National Tide 1980.

Life seems to be a circle.

Many things, no matter how much price and effort people pay, often end up just going around in circles and returning to the starting point.

Only those who have experienced it can truly understand this.

Like Liu Mei, Sang Jing, and Xiao Tao, Lan Lan is also one of the practitioners of this principle.

Unfortunately, life taught her this lesson in an even more cruel and merciless way.

From her personal perspective, the price she paid for this was even greater.

…………

The floods in East China in 1991 touched the hearts of people all over the country.

It wasn't just wealthy individuals like Ning Weimin who actively participated in disaster relief activities in Hong Kong, donating multiple times through various companies under his name; ordinary people in Beijing also generally donated to contribute their share.

As a person from the capital and a military family member, Lan Lan contributed both money and manpower—she not only donated money but also saw her husband off.

As a member of the Beijing-based military unit, Zhao Feng was ordered to lead his troops to the disaster-stricken area to participate in rescue and post-disaster reconstruction tasks.

Sadly, Zhao Feng never returned after his departure.

In late October 1991, Zhao Feng led his troops on a road clearing mission, but an unexpected landslide occurred.

This disaster not only took his young life, but also dealt a huge blow to Lan Lan, who had only been married for a little over a year.

Upon receiving the obituary and the "Certificate of Death in the Line of Duty," Lan Lan was first struck dumb, and then she fainted.

When I opened my eyes again, I was already in a hospital.

Zhao Feng was a battalion commander before his death, and the funeral was handled entirely by the military. Lan Lan only needed to attend and participate.

However, neither she, nor her family, nor Zhao Feng's parents had the chance to see Zhao Feng again, because all that was sent back was an urn containing his ashes.

The funeral was held on a cloudy day in early November, and Zhao Feng's ashes were laid to rest.

But from that moment on, Lan Lan felt empty inside, her mind a complete blank.

The wind grew colder day by day after the funeral.

The sycamore leaves, swirling in the cold wind, fluttered against Lan Lan's window, rustling softly like someone sighing softly.

Aside from going to work, Lan Lan locks herself in her room with the curtains drawn tightly, rejecting all comfort and all light.

The room still held Zhao Feng's presence: his military uniform, his teacup, the gloves he hadn't had time to take—each item silently reminded her that she had once possessed them, only to have them forcibly taken away.

As a result, not only Lan Lan's relatives felt sorry for her, but Zhao Feng's superiors and Zhao Feng's parents also advised her. Everyone saw that she was having trouble sleeping, had no appetite, and her cheeks were thinning out. They were all afraid that she would ruin herself by getting trapped in her memories at such a young age.

But Lan Lan just shook her head gently, her smile more heartbreaking than her tears.

She handed over the compensation money to Zhao Feng's parents intact, without touching a single penny for herself, as if pushing away a piece of peace that never belonged to her.

It wasn't stubbornness or obstinacy; her heart was truly dead.

She now feels like a pebble that has been repeatedly battered and worn down by life, rolling around and eventually returning to its original, lonely starting point.

She loved Ning Weimin deeply in her youth, but in the end, she watched helplessly as he went to a farther and brighter place, becoming a light she could never reach.

Later, she tried to find a partner according to Ning Weimin's standards and found Fang Xiao. She tried to start over, but Fang Xiao was too narrow-minded and ultimately could not overcome the hurdle in his own heart.

Later, she was fortunate enough to meet Zhao Feng, who was down-to-earth and reliable, and more like Ning Weimin. She thought she could finally hold onto some warmth and have an ordinary home.

But fate, with a mere flick of its wrist, utterly crushed her pitiful hope.

All in all, ten years have passed, filled with ups and downs: studying, working, dating, getting married, losing...

She tried her best to escape loneliness and find a place to belong.

But in the end, she realized that all her efforts and sacrifices had only led her from loneliness back to an even deeper loneliness.

The sky outside the window was gloomy, as if it would never clear up.

Lan Lan sat on the cold bed, gently stroking the old photos left by Zhao Feng, tears silently streaming down her face.

She doesn't know where the future lies, and she doesn't want to know anymore.

In this life, I have loved, hoped, strived, and lost.

Now everything has returned to zero, leaving her all alone, guarding a room full of silence, guarding a time that can never be returned to, slowly enduring the rest of her years.

It turns out that life really is a circle.

I started alone, and I will end alone.

All the excitement and joy in between were nothing more than a short and cruel dream.

She had already woken up from the dream, and having fully experienced its sadness, she no longer wanted to fall asleep.

…………

In the same era, under the same sky, although they all faced the predicament of being troubled by love, fate unfolded completely different scripts for different people.

Some people are trapped in memories in the cold night of the capital, and fate has brought them back to the starting point of loneliness.

Some people, however, stride forward under the foreign sun, expanding their horizons with each step.

Unlike Lan Lan, who is completely immersed in grief and will find it difficult to get out of the shadow in a short time.

Although when Ning Weimin first arrived in France, his mind was still filled with the scene of his encounter and parting with Qu Xiao in Hong Kong, and he even "created" a poem called "Bewitched" because of the scene.

But the Champs-Élysées in Paris has never lacked romance and melancholy.

As a man on the path of career expansion, once his feet touched Parisian soil, his mind quickly became completely focused on business. This made it much easier for him to extricate himself from emotional burdens than for Lan Lan.

First, his most important task after arriving in Paris was to visit Pierre Carton, Henri Lacamier, and Pierre Bergé one by one.

While presenting special gifts from China, they also gave detailed explanations of the agency business entrusted to them by Pierre Cardin, LVMH, and Saint Laurent.

The results were very good; he brought considerable benefits to several companies that year, and the heads of those companies were very satisfied with his performance.

Of course, it was precisely because he had already proven his capabilities with market data that LVMH and Saint Laurent began to consider his request to become the sole distributor of their products in mainland China.

If this matter is ultimately approved, Ning Weimin will undoubtedly become the king of luxury goods in China.

After that, Ning Weimin naturally had to find out about his stock assets.

In addition to attending some fashion parties and meeting with old friends, he was also invited to visit a mansion that Pierre Carton had just bought for a huge sum of money.

As for stocks and fashion parties, there's really nothing to say.

European stock markets have been relatively stable in recent years, and the companies held by Ning Weimin are all in France's most profitable pillar industries, with an average annual increase of over 20%, which was entirely predictable.

Ning Weimin disliked indulging in sensual pleasures and never acted recklessly.

Even at the wildest parties, he only treated them as social gatherings, and he would usually leave before midnight when the revelry began.

In this respect, they are even more honest than those old-fashioned people.

However, the buildings that the master bought really deserve special mention.

It's important to know that Pierre Carton didn't buy an ordinary house; it was a building designed by a Hungarian architect and refined over more than a decade.

Located in Théoule-sur-Mer near Cannes, France, it is not only spacious but also extremely well-equipped—it has ten artist-designed bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, and a total of twenty-nine rooms; it also features three swimming pools, an 8,500-square-meter tropical garden, as well as a games area and an open-air theater that can accommodate hundreds of people.

The original owner of this mansion was a friend of Pierre Carton, who devoted himself to its construction from 1975 to 1989, but never lived there.

But what truly made this building famous worldwide was its unique pink bubble-shaped exterior.

Neither its external outline nor its internal structure has any right angles; it is all rounded and smooth bubble-like curved surfaces. The whole thing looks like a bunch of interconnected soap bubbles in a bathtub, hence its reputation as the "Bubble Palace."

So much so that from the very beginning of its construction, this place has been one of the most talked-about and unique mansions in the world.

Pierre Carton himself was deeply attracted by the building's unique shape—he believed that this "bubble" shape was highly consistent with his bubble skirt design concept launched in the 1950s, a cross-temporal resonance of art and creativity, which is why he spared no expense to purchase it for as much as 50 million francs.

As the first distinguished guest from Asia, Ning Weimin entered the "Bubble Palace" with the master himself.

Upon entering, he was stunned, and his steps unconsciously slowed down.

As far as the eye can see, the dome resembles a cloud, the walls resemble bubbles, and even the doors and windows have rounded curves.

The porthole-style skylight filters sunlight into soft dappled patterns that fall on the custom-made furniture, creating an extremely avant-garde futuristic feel, yet also exuding a cave-like, primitive, and tranquil atmosphere.

He walked along, looking around and marveling at everything, murmuring his praises softly. Occasionally, his fingers would lightly touch the delicate texture of the wall, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He stood in the enormous bubble space, momentarily forgetting to breathe, feeling his heartbeat pulled along by the fantastical structure. Sunlight refracted through countless curved surfaces, creating a flowing play of light and shadow, as if he were in a dreamlike world where fairy tales and science fiction intertwined, leaving him mesmerized for a long time.

At that moment, he had only one thought in his mind—this was not a house, but a dream building that had fallen from the future to earth, with a design and construction level that was at least fifty years ahead of this era!

As he followed Pierre Carton on a leisurely tour, he inwardly sighed with regret and frustration.

He had traveled all over the country and seen a lot of things, from skyscrapers in Hong Kong to old courtyards in Beijing to classical castles in Europe, but this was the first time he had ever seen a house like this.

I thought I had some past life experience and that I was lucky enough to enter the world of the world's richest people in this life, so my horizons were already broadened. But standing in front of this building, I truly realized my ignorance and limitations, like a frog at the bottom of a well.

He never imagined that in this era, someone could build architecture so advancedly and so perfectly, seamlessly blending art, fantasy, function, and a sense of the future.

Compared to this bubble palace, most of the mansions he had seen seemed mediocre, rigid, and unremarkable.

It was at this moment that he understood even more why Pierre Cardin was willing to spend so much money.

This is no longer a simple property purchase, but a design master's mutual appreciation and complete submission to another ultimate art form.

Despite widespread opinion that the price was too high, many felt that the Pierre Cardin deal was not worthwhile and could even be considered an impulsive and wrong decision.

However, Ning Weimin fully understands the design master's decision and firmly believes that it is a sure-fire way to make money. There are three main reasons for this.

Firstly, because he deeply understands that an artist's preferences and aesthetic values ​​can never be measured by monetary amounts alone.

Luxury homes like these, which combine historical heritage with unique artistic value, are rare and irreplaceable resources.

The higher the price, the less afraid one is of high prices; on the contrary, the higher the price, the more it reflects the owner's status and taste.

As long as it has a good reputation, its value will continue to increase, and whenever it is sold, there will always be someone willing to pay a higher price to take it over.

For an international design master like Pierre Cardin, it is a rare spiritual haven and a source of artistic inspiration, making this investment far more meaningful than a simple commercial investment.

Secondly, Pierre Cardin's seemingly "irrational" extravagant spending actually demonstrates the company's strength.

It's important to understand that at that time, Pierre Carton's business in Europe and Japan had completely collapsed, and the company was in dire straits.

Against this backdrop, the fact that the master still had spare money to buy the luxury mansion he favored could only be due to the income generated by his branch office in the Republic.

This is undoubtedly the best affirmation of the operating results of the Huaxia branch.

Without the support of the Chinese market, Pierre Cardin would not have had the confidence to squander so much, which indirectly proves that Ning Weimin's previous business strategy was completely correct and will inevitably drive up the valuation of Pierre Cardin.

Thirdly, from the perspective of Pierre Cardin's own work in the clothing industry, this "Bubble Palace" is by no means just a residence, but can also become his treasure trove of design inspiration and brand promotion card, which is consistent with his design style.

Whether it's holding new product launches here, inviting global celebrities to salons, or incorporating architectural elements into new clothing designs, all of these initiatives will further enhance Pierre Cardin's brand awareness and style, indirectly empowering the cooperation between the two parties and bringing more potential revenue to Ning Weimin's agency business, and even his tourism business.

In fact, the designer has already decided to hold next year's Spring Fashion Week here. This building, which naturally attracts attention and is already memorable, is destined to create a sensation in the Parisian fashion scene and leave a lasting impression. (End of Chapter)