Chapter 40: N. Brand New Plan

The rain in New York stopped and started, intermittently, and the sky remained a constant gray. Su Hui had been off his medication for three days, and his state was deteriorating rapidly.

On Tuesday, Liang Wen found his current address through Carl and came to visit in person, but Su Hui hid away, pretending not to hear the doorbell and refusing to see him. He knew he was failing Liang Wen’s concern, but he was helpless to do otherwise.

Ning Yixiao, however, opened the door, covered for him, and took the medication from Liang Wen. Yet, when he returned, he didn’t mention anything about taking the medicine.

For these three days, Ning Yixiao had been working from home and rarely went out. Xue Gao would often wander into Su Hui’s room, but since the door was closed, he would want to leave again, going back and forth several times. Eventually, Su Hui left the door open, letting Xue Gao come and go freely.

In many moments, Su Hui felt he was a failure, a burden, and entirely worthless. Sometimes, Su Hui thought, if only someone could put a clear price tag on him, at least he would know he wasn’t completely useless in moments like these. He even began to miss the time, two or three years ago, when he was washing dishes in that small, dilapidated old restaurant—back then, Su Hui was worth $3.50 per hour.

There, the cold weather was very similar to his imagination of Iceland, but everything else had gone completely against his expectations.

As his thoughts were gradually swallowed by emotions, a knock at the door interrupted his memories.

“May I come in?” Ning Yixiao’s voice appeared behind him.

Sitting on the floor, Su Hui turned his head sluggishly. His face was mostly obscured by the high bed, leaving only his eyes, which looked fixedly at Ning Yixiao. He looked just like a cat hiding away.

Ning Yixiao got straight to the point, stating his intention immediately. “Su Hui, do you mind if I donate this bed?”

Su Hui frowned, his eyes filled with surprise. He looked at the bed, then back at Ning Yixiao. “Donate it?”

Ning Yixiao nodded. “Jing Ming recently participated in a charity event that donates money and goods to single-parent families in need. According to him, several families specified they needed daily necessities, and beds are among them. I want to donate the double bed in my room and the single bed in yours. What do you think?”

“Donate yours, too?” Su Hui turned toward him, not quite understanding. “Then where will you sleep?”

Ning Yixiao walked over and pressed his palm onto Su Hui’s bedding. “I just tried taking the mattress down and putting it on the floor; it’s actually quite nice to sleep on. I recently read a paper concluding that lowering the height of the bed is beneficial for sleep. This works well, too; treat it like sleeping on a tatami mat.”

Su Hui blinked slowly, still staring unblinkingly at Ning Yixiao’s face, as if expressing skepticism.

“If you don’t think this is good, I’ll just donate mine and the bed in the other guest room on the first floor,” Ning Yixiao said, pausing. “Though Carl stays there occasionally, and I remember he likes sleeping high up.”

Su Hui finally gave a response. “Donate mine.”

He held onto the edge of the bed to stand up, and not quite honestly, confessed to Ning Yixiao: “Actually, I was never really used to sleeping on it…”

It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to it; he hadn’t been sleeping on the bed at all.

Ning Yixiao pretended not to know and made a decision naturally. “Then I’ll contact the organization. They’ll probably be here to pick it up in an hour.” After saying that, he moved closer and suggested to Su Hui, “Let’s work together to take the mattress down first and put it on the floor, shall we?”

Su Hui nodded, his voice very light. “Okay.”

“Might as well change the bedding too,” Ning Yixiao said, taking a new set from the cabinet. The sheets were dark blue and the duvet cover was a pale baby blue—the color scheme Su Hui liked.

Just like that, on a morning that started off terrible, Ning Yixiao suddenly proposed this strange idea of donation, and like magic, whisked away the bed Su Hui loathed. Not only that, he utilized his innate talent for organizing, along with his understanding of Su Hui, to transform this empty space on the wooden floor into a small, square sea, pressed against the ground, full of a sense of security.

But from beginning to end, Ning Yixiao never said, “These are things I did for you.”

After finishing, while watching the movers carry the bed out, he only said to Su Hui, “That single mother will surely be grateful to you. Tonight, she can hold her child and sleep on that bed.”

As Ning Yixiao intended to leave the room, Su Hui spoke up unexpectedly. “Ning Yixiao.”

He turned back. “Yes?”

“How old is her child?” Su Hui asked.

Ning Yixiao stood there and thought for a moment. “Seems like only four.”

Su Hui stood up and walked to the table, pouring out many colorful candies from a small box on the desktop. His hand paused in mid-air; after a thought, he put them all back in. He bent down and found a large children’s picture book in the cardboard box he had never cleaned out—it was a classic collection of fairy tales. He took the whole box of candies and the book together and gave them to Ning Yixiao.

“Then give these to them, too.”

“Hmm.” Restraining the urge to pat the top of Su Hui’s head, he took the candy box and the book. He looked at the cover—it wasn’t the same one from before. “Didn’t you love reading these during your manic phase? Do you really want to send them away?”

Su Hui froze. He hadn’t expected Ning Yixiao to remember. When his manic phase was severe, his thoughts raced, and he couldn’t concentrate; he couldn’t read text, so he could only look at children’s picture books. When they were still together, he would stay up late into the night, lights on, reading these books. Ning Yixiao would stay with him, reading them page by page as if telling a story to a child, letting him lean on his shoulder.

“Yes.” Su Hui lowered his eyes. “I won’t need them for the time being anyway.”

“The children will be very grateful to you, too.” Ning Yixiao hooked the corners of his lips, wrapped Su Hui’s gifts in a bag, and handed them to the movers.

After all this was done and the large house returned to quiet, Su Hui realized that his emotions seemed to have eased significantly. He had been unable to overcome the psychological barrier to sleep properly on a bed and could only sleep on the floor. He knew he was living under someone else’s roof and didn’t expect anyone to move the bed away just to accommodate his wish. These were clearly troublesome things to do, yet Ning Yixiao did them directly and found a wonderful value in these “troubles.”

Su Hui lay alone on the soft mattress, his eyes aching. He was well aware that he had never come out of his ordeal and was sinking deeper and deeper. If he could, he really hoped Ning Yixiao wouldn’t be this good to him, wouldn’t keep releasing light and heat out of kindness now that they had ended, because he was afraid he would impulsively become entangled again.

Su Hui’s life was forced to be bound with both euphoria and suppression, just like the character with scissor-hands in the movie; choosing to embrace Ning Yixiao was equivalent to choosing to hurt him.

Before leaving, Ning Yixiao knocked on his door and brought Xue Gao in, telling Su Hui he didn’t have time to feed him and reminding him to come out and feed him later, and to have dinner as well.

“I’ll probably be back late.” Ning Yixiao had put on a formal suit again, looking like he was attending an important occasion, but his tie didn’t seem to be tied quite right.

Su Hui noticed it, pointed, and reminded him softly, “Your tie is crooked.”

Ning Yixiao stood there. “Is it? How about now?” There were no mirrors around, so he adjusted it by feel, but it only got worse.

Su Hui subconsciously wanted to help, but hesitated for a moment and gave up, avoiding it by saying, “You should tidy it up in front of the hallway mirror.”

Ning Yixiao didn’t insist, just curled his lips, pretending not to care. “Hmm, got it.”

He had declined almost every social engagement these past few days, but tonight’s reception was hosted by Jones personally, and major shareholders from several companies were attending; he couldn’t turn it down.

Sitting in the car, Ning Yixiao straightened the tie he had deliberately messed up in the rearview mirror, and then opened his laptop to handle business.

When he arrived at the venue, the rain outside had stopped and the sky had gone completely dark. Ning Yixiao reached the ballroom on the top floor and was soon surrounded, becoming the center of new conversation.

He took a glass of champagne from a waiter’s tray, echoed the crowd, and put on a mask of witty banter, though he felt exhausted inside. He even wished the ballroom would suddenly lose power, or that all of New York would go dark, so everything would sink into blackness and he could legitimately return home, finding any excuse to stay by Su Hui’s side.

But this was clearly a delusion. Mr. Jones watched him from afar and raised his glass. It was like a signal; Ning Yixiao received it and walked toward him. The others standing around Jones found excuses to walk away, leaving space for the two of them. In everyone’s eyes, Ning Yixiao was not only the hot young entrepreneur in Silicon Valley but also a member of the Jones family in the future.

Even though Ning Yixiao was well aware that, in a few months, these hollow titles would vanish along with these people’s discussions. He just needed to wait patiently.

“Why aren’t you wearing a ring?” Mr. Jones suddenly asked, sounding like a gentle interrogation.

Ning Yixiao looked at his empty hand, smiled, and naturally pushed the responsibility away. “Bella has high standards for accessories. She thinks wearing a static ring would affect her daily outfits, so we haven’t picked out a wedding set yet.”

But clearly, the old fox before him wasn’t easily bluffed.

“Is that so?” Mr. Jones smiled kindly. “I actually heard someone mention that when you sold your first startup project, you spent a fortune customizing a pair of rings at a jewelry counter. I thought you would choose that pair; after all, they have a different meaning to you.”

Ning Yixiao didn’t expect that even these old, dusty stories had been ferreted out by him. He lowered his eyes and smiled, finding an excuse to brush it off. “That pair was very cheap; it wouldn’t be very appropriate.”

Instead, Ning Yixiao jokingly added, “Jing Ming must have told you.”

Mr. Jones laughed out loud, too. “Why didn’t you guess your mentor?”

Ning Yixiao then took the opportunity to shift the topic to the professor. Seeing other investors coming to find Mr. Jones, he found a timely excuse to go to the restroom, cutting off the social interaction with Mr. Jones.

After washing his hands in the restroom and putting his gloves back on, he finally saw Jing Ming arriving late when he returned to the venue. Jing Ming was wearing a rose-pink suit, chatting away with a lady, looking exactly like an eye-catching flamingo. Ning Yixiao couldn’t be bothered to go over and join the fun, so he walked to the arc-shaped balcony of the ballroom, pushed open the glass door, and stood there looking at the night view. He wanted to smoke but hadn’t brought any, so he let it go.

Before long, the glass door was opened again; the thunderous noise of the crowd and the sound of violins leaked out briefly before being blocked again as the door closed.

“Aren’t you cold?” Jing Ming walked to his side, leaning against the round marble railing of the balcony.

Ning Yixiao stared at him and said abruptly, “This railing seems to be an antique; don’t lean on it and break it and fall off.”

“Fuck, really?” Jing Ming, who valued his life highly, was so scared he sprang up immediately and looked back. “Really? No way…”

Ning Yixiao said coldly, “Guess whether there are any ancient buildings in America.”

Only then did Jing Ming realize he had been played. “How are you so childish! You scared the hell out of me…” Terrified into a cold sweat, he quickly drank some wine to soothe his nerves.

After the fright, Jing Ming’s gossipy nature couldn’t help but reveal itself. “Hey, how’s it going?”

Ning Yixiao didn’t even look at him, just stared into the night. “How’s what going?”

“Stop playing dumb.” Jing Ming expressed how annoyed he was with him, but actually, he had noticed that Ning Yixiao had been in a much better mood lately, even having the interest to joke with him, so he continued to gossip. “Is it almost a success?”

Ning Yixiao glanced at him. “How is that possible?”

“How is it impossible?” Jing Ming sighed. “I’m so worried for you.”

“What are you worried about?”

“I was worried before because you were always thinking of him, unable to eat or sleep. I couldn’t stand it anymore and brought you to him, but you wouldn’t make a direct move. How can I not be worried?” Jing Ming said, taking a big gulp of his wine.

Ning Yixiao leaned against the railing, his voice deep as he exhaled misty water vapor into the cold air. “Have you ever tried to catch a small cat?”

The topic shifted too fast, and Jing Ming was stunned for a moment, almost unable to keep up. “What? Catch a small cat?”

“A stray cat on the side of the road.” Ning Yixiao looked at the flashing lights of the buildings in the distance. “If you want to catch him the moment you see him, he will definitely run away quickly. Even if you hold the sentiment of wanting to help him and give him a home, the little cat doesn’t understand; he will just be very afraid.”

He paused and then said, “You can only let him try to accept you slowly, see him every day, give him lots of the food he loves, and then make him familiar with your scent little by little, trying to get closer to him. Only when his fear is completely eliminated can you make your move.”

After he finished, he sipped his wine and looked at Jing Ming. “Understand?”

“Cheh.” Jing Ming swirled his glass, clicking his tongue. “You’re quite knowledgeable.”

Ning Yixiao gave a bitter smile. It’s the cat I lost, of course I know.

Jing Ming looked at him and couldn’t help but hook his lips. Although he, being such an impatient person, couldn’t see eye-to-eye with a person like Ning Yixiao who planned everything out slowly, seeing that he was no longer struggling and had truly made a decision, he felt a measure of relief in his heart.

He couldn’t help but recall the first time he saw Ning Yixiao, which was completely different from now.

That was in their first entrepreneurship public lecture at S University. At that time, his keyword impression of this Chinese student was “solitary.” Back then, Ning Yixiao fit perfectly into people’s stereotypical image of a “geek”—eccentric personality, super-intelligent, studying programming all day, without a life or friends.

However, midway through the entrepreneurship course, students were required by the professor to propose their own startup projects and plans, presenting them publicly in front of everyone. Other students could choose to “invest” or not, and the project with the most investment would receive extra credit at the end of the term.

During that mid-term report, Ning Yixiao’s startup project received the highest investment. More than two-thirds of the students chose to “buy shares,” which was completely beyond Jing Ming’s expectations.

The solitary nerd in his eyes, after stepping onto the podium, was able to control the room completely, explaining his thoughts with fluid ease. Using skillful verbal arts, a completely different charisma, and a meticulous project plan, he conquered everyone.

After the report concluded, Jing Ming actively approached him and told him directly that he wanted to be his friend or partner—not for a virtual class project, but for a real one. Later, he achieved both, becoming Ning Yixiao’s angel investor. However, back then, Ning Yixiao simply could not stop working. As long as he stopped, he would fall into endless depression: alcoholism, insomnia, walking alone on the streets in the dead of night, as if his life actually contained an invisible vortex that would appear from time to time, pulling him completely into it.

Later, Ning Yixiao saved up enough for a plane ticket and went to Iceland. During that time, he was almost completely unreachable, and the school couldn’t contact him either. Fortunately, after a few weeks, he returned safely, having passed through danger unscathed.

From then on, that mysterious vortex seemed to have disappeared temporarily. Ning Yixiao was no longer depressed; instead, he spent all his time and energy on work. Together, they built their first startup project—an online personal financial processing system. The results of this project were even better than he had imagined, but just as the user base was gradually expanding and rising steadily, Ning Yixiao proposed selling it.

Jing Ming didn’t understand at that time. Finance combined with the internet was a “hot” project, and it was perfectly suited for making money. But Ning Yixiao didn’t want to, and he couldn’t force him, so he followed his choice and sold the project to a bank, exchanging it for two million dollars in cash.

When they earned this “first pot of gold,” Jing Ming naively thought that with Ning Yixiao’s habit of becoming addicted to planning, he would surely divide this money up at the first opportunity, make a plan for each part, and use it on the most critical parts to advance new projects.

To his surprise, the first thing Ning Yixiao did was take his card to a jewelry store counter, where he spent fifteen minutes ordering a set of couple rings.

However, Jing Ming had never seen that set of rings; if it weren’t for the fact that the electronic statement certainly existed, he would have even thought Ning Yixiao had never bought them at all. He didn’t even have a partner to send them to.

They used the remaining money as principal and invested in a brand-new project, which was completely different from the previous financial direction. Ning Yixiao proposed a concept that was almost contradictory, very unrealistic, and very “un-Ning Yixiao.”

He built an artificial intelligence team, sparing no expense to hire scientific research personnel, spending a lot of money to build a database, and dedicating himself to using artificial intelligence to identify human emotions and simulate human feedback.

This concept was opposed by many people at first. It wasn’t a good project for making money in the conventional sense, and investors didn’t think there was any meaning in breaking down such barriers, nor did they think this could bring them profits. They couldn’t even be bothered to hear the idea through. Ning Yixiao suffered from cold eyes and was used to being looked down upon, so later, when they achieved success, the whole team was extraordinarily excited; the feeling was hard-won.

Jing Ming still remembered when the company’s market value broke through ten million dollars, they held a small party inside the company. At that time, he felt that if they kept going like this, they would definitely succeed, so he asked Ning Yixiao what plans he had for the future.

Ning Yixiao held an iced beer bottle but didn’t drink much; he looked very sober, and not that happy. He replied: his plan only went up to fifteen years later. That is to say, it ended at forty.

Jing Ming didn’t believe it, thinking he was being funny, when he was clearly a person keen on planning everything.

[Really.]

[If this lifestyle continues, after forty, I will probably resign.]

Jing Ming even remembered his expression at the time. Clearly, his eyes reflected the bright coastline of San Francisco, yet it seemed as if he were seeing snow covering the sky.

[I want to move to Iceland, spend a year living there, tour every corner, and then euthanasia.]

A cold wind blew, and thoughts returned to reality. Jing Ming lowered his head, looked at the empty glass, then looked at Ning Yixiao, and said abruptly, “I still prefer you the way you are now.”

Taking the initiative to help Ning Yixiao face the past now seemed to be a good thing.

Ning Yixiao raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding his words.

Compared to the thought of euthanasia in Iceland at forty-one, Jing Ming thought, catching a small cat was a much better plan.