"So I started thinking, I damn well have to figure out why this genius has this kind of worldview and brain wiring. After I got closer to him and bought into mm, I finally realized that his pessimism is kind of like he’s seen through a lot of things, but can still stay clear‑headed and keep charging forward. Especially these past few years with the macro environment changing so fast, I’ve come to appreciate his way of dealing with the world more and more, you know what I mean?"

Getting worked up, he rolled up his sleeves. "The most important thing I learned from Xiaoshi is this: when you stretch history out long enough, going with the flow is everyone’s fate. The key is, we have to know we can’t wimp out. We can’t live every day trembling, waiting for uncertainty to smack us on the head, imagining some sudden unforeseeable event. Xiaoshi would never be like that. I’ve watched him for so long, and I’ve realized he has incredibly sharp foresight, very forward‑looking. When other people are just realizing they’re cold, he’s already wrapped himself in a coat. He clearly looks as cool and distant as an immortal, but he lives with this overbearing presence."

—"That’s exactly what I admire about him, you know? No fear, no flinching. No matter what’s happening in the wider environment, he just does what he’s supposed to do, never lets his steps stall because of it. The more I work with him, the more I realize this guy—fuck—he only looks cold on the outside, but once the fire inside him starts burning, it’ll kill you. It’s only by being with him that I learned people can’t let themselves get scared into curling up, too afraid to stretch, too afraid to hope for the future. When the road ahead is gray, that’s when we have to perk up even more, we can’t just turn gray with it, or we really won’t be far from getting iced out. Of course, proper tightening of the belt is still necessary, and I really admire him for that too—he doesn’t rush in blindly, doesn’t follow the herd, he’s steady as hell. I love working with someone like that."

"For us Chinese, if we want to make it in Europe and the United States, we have to find our own way of keeping warm. On this point, ’faith’ is really important. We have to believe in our own abilities, believe that we can definitely carve out our own territory in our own way.

Especially among our own people, we mustn’t lose confidence in each other. That’s also how we make sure we don’t lose our warmth.

As for enemies, we have to be crisp, clean, and rough, hard enough in our hearts, build up our own barriers, and not let anyone or anything talk us around. Whoever makes us cold, we’ll make them freeze."

—"Right?" Xie Shengxing slung an arm over Shi Wangyue’s shoulder, full on best‑bros posture.

Shi Wangyue gave his shoulder a little shake, knocking his arm off, then reached over with his chopsticks and dropped a shrimp into his bowl. "Taste this, the shrimp’s good."

Xie Shengxing sat down, all happy, and started eating the shrimp.

"So that’s why you clung to us in the United States no matter what and had to mix with us?" Yun Ze Wu laughed as he topped off Xie Shengxing’s empty wine glass.

"Ze Wu, listen to yourself." Xie Shengxing picked up the bowl of hot soup the server had just brought, took a sip, and a smug, proud look floated onto his face. "How can you call that clinging? That is clearly called having vision, okay?"

"Yiyi‑ge really does have pretty good vision." Ning Youguang listened with amused interest as Xie Shengxing told a few little stories about him, Shi Wangyue, and Yun Ze Wu in the United States, then whispered softly to Shi Wangyue.

In her previous life, all she knew was that Xie Shengxing, as her mom’s stepson, was a righteous guy. He and her mom weren’t particularly close, but he never lacked even a bit in the way of proper manners and respect. As for his younger half‑brother Xie Yizun, he doted on him even more.

Later, he inherited Uncle Xie’s company, and when it came to that good‑for‑nothing younger brother Xie Yizun, he had absolutely nothing bad to say about him either.

Beyond that, she didn’t know much about him.

So of course she also had no idea whether, in her previous life, Xie Shengxing had, like in this life, somehow accidentally ended up as one of Shi Wangyue and Yun Ze Wu’s partners in part of their business in the United States.

This marvelous twist of fate.

Just thinking about it, Ning Youguang couldn’t help feeling emotional, thinking that after her rebirth, the relationships around her were pretty extraordinary.

A client she hadn’t been particularly close to in her last life had become her boyfriend in this one.

A big brother who had absolutely nothing to do with her in her last life had become her boyfriend’s business partner in this one.

Thinking of this big brother, Xie Shengxing, who in her last life had been someone she couldn’t have bumped into even with eight long poles—

In her last life, she hadn’t been close with her blood‑related younger brother Xie Yizun, and naturally hadn’t been close with the Xie family either, so with this big brother Xie Shengxing, who was separated from her by several layers of relations, of course they’d been no different from strangers.