Chapter 47: The Lollipop (Thanks to the Alliance Leader "Ten Years of Footprints, Ten Years of Heart")

August 4th, Friday.

For the entire daytime after returning home, Xia An remained in a hazy, dazed state.

Drinking too much was one reason.

Another was that one truly should not drink too much! he thought.

Tang Wan was one case, Lin Jiajia... and this time was even more outrageous.

Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that his fingers would become the first body part to enjoy such a blessing in this lifetime.

To prevent any future conflicts among his organs, Xia An decided he would need to switch to his other dominant hand for peeing from now on.

Six o'clock in the afternoon.

Wei Xiaofang and Xia Kangning returned from work together, punctual as they had been for over a decade.

Seeing the cake in his mother's hands, Xia An suddenly remembered that today was his dad's birthday.

That was quite remiss; the birth date was still busy making money for this family in the stock market.

Xia An thought for a moment, searched the bookshelf for an unopened copy of *Roots of Wisdom*, and walked over to present it to Xia Kangning.

He remembered this book had been recommended to students by their Chinese teacher in the first year of high school.

Back then, Le Ning had bought two copies.

"Dad, happy birthday."

Glancing sideways with a hum, Xia Kangning accepted the gift from his younger daughter-in-law.

"Go rest. You didn't come home all night yesterday; must've drunk too much, right? I'll go help your mom cook, and I'll call you when it's ready."

Then he walked away.

Most fathers and sons in this world were not very good at expressing warmth toward each other.

Perhaps due to the improving family finances, Wei Xiaofang put on quite a culinary display this evening, almost burning a few flying crabs.

All three of them drank some of the Moutai Old Zhou had left behind that day.

His parents sipped it appreciatively, while Xia An tossed it back pure and straightforward.

With veiled implication, Wei Xiaofang sighed, "Did so-and-so and so-and-so really get a divorce?"

Xia Kangning clicked his tongue, glanced sideways at Xia An, and said to his wife, "Yeah, just today."

Wei Xiaofang picked up a chicken wing and put it in Xia An's bowl, remarking, "Tsk, how decisive. That person didn't even want the money? Quite principled. I think old so-and-so was the one in the wrong here."

The television was playing in the living room, broadcasting the news:

[The agricultural tax, abolished for exactly seven months now, is of epoch-making significance. It is a major measure in coordinating urban and rural development, benefiting hundreds of millions of farmers. Compared to before the reform, farmers nationwide have seen a total burden reduction of about 100 billion yuan over the past half year, with a per capita reduction of about 80 yuan.]

[It is reported...]

Xia Kangning sighed and said, "The imperial grain tax with a history of 2,600 years has been abolished. Times have changed."

Wei Xiaofang gave a "heh" sound: "You want to learn from him?"

Xia An ate his meal in silence.

He knew well that "old so-and-so" referred to Old Zhou, and "that person" referred to Lin Jiajia.

Looking at his fingers, which had turned the same color as that morning due to applying too much force to crack open a crab shell, Xia An felt his dad was right: times had changed.

While nagging him, Wei Xiaofang grabbed some tissue paper for him to wipe away the blood.

"Can a cooked crab scratch your hand? You've been absent-minded ever since you got back. What are you thinking about? Too shy to contact little Youzi?"

This remark caught Xia An off guard.

Raising his eyes, he saw his mother arch her eyebrows and smile.

"What? Didn't she proactively tell you this afternoon that she advanced to the next round?

"Afraid she'll become a big star someday and look down on you?"

Xia An was taken aback once again.

Zuoyou advanced through the preliminaries of the Taoli Cup today.

Had he really been acting like he had amnesia?

His mother continued: "If you ask me, you're not that young anymore. What are you shy about? Be proactive when you need to be; your mom supports you. Short on money to buy a gift? I'll give you a bit extra when school starts so you can take little Youzi out to play."

Before Xia An could reply, Xia Kangning expressed his stance on such matters, a rare occurrence.

Taking a sip of wine, Xia Kangning tapped the table with his finger and said, "You don't need to worry about the affairs between me and Uncle Zuo. Just make sure you and Youzi get along well."

In all his living days, this was the first time Xia An had seen his dad wear a birthday hat and blow out birthday candles.

Adults were not like children; they did not believe that speaking a wish out loud would make it fail.

"I hope my son stays safe and healthy, and grows up to marry little Youzi and bring her home. I hope our family remains happy and harmonious forever..."

……

……

Nine o'clock in the evening.

After a continuous bombardment of text messages and phone calls, Lin Jiajia finally replied to Xia An.

[What is your problem, what is your problem, what is your problem? Don't go too far, you bad boy!]

Xia An chuckled and stopped texting back.

Zuoyou's QQ space journal wasn't updated until ten o'clock.

——2006.8.4

["Eighth place in the preliminaries. Little brat, is your big sister awesome or what?"]

*Tree Leaves Are Toxic*: Extremely awesome.

The moon climbed up the willow tree.

Ever since his rebirth, Xia An received his first text message from little Youzi.

[Little brat, was the roast duck delicious?]

[Delicious.]

[What about the pastries from Daoxiangcun?]

[Also delicious.]

[Are uncle and auntie doing well?]

[All doing well.]

[Can you accompany me to visit the Forbidden City again in the future?]

[Sure.]

-----------------

On Sunday, Xia An spent 1200 yuan to sign up for a driving school.

The duty instructor was an elderly man who asked Xia An if he had ever touched a steering wheel before.

Xia An asked if he could touch one right now, and slipped a pack of cigarettes to the instructor.

The instructor smiled and beckoned him into the car.

After driving a single lap, the instructor furrowed his brow and asked him: "Was your license revoked?"

Xia An handed him another carton of Furongwang cigarettes and 500 yuan in cash, saying he would come back when it was time for the test and wouldn't practice during regular days.

This was the fastest money the old instructor had ever earned.

He was very happy.

Xia An was also very happy because Zhang Tianchen and Liu Youwei actually knew a troll farm ringleader!

After leaving the driving school, Xia An received a call from Zhang Tianchen saying they had found a storefront and asking if it was convenient for Xia An to take a look right now.

Taking a taxi to Tech Valley, Xia An was shocked by the surrounding environment.

An abandoned leather factory; this place would later be developed into a utopian art district like "798." There was real potential here.

The storefront was a two-story auto repair shop right across the street from the leather factory, and it was up for transfer.

It was a public-facing building along the street with nice surrounding greenery, located two kilometers away from the central urban area.

Xia An said, "Great location."

The landlord smiled.

Xia An said, "Let's keep looking around."

The landlord panicked and said, don't look anymore, hey.

"These two brothers of yours have come to see it four times in three days. I really didn't promise them any kickbacks, don't doubt that."

Xia An smiled and nodded at the honest Zhang and Liu brothers.

The automotive aftermarket industry was currently on an upward trajectory, and the landlord was eager to cash out so he could plunge headfirst into this business down south.

To partner with someone, go big, and make it strong, having no money simply wouldn't do.

The landlord asked Xia An if it was a matter of the price, and Xia An said no.

"How about this, I'll shave off the odd change from the rent, but the annual payment terms cannot be changed."

Xia An looked at the two-story building and the courtyard in the back and said, "I'll sign for five years. I'll transfer two years' rent in a lump sum right now, and starting the third year, we'll do rent-to-own. If you agree, you and I sign right now."

The landlord didn't react in time, but Liu Youwei reacted first. After giving Xia An a deep look, he proactively explained to the landlord what rent-to-own meant.

After listening, the landlord bummed a cigarette from Xia An, stomped his foot, and agreed.

The contract was a template Zhang Tianchen downloaded on the spot from the internet using his laptop. After Liu Youwei printed it out, both parties signed on the spot.

Holding the contract with a reluctant look in his eyes, the landlord strolled around the auto repair shop once and said he would pack up and leave before the day after tomorrow.

Xia An handed the keys to Liu Youwei, saying renovations would start the day after tomorrow, and they could live right here once it was finished.

On August 7th, the renovation team arrived on-site along with an in-house designer.

Liu Youwei busied himself helping out.

While observing from the side, Zhang Tianchen and Xia An sat on two large tires as the former demonstrated the draft of "Larval Weibo."

After looking at it, Xia An asked him: "Since there are already limits on the amount of text and pictures, long pictures shouldn't have any limits."

Zhang Tianchen was dumbfounded and asked what long pictures were.

Xia An took a deep breath, realizing he had almost leaked a commercial secret.

Long infographics, GIFs, compressed short videos...

Xia An looked upstairs at Liu Youwei, who was running back and forth and even proactively buying water for the designer, thought for a moment, and said, "How much longer until the tech company is registered?"

Zhang Tianchen answered honestly, "Before next Friday, not counting opening the bank account."

Xia An patted him on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "You two brothers go back and discuss it thoroughly. Are you willing to start a business with me and become true internet people?"

Seeing Zhang Tianchen about to open his mouth to pledge his commitment immediately, Xia An shook his head and said, "Think three times before acting. Stillness is the source of movement, and movement is the transformation of stillness."

Zhang Tianchen didn't quite understand, but he could roughly grasp the meaning.

Xia An smiled at him, thinking to himself: *The reversal is the movement of the Tao, the weak is the function of the Tao.*

The designer went back to draw up the blueprints, but they could start smashing down the walls.

Once Liu Youwei had some free time, he walked to the back courtyard to find Xia An and Zhang Tianchen.

Thinking of the news from a few days ago, Xia An stood in the courtyard and looked at the small patch of corn the previous landlord had cultivated, feeling it was time to start the second step of the plan to take down Tang.

Even the emperor had stopped exploiting farmers, so what were capitalists supposed to be?

Xia An asked them, "Do you have connections to handle public opinion on the internet?"

Liu Youwei asked, "Troll armies?"

When Xia An nodded, Liu Youwei pointed at Zhang Tianchen: "He's the troll ringleader."

Xia An looked at the latter in astonishment.

Zhang Tianchen sheepishly scratched his head and said with embarrassment, "I occasionally make some extra cash."

Xia An drew a sharp breath, gave a thumbs-up, and laughed in disbelief.

What the hell kind of talents were these!!

-----------------

On August 9, 2006, two major events related to Xia An occurred in the world.

One Xia An knew about, and one Xia An did not.

Zhang Chunmin contacted Xia An, saying that the task of rebranding twelve small supermarkets was one-third complete, and also informed him that Tang Tianxing had internally announced the official launch of the main board listing plan this morning.

"An hour ago, the audit firm, accounting firm, and law firm all moved into the headquarters building.

"Then, Tang the Second just asked me when the procedures for transferring the real estate company's legal representative could be completed."

Xia An only replied with murmurs of agreement.

Zhang Chunmin sighed and said, "I can delay it for about a month at most. Is that enough?"

Xia An pondered for a moment and said, "Pretty much."

This phone call came while Xia An was squatting on the toilet.

Last night he had attended the fealty banquet hosted by Zhang Tianchen and Liu Youwei by invitation.

The ingredients at that street-side barbecue definitely had some issues, and after drinking a few glasses of draft beer, Xia An had diarrhea the entire day.

In the afternoon, right as he fell asleep while groaning softly, the North American hotel industry exchange conference on the other side of the ocean had just concluded in Seattle.

HomeAway founder Brian took the stage and delivered a resounding prophecy.

He predicted that the subprime mortgage crisis, which had already begun, would not stop in the short term, and expressed a bearish view on the global economy over the next five years.

Stepping down and returning to the company, Brian instantly wiped away his gloomy expression and made a decisive on-the-spot order to buy up tourism assets in resort cities on both the East and West Coasts, regardless of cost.

His subordinates were baffled; didn't you just say you were bearish on the next five years?

Five years? Unless the parliament went completely crazy, it wouldn't even take three years.

The visionary Brian specifically singled out the online planning department: The Internet is the future! We must seize the opportunity to swallow up the online markets that our peers haven't yet paid enough attention to.

The blonde female director asked, "Are you talking about websites and domain names?"

Brian waved his fist heavily: "Yes, my dear Venus! I'm certainly not going to have you young people running errands in hotel lobbies, am I? Show me the drive of your new generation of internet people!"

Venus was startled by his demeanor: "Is there a budget cap?"

Brian paused, smiled, and waved at finance: "Please help me explain the meaning of 'regardless of cost' to her."

Venus hurriedly waved her hands: "No need, no need, I understand."

……

The afterglow of sunset still lingered, and his parents were cooking dinner.

The newly awakened Xia An weakly heard his phone vibrating.

His stomach was vibrating too.

When you have diarrhea, you cannot trust a single fart.

While carefully releasing gas, he saw the message sent by Lin Jiajia.

[It's time to give you the gift that person left behind. When are we meeting?]

Xia An replied: [Tomorrow?]

[Okay.]

Xia An hugged his quilt and chuckled inwardly. If he remembered correctly, Old Zhou's original gift to him was a 10,000-yuan red envelope.

It was just money; if Lin Jiajia didn't want to see him, couldn't she just transfer it? Couldn't she just drop it off for his parents?

Heh, she was acting all cold and aloof now, huh?

……

Lin Jiajia hugged her quilt, pulled it over her head, grabbed at her hair frantically underneath, and grew irritated.

*Oh my god, this is so annoying!*

After a long, long while, she kicked the quilt away with both legs.

Dressed in a semi-sheer nightgown with disheveled hair, Lin Jiajia bolted upright in shock.

She poked her head out to look at the exquisite little box on the living room coffee table.

A Canon semi-professional full-frame DSLR camera, the EOS 5D, which had just been released last year.

What Old Zhou sent was indeed a 10,000-yuan red envelope.

But Lin Jiajia didn't want to give him that money.

She knew Xia An was already very rich.

Even if she gave him money, she could have just transferred it or delivered it to Xia Kangning and Wei Xiaofang.

Mainly... Lin Jiajia felt that sending cash lacked sincerity.

Yeah right, it lacked sincerity!

So, she went out shopping on the street during the day.

And she thought of a camera.

Cameras were good; she heard his major could make use of one.

Twenty-six thousand yuan—Lin Jiajia added sixteen thousand yuan of her own money.

The salesperson asked her if she wanted a lens.

Lin Jiajia asked what a lens was.

After listening to the explanation, her doe-like eyes rolled around twice.

"What other accessories are there?"

"Oh, there's quite a lot of those."

Tripods, flashes, camera bags, lens pouches, UV filters, and so on and so forth...

Lin Jiajia nodded and smiled shrewdly.

"You want all of them?"

"I want none of them."

That night, Lin Jiajia suffered from insomnia, thinking about meeting the bad boy tomorrow.

Should she give him a kick first when she saw him?

The next day, seeing a thinned-out and pale-faced Xia An at the coffee shop, the kick Lin Jiajia had decided on beforehand ultimately wasn't delivered.

With an ice-cold tone and a nonchalant expression, she nudged her chin toward the chair opposite her.

"Sit down. Order whatever you want to drink."

With wobbly legs, Xia An braced himself against the table and slowly sat down.

He found that Lin Jiajia had changed.

The change was huge.

Of course, he didn't mean her feigned calm attitude, but her styling and makeup.

The big waves in her hair weren't permed back, and her sportswear was gone.

A black sheer-gauze pant suit, off-the-shoulder.

Strap-tied high heels on her feet, black.

Sunglasses perched on top of her head, also black.

Yet her skin was fair.

At first glance, aside from her eyes, her aura resembled Jiang Shuying's.

Xia An ordered a cup of hot black tea.

Lin Jiajia gave a disdainful snort. "What? Been sick lately?"

She cared, but her tone didn't sound like it.

Xia An let out a desolate sigh: "It's heaven's punishment upon me."

Lin Jiajia said, "Don't bring up that matter again."

"Oh, okay," Xia An said.

*Okay?* Lin Jiajia wanted to curse.

Resentfully, she slammed the tote bag beside her onto the table with a *thud*. "He sent this to you. Take it and go."

Xia An leaned forward to take a peek inside the bag, and then he understood what was going on.

Suppressing the corners of his mouth, he said, "Huh? Uncle Zhou said it was 10,000 yuan, though."

"He lied to you," Lin Jiajia said.

"Oh, okay." Xia An nodded, pulled the bag over, and fell silent again.

*Okay?* Lin Jiajia's nails dug into her palm.

At that moment, Xia An opened his palm to reveal a lollipop.

Lin Jiajia froze.

"What are you doing?"

"I bought this for you."

Lin Jiajia tightly closed her eyes, opened them again, and put on a polite smile dripping with distance: "Do you have anything else to say?"

Xia An shook his head: "No."

Nonchalantly, Lin Jiajia took the candy, dropped it into her handbag, slung the bag over her shoulder, and stood up.

"I have a meeting to attend. I'm leaving first."

Xia An watched her get into the car, and only then did the waiter bring the hot black tea to his table.

That night, Xia An's stomach ache was completely cured, while Lin Jiajia "accidentally" smashed four plates in the kitchen.

On the morning of August 11th.

Xia An received a text message from Lin Jiajia down in Zhang and Liu's basement.

[Where are you? The lens he ordered for you has arrived.]

[Old place.]

At the old place, Xia An accepted the red thread end and presented a lollipop.

Before the coffee was served, Lin Jiajia left.

Her big waves swayed, both hands shoved into the pockets of her dark gray tailored suit pants, and she clicked away in her five-centimeter high heels.

On the morning of August 12th.

Xia An proactively sent Lin Jiajia a message.

[Regarding the website's operating entity, aside from the hospital, I think your personal side should be replaced with a corporate entity. Why don't you register a company?]

Lin Jiajia replied: [Just in time, the tripod he ordered for you has arrived.]

When they met to sign the processing agreement, Lin Jiajia wouldn't let Xia An get into the car.

Standing outside the passenger-side window, Xia An accepted the tripod and dropped a lollipop inside.

Having signed the agreement, Lin Jiajia drove away without looking back.

That night, looking at the three lollipops lined up side by side on her pillow, Lin Jiajia remained bewildered for a long time.

Suddenly, as if struck by a flash of inspiration, her complexion turned flushed red before instantly going pale white. She buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly for a long time.

Sniffling with a trembling, tear-soaked voice, Lin Jiajia took out her phone and sent a message to Xia An.

[The flash and some kind of filters have arrived. I'll bring them to you tomorrow. This is the last time.]

Lin Jiajia didn't sleep all night.

Xia An was hinting at *that* matter with the lollipops; it had to be.

*Lin Jiajia, you are so cheap.*

For this last meeting where she had made up her mind, she showed up just as haggard as Xia An had been that day.

No makeup, no hair washed, no styling—she had reverted back to her sportswear.

She let Xia An get into the car, drove him to a quiet old street, and parked by the roadside.

Lin Jiajia opened the door and got out.

Xia An got out, stood opposite her with a smile, and opened his palm to reveal a lollipop.

"Lin Jiajia..."

Her words cut him off.

Seeing the lollipop, Lin Jiajia let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh, shook her head, brushed back a strand of hair, and said, "You should still call me Auntie. I'll take the candy, but don't go imagining random things anymore..."

Xia An cut her off in turn.

"Lin Jiajia, not being able to have children doesn't matter. You can just be a child yourself."

Today was August 13th, Sunday, the fifth day of the *Sanfu* dog days of summer.

Dongshan in the provincial capital had already entered autumn.

Unlike ginkgo leaves, which turned golden, the leaves of the plane trees were an earthy yellow.

Litchi-like fruits hung in pairs from the branches.

Dazed, Lin Jiajia stared at the litchi-flavored lollipop, blinked her eyes, and asked him in disbelief, "What... what did you just say?"

Xia An unwrapped the candy, handed it over, and said with a smile, "Isn't being a kid better than raising one?

"Here, have some candy, little kid Lin Jiajia."