Chapter 54: Ah, My Maiden Heart

On the second day after Huakun Supermarket opened, sales were even more explosive.

All the elderly men and women in the city turned out for a shopping spree at Huakun Supermarket.

Lu Kun had been spinning like a top for days, to the point where his bones were nearly falling apart.

By the third day, the customer flow in the supermarket started to decrease significantly.

Lu Kun felt a complicated mix of emotions.

...

"Kun, the person you asked me to find at school who sings well—I found him," Liu Shixun burst into Lu Kun's office, brimming with excitement.

"You found him? Who is it? Is he here?" Lu Kun put down his work and accompanied Liu Shixun to the reception room to chat.

"It's my cousin! He sings well and is handsome," Liu Shixun chattered on, "And he's a good student too."

"So where is he?" Lu Kun was starting to get anxious.

Lu Kun had already hooked the wallets of the elderly in Gui A County, but he wasn't satisfied. He hadn't managed to get to the young people's wallets yet.

Young people have jobs and more stable incomes—they are the real potential long-term customers.

Lu Kun was planning to spend a little money and hold a small concert in People's Square to promote the supermarket and draw out the young people hiding at home.

"He's at school, obviously," Liu Shixun replied, confused.

Lu Kun: "..."

"Gui A County No. 1 High School?" Lu Kun raised his brows.

"Yeah," Liu Shixun said, puzzled by Lu Kun's expression.

"So you're telling me, after all this time I've asked you to find someone, and only now you think of your cousin?" Lu Kun almost wanted to see how this kid's mind worked.

...

"Do you have a photo? Did you bring it?" Lu Kun asked, not without impatience.

"Yes, yes, I always carry it with me," Liu Shixun hurriedly fished in his pocket.

Lu Kun: "..."

Why did that sound so wrong?

Why would a grown man carry a picture of his cousin around? What was that about?

Lu Kun looked at him, his expression growing stranger by the second.

"Here, this is him," Liu Shixun handed the photo to Lu Kun.

The moment Lu Kun took the photo, he clutched his chest.

Oh no, this must be what a heart attack feels like! His inner teenage girl was about to come alive!

The person in the photo wasn't devastatingly handsome, but that glance over the shoulder, that little dimpled smile—one flash of his tiger teeth could make someone's soul vanish.

Lu Kun, who always considered himself a straight man, was finding it hard to resist.

He took a deep breath and looked again at Liu Shixun, his gaze even more profound.

A guy who carries a picture of his cousin around all the time—how terrifying!

Lu Kun quietly shifted a bit further away from him.

"You... You must be very close to your cousin, right?" Lu Kun asked, choosing his words carefully.

"Ah... My cousin is really nice, he even tutors me!" Liu Shixun's face was pure fanboy.

"Tutors you? What, in foreign languages?" Lu Kun's expression grew odder.

"Foreign languages too, yeah," Liu Shixun scratched his head.

"It's as I thought," Lu Kun sighed inwardly, lamenting the fate of two promising young men.

"Then, can you speak Japanese?" Lu Kun, now in full gossip mode, pressed on.

"Japanese?... Does 'baka yarou' count?" Liu Shixun asked, a little uncertain.

Lu Kun: "..."

Damn it! This doesn't add up!

Could it be that his rotten mind was just seeing things?

Lu Kun scratched his head and let the matter drop.

"Ahem," Lu Kun coughed to cover his awkwardness.

"Listen, kid, you know I’m a straightforward guy—what you see is what you get, no hidden twists or turns. So I’ll be blunt."

Liu Shixun: You shameless jerk!

"Listen, why do you always carry your cousin's photo with you?" Lu Kun asked with a serious face, struggling to suppress a laugh.

Liu Shixun: "..."

Blushing! He’s actually blushing! Lu Kun's inner devil was cheering—his sharp eyes had seen right through it.

Watching Lu Kun laugh uncontrollably, Liu Shixun finally realized what was going on.

...

More importantly, he genuinely couldn't explain why he always carried his cousin's photo.

Liu Shixun had arrived full of excitement, but now left in a daze.

"Watch where you're going, idiot!" someone yelled as Liu Shixun nearly got sideswiped by a bicycle.

His mind was in chaos.

Who am I, where am I, and where am I going?

Squatting under a lamppost, Liu Shixun stared blankly into space.

"Hey, I've been looking all over for you!" Liu Shixun turned to see Lu Kun patting him on the shoulder.

He couldn’t let anything happen to this kid—otherwise, if Liu Dexin came looking for trouble, Lu Kun wasn’t afraid, but he didn’t want to court disaster either.

"I was just teasing you! With your cousin's looks, just tell him not to smile so much—keep a straight face. If you keep staring at that face, even a straight guy would get bent."

"Fine, then you take his photo, I won’t look at it anymore," Liu Shixun recovered quickly. Yes, it’s not me who’s wrong—it’s the whole world.

Lu Kun: "..."

I’d rather stay away from him than keep that photo.

Lu Kun took the photo from Liu Shixun and promptly tossed it into the gutter. "See? Are you still going to have wild thoughts looking at it now?"

Liu Shixun: "..."

...

After calming this silly kid, Lu Kun immediately arranged for people to set up a stage in preparation for the evening’s concert.

No one had done this before, nobody really knew how.

At least Lu Kun had been to a few concerts, so now he was directing everyone as best he could.

Lu Kun guessed that after tonight, sales of sunflower seeds, peanuts, and mineral water in the supermarket would explode.

The stage and all the preparations were simple, and the equipment was lacking.

But it didn’t matter. Even if he didn't know how good Liu Shixun's cousin was at singing, Lu Kun reckoned that as long as he smiled a few times, plenty of young men and women would show up to support him.

He was the kind of guy who made women scream and men blush.

Ahem.

To prevent any stampede or accidents in the evening, Lu Kun quickly had the PR manager contact the city police station to send some officers over to help maintain order.

He was worried that Shitou’s team wouldn’t have enough hands.

Now that he was security manager, overseeing more than twenty men, he could handle order in the supermarket, but probably couldn’t spare enough people for this event.

Workers from the power company were busy wiring the stage, adjusting the lighting, and checking the circuits.

Everything was ready, all that was left was the east wind.

Lu Kun finally relaxed, waiting for the leading man to take the stage tonight and for this "big show" to begin.