Chapter 681: Running away again
“Choose one,” Zhou Yuandai pointed at that namelist of death in front of Xu Tingsheng.
Xu Tingsheng’s hands were trembling slightly as he lowered his head and looked at all the names on it, next looking up painfully and saying softly, “I can’t choose. You already know everything now. Victory is in your grasp…whereas soon, I will have nothing. I can tell you everything in my period of foreknowledge…can I use this to exchange for you, this time…”
“Do you think that’s possible?” Zhou Yuandai interrupted him, “I’ve already warned you repeatedly. Sorry, luck is not on your side. So, choose. Don’t make me wait too long or I’ll choose one myself.”
Xu Tingsheng put his face in his hands and was silent for a while, “Can I tell you about something from my previous life?”
“Hmm?”
“Regarding that little girl…” Xu Tingsheng looked and continued as he saw that Zhou Yuandai did not outright say no, “Maybe I’m a very useless person innately. I was in my previous life. In this life, because of this foreknowledge and the success it has brought me, I thought for a time that I was sufficiently powerful…it seems now, though, that I’m still that same me.”
With that, Xu Tingsheng revealed how he had resigned and started a business in his previous life. Having met Xiang Ning, he had chosen to run away after being saddled with millions in debt due to the betrayal of a classmate…after a futile struggle, he had chosen to give up…he finished with that final, fateful night when he had met Xiang Ning.“You thought that doing so was very noble, but actually, you were just being cowardly in running away from things,” After hearing his story, Zhou Yuandai said as she looked coldly at him.
“Yes,” Xu Tingsheng admitted.
“Are you trying to evoke my sympathy with this story now then?” Zhou Yuandai asked mockingly.
“No. I just want to tell you that I’m still that me. I want to run away again. If you can, please do not hurt them, because if it is to threaten me or evoke fear and pain in me…that would already be meaningless,” Xu Tingsheng said slowly.
Run away again?
“What do you mean?” Zhou Yuandai did not get it.
At this instant, Xu Tingsheng grabbed a dining knife from the table as fast as he could, stabbing it backhanded towards his own heart…
As the tip of the knife penetrated skin and flesh and fresh blood spurted out, a hand grabbed it from behind and to the side, preventing it from going any further.
Zhou Yuandai looked at Xu Tingsheng’s expression, the knife in his hand and the blood on his chest…she could ascertain that Xu Tingsheng was not faking it. If not for that private escort of hers behind him who, while deaf, had extraordinary reflexes and reaction speed that far surpassed the norm, this knife would definitely have plunged in, stabbing the heart.
“Trash.”
Zhou Yuandai now knew what Xu Tingsheng had meant by ‘running away again’. With his plan exposed and having failed completely…unable to choose and without the courage to face it, he sought to simply end his life.
It would be better if this could cause Zhou Yuandai to desist against the others. Otherwise, he would at least not have to face it helplessly while being able to do nothing.
Not fearing death like this instead better exhibited how cowardly he was.
Zhou Yuandai calling him ‘trash’ was truly heartfelt.
Unfortunately, it was true that she still could not let Xu Tingsheng die now…
“Go get your wound treated,” She pressed the namelist on the table, “I can let this matter slide for now…remember, don’t disappoint me again. If this happens again…”
She raised the namelist and ripped it up, as if to say…she would destroy all of them.
Xu Tingsheng slumped down woodenly. He did not react as he was restricted by the deaf-mute black man who had just stopped him earlier. Supported by him as well, he left the room to receive treatment for his injury.
Gazing at the expressionless black man, Xu Tingsheng secretly grumbled in his heart, “It hurts like crazy! Old black bro, you must have been zoning out earlier…or you’re the weakest. I experimented so many times. None of them was slower than you.”
Having truly had a close brush with death, Xu Tingsheng’s back was full of cold sweat.
In order to enact this, he had pretended to accidentally drop things a few times when eating and drinking to test out the reaction time of these people Zhou Yuandai had arranged to watch over him. According to his estimates…the tip of the knife should not even be able to penetrate skin.
This was why he had been able to act without any reservation whatsoever…yet in the end, what a noob this black man was!
Fortunately, Zhou Yuandai had believed it.
Everything that had happened today would cause Zhou Yuandai to truly resolve herself, also becoming unable to stop herself.
As for Zhang Xingke, he had not lied, of course. He had really betrayed Xu Tingsheng…
Maybe it was wrong to even call it a betrayal. He had only made a choice that befitted his personality.
Xu Tingsheng was actually really not especially smart. After all, he was only normal in his previous life. It was impossible that rebirth would cause his IQ to rise…that only happened in s.
Xu Tingsheng had just always persisted in believing in and making arrangements in accordance to everybody’s personalities.
For example, Huang Yaming was suited to being and yearned to be a major figure. Thus, he had given him a lot, both opportunities and risks.
In contrast, Xu Tingsheng had not given Fu Cheng any shares at all. Even for that flat in Ning Garden, he had merely given him a discount.
It was the same for many other people too.
……
Xu Tingsheng’s wound quickly healed.
The days moved towards the imminent chain explosion on Wall Street…
Zhou Yuandai bet all that she had. Observing the hidden undercurrents beneath the prosperity of the bustling Wall Street, she was very certain that a crisis was really coming…she would establish a mega empire that far surpassed her original peak through this time’s crisis.
Due to ‘leverage’ and ‘pay-offs’, Zhou Yuandai who had first placed bets on the banker and then bet a large amount on the player saw no possibility of herself being defeated whatsoever.
If the crisis really happened as expected, it was not just several buckets full of loot that she would be seeing.
The worst case scenario was that the eventual crisis did not take place in America…yet she would not make too much of a loss even then.
How could she lose? With the principle of ‘preparing for the eventuality of defeat before victory’, Zhou Yuandai had calculated countless times…she could see no possibility of defeat at all. The way Xu Tingsheng had acted that day and her analysis of Zhang Xingke’s background and personality also caused her to have a firm conviction in many things.
Such as the period of Xu Tingsheng’s foreknowledge, his plan and actual motives, his…
……
June 2008. Zhou Yuandai who was in a pretty good mood even came looking for Xu Tingsheng to drink alcohol with every now and then.
The two would chat about a lot, such as how they had felt upon first having been reborn, their various experiences and how they had grown.
Even though their opinions diverged most of the time, Zhou Yuandai still felt that it was best to keep this person even after his period of foreknowledge had expired…after all, it was lonely as someone who had been reborn. There was only this person whom she could converse with and vent to…
Far away in Yanzhou.
Xiang Ning finished her university entrance examinations.
She wrote in her diary:
“The university entrance examinations are over. You were originally going to wait for me outside the examination venue, but you didn’t come. So, I brought along the bullet shell that you gave me and that jade necklace that auntie gave me.”
“In the end, I feel like I did very well.”
“Right, that jade necklace seems very frightening, right? I asked auntie, and she said it’s my dowry. Heh!”
“Very soon, it’ll have been a year. Do you remember what you said before? At the backstage of Xinyan Junior High back then, you said that if you are not around one day and I miss you, I just have to sing that song and you’ll come.”
“I sang it. You said that you’d come to see me soon. I waited, and it’s been over a year…”
“Why are you still not back yet?”
“I received a call from Big Sis Apple today. I’m really going to sing.”
“Do you know who wrote the song?”
“It’s Jay Chou!”
“Big Sis Apple requested a song from him and received it very long ago. A few days ago, she suddenly felt that this song is very suited for me to sing to you. So, she asked me to record it.”
“This song will be in her new album. It will also be on the internet…Big Sis Apple’s so popular now. Wherever you are, you may also hear it…”
“When you hear it, you must hurry home. I’m waiting for you to return.”