao asked again. "Didn't he take care of it?"

Yu Fen shook her head: "The General... the General said that we have nothing to do with each other, and it's none of his business."

Fan Debiao cursed inwardly. That bastard Ma Dashuai, he was just like this in his past life. He's clearly already involved with Yufen, but he doesn't dare to confront Niu Er directly. He's forced Yufen to run away on her own.

"What are you doing in the city?" Fan Debiao asked.

"I want to find a job." Yu Fen looked up. "De Biao, can you help me? I don't know anyone in the city."

Fan Debiao felt a pang of sadness looking at the injuries on her face.

In his past life, this woman caused a lot of trouble: being kicked in the groin by a cow, misunderstanding that she liked him, and most ridiculously, almost becoming a father by accident. And what happened? Yu Fen only had Ma Dashuai in her heart. Fan Debiao was just a backup plan, the kind you use and then throw away.

Do I have to repeat the same mistakes in this lifetime?

"What kind of work do you want to do?" Fan Debiao asked.

"Anything is fine," Yufen said. "I can do everything, from serving dishes and washing dishes to cleaning."

Fan Debiao thought for a moment. In his past life, he arranged for Yu Fen to work at Victoria, which caused a huge uproar. But where else could he arrange for her? In this huge city of Kaiyuan, this was the only place where he could have any influence.

"Okay," Fan Debiao said, "you can do the cleaning here for now."

Yu Fen whispered again, "De Biao, there's something else. I don't have anywhere to stay right now!"

Fan Debiao felt a headache coming on. "Come to my place. Xiao Cui is here too, you two can keep each other company!"