Great Power Reclamation

In September, London was blessed with clear skies and gentle breezes.

Ye Guigen stood in front of the London School of Economics library, holding a stack of books he had just borrowed, staring blankly at the students coming and going.

Just two weeks ago, he was cleaning solar panels with an air gun in the desert of Country C, but now he has to go back to the classroom and listen to the professor talk about the theoretical models of development economics—this rapid change is making him a little uncomfortable.

"Ye! You're finally back!"

A curly-haired boy tapped him on the shoulder from behind; it was Raj, his groupmate in development economics class, who was of Indian descent.

Raj comes from an impressive family background; his father is a well-known industrialist in Mumbai. However, he himself is very low-key, spending all his time in the library and dressing even more simply than his teaching assistants.

"Raji," Ye Guigen smiled, "Is your thesis finished?"

“Don’t even mention it,” Raj said, looking distressed. “Professor Sachs rejected my third draft, saying the data wasn’t strong enough. What about yours?”

"I took leave and just got back. I haven't even started writing my thesis yet."

Raj's eyes widened: "Are you crazy? The deadline is next week! Sachs is the kind of person who nitpicks even the punctuation!"

Ye Guigen shrugged and followed Raj into the library.

The London School of Economics' library is open 24 hours a day, and although it was only 2 p.m., it was already packed with people.

They searched for a while before finding two empty seats in the corner. Opposite them sat a white girl wearing glasses, frowning as she looked at her laptop.

"Hi," Raj greeted him, "Are you working on a paper too?"

The girl looked up at them, her gaze lingering on Ye Guigen's face for a second: "You are... the student who took a long leave? The one in Development Economics?"

Ye Guigen nodded: "Ye Guigen."

“Emily,” the girl said, “I heard Professor Sachs mention you, saying you went to Africa to do fieldwork. How was it? Any interesting discoveries?”

Ye Guigen thought for a moment, then, without mentioning Country C or the photovoltaic project, simply said:
"I visited several rural development projects, and they differed somewhat from what was taught in theoretical classes."

"What difference?"

"For example, the book says that infrastructure investment will definitely boost the local economy."

Ye Guigen recalled the village of Fatima, "But if you don't solve the problem of local employment, having electricity will only mean lighting a few more lights at night, and will have a limited impact on the economy."

Emily's eyes lit up: "This is an interesting angle! I'm writing a paper about the obstacles to agricultural modernization in Africa. Can I interview you?"

Ye Guigen was stunned for a moment, while Raji laughed beside him:

“Emily is the top student in our grade and the editor of the school magazine. You’ve got her eye on you, there’s no escaping it.”

“It’s not a formal interview, just a chat.” Emily pushed up her glasses. “Are you free tonight? The library café, my treat.”

Ye Guigen looked at Raj, who shrugged: "Don't look at me, I'm going to stay up all night revising my thesis."

7 p.m., library café.

It's called a coffee shop, but it's really just a place with vending machines and a few rows of tables and chairs. But because it's cheap, students love to hang out there.

Emily brought over two cups of instant coffee. Ye Guigen took one and took a sip, then frowned at the bitterness.

"Would you like some sugar?" Emily handed over the sugar packet.

"No need." Ye Guigen took another sip. He had just gotten over the days when he had to save water in the desert, so having coffee was already a blessing.

Emily opened her notebook: "Tell me about your experiences in Africa. Don't worry, I won't write down the specific places you went, just your observations."

Ye Guigen spoke carefully, mentioning the village after it was electrified, the girl who wanted to be a doctor, the young people who wanted to learn technical skills, and the solar panels covered by sandstorms. He didn't mention the project background or the scale of investment, only saying that it was "a project a friend was involved in."

Emily listened attentively, taking notes and occasionally asking questions. As the conversation progressed, the topic shifted from Africa to China.

"Where in China are you from?" she asked.

"Northwest, a small city called Junken City."

"never heard of that."

“It’s normal, it’s not a first-tier city,” Ye Guigen said. “But there’s an industrial system built up by my grandfather’s generation, from a tractor repair shop to an automobile group.”

Emily's eyes lit up again: "So your family is in the manufacturing industry? Then why are you studying development economics?"

Ye Guigen thought for a moment: "Because I want to know how to bring the real economy to where it is needed."

"Like Africa?"

"For example, anywhere that is needed."

Emily stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed: "You don't sound like you're eighteen."

“You don’t seem like it either,” Ye Guigen said. “The way you asked the questions just now was like you were doing due diligence.”

Emily paused for a moment, then burst into laughter: "My dad is a lawyer, and I was trained by him since I was a child."

The two chatted until the coffee shop closed, and Emily closed her notebook:

"Thank you, that's enough material. I'll treat you to a proper meal next time."

Ye Guigen returned to his dormitory at nearly eleven o'clock. He lived in an undergraduate apartment near the school, sharing a room with another student. His roommate was a German exchange student named Hans, who studied philosophy and spent his days listening to classical music in his room, except for attending classes.

Pushing open the door, Hans was indeed wearing headphones, lying in a chair with his eyes closed, gesturing in the air with his fingers. Ye Guigen walked past him, but he didn't react at all.

Ye Guigen turned on his computer and first dealt with a few emails. One was from Elizabeth, saying the fund restructuring was progressing smoothly and it could resume operations next month;

Hassan sent this message saying that Fatima's English has improved rapidly and she is now able to independently provide simple training to the workers.

Another letter was from his mother, asking him how school was going and whether he was eating well.

As he looked at these emails, he suddenly felt a sense of disconnect.

On one side are the threats from the desert, solar power, villagers, and businessman Abdullah; on the other side are the library, papers, academic star Emily, and her philosophy major roommate.

Two worlds converged within him, like two unrelated rivers suddenly colliding.

He replied to Elizabeth's email, sent a message to Hassan, and then made a phone call to his mother.

"Mom, I'm doing fine, I'm at school. I haven't finished my thesis yet, the deadline is next week."

Yifei laughed on the other end of the phone: "Your grandfather said you'll definitely have to stay up all night to finish your work. He asked me to tell you: you need to write your thesis well. It's your own idea, not the family business."

"I know."

"Also, your mom asked when you're coming home. Your sister, Yini, released a new song in Los Angeles, have you listened to it?"

Ye Guigen felt ashamed to realize that he hadn't paid attention to Ye Yini's updates for two months.

I'll listen tomorrow.

“Forget about tomorrow, listen to it now,” Yifei said. “That girl always hopes you’ll like her new song, and she gets upset if you don’t.”

After hanging up the phone, Ye Guigen opened his music app and found Ye Yini's new song.

The cover features her profile sitting at a piano; the song is titled "Light from Afar." He clicked to listen; the melody was soothing, and the lyrics were roughly as follows:

"Someone is far away, lighting a lamp. I can't see him, but I see the light."

Halfway through the song, Hans suddenly took off his headphones: "Are you listening to Ye Yini's songs?"

Ye Guigen was taken aback: "You know her too?"

“Of course, she’s quite popular in Europe,” Hans leaned closer. “This new song entered the top 50 on the German streaming charts last week. Do you know her?”

Ye Guigen hesitated for a second: "She is my sister."

Hans stared at him, wide-eyed, as if he were an alien: "Are you serious?"

"My half-sister."

"Good heavens!" Hans plopped down on his bed. "My roommate is Ye Yini's brother! My classmates would go crazy if they knew!"

Ye Guigen quickly waved his hand: "Don't go around telling everyone, I don't want to get special treatment at school."

Hans nodded understandingly: "Don't worry, people in the philosophy department keep their mouths shut. But we have one condition—next time your sister comes to London, you have to get me a ticket."

Ye Guigen smiled: "No problem." The next morning, Ye Guigen was woken up by his alarm clock. He opened his eyes and saw Hans already at his desk writing his paper, the desk lamp on, clearly having stayed up all night.

Are you asleep?

“I slept for three hours.” Hans said without turning his head. “Kant’s paper is driving me crazy. At least you development economists can go to Africa to do research, but we philosophy students can only stare at our books.”

Ye Guigen got up, washed up, and went to the library. For the next week, he practically lived in the library.

Professor Sachs was indeed the legendary person who would nitpick even the punctuation marks. Ye Guigen's paper was rejected by him three times, and each time the annotations were longer than the paper itself.

When the manuscript was submitted for the fourth time, Sachs finally nodded:

"Barely passable. But you have a great point—infrastructure must be coupled with human capital investment to be effective. Where did you get that idea?"

“In a village in Africa,” Ye Guigen said, “a girl told me that she wanted to be a doctor once electricity was available.”

Sachs glanced at him: "Keep that observation. Books are dead, the world is alive."

Stepping out of the office, Ye Guigen let out a long sigh. Raji was waiting for him outside, looking at him with pity: "Did you pass?"

"Passed."

"Let's go for a drink. The student council bar has an event tonight."

The student bar at the London School of Economics was in the basement of the campus; it was small and cramped, but always packed. When Ye Guigen and Raj squeezed in, Emily had already taken a table in the corner, with a few other people sitting next to her.

"Come on, let me introduce you." Emily pointed to a dark-haired boy beside her:
"This is Li Ming, from Singapore, majoring in finance."

Li Ming extended his hand with a polite smile: "I've heard so much about you, heir of the Ye family."

Ye Guigen felt a pang of anxiety, but he didn't show it on his face: "Just call me Ye Guigen."

"What's there to be modest about?" Li Ming smiled meaningfully.
“My father invests in Singapore and has collaborated with your Ye family before. You know the Brothers Group, right?”

Ye Guigen nodded but didn't reply. Raji tried to smooth things over, saying, "Let's not talk about family today, just drink. Cheers!"

After a few beers, the atmosphere became lively. Besides Li Ming, there were two other girls, one from Brazil studying public policy;
One of them was a local, studying sociology. The conversation went from his thesis to gossip about his professors, and then from gossip about his professors to interesting stories from their respective countries.

Ye Guigen listened intently as the Brazilian girl talked about the slum redevelopment projects in her area.

Many of the details she described were similar to what he had seen in Country C—the government invested money and built houses, but residents were unwilling to move because the new communities were too far from their workplaces.

"So the key is job opportunities, not the houses themselves," Ye Guigen said.

The Brazilian girl nodded: "Yes! You understand this?"

“I’ve seen something similar in Africa.”

Li Ming interjected, "What are you going to Africa for? Isn't your Ye family's business mainly in Asia and the United States?"

Ye Guigen said calmly, "A private trip."

Li Ming wanted to press further, but Emily changed the subject: "Li Ming, I heard you interned at Goldman Sachs this summer? How was it?"

Li Ming was immediately swayed and began to talk incessantly about his life in investment banking. Ye Guigen took a sip of his drink and quietly observed him.

This person knows their background and makes no attempt to hide their desire to get close. It could be pure curiosity, or they might have ulterior motives.

Around 11 PM, everyone dispersed. Ye Guigen and Raji walked back to the dormitory together, and Raji asked, "Did you know that Li Ming before?"

"do not know."

"He seems quite interested in you."

"Yes, I can feel it."

Raj hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "Be careful. Singapore is a small society, and some families have both cooperation and competition. You can't tell who's a friend and who's an enemy."

Ye Guigen glanced at Raj. This usually low-key and unassuming Indian roommate spoke with great seriousness.

"And you?" Ye Guigen asked, "Are you a friend or an enemy?"

Raj laughed: "Me? I'm just a busybody who doesn't want to get involved in those things. My dad wanted me to study finance, but I preferred development economics. My family thinks I'm not doing anything productive, but I think it's more interesting to see how the world works than just staring at money."

The two parted ways downstairs at the dormitory building. Ye Guigen went upstairs, where Hans was indeed listening to music again. This time it wasn't classical music, but Ye Yini's new song.

"How many times did you loop it?" Ye Guigen asked.

"Only about twenty times." Hans took off his headphones.

"Your sister is really talented. The lyrics of this song are about someone lighting a lamp in the distance to illuminate the way home. Does your Ye family have some kind of family story?"

Ye Guigen paused for a moment. He thought of the old photo album his grandfather had given him, the bonfire at the military reclamation farm, and the people who built a city from the Gobi Desert.

Perhaps this is what Ye Yini was writing about—not a specific person, but a kind of inheritance.

"I guess so," he said.

Over the weekend, Ye Guigen received an email from the school's international student office, inviting him to speak as a student representative at an "Emerging Markets Development Forum" on the theme of "Sustainable Development from a Youth Perspective".

He hesitated for a moment, then replied and accepted.

The forum was held two weeks later in the school's auditorium. Ye Guigen prepared a ten-minute speech, the core points of which were what he had learned in Country C—

Development is not about increasing numbers, but about whether specific people can live better lives; infrastructure needs to work in conjunction with people to be effective.

On the day of the speech, there were more than two hundred people in the audience, including students and professors. When Ye Guigen told the story of Fatima, the audience was unusually quiet.

“A girl told me that with electricity she could read at night and she wanted to be a doctor. A medical station was built in the village, and she can work there in the future. This is the true meaning of development.”

When the applause started, he saw Emily smiling in the audience, Raj clapping, and Hans somehow showing up, sitting in a corner and waving vigorously.

After the event ended, an elderly professor with white hair approached and introduced himself as Professor Peterson, an honorary professor in the Department of Development Studies.

"Young man, you speak very well," the old professor said.

“I’ve spent forty years in Africa and seen countless projects. In the end, the ones that truly succeed are all like what you’re talking about—focusing on specific people, not abstract numbers.”

Ye Guigen expressed his gratitude.

“However,” the old professor changed the subject, “you also need to understand that focusing on specific individuals and dealing with complex power struggles are not contradictory. Doing good deeds doesn’t mean bad people won’t come looking for you. How to protect yourself while doing good deeds is what you need to learn next.”

Ye Guigen was silent for a few seconds, then nodded: "I understand."

The old professor glanced at him, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end just patted him on the shoulder: "Young man, you have a long way to go. Walk well."

That evening, Ye Guigen called his grandfather to talk about the forum.

Ye Yuze was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone, then said, "Your dad heard your statement."

"My dad? How did he know?"

"Someone recorded a video and posted it online. Someone at Brothers Group saw it and forwarded it to him."

Ye Yuze's voice was devoid of emotion. "He said, 'You've grown up.'"

Ye Guigen remained silent.

“Go back to the basics,” Ye Yuze continued, “Now that you’re in school, focus on your studies and make good friends. There’s no rush with business matters.”

"You'll take the lead when it's your turn. Now, you just need to do one thing—figure out what kind of person you really want to be."

After hanging up the phone, Ye Guigen stood by the window. The London night was quiet, with distant lights twinkling like stars.

He suddenly remembered the night market in Junken City, the noisy old men at the dinner table, and his grandfather's words: "Men of the Ye family are not afraid to walk at night."

Now, he walks his own dark road.

Although I'm still on campus, and haven't really entered that complex world yet.

But the road has already been paved under our feet.

All he needs to do is keep going, one step at a time.

He carried with him the light that had once illuminated him. (End of Chapter)