The reason he was nicknamed Alan was because he had an older sister with the nickname Ben, who was wild and eccentric—a typical lifestyle of the imperial relatives of that generation in old Beijing, so sharp that it could bring tears to the eyes of onlookers. She’s currently muddling through at Imperial College, and of course, her social circle is far beyond what little brats like David Clark and Ryan Clark could ever compare to. Her motto is: When I was three, I’d already decided to become a nun at thirty. Before thirty, I’m just a shallow, vulgar vase, so don’t fucking talk to me about any damn ideals, I don’t get it. If you want to hit on me, at the very least, if you’re a second-generation official, you should be the child of a provincial or ministerial-level cadre. If you make your own money, get your face familiar on Forbes first, and if you’re not in jail after a few years, then come find Sister. Otherwise, get lost—do I need your time to put on a face mask?

And this crazy woman’s greatest pleasure was teasing the poor, honest David Clark. For no reason, she’d dress up flamboyantly like a flower in the middle of the night and harass David Clark for a steamy video chat. That’s why Alan Clark was more afraid of this Ben King than anyone else. As for why David Clark and Ryan Clark both had the surname Zhao, while Ben King’s surname was Wang, well, that’s another legend. To put it simply, they weren’t related by blood. Back in the day, Jack Clark played the part of Chen Shimei, abandoning his fiancée to marry a widow from an old Beijing red-blooded family—specifically, he married into the Wang family. Later, he divorced her and got back together with his first love, who had been waiting for him all along—David Clark’s mother. Then things got even more dramatic: perhaps finding his original wife too old and faded, once he made it big, the now-flourishing Jack Clark got involved with a young, beautiful gold-digger. After having the unexpected child Ryan Clark, he brought this scheming beauty into the Zhao family. So, all of Tangshan’s circles, both common and elite, have always gossiped about the legendary rise and love life of comrade Jack Clark. In other words, David Clark nominally has three mothers: his biological mother, who has already immigrated to Canada and lives a peaceful life; his stepmother, the mother of SisterBen King, who hates Jack Clark to the bone but has always treated David Clark well, almost like her own son; and his other stepmother, with whom David Clark is at constant odds—a never-ending war in his eyes.

So, David Clark would sometimes mock himself as a man with a story, and his close buddies, the likes of Sparrow and Leopard, would always nod vigorously in agreement.

“Oh heavens, send me a Lin Daiyu!” On a quiet but wide street in the school district, David Clark howled like a madman. In Tangshan, at least he could still spot a few females who could spark some romantic fantasies. But in Shanghai, Sparrow hadn’t yet established a base at Fudan, and the girls Linda Kent might help him find probably wouldn’t be much to his taste. At his own school, there weren’t many girls who caught his eye at first glance—things looked bleak. That’s why the still-innocent David Clark was getting anxious.

Then, he burst out laughing wildly in the empty street, feeling utterly refreshed.

But as he passed a bus stop, he broke out in a cold sweat when he noticed a pretty girl sitting beside a statue, staring at him in shock, as if she thought he was a lunatic or a pervert. When she saw David Clark notice her, she seemed afraid he’d do something to her and then silence her, so she hurriedly grabbed a stack of books and tried to leave. Maybe because she was in a rush and had been waiting for the bus for a while, her legs were a bit numb, and she stumbled, falling to the ground in a most unladylike fashion. David Clark felt a wave of guilt—he was the kind of guy who would always give up his seat to the elderly on the bus, a true model youth raised under the red flag of socialism. So he immediately stopped his bike, intending to politely ask if she needed help. But as soon as he got off his rickety bicycle, the girl’s face turned deathly pale, and after struggling to her feet, she started to run. Unfortunately, the minor scrape from her fall became painfully obvious as she ran, making the delicate-skinned girl, who’d never suffered much hardship, tear up as she ran, crying.

David Clark panicked, thinking he’d really scared the girl. He’d known from the start she didn’t see him as a good person, so after getting off his bike, he hadn’t dared get too close—he just wanted to ask out of courtesy. But seeing her limp away as if she’d run into a flasher or a subway groper, tears streaming down her face, he figured she must be in real pain. After parking his bike by the bus stop, he sprinted after her and caught up in a flash. His excellent rational thinking as a science student immediately kicked in—without wasting words, he held out his student ID and ID card with both hands and said seriously, “I’m not a bad person.”

The girl wasn’t stunning—her face was just gentle and pleasant, about 1.65 meters tall, and her figure wasn’t exaggeratedly curvy. But at first glance, she seemed to fit the taste of someone with a thing for nice legs: under her tie-dye floral dress was a pair of delicate calves, and she wore simple canvas shoes. To David Clark, she wasn’t the kind of girl who’d make a man want to hit on her at first sight, but she was very easy on the eyes—a high-quality prospect with great potential, the kind you’d want to nurture. Just like Zijin Mining, which he’d started paying close attention to back in 2003, bound to show its true value one day.