Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 178 Waiting for Fermentation
It was almost 8 o'clock, and the Jiang family was busy running around.

Aunt Liu warmly brought over a cup of hot milk covered with a milk skin.

"Xuebing, drink your milk!"

Chen Xuebing was both amused and exasperated: "Aunt Liu, give it to Hanhan. Hanhan is growing a lot, don't worry about me!"

Jiang Hanhan poked her head out from the study doorway.

"Brother, you should drink it. My mom forces me to drink it every night. If you drink it, I won't have to drink it anymore."

Chen Xuebing clicked his tongue inwardly.

Aunt Liu really went all out; it's hard to buy fruit late at night, so she brought over the milk she ordered from the milk station for Jiang Hanhan.

He runs a financial company and does engineering work; now the whole neighborhood knows about him. He also got into Chongqing Jiaotong University, and Chen Xuejin's reputation as a child prodigy has spread to the Experimental Primary School. Both of Chen's sons are very successful, and the family's status has risen accordingly.

You might accidentally become someone else's child, the kind that parents have to pay attention to.

Chen Xuejin is now attending a training course that costs over 20,000 yuan a year, where he teaches everything. He no longer comes to Aunt Liu's place for English tutoring. Instead, Aunt Liu often brings Jiang Hanhan to her house after school to do homework with Chen Xuejin, hoping to bask in the glory of the child prodigy. Chen Xuejin, a first grader, helps Jiang Hanhan, a second grader, with her homework and also talks to her about some scientific knowledge outside of class.

At the beginning of the month, he was bored and often went home. He saw her twice. The little bastard was very patient when talking to Jiang Hanhan, much better than when he was talking about topology.

Chen Xuebing thought for a moment, then turned around while holding the milk, looked at Jiang Hanhan's height, and said, "Hanhan is almost 1.4 meters tall, isn't she?"

Those with children of similar age at home are quite sensitive to this height and can generally see the approximate height at a glance.

“1.36 meters tall!” Jiang Hanhan pointed to the door of her bedroom across the street.

"Okay, drink up! It'll make you grow taller. When you're 1.4 meters tall, I'll give you a set of genuine Barbie dolls!"

Actually, this glass of milk is a bit too much; drinking too much isn't good. But this girl was tall and beautiful in her past life, so he didn't need to remind her.

"Really!" Jiang Hanhan exclaimed happily, then glanced at her mother questioningly.

Aunt Liu immediately chirped quietly beside her, "One and a half meters, one and a half meters!"

Chen Xuebing chuckled, not wanting to team up with Aunt Liu to fool the child: "If you grow to 1.5 meters tall, I'll give you another gift! Drink up, listen to your mother!"

"Thank you brother!"

Jiang Hanhan happily carried away the hot milk.

"Xuebing! It's such a hassle to bring your computer! Next time, just use our computer!"

Uncle Jiang, who was watching TV in the living room, shouted.

"No need, Uncle Jiang! Our internet will be installed in a couple of days!"

"You don't know anything! Other kids need to work, so they use their own computers! All you do is watch TV all day. I told you to go visit your bureau chief's mother-in-law at the hospital, but you wouldn't go! When will you ever get a promotion to section chief?" Aunt Liu grumbled as she left.

"Tsk, the kid's here! Keep your voice down! Who goes to see a patient at night? The sun's setting, you know that!"

"Then take a day off tomorrow and go!"

Aunt Liu turned around and closed the door, restoring silence.

Chen Xuebing chuckled.

Chongqing men are always leisurely and lazy, and at home there is always a wife nagging and urging them to be more ambitious.

He had always felt that he didn't belong in this group, but now, feeling this family atmosphere, he was actually a little envious.

The computer screen was lit up, but there was no sign of the word "General Manager Chen" at the top of the Li Yi Bar forum. Instead, there were technical posts and posts criticizing Brother Chun.

However, when you open a popular post titled "How did a man become the most beautiful woman in Sichuan?", the topic of "President Chen" is still the same.

"The number one beauty in Sichuan? I, Xiao Xin, disagree."

"Is Xiao Xin from Sichuan?"

"Nonsense, the TV station said that General Manager Chen is from Chongqing, so Xiao Xin must be too."

"The person upstairs is an idiot. Sichuan is Sichuan, and Chongqing is Chongqing. Chongqing was separated from Sichuan in 97 and is now a municipality directly under the central government. Is your village connected to the internet?"

"A post just revealed that Xiao Xin is from Guangzhou. I despise all the people upstairs."

Chen Xuebing's face twitched as he looked at it.

Damn it, in just half a day, someone has already dug up Xin Mengzhen's household registration.

It seems that topics about beautiful women generate more buzz than those about wealthy men.

He immediately registered a Baidu Tieba account, ready to attract attention.

As for how to prove that I am who I am, Chen Xuebing has already figured it out.

The half-body photo of myself that I took specifically for Xin Mengzhen last time is on my computer desktop.

These days, you can't set an avatar on Baidu Tieba, but you can post image links in the comments.

He flipped up the page, looking for a suitable post, ready to leave a comment.

I really want to ask Mr. Chen.

The post opens, and there's only one question.

"I heard that Mr. Chen works in the fund industry. Mr. Zhou said that the upper class doesn't need to work at all, they just need to invest in trust funds. Is that true?"

There weren't many comments below, but one person replied: "Actually, I'm more interested in whether Master Zhou is real, and whether there are any noble families or the Zhou family of Runan in China."

Even Mr. Chen himself was completely baffled by this question.

I searched for "Zhou Gongzi" online and found out that a post went viral on Tianya Forum this year, and it was reported by many news outlets such as NetEase, Sina, and Southern Weekly.

"The Battle Between Young Master Zhou and Yi Yeqing".

A Shanghai woman named Yi Yeqing, who is known for her snobbishness and ostentatious behavior online, boasts of being part of high society and uses exaggerated language to claim that people are divided into different classes. She was refuted by a man named "67°3'N" who claimed to be a descendant of an old aristocratic family surnamed Zhou, who said that she knew nothing about high society life and attitudes. Netizens applauded her response.

After reading several reports, Chen Xuebing felt that the issue seemed to be within his knowledge, so he started typing and replying in several posts.

------

ID: "Netizen Chen Xuebing":
Thanks for the invitation. I don't know if the Mr. Chen you're referring to is me, but regarding the question above, I can offer the following answers:
Firstly, my country's Trust Law was only promulgated in 2001, and most domestic trust businesses have a public welfare component. Family trusts are still in their infancy in my country. Currently, most wealthy individuals in China choose public funds and private funds for their investments. I believe that the Zhou family, as you mentioned, has maintained its income through trust business for a long time, and that is likely an overseas trust.

As far as I know, there are still some prominent families that have long resided in China.

The Rong family of Wuxi (patriotic tycoons), the Minhou Lin Huiyin family (three martyrs from one family), the Qian family (three academicians from one family), and so on, mostly pass on their family traditions through spiritual and cultural means. This is because the social structure of the new China has been completely changed. Forty years ago, the people of the whole country became the proletariat, and the kind of "rich and powerful family scions" depicted in novels do not exist.

However, there are indeed many low-profile Chinese tycoons in Southeast Asia. Many wealthy Chinese families started developing in Southeast Asia a long time ago. They are not only rich and powerful, but some can even influence the local political landscape.

The Zhou clan of Runan originated in the Han and Tang dynasties. The clan's ancestor, Zhou Ren, had 10 sons, and there are now over a hundred branches across the country. Zhou Gongzi did not mention whether his family had been developing in the interior for a long time, so the authenticity cannot be judged. However, no single branch can represent the "Zhou clan of Runan".

The core of the debate is "how the upper class should behave," but I don't know who would consider themselves part of the upper class.

I think this is essentially a clash of wrong values, with one side acting righteously and appearing morally correct. It's also wrong for Zhou Gongzi to establish a moral high ground by criticizing the other side based on their mistakes. The so-called aristocratic mindset is wrong in itself.

I've also attached a photo of myself to prove my identity. I hope everyone will be kind to me; I'm not an aristocrat, just an ambitious young man.

[Chen Xuebing smiling.jpg]

—————— After posting, refresh the page.

This post has already reached the twentieth floor.

His reply went up to four floors, each with some time between posts, and included some dissenting voices in between.

"Another person claiming to be General Manager Chen has appeared on Tieba."

"Their answer was quite professional."

"You're bragging again. I had to search several communities and flip through hundreds of posts to finally find you. The foreman told me to tell you to go to the construction site early tomorrow. Three truckloads of cement and two truckloads of bricks. If you don't finish moving them, you won't even get paid for yesterday... Also, Widow Wang from the east end of the village asked you: When are you going to save enough money to marry her? If you don't go back by the end of the year, she'll marry the hunchback Liu under the crooked willow tree in the west of the village..."

"Haha, Reader's Digest has been writing about trust funds for a long time, okay? I read it when I was a kid. Rich people all use it."

After the last post with an image link appeared on the 17th floor, the style changed abruptly.

"grass!"

"The big boss is here!"

"Can anyone tell me if the person on the 17th floor is a real big shot?"

"This photo looks so official, did you find it online?"

"Take a picture of yourself with your left hand showing six, your right hand showing seven, your left foot drawing a circle, and your right foot kicking, and I'll believe you're General Manager Chen."

Chen Xuebing replied with a chuckle: Wait a couple of days, see you on Sina Blog.

Proving he's Chen Xuebing is too low a thing to do; he definitely wouldn't do it.

Just get your blog verified and post an article.

This year is not only the spring of private equity, but also the first year of blogs.

Blogcn actually became the world's number one Chinese blog website at the end of 2003, but "Chinese" plus "blog" was a rare term. At that time, most people went to blogs to read pornographic articles written by an ID named "Mu Zimei".

It is her own sex diary, which includes a mention of the famous rock singer Wang Lei.

The writing was so vivid and dreamlike, the whole process and the words spoken were like watching a movie.

The key is to ensure the authenticity of the information.

Wang Lei later responded: "Mu Zimei is really immoral. I didn't know she was a female editor before I did it, and I didn't expect her to write about this kind of thing."

She became an instant sensation, making Wang Lei famous again.

It was Mu Zimei who introduced Chinese people to what a blog is.

It also teaches women that they shouldn't remind a virgin to use a condom when he's whispering "I love you" in his ear, because it will hurt him deeply.

Starting this year, blogs have been certified by influential figures (KOLs), and Sina Blog has officially launched, promoting "celebrity" blogs. More and more celebrities, writers, and opinion leaders are joining, and it has gradually become popular.

After thinking about it, I realized that Blogcn.com would soon be declining, so Sina Blog would be more suitable.

After checking, I found that the authentication process is actually quite complicated.

However, knowing Li Xueling meant he knew the entire online media circle, so getting an invitation from a celebrity was a piece of cake.

Wait for fermentation.

……

Chongqing Jiaotong University.

The library was quite crowded on the weekend. Chen Xuebing, holding a copy of Manccles's "Topology," reserved a table for himself, intending to enjoy the last bit of peace and quiet.

After New Year's Day, the stock market will take off, and all the previous preparations will begin to run at high speed.

However, the stock market has been fluctuating without any movement so far, which makes him a little panicked. He's afraid that if his life is different from his previous one, his cash flow will be completely ruined.

His decision to lay out his internet strategy ahead of time was also related to this panic. If the stock market didn't improve, he would have to resort to project financing. The structure was already in place, and with so many highly paid talents, he couldn't afford to drag himself down.

Panicking won't help; you might as well read a book.

Topology is indeed an interesting branch of geometry. It studies the properties of geometric figures or spaces that remain unchanged after continuous changes in shape, and it is very abstract.

The Möbius strip can be traced; it can be obtained by rotating one end of a long strip of paper 180 degrees and then piecing them together. This shape has only one side, yet it can move from the inside to the outside and back to the inside in a continuous cycle without penetrating any point.

He can easily understand the transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

However, the Klein bottle is a shape obtained by rotating two Möbius strips together. Simply put, it is a bottle with a hole at the bottom, and then the neck of the bottle is extended and twisted, eventually returning to the bottom and connecting with the hole.

This is a process of moving from three dimensions to four dimensions, which requires a lot of imagination. It is completely different from the Klein bottle sold in the market in later generations.

After thinking for a long time, he felt that imagining this shape was truly a dividing line between ordinary people and geniuses.

He held the book, closed his eyes, and began to feel something; a four-dimensional image gradually formed in his mind, constantly appearing and disappearing.

That feeling was truly magical.
Holy crap, so this is what a genius's mind is like.

It was as if a Windows 3D graphic screensaver was spinning in his mind, turning squares into circles and polygons into rings.

Geometry of clay.

It turns out that there's so much meaning behind that screensaver.

In fact, many seemingly different things are like topology; their intrinsic properties are the same—square or round, there is no difference between them.

Many corners can be temporarily hidden behind the shape, and irregular corners can be gradually blunted to form a circle.

The mindset of the internet seems to be included as well.

By changing its perspective, a tiny point can conceal an entire plane.

He seems to have found some ideas.

As I was comprehending the Dao, a warm sensation approached, accompanied by a faint fragrance.

The aroma of fried food.

Chen Xuebing really didn't want to open his eyes and interrupt his thoughts, but the sound of smacking lips was right in front of him.

"Hey, bro, that's too much! Coming to the library to sleep?"

Hu Li sat down in front of him, holding a bowl of fried potatoes.

Xu Yunfeng also came.

"Brother, why hasn't there been any movement on my 600 million?"

Chen Xuebing hurriedly retreated, clutching his books: "How could I be so unreasonable? Eating potatoes in the library! Don't you dare spill oil on my books!"

"Brother, I'm broke. My dad said he'd invest three million in you. Whether I make a profit or a loss, it'll be my allowance for the rest of my college years. Now I can only afford fried potatoes."

After Hu Li finished speaking, Xu Yunfeng also picked up a wooden skewer and stabbed a potato in Hu Li's bowl into his mouth.

"Me too."

(End of this chapter)