"Another cappuccino."
Daoist Li Yang raised a hand and called out to the employee behind the counter.
Jiang Chuan understood that Daoist Li Yang had noticed him. Without standing on ceremony, he walked straight into Wutong Bookstore, came to the seat across from Daoist Li Yang, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would have been hard to imagine that someone like you would study this kind of thing." Jiang Chuan picked up the topmost copy of Lenin's Collected Works: On Socialism as he spoke.
"Five thousand years were enough to turn seas into mulberry fields. I had to learn what my homeland had become." Daoist Li Yang set down Socialism: Utopian and Scientific and lifted his gaze.
Jiang Chuan asked, "What do you think of Great Xia now?"
"How should I put it?"
A thoughtful look appeared on Daoist Li Yang's face. "From what I saw on the internet, Great Xia found a way to escape the so-called cycle of history. The theory is correct, but whether it works in practice is hard to say."
"Sir, your cappuccino."
Just as Jiang Chuan was about to speak, the employee placed the coffee before him.
Daoist Li Yang took out his phone and had the employee scan his payment code.
"The theory is correct, but why is it hard to say whether it works in practice?" Jiang Chuan picked up the cappuccino and took a sip.
"I summed up four characteristics of the socialist state Marx envisioned. First, public ownership of the means of production. Second, principles of distribution. Third, the functions of the state. Fourth, social form."
Daoist Li Yang paused, then continued, "Take the third point, the functions of the state. Marx believed that the state was the product