Rebirth 78: After being jilted at the altar, I reached the pinnacle!

Li Hanliang was genuinely surprised to hear what Elder Chen said.

You should know that he and Zhou Meiping were just friends, and he had never revealed anything to Zhou Meiping.

Furthermore, he has always preferred pure and innocent beauties like Pei Shuxin; at the very least, he prefers adorable, stubborn little women like Liu Lanfang.

Although Zhou Meiping occasionally shows a gentle side, overall she is still a tigress, and he is quite afraid of her.

"What nonsense!" Zhou Meiping glared at him. "My Uncle Chen is just flattering you, and you actually believed him?"

"Stop trying to glorify yourself. I have no respect for a loser like you!"

The slight gratitude and tenderness that Li Hanliang had just expressed to her were now completely wiped out by her clamor.

Well, as expected, the tigress's roar is like a bowl of ice.

"Hehe, I know that." Li Hanliang laughed awkwardly.

Chen Changfa shook his head, looking helplessly at Zhou Meiping, "You, it's just that your mouth is too stubborn."

"If it weren't for this, your dad wouldn't be so angry with you that he still hasn't recovered."

"Uncle Chen," Zhou Meiping said with a hint of reproach.

Chen Changfa couldn't possibly lose face in front of Li Hanliang, so he could only laugh and say, "Alright, alright, I won't say anything more."

“But remember, no matter what happens in the future, you must come to me immediately,” he carefully instructed Zhou Meiping. “If I can’t solve it, your father will.”

"Your dad is just like you, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. You two are enough to give Old Wang and me a run for our money."

Zhou Meiping couldn't stand his nagging and just kept saying "I know" before quickly pushing him away.

Chen Changfa didn't linger. He said goodbye to Li Hanliang and left quickly.

For a moment, only Zhou Meiping and Li Hanliang were left facing each other, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

Liu Lanfang was very perceptive and immediately ran over to ease the tension.

"Sister Zhou, Boss, let's come inside quickly! I'll go steam some buns and heat up some porridge, let's eat dinner right away!" Liu Lanfang grabbed one of them with each hand, not allowing them to break free.

In this era, things weren't as particular as in the 21st century. For most families, it was good enough to have meat buns to eat; they didn't care about breakfast or dinner.

Li Hanliang had been busy all day and was indeed hungry. As soon as he entered the house, he grabbed a cold bun to eat.

Zhou Meiping gave him a disdainful look, and then... took out a cold bun, put it in her mouth and started chewing.

Seeing her so unpretentious, Li Hanliang found it amusing and deliberately leaned down to joke with her, "What? You've really taken a liking to me?"

"To be honest, compared to your ex-husband, I am indeed a promising young man!"

Zhou Meiping kicked him in the leg, almost hitting his groin!

Li Hanliang was so frightened that he hurriedly dodged away, cold sweat pouring down his face.

"Boss," Liu Lanfang came over from the kitchen with a bottle of Erguotou, "Don't be silly. Sister Zhou is a heroine, a woman of great wisdom. She won't be bound by love and romance!"

"What Sister Zhou should do is to make a name for herself and become a modern-day Mulan!"

Li Hanliang and Zhou Meiping were both amused by her comments.

However, jokes aside, Li Hanliang always had serious matters on his mind.

Although he had no feelings for a woman like Zhou Meiping, as a friend, he was by no means an ungrateful person.

Zhou Meiping had saved him twice already; how could he not be moved?

Li Hanliang had a great idea, so he immediately asked Zhou Meiping, "Meiping, what do you think of my steamed bun shop? Do you think it can be expanded? Can it be developed into a chain?"

"A chain?" Zhou Meiping frowned.

She had only seen this business model in foreign newspapers; it didn't exist in China yet.

She hadn't expected Li Hanliang to have such extensive business knowledge and such great ambition.

"Are you sure you can do it?" Zhou Meiping took a bite of the cold meat bun and glanced at him sideways.

Li Hanliang poured himself a glass of baijiu (Chinese liquor), handed it to Zhou Meiping, and then filled his own glass as well.

“If you thought I wasn’t good enough, you wouldn’t have helped me in the first place, right?” Li Hanliang asked with a slight smile, his words revealing his understanding.

Everyone else thought Zhou Meiping had feelings for him, but he didn't take it entirely seriously.

If Zhou Meiping's liking for his appearance and personality was two points, then her recognition of his business acumen was a full ten.

The biggest reason why Zhou Meiping agreed to help him both times was that she had discovered Li Hanliang to be a promising business prospect and knew that he would definitely achieve great things in the future.

This time, Zhou Meiping didn't deny it, but just smiled and nodded, "You guessed right."

"To be honest, I have high hopes for your breakfast stall business. Actually, you can make more than just steamed buns; you can also make steamed dumplings, noodles, anything that can be eaten quickly."

These were things she saw in a foreign newspaper when she was at the old man's house in the South.

At that time, her husband insisted on forcing her to learn English and go abroad, but she disagreed and came to this remote little county town by herself.

Looking back now, I realize I missed a chance to make a lot of money.

But she has no regrets.

“The catering industry is bound to be a booming industry for the next thirty years. If you enter the industry now and can secure a place in it, you can run fast food for lunch and gourmet meals for dinner. You can open many restaurants,” Zhou Meiping said, her eyes showing longing. “Your future is exactly what I’m talking about. You can make a fortune with a small investment.”

Li Hanliang never expected that this woman's views on the catering industry would be exactly the same as his!

He immediately felt a sense of camaraderie and was even more determined not to miss out on this outstanding general!

"Meiping, quit your pork business and come work with me! I'll let you invest in this shop and become the second-largest shareholder. No matter how big Li's Catering gets, you'll always be my second-largest shareholder. Let's get rich together!"

Li Hanliang spoke excitedly, taking a big gulp of the baijiu in his glass!

Zhou Meiping had actually been thinking about this for a while, but she didn't expect Li Hanliang to be so generous as to let her be the second boss.

She's a straightforward person; how could she miss such an opportunity!

Zhou Meiping also took a sip of wine, then pulled Li Hanliang outside. The two arrived at a quiet street under the cover of night, and Zhou Meiping pulled Li Hanliang and ran wildly.

Finally, she led Li Hanliang to a two-story storefront on the side street. "I'll sell this storefront for 8000! I'll put up 5,000, you put up 3,000, but you can bring Liu Lanfang's technology as an investment. That way, our start-up capital will be calculated as 11,000, and you'll still get the lion's share!"

"I'm going to open a Li's Restaurant!"