Lin Qing and Jiang Han returned to the villa’s study as the evening futures market opened.
Jiang Han poured himself a glass of whisky and watched Lin Qing work.
As Lin Qing slowly placed buy orders, she looked up at Jiang Han and said, “CEO Jiang, at this rate, three months — at most three months — and the billion-yuan fund will hit rock bottom. What do we do then?”
Jiang Han held his glass, took a small sip, and said nothing.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked Lin Qing instead.
Lin Qing waved her hand to decline.
“If you don’t like whisky,” Jiang Han said, “I also have red wine, beer, or even orange juice.”
Lin Qing was sharp. She pressed him: “CEO Jiang, are you not planning to answer my question?”
Jiang Han straightened up and smiled. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Money is like a bodhisattva — when it’s meant to appear, it will shine its golden light on everything.”
Lin Qing disagreed strongly and shot back, “I think money is more like a malevolent spirit — it never shows up in the daylight, so no matter how desperately you search for it, you’ll turn the world upside down and never find it.”
Jiang Han laughed and beckoned Lin Qing over to sit on the sofa.
“While others fear, I am greedy. Keep buying tomorrow.”
He fetched Lin Qing a bottle of cola, coaxing her along like you would a child.
Lin Qing gave a cold laugh. “Looks like I really am bad luck. Everyone who gets close to me goes bankrupt.”
The remark was a double-edged reference to Liang Meng’s predicament.
“Lin Qing,” Jiang Han said, raising an eyebrow, “do you know why I chose you?”
Lin Qing pulled open the tab on the can and took a sip of the icy cola.
“Because I’m cheap, obedient, easy to fool, and hardworking.”
Jiang Han chuckled. “What kind of thing is that to say?”
“I’m a worker ant,” Lin Qing said, setting down the can. “Someone like me is always going to be working for someone — if not here, then somewhere else. Like the maidservants in Dream of the Red Chamber — lowly servants, yet unwilling to leave the Grand View Garden.”
Jiang Han gave a small nod, then reached into the cigar box and took one out.
Lin Qing walked over and crouched down to light it for him.
Jiang Han was surprised.
Lin Qing said with a half-smile, “CEO Jiang, this service comes complimentary. No charge.”
Jiang Han laughed — a rare, relaxed laugh.
He exhaled a smoke ring, his entire body loosening with amusement. He pointed at Lin Qing with the hand holding the cigar and said, “You’re smart, determined, and ambitious. You remind me a lot of my younger self.”
“So you’re saying I’ll be as rich as you someday, CEO Jiang?”
Lin Qing was so delighted that she simply perched herself on the armrest of Jiang Han’s sofa.
“Of course,” Jiang Han said, looking at her with certainty. “All you need is time and experience.”
“I’ll take that as a blessing from you, CEO Jiang.”
Just imagining a future where she might become a wealthy woman, Lin Qing felt a small flutter of excitement in her heart.
Whether it was true or not, she was happy about it first.
Jiang Han bit down on his cigar and watched her radiant expression with amusement. He casually pulled a black card from his trouser pocket and held it out to her.
“Tomorrow, go to Hang Lung Plaza and buy yourself a few outfits. I won’t be going with you.”
Lin Qing took the card and said, half-jokingly, “CEO Jiang, aren’t you afraid I’ll run off with the money?”
“You won’t,” Jiang Han said with complete certainty.
“Then, CEO Jiang — what brands should I buy?” Lin Qing fanned herself with the card and asked curiously, “I’ve noticed the clothes you wear don’t really have any visible logos.”
Jiang Han smiled. “Someone like me — to put it nicely, I’m newly wealthy. To put it plainly, I’m nouveau riche. And if you’re nouveau riche, you can hardly walk around plastered head-to-toe in logos to cement that image, can you? That would just be embarrassing on top of embarrassing.”
“So what? You’re this rich — why care what anyone thinks? If it were me, I’d wear whatever I wanted.” Lin Qing said dismissively, giving a little pout.
Jiang Han looked at her and smiled. “That’s exactly why I say you lack experience. There are always higher mountains, stronger people, greater fortunes. Clothes are worn for others to see — otherwise, why wear them at all? We might as well run around naked like prehistoric humans.”
Lin Qing stuck out her tongue and asked, “So I should also buy brands without logos?”
Jiang Han pressed his hand over hers. “Absolutely not! You still haven’t understood. A person’s clothing has to match their image.”
“So what’s my image?”
Jiang Han lifted his dark eyes and cast her a sidelong glance.
“Understood — a gilded canary,” Lin Qing answered her own question.
“Exactly. So go buy the kind of things covered in bold logos. And jewelry too — whatever the influencers on Little Red Book are wearing, you buy that. Those ‘classic pieces’ the influencers hawk are just the budget end of the luxury market. They’re fine for fooling ordinary people, but in our circles, they won’t hold up.” Jiang Han said, taking a long drag of his cigar.
Lin Qing felt exhausted just listening, and leaned toward Jiang Han. “This is all so tedious. I used to watch those dramas about wealthy socialites endlessly competing and think it looked exhausting — now I see it really is. Art truly imitates life, and then some.”
Jiang Han smiled and said, “That’s the game in these circles. Just think of it all as a costume party! Everyone is dressed in period costume, wearing masks, attending a cultured gathering. In that kind of environment, you can’t exactly have one person show up in a T-shirt and jeans, can you?”
Lin Qing understood, and nodded.
Jiang Han’s words gave her a new and deeper understanding of this so-called “domineering CEO.”
He had none of the inflated ego that often comes with sudden wealth, and when he’d had nothing, he clearly hadn’t cowered the way the truly downtrodden often did. He moved through any social circle with effortless ease.
Her admiration for him was shooting through the roof.
Lin Qing stole another glance at his handsome profile, and felt herself unexpectedly inspired.
They had both come from humble beginnings. Perhaps one day she could be as successful as Jiang Han — and face wealth and status with the same calm composure.
The apartment.
After getting Lin Qing’s mother settled in the living room, Lu Zhou and Liang Meng went into the bedroom.
Liang Meng stood at the window with her arms folded, the white sheer curtain billowing in the breeze around her, her silhouette appearing and disappearing like a shadow.
When Liang Meng was anxious, she always crossed her arms like that.
As though someone were holding her.
“Is there anything I can do?” Lu Zhou asked from a short distance away.
Liang Meng kept her eyes on the world outside. “You did well just now. Thank you.”
“What are you planning to do next?” Lu Zhou asked, genuinely concerned.
“I don’t know,” Liang Meng said honestly.
“Is there anything I can help with?”
Lu Zhou shuffled closer in his soft disposable slippers.
Liang Meng turned to look at him, and said quietly, “Lu Zhou… I think I may have to leave Longquan.”
Lu Zhou pressed his lips together slightly when he heard this, and then said, “That’s not the end of the world.”
Liang Meng turned back toward the window.
“When I was young and competing,” Lu Zhou said, coming to stand behind her and speaking gently, “I lost a lot. Sometimes when my coach took me out to practice, my shots would fly completely off course.” He paused. “But I eventually summed up the experience — no matter what I scored on the previous shot, it can never affect the next one.”
Liang Meng listened quietly.
“A lot of people love golf because of that rush — watching the ball soar after the swing, that surge of adrenaline.” Lu Zhou continued, “But me? I’m always focused on the grip and angle of the next shot.”
“You’re trying to encourage me, aren’t you?” Liang Meng could of course read between the lines.
Lu Zhou said nothing. He simply stayed with her in silence.
After a long moment, Liang Meng turned around to face him. “I want to set up a new company and lease the ‘Baoquan Herbal Tea’ brand name. Would you be willing to serve as the spokesperson for my new company? And don’t rush to say yes — I want to be upfront with you: the money I can offer might not even be a tenth of what Longquan used to pay.”
Lu Zhou looked down with a quiet smile. “Up until now, the fallout from that last competition has meant I haven’t been able to book any work. The longer this drags on, the faster the sports world will forget the name ‘Lu Zhou.’ You didn’t write me off, and you’re giving me a chance — I’m grateful for that. I won’t take a single yuan in endorsement fees. But I have one condition—”
“Name it.”
“Baoquan Herbal Tea must sponsor my next competition. One month from now, in Sanya.”
“No problem.”
Liang Meng turned around, and there in the bedroom, they shook hands with solemn gravity.
Their eyes met. An understanding passed between them.
Deal.
Lin Qing’s mother sat alone in the living room.
She held the old photograph of Lin Qing’s father and felt a sudden wave of disillusionment wash over her — a sense that life, in the end, held very little meaning.
For most of her life, she had lived for others.
Before Lin Qing’s father passed away, she had been bound by moral pressure and society’s expectations of women, keeping constant vigil by his hospital bedside for three full years without pause.
Even when he was moved to the ICU, she refused to withdraw life support, and held on for another three months.
She knew, in her heart, that when illness reaches that stage, what remains is no longer love.
It becomes something closer to marital duty.
Then she had raised Lin Qing on her own, caring for her all the way until she left for university.
For the sake of her daughter, she had never allowed herself to open her heart to anyone else.
Her modest wish had always been simple: that Lin Qing would find a steady, respectable job and marry into a decent, well-matched family.
Not great wealth or luxury — just a little genuine warmth.
Not to live as she had — fighting hard her whole life, yet ending up lonely and alone.
But all those years of quiet hope had ultimately come to nothing. Lin Qing had slipped the reins and chosen a completely different path.
Every sacrifice had been meaningless.
Lin Qing’s mother was tough on the outside but wounded within — utterly disheartened.
After a while, she sat up, and in a sudden burst of determination, pulled open her suitcase and began to dig through it furiously!
She yanked out all her brightly colored clothes and scarves and flung them across the room!
“Lin Qing’s mother, what on earth are you doing?”
Lu Zhou and Liang Meng, startled out of the bedroom, asked simultaneously in astonishment.
“Starting over.”
Liang Meng and Lu Zhou exchanged a bewildered look.
Then, right in front of the two of them, Lin Qing’s mother pulled out the agreement she had previously drawn up for Lu Zhou regarding the house purchase, and tore it to pieces on the spot!
Scraps of white paper fluttered to the ground in a spectacular cascade, leaving both Liang Meng and Lu Zhou utterly stunned.
“Right, someone can sweep that up later.”
Liang Meng was simultaneously baffled and helpless — right now she didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with anyone else’s dramatic outbursts, because she was very close to having one of her own.
“What do you all want for dinner?” she asked Lin Qing’s mother.
The kitchen stove was cold and empty. It looked like all three of them were going to be eating instant noodles tonight.
“I’ll take you both out for a big meal!” Lin Qing’s mother proposed.
Liang Meng closed the refrigerator and glanced at Lu Zhou.
Lin Qing’s mother’s idea of a “big meal” was probably the budget Shaxian snack shop around the corner, or the Lanzhou pulled noodle place down the alley.
Lin Qing’s mother was insistent, so Lu Zhou had no choice but to go and get the car.
“Big cities really are something else! I’ve heard there are fancy restaurants called Michelin and Black Pearl.” Lin Qing’s mother said from the back seat, gazing at the neon lights glittering outside.
Lu Zhou turned around to explain, “Michelin and Black Pearl are actually rating systems for food — they’re not restaurant names. Lin Qing’s mother, what cuisine are you in the mood for? I can search on Meituan.”
“Something expensive,” Lin Qing’s mother said wistfully. “Something I’ve never had before.”
In the end, the three of them ended up at an Italian restaurant overlooking the river. The wooden tables were small and narrow, and the food was nothing remarkable.
But Lin Qing’s mother ate with great contentment, an expression of pure enjoyment on her face as she finished every last bite of her meal.
Liang Meng, holding her knife and fork, couldn’t help herself — she had to ask. “Lin Qing’s mother, why didn’t you go and stay at the luxury penthouse with Lin Qing? Why come back here with us?”
Lin Qing’s mother chewed vigorously on a piece of crusty bread and said, “I needed to come back and keep an eye on what you two are getting up to — so I can report it back to my own daughter!”
Liang Meng and Lu Zhou exchanged a glance, and Liang Meng lowered her head with a small pang of guilt.
It was obviously just an old woman venting her frustrations.
“Liang Meng,” Lin Qing’s mother said, “Lin Qing stole your brother-in-law out from under you. Does that make you angry?”
Liang Meng stared down at the food on her plate and prodded at it, thinking: Stole my brother-in-law? That’s the least of it. She stole my—
“Just you wait!” Lin Qing’s mother suddenly turned fierce. “She’s been hateful to you, and I have no shortage of ways to be hateful right back to her! Nobody’s going to come out of this unscathed!”
“Lin Qing’s mother, what are you planning to do?” Lu Zhou asked, a little worried.
Lin Qing’s mother attacked her pizza with gusto and gave no answer.
Liang Meng cautiously nudged the glass of lemon water closer to her side.