Chapter 181-1: Let me settle this for you
When the movie ended, the theatre lights were turned on, and the audiences left the theatre in droves.
Yang Chen turned to look at Lin Ruoxi, and noticed that she had already finished the bucket of popcorn, without a single one remaining. He couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Your appetite is bigger than I had imagined.”
Lin Ruoxi knew what he was referring to, she had finished it unwittingly, so she explained with blushed cheeks, “Since you didn’t want to eat, I did so that no food would be wasted.”
“Who says I didn’t want to eat? I was leaving it for you, I hadn’t eaten either.” Said Yang Chen.
“Shall we have dinner then?” Lin Ruoxi asked with a positive attitude.
“Yeah, what would you like to eat?”
Lin Ruoxi blinked, then softly said, “How about cakes?”
Yang Chen groaned from the bottom of his heart. It was shocking enough that his wife liked eating glutinous rice balls, yet she even liked having cakes for dinner like a little girl!?
Lin Ruoxi saw that Yang Chen didn’t seem to agree, and felt that her suggestion that she courageously suggested wouldn’t be approved of. Feeling rather dejected, she said, “I’m just casually suggesting, we can have rice or whatever.”
“Let’s have cake then, I remember there’s a Starbucks opposite the cinema. Although it’s an ordinary chain coffee shop, let’s just deal with it. I think you probably never ate there before either.”
Lin Ruoxi who was just a little dejected earlier immediately had her eyes shining. Holding back the joy inside, she casually nodded.
As the most ordinary coffee chain in the world, Starbucks was indeed the people’s choice, but in Huaxia, many people considered it high-class, which was a rather strange phenomenon.
Lin Ruoxi had researched many famous brands like Starbucks in the past, but due to her identity, she had never been to one. Therefore, when Yang Chen suggested that they go to Starbucks, she nodded in content.
The two left the cinema, and as the cold wind blew, they headed towards the Starbucks outlet right opposite.
Lin Ruoxi wore a fashionable working suit, her hair was let loose, and it swayed with the wind. Her earthshaking beauty and cold countenance attracted gazes the moment she appeared in public.
Such attention was something that Lin Ruoxi had experienced since childhood, but Yang Chen who was beside her wasn’t comfortable with it. After all, he was no different from a wild beast protecting its catch when so many people looked at his woman, it was a sad affair.
But it couldn’t be helped. Yang Chen felt that if he walked on the streets with Mo Qianni, Liu Mingyu, or the others, there would be people who like to look at Mo Qianni, and people who like to look at Liu Mingyu. They each have their own charms, and were beauties that conformed to many people’s tastes.
However, if Lin Ruoxi walked amongst them, everybody would have their eyes on Lin Ruoxi. This didn’t mean that Qianni and the others weren’t beautiful, but that people like Ruoxi innately had an overwhelming presence.
Zhonghai’s downtown was a beautiful collection of bright lights of the neon signboards on the street and the headlights of the cars.
The hustle and bustle of the streets was completely different from what Lin Ruoxi was used to, this is because she didn’t get out of the place alone. She had someone accompanying her.
Suddenly, while they crossed the road, Lin Ruoxi felt a scorching hot hand grab hers.
It was rough, big, warm, and hard, causing Lin Ruoxi’s heartbeat to quicken.
Turning her head to look at Yang Chen, she found him winking at him.
“Be careful when you cross the road.”
“This is a pedestrian crossing.” Lin Ruoxi wasn’t used to this, but she didn’t struggle free either.
“Holding hands is a must on dates.” Yang Chen laughed and said.
Lin Ruoxi pursed her lips, then silently looked down at the gravel.
Holding hands, they entered Starbucks. Lin Ruoxi curiously looked at her surroundings, for she had never entered Starbucks before. At the counter, she ordered a slice strawberry cake and hot mocha, while Yang Chen ordered an American iced coffee and two slices of chocolate cake.
As there weren’t many customers at this time, their orders were quickly served. The two took their coffee and cakes to a table close to the window, sat there looking at the street outside, and begun to eat.
The coffee shop played a melodious flute version of Canon in D, and its gentle rhythm made one easily relax.
Lin Ruoxi ate the strawberry cake incredibly slowly, nibbling it bit by bit. She looked at the furnishings of the coffee shop, then asked Yang Chen, “Do you know how Starbucks was born?”
Yang Chen was in the middle of scooping a large chunk out of the cake, “I don’t, is there anything special about it?”
“I’ve read the biography of Starbucks’ founder Mr. Howard Schultz, and there was the story of him before he founded Starbucks.” Lin Ruoxi slowly narrated, “When Mr. Schultz was a child, his father lost his job, and the family was poor. So as to make his father happy, when Christmas came, he stole a tin of coffee beans from a shop and gave it to his father. His father was very happy then, but as the shop owner ended up visiting them to demand payment, Mr. Schultz received a beating. After that, the relationship between him and his father became strained……”
Yang Chen put down his spoon. Seeing her expression of deep thought, he believed that she might be thinking of her own family, and that crazy dad of hers, so he couldn’t help but listen carefully.
“Mr. Schultz then swore that he would buy the best coffee in the world when he becomes rich, to prove himself to his father. Therefore, he kept working hard to learn, and during their most difficult times, he used his skills in American Football to gain a scholarship. He attended college, then got into a famous company, and got a high paying job that got him over seventy thousand dollars a month.
After his success, he bought the highest quality of Brazilian coffee beans and gave it to his father, and told his father that this was for the beating he received for that tin of coffee beans all those years ago, and for him to prove himself. His father then replied, ‘You did so much, just for such an insignificant matter?’ Mr. Schultz was incredibly angered, he then became estranged with his father, and even told others that his father was dead……
Even when his father died, Mr. Schultz had continued to reject his family’s request for him to visit his late father in the name of work. One day, when he was going through his father’s things, he found that the tin of coffee beans which he stole all those years ago had been kept by his father, his father had always kept the tin, and had always cherished those memories.
At that moment, he regretted his actions and was in sorrow, because he read the words on the crumpled letter in the tin. On it, the father of Mr. Schultz wrote his biggest dream, which was to own a warm coffee shop, so he could grind coffee beans for his wife and children. Unfortunately, he was incapable, and couldn’t fulfill this wish. Other than beating his child, he couldn’t think of any way to make his presence as a father be known to his child……
Therefore, Mr. Schultz and his wife started Starbucks, and they continued to grow it till today.”
[TL: Note that this story may not be true, for Howard Schultz wasn’t actually the founder of Starbucks, according to google. Also found nothing about Howard Schultz’s father, Fred Schultz’s coffee tin, so it’s likely untrue.]