The moon was beautiful tonight, and the wind was gentle.
Gao Yuan stood at the window, holding a thermos with a generous amount of goji berries steeping inside. He gazed out at the ceaseless flow of traffic on the road below and let out a long, weary breath.
This was the place where his dreams had taken root and sprouted.
And it would also be the place where his dreams withered and died.
Just this afternoon, he had received an ultimatum from his parents: he had to be back in his hometown within three days.
At eighteen, he had come from a small county in Zhongyuan to this enchanting metropolis for school, and then for work.
He had now been adrift in this city that never felt like home for twelve long years.
In those twelve years of his youth, Gao Yuan had, one might say, learned a great deal.
He not only witnessed Hang City's step-by-step transformation into a bustling hub, but was also no stranger to the nourishment and devastation of love.
Over the years, Gao Yuan had dated six women, from students to young wives. The full story of those affairs was too much to tell.
Tragically, not a single one had been willing to marry him. All love had left him with was the lingering aftertaste of memories.
Just last week, a designer at his company had resigned.
His office romance ended with her departure, making him an eligible bachelor once more.
Since graduating from college, Gao Yuan had changed jobs four times. He'd worked his way up from an intern to a department director at a publicly traded company, his monthly salary increasing from 3k to 30k.
It had also transformed him from a dashing young man into a slightly paunchy, middle-aged guy still living in a rented apartment.
Time truly is a butcher's knife!
It changes a person silently, tracelessly, and irreversibly.
As his cigarette burned down to the filter, Gao Yuan let his wistful gaze sweep over the city that never sleeps. Weighed down by his thoughts, he turned and sank into the genuine leather sofa in his office.
This sofa had not only seen him close one project after another, but it also held the lingering scent of his ex-girlfriend.
Leaning back against the sofa, Gao Yuan opened WeChat on his phone again.
The screen displayed a small, four-person group chat named "A Loving Family."
Scrolling through the chat history, he saw it was filled with voice messages from his mom, dad, and older sister.
"Xiaoyuan, your Aunt Zhang introduced you to a girl the other day. She's your age. You should come home and meet her."
"And that Aunt Qin... I don't know what's gotten into her, trying to set you up with a divorcée who has a kid."
...
These were messages from Gao Yuan's mother.
Reading between the lines, the message was clear: she wanted him to come home for arranged dates and get married as soon as possible.
She also made it clear that if he waited a few more years, his only option would be a divorcée with kids.
"Xiaoyuan, I'm retiring in two years, and your mother already retired last month."
"Come back home soon. While we're still young enough to help, you should get married, have kids, and settle down to a stable life."
...
As for Gao Yuan's father, he wanted him to give up, come back to his hometown to build a life, and accept his fate.
He pointed out that both he and his wife were about to retire, and soon, Gao Yuan would have to be the one to support the family.
Gao Yuan's sister hadn't said much, mostly just echoing their parents' sentiments and trying to reason with him.
Gao Yuan had been reading and rereading the messages in the "A Loving Family" group chat since yesterday, mulling them over.
Everything his parents said was right. It was all very practical.
His income seemed substantial, but he didn't know how long it would last. He hadn't managed to save much over the years, and buying a house to settle down in Hang City was nothing more than a fantasy.
But a stubborn part of him kept fighting back, resisting and rejecting this future that was being arranged for him.
Until today, when the HR director from the head office asked to speak with him.
The director explained that the company was doing exceptionally poorly this year, that it was a matter of survival. Massive layoffs and a push for higher individual productivity were imminent.
Reading between the lines, the message was clear: they wanted him to resign.
For a director like him, a five-year veteran of the company, the offered severance package was three months' salary.
This violated labor laws, but Gao Yuan knew it was the best he was going to get.
Regular employees could demand N+1 severance, but as a director, he wasn't in a position to make the same request.
He'd known this day would come sooner or later, ever since he first became a corporate drone.
Because this was Hang City, a city brimming with talent, and the most hyper-competitive city in the nation's e-commerce industry.
After a long while, Gao Yuan replied in the "A Loving Family" group chat with a single word: "Okay."
As he sent that single word, the veins bulged on the hand gripping his phone. At that moment, his bitterness reached its peak.
Twelve years!
How many twelve years does a person get in life?
But no matter how bitter he felt, the thoughts of his aging parents, of Hang City's property prices, of the slight paunch he now sported... In an instant, all the fight went out of him, and he collapsed onto the sofa like a deflating balloon.
'Time to just be a normal person.'
'I'm thirty. I can already see the rest of my life laid out before me. Mediocrity is the norm. I should just go back home and live by the book.'
However, Gao Yuan made one last act of defiance. He sent a final message to the "A Loving Family" group chat.
"I'll be home in a week!"
This was his last stand, his final, lingering farewell to the city.
Sending that final message seemed to drain the last of his strength, and he fell back onto the sofa.
"I never thought that I, this wayward soul~"
Gao Yuan's phone, which he had thrown on the coffee table, rang, its ringtone accompanied by vibrations.
But at this moment, he really didn't want to move, nor did he want to answer anyone's call, letting the phone vibrate on the coffee table.
The phone's ringtone stopped abruptly. Gao Yuan felt the world was finally at peace!
But the next moment, the ringtone started up again.
"Fuck, give me a break!"
In an instant, Gao Yuan's frustration morphed into boundless rage. He shot up from the sofa, snatched the phone from the coffee table, and answered without even looking at the screen.
"Who is it?! Don't you ever give up?"
The person on the other end clearly hadn't expected to be met with Gao Yuan's fury. After a brief pause, a sultry, sophisticated female voice purred through the speaker.
"President Gao, it's your Xiaomei! Who was so blind as to go and upset our President Gao?"
"So angry... It's a good thing I have a new girl who just arrived..."
Hearing this voice, Gao Yuan's head cleared in an instant.
He held the phone in front of him and glanced at it. The profile picture was a woman with an extremely exaggerated waist-to-hip ratio. The name: Meiting.
Gao Yuan's tone softened at once. He said gently, "Not tonight."
This woman, Meiting, was a promoter for a high-end KTV whom Gao Yuan had met in the Hang City nightlife scene.
Her name was Meiting, and she was every bit as beautiful and shapely as the name suggested.
She wasn't very old either, just twenty-eight.
The first time Gao Yuan saw her, he was captivated by her tall and slender figure with its incredibly exaggerated waist-to-hip ratio.
She was very pretty. Even with only light makeup, she still had a stunning quality.
After padding her sales numbers for over half a year, he'd played every game in the book: High Mountain and Flowing Water, the Great Windmill, the Seven-Star Ladybug, and more.
And, of course, Gao Yuan had also sampled the "Hang City-style service" she offered.
But today, Gao Yuan had no interest in playing around at all.
After hanging up the phone, Gao Yuan lay down on the sofa and dozed off.
...
Midnight arrived. Outside his office, the livestream team finished their broadcast, packed up, and left.
Gao Yuan's body suddenly shivered, and he groggily opened his eyes.
"I fell asleep."
He'd just had a long dream. In it, he went back to his hometown, married some woman who was "good enough," and had a child. With his ambition gone, his life descended into a mess of petty frustrations, and he ultimately died filled with regret.
Mumbling to himself, Gao Yuan pulled his legs off the coffee table and stood up.
But he had only taken two steps when the world suddenly began to spin.
Grabbing the desk for support, he plopped down into his comfortable office chair. As Gao Yuan was rubbing his temples to steady himself, a DING sound echoed in his mind.
"DING!"
[Money Power System Loading Complete!]