I Really Didn't Mean to Make Money

“Sorry, but we won’t be selling boxed meals here anymore.”

Li Shen looked apologetically at the young man standing at the window, feeling a little guilty.

He’d worked up a sweat just to get a meal.

“Brother Shen, why not? Is it not profitable? You could raise the price—I’d still buy it. Your boxed meals are just that good.”

The young man spoke earnestly.

This restaurant’s food was hands down the best in the whole park.

If it suddenly disappeared, they’d have to go back to eating those bland, tasteless meal sets every day.

“It’s not about the price. The cafeteria just won’t have any extra food to make boxed meals anymore.”

“How could there not be any?”

“Well... anyway, that’s how it is. Thanks for liking the food, but from now on we won’t be selling boxed meals externally.”

Li Shen thought it over but still didn’t tell him the truth. He was worried people would overthink it.

He watched the young man walk away.

Soon after, several more groups came to the window.

Once they found out boxed meals would no longer be sold, all of them left with disappointed faces.

...

Outside the staff cafeteria

Wang Juan carried a couple of buckets of leftover food out of the cafeteria and walked into the corridor, glancing toward the back of the building.

Sure enough, she saw a big dog cage with a few dogs walking around inside.

When did those dogs get here? she wondered in surprise.

If Master Wang hadn’t told her to feed the leftovers to the dogs, she wouldn’t even know the company had dogs now.

She looked down at the bucket—braised pork, roast chicken... all kinds of dishes. Feeding this stuff to dogs? That’s just extravagant.

“Ma’am, is that food from the cafeteria?”

A middle-aged man walking by happened to glance into the bucket. Even though the dishes were all mixed together, only this cafeteria could serve food that hearty.

Didn’t they say there was no extra food? Why were there two big buckets of it now?

“Oh! Yes.”

Wang Juan responded casually, then carried the two buckets over to the dog cage and dumped all the food into the prepped feeding troughs.

The man froze where he stood, watching as food that could’ve easily been sold as boxed meals was now being fought over by five dogs.

A nameless sorrow rose in his heart.

So “no extra meals” really meant the extra food was going to the dogs.

He looked down at the boxed meal he’d just bought outside and couldn’t help but recall a saying:

“Eating worse than a dog.”

No—worse than five dogs.

...

Corner Cat & Dog Rescue Shelter

Pang Tao got out of the car humming a tune, walking into the rescue shelter’s courtyard in high spirits.

Just thinking about how the pet park might one day be even bigger than Disneyland made the future feel so full of promise.

Remembering what President Chen had said—“Nothing in the world is difficult if you put your heart into it”—he felt it made perfect sense.

He had to write that line down.

“Pang Tao, you didn’t let President Chen invest in that project, right?”

Xu Zhengming quickly spoke up as soon as Pang Tao entered the room.

He’d reminded him that morning not to let President Chen invest.

He couldn’t let such a kind-hearted boss take such a big risk.

“President Chen invested—five million, too.”

Pang Tao responded casually, then started rummaging through the room.

“I told you not to let him invest, didn’t I?”

Xu Zhengming said anxiously.

“I’ll explain in a bit. Help me look for that brush calligraphy set I used to practice with.”

“I’m talking about something serious here. What do you need that for?”

“You’ll see.”

Without even looking up, Pang Tao kept digging through boxes.

Soon, he found a wooden box in the corner.

He pulled out a scroll, a brush, and other tools, then spread the paper out on the table.

Xu Zhengming took a deep breath and watched silently. He wanted to see how this guy was going to explain the investment.

Once Pang Tao had prepped the ink, he began writing on the paper.

Soon, a line of words appeared:

“Nothing in the world is difficult if you put your heart into it.”

Xu Zhengming softly read it aloud.

“How’s that, Brother Xu? President Chen said that to me, so I’ve decided to frame it.”

Pang Tao proudly held up the calligraphy for him to see.

Xu Zhengming looked at the crooked, amateurish writing and was speechless. You’ve been practicing brush calligraphy for just over two weeks—don’t you know what your handwriting looks like?

“The phrase is great. The handwriting... needs work.”

“But what’s that got to do with President Chen’s investment?”

“Everything.”

Pang Tao carefully placed the paper back on the table to dry.

“President Chen said all investments carry risks, but he has high hopes for the pet park—and he has a lot of faith in me.”

“You?”

Xu Zhengming looked at him skeptically, clearly worried.

“You’re not afraid you’ll blow all of President Chen’s five million?”

“I was at first, but after President Chen encouraged me, I decided to give it a shot.”

“With your education? You didn’t even finish high school.”

“With this!”

Pang Tao’s eyes lit up as he pointed at the phrase on the table.

“I really think President Chen’s right. Life’s full of difficulties. When we started the Corner Cat & Dog Rescue Shelter, weren’t we also facing all kinds of problems? And didn’t we power through?”

“Did we rely on education back then? No way. We relied on heart. When treating sick animals got too expensive, we learned basic vet care ourselves. When we had no money for kennels, I built them out of stone. We studied everything we didn’t know.”

“And now, President Chen’s project is just a bigger version of what we already did. I want to try. And on the way here, I even figured out how to build the pet park.”

Xu Zhengming looked at Pang Tao’s serious expression and was silent for a moment before finally saying:

“So what’s your plan?”

Since the contract was already signed, there was no point in scolding him. That would only damage their relationship.

The only thing left was to make the project work together.

Pang Tao let out a long breath and began explaining.

“I thought about it. Just making a park for cats and dogs might not be enough to attract people. We should add some fun activities.”

“Look—like dolphin shows at aquariums, or animal acts at the circus. We can have performance shows at the pet park too.”