My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy!
Chapter 388 - 261: It’s Hard to Calm the Human Heart

Chapter 388: Chapter 261: It’s Hard to Calm the Human Heart

Some people give their all just for daily essentials, and their biggest Trouble is how to own a small place they can call their own.

Others do nothing and get everything, houses, cars...

And her biggest Trouble was that she had to inherit a martial arts school that covered an area of more than 2,000 square meters...

Thus, the joys and sorrows of people are not interconnected.

Just as you read thousands of books and I must travel thousands of miles, you face eighty-one trials, and I am one of them...

Yan Weiwei, with her leg in a cast, seemed even more dispirited than me when she came back.

Beer, barbecue, crayfish, staying up late to binge-watch shows as if she was a freeloader, she quickly started living an even more decadent life of a landlady.

At first, I didn’t understand why a single martial arts competition could make her so emotionally downcast, until one day, the two of us, equally disheartened, opened that "Moutai store" again...

Once upon a time, we had dreams about the future, about love, about traveling across the world.

Now we drink deep into the night, and when our glasses clink together, it’s the sound of shattered dreams...

"What about being an only child? Do I have to accept a future that I’m unwilling to take? If you can, then have another child!

All this talk about family legacies, responsibilities, and burdens!

It’s all bullshit!

From a young age, I had to practice martial arts diligently, make a name for myself as I grew up, and continue the family line when I came of age. After the old man passes away, am I still responsible for making the martial arts school flourish and not tarnishing the family’s reputation?

Why does my life have to be arranged so clearly?

Belch! Xiao Meng, do you know what I envy you guys the most?

What I envy most about you all is that each of you can choose your own future.

Whether you like it or not, whether the outcome is good or bad, even if you end up as an insurance salesman!"

I downed my wine in one gulp and sighed uncontrollably.

"You are still too young; it’s not terrible to have a clearly arranged life. The terrible thing is when every part of that arrangement is a tragedy..."

"Then I’d accept it willingly! Even if it’s a tragedy, as long as I chose it myself, I’d go through it on my knees!

However, despite using all my strength, I was only able to fight for three years of freedom...

I wanted to fight one last time, but of course, it’s ended up like this...

Next year... I’ll have to go back..."

Yan Weiwei looked at me through her drunken haze.

"Xiao Meng, will you come to visit me when I’m gone?"

"Belch! Of course! Hehe! Speaking of which, I once thought about practicing some Self-defense Skill. Does your place still take disciples?"

"Of course! If you want to learn, we in the Yan family teach both men and women, and I could even give you the ’Yan Family’s Twelve Road Spring Leg Summary’ which is usually not taught to outsiders!"

"Really?"

"Of course, it’s real! But... Hehe! Xiao Meng, you would have to make a sacrifice."

"What sacrifice?"

"Your son would have to take my surname!"

"..."

"Hahaha! Look how green your face turned, I’m just teasing you! Belch! What kind of precious Summary? It’s just a relic that’s treasured like it’s something special.

While you were reading ’Geese, Geese, Geese’, I was memorizing this Summary. Heh! What era are we in, cherishing these mere things? What’s the point?

No matter how good your martial arts are, a gun can take you down!

Enough talk, let’s drink!"

Seeing Yan Weiwei pass out in front of me, I finally understood why, throughout my life, she never seemed to reach the end with me, barely leaving a few words.

Perhaps after this year, she’ll leave Su City and disappear from my life entirely.

Goodbyes between adults are always this silent; they don’t require any explanation.

Passing by and the final destination are, after all, two different outcomes.

After this year, we will still be friends, we can still greet each other, but... we’ll no longer have a reason to embrace...

I thought Yan Weiwei’s failure to climb to the top was just a somewhat sad episode in her lifelong journey.

After a bit of sorrowful parting, I quickly got back to busy life planning.

However, when we grow old and look back on our lives, we may realize.

Whether you tick or cross on your college entrance examination, which major you choose, your first job, who you start a serious relationship with, when you marry and have children... every step is actually a huge turn of fate.

Yet standing at the crossroad, the very moment you make a decision, all you feel is heaviness and mediocrity.

At the time, it just seems like an ordinary day in life...

...

Zheng Dalu officially joined Changqing Biological, and multiple research projects progressed smoothly.

Cheng Biao’s internet plus renovation plan continued to advance.

Zero started collecting futures market data, developing quantitative trading models.

The internal strife within the Xu Group also continued unabated.

Perhaps it was Gao Yuan’s physical assault, or maybe my mental blow, but Xu Jingsong exhibited even more aggression than before.

The family infighting grew more intense, the Xu Group plunged into greater chaos, financial chain issues emerged, leaving them no time to care about the thriving Changqing Biological.

Based on my aversion to extremism, I restrained myself from the "elevator murder case."

I was willing to make the greatest effort for a peaceful resolution of conflicts but did not promise to give up the use of force, reserving the option to take all necessary measures.

In response to the foolish provocations of external forces, taking non-peaceful means was the last resort I would choose under forced circumstances!

Yes, between radicals and conservatives, I chose to be a centrist.

Faced with a shortcut to the Zhongnan Mountains, this was the biggest compromise I could make.

After all... I can understand you because I’ve been young.

But you won’t understand me, because you are still young...

...

Duan Xian’s celebrity-making plan was more successful than expected.

Duan Xian’s popularity soared as he unlocked the code of online traffic, and even the yet-to-be-filmed "Pegasus" rode on this wave of popularity.

Seeing this, I began to ponder.

Should I guide Duan Xian to proactively approach the Singer and gather more intelligence?

After all, online intelligence is limited, and in the face of an abundance of bizarre rumors, the most accurate way to collect information is to physically approach the target.

Compared to unrelated strangers who might alert the target, Duan Xian, being a fellow singer and insider, already had a natural advantage in making contact!

There were risks to this approach, of course, such as the possibility that Duan Xian could be hypnotized and turned to extract information from us...

Hence, it is crucial to ensure that Duan Xian remains an unwitting pawn.

The likelihood of the Singer silencing Duan Xian was very low if Duan Xian was unaware of his own situation.

It was somewhat dangerous, but...

From a strategic perspective, it’s more cost-effective for us to take the risk than for you to do so.

After all, isn’t life but a one-way adventure?

Zero worked in the shadows to orchestrate a "chance" encounter in which Duan Xian met the Singer, becoming casual acquaintances.

The Singer’s aloofness and standoffish nature hindered further development of their relationship, but I saw this as a good start.

After all, we had decades to slowly get closer to them.

A good hunter needs to have enough patience...

Further intelligence gathering confirmed that Zhao Ge did indeed come from a musical family.

His father, Chao Shan, was a famous tenor, and his mother, Ling Yun, was a vocal graduate from Shanghai Music College. His uncle played the violin, his grandmother was a music teacher, and his grandfather played the saxophone in an orchestra.

Compared to the reclusive Zhao Ge, these family members were quite normal, with a rich social circle and work experience.

At the age of 6, Zhao Ge began to attempt composing, and at 7, he participated in children’s performances. By 13, he had completed grade 8 in the British Royal Piano Examination.

During his primary school years, he consistently ranked in the top ten of his class.

Starting in the first year of middle school, he participated in various singing competitions, winning five championships in one year and accumulating an endless list of awards in subsequent events.

Aside from the information before age six, his life’s track record after that age was further verified as coherent and without any abnormalities.

It was not until Duan Xian was invited to a family birthday dinner for Zhao Ge that the stagnant intelligence gathering gained some progress.

Through indirect inquiries, I obtained a puzzling piece of information from Duan Xian.

Though Zhao Ge was handsome with great appeal to the opposite sex, he rarely had long-term female friends, and it was said he’d never had a girlfriend.

This puzzled me.

If he had no love experience, then what about that earnest love song?

I turned my attention to the only long-term female acquaintance of a similar age around Zhao Ge...

That’s right, the centerpiece of that birthday party... his sister, Chao Shu!

A frail girl who had been blind since childhood...

...

Expanding business territory, advancing technological development, gathering intelligence...

I was only thinking that maybe one day, under my watch, this world would be reborn from steel and fire!

With big dreams in my heart, I began to write my story, step by step, until the future became reality...

It came to a head one day near the end of the year.

I was invited by everyone to take a trip abroad before Yan Weiwei’s departure – a trip for the four of us.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Bali!"

"Uh... Isn’t that too far?"

"Far? It’s probably the nearest tourist destination in Southeast Asia, isn’t it?"

Seeing the forced smile on Yan Weiwei’s face, I found it hard to say no.

After all, I still owed her an ocean sunrise...

And after all, it would be difficult to go abroad in a little while...

This is what I told myself.

December 22.

As the yacht passed through the Sunda Strait, a sunrise slowly ascended before everyone’s eyes.

"It’s so beautiful..."

Looking at Yan Weiwei’s face, tinged red by the dawn light, I felt a little sad and also somewhat regretful...

However, just as everyone was admiring the view, a sudden burst of flames shot up from a mountain on a distant island without any warning!

Then came the thick smoke that blotted out the skies and the rumbling of the earth...

"Karakato! Karakato is enraged!" came the fearful shouts of the sailors not far away.

Everyone was stunned.

The apocalyptic scene was terrifying.

And what was even more frightening was the slowly forming water wall, nearly a hundred meters high...

In the face of such elemental forces, everyone felt as insignificant as ants.

Any horror and resistance seemed like meaningless, pale footnotes.

I had promised to compensate her with one of the most magnificent sea sunrises in the world, but I never imagined it would be in such a way...

I smiled wryly when I came back to my senses.

What are love and hatred, what is ambition and power?

In the end, they are but a wisp of smoke.

Mountains and seas divide us, yet boats can sail across and paths can be woven through; mountains and seas can be subdued, but the hardest to smooth out is the human heart...

Everyone was watching the raging sea.

But it was not the sea they watched, it was their own crumbling regrets...