Chapter 5: Mother's Persistence

Lin Feng steeled himself and entered the door.

"Hey, Xiaofeng, why are you here? Come in, come in, what would you like to drink? I remember you like cola, I'll go buy some for you." Mother was surprised to see Lin Feng, but her eyes showed more joy than surprise.

Lin Feng knew why his mother was so delighted. Before his rebirth, including the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, he had only visited his mother's house three times, and those visits were only after his mother had called to set a time, which he couldn't refuse. Lin Feng knew this made his mother very sad, but he just didn't want to go. One reason was that he had always been upset about his mother leaving his father; the other was his aversion to his stepfather, even though his stepfather had been good to him.

But today, he came uninvited for money, which made him feel even more guilty.

"Mom, I don't want to drink anything. I came to talk to you about something." Lin Feng stopped his mother. Before his rebirth, he had been immature, but after his rebirth, he couldn't afford to be so careless and thoughtless anymore.

"Then I'll get you some water." Mother quickly poured a cup of water from a teapot nearby.

"Mom, I..." Looking at his mother's increasingly aged face, Lin Feng suddenly found it hard to speak. He couldn't bring himself to ask for money. In the next ten years, his mother would work hard to save enough money for his marriage, becoming both dark and thin, but before his rebirth, he had never appreciated her efforts, instead ignoring her sacrifices for him.

Perhaps this rebirth was to pay back his debts. This thought suddenly crossed Lin Feng's mind.

"What's wrong? If you have something to say, just say it. I'll do whatever I can to help you." Mother saw Lin Feng hesitate and placed the teacup in his hand.

"Um, Mom, I... I want to borrow... money." Lin Feng said, too ashamed to look at his mother. Not visiting for years and then coming to borrow money made him feel very guilty.

"How much?" Mother asked, startled.

"1... 15,000 yuan." Lin Feng stammered.

"So much?" Mother was shocked and instinctively grabbed Lin Feng's hand. "Did you get into trouble outside?"

"No, I didn't get into any trouble." Lin Feng shook his head. "I want to borrow the money to open an internet cafe." Mentioning the internet cafe, Lin Feng's confidence returned. This was definitely a profitable business, with no need to worry or hesitate.

"An internet cafe?" Mother had never heard of this new term and had to ask Lin Feng for a long time to understand what an internet cafe was.

"No, what if you lose money? You won't have any money left for your marriage." Once she understood what an internet cafe was, Mother's attitude, as Lin Feng had predicted, was to reject it outright without a second thought.

"Mom, I won't lose money. The next ten years will be the golden age of internet cafes. After the 21st century, it will be the era of computers and the internet..." Lin Feng's words were interrupted by his mother again.

"I don't understand these things. I just want to know what you'll do if you lose money. I saved all this money for your marriage, not for you to waste it." Mother insisted on the marriage, not giving in at all. "In a few years, you'll be in your twenties. If you don't have money for your marriage, what will you do?"

Lin Feng hadn't expected his mother to take his marriage so seriously. After some thought, he said, "Mom, don't worry, I won't lose money. If you don't believe me, consider it a loan, and I'll pay you back in half a year."

"Loan? Do you think I need you to pay me back? This money is for you, but it's for your marriage. If you spend it like this, where will I get the money to save for your marriage?" Mother's words made Lin Feng feel both embarrassed and sad. But no matter what, he had to borrow this money.

After much persuasion and various market analyses, almost revealing his secret of rebirth, Mother finally showed some flexibility.

"Alright, just trust me this once. This time, I will definitely make money. Besides, this job is too bad, 400 yuan a month, I won't earn anything even if I work until I'm old." Lin Feng's efforts finally made Mother soften her stance.

"Are you sure you'll make money?" Lin Feng knew that Mother wanted him to give her some confidence. After all, this money was saved penny by penny from her street vending.

"Yes, don't worry, I will definitely make money. When I do, I'll buy you a house." Lin Feng felt guilty, using his mother's street vending money for investment... Fortunately, this was a surefire business. And once he made money, he would definitely buy his mother a house that was entirely hers.

"I don't want your money. If you can make money, that's your ability. I can earn money to support myself. As long as you don't lose money, I'll be grateful." Mother shook her head but finally softened her tone.

"Alright, be careful and do your research." Only a mother would help her son, but she was still a bit worried. After some thought, Mother added, "Let's go look at the shops and storefronts together."

"Okay, alright." Lin Feng knew he wasn't an expert in this area, and having his mother's help would save him a lot of trouble.

With 15,000 yuan from his father and 15,000 yuan from his mother, totaling 30,000 yuan, Lin Feng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Feng decided to locate the internet cafe in the Liao Yuan neighborhood, not far from his home. This area had a large population and was close to the Ninth Middle School, making it an excellent location for an internet cafe.

After carefully selecting a 10-square-meter shop with his mother, Lin Feng entrusted the task of obtaining a business license to her. He couldn't be sure if he would punch an official in the face if he had to deal with them any longer. It was just a business license, why did it need to be processed in so many places and stamped so many times?

Fortunately, buying computers was easy for Lin Feng. He knew the trends of computers for the next ten years and knew how to choose the best value-for-money options.

Celeron 433, 64MB RAM, 6.4GB hard drive, Voodoo graphics card—this was the best configuration in terms of cost-effectiveness at the time.

But to the reborn Lin Feng, this configuration was terrible. Before his rebirth, he had used an AMD dual-core 3600+, 2GB RAM, X800 graphics card, and a 200GB hard drive, which was far superior to the current setup. Lin Feng couldn't help but think that if he could bring that computer back to the present, it would be amazing