The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 131: The Trucks Left Behind
“You have two choices!”
“First, I will fund all your expenses while you’re in school and provide you with enough help. This is my investment in your education. You need good grades to prove that investment hasn’t been wasted.”
“Second, the terms are the same as above. Whether or not you graduate, you will work for me for ten years. You know me. I’m a capitalist. Exploitation is my motto.”
“But...” William gave a soft cough. “Look, I’m a young man...”
Eleanor quickly cut off William’s joking implication. Her expression was somewhat complicated. “The second one. After I graduate, I’ll work for you for ten years.”
She knew William was saying it this way so she would not feel too burdened. After all, they had already broken up. Strictly speaking, William had no obligation to pay any of her costs or expenses, let alone arrange work for her family.
They were only friends now, but friends did not go this far. So William had found a few excuses, allowing her at least to deceive herself into accepting the help with a clear conscience, without having it wound her pride or dignity.
Both of them were smart people. Otherwise, they would never once have dreamed of going to college. Stupid children went to work in diners or gas stations before they even finished high school. They, however, had still kept a hope for the future.
William pointed at the girl. “I’ll look forward to your performance...” As he spoke, he took out an envelope and handed it over. “There’s some money inside, enough for you to live on for a while. Your bank card is in there too. Every month I’ll deposit some money into it. Don’t overthink it.”
He curled his lip slightly. “So, shouldn’t I get a hug at the end?”
The girl looked straight into his smiling eyes. In the end, she opened her arms and hugged him tightly. For about half a minute, neither of them spoke, but soon they separated again.
She “snatched” the envelope from William’s hand, and a little more of a smile appeared on her face. “Just wait. I’ll make your jaw hit the floor!”
Watching the girl get into the car and leave, William scratched his head and returned to the living room. Everything was just as it had been two days earlier, with no great change.
Elsewhere, Eleanor sat in the car and could not help opening the envelope William had given her. Inside was the bank card she had once left with William. She had not expected him to still have it.
By the bank’s standards, when an account had no balance, they would issue a warning to the customer. If a certain amount of money was not deposited within a week, they would cancel the bank card.
The purpose was still to make coordination and management easier for the bank. In an era without computerized information systems, a great deal of bank card management was still done manually by human hands.
The more idle accounts there were, accounts with no balance and no value, the more manpower the bank wasted. So any account without value could not escape cancellation.
She felt a little emotional, then kept reaching inside. There was also a stack of cash. She counted it. All of it was in twenty-dollar bills, fifty of them in total. One thousand dollars.
To her, this was already a huge sum of money. In her entire life, she had never had authority over this much money.
Just when she thought there was nothing else in the envelope and was preparing to throw it away, she suddenly realized it was still somewhat heavy. She turned the envelope upside down and shook it. A ring fell into her hand.
A gold ring. She moved closer to the car window, letting more light from outside fall onto her palm. Then she saw the line of words engraved inside the ring.
“That bastard...” The girl’s eyes quickly filled with tears. She wiped them away just as quickly, then immediately put the ring on her finger. “It’s a little big!”
It sounded like an explanation, and also like she was talking to herself.
The scenery outside the window kept sliding backward. Soon the car stopped on the street outside Eleanor’s home. There had originally been several street boys wandering around, but the moment they saw the car stop, they vanished.
Everyone knew that in this society, one could refuse to fear the law, but one had to bow before money.
After thanking the driver for bringing her back and saying goodbye, Eleanor carried her bag into the house.
Her parents immediately gathered around her and began talking about everything that had happened over the past two days while she was away. In short, the tense and solemn atmosphere vanished in an instant, replaced by her father’s simple, honest smile and the renewed glow on her mother’s face.
Eleanor felt helpless about it, but not disgusted. This was her family, an ordinary person and her ordinary family.
Thursday was a workday with nothing particularly unexpected about it. All of Sabine City was shrouded in the steadily rising unemployment rate. The pedestrians on the roads had largely lost their smiles, their faces full of worry.
And on just such a day, a group of people was about to begin dividing up the cake.
William deliberately changed into a formal suit, which made him feel as if his whole body were about to catch fire. Fortunately, the moving car could bring in some even hotter wind.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.