This Book Was Too Uncanny

Wang Xiaoliang watched Zhou Qiang speak with such ease, yet the scene of their first meeting surfaced in his mind.

That unremarkable man who had sat at the dinner table without saying a word.

And this man, who laughingly described a fortune worth hundreds of millions as "dealing in scrap" and donating a building as "what the school deserved."

The two figures kept overlapping and separating in his mind.

"Zhou Qiang, the impression you gave me when we first met was completely different from how you seem today." Wang Xiaoliang finally voiced what was on his mind.

Zhou Qiang picked up a peanut, popped it into his mouth, and chewed slowly, but did not immediately take up the subject.

He was silent for a moment before asking a completely unrelated question.

"Wang Xiaoliang, have you ever had this feeling?"

"You know... you meet a complete stranger, and even though he hasn't done or said anything, you just feel uncomfortable, uneasy all over."

Wang Xiaoliang froze for a moment, unsure why he had suddenly brought this up.

Zhou Qiang continued on his own. "Or the opposite. You meet someone else, also a stranger, and you feel relaxed. You want to spend time with him, and you find yourself saying what's really on your mind."

Without waiting for Wang Xiaoliang to answer, he spelled it out.

"With that Zhao Shengkai, I get the first feeling. A little uncomfortable."

"With you, it's the second. Very relaxed."

Wang Xiaoliang was a little surprised.

He understood what Zhou Qiang meant.

But he could not understand that feeling.

With strangers, Wang Xiaoliang's first reaction was always to put up his guard. Only after prolonged contact and observation could he gradually judge whether they meant him well or ill, and decide whether to relax or stay tense, draw closer or keep his distance.

Judging someone by a first impression, as Zhou Qiang did, was an ability he could not grasp.

Or perhaps it was not an ability at all, but intuition.

Men relied on logic; women were the ones who liked to go by intuition.

"I... I don't really understand that feeling," Wang Xiaoliang answered honestly. "I take a while to warm up to people. I have to spend time with them before I know."

Zhou Qiang smiled and did not pursue the topic, as though he had only mentioned it in passing.

But the more casually he treated it, the more Wang Xiaoliang dwelled on it.

They each drank three bottles of beer. Zhou Qiang could actually hold his liquor pretty well.

Wang Xiaoliang steered the conversation back to his first and most fundamental question.

"Zhou Qiang, I still want to ask... with a business as big as yours now, why... do you still collect scrap yourself?"

He had already asked this question once.

Last time, Zhou Qiang had not answered.

But this time, Zhou Qiang did not evade it.

He put down his chopsticks and leaned back slightly against his chair.

"I don't want to give it up."

"And I can't."

"When I'm collecting scrap, I feel truly grounded."

Grounded.

Coming from a man worth hundreds of millions, the word held a strange magic.

Wang Xiaoliang turned it over in his mind.

It was not about sentiment, putting on a show, or recalling past hardship to appreciate present comfort.

It was simply about feeling "grounded."

About having something that could pull him firmly back to earth amid the ever-changing world of capital and those games of numbers that routinely ran into tens or hundreds of millions.

Something that reminded him where he had come from.

Something that reminded him an aluminum can was worth five fen, and a beer bottle ten.

This was the starting point of his business empire, the foundation of all his wealth.

Wang Xiaoliang fell utterly silent.

All his curiosity, all his questions, had found their perfect answer in that one word: "grounded."

This went a level beyond "never forgetting where you started."

It was a survival instinct etched into his bones.

Back in his dorm room,

a dozen or so unflattened cardboard drink cartons were piled in the corner.

They were left over from the drinks he had sold that day.

Usually, he would hurriedly deal with them the following morning.

But today, looking at the cartons stirred something different in him.

He crouched down and got to work.

He opened up each carton, flattened it, and stacked them neatly.

After a moment's hesitation, he picked up an empty plastic bag and left the room.

He was going to the dorm rooms that had bought drinks from him that day to collect their empty bottles.

He felt a little embarrassed.

After all, they were classmates he knew. Knocking on their doors so late to ask for bottles felt a little too awkward.

But the scene Zhou Qiang had described immediately surfaced in his mind.

That boy who had once looked like a beggar, knocking on one unfamiliar dorm room after another just to collect a few bottles he could sell.

Back then, Zhou Qiang had faced complete strangers and the possibility of scorn.

The people whose doors he was about to knock on were all classmates he knew-his "customers."

What did he have to be embarrassed about?

The moment that thought arose, his awkwardness and embarrassment vanished.

He even began thinking that, starting tomorrow, he would go to other floors and other rooms to actively promote his drinks.

While he was there, he could ask whether they had any unwanted scrap. Graduating students had the most.

He would retrace the path Zhou Qiang had taken, in his own way.

After washing up, Wang Xiaoliang lay in bed without the slightest trace of sleepiness.

His conversation with Zhou Qiang kept replaying in his mind.

Suddenly, he felt his understanding of the eighth art of fatechanging deepen another level.

The eighth art of fatechanging: the way of livelihood. Do not lightly abandon your old trade. Though its profits may be meager, it anchors your foundation and sustains your existence. Only when your new trade is established and its foundation secure may you choose to pursue it. If you can maintain both, that is the best of all outcomes.

Do not lightly abandon your old trade.

It anchors your foundation.

It sustains your existence.

Before tonight, he had understood these words only in relation to his own circumstances.

The choice between selling drinks and selling calligraphy.

But now, viewed through Zhou Qiang's experiences, those words seemed to come alive!

Zhou Qiang's "old trade" was collecting scrap. Though its profits were so meager they could practically be ignored, it was his "foundation," what "sustained his existence."

His cross-border e-commerce and capital operations were his "new trade."

Even when his "new trade" had grown beyond imagination, he still had not abandoned his "old trade."

He had managed to "maintain both."

The book called this "the best of all outcomes"-the best of the best.

So that was it!

Wang Xiaoliang felt as though a bolt of lightning had split the fog in his mind.

What this book recorded was not empty preaching, but principles of success that could truly be put into practice-and had already been practiced by people at the very top!

With something like a pilgrim's reverence, he decided to read the next page.

He carefully turned the yellowed page.

The ninth art of fatechanging:

"When first meeting a stranger, if you feel aversion and your mind is uneasy, swiftly keep your distance."

"You may approach and befriend those whose presence puts you at ease, but you must carefully observe their conduct."

"You must test their trustworthiness and integrity, for these are the foundation of making one's way in the world."

"If you find them untrustworthy, flee at once as you would flee blades and arrows."

Wang Xiaoliang read it word by word.

He pondered the meaning between the lines.

It meant that when you first met a stranger, if you instinctively felt dislike or discomfort, you should hurry to keep your distance.

If seeing someone made you feel relaxed and comfortable, you could approach and get to know them, but you had to observe their behavior carefully.

You had to test their trustworthiness, because that was the foundation of making one's way in the world.

If you discovered that they were untrustworthy, you should immediately avoid them as though dodging blades and arrows.

This seemed to describe an intuition for judging people.

He was about to savor its deeper meaning when a thought suddenly leaped into his mind.

Wait!

When first meeting a stranger... aversion... an uneasy mind...

At ease... approach and befriend...

This...

Wasn't this exactly what Zhou Qiang had said?!

"With that Zhao Shengkai, I get the first feeling. A little uncomfortable."

"With you, it's the second. Very relaxed."

This book was incredible!!!

Tonight, just an hour ago, Zhou Qiang had spoken about intuition in words almost identical to the ninth art recorded in this ancient book!

Word for word, they matched precisely!

Coincidence could no longer explain this.

This book...

This book was simply too uncanny!