Daily Life

Over the next few days, Wang Yan had no inclination to work. He wandered aimlessly through the streets and alleys of the capital, taking in its famous sights.

It was a chance to relax and come to terms with how strange and distant the real world felt.

After a whole week of wandering, Wang Yan finally felt like himself again.

Then he went back to the daily grind of making cold calls. When he had nothing else to do, he browsed listings for properties around the capital, from upscale developments to luxury homes. People had to live, and no matter how capable Wang Yan was, he still had to eat, drink, and take care of other necessities.

To be honest, Wang Yan was getting tired of sales: the endless cold calls and the endless house viewings.

He worked hard partly for the money, and partly to realize his ideals and prove his worth.

For now, the real world was a warm refuge from the storm. He had no intention of stirring up trouble here. All he wanted was a quiet, stable life. After all, he'd been powerful and carefree enough in all those screen worlds. If he kept it up, he might get sick of it someday.

Otherwise, Wang Yan could have made a trip to the Golden Triangle and gone looking for his brothers. That would have made money a lot faster than selling houses.

He looked through his skills, trying to find one that would let him support himself without having to work a regular job.

After weighing his options, Wang Yan settled on stock trading. He'd accumulated experience in two worlds, and in Infernal Affairs he'd even become a major player and market maker. Even without handling trades himself, what he'd picked up from being around it all had been enough to bring his stock and finance skills to proficiency level 2.

That was the system's objective assessment of Wang Yan's abilities, based on the judgment he'd developed through training, his understanding of the financial markets, and the information he'd gained from running Longteng, a behemoth spanning numerous industries.

Wang Yan had heard a little about the state of the financial markets lately. But no matter how turbulent things got, there would always be companies making money.

Given his experience and judgment, he didn't dare claim he could make a profit every time. He could only say he'd do his best to avoid losses, and if he did lose money, he'd cut his losses in time and keep them from getting too big.

That was good enough. Nothing was perfect, after all. Minimizing losses and maximizing gains was already Old Man Heaven showing him favor. What more could he ask for?

Wang Yan had taken out some more cash from his credit cards to trade stocks. His pockets had been completely empty, after all.

He didn't have much capital, either, so he tried to stick to short-term trades, dipping in whenever he had the chance.

He still had to keep selling houses for a while. Stock trading was risky. He might tell himself the losses wouldn't be too bad, but no one could guarantee what the future held.

He was already up to his neck in debt and was counting on selling houses to turn his life around.

So Wang Yan kept busy on both fronts. He made cold calls when he had time, and kept an eye on all kinds of information so he could trade stocks when the opportunity arose.

What he hadn't expected was to get a call from Zhang Hai.

It was a day off, but people in real estate made their money on weekends, so Wang Yan was no exception.

There was no help for it; his place in society was what it was. He had no chance of selling villas or other top-tier properties. What was so special about him, Old Wang? Those clients didn't even know who he was.

To put it plainly, he wasn't a pretty young woman, and he wasn't handsome, either. Maybe people would find him interesting after getting to know him, but they wouldn't even give him a second sentence. No matter how capable he was, it meant nothing without a chance to show it.

Wang Yan was working as usual, making cold calls and hoping to talk a few people into viewing houses so he could close a couple of deals.

Then Zhang Hai called. He said one of his classmates wanted to buy a house, so he'd put them in touch with Wang Yan and asked him to find something suitable.

Wang Yan thanked him profusely. He hadn't expected another referral so soon after making his first sale.

Zhang Hai had recommended him because he thought Wang Yan was a great guy.

A lot of Wang Yan's views had given him food for thought during their conversations. Getting to know each other and talking had brought their worldviews and outlooks into contact, where they'd clashed, blended, and influenced each other. Back then, Wang Yan had just returned from Dying to Survive. His level had been roughly on par with an elite like Zhang Hai's, perhaps a little better, but not by much.

If they met now, it wouldn't be a conversation. Wang Yan would be lecturing him. After all, look at what Wang Yan had done in the world of Infernal Affairs: formed a gang, become a boss, and studied the classics, philosophy, Taoism, and all that esoteric stuff. Their levels and outlooks were worlds apart.

Using the contact details Zhang Hai gave him, Wang Yan called his classmate. He asked in detail what sort of house they wanted and what their requirements were. In the end, they agreed to go out the next day and look at some places.

After hanging up, Wang Yan started sorting through listings that matched their criteria. From their conversation, he'd already figured out what mattered most to the client and picked out several properties to recommend.

At Wang Yan's level, as long as clients had the money and really wanted to buy, the deal was pretty much guaranteed. Of course, there were exceptions; he couldn't rule out clients with unusual quirks. It wasn't a big deal if he failed to make a sale, but those particular types could be a bit of a downer.

The next day, Wang Yan showed Zhang Hai's classmate and his girlfriend around some houses.

With his skills and a deliberate effort to put them at ease, the conversation flowed naturally, and the atmosphere was warm.

Like Zhang Hai, the classmate was buying a house to get married.

They were all the same age, and as Wang Yan watched one person after another get married, then thought of his classmates' kids running all over the place, he started to feel like getting married himself. It wasn't for anything else; he just wanted some stability.

He'd never been short of women in either of those worlds. The women in Infernal Affairs had all been top-notch, whether rich, married women or beautiful young things. He'd started to take it all a little less seriously.

His parents were a major factor, too. They weren't young anymore, and they were always hoping to hold a grandchild. Otherwise, he might not have felt this way. Wasn't it fine to just enjoy life on his own?

Across the two worlds, and nearly forty years when counting his time in the real world, Wang Yan still hadn't overcome his fear of death.

Children used maturity to disguise themselves, while the elderly used so-called childlike innocence to avoid facing the fact that they were growing old.

Of course, there were people in this vast world who could face death with equanimity, but how many could there really be?

He shook his head. There was no use thinking about things like that. Finding a woman and getting married wouldn't happen overnight, so he'd better focus on making money.

Over three days, Wang Yan showed his classmate more than a dozen properties. In the end, they settled on one much like the house Zhang Hai had bought.

That made sense. The two men were similar in many ways. Otherwise, they wouldn't have ended up friends, let alone become so close.

As before, he made around a hundred thousand yuan on the sale.

When they signed the contract, the owner of the agency where Wang Yan had hung his license looked at him differently.

Two sales in just over a month was a solid result. He'd made just under two hundred thousand yuan from both deals, which worked out to around fifteen thousand a month. Out of the tens of thousands of salespeople in the capital, not many could do that.

After they signed the contract, Wang Yan invited Zhang Hai and his wife, the classmate, and his girlfriend out for a meal to show his appreciation.

Even though Wang Yan was an outsider to both couples, he steered the conversation so smoothly that everyone got along, and the meal was a delight for host and guests alike. Even the two women found themselves intrigued by Wang Yan, whose appearance was ordinary but who was funny, charming, and well-spoken. They couldn't help wanting to find out what kind of person he really was.

The two women seemed nothing special to Wang Yan, and he wasn't interested. Besides, he was a man with principles, and he had some dignity. Otherwise, he'd have shown them what Old Wang could do. He could have given them a thorough demonstration of whether manual or automatic was better.

With his physique these days, he could go full throttle for half an hour without braking. If he eased off a little, he could handle two without breaking a sweat.

Judging by how friendly everyone had been at dinner, Wang Yan would surely be the obvious choice if anyone in their circles wanted to buy a house in the future.

During this time, Wang Yan had also made a little money through stock trading.

The overall market was in a bad way, and he wasn't some all-powerful genius. Any money he managed to make was proof of his skill.

He'd have to wait a few more days for the money from the house sales to come through, but these returns had eased his predicament somewhat.

Once the money came in, he'd turn his life around in an instant, and things would finally be stable. If he sold two more houses after that and had a hundred or two hundred thousand yuan to his name, he'd be free as a fish in the sea and a bird in the sky.

He had no long-term plans for life in the real world, and he didn't need any. He'd take things one step at a time. With all the skills he had, what couldn't he do to put food on the table?

In the short term, though, he had a goal: save up for a camper and travel all over the country. For now, that was a short-term goal. Once, it had been a dream for his whole life.

Over the course of those two worlds, Wang Yan had been to plenty of places. Aside from Shanghai and Hong Kong Island, he'd only ever seen the rest in passing, with most of his attention focused on learning.

Everyone was a philosopher. That might not be entirely true, but it wasn't wrong, either.

Everyone was romantic.

No matter their age, family background, or education, most people had, to some extent, wanted to indulge in a little romance. The only difference was that some people wrote poetry, while others just said, "Damn."

Some people had once indulged in their romantic side.

Others had simply drifted through life, only remembering their old dreams and the stories they'd once hoped to live when they heard a song, saw a story, or came across a news article.

My Motherland, its mountains soaring high. My Motherland, vast and rich.

Someday, he would truly experience the land of China, steeped in the blood and legacy of its ancestors through thousands of years.