At the mention of money, Mrs.
Rivers’s attitude immediately shifted.
She had already forgotten her original reason for coming to find her daughter.
“Don’t even think about it!
You want to spend two hundred thousand on a fool?
I think *you’re* the fool!”
Maya Rivers’s hope was shattered, and her voice turned cold.
“Then stop interfering in my life.
Morgan and I are doing just fine.
His mind may be addled, but he’s considerate, completely devoted to me, and so much better than those cold-blooded, heartless people who are perfectly sane!”
After sending her mother away, Maya Rivers sat weakly in her chair.
‘This whole “blood is thicker than water” thing is a complete joke.’
To raise money for the surgery, Maya Rivers racked her brain to attract business and generate revenue.
She printed a batch of flyers and went to hand them out nearby when it was too hot at midday and there were no customers.
She also filmed the shop and uploaded it online, hoping it would go viral like Morgan Carter’s previous video and bring in some business.
But after being online for half the day, the video didn’t even have five hundred views.
It wasn’t going viral at all.
Maya Rivers started studying the filming techniques of her competitors and discovered that they didn’t just introduce their products and services—they also featured good-looking employees on camera.
Having a pretty face to look at really made a difference.
The comment section was filled with countless interactions—half asking for the shop’s address and about the products, and the other half praising how beautiful the woman on screen was.
Maya Rivers considered her own looks and figure to be superior to theirs, but she had no desire to be in the spotlight.
She insisted on filming only serious business introductions.
After five consecutive videos failed to get any traffic, she felt deflated.
When Morgan Carter came to pick her up after work, he saw her angrily toss her phone aside.
“Maya, why are you upset?
Did someone bother you?” Morgan Carter asked with a concerned frown.
Maya Rivers looked at his handsome face.
“Morgan, do people in this world really only care about seeing handsome men and beautiful women?
When they’re looking to buy something, shouldn’t they care more about the quality of the product and service?”
Morgan Carter picked up her phone, saw the browsing history on the screen, and understood why Maya Rivers was unhappy.
He said in all seriousness, “But you need an attractive cover to get people to click.
If no one clicks in the first place, how will they ever know about our products and services?”
Maya Rivers’s eyes lit up.
She patted Morgan Carter’s head.
“You hit the nail on the head!
Are you really a fool, or are you just pretending?
I’m starting to think you’re smarter than me.”
Morgan Carter handed the phone back to her and answered very earnestly, “It’s such a simple concept.
Did you really not know, Maya?”
Maya Rivers tapped him on the head.
“I give you one compliment and it goes straight to your head!”
Morgan Carter clutched his head and muttered, “Maya’s hitting me again.”
Although he was complaining, the corners of his mouth curved up.
He was clearly happy.
He picked up the flyers from the table.
“Morgan’s going to hand out flyers now.
Goodbye, Maya.”
Maya Rivers said, “It’s already dark, there’s no one around.
What’s the point of handing out flyers?
Don’t go.”
Morgan Carter said, “I’ll go to the night market, it’s crowded there.
Oh, and the boss said I have tomorrow off, so I can hand them out during the day, too.”
He was about to leave with the flyers, but Maya Rivers grabbed him.
“It took me days to figure out the trick to those videos.
Did you really see it at a glance?”
Morgan Carter couldn’t tell if that was a compliment or a criticism, so he didn’t dare to respond.
Maya Rivers’s interest was piqued.
She pulled him down to sit.
“Don’t go hand out flyers today.
Help me figure out how to increase our shop’s revenue instead.”
Morgan Carter had never thought about these things before.
He just did whatever Maya Rivers told him to do.
He was so used to being called a fool that he’d started to think of himself as a fool who didn’t know anything.
But as he thought about it now, his brow furrowed slightly, and he actually looked quite professional.
After a few minutes, he said with a serious expression, “If we try to attract new customers ourselves, not many people will come.”
He’d realized this after handing out flyers for a few days.
Although the young women would happily take his flyers and ask for his WhatsApp, they just wanted to flirt with him.
They didn’t actually need the service.
In a situation like that, what kind of conversion rate could he expect?
Maya Rivers nodded in agreement.
“Getting five new customers from a hundred flyers would be considered good.
The conversion rate really is low.”
Morgan Carter continued, “So we need to have our existing customers bring in new ones.
And we have to give discounts to both of them.
Look at Hailey, she referred several people.
A recommendation from an acquaintance is more trustworthy than our flyers.”
Maya Rivers stared at Morgan Carter in astonishment.
“Morgan, where did you learn all this?”
‘How is his thinking so clear?’
Morgan Carter scratched his head, confused.
“I just thought of it.
You asked me, and the words just popped into my head.”
Maya Rivers’s eyes sparkled.
“My dearest Morgan, you’re a natural-born genius at business!”
She grabbed a notebook and looked at Morgan Carter expectantly.
“Keep going, I’ll write it down!”
Pleased by the praise, Morgan Carter became even more enthusiastic.
“Besides having old customers bring in new ones, you can also build a group.
Announce new products and special offers there.
On one hand, it attracts people.
On the other, if an old customer says a good word about you in the group, it increases the loyalty of new customers.”
Maya Rivers said as she wrote, “Building a community, I just learned about that concept online yesterday!”
The two of them talked for over an hour.
As Maya Rivers watched Morgan Carter speak with such confidence and eloquence, she unknowingly began to overlook his “foolishness.” Her eyes even started to show a look of admiration and worship.
‘Before Morgan Carter got hurt,’ she thought, ‘even if he was a “young master,” he must have been an exceptionally brilliant one.’
In her eyes, he was no longer a fool.
Her spirits lifted.
‘Once Morgan Carter’s illness is cured, he belongs in an office building as a high-level professional, not holding a rag as a car washer!’
It seemed the future was full of hope again.
“My dear Morgan, I will definitely get your illness cured!”
It was already ten o’clock.
The two of them closed the shop and headed home when a call came from Hilary York.
“Babe, high school reunion on Saturday.
You going?”
Maya Rivers’s instinctive reaction was to refuse.
“Nope.
I don’t like big gatherings.”
‘A high school reunion is just a competition to see who’s best.
I’m doing so poorly, I don’t want to go and become the butt of everyone’s jokes.’
But Hilary York tried to persuade her, “Come on, come on!
It’s been almost ten years since we graduated, and you’ve never been to one.”
Maya Rivers was about to say “no” again, but then she had another thought.
‘If I could sell a few of my product sets at the reunion and gain some new clients, it wouldn’t be so bad.
What’s so hard about listening to a few snide remarks and offering up some flattery?’
‘After all, my number one priority right now is—MAKING MONEY!!!’
“Alright, I’ll go.” The thought of expanding her client base instantly energized Maya Rivers.
Maya Rivers was determined to implement all of Morgan Carter’s suggestions.
She was too excited to sleep.
After getting home and showering, she began to draw up a detailed plan.
When Morgan Carter came out of the shower, Maya Rivers was writing a script for a video.
“Maya, you need to dry your hair.”
“Mm, okay.
Can you turn on the fan for me then?” Maya Rivers said without looking up.
Morgan Carter didn’t turn on the fan.
He brought over the hairdryer.
His long, slender fingers carefully worked through Maya Rivers’s hair, making her stop what she was doing and look up at him.
Morgan Carter continued to dry her hair, explaining, “The fan blows cold air; it’ll give you a headache.
You keep writing.
I’ll dry it for you.”
Maya Rivers was so touched her nose tingled.
She sat there, her smiling gaze drifting down from his face, and it inadvertently fell upon his waist.
To make it easier to dry her hair, Morgan Carter was standing very close to her—almost intimately so.
On a sudden impulse, Maya Rivers’s mind went blank, and she reached out to hug the lean waist right in front of her.