16 Family Z 3
As Lia expected, after she taught the owner and the staff the recipe and they perfected it, it wasn't even a day before their new flavour became a sensation and all the people poured into the store, causing lines as long as the city to form.
The pitiful sweet store opposite to this flourishing one, that was once booming, was totally empty and over the course of a few days, people from other cities stormed towards this small store, causing the Z brothers business to look like an embarrassment.
This news instantly reached the brother's ears and they knew they had to do something about it.
Lia didn't expect things to go so smoothly, especially not for it to become such a popular sensation. All she did was to take a beloved flavour from the mortal world- matcha.
However, the camellia Sinensis plant from which green tea was made out of, that grew in the immortal world, was ten times more flavourful than the one in the mortal world, so that it almost became its own new flavour.
Lia knew that the leaves grew in the mountains as back then when she was hunting ghosts, she came across them.
The boss had to hire new staff and soon he got a business proposal from the bothers. The man who delivered the proposal was very prim and proper. Lia was currently talking with the boss as he entered to let them know of his intention.
Lia smiled as she calculated that the greedy brothers wanted to know the secret flavour and take over this store.
"Please let me handle this as a favour from you."
The boss agreed and left this matter to Lia.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything to you or your business."
"You helped me so much, I trust you."
Lia smilingly nodded but in her heart, she ridiculed those words. Trust? There was no one in the world one could trust without being stabbed in the back.
As the boss left Lia alone with the prim and proper male, she spoke before he could even open his mouth.
"If your boss wants to make a deal, he, no they, both of them, should come in person or else it'd be very rude, no? I will eagerly await them, so do your job to convey this to them," with that Lia left the perplexed man alone and helped the boss.
When the brothers heard this, they were furious. They were multi-millionaires, yet they had to lower themselves to deal with a small store that was just a simple one time hit?
If they weren't to manage it then it would soon go down! The boss should be grateful to have them even propose something, however, it was rude of them not to appear in person?
Fine! The brothers wanted to see the shameless face of the person who dared to ridicule them like this. They immediately made their way over to the city. The prim and proper male breathed a sigh of relief as he feared for his life.
His bosses were notorious for being geniuses when it came to business but their personalities left to be desired. It was a wonder that they came from the prestigious Z family.
Lia told the boss that once the brothers were here to see her, they should go to the location she gave him.
At home, Noel still lingered around.
"Don't interfere," Lia had some nagging worries that Noel would cause her plan to fail.
"Gotta admit, I didn't imagine it was this easy for you to lure them out like this. Don't you feel like things are going way too smooth?"
Lia also felt that it was fairly easy for her to kill First and catch the attention of Second and Third but she had no time to worry about it. She seemed calm and indifferent on the outside, but her heart yearned for revenge and she wanted to quickly as possible finish business with Elder Z to move on to the other families.
Whatever might happen to her, whatever the repercussions and consequences were, these would be set for later.
"Are you worried about me?"
"As if!" Noel got up from the sofa and walked to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Got some business myself, worried?" he smirked again and she rolled her eyes.
Lia still wasn't sure if he was trustworthy or what his agenda was but living with him over the past few days made it obvious, she let her guard down by quite a lot.
An hour later, a knock appeared. Lia opened the door and two unfamiliar males stood in front of her. They had the same arrogance as First. It was unmistakably Second and Third.
"So, you're the boss?" presumable Second gave her a look before barging into her house. Third only nodded briefly.
They sat at the table.
"Have you tried the sweets?"
Second sneered. He knew what she was doing. He has been in the business for so many years how could he not understand what a girl like her wanted.
Second was a very proud man but as proud as he was as short was his temper. Third on the other hand was quiet and less impulsive than his older brother but it was clear he also looked down on people, in a less obvious manner. He prided himself higher than anyone else, even if he didn't say it.
Both of them had eyes for nothing but money. Although they did pay their visits to home regularly. The four brothers were neither close nor distant, they respected each other but neither got involved with the other, except for Second and Third.
They were born in the same year and thus were naturally closer to each other. Just like the rest of the Z family, they were very power-hungry. Any rival couldn't be tolerated. Their business had to be on the top and the only one.
"Oh, perhaps you didn't want to lower yourself to eat what your customers would? It's a shame, after all, you're trying to expand your business without even knowing what you sell. How would the public see this?"
Lia gave them no face. Second sneered,
"You really are young. You think you can sustain your business after this wave of popularity? You know that you gotta meet the demands of the customers. They wait days and night, it's also not good on your workers! Ha, lemme see how long you can ride on that tiny wave! Business ain't easy, a young girl like you think she could take care of it?"
Indeed his words were true, after all, it took a lot to build a conglomerate. How could a small business that's been dead for years suddenly deal with an outburst of demand? Anyone who didn't know how to do business would immediately falter under the pressure and fail to ride the wave.
It was business, and business, after all, wasn't just selling things, spending some money on wares, checking finances and their income or else anyone could do it.
"That is true but rest assured we know how to deal with it. You just gave us some good pointers after all."
Second and Third were veterans, how could they let an arrogant girl who was still wet behind her ears humiliate them?
"I ain't' got time listening to your blabber."
"Then why are you here?" Lia innocently smiled.
Second got even angrier but Third cut in, "Miss, it is a good deal, you sell us the recipe and we convert the store into ours however the profit made will still belong to you."
"In other words, you want to claim this new flavour yours? Also," Lia laughed,
"profit will be ours? I reckon, there'll be no profit after you introduce it in your stores. No one would want to come to ours," Lia was fed up.
She didn't have the time to be talking business crap.
"As one of our stores, we won't let you suffer such a fate," Third had an upright face but his eyes quickly disdained everyone and everything.
"Then how about this? I'll give you the recipe."
Second yanked forward when he heard this.
"In return, you give me the full rights of your business."
The teacup shattered into pieces. Second jumped up and grabbed Lia by the collar.
"Little girl, you really want to die?"
"Immortals cannot die."
"Do you think the Z family can't make it happen? You don't know who we fucking are?" he gripped her even harder but Lia remained unfazed.
"You mean like you did with the K family?"
"K family? Ha, their own daughter killed them."
"That's not true and you know it."
"Second, calm down. Let's deal with this level-headed."
Second's fierce eyes bored into Lia but he released the grip and went back to his seat.
"Last chance, little girl. Either you take the deal or you regret it," Second was impatient by now. His leg shook and he felt restless inside. He wanted to slap the girl a few times.
"Or you'll plan an assault on our store and steal the ingredients or you'll kidnap the staff?" Lia stirred her tea without looking up.
"Try it if you want," Lia's provoke hit the hot-blooded son in the right spot. He became agitated if it weren't for Third holding him back.
"The Z family-" Third started but Lia immediately shut him up.
"Is using your family influence all you can do? How about this? I'll give you a last chance," Lia stood up and motioned them to follow her.
"What you want?" Second didn't move instead just stared at her in anger.
"You want the recipe? You want to use your family? Both are fine with me. I'll show what awaits you," she walked towards a door that led underground to a cellar.
The brothers hesitated but the thought of the special ingredient being grown in the dark cellar made them move.
Once they arrived in the cellar, there was another door. Lia waited in front of it and opened it. She beckoned them inside.
The place was dark and had nothing but the stony ground and walls. Lia turned on a small dim light and walked to a figure hidden in the corner.
"He was very lonely when I moved him here," Lia caressed its cheek and turned to the brothers.
Because of Noel, she moved the corpse to the cellar. At first, she wanted to use the cellar for something different but it was the better decision to store corpses.
"He missed you dear bothers very much, right?"
The corpse walked towards Second and Third and their faces paled.
They tried to run away but the corpse grabbed them.
"It's not nice to run away from your elder brother," Lia closed the door and crouched in front of them.
