Yu Xing watched his junior's grief-stricken appearance, worried he might actually do something rash. He poured him a glass of water first, then said, "Zhiling, we're both facing a big problem now. Money is a man's courage—no money, no courage. We have to figure out a way to solve this."
He paused, then continued, "But before we tackle this big problem, let's first solve your little problem."
Zhong Zhiling raised his head blankly. A little problem? What little problem?
"Come on, let's go find your girlfriend. I'll help you talk some sense into her," Yu Xing said earnestly.
Zhong Zhiling said miserably, "What's the point? It's over. Everything's gone."
Yu Xing first appealed to this client of his: "Zhiling, let me ask you just one thing. If you two really do break up, do you think her next boyfriend could be as sincere as you? Could he treat her any better than you do?"
He then laid out his reasoning: "Look at you—you're only out 430,000. I'm out 5 million. Think about your bro!"
The number jolted Zhong Zhiling back to his senses. His senior really was far worse off with his 5 million... Like his own pathology studies under his senior, that department was probably one of the poorest in the entire hospital. On a salary alone, who knew how many lifetimes it would take to save up that much...
Yu Xing grabbed his junior by the arm, dragged him out of the lab, and headed straight for the women's dormitory building.
Nanjiang Medical University didn't start summer break until July this year, so there were still plenty of people around the dorms.
Yu Xing had Zhong Zhiling call his girlfriend Lü Haiying. When she came down, he first introduced himself, then pointed at his junior's face and said, "Sister-in-law, look at Zhong Zhiling. Look at how utterly devastated he is since he heard you wanted to break up!"
"Sister-in-law, I've never seen a man cry like this over a breakup—he doesn't even want to live anymore!"
"Look how swollen his eyes are!"
Facing his girlfriend Lü Haiying, Zhong Zhiling actually had no tears at this moment, but hearing his senior's next words, he couldn't help but start weeping.
"To be honest, Zhong Zhiling's family isn't well-off, but his parents, thinking of your future little family, have already put together 430,000!"
"Never mind whether it's enough—the sincerity alone shows they've truly done everything they could!"
Seeing that his junior wasn't crying, Yu Xing had no choice but to bring up another reason for him to feel utterly hopeless.
Zhong Zhiling wept in silence, tears streaming down uncontrollably.
Lü Haiying had argued with her boyfriend twice today and had brought up breaking up that very evening, but he was her first love too. Seeing Zhong Zhiling crying harder than she'd ever seen him—a complete mess of tears—her heart ached despite herself. She stepped forward and embraced this man who was crying for her sake.
Then she started crying too.
Seeing his girlfriend cry, Zhong Zhiling wailed even more sorrowfully, breaking into loud sobs.
One was bawling "waaah waaah," the other sobbing "hic hic."
June nights beneath the dormitory buildings certainly never lacked student couples crying their hearts out, but a pair crying like Zhong Zhiling and Lü Haiying couldn't help but leave passersby feeling melancholy too.
Seeing that a crowd was starting to gather, Yu Xing quickly grabbed his hapless junior by the arm and told his girlfriend they'd talk things through properly tomorrow evening.
But Lü Haiying clung to her boyfriend's arm, unwilling to let go.
Zhong Zhiling, his face covered in tears, looked at his senior, then at his girlfriend. In the end, he patted her hand, asked her to let go, and reluctantly followed his senior away.
Ying, Ying... it's not that I don't want to pour my heart out to you... it's just... we'd better figure out the problem in front of us first...
As Yu Xing dragged his junior back, he glanced back and saw Lü Haiying still standing there in a daze. He turned it over in his mind, worried this ill-fated couple might get any more ideas, so he let go of his junior's arm, ran back to chat with her a few words, then returned.
Only after they'd walked a good distance did Zhong Zhiling ask through his blurred, tear-filled eyes, "Senior, we're not going back to the lab?"
"It's too late. Let's sit by the lake and feed the mosquitoes." Yu Xing found a streetlight by the school's artificial lake and sat down on the ground.
Zhong Zhiling flopped down with a thud, stared blankly at the lake for a while. An urge to jump in ultimately got suppressed—his senior had thrown millions into this and was far calmer than he was...
"Xing-ge, what are you thinking about?" Seeing that his senior wasn't speaking, he asked.
"I'm thinking about jumping in." Yu Xing stared at the lake's surface, lost in thought.
"Xing-ge..." Zhong Zhiling's emotions were unstable, and now he was getting an itch to act too.
Yu Xing snapped out of it. "Oh, jumping in to take a cold shower. It's way too hot—isn't this year especially hot? Ah, a nice refreshing cold shower, and when you wake up it's a brand new day."
Zhong Zhiling couldn't be that calm. After thinking for a few seconds, he proposed, "Let's report it to the police!"
"He's in the US, and his family might be there too." Yu Xing shook his head slightly. "Besides, I suspect those GK Fund documents were forged by him as well. Reporting it probably won't do much in a situation like this—it'd be very hard to recover the money afterward."
Zhong Zhiling couldn't help leaping to his feet in agitation again, but didn't know what to say. He sat back down and said weakly, "Xing-ge, you should've just not told me. I could've been happy a while longer..."
Then he suddenly remembered the bet from earlier that evening and said helplessly, "Xing-ge, you knew the money was gone—how did you still have the mood to scam me out of money!"
Zhong Zhiling pulled the two folded contracts out of his pocket and tossed them onto the grass, complaining, "If it weren't for this, I wouldn't have fought with Yingying and broken up."
Yu Xing pointed out, "Wasn't the breakup problem just solved? You two were hugging and everything. The little problem you mentioned earlier—I helped you solve it, didn't I?"
"What about the money?" Zhong Zhiling turned his head. "The big problem? There's a big problem right now!"
Yu Xing declared righteously, "Just answer me: did I solve the little problem or not?"
Zhong Zhiling: "..."
Yu Xing shot back, "And did I cause the big problem? Did you hand your money over to me?"
Zhong Zhiling: "Huh? What? This..."
First it was just a fingerache, and then someone drove a knife straight in—the finger doesn't hurt anymore, but the chest is spurting blood...
Sitting by the lake at this very moment, he replayed everything that had happened in less than half a day: the bet contract had inflamed his little romantic problem; the revelation about the financial disaster had used a big problem to bury the little one; and just now, his senior had borrowed his utter despair over the big problem to temporarily resolve the little one...
Toying with...
Toying with him!
Having roughly sorted through the sequence of events, and thinking of the senior student now far away in America, Zhong Zhiling asked, his soul half gone, "Xing-ge, what are you planning to do? Did you really lose money too?"
He felt this senior seemed too calm. Compare that to himself—he'd lost 430,000 and was sobbing his eyes out.
"Didn't you listen to the recording?" Yu Xing found the recording really did solve a lot of problems—s saved him from having to explain. "I've just been thinking it over. No matter how anxious we get, it won't change anything."
Zhong Zhiling gave a bitter smile. "It's not that I want to be anxious, but can that be controlled?"
"Control it as much as possible. Even if we cry ourselves to death, will Yu Xuhui bring the money back?" Yu Xing's question already carried its own answer.
Zhong Zhiling stared at his senior. "Then what do we do? His phone's off, reporting to the police is useless—then what do we do?"
Yu Xing didn't answer right away. He gazed at the lake in the night for a long while before finally saying, "I'm afraid we'll have to handle it ourselves."
Zhong Zhiling: "?"
"I've thought about it a lot." Yu Xing furrowed his brow. "Zhiling, that money of mine isn't my own—it's my whole family's, an entire household's money. Who knows when this thing will blow up, but if things keep going down this road, who knows how long it'll take to fill a hole this deep. So there's only one option: change! We have no choice but to change!"
Zhong Zhiling murmured, "Change?"
"Right!" Yu Xing nodded. "When poverty strikes, change; when there's change, there's a way through; when there's a way through, things last!"
"If we change, things will work out?" Zhong Zhiling was uneasy.
"We'll worry about that after we change." Yu Xing turned to ask the hapless one, "Are you poor?"
Zhong Zhiling had no comeback. He'd always been poor, and now he was in debt on top of it!
After a moment, he asked this unusually calm senior, "Xing-ge, do you have any ideas?"
"Let's think together." Yu Xing didn't immediately pitch his own idea to his client.
Zhong Zhiling thought left and right, up and down, and combining it with his professional knowledge, finally came up with a fast-money scheme. He lowered his voice and said, "Xing-ge, how about we make liquor? Alcohol has low costs, we mix in a few little blue pills, market it as having health benefits, and leverage our advisor's name!"
Yu Xing's eyebrows rose. "Mm, sounds pretty criminal."
Emboldened by the approval, Zhong Zhiling got even more excited and said rapidly, "Xing-ge, low cost, quick results, repeat customers—this is a winner!"
Yu Xing weighed it briefly, then cautioned, "It could cause adverse reactions. It has a certain irritant effect on the digestive tract—some people who take it feel nauseous, some may get mild headaches and dizziness, and there's a small chance of heart palpitations... Once an adverse reaction shows up and people start blaming the liquor, who takes responsibility for that?"
Both of them had studied medicine, so they were naturally sensitive to this sort of thing.
Zhong Zhiling's expression struggled for a moment before he slumped back down by the water's edge. Maybe controlling the dosage would be fine, but how would they even test it? There were no conditions for experiments right now.
A long while later, a cool breeze swept across the lake, driving away the summer stuffiness, and the water rippled gently, breaking the moon's reflection.
"Zhiling, I have an immature idea now. Help me chew it over." Yu Xing broke the increasingly gloomy atmosphere and said slowly, "What do you think—could the bet I made with you be extended to more couples?"
Zhong Zhiling looked at his senior without comprehension.
"Just like you said—low cost. Right now we only collect money, and we only pay out for the roses when they get married." Yu Xing stared at the lake in front of him and said thoughtfully, "There's a market for it. Couples always do things that carry symbolic and commemorative meaning."
He continued, "The investment and return are attractive enough. For the customer, a relatively low outlay of 500 yuan can yield a lavish gift of intense emotional significance in the future."
Zhong Zhiling stared blankly for a long while. He'd never imagined the bet he'd just made could be extended like this.
After a bit, he added another entry to the ledger of his senior's toying with him, then asked, "Would other people really be as stupid as me?"
Yu Xing countered, "Are people in love ever smart?"
Zhong Zhiling felt like he'd just been insulted.
He lowered his head and mulled over what his senior had said. No matter how he listened, it sounded like taking the money up front with no intention of ever delivering on the later promise.
After a moment, Zhong Zhiling murmured, "Xing-ge, this kind of project seems pretty dependent on personal character, doesn't it?"
Yu Xing nodded. "Mm. How's your character?"
Zhong Zhiling was confident. "My character's excellent."
Then he reflexively asked, "What about yours?"
Yu Xing answered honestly, "So-so."
Zhong Zhiling: "..."
He asked, somewhat resigned, "Xing-ge, this kind of project—you're planning to grab the money and run, right?"
"No." Yu Xing's answer was unexpectedly the opposite. "No matter how many customers we get, it will definitely be honored. I just need money right now."
"You won't be short of money in the future?" Zhong Zhiling asked. "Where will the money to redeem these promises come from?"
"I'm bullish on a lot of things—stocks, real estate, you name it." Yu Xing said earnestly, "I can even cash out with crypto."
Zhong Zhiling stared at his senior in shock. Play with what? Was his resolve really this firm? He'd pay it back even if he had to sell himself?
He probed further, "The problem is, how do we get people to trust us? If I can think of it, others can too. Three years down the line—what if the company runs off with the money?"
"That's a major issue—we need some kind of backing." Yu Xing pondered. "So if we lean on our identity as students and start within the student body first, the difficulty of acquiring customers naturally drops. And I've been thinking—for ease of spread, if Customer 1 can refer Customer 2, we can give Customer 1 a certain commission. If Customer 2 then brings in Customer 3, we can give commissions to 1 and 2."
"However, to avoid risk and cut costs, we can turn those commissions into a points system. Points can be redeemed for gifts, or for more roses at the wedding—originally 999 roses, we can bump it up to 2,000, 3,000..."
Zhong Zhiling was dumbstruck. "Xing-ge, this, this... isn't this a pyramid scheme?"
"No, no, no—we have an actual product." Yu Xing shook his head repeatedly. "If you insist on a label, we've incorporated a certain direct-sales method. We're selling a product, not recruiting heads."
Zhong Zhiling pointed out the implication of what he'd just heard: "Increasing the number of roses—isn't that just painting an even bigger pie?"
The original 999 roses was already a painted pie. Exchanging points for more was still just dangling something that hadn't happened yet as temptation—switching from a medium pie to a large one.
"Mm, but I'm determined to make good on the final redemption." Yu Xing said solemnly. "It's just that both the customers and we need to wait, need patience. In a sense, this is about the customers growing together with us."
Zhong Zhiling looked at his grave-faced senior, momentarily unable to tell whether he was joking with him or not.
He thought and thought, then said hesitantly, "Will this work?"
"Good. Zhiling, then here's how it goes." Yu Xing arranged things decisively. "We split up—you do the little blue pills, I do the love contract. From now on, we watch out for each other."
Thinking of the adverse reactions, of his senior's scheme, of his calm, Zhong Zhiling ultimately decided this one had a lower risk of getting locked up. He pleaded, "Xing-ge, let me work with you instead!"
"Good! Like this—let me call Lü Haiying first, have her ask if any dorm sisters or close girlfriends might help us find customers." Yu Xing moved like a whirlwind, unwilling to waste a single moment.
Zhong Zhiling had barely nodded when something felt off. "Xing-ge, how do you have my girlfriend's number?"
"Just got it a minute ago." Yu Xing answered casually. "Finding customers starts with the people around you."
Zhong Zhiling opened his mouth, and the feeling of being schemed against deepened.
But given the current situation, what could he do?
Listening to his senior's brief phone call, he thought it over every which way, and it seemed there really wasn't any other direction to choose.
Yu Xing finished the call and put down his phone, promising, "Junior brother, I learned about my debt before you did—so now consider this the debt-ridden leading the debt-ridden. From now on we watch out for each other and face the challenges together!"
He extended his right hand.
Zhong Zhiling hesitantly reached out. I already agreed to it, but when you put it that way...
Seeing his junior's soul half gone, Yu Xing grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously up and down. When poverty strikes, change—he'd counted it as swiftly recruiting his first accomplice.
In this millennium-era side story, every time I picked up the pen I felt it belonged right there...
That ending, I think, has a rather lingering aftertaste.
Or maybe you all have suggestions from a good angle.