Chapter 0686: The Wind Rises

The human heart is never satisfied.

If you give someone who can barely make ends meet one or two thousand yuan a month, they might be extremely grateful. But if it goes on for a long time, they will come to see that money as their due, forgetting that it was something you gave them.

Zhao Fusheng felt that his father was too kind, which was why people thought he could be pushed around.

The good are bullied, the meek are ridden. In this world, there will always be people who don't understand gratitude, who think that others' kindness to them is only right.

And then they push further, and then they press harder.

"I need to go back to Ninghai," Zhao Fusheng said to Fan Baobao.

"Something happened over there?" Seeing Zhao Fusheng's serious expression, Fan Baobao couldn't help asking.

She knew very well that if nothing had happened, Zhao Fusheng wouldn't leave her alone here during the holiday.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "A little problem at home. I'll go back and handle it. I won't be with you for New Year's."

They had a long time together ahead; Zhao Fusheng believed Fan Baobao would surely understand him.

As it turned out, he wasn't wrong.

As soon as she heard it was a family matter, Fan Baobao immediately nodded: "You go back. I'm fine here. The school has a New Year's party anyway. Besides, Wang Qiang and Zhou Yun are here. If anything comes up, I can call Brother Jiang and Sister Feihong."

Zhao Fusheng smiled. His girlfriend wasn't stupid; afraid he'd worry about her, she directly resolved all his concerns.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon," Zhao Fusheng said gently, stroking Fan Baobao's head.

Fan Baobao was as docile as a kitten, nodding softly.

Though she didn't know what had happened, she understood one principle: when a man goes out to handle serious matters, the woman shouldn't cause him trouble.

On December 30, 2000, Zhao Fusheng boarded a plane from Beijing to Ninghai.

The moment he closed his eyes, a cold glint flashed in his pupils. No one knew that at this moment, Zhao Fusheng had made up his mind to cut the Gordian knot.

People strive for respect, just as Buddhas strive for incense. To a large extent, it's because people need fine clothes and Buddhas need gilding. After all, who doesn't want to return home in glory? The word 'glory' easily reveals the secrets of scheming and intrigue in the tide of history. In today's society, a spoiled rich kid with a golden exterior but rotten inside, leaning on a Lamborghini—even without flowers in hand—is more reliable to an ordinary girl than a poor guy holding cheap roses or a stack of love poems.

Though it may be laughable and pathetic, that's the reality.

From the year 2000 until the day Zhao Fusheng was reborn, society existed just like that.

People may shout that money is like dung, but in truth, if given the chance to get rich, no one would push away money that comes their way. It's like when women often say to men, 'I'm with you not for your money.' But try not spending money on her, and she'll make you pay in no time.

"A man who won't even spend money on a woman doesn't love her."

"I'm with you not because I care about your money."

Tsk, even the greatest philosopher probably couldn't figure out the logic here.

Zhao Fusheng naturally wouldn't dwell on this. Fan Baobao could earn her own money; at least on the surface, she made more than he did. So he didn't have to worry about how much money to give her.

In Fan Baobao's words, she was already content as long as Zhao Fusheng didn't borrow money from her.

Actually, Zhao Fusheng understood that money could never be fully earned. But the problem was, in his view, if he didn't earn money—enough money—there were many things he couldn't do.

It might sound ridiculous, but that was the truth.

Moreover, since his rebirth, Zhao Fusheng had always had a realization: in his opinion, everyone has their own stage. If he forcibly stepped onto someone else's stage, leaving aside whether it was unfair to them, it was also unknown how well he himself could handle things. Just because you can go online doesn't mean you understand the internet. If things were that simple, everyone could become a billionaire.

Therefore, after his rebirth, Zhao Fusheng was very careful in everything he did. Even when he urged his father to go into business, he chose a path that, in his view, had the least impact on those around him. He didn't push his father into e-commerce or websites, but simply started from a sales perspective like supermarkets. In short, Zhao Fusheng's ideas were all about using foreknowledge to seize opportunities, never considering replacing any big shot.

As for the name Wanda, it was purely Zhao Fusheng's personal spite against someone, his own perverse taste.

But everyone has selfish motives. Because of Fan Baobao, Zhao Fusheng had intersected with the entertainment industry and made friends like Jiang Wen and Yu Feihong. The more this happened, the more worried Zhao Fusheng actually became. He feared that if he crossed a certain line, this world would become completely different. If it changed for the better, fine; but if it changed for the worse—especially for those close to him—that was not what Zhao Fusheng wanted.

Take Wang Zhen, for example. Originally, Zhao Fusheng thought he had helped him change his fate, but unexpectedly, fate played a joke, to the point that Zhao Fusheng now had to desperately make up for it.

The greatest weapon of a time traveler is knowledge of history. Although this was a parallel world where many things were similar yet different, the problem was precisely this: if doing certain things changed history and made it unrecognizable, then what advantage did the time traveler have?

Zhao Fusheng was well aware that under relatively equal conditions, those who could carve out their own path were no pushovers. Being reborn was just luck; it didn't mean he was really better than Ma Yun or Ma Huateng.

If history really changed, Ma Yun, from an ordinary family, would most likely still rise. But as for himself, it might not be so easy.

Therefore, Zhao Fusheng placed great importance on laying a solid foundation.

In his thinking, no matter what, as long as the foundation was solid, even if he or his father failed in the future, they would at least have a fallback, not really lose everything and have nothing.

So when Zhao Fusheng heard from his mother that someone was trying to poach from his own family and stir up a board of directors or something, he immediately felt terrible.

The plane cut through the air currents. Zhao Fusheng had already fallen asleep. Amid the vast sea of clouds, they drew closer and closer to Ninghai. From time to time, lightning flashed across the sky not far away, as if heralding that this return of Zhao Fusheng would not be so peaceful...