Innumerable scenes that looked like pictures flew out of Zhou Sheng, Yu Hao, and the unconscious Fu Liqun with a whoosh, and danced around them in a circle — those were the countless days they had spent together with Fu Liqun; how they accompanied one another in the dormitory, running around on the basketball court, jumping outside the teacher building, pooling money together to buy snacks before the ice-cream stall outside their college……countless memory fragments flashed brightly, appearing just like a flowing river of light.
The golden river of light stood still in an instant, and then turned into a vast expanse of blue light; it was like a quiet river that flowed into Fu Liqun’s body.
Fu Liqun opened his eyes.
“Gege!” Yu Hao shouted out in pleasant surprise.
Zhou Sheng released Fu Liqun and exhaled a prolonged breath. He stared at Fu Liqun in a daze. Fu Liqun was laying in Zhou Sheng’s arms with a blank face, following which, Zhou Sheng took the bottle and poured all of the remaining water onto Fu Liqun’s face.
Fu Liqun immediately shouted as his head got drenched with cold water. He exhausted all his strength to get up and looked at Zhou Sheng, confused. Zhou Sheng got up, grabbed Yu Hao’s hand, and went to sit down on the sofa.
Chen Yekai laughed, and Yu Hao started laughing too.
“Without love.” Zhou Sheng said earnestly to Fu Liqun, “You still have us. See, don’t you believe in that yourself as well?”
Yu Hao said, “That’s right ma, see, Zhou Sheng loves you a lot too.”
“Don’t be corny!!” Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao, then he threw Chen Yekai a meaningful glance to tell him that he definitely can’t tell Fu Liqun what had just happened.
Fu Liqun wore a puzzled expression as he looked around, “Where am I?”
“Drink ba.” Chen Yekai took another bottle of water and handed it to Fu Liqun. Fu Liqun was still baffled. He looked down at his clothes, and it took him a long time to snap out of his daze. He looked at them sadly, then smiled.
“I really can’t bear to wake up.” Fu Liqun, “When the sun rises, everything will be gone again.”
“Where are you?” Zhou Sheng said, “What’s the company called?”
Fu Liqun didn’t answer and just turned his head. He drew the curtains to the French windows and looked out of it in a daze.
Zhou Sheng said, “Time, Gege, we need to hurry!”
Fu Liqun sighed and stood there, looking lonely. Zhou Sheng continued, “But your figure’s been trained to look pretty good, you didn’t open the gym in vain.”
Chen Yekai motioned for him to come over, so Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao sat at the dining table. Yu Hao hadn’t returned to this home in a long time and really missed the place where the three of them had lived together.
“Liqun.” Chen Yekai said, “We’ve already received your request for help.”
Fu Liqun closed the curtains, seemingly not willing to see the scenery outside. He turned around to look at Chen Yekai, then sat down on the sofa.
Yu Hao glanced over at Fu Liqun from time to time, worried, “How much longer do we have?”
“Can’t estimate it.” Zhou Sheng said, “The time in dreams is messed up, but it’ll be easy now since we’ve found him.”
Yu Hao said, “Do we tell Gege?”
Zhou Sheng said, “That’s actually not that important. He’s currently conflicted.”
Yu Hao, “Conflicted over?” Then he suddenly understood. Fu Liqun was in a state of confusion himself; his willpower may be on the verge of yielding.
Chen Yekai said to Fu Liqun, “You must think this through carefully, Liqun.”
Confusion filled Fu Liqun’s gaze. He muttered to himself, “It’s gone, I failed, I have to admit defeat…”
Chen Yekai said, “You’re the one who sent out a distress signal.”
Fu Liqun nodded, “Yes.”
Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng looked at Fu Liqun. Yu Hao realised that this dream seemed to be distinctly different from the dreams he had entered before —— as the master of this dreamscape, Fu Liqun himself felt very lost.
Perhaps it was because the one who fed him water was Zhou Sheng and not Cen Shan. If it was Cen Shan, then maybe Fu Liqun would sober up very quickly.
Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng looked at each other as if they had both thought about the same problem.
Meanwhile, Chen Yekai was trying his best to persuade Fu Liqun and make him sober up a little in his dream. Fu Liqun’s thoughts were still quite muddled up.
A moment later, Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao, “Lend me your laundry fork.”
Yu Hao, “???”
Yu Hao joined his two daggers together, turning them into his laundry fork. Strangely, the flying scalpel appeared in mid air again, as if it had fallen out of some place. Zhou Sheng took the laundry fork and walked over like a gust of wind. Chen Yekai was still trying to wake Fu Liqun up, but Zhou Sheng didn’t want to wait anymore. He lifted the laundry fork.
“You idiot!” Zhou Sheng roared angrily.
After he said that, the fork landed right on Fu Liqun’s face!
Yu Hao, “!!!”
Yu Hao quickly got up. Chen Yekai stood up immediately as well and avoided this whirlwind-like attack. Fu Liqun shouted from the hit and got up to flee. Zhou Sheng held the laundry fork, and Fu Liqun shouted, “Don’t hit me! Young Master! Stop!!”
“I’ll make you suffer!” Zhou Sheng chased Fu Liqun as he used the laundry fork to smack his back and legs.
Fu Liqun shouted again, “Stop hitting me! I let you down!” Fu Liqun turned around as he wanted to beg for mercy. Zhou Sheng wielded the laundry fork, and the fork landed right smack on the side of his face. Fu Liqun immediately fell to the ground and knocked over the TV in the room.
Chen Yekai, “Be careful! Don’t hit him till he wakes up!”
Fu Liqun couldn’t stop gasping for breath and suddenly realised something. He murmured, “Young Master?”
Zhou Sheng withdrew the laundry fork and handed it to Yu Hao. He sat down at the dining table and said to Fu Liqun, “Are pyramid schemes fun? Looks like it’s pretty fun ba?! Laozi came all the way here to save you, could you pull yourself together?”
Fu Liqun said, “This isn’t a dream?”
Fu Liqun’s expression practically seemed like he was doubting his whole life. It was Yu Hao’s second time experiencing Zhou Sheng’s godly manipulation, and he couldn’t help but recall that they had been arguing before they set out about who understood Fu Liqun better.
And now he was sincerely convinced — Zhou Sheng was the one who knew Fu Liqun best.
“Wait a minute.” Fu Liqun said, “I should be dreaming, how could you guys…run into my dream?”
Chen Yekai said, “Let me explain ba.”
Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao looked at each other again, a hint of a smile could be seen in their eyes. Chen Yekai explained to Fu Liqun. It was the second time Fu Liqun’s gaze was filled with confusion. He glanced at Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao, who were at the dining table, from time to time.
“Convinced or not?” Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao.
“Convinced.” Yu Hao was completely convinced by Zhou Sheng’s godly manipulation.
“Impossible.” Fu Liqun said in a frenzy, “This is impossible!”
“Tell us where you are now.” Chen Yekai said, “Then you’ll know if it’s possible or not.”
“Hurry ba.” Zhou Sheng said, “We still need to go back to celebrate the New Year! What are you dilly-dallying for?!”
Yu Hao said, “Yeah, we need to go home to celebrate the New Year, Gege.”
Fu Liqun scratched his head and said, “But I don’t know where I am.”
Zhou Sheng almost fell off his chair. Chen Yekai immediately said, “What’s the company called?”
“Bright Sun Biology.” Fu Liqun said, “It’s in the economic development zone…Hold on, this is real? What I mean is…”
He walked towards the dining table and reached out to pinch Yu Hao’s cheek. Zhou Sheng said, “Ai! He’s not that familiar with you!”
Yu Hao said, “Don’t pinch me, pinch yourself!”
Fu Liqun reached out to pinch his face, then he pinched Zhou Sheng’s nose.
Zhou Sheng, “……”
Chen Yekai went over to sit down. The four of them sat at the dining table, and Fu Liqun said, “So you guys are…always lying down, because of this?”
Zhou Sheng said, “We’ve never lied down for no reason, you’re the one who’s always lying around.”
Yu Hao, “……”
Chen Yekai said, “Describe the process to us, you can reminisce after everyone meets again. Liqun, hurry.”
Fu Liqun stared at Zhou Sheng doubtfully, then looked at Yu Hao. Yu Hao said, “Treat it as pouring your heart out to us in a dream ba, it’s not a big deal anyway, right?”
Fu Liqun nodded. “I remember I did call you.”
“Twice.” Yu Hao said, “We’ve already received your message.”
Fu Liqun said, “I didn’t think it was a pyramid scheme at first. I thought that Yangming wouldn’t go so far as to deceive me……”
“When I catch him, I’ll make him eat shit.” Zhou Sheng said, “I’ll really make him eat it, just wait and see.”
Fu Liqun quickly waved his hand, “Don’t, it’s not easy for him either…”
“Don’t talk about such trivial things!” Yu Hao roared angrily, “Hurry! It’ll be daybreak soon!”
Compared to Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai, Fu Liqun was obviously more afraid of Yu Hao flaring up. Yu Hao hardly ever flipped out, and it was precisely because of this that his anger was particularly intimidating. He began recounting everything that had happened between closing his gym to arriving at Nanlu —— and sure enough, it was close to what they had guessed. In the second half of December last year, after two of his partners left, Li Yangming — who was working in Nanlu — returned to Ying City and accompanied the broke Fu Liqun to settle their accounts.
It was said to be a liquidation, but there weren’t many accounts to settle. Fu Liqun sold the gym, someone came to talk about taking over, and it all took about ten or so days. After everything ended, Li Yangming left first. Fu Liqun packed up his stuff, stayed in the gym for several hours on the night before New Year’s Eve, and finished watching the New Year’s Eve party on TV. On New Year’s Day, he went down South to meet Li Yangming.
Li Yangming arranged for him to stay at a hotel, and everything would be reimbursed by the company. Fu Liqun felt a little uneasy. The next day, he was taken to join his colleagues in the company for some team building activities. They boarded a ship and went out to sea to play, and the boss started brainwashing them on the ship.
If his first venture hadn’t failed, then Fu Liqun may have quickly seen through the company as one that dabbled in pyramid schemes. However, at that time, he was at one of the lowest points in his life, and his world outlook was completely destroyed and rebuilt. Everyday, he had to suffer the torturous questions and doubts in his heart. When he heard his boss help him build up his confidence, he felt as if he had clutched at his last straw.
“They’re all like that.” Yu Hao said, “When you first come into contact with them, they’ll help you build self-confidence and feed you empty flattery.”
Fu Liqun nodded, “I was struck too hard, and the leader even specifically called on me to give a speech. He asked me about the entire process of the failure of my venture. All the colleagues in my team helped me analyze the reasons it didn’t do well……”
Zhou Sheng just looked at Fu Liqun quietly.
Fu Liqun sighed, “Maybe, I haven’t been building up true self-confidence in a really long time. When we talk about love ma, Shanshan’s too excellent, and I lag far behind her; when we talk about friends, Kaikai need not be mentioned, and the two of you are so brilliant as well…Although it’s quite shameless of me to say this, but deep in my heart, I’ve always longed for someone to praise me, to say that I’m really good, to tell me that I can do it well.”
For the first time ever, Zhou Sheng actually commented on Fu Liqun’s relationship.
“The two of you aren’t interacting in the right way.” Zhou Sheng said, “In a healthy relationship, lovers will admire each other, and they can discover and assist the other party in developing their strengths while eliminating their weaknesses at the same time.”
Yu Hao, “That can’t be blamed on sis-in-law…”
Zhou Sheng, “I’m not blaming sis-in-law. It’s just that one shouldn’t always find fault in oneself. Some people always like to push the responsibility for their failure onto their external environment, while some like to bear the responsibility for their failure themselves. No matter which type it is, it’s no good if it goes too far.”
Yu Hao said, “Yes, communication is a two-way street. But there are some things that you need to think through clearly for yourself first, especially when it comes to work and your career.”
“So you’re saying that the gym couldn’t continue,” Zhou Sheng said, “Because he didn’t think through it well enough?”
Yu Hao said, “That’s not what I meant!”
Fu Liqun quickly said, “Don’t fight, don’t fight, I now believe you guys aren’t part of my dream anymore.” Then he continued, “At that time, I was really moved…”
On the day Fu Liqun was engaging in team building activities on the ship, he did feel moved — a feeling that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. There were a lot of words spoken by his boss and colleagues that shot straight into his heart, including how many people talked about how their self-confidence was on the verge of collapse before entering the company but had managed to slowly build it up again with the help of one another.
That’s how chicken soup works — it can let people escape the pain of reality and construct a facade. Fu Liqun’s broken spirit because of the failure of his venture was rebuilt because of the bright prospects that his boss and colleague had described to him. He understood that failure wasn’t shameful, and he was ready to pull himself together and immerse himself in his work.
However, after signing the contract and reporting to work, he started a three-month training program. It included food and lodging, and Fu Liqun started to sense that something was amiss. This company would always use anti-intellectual remarks to incite their workers, and a wolf culturethere was already considered to be a trivial matter. There were all kinds of storytelling and brainwashing going on, and indeed, many top managers had made money off the downlines developed by the layers of subordinates under them and drove luxury cars to work.
—
