I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Wang Pan began to feel sorry for himself.

After he finished speaking, Shen Kang briefly explained the reason: "There's no such thing as a lot of nonsense. It's very simple. It's just that our An family encountered some difficulties opening a store in Anfang City. After calculating the costs, we found that forcibly solving this problem would not be worthwhile, so we decided to give up and not open a store in Anfang City for the time being."

"Since your home is in Anfang City, if you want to join Anjia Local Community, it would definitely require your family to purchase Anjia's services and accumulate a certain amount to join. Anfang City isn't planning to open any stores anymore, which is why I told you to wait a few years. It's not just you; everyone in Anfang City will be unable to access Anjia's services."

"Once you graduate and settle down in Yangcheng, and you've purchased a certain amount of our home-building services, you're more than welcome to join us. How could we possibly stop you?"

Wang Pan shook his head like a lion shaking its head.

"I don't believe it, I won't listen, I don't believe it, I won't listen..."

Shen Kang was speechless. "Go act in a Qiong Yao drama. You'll look exactly like the female leads."

After saying that, he ignored him and took Feng Moquan's copy of "Advanced Mathematics," opened it, and started looking at the table of contents.

Only by taking a holistic view can one possess the strategic vision to conquer advanced mathematics!

After watching the play, Feng Moquan and the others continued to review.

After shaking his head for a while, Wang Pan stopped when he realized no one was paying attention to him. But he didn't go to sleep anymore—it was already this late, and Lao Shen was targeting him like this, how could he possibly fall asleep?

Old Shen is ruthless! He even said, "It's not just you, it's the whole of Anfang City"—that's too ruthless! In order to suppress Wang Pan alone, he directly took his anger out on the entire Anfang City! From this, we can see just how much of a threat I am in Old Shen's eyes.

Thinking about this, Wang Pan actually felt a little pleased.

As Lu Xun said, the highest form of contempt is silence, without even turning one's eyes away. He would be upset if Old Shen treated him like dirt; the fact that Old Shen valued his threat so much actually made him feel good.

After thinking for a while, Wang Pan moved closer to Shen Kang, glancing at the pictures of beautiful women on Shen Kang's pink phone—Shen Kang had put down his advanced mathematics textbook and was scrolling through his phone again—and then whispered to Shen Kang, "Old Shen, you said your An family encountered some difficulties in Anfang City, so you decided to stop operating there. What exactly are these difficulties?"

Shen Kang was engrossed in brushing his brush when he casually said, "You wouldn't understand business matters, so I won't talk to you about them."

Wang Pan was furious—what do you mean I don't understand? If you can understand, why can't I? I haven't started a business simply because I'm still enjoying my university life and don't want to miss out on this good time, not because I really can't!

However, since he needed Wang Pan's help, he held back and continued, "Tell me about it. Maybe I can help you solve this? Or is it that there's no problem at all, and you're just making it up?"

In the last sentence, Wang Pan finally revealed his true intentions, wanting to force Shen Kang to admit that he had made it all up, fearing that Wang Pan's rise to prominence after joining Anjia Tongcheng Hui would be a huge success.

Upon hearing this, Shen Kang finally took his eyes off his phone screen for a moment, glanced at Wang Pan, and then continued looking at his phone and scrolling through it.

"You really want to hear it?"

"I really want to."

"Alright, then I'll tell you. Actually, it's quite simple. We just encountered some government officials who came to inspect our premises."

Upon hearing this, Wang Pan realized that something was indeed wrong.

Then, finding a new angle, he said, "If someone's inspecting, just let them inspect. Whatever their requests, just comply. Are you going to fight them? This is Anfang, not Yangcheng."

Shen Kang turned his head and glanced at Wang Pan again.

Don't let Wang Pan's usual silly demeanor fool you; some of his behaviors do reveal traces of his family and upbringing.

If it were Feng Moquan or Jin Chao, they probably would have genuinely thought he was referring to an inspection, but Wang Pan understood the underlying meaning. This was evident from the fact that Wang Pan added the phrase, "That's Anfang, not Yangcheng."

"Old Shen, not every place belongs to Yangcheng. This kind of thing is normal in business." Having found a new perspective, Wang Pan got excited again and felt that he had finally become Old Shen's mentor.

His tone, deliberately mimicking his father's, became authoritative and mature: "Old Shen, you're still too young, still clinging to the naivety of a student, intolerant of even the slightest imperfection. This world is complex. If everyone behaved properly, there wouldn't be so much conflict. People need to learn to be flexible..."

Wang Pan simply repeated what his father had told him.

Shen Kang didn't refute him, but waited for him to finish before saying, "Hmm, that makes sense. But we also have our considerations. We've encountered similar situations in other prefecture-level cities, but their demands were reasonable, so we readily gave in, considering it a small contribution to the local economy. But Anfang's demands this time are really against the rules. If this precedent is set, it will be difficult to open stores in other places in the future. Not only externally, but also internally, it will be difficult."

As Shen Kang's words became increasingly convincing, Wang Pan couldn't help but ask, "No, Old Shen, is everything you're saying true? It's not just to suppress me, is it?"

Since he had already let it slip earlier, Wang Pan decided to stop pretending and directly say what he really thought: "Suppress me."

Shen Kang rolled his eyes. "What do you take me for? I even helped you run for class monitor back then."

Wang Pan gave an awkward laugh and changed the subject: "That's just how Anfang City is. We have an old saying there, 'Anfang wolves eat from all directions, they can even squeeze slurry from rocks.' You'll get used to it, you'll get used to it..."

Shen Kang was a little puzzled, "Then why don't I see that in you? You seem like a pretty nice person."

Wang Pan was pleased again, raising his chin. "Look at what you're saying, 'different places nurture different kinds of people.' That's just a general trend; how can everyone be the same?"

As they chatted, Shen Kang remembered something. "By the way, Brother Pan, do you know anyone in Anfang? Could you put in a good word for us and lower your prices? Let's be friends."

Wang Pan not only raised his chin but also puffed out his chest. "I do know him, but..."

He was ready, and Old Shen begged him—Good heavens, this is the first time ever!

Shen Kang glanced at him, chuckled, and said, "I was just asking. If you help, I'll remember this favor. If you don't, that's fine too. Alright, I'm going to study now."

After saying that, he looked down at his phone again.