Su Can

Biodata

Background / History

Before his rebirth, Su Can followed a succession of academic and professional disappointments. Poor examination results led him through an unsuccessful high-school education and into an obscure university. By 2009, he was a white-collar worker approaching thirty; after losing his job and suffering a defeat by a workplace rival, he returned to his hometown 2 34.

His family had also struggled. His original entrance-exam failure required a five-thousand-yuan premium admission fee when his parents had already exhausted their savings on housing. His father’s construction company later went bankrupt and restructured, leaving Su Licheng in a low-ranking security position with unreliable wages. Remembering his parents’ sacrifices becomes one of Su Can’s strongest reasons to change his life 4 10.

While walking through Xiahai, Su Can experienced time stopping and reversing. When normal movement resumed, he was back in his schoolboy body on June 13, 1998. He retained his memories of the following eleven years, but neither understood the phenomenon nor believed he could explain it to others 2 3.

His early academic recovery and interventions in family affairs gradually redirect the entire household’s future. His mother’s retail business expands, while his father becomes more assertive and eventually rises to lead Big Banyan Construction. The family moves to Rongcheng, where Su Can attends No. 27 Middle School, and he later travels to the United States as an international exchange student 75 200 296 492.

Su Can subsequently gains recommended admission to Nanjing University and continues building businesses while studying. His ventures extend into stationery, retail, magazine publishing, and social networking, with his role in Facebook eventually becoming public. His father later moves from enterprise leadership into a deputy mayor’s position in Huangcheng 504 535 630 659.

By his university graduation, Su Can’s life has diverged profoundly from his original course. His relationship with Tang Wu endures, but his unresolved bond with Lin Luoran remains a significant personal complication when he travels to Beijing for her wedding to Wei Yuanhu 722.

Appearance

• Build: Thin and physically underdeveloped at sixteen, though healthier and more energetic than his overworked adult self 6 17.
• Height: 1.68 metres before his adolescent growth spurt; the shortest of his trio with Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui. By his university years, he is over 1.80 metres tall and weighs seventy kilograms 16 404.
• Hair: Soft and slightly tousled 3.
• Eyes: Brown, with a calm, steady gaze that Tang Wu finds markedly different from his former nervousness 3.
• Clothing upon rebirth: A faded T-shirt, faded jeans, worn Double Star sneakers, and a schoolbag bearing the imitation brand “addis” 2.
• Later bearing: Often outwardly ordinary and understated despite his growing wealth. Acquaintances continue to remember his calm manner, friendly greetings, and willingness to socialize in inexpensive bars and KTV venues 298 582.

Personality

Su Can’s adult experience makes him calmer and less easily intimidated than his classmates. Previously quiet and lacking confidence, he can now meet Tang Wu’s gaze directly, withstand Dong Qingyun’s accusations without arguing, and remain composed when other students belittle his background. He generally sees little value in competing with adolescents over every slight 3 7 29 31.

He is deeply attached to his family and childhood friends. Seeing his parents young again moves him to tears, while encountering the sixteen-year-old Xue Yiyang prompts an unusually emotional embrace. His determination to improve is tied to protecting these relationships rather than simply gaining prestige 4 6 12.

Although rebirth gives him confidence, it does not make him certain of success. He checks forgotten formulas, worries about errors, and eventually recognizes that foreknowledge cannot guarantee a profitable business or prevent a national disaster. He also treasures ordinary experiences—familiar streets, old neighbours, and remembered food—rather than immediately planning an extravagant rise to power 5 34 39 40.

His composure does not prevent occasional defiance or mischief. He humiliates Wang Weiwei after winning their football game, deliberately withholds his examination score from his friends, and breaks his uncle’s cherished ashtray to force a reconsideration of his investments 15 23 28.

Su Can increasingly rejects the passivity and habitual retreat that contributed to his previous failures. He urges his parents to compete for opportunities rather than surrender them without trying, and his second life gradually restores a willingness to intervene in injustice that his earlier adult self had lost. This courage develops despite his awareness of his initially weak physical and social position 52 57 61 63.

His ambitions also extend beyond immediate wealth. He regards learning, practical competence, and access to previously inaccessible fields as essential parts of rebuilding himself. Even after becoming successful, he views university as a source of intellectual resources and practical guidance rather than a credential made irrelevant by money 51 119 346 353 520.

His protective instincts can become confrontational. He refuses to defer automatically to Tang Wu’s influential relatives, attacks Li Du after an insult to Lin Luoran, and overturns Qian Feng’s table when a campus confrontation crosses his boundaries. He generally describes his purpose as securing a better future for those around him rather than pursuing a grand national mission 405 434 550.

As his enterprises grow, Su Can recognizes that his responsibilities are no longer limited to himself. Employees and partners have tied their futures to his leadership, making continued development necessary to preserve what they have built. At the same time, he feels guilty that his father’s transformed career brings exhausting responsibilities as well as fulfilment 535 554.

Abilities & Skills

Retained Experience and Foreknowledge

Su Can’s principal advantage is the knowledge and maturity carried over from 2009, rather than any demonstrated control over time 2 3.

• Recalls the approaching 1998 floods and their likely financial consequences 19 23.
• Recognizes future commercial opportunities, including the expansion potential of his family’s chosen storefront 24.
• Uses later social experience to assess people’s backgrounds and navigate adult concerns 13 48.
• Has incomplete recall: admission cutoffs, mathematical formulas, and memorized historical facts have faded 5 6 12.
• Understands that his interventions are producing a future increasingly different from the one he remembers 15 48.
• Remembers the approaching May 8, 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy and considers using the media to influence events indirectly. Although he cannot prevent the bombing, his intervention saves the three people who would otherwise have died 150 172.
• Lacks detailed memories of stock-market movements, preventing him from exploiting many potential speculative opportunities. His commercial rise instead relies heavily on building operating businesses 447.
• Recognizes that knowing historical outcomes does not eliminate uncertainty about people, unfamiliar industries, or the consequences of intervention 125 319.

Academic Ability

His later education gives him a stronger conceptual foundation, but he still needs focused revision to recover forgotten material 3 5.

• Completes one hundred advanced middle-school mathematics problems overnight, achieving 97 percent when checked against the answer key 5 7.
• Reviews three years of biology and completes the practice paper in approximately two hours 12.
• Scores 645 on the high-school entrance examination, placing fifth in his class 26.
• Performs particularly well in comprehension-based subjects; rote memorization remains a weakness, especially in history and politics 12 19.
• Studies high-school textbooks ahead of lessons and learns to distinguish essential material from secondary detail 45.
• Develops a systematic “Sponge Plan” to rebuild his foundations across subjects and improve his ability to learn. His routine includes sleeping at eleven and rising at five thirty; difficult mathematics problems can still reduce his accuracy below fifty percent 51.
• Places eighth in his class in a later examination, while Tang Wu remains first 117.
• Gains recommended admission to Nanjing University and pursues economics, finance, behavioural psychology, and related management knowledge 346 353 379 514 659.
• Continues to regard Tang Wu as academically superior in important respects; his hope of comprehensively surpassing her in Chinese, mathematics, and foreign languages never materializes 644.
• Balances university examinations with business responsibilities through concentrated work periods. His university marks are generally unexceptional but remain above the passing line 440 650.

Writing

His adult working life included lengthy reports, giving him a more mature approach to composition than his school-age peers 19.

• Writes an entrance-exam essay about the 1998 floods under the prompt “Give me one day” 19.
• Draws attention to human causes of flooding; the essay receives praise from a senior State Council leader 37.
• Has the essay selected for a Beijing-published collection intended for nationwide sale 37.

Business Judgment and Persuasion

Su Can uses his knowledge of his parents’ original business experience to encourage an earlier move into stationery retail 20 21 44.

• Persuades his parents to pursue greater financial independence rather than leave the family’s future tied to an employer 20 21.
• Advocates renting the larger storefront because of its future expansion potential 24.
• Assesses the shop’s performance at roughly fifteen thousand yuan in monthly sales and one to two thousand yuan in profit 44.
• Argues that keeping Mei Lan and Jia Zheng nearby as smaller competitors is safer than allowing them to establish a stronger business elsewhere 44.
• Reassures Xiao Fei through a deliberately misleading account of Zeng Qu anming’s attitude, encouraging reconciliation between the adults 48.
• Recognizes Wang Yue’s desire to learn business management and proposes bringing her family’s shop into his family’s operation as a branch rather than dismissing her 63.
• Helps Tang Wu’s father obtain a copy of a disputed debt contract by staging an apparent repayment visit, distracting Wang Timing, and retrieving the concealed document 372.
• Wins an auction for a three-hour dinner with financier Zhan Hua with a one-million-yuan bid, using the occasion to pursue access to an influential business figure 408.
• Predicts that online digital music and portable audiovisual devices will displace traditional records, urging Shangmai to adapt rather than resist technological change 550.
• Defines leadership as designing reliable systems and delegating routine work, rather than personally handling every negotiation and operational detail 520.

Business Ventures and Product Strategy

Su Can’s commercial activities develop from a family stationery shop into a group of businesses spanning retail, publishing, and technology. Their growth depends on managers and collaborators as well as his foreknowledge 304 440 535.

At Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, Su Can wins employees’ respect by resolving accumulated product proposals. He rejects a history-viewing feature on privacy grounds while approving a status feature. In a later decision at Facebook Chinese, he overrides Qiao Shuxin’s privacy objections to reviving Machine Dog technology 464 584.

His financial position grows substantially, but reported valuations and media descriptions are not interchangeable with confirmed cash wealth. His combined holdings are described as having a market value close to one hundred million yuan at one stage; later publicity identifies him as a Facebook founder and describes him as a billionaire 447 504 507.

Public Speaking and Social Analysis

• Uses the breadth of his later-life knowledge to hold the attention of classmates and summarize complex subjects with unusual precision for his apparent age 30 298.
• Delivers a flag-raising speech on happiness using an orphan boy’s story and humour rather than conventional flowery rhetoric, winning praise from students, teachers, and provincial education secretary Chu Zimiao 183.
• Turns a campus television crew’s attempt to expose his behaviour into a criticism of ornamental spending and examination-centred education at No. 27 Middle School 217.
• After saving Li Ying from a rooftop suicide attempt, directly challenges her parents’ failure to foster her independence; they accept his advice 259.
• Publicly orders Qian Zhongyuan’s card-playing group to stop disrupting freshman orientation or leave. His suit and authoritative manner initially lead other freshmen to mistake him for an adviser 338.

Physical Confrontation and Intervention

Su Can has no demonstrated formal martial-arts mastery. His early encounters emphasize the limitations of his adolescent body, and recollections of fictional fighting techniques do not provide an effective defence against a real knife attack 62 99 101.

• Intervenes during Chen Chong’s attack but is wounded in the waist and abdomen and collapses. Xiao Rihua attacks Chen Chong with a desk during the struggle 99 101.
• Is later publicly honoured for intervening in the attack, strengthening his standing at school 106.
• As an older, larger student, uses a running, body-weight collision against Zheng Mingchuan, preferring a decisive tackle to an extended exchange of punches and kicks 404.
• Saves Li Ying from attempting to jump from a school rooftop 259.
• Is credited with stopping the hired attack targeting Xu Jianchuan, an intervention that also strengthens support for his father within Big Banyan Construction 492 554.

Games

• Pro Evolution Soccer: Experience with later instalments lets him defeat Xiao Wu 3–0 and Wang Weiwei 4–1, using attacking play and techniques unfamiliar to the local players 14 15.
• Fight the Landlord: Wins 165 yuan from Li Ai’s circle after they invite him to play expecting to profit from him and his friends 29.
• Chess: Remains a weakness despite his broader strategic confidence. Tang Wu defeats him overwhelmingly often 545.

Power Progression

Su Can’s progression concerns knowledge, resources, and social influence rather than a cultivation system. His rebirth supplies retained memories, not demonstrated supernatural combat abilities or conscious control over time 2 3 99.

Relationships

Family

• Su Licheng — Father. Su Can regrets having disappointed him in his previous life. His father’s advice to build genuine strength rather than fight over pride reinforces his desire for independence. Su Can’s interventions help change his father’s outlook and support his rise to lead Big Banyan Construction, followed by a deputy mayor’s post in Huangcheng. He takes pride in this transformation but worries about the resulting workload 4 10 33 75 492 554 630.
• Zeng Ke — Mother. Her faith in him drives his examination preparations; he encourages her entrepreneurial ambitions and helps establish the family stationery business. She later welcomes Tang Wu and Lin Luoran into the family home and tends their injuries after Xu Dong’s attack 20 21 22 671.
• Zeng Qu anming — Eldest maternal uncle. Their earlier clashes over Su Licheng coexist with Su Can’s gratitude for his uncle’s concern. Su Can intervenes to protect his investments and hopes to avert his future professional misfortunes. He later understands his uncle’s severity as rooted partly in respect for learning, effort, and achievement rather than simple worship of wealth and power 10 11 23 442.
• Yin Shuying — Aunt. Initially questions the proposed business loan, but becomes openly supportive after Su Can’s examination success 22 26 27.
• Zeng Na — Older cousin. Their childhood relationship is competitive and argumentative; his sudden academic improvement unsettles her. He remembers her becoming more caring in adulthood. Their relationship also warms in the new timeline as he visits regularly, avoids exposing her private embarrassment, and addresses her affectionately as his sister 10 27 51 90.
• Zeng Yuan — Younger cousin, five years his junior. Begins admiring Su Can’s newfound confidence, though he had previously counted on Su Can’s poor grades to deflect family criticism. Su Can’s later success deprives him of this shield; he eventually moves to Rongcheng with his father 10 11 26 200 302.
• Zeng Zhaoding — Younger maternal uncle. His earlier condescension toward Su Can’s family gives way to a revised opinion after the examination results and stock-market intervention. Following his divorce, he moves to Rongcheng with Zeng Yuan 10 27 302.
• Paternal grandparents — Remain in Xiahai after Su Can’s immediate family moves to Rongcheng. His transformed academic and family circumstances become a source of pride, and the elders use him as an example to younger relatives 545.

Friends and Classmates

• Xue Yiyang — Childhood friend and member of their inseparable trio. Su Can shares revision materials with him; Xue inadvertently turns his old crush on Chen Lingshan into school gossip. Their friendship remains close as Su Can’s school standing rises, and Xue later joins the journey to Beijing for Lin Luoran’s wedding 6 17 29 46 158 722.
• Liu Rui — Childhood friend and fellow gamer. Their reunion restores the warmth of a friendship that had become harder to maintain after college. Su Can distinguishes the deep trust of this childhood bond from friendships initially formed across social divisions. His later achievements help inspire Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang to pursue different futures 12 39 129 572.
• Tang Wu — Junior-high class monitor and former secret crush. She lends him practice papers and encourages his studies. Knowing she was murdered over a romantic relationship in the original future, he resolves to change her fate. Their friendship develops into a sustained romantic relationship; they study abroad together, attend the same university, and reaffirm their love despite family scrutiny. She later assumes substantial responsibilities behind the scenes for his businesses 3 9 150 302 324 395 691.
• Chen Lingshan — His elementary-school crush. He eventually acknowledges his feelings directly; her rejection becomes a release from a long-standing regret rather than a reason to abandon his new life. They remain connected through school activities, and he later unexpectedly sees her among elite guests at the Shangshi Summit 6 49 50 106 520.
• Dong Qingyun — Academic rival who expects Su Can to fail and accuses him of copying after checking his completed mathematics exercises 3 7.
• Wang Weiwei — Gaming opponent who later greets him warmly and invites him to spend time with his group. Su Can initially does not mistake their encounter for a lasting connection across their social divide, but their friendship subsequently becomes genuine and enduring. His involvement in Wang Weiwei’s family troubles helps restore family warmth, and Wang Weiwei openly calls him his brother 15 31 32 39 89 269 275 475.
• Lin Luoran — Member of Wang Weiwei’s group. Meeting her is one of Su Can’s early indications that his choices have already altered events. Their friendship develops into an emotionally intimate and unresolved attachment. He defends her during the Christmas party confrontation, later embraces her during a campus lecture, and confronts their unfulfilled possibilities when she prepares to marry Wei Yuanhu 15 434 647 722.
• Xiao Yunyun — Childhood acquaintance who once liked him. She invites him to her birthday party and thanks him for easing her father’s worries 11 46 48.
• Lin Zouwen — Member of Wang Weiwei and Lin Luoran’s circle who gradually comes to regard Su Can as a brother. Su Can recognizes both his worldly awareness and the limits that family interests can initially place on their friendship 89 129 440.
• Sun Man — Prominent No. 27 Middle School student associated with campus broadcasting. Their first televised encounter creates friction, while subsequent school gossip links her feelings and actions to Su Can and Tang Wu’s relationship 217 259 303.
• Li Ying — Student whom Su Can saves during a rooftop suicide crisis. She and her parents sincerely thank him afterward 259.
• Zhang Xiaoqiao, Li Han, and Xiao Xu — Nanjing University roommates in Room 602. Their shared dormitory life remains an important part of his university experience even as they gradually discover the scale of his outside activities 338 379 504.
• Xiao Rihua — His Class Five teacher at No. 1 High School. Helps fight off Chen Chong during the knife attack and later relinquishes his resentment toward Su Can, defending his youthful behaviour to colleagues 99 106.

Tang Wu’s Family

• Mu Xuan — Tang Wu’s mother. Initially scrutinizes Su Can’s confidence, background, and relationship with her daughter. She invites him to Tang Wu’s birthday party and becomes calmer about their relationship after the American exchange, though she still expects graduation to separate them. Her later knowledge of his magazine business helps correct relatives’ assumptions that he is merely a wealthy heir 277 281 302 422.
• Tang Wu’s father — Su Can finds him warmer and more approachable than Mu Xuan. Their relationship develops through family visits and practical cooperation, including Su Can’s assistance in obtaining the contract behind Donglin Group’s disputed hundred-million-yuan debt 284 302 372.
• Tang Wu’s maternal grandparents — Their high expectations and initially reserved response place pressure on Su Can during family gatherings. Later meetings become more harmonious, but Su Can does not assume that this means they will protect his businesses or advance his interests 391 541 545.

Business and Political Connections

• Wang Yue — Shop employee whose ambition to learn business management Su Can takes seriously. He offers her a route beyond tending her mother’s shop by proposing a branch arrangement with his family’s business 63.
• Lin Guangdong — Major collaborator in magazine publishing and media development. Handles the magazine’s growing commercial profile and discusses using Su Can’s Bentley for publicity; he also speaks bluntly when Su Can’s ideas exceed their immediate resources 395 440 532.
• Mark Zuckerberg / Zack — Facebook co-founder and business partner. Their shareholder confirmation records a 45–55 ownership division in Zuckerberg’s favour, and they jointly encounter investors and acquisition approaches while seeking financing 464.
• Qiao Shuxin — Facebook Chinese executive with whom Su Can discusses growth and product development. Su Can overrides his privacy objections concerning Machine Dog technology 584.
• Song Zhen — Friend and business partner associated with the Senchuan Group. When she jokes that Su Can might be her boyfriend, he states that they are only friends and partners. Her mother, Tao Qing, nevertheless evaluates him as a possible match and dismisses him as insufficiently strong for the family’s pressures 584 617.
• Wang Bu — Wang Weiwei’s father. Su Can helps preserve his political career and improve his family relationships. Wang Bu’s support for the Su family later develops beyond gratitude into friendship, shared interests, and an alliance with Su Licheng 269 475 513.
• Lin Guozhou — Lin Luoran’s father. Su Can’s intervention surrounding the embassy bombing helps him escape a predicament and indirectly strengthens his political position 172 269.
• Xu Zheng — Senior supporter of Su Licheng’s career. Su Can is grateful for his assistance and recognizes the value of his continuing advice about Big Banyan Construction 217 448.
• Pei Fengshan — Business contact who introduces Su Can to an entrepreneurial circle and helps support his effort to win Zhan Hua’s auction dinner 401 408.
• Zhan Hua — Influential financier who becomes a powerful adversary. After Su Can’s warnings interfere with interests connected to the aviation acquisition, Zhan Hua exposes his Facebook identity to the media. Their conflict later includes pressure on Facebook Chinese and securities interests tied to Zhan Hua 504 532 601.
• Tao Zi and the Tao family — Potential opponents whom Su Can helps turn toward cooperation over the aviation group. Their relationship illustrates his preference for redirecting hostile forces into alliances where possible 497 535.
• Wei Yuanhu — A suitor backed by family efforts to arrange a match with Lin Luoran. Li Pengyu warns Su Can that Wei likely regards him as a rival; after graduation, Su Can travels to Beijing for Wei and Lin Luoran’s wedding 647 722.
• Xu Changcheng and Xu Dong — Huangcheng figures connected to a direct threat against Su Can’s circle. After Xu Dong’s attack leaves Tang Wu and Lin Luoran injured, Su Can resolves to use the incident against Xu Changcheng rather than focus solely on the son’s punishment 659 671.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Rewriting His Examination Results

• Treats the approaching entrance examination as the first decisive opportunity to escape his original failures 3.
• Borrows advanced exercises from Dong Qingyun and Tang Wu, then spends the remaining days rebuilding his academic foundation 3 5 9 12.
• Finishes several examination papers unusually quickly, leading observers to wonder whether he has given up 18 19.
• Achieves 645 points, replacing his parents’ remembered distress with tears of joy 25 26.

Changing the Family’s Prospects

• Helps secure financing and a promising location for Xiahai Cultural Supplies, bringing his mother’s business plans forward by several years 21 22 24 44.
• Smashes Zeng Qu anming’s crystal ashtray as a calculated warning about excessive stock-market gains 23.
• Learns that the gesture prompted his uncle to sell before a major fall, avoiding losses of nearly two hundred thousand yuan. His uncle subsequently offers additional support for the shop 27.
• Encourages his parents to enter a business tender rather than abandon the opportunity without competing 52 54.
• Offers Wang Yue and her family a branch arrangement that links her personal ambitions to the family’s expanding business 63.
• Witnesses his father becoming more willing to stand up within the company, an early sign that the family’s transformation extends beyond finances 75.
• Helps support a broader rise that eventually makes Su Licheng head of Big Banyan Construction and later deputy mayor in Huangcheng 492 630.

Entering No. 1 High School

• Encounters an admissions obstacle because his school preferences, submitted before rebirth, name No. 3 Middle School despite his qualifying score 34.
• Gains Deputy Mayor Yu Qiushou’s support at a banquet, where reporter Zhang Chaoyang also identifies him as the author of the nationally noticed flood essay 37.
• Receives admission to No. 1 High School and chooses Xiao Rihua’s Class Five after recalling that Xue Yiyang belongs to it; Tang Wu is also in the class 39 41 42.
• Establishes the “Sponge Plan” to strengthen his knowledge and learning methods rather than rely solely on memories of future events 51.
• Is wounded while intervening in Chen Chong’s knife attack and later receives public recognition for his actions 99 101 106.
• Gradually becomes a central figure among classmates, with a cohesive circle that includes Xue Yiyang, the basketball players, and several prominent girls 158.
• Ends his first school year with a well-received speech on happiness before visiting provincial education officials 183.

Confronting His Childhood Crush

• Reunites with Chen Lingshan at a barbecue, where admiration for his confidence turns to condescension once his modest background becomes known 29 30 31.
• Becomes the subject of a school rumour when retellings omit that his crush was in the past 46.
• Admits his feelings at Xiao Yunyun’s birthday party and receives an apology rather than reciprocation 49.
• Accepts the encounter as closure. Although the rejection spreads through school, he feels newly free to move forward 50.
• Later agrees to join Chen Lingshan’s outing after the end-of-term examinations, with Tang Wu also accepting an invitation 106.
• Encounters Chen Lingshan again in a markedly different social setting at the Shangshi Summit 520.

Changing the Embassy Bombing’s Human Cost

• Recalls the approaching bombing and considers whether media influence can compensate for his lack of direct access to national decision-making 150.
• Fails to prevent the historical attack itself but helps the three people who would have died escape alive 172.
• Indirectly alters Lin Guozhou’s prospects and reduces pressure from the faction opposing Wang Bu, demonstrating that limited interventions can have wider consequences 172.

Rongcheng, No. 27 Middle School, and America

• Moves with his family to Rongcheng and transfers to No. 27 Middle School, a nationally designated key school 200 296.
• Challenges the campus broadcasting crew’s approach to student exposure and criticizes the school’s educational priorities on camera 217.
• Saves Li Ying during a rooftop crisis, receives thanks from her family and Principal Cai Guotao, and argues that the school deserves the commendation banner 259.
• Enters Tang Wu’s family circle more directly after Mu Xuan invites him to her birthday party 281 284.
• Travels to America as an exchange student, extending his experience and ambitions beyond the school and business environment of his hometown 296.
• Returns with Tang Wu for the final semester of senior year, reunites with family and friends, and faces the transition to university 302.
• Secures recommended admission to Nanjing University, where he and Tang Wu can continue studying together 324 659.

University Life and Commercial Expansion

• Forms close ties with his Room 602 roommates and publicly confronts disruptive students at freshman orientation 338.
• Uses university resources to strengthen his understanding of economics, finance, psychology, and management while continuing to develop his businesses 346 353 379 514.
• Assists Tang Wu’s father in investigating Donglin Group’s disputed debt and obtaining the underlying contract 372.
• Reveals enough of his business success to overturn classmates’ assumptions about his background, notably when he arrives to collect Tang Wu in a Bentley 395.
• Pursues access to Zhan Hua by winning the auction dinner for one million yuan 408.
• Reaches a stage at which his combined business holdings are valued near one hundred million yuan 447.
• Visits Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, contributes to product decisions, confirms his shareholding, and joins Zuckerberg in the search for financing 464.
• Becomes publicly identified as a Facebook founder after Zhan Hua informs the media 504.
• Defends his decision to remain at university, emphasizing learning, institutional resources, and his wish to stay with Tang Wu rather than treating commercial success as a reason to leave 520.

Confronting Established Business Interests

• Develops an alliance with the Tao family around the aviation group despite earlier antagonism 497 535.
• Faces obstruction associated with Zhan Hua and Liu Zhensheng as his businesses become more prominent 529 532 545.
• Recognizes that preserving his enterprises now means protecting the livelihoods and futures of people who have joined him 535.
• Wins a round in the Facebook conflict and exposes serious trading violations by securities firms connected to Zhan Hua during Big Banyan Construction’s aviation investment 601.
• Pushes Facebook Chinese toward instant messaging, an open social-application marketplace, and revived Machine Dog technology while further financing and Blizzard negotiations remain ongoing 584 647.

Tang Wu, Lin Luoran, and Conflicting Attachments

• Grows closer to Tang Wu through shared school routines and states his hope of attending the same university as her 117 150.
• Continues their relationship through the American exchange and university, confronting family expectations while reaffirming that his efforts have been motivated in part by his fear of losing her 302 395.
• Defends Lin Luoran during a Christmas party confrontation and leaves after throwing a wine bottle at Li Du, exposing the intensity of their bond 434.
• Learns that Wei Yuanhu is pursuing Lin Luoran with family backing, then shares an embrace with her during a lecture in a rainbound campus hall 647.
• Returns home with Tang Wu and Lin Luoran after Xu Dong’s attack leaves both women injured. Tang Wu privately asks him to live well if she dies, while Lin Luoran remains awake upstairs 671.
• Increasingly shares business responsibilities with Tang Wu as their enterprises expand 691.
• After graduating, travels to Beijing with Tang Wu and old friends for Lin Luoran’s wedding to Wei Yuanhu. He and Lin Luoran discuss whether meeting before Tang Wu might have changed their lives, while Tang Wu acknowledges their feelings and urges him not to let Lin Luoran’s unhappiness determine their future 722.

Notable Quotes

“Mom, whether this company collapses in the future or develops really well isn't important. What matters is that our whole family's fate is tied to it, tangled up with other people.” 20

“Do what you have never done.” 21

“A leader's role is simply to establish a system that can keep running, one functioning machine after another. I don't need to be a screw in those machines. My job is to design them and keep them running well.” 520