Recognition carried through every word as Wei Yi sat in the audience watching Xia Xiaolan accept her prize. She was indeed the last single person in Xia Xiaolan’s inner circle. Before Zhou Yi had returned to China, everyone else had found their partners, including Ji Jiangyuan.
He had ended up with Tina. It was unexpected yet made perfect sense – friends becoming lovers was quite common. Of course, for Tina to evolve from that fragile princess into someone who could be Ji Jiangyuan’s partner, much credit went to Grandmother Yu. Without her influence, Tina’s transformation wouldn’t have been so profound.
In 1995, Ji Jiangyuan left Qihang Capital to strike out on his own. Though Tina could access her inheritance by then, Ji Jiangyuan never suggested using her money – he had accumulated substantial savings over the years. At Qihang Capital, You Li stepped up to fill his position.
Xia Xiaolan’s team wasn’t short on talent anymore. The “Fledgling Qihang” program showed increasingly positive results in selecting talent for Qihang. More and more outstanding university graduates joined the Qihang family. Of course, Qihang didn’t welcome every graduate with open arms – recruitment was always a two-way choice, with students selecting employers and companies scrutinizing capabilities.
After all, from 1995, the state allowed university graduates to make their own employment choices rather than accepting mandatory assignments. By 1996, the graduate job assignment policy was completely abolished.
Some questioned Qihang for being private. Qihang had already become a major corporation. Beyond Qihang Real Estate and Qihang Capital’s growth, even the electronic dictionary venture that Xia Xiaolan casually invested in had evolved. Xu Jing and Ma Hai had moved beyond electronic dictionaries. Rather than pivoting to computers during fierce dictionary market competition, they’d switched to developing PHS phones – truly an inspired direction!
The PHS technology was readily available in Japan, nearly obsolete there, making it easy to import. PHS phones are perfectly suited to China’s conditions. Through this venture, Xia Xiaolan as a major shareholder earned enormous profits – truly substantial amounts!
By 1997, though the PHS market was still profitable, the duo had already begun developing mobile phones. Xia Xiaolan sensed she would earn much more. With Xu Jing and Ma Hai, she finally felt the advantage of being a time traveler. Rather than pursuing established tycoons, she had picked up two random people and cultivated them into industry leaders!
Xia Xiaolan felt both proud and pleased. Since Xu Jing and Ma Hai had proven their worth, she didn’t mind giving up more shares. She intended to let them develop freely without interfering in their company.
Xia Xiaolan believed they were on the right path, maintaining their passion for independent research and development, investing heavily in R&D each year. That was exactly what was needed – there was no future in just rebranding others’ products. China needed to develop its technology. Even if progress was slower and required some detours, it didn’t matter. Xia Xiaolan had already multiplied her investment many times over, so she could let Xu Jing and Ma Hai freely pursue their ideas.
“Anjia Building Materials” had developed into a national chain, and Xia Xiaolan’s envisioned building materials center had been constructed. The center’s funding was no longer a burden for her.
Liu Yong’s business had expanded beyond his decoration company. Though “Yuanhui” remained the industry’s largest decoration company, after Qiong Island, Liu Yong established Yuanhui Real Estate in Shanghai, entering property development.
In 1992, at age 27, Xia Xiaolan became a mother to twin boys. By 1997, the twins were five years old – mischievous and quite a handful, with many doting elders. Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng worried constantly, fearing any oversight might lead the children astray.
Zhang Xiao had her child a year after Xia Xiaolan, bearing Chen Xiliang a daughter. With Chen Xiliang’s son from his previous marriage, they had both a son and daughter – perfect. To build a legacy for both children, they couldn’t slack in business. Chen Xiliang became a fashion tycoon earlier than in her previous life. By 1997, his net worth already exceeded 100 million.
With wealth and a celebrity wife, Old Chen now had drivers and housekeepers as standard. From the day Chen Xiliang hired a driver, Xia Xiaolan became vigilant.
In her previous life, Old Chen had fallen victim to his driver and a poisonous second wife. He wouldn’t marry that woman now – with Zhang Xiao, what more could he want? Chen Xiliang didn’t have such notions. But the driver needed to be reliable.
Xia Xiaolan couldn’t remember what the driver from the news looked like, so she simply recommended one to Chen Xiliang, from the same background as Zheng Feng. Chen Xiliang was extremely grateful.
With the driver issue resolved, would the poisonous wife still appear? Xia Xiaolan believed Chen Xiliang wouldn’t betray Zhang Xiao, but with his frequent business socializing, who knew what kinds of women he might encounter? He might fall into a trap without realizing it.
Xia Xiaolan could only hint to Zhang Xiao that Old Chen was now successful, and while he maintained his integrity, young women might throw themselves at him – she should stay vigilant.
Zhang Xiao thought Xia Xiaolan was warning her based on specific knowledge and was deeply grateful. Old Chen suffered as a result – Zhang Xiao began monitoring him very strictly.
Well, Xia Xiaolan didn’t think she’d done wrong – after all, she was saving Old Chen’s life. For the sake of survival, it wasn’t too bad for him to bear some blame.
Xia Xiaolan wasn’t making things up – women did pursue Chen Xiliang. After the investigation, Zhang Xiao fired Chen Xiliang’s female secretary. The young college graduate often looked at Chen Xiliang with admiring eyes; given time, mistakes might have happened…
Xia Xiaolan frequently told stories to “successful men” including Chen Xiliang and her uncle Liu Yong: when riding high, women would approach for money, but during hardships, only wives would stick around – mistresses would surely take the money and run!
Five years later, the poisonous wife still hadn’t appeared. Xia Xiaolan figured Old Chen’s fate of being kidnapped and killed had been thoroughly averted.
Old Chen owed her his life, yet Xia Xiaolan couldn’t claim credit. Though Manager Xia rarely lost out, she was willing to do good deeds anonymously several more times.
By 2002, the twins were ten years old, and Xia Xiaolan was 37.
That year, she was nominated for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, alongside Ning Xue!
As for Heidi’s ilk, without Mond Dawson’s help, sharing the “AIA Rising Star Architect” award with Xia Xiaolan had been her career highlight. She had long since fallen into mediocrity. Even Mond Dawson’s studio closed several years after his death.
Finally, Xia Xiaolan lifted the Pritzker trophy.
Ning Xue graciously congratulated her: “You’ve taken another step ahead.”
Xia Xiaolan was the first female architect to receive this honor and a Chinese female architect at that.
As Xia Xiaolan raised the trophy, many of her family and friends were in the audience.
Mao Kangshan couldn’t attend due to health issues, but Xia Xiaolan thanked him first. Without his years of guidance and supervision, she might have abandoned architecture to focus solely on making money.
After the millennium, Mao Kangshan’s health had deteriorated significantly, though he had already lived to a respectable age.
Xia Xiaolan knew the old master had been waiting – waiting for her to gain world-class architectural recognition. She was glad she could leave him without regrets.
“Many years ago, someone told me women shouldn’t be architects, suggesting I should act in films or become a celebrity – that would be easier.”
Du Zhaohui sat in the audience wanting to cover his face.
Women held grudges! How many years had it been, yet she still remembered?!
But Xia Xiaolan wasn’t trying to shame him; she was just expressing her feelings:
“But in this world, what profession truly has gender restrictions? Women can be firefighters, astronauts – why can’t they be excellent architects?”
Indeed, why not?
What can we become? What limits our success isn’t gender, but ourselves.
If we deny ourselves, pronounce our death sentence, and believe women can’t achieve certain goals… then we really won’t achieve them!