9:40 p.m.
Shenzhen Bay No. 1, Building T8 duplex apartment, study.
Soft light draped the wall of bookshelves and the central area in a quiet hush.
Secretary Jin stood before the shelves, holding an original edition of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Liu Qingning sat in an armchair not far away, her hands clasped together, her face thoughtful.
For the past hour, the two of them had not talked about feelings, nor had they talked about interests.
Secretary Jin was like a true mentor, moving from the cyclical patterns of history to AI's reshaping of social structures, from the logic of distributing technological dividends to the ethical boundaries of capital in technological revolutions.
Her vision was lofty, her arguments rigorous, and data and case studies came readily to hand.
That way of thinking—standing high above the era and looking down at its structures—made Liu Qingning feel a pure intellectual surrender, unrelated to emotion. They really were very much alike.
At the level of fundamental cognition, both were accustomed to using models to understand the world, logic to dismantle complexity, and variable-based thinking to view people and systems.
It was just that Secretary Jin stood on a higher dimension.
As if she had already finished walking the road Liu Qingning wanted to climb.
Liu Qingning felt that if Tang Song had not stood between them.
She might have very much enjoyed every moment of interacting with this "Ms. Smile," and might even have regarded her as an idol and confidante for life.
But then again.
If not for Tang Song, she probably would have found it very difficult in this lifetime to ever have such close contact with someone who stood in the clouds. She was acutely aware of that.
If she had not been chosen by Professor Wang