Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Holy crap! How did she find this place? You have to make sure she doesn't see me here!" Noah looked even more panicked than I was, pacing back and forth in the private room.

I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the office. "You said you'd handle this! Is this your idea of 'handling it'? Did you intentionally leave your phone in my office?"

Noah quickly defended himself. "No, no! I just forgot it, honest!"

I stared at him, noticing how his eyes were darting around. I knew he wasn't telling the truth. "If you don't tell me the truth, I'll go tell your girlfriend everything."

The mention of his girlfriend made Noah panic. He grabbed my arm, confessing in a hurry. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you. The thing is, I had a feeling this wouldn't be easy to fix, so I left my phone with you. You can use it—do whatever you want with it."

"Should I thank you for your generosity, Mr. Bennett?" I waved my fist at him. "Do you even know what Chloe's planning to do next?"

Noah clasped his hands together, begging. "Come on, bro—Ethan, my man. Don't keep me in suspense. Just tell me!"

I let out a heavy sigh. "Chloe wants to get into the casual entertainment industry. She went to discuss the feasibility with her investment team."

My market research was so detailed that Chloe could use it directly. If she decided to jump into this industry, it was basically a done deal.

And Chloe was definitely not short on money.

Noah listened, looking unconcerned. "So what? We'll just split the investment—she puts in some money, I put in some money."

I looked at him, a sarcastic smile on my face. Was it really that simple? When I opened Jiayue, Noah had begged his dad and all his rich friends to come to the opening ceremony and cut the ribbon.

With Chloe's financial resources, the scale of her investment would be way bigger than my little café.

That opening ceremony would be the moment I, Ethan Carter, got exposed.

Noah finally realized the problem too. He grabbed his hair in frustration, thinking hard for a minute. "Okay, here's the plan. We'll pick a good time, and I'll confess everything to my dad."

"If Chloe comes to me again, I'll tell her the truth," I said firmly. I'd been around wealthy young ladies before, and I had Noah—a rich heir—as a friend. I knew their circles were tight-knit. No matter how much I tried to "dress up" as a wealthy heir, I'd never truly fit in.

Besides, I felt guilty for lying to Chloe.

If I'd been sure I'd never see Chloe again, I might have been okay with pretending to be Noah just once. But there was no point in keeping up the lie. It was better to confess than to get caught.

I'd already embarrassed myself twice in front of Chloe—what was a third time? I was even prepared for her to yell at me. After all, I'd been dishonest first.

"Deal," Noah said, slapping me on the shoulder, looking guilty. "Bro, I was being too naive. If Chloe still decides to invest after she finds out who you really are, I'll invest in your name as an apology!"

"Get out of here—do you think I'm that shallow?" I punched Noah in the chest, then took his phone, pulled out the SIM card, and put it in my own phone. "I'll use your number one more time. I'll give it back when I'm done."

"Use what?" Noah's girlfriend walked in, only hearing the last part of our conversation.

"His phone—we're gonna play games," I said, putting Noah's phone in my desk drawer. "I thought you went to use the computer? Why are you back?"

"Coming to your internet café just to play games is boring," she said excitedly. "Let's go to the drink area and try your new products! It'll be like Noah and I are doing a taste test for you."

I was on good terms with Noah's girlfriend, so I couldn't say no to her request. "The new products are matcha-themed. I remembered you and Noah don't like matcha, so I didn't tell you about them."

"That's other people's matcha stuff," she said. "I'm a minor shareholder of Jiayue too! I need to know if our products are attractive or not!"

"You have a point," I said, shooting Noah a glare.

Besides me, the owner, Noah and his girlfriend each had a small stake in Jiayue.

They never got involved in managing or running the place—except when I launched new food or drink items. Then they'd suddenly show up, claiming to be "shareholders," just to mooch free food.

Jiayue had a gaming area, a high-end PC area, a budget PC area, and a non-smoking area. The casual drink and dessert area was behind the counter, next to the non-smoking area—it was quiet and nicely decorated.

I put on a chef's uniform, took out the ingredients, and started making the new desserts.

I kicked the pastry chef out of the kitchen. He looked at me, defeated. "Boss, you're launching new products again? Compared to you, I feel like the amateur here."

Noah patted the pastry chef on the shoulder sympathetically. "So you just need to keep working hard here. When you open your own shop someday, you won't bring shame to Jiayue."

The pastry chef laughed. "Mr. Bennett, I don't dare!"

I didn't hear their conversation. Experimenting with drinks and desserts was just a hobby of mine. My real goal was to expand Jiayue—turn one shop into two, two into four.

Noah and his girlfriend—those two bottomless pits—ate all the new products I made, wiped their mouths, and left.

After they left, Noah's phone (which I still had) received a message from Chloe: "This is Chloe Morgan. Add my WeChat. I want to keep talking about the topic we discussed earlier."

I held the phone, my palms sweating again. WeChat was the perfect way to confess to Chloe.

Through the phone screen, even if I was so embarrassed I fell apart, Chloe wouldn't see it. After weighing my options for over ten minutes, I took out my own phone, opened WeChat, and sent Chloe a friend request.

In the request, I typed directly: "Ms. Morgan, I'm not Noah Bennett. My name is Ethan Carter. I'm Noah's classmate—and his childhood friend."

After sending the request, I stared at my phone, my heart racing.