Chapter Summaries

Li Ye visited Fan Xiuling in Hong Kong, where she measured him and offered to outfit his family, but he made clear that his girlfriend Wen Leyu was the one whose clothes mattered most. Back in Beijing, Wen Leyu met him at the airport, and Li Ye left hoping they could travel to Hong Kong together next year.

• Fan Xiuling warmly welcomed Li Ye and offered to take Li Yue and Fu Yiruo for skincare and clothing measurements.
• Li Yue worried that Fan Xiuling was flirting with Li Ye, but Fu Yiruo said he was popular and would stay devoted to Wen Leyu.
• Li Ye asked Fan Xiuling to prepare conservative, soft-material underwear for Wen Leyu, noting her changing measurements.
• Li Ye, Li Yue, and Fu Yiruo arrived at Beijing airport, where Wen Leyu greeted them and playfully punched Li Ye when he asked for a hug.
• Wen Leyu told Li Ye she would hug him that night, then explained that Da Yong was in Japan with Xiao Hui to inspect textile machinery and travel as a couple.
• Li Ye suggested that he and Wen Leyu go to Hong Kong together next year, and Wen Leyu punched him hard.

Wen Leyu drove Li Ye and his sisters home from the airport, where the family unpacked gifts and settled in together. Li Ye pampered Wen Leyu with presents and a hairstyle, while she teased and scolded him over the intimate clothing he had bought her.

• Wen Leyu drove Li Ye, Li Yue, and Fu Yiruo from the airport, and Li Ye's sisters praised her improving driving.
• The family unloaded their luggage and food, and Li Yue and Fu Yiruo invited Wen Leyu to choose from their gifts first.
• Li Ye sought the hug Wen Leyu had promised him, and she blushed, shoved him away, and threatened him with a rolling pin if his sisters teased her.
• Li Ye showed Wen Leyu the gifts he had bought, including hair accessories, shoes, a bag, and new underwear, and she questioned him about buying so many.
• Li Ye styled Wen Leyu's hair in a bun and then gave Fu Yiruo a new hairstyle while Li Yue declined to change hers.

Yang Yumin joined Li Ye and the others for dinner, and Li Ye warned him not to let his workplace trap him as its indispensable writer. On the drive home with Wen Leyu, they spotted Ning Pingping waiting outside the COFCO Compound, and Wen Leyu hinted that someone in her family would fight back against a forced separation.

• Yang Yumin brought roast chicken and braised dishes to Li Ye's courtyard, where he found Li Yue showing off a youthful hairstyle that Li Ye had arranged.
• Yang Yumin worked on official documents after dinner, and Li Ye cautioned him against becoming the only person in his department who could handle the writing.
• Yang Yumin said he understood the risks of workplace dependency and would adapt to the organization, while Li Ye offered to help if needed.
• Li Yue called Yang Yumin away at 8:40, and Li Ye drove Wen Leyu home before nine.
• Li Ye and Wen Leyu saw Ning Pingping waiting near the COFCO Compound, and Wen Leyu said that someone who failed to strike back after a breakup was at fault.

Li Ye told Ning Pingping that their different outcomes with Wen Leyu and Wen Guohua came from more than their ordinary backgrounds, but she rejected his advice to confront the Wen family. Teacher Ke appeared and invited Li Ye to dinner, leaving Ning Pingping to recognize how differently the two of them were regarded.

• Li Ye stopped when Ning Pingping stepped into the road and agreed to hear her question.
• Ning Pingping asked how Li Ye had built a lasting relationship with Wen Leyu despite their supposedly similar backgrounds.
• Li Ye explained that he had met Wen Leyu before she gained status, while Ning Pingping had met Wen Guohua later, and urged her to ask Teacher Ke and Uncle Wen for an explanation.
• Ning Pingping said she was not qualified to confront senior officials, and Li Ye concluded that she and Wen Guohua were not suited for marriage.
• Teacher Ke arrived, invited Li Ye to dinner the next evening, and asked Ning Pingping how long she planned to keep waiting outside the compound.

Li Ye began assembling a security force of discharged soldiers to prepare his growing business for overseas expansion. When his associates arrived with recommendations, most had recommended themselves, and Old Song asked to join the training program too.

• Li Ye asked Jin Peng to work with Jiang Hong to select about a dozen educated, filial discharged soldiers with strong family ties for overseas security work.
• Jin Peng, Jiang Hong, and the others arrived at Li Ye’s home early after debating their selections through the night.
• Li Ye and Jiang Hong agreed candidates would take an academic test and be judged chiefly on character before joining the security force.
• Ma Qianshan, Wang Jianqiang, and the other managers each recommended themselves, hoping to go abroad and learn English.
• Old Song claimed a spot for himself, saying his foreign-language training class was thriving under a Peking University student.

Li Ye visited Old Song’s training school to check on the selected overseas personnel and encountered Yu Dongfang, who wanted to join Pengcheng Factory Seven rather than stay in education. The chapter left Li Ye weighing whether to recruit Yu Dongfang, whose future ambition made him wary.

• Old Song thanked Li Ye for helping him avenge his great hatred, and Li Ye urged him to live longer and help in the future.
• Li Ye visited Jiang Hong’s courtyard, where seventeen selected men prepared to attend basic training before being sent overseas.
• Li Ye praised the men’s discipline, while Jiang Hong believed that businessmen such as Jin Peng and Tian Hongshan were more useful.
• Li Ye visited Old Song’s training school and saw its six classrooms serving two hundred English, Japanese, and French students.
• Yu Dongfang asked Li Ye to help him find a foreign-language and marketing job at Pengcheng Factory Seven, and Li Ye worried about whether to recruit him.

Li Ye discovered that He Xue was dating Duoxing, then encountered Ai Zhixin at the training school, where Ai’s hostility toward him was clear. Old Song arrived and demanded that Ai, the training school’s second boss, take responsibility for the school’s finances.

• Yu Dongfang told Li Ye that He Xue often left others to cover her classes while keeping the substitute pay, and that she was dating Duoxing.
• Li Ye recognized Duoxing as an antique dealer and wondered whether He Xue was using the relationship to help her go abroad.
• Ai Zhixin and Nakamura Naoto arrived at the training school, and Ai insisted he had come to find Old Song.
• Ai Zhixin ordered Yu Dongfang to look for Old Song, but Li Ye told Yu Dongfang to return to teaching and mocked Ai’s attitude.
• Old Song rode up on his tricycle and told Ai Zhixin to own up to his share of the training school’s expenses.

Ai Zhixin brought Nakamura Naoto to Old Song to find Guan Cihui and buy his artworks, but Old Song grew suspicious of Ai Zhixin’s motives. As they left, Nakamura Naoto accused Ai Zhixin of plotting against him and began choking him in the car.

• Old Song greeted Ai Zhixin and Nakamura Naoto, then agreed to help locate Guan Cihui for a five-hundred-dollar fee.
• After learning Nakamura Naoto was Colonel Nakamura’s descendant, Old Song reluctantly agreed to search while suspecting Ai Zhixin wanted to use him against Nakamura.
• Li Ye warned Old Song not to cause trouble in the Capital City, and Old Song privately mused that uprooting the weeds by the roots was also an old saying.
• In the car, Nakamura Naoto questioned Ai Zhixin about his private conversation with Old Song, then choked him and threatened that neither he nor his father deserved to survive.

Nakamura Naoto and Ai Zhixin tracked down Guan Ciying’s family, hoping to recover hidden antiques, but Guan Dacheng attacked them after revealing that his father had warned him they were responsible for the brothers’ disappearance. The confrontation ended with Nakamura Naoto and Inoue Koji defeated, while Guan Dacheng concluded that the old man who had vanished from the village had spared them.

• Nakamura Naoto threatened Ai Zhixin over the missing antiques and forced him to promise a share of the profits.
• Old Song found the Guan family’s whereabouts, and Nakamura Naoto, Ai Zhixin, and Inoue Koji followed him to Baishi Township.
• Guan Dacheng led Ai Zhixin and the others to two pits in the woods and said his father had warned him about Ai Zhixin and his father.
• Guan Dacheng attacked with an iron shovel, and Nakamura Naoto shoved Ai Zhixin into its path before ordering Inoue Koji to fight.
• After a violent clash in the dark, Guan Dacheng and his brother returned to find the sedan gone and decided the old man had left them a way out.

Li Dayong told Li Ye about the inflated prices Japanese sellers charged mainland buyers and planned to reverse-engineer the machinery Changbei had purchased. At home, Wen Leyu gave away Li Ye’s valuable jade as gifts, then learned he had secretly saved an even better collection for her.

• Li Dayong complained that Japanese sellers charged mainland buyers far more for textile machinery, and he said Changbei’s technicians would take apart the samples he and Pei Wenhui bought.
• Li Ye told Li Dayong to fund technical research and rejected Wang Qinshan’s indirect request to transfer, saying he should first recover the factory’s deficit.
• Li Yue left Yang Yujiao at Li Ye’s home, where she joined Fu Yiruo, Wen Leyu, and Pei Wenhui in playing the Famicom.
• Wen Leyu gave Fu Yiruo, Pei Wenhui, and Yang Yujiao jade trinkets from Li Ye’s collection as New Year gifts, but Pei Wenhui warned her that the jade was extremely valuable.
• Li Ye told Wen Leyu that he had stored his best treasures for her in a safe behind a painting, and that its password was her birthday.

Li Ye encouraged Wen Leyu to learn bargain hunting, and she tried shopping for jade at the Longtan Lake market. Her first purchase turned into a confrontation with He Xue, but Master Duo unexpectedly slapped He Xue when he arrived.

• Li Ye teased Wen Leyu about the value of his jade gifts, and she coaxed him into teaching her how to hunt for bargains.
• At dinner, Pei Wenhui and Yang Yujiao noticed Wen Leyu wearing jade bracelets, and Li Ye told Fu Yiruo that Wang Qiangdong and Pavlov helped guard the home.
• Li Ye and the others visited the Longtan Lake market, where Wen Leyu rejected fake and overpriced jade before choosing a bead necklace for 360 yuan.
• He Xue snatched the necklace and claimed it because Wen Leyu had not paid, so Wen Leyu paid Sun Laoliu and challenged her claim.
• Sun Laoliu tried to appease Wen Leyu while Master Duo hurried over, but Master Duo immediately slapped He Xue.

He Xue tried to take Wen Leyu’s beads, but Master Duo slapped and scolded her before giving the beads to Wen Leyu. Later, he made He Xue stay with him by reminding her how much she depended on his wealthy lifestyle, while Li Ye and Wen Leyu discussed love and money.

• He Xue expected Master Duo to support her after she tried to take the beads from Wen Leyu, but he slapped her and told her to put them down.
• Master Duo gave the beads to Wen Leyu, who accepted them while leaving the agreed payment with Sun Laoliu.
• Li Ye and Wen Leyu left the market and discussed He Xue’s relationship with Master Duo, then decided to see a Ken Takakura movie.
• Master Duo slapped He Xue again in the car and told her she could leave if she could not accept his terms.
• He Xue shut the car door instead of leaving, and Master Duo told her not to talk to him about love because neither of them was worthy of it.

Li Ye reviewed Luo Runbo’s Japan investment plan and revised the proposed cooperation terms with Liu Lianxiang’s company to tie bonuses and technical responsibility to development results. At the next day’s negotiations, Liu Lianxiang reacted badly to the agreement requiring Ni to sign and guarantee the technical commitments.

• Li Ye urged Luo Runbo to accelerate investment and acquisitions in Japan before other investors crowded into the market.
• Li Ye replaced the R&D deadline clause with performance-based bonuses and required Ni to sign technical commitments as the person responsible for development.
• Luo Runbo said he suspected Liu Lianxiang cared more about payment than the products or the mainland telecommunications industry, and Li Ye explained that generous deals could attract technical talent.
• Li Ye said he would attend the negotiations only to watch, then asked Luo Runbo about leads concerning Mr. Yu’s classmate in the Lighthouse.
• Liu Lianxiang welcomed Li Ye’s delegation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences courtyard, and Luo Runbo presented the cooperation agreement to Liu Lianxiang and Ni.
• Liu Lianxiang frowned when he saw that Ni had to sign and guarantee the technical terms.

Liu Lianxiang, Great God Ni, and the Hong Kong team negotiated a cooperation agreement to develop a program-controlled switch that could match Fujitsu’s F150. Great God Ni pledged to complete it in six months for a doubled reward, and the chapter ended with the agreement signed and Li Ye anticipating conflicts over the money and profits.

• Liu Lianxiang questioned the payment schedule and penalty terms, while Veronica explained the funding arrangements in Mandarin.
• Great God Ni confirmed that the project required a switch matching or exceeding Fujitsu’s F150 and asked about the early-completion wager.
• Great God Ni promised successful development within six months for one and a half million dollars, prompting the Hong Kong technical team to challenge his ability.
• Great God Ni answered the team’s technical questions, and Li Ye defended the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a place where miracles were made.
• Liu Lianxiang pitched his side’s sales connections, but Veronica and Luo Runbo ended that discussion and finalized the cooperation agreement with Great God Ni’s signature.
• Li Ye noticed Great God Ni being sidelined as Liu Lianxiang took charge of the celebration and anticipated disputes when the money and profits arrived.

Li Ye left a business dinner and spoke with Great God Ni about computer technology, the mainland semiconductor industry, and the reasons to stay and work in China. Great God Ni revealed that he had returned despite recognizing bureaucratic problems abroad and at home, earning Li Ye’s respect.

• Liu Lianxiang boasted that his company could develop world-class computers within two years, and Li Ye left the table because he did not want to hear more.
• Great God Ni joined Li Ye in the corridor, and they discussed the limits of developing computers and the possibility of producing individual components.
• Li Ye suggested that the mainland could participate in overseas semiconductor supply chains, and Great God Ni agreed that computer assembly offered potential.
• Great God Ni asked Li Ye about his plans after graduation, and Li Ye said he expected to stay in the capital with his girlfriend.
• Li Ye asked why Great God Ni had returned from overseas, and Great God Ni said he chose to struggle on his own land despite bureaucratic problems; Li Ye praised him.

Yu Lichen began teaching Development Economics and later recommended Li Ye for an overseas study slot at Moscow University. Li Ye learned the selection was only tentative and, after consulting Zhang Qiyan, remained committed to staying with his partner.

• Yu Lichen began teaching Class 82 Development Economics, while Li Ye and several classmates remembered their unpleasant encounter with him over Mu Yunning.
• Yu Lichen offered to help students with English and overseas study, but classmates later learned that the school had rejected his request to become their homeroom teacher.
• Sun Xianjin told Li Ye that Yu Lichen had recommended him for a Moscow University overseas study slot, prompting Li Ye to suspect Yu wanted to send him far away.
• Li Ye went to the department office and told Zhang Qiyan he wanted to refuse the slot because he planned to stay with his partner.
• Zhang Qiyan explained that the slot was only tentatively assigned and urged Li Ye to consider studying Soviet economics, but accepted his decision to prioritize his relationship.

Li Ye and Wen Leyu were confronted by Wang Zekun, who accused Li Ye of sabotaging Wen Leyu’s study-abroad opportunities while secretly pursuing one of his own. Wen Leyu dismissed the accusation and later acted against Wang Zekun for trying to spread rumors, leaving Li Ye to realize she was furious on his behalf.

• Wen Leyu asked Li Ye why he had not brought home his dirty clothes, and he said he had forgotten them.
• Guo Bin and Wang Zekun stopped Li Ye and accused him of taking a Moscow University study-abroad slot after Wen Leyu gave up opportunities for his sake.
• Wen Leyu challenged Wang Zekun about his source and his accusations, then rode the bicycle away with Li Ye.
• At Zaojunmiao, Fu Yiruo prepared marrow bones for Pavlov, and Li Ye noticed Wen Leyu was unusually quiet.
• Li Ye explained that the study-abroad list had been an accident, and Wen Leyu said she had made a phone call to ensure Wang Zekun would have to compete on his own merits.

Li Ye ignored rumors about his planned trip to Moscow and told Sun Xianjin he had already acted to protect Zhen Rongrong from Wang Zekun. The next day, he confronted Wang Zekun and Yu Lichen in front of the class, accusing Yu Lichen of leaking study-abroad information.

• Sun Xianjin urged Li Ye to confront Wang Zekun and warned that Wang was pursuing Zhen Rongrong, but Li Ye said he had already made his move.
• Yu Lichen praised Soviet higher education and discussed the new Soviet leader and anticipated reforms during his Development Economics class.
• Guo Bin and Wang Zekun arrived during class to speak with Li Ye, who refused to leave and made them wait until the bell rang.
• Li Ye insisted Wang Zekun speak in front of the class and questioned why Yu Lichen kept defending him.
• Li Ye pointed out that Wang Zekun was among Yu Lichen's study-abroad consultation group and accused Yu of leaking the department's preliminary overseas-study list.

Li Ye rejected Wang Zekun’s public apology and watched Yu Lichen defend him, then exposed Yu Lichen’s foreign partner, child, and unpaid debts in front of students and faculty leaders. He revealed that he had arranged the investigation months earlier to stand up for Mu Yunning.

• Wang Zekun apologized publicly to Li Ye, but Li Ye refused to accept his apology after learning he was trying to save his place on the overseas study candidate list.
• Yu Lichen accused Li Ye of mistreating Wang Zekun and threatened to report him to the department, but Li Ye pointed out the approaching faculty leaders.
• A foreign woman named Heiserin ran to Yu Lichen with a child, kissed him, and accused him of abandoning her and their child while leaving her with debts.
• Heiserin showed the faculty leaders photographs and signed documents as evidence, and Yu Lichen denied knowing her despite being unable to hide his panic.
• Li Ye told Sun Xianjin that he had sent Pei Wencong’s people to the Lighthouse before the New Year to investigate Yu Lichen for Mu Yunning’s sake.

Li Ye challenged his classmates’ admiration of Heiserin and praised mainland women, only to be overheard by Wen Leyu. Meanwhile, Yu Lichen tried to force Wang Zekun to honor their bargain, and Wang Zekun attacked him.

• Yu Lichen and Heiserin left the university amid students’ gossip about their relationship.
• Li Ye argued that his classmates should not idealize foreign women and praised mainland men and women instead.
• Zhen Rongrong and the others asked Li Ye how Heiserin fell short, and he pointed to her perfume and freckles.
• Chen Xiaoling asked whether Li Ye’s praise of gentle, considerate women referred to Wen Leyu, who appeared behind him and urged him to keep talking.
• Yu Lichen told Heiserin he would return to the Lighthouse with her, then went to confront Wang Zekun.
• Yu Lichen threatened Wang Zekun over their bargain, and Wang Zekun punched him before the two grappled.