The location sent by He Wenxuan was a restaurant on the North Second Ring Road. This was the site of various provincial and municipal offices in Beijing, such as ‘Fujian Building’, ‘Guangxi Building’, and ‘Shandong Building’. Each building had a local specialty restaurant inside, making it convenient for officials missing the taste of their hometown to have a taste. Whether it was authentic was debatable, and the price was a bit more expensive than outside.
The parents of a classmate were transferred to the Beijing Office in the past two years, so he treated them to a private room in the restaurant of the building.
Before Wen Di set off, he secretly complained: How far was the North Second Ring Road from T University? Doing a play still required time and effort.
Fortunately, Professor had a car.
Thinking of this, he glanced uneasily at Bian Cheng, who was driving, and he began to murmur in his heart. The words were matched and the professor’s memory was perfect, there was no doubt about it, but he still felt uneasy.
Where could the problem be?
The car drove into the parking lot, and he went upstairs with Bian Cheng. In the elevator, he repeatedly hesitated to speak, wanting to remind Bian Cheng something, but feeling that doing so would make him seem distrustful of his comrade. While he was struggling they arrived at the private room, and he could only steel himself and go in.
Fortunately, the first person he encountered was Jiang Nanze.
“You’re here.” Jiang Nanze indicated the empty seat next to him. Wen Di sighed with relief and took Bian Cheng to sit over.
As soon as he sat in the chair, Jiang Nanze started to think about whether his gift had been settled: “Hey, did you pass the interview at Xingcheng Secondary School?”
“I passed. I think they didn’t even listen to my trial lecture and just made the decision after looking at my resume.”
“This is the benefit of succeeding in the exam-oriented education system. Later, when they post the educational background of the applicants, it will be impressive and prestigious. When will you start?”
“After the New Year.” Wen Di said lightly, his attention completely focused outside—He Wenxuan had not yet arrived.
Jiang Nanze caught a glimpse of Bian Cheng from the corner of his eye, leaned forward, and scrutinized him without hiding anything, extending his hand: “I’ve long heard of name.”
The two shook hands through Wen Di, and Wen Di then realized there was a second time bomb—during the time he had a secret crush on Bian Cheng, he had constantly harassed Jiang Nanze, trying to understand the concept of Zariski topology to make conversation. If Jiang Nanze exposed the extent of his infatuation and revealed to Bian Cheng that he had long coveted him—though it was the truth—it would be too socially embarrassing.
Fortunately, his old friend’s emotional intelligence was top-notch. After shaking hands, Jiang Nanze didn’t say a word but raised his eyebrows at him meaningfully.
Just as Wen Di breathed a sigh of relief, He Wenxuan, with his pretentious gold-rimmed glasses, appeared. He immediately spotted Wen Di and walked straight over: “Long time no see.”
Didn’t they just meet in the hotel elevator? Wen Di nodded perfunctorily and put his hand on Bian Cheng’s shoulder: “This is my boyfriend.”
“Hello,” He Wenxuan stretched out his hand towards him, “I am Wen Di’s high school classmate.”
Bian Cheng looked at him for a moment, then turned to Wen Di and asked, “Isn’t he your ex-boyfriend?”
“…Yes,” Wen Di replied.
He Wenxuan showed no sign of awkwardness, and Wen Di admired his ability to control his facial expressions. During their handshake, He Wenxuan’s scrutiny was subtle, but Wen Di knew for sure that he had already calculated the price of everything on Bian Cheng’s body.
“The dishes have been ordered. Once everyone arrives, they’ll be served,” said the classmate hosting the gathering.
After taking their seats and starting the meal, the first thing the second-generation rich kids did was brag about what positions they held in their family companies and the big deals they had recently made. The second topic was financial management, such as which companies they had insider information on and what pre-IPO stocks they had recently bought.
Bian Cheng’s gaze began to wander aimlessly again. Wen Di knew he was probably thinking about which chapter of his dissertation to work on.
Amidst all the speech, someone said, “Science and technology are the primary productive forces. We’ve got two PhDs here with us.”
Then, the spotlight suddenly shifted onto Wen Di and Jiang Nanze.
Here it comes, Wen Di thought. No idea if the outcome would be fireworks or a nuclear explosion.
Unexpectedly, the first round of fire was aimed at Jiang Nanze.
“So, what has our Princeton prodigy been researching lately?” asked a classmate across the table.
What are these people doing, Wen Di wondered. Didn’t they already know that Jiang Nanze had dropped out?
“I dropped out,” Jiang Nanze said simply.
“Why?” A classmate immediately asked, “Didn’t you publish some papers before? Is it because of your father? I heard your family business hasn’t been doing well.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” He Wenxuan said, “his brother went to study in the UK a while ago.”
“Which brother?”
“The one living in Yufu Tiancheng.”
“Ah…” The classmate sounded a bit confused, “Is that the kid of the woman who held a banner at the school gate in elementary school?”
“No, it’s the one whose mother caused a scene outside our class in middle school.”
“Oh, I can’t quite remember.”
Jiang Nanze interrupted their gossip on the family tree: “It’s got nothing to do with my family. I just wasn’t capable enough.”
He thought that would put an end to the conversation, but as soon as one person finished, another started: “So you have a master’s degree now?”
Jiang Nanze put down his chopsticks—it was impossible to continue eating this meal: “Undergraduate.”
“Switching from a PhD to a Master’s is easy. Didn’t you have a good relationship with your advisor?” That person thought for a moment, “Well, no surprise, you’ve always been like this.”
A classmate next to him suddenly remembered something: “Hey, last year, when you jumped into that pool, was it because of this?”
Jiang Nanze glanced at him calmly and didn’t answer: “I’m going to the restroom.”
He stood up, tossed his long hair behind him, walked around Wen Di, and headed out of the private room. Two options popped into Wen Di’s mind: one was to shoot down everyone across from him with a machine gun, and the other was to check on Jiang Nanze’s situation. After thinking it over again and again, he decided to follow his old classmate. Before leaving, he patted Bian Cheng on the shoulder and said he was going to wash his hands.
He left Bian Cheng with a group of ill-intentioned strangers, but Bian Cheng didn’t seem to mind—or he didn’t even hear it all, because after Wen Di spoke, he didn’t react at all, probably still stuck on some unresolved thesis idea.
Entering the restroom, Wen Di noticed the locks on the stall doors were all green, indicating they were unoccupied. He pushed open the one on the left and saw Jiang Nanze leaning against the tiles, muttering to himself—or perhaps talking to Thomas.
Wen Di crossed his arms and looked at him: “If you could redirect half the aggression you have towards yourself onto others, those people would have quieted down by now.”
Jiang Nanze stopped moving his lips and turned his gaze to him: “I want to flip the table too.”
“Why don’t you?”
“My father, whose business has hit the rocks, is still doing business with them. Why would I offend them?” Jiang Nanze shrugged. “Besides, I might need their help in the future.”
A bitter feeling rose in Wen Di’s chest. Jiang Nanze was also a second-generation rich kid, but being part of a large family with invisible parents and a pile of siblings was different from being an only child: “Why did you come today? You know that group enjoys watching people make fools of themselves.”
“For the sake of face,” Jiang Nanze straightened up. “I need to pretend I don’t care about dropping out. It’s not my sore spot, so they can’t use it against me.”
Wen Di could understand this logic—after all, he had come with a fake boyfriend today. He gave his old friend a sorrowful yet sympathetic look, opened his arms, and said, “Let me give you a hug.”
Jiang Nanze didn’t respond to his enthusiasm, but looked at him calmly, as if he was lost in thought. After a long pause, he suddenly smiled: “Do you know why I became friends with you back then?”
Wen Di straightened up: “Oh my god, you’re finally going to say it?”
“We’re the drifters in this circle.”
Wen Di glanced down at his outfit. He had specifically picked his most expensive clothes today and braved the cold wind to get here.
“That’s not what I mean,” Jiang Nanze said. “Do you know about the ruff?”
“I know Lantian jade.”1So the ruff is 流苏鹬 (liusu yu) and lantian jade is 蓝田玉 (lantian yu). The yu has the same tone but the characters are different
“The ruff is a unique waterbird,” Jiang Nanze ignored his cognitive error, “The males are divided into three types: the black ones are the ruling class, the white ones are the drifters, and the rest are the ‘imposters.’ Their hierarchy is strict—the females and resources always belong to the ruling class, and the drifters can only follow the ruling class and pick up what’s left behind.”
“What about the imposters?”
“They pretend to be females, sneak into the ruling class’s harem, and when the other ‘sisters’ aren’t paying attention, they strike quickly and leave offspring.”
Wen Di thought it over and found the analogy inappropriate. He didn’t want to be a bird, and none of the three classes sounded appealing.
However, Jiang Nanze had ties to their fathers, unlike Wen Di, who could more easily detach himself. He couldn’t help but admire him a little: “How have you been able to resist committing crimes for so many years?”
Jiang Nanze pointed to his golden head: “In here, I’ve already pushed them all into a jellyfish tank.”
After washing their hands, the two returned to the room. The door to the private room was ajar, and Wen Di, with his sharp ears, caught a neatly articulated analysis just before pushing it open: “It’s actually easy to understand. Mentally unstable people are bound to have issues sooner or later in a high-pressure environment like research.”
The sound of someone falling into the pool echoed in his mind.
Wen Di really wanted to make some comments about their remarks, appearances, and the punchable attitudes they carried. Perhaps sensing his silent plea, the focus of the conversation shifted to him after he returned to his seat.
A classmate asked, “Sam, are you planning to work in academia?”
“Yes.” Wen Di decided to keep his words to himself, not wasting his breath with this group of people.
“It’s not easy to get by in academia,” said a classmate. “I just saw a report from the Chinese Association for Science and Technology. Salaries have been dropping again over the past couple of years.”
“That’s really unfortunate,” another chimed in, “the property prices in Haidian are no small matter.”
“Isn’t there a housing subsidy policy?”
“It’s not like it was a decade ago. Even T University doesn’t have enough housing quotas anymore, let alone other schools,” a classmate turned to Wen Di, “So, have you figured out what you’re going to do?”
Wen Di didn’t know what to say—he really hadn’t figured it out. He didn’t know which university would be willing to accept him. And if he ended up in a place with sky-high housing prices, he’d be stuck living in a dorm for the rest of his life. Not like them, whose one foot had just stepped into the job market but already had homes in top school districts.
A class reunion felt worse than having ten New Year’s Eve dinners.
Then He Wenxuan spoke up. Fortunately or unfortunately, the focus finally shifted to Bian Cheng: “Aren’t you going to introduce your family member?”
Wen Di looked up and met his gaze. Right, the main event hadn’t even started yet.
“This is Bian Cheng,” Wen Di said, “He is…”
“Hotel front desk,” Bian Cheng said.
Wen Di’s hand froze mid-air, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Jiang Nanze spat out the water in his mouth, spraying it all over the plate of the classmate next to him.
The entire room fell silent.
If the gaze had substance, Wen Di could feel that the weight that fell on him and Jiang Nanze instantly disappeared, then turned to the side at a small angle, and with a snap, all fell on Bian Cheng.
This is different from what has been agreed!?
He Wenxuan looked at him with a composed expression: “Which hotel provides such good benefits that employees can afford Armani?”
“It’s rented,” Bian Cheng said. “Since today is a big event, I wanted to dress more formally.”
The quality of the gazes was about to create a black hole that would suck in all light. Wen Di’s mind spun with drifting geometric symbols. Didn’t this person like to play it straight? Why was he lying so easily!
An actor tearing up the script at the last minute without informing the producer—how could the show go on!
“Oh,” He Wenxuan said, “I thought Mr. Bian came from a wealthy family.”
“Not really,” Bian Cheng replied, “My father repairs home appliances, and my mother does housekeeping.”
He Wenxuan smiled: “What a coincidence, a family all working in the hotel service industry chain.”
The symbols in Wen Di’s mind spun faster and faster, eventually spiraling into a storm that shattered his mind to pieces.
Can someone tell him what’s going on?!
At this moment, the classmates across from them finally came back to their senses, exchanging knowing glances. “Ah…” one of them said, “No wonder you looked so confused when we were talking earlier.”
Bian Cheng was indeed confused because he hadn’t been listening: “What were you talking about just now?”
“Financial bonds…” He waved his hand, not delving deeper, as if considering the other person’s ability to understand. “It’s a pity. If you understand the industry, you can earn back more than ten years’ salary in one go.”
He Wenxuan had been looking at Wen Di. At this point, he suddenly said something out of the blue: “I haven’t seen you for a few years. Sam’s perspective has changed a lot.”
This remark seemed to ignite a hidden fuse. Bian Cheng turned his gaze toward him: “What does that mean?”
He Wenxuan looked innocent: “Did I say something?”
“Your words are fine, but your tone isn’t,” Bian Cheng said. “Do you have an issue with me or with my parents?”
“You’re a strange person…”
“You think insider information is superior to repairing air conditioners? Fixing an air conditioner can at least improve a family’s quality of life,” Bian Cheng said. “Aren’t you just disrupting financial order?”
The faces of the people across from them turned cold, like a race: “What are you saying?”
“Have you ever mopped the floor or cleaned toilets?”
Jiang Nanze, who was standing next to him, heard the word ‘toilet’ and retracted his hand that was reaching for the dessert.
“Do you think clean toilets just appear out of nowhere?” Bian Cheng said. “If you look down on cleaning work so much, I suggest you don’t go to the toilet in the future.”
One classmate shook his head, seemingly feeling that communication was no longer possible, and looked at He Wenxuan: “I really didn’t expect to encounter this kind of person at this gathering today.”
“There are plenty of high-ranking officials in Beijing,” Bian Cheng ignored him, “I see hundreds of them every day, including provincial and ministerial-level officials, but I’ve never seen anyone as pretentious as you all.”
The classmate was enraged and turned to the dazed Wen Di: “What’s wrong with your boyfriend?”
The buzzing in Wen Di’s head stopped. After sorting out Bian Cheng’s new persona, he quickly formed a united front and smiled: “Sorry, he’s quite straightforward—he says what he sees. Please don’t take it to heart.”
The atmosphere at the table was as cold as Antarctic ice, and it wasn’t going to warm up anytime soon. Bian Cheng however, continued to pick up dishes calmly, not considering that he was overturning the table on someone else’s territory. Although it felt good to stand up to people, fifteen against one was not in his favor. Wen Di felt it was necessary to cool things down on both sides and stood up to interrupt the situation: “I’m going to the restroom.”
After reaching the bathroom and washing his face with cool water, the scenery around him finally shook off the fog and became clear. Wen Di leaned against the sink, thinking about how things had come to this. Before he could figure out the whole thing, he heard footsteps approaching.
Wen Di looked up and saw her ex-boyfriend with a sullen look on his face. “I went through so much effort to organize this dinner, and your boyfriend is here to ruin it?” He Wenxuan crossed his arms and looked at him. “It’s okay that he doesn’t have a high level of education, but how come he doesn’t even know how to behave like a human being?”
Wen Di sneered: “Is this a dinner party? This is a siege ba. And what right do you have to judge others? He’s more of a person than you are.”
“I didn’t expect your taste to have deteriorated so severely,” He Wenxuan said, “It’s very puzzling how I lost to someone like him.”
“Thinking too highly of yourself is a disease. I thought you’d be better after all these years, but it turns out to be an incurable disease.” Wen Di looked at him jokingly, “Besides, why do you need those fancy family backgrounds and jobs when you’re in a relationship? The key is to have good character.”
He Wenxuan’s expression seemed to be a mix of disdain and sorrow. He frowned and stared at Wen Di’s head, as if it had fallen into cognitive dissonance since leaving him.
Wen Di couldn’t even get angry. Their conversation was essentially like a chicken talking to a duck. In He Wenxuan’s worldview, winning in social status meant winning overall. Good character? That was just a mask worn after failing to compete on material terms. This unshakeable narcissism wasn’t just a personality flaw; it was an art performance.
As he hesitated over whether to reveal Bian Cheng’s true identity to shut him up, He Wenxuan suddenly said, “But thankfully, you haven’t become that kind of person.”
Wen Di watched him warily, bracing for yet another form of attack: “What kind of person?”
“People who have no abilities of their own but only know how to flaunt how impressive their partner is,” He Wenxuan said, “This is the kind of people I least understand in this world. Although your taste has worsened, my judgment is still sharp.”
Wen Di was silent for a moment and said, “Tsk, it’s rare for you to say something sensible. It makes people even more angry.”
He Wenxuan frowned, as if finding him unreasonable: “Why are you so easily agitated now? Could it be that guy’s influence?”
This conversation was going nowhere! No matter what he said, He Wenxuan kept circling around one point—he didn’t have the vision to choose people, and leaving his excellent self made him change negatively.
“But it’s really strange,” He Wenxuan asked, “How did you two meet? You don’t usually stay in hotels ba.”
Wen Di was caught off guard. He hadn’t prepared for their ‘hotel front desk’ backstory.
A voice came from behind He Wenxuan: “We met while traveling abroad.”
Wen Di walked around He Wenxuan and saw Bian Cheng walking toward him—probably out of curiosity about why he had been gone so long and came to see if anything had happened, or perhaps because if he didn’t come over soon, he would be dismembered on the spot by a dozen rich second-generations.
Hearing Bian Cheng’s explanation, Wen Di rolled his eyes internally. Let’s just say this person was not good at lying—wasn’t he supposed to be poor? How did he end up on an overseas trip?
“It was a budget trip,” Bian Cheng continued, trying to explain further and he did it in a very decent way. “I ran into some trouble on the road, ended up penniless, and had to wander the streets. That night, I met him, and he gave me all seven hundred dollars he had on him. Then we walked into the wilderness together and watched the sunrise at the end of the world.”
This encounter sounded like a movie scene, and He Wenxuan’s expression clearly showed disbelief. Bian Cheng turned his gaze to Wen Di, seemingly seeking confirmation.
Wen Di didn’t respond. The words just now exploded in his mind, and for a moment, everything around him turned blank.
Chaotic and fragmented memories broke free from their shackles, floating up one after another in the sea of consciousness, stirring up a vortex.
He looked around in confusion, as if he had been hit head-on by a sledgehammer, not knowing what to do.
That fact had left him stunned.
He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Bian Cheng by the collar. “So that person was you?!”
After a brief moment of surprise, Bian Cheng grabbed Wen Di’s hand, his shock mixed with frustration. “You’re just remembering it now?”
“We got married??!” Wen Di asked in disbelief.
“The trigger was seven hundred dollars??!” Bian Cheng asked, equally disbelieving.
T/N: Title is from The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. The literal translation for the title ‘凡是过去，皆为序章’ would be ‘The past is a prologue.’
