Chapter 3: Undercurrents
The gathering at Barrier Lake in Huangcheng was a great success. Probably because of Su Can, nearly everyone came, leaving him unsure whether to laugh or cry. "For the weak, sympathy is the most timely comfort. For the strong, it's the greatest insult. You're all insulting me together."
Afterward, everyone took photographs together. The best group shot was taken on the shore of Barrier Lake. Overhead stretched a clear blue sky, with emerald autumn waters below. In three days, those pampered, fair-skinned people from the big cities had all been baked dark and sunburned beneath the dazzling sun.
Everyone grinned, with Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui each throwing an arm around Su Can's neck. In their photographs from six years earlier, when they had graduated from middle school in Xiahai, Su Can had been the shortest. Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang had towered over him. Now, looking at Su Can, who stood slightly taller than them at 1.83 meters, it all seemed a lifetime ago. Yes, it was not just his bearing and physique that had changed. Su Licheng had become Huangcheng's deputy mayor. Many people had privately speculated and calculated how much Su Can himself was worth, but no one had reached an accurate conclusion. If not for the internal war at United States Facebook in Silicon Valley that summer, would he have been named alongside Zack in America as one of the youngest billionaires? Unfortunately, this was the real world. Everything lost and missed could never be done over.
As the most outstanding, dazzling part of the picture, Tang Wu's and Lin Luoran's smiles would never lose their luster. Beside Lin Luoran, Lin Zouwen was just reaching out to put an arm around her shoulders, but a closer look revealed that she had already pinched