A leisurely life starting in a bar after being reborn

The two girls exchanged a glance.

"A Stanford graduate?" Liu Fangping said with a smile. "No wonder he looks different."

"I also studied in the United States," Zhang Biying said, "University of California, Irvine."

"Irvine campus?" Fu Yan was a little surprised. "What do you study?"

"Law plus economics".

"Economics?" Fu Yan glanced at her. "You don't look like someone who studied economics."

"So what do you think I should study?"

"Art? Performance?"

Zhang Biying smiled, a smile like ice melting: "I have a dual identity. At night I'm an economics graduate student, and during the day—or rather, in the future—I'm an actress."

"No wonder you're so beautiful! Are you here to develop your career in mainland China?"

"Yeah!" Liu Fangping chimed in, "We just got a gig, filming in Yanjing, and we happened to have a day off today, so we came out for a stroll. We thought the name of your bar was interesting, so we came in to check it out."

"What's your name?"

“‘Homecoming’!” Zhang Biying said, “Homecoming in Houhai, it’s a very evocative name.”

Fu Yan smiled and said, "I just made it up."

"No way!" Liu Fangping said. "I think the name is very poetic. 'Houhai Returning Home' sounds like a name only someone with a story would choose."

"Then guess what my story is?"

Liu Fangping tilted her head and looked him over for a while, then shook her head: "I can't guess. You look... quite ordinary, but also seem extraordinary."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's just a feeling," Liu Fangping said, "there's something about you... um... how should I put it, composure? No, it should be..."

"Composed and dignified, like someone who has seen the world," Zhang Biying finished for her.

"Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly the feeling!"

Fu Yan glanced at the two of them.

Suddenly I felt that these two girls had very sharp eyes, as if they could see through people's hearts.

"How long did you two stay in the United States?" Fu Yan changed the subject.

"I stayed there for four years," Zhang Biying said. "I completed my undergraduate degree there."

"I stayed there for three years," Liu Fangping said. "I studied in California and then spent a year at National Central University in Taiwan."

"And what about you?" Zhang Biying asked, "How long did you stay at Stanford?"

"Six years."

"Undergraduate plus graduate?"

"No, I have a master's or doctoral degree."

"Then you're amazing..." Zhang Biying suddenly stopped, and the look in her eyes as she looked at Fu Yan changed.

A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, followed by curiosity, and finally, a sense of confirmation.

"Are you—" she paused, seemingly choosing her words carefully, "Are you... Odin?"

Fu Yan paused for a moment as he held the wine glass.

Odin.

That was the name he used when he was working on Wall Street. The king of the gods in Scandinavian mythology—cunning, powerful, and all-knowing. He'd chosen this rather slick name to impress people when he was shorting the subprime mortgage market.

This name was once a code name for Wall Street, and its reach was limited.

But how could a Taiwanese actress know that?

"How do you know this name?" Fu Yan put down his wine glass and looked at her.

Zhang Biying's eyes lit up.

"Wow! Is it really you?" Her voice was tinged with disbelief. "I knew it! I felt like I recognized you the moment I saw you, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen you before. Now I remember—there's a picture of you in my advisor's slides, standing in Times Square."

"In your advisor's course materials?"

"Yes," Zhang Biying said. "My mentor is a finance professor named Wang Zhongheng, who specializes in the derivatives market. When he was telling us about hedge fund cases, he mentioned you—Odin, the man who made 170 billion during the subprime crisis."

"He said at the time that Odin was the smartest trader he had ever seen, bar none!" Zhang Biying looked at Fu Yan and said that it was almost an impossible task for him to see through the bubble in the US real estate market in such a short period of time, accurately calculate the core of government financial regulation, and then short sell in such a precise way.

He also said that Odin was not a man, but a god.

Fu Yan paused for a moment, then smiled.

"Odin is not a god!" he said. "Odin is just a lucky guy."

"A lucky one? How is that possible?"

"He thought he could change the world, but..." Fu Yan swirled his wine glass, "In the end, he only got the money, and he successfully ran away!"

Zhang Biying and Liu Fangping exchanged a glance, both somewhat bewildered.

"You ran away?" Liu Fangping asked. "You mean... you ran back?"

"More or less," Fu Yan said.

"You seem to be enjoying it?"

"Haha, it's alright."

"Did you really make that much money?"

"Hmm, probably, it seems not that many." Fu Yan took a sip of his drink. "Some of them must be taken by the IRS in the US! That department is notoriously corrupt."

Zhang Biying looked at Fu Yan, her curiosity growing stronger.

"Mr. Fu Yan, may I ask you something?" she suddenly said, "Are you really only thirty-two years old?"

"What? Do you look older?"

"Because judging from Odin's resume," she said, "you were already making waves in the capital markets before you even graduated, right? How did you manage to study and trade in the financial markets at the same time?"

Fu Yan was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had really gone crazy back then. He was really going all out to earn enough money for retirement. Not only did he sleep very little every day, but he was also very energetic.

He smiled, offered no explanation, and simply raised his glass: "Come on, meeting is fate, let's drink."

Zhang Biying didn't press him for details, but gave him a meaningful look before raising her glass and clinking it against his.

Liu Fangping watched from the sidelines, completely bewildered, having no idea what kind of riddle the two were playing.

"You two...know each other?" she asked.

"We don't know each other," the two said in unison.

"So what are you doing...?"

"We had a very interesting conversation about finance and economics," Fu Yan said.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhang Biying nodded, "We really clicked."

Liu Fangping looked at this and then at that, shook her head, and decided not to ask any more questions.

-

They chatted until after 1 a.m., and all three of them had drunk quite a bit.

Zhang Biying and Liu Fangping had to go back to the film set tomorrow, so they couldn't stay out too late. Fu Yan had Zhao Gang drive the Land Rover and take the two girls back to their hotel.

As she was leaving, Zhang Biying stood at the car door and glanced back at Fu Yan.

"Mr. Fu Yan," she said, "we had a very pleasant chat today."

"Me too."

"In the future..." she paused, "Will we meet again?"

"Yes, it will," Fu Yan said. "Yanjing isn't very big."

Zhang Biying smiled, a smile that carried a deeper meaning: "Then let's exchange contact information. I hope I can consult you if I have any economic questions in the future."

"OK, I'll call you."

……

The Land Rover drove away, and Fu Yan stood at the entrance of the bar, watching the taillights disappear into the night.

Odin.

He had almost forgotten his name.

I never expected that someone would mention this name while I was hiding in a bar in Yanjing. And it was an actress from Taiwan.

A master's degree in economics, working during the day and studying at night, and even being used as a teaching material by her professors—this girl is quite interesting.

Fu Yan turned around and went back to the bar to continue drinking.

Tonight's story will keep him entertained for a while.