Chapter 11

Speaking of which, Beth is actually an upperclassman at SJM High School, but she is almost 20 years older than SJM High School.

More than a decade ago, when Cheng Shi was a first-year graduate student, Beth established a five-year scholarship program in the School of Arts at her alma mater. Cheng Shi was the first recipient of the Beth Scholarship, which is how she met Beth, who was then the Asia-Pacific president of a Fortune 500 multinational company.

Beth is called "Wonder Woman" because she has the same thick, wavy hair as Diana Prince, exuding both competence and charm; and like Diana Prince, she always seems enthusiastic, agile, and brave, as if her energy is inexhaustible, as if there is nothing in this world she cannot do.

What's even more amazing is that although Beth is 20 years older than Chengshi, she shows no signs of age. Even though she's now over 50 and approaching 60, she doesn't have a single gray hair, nor a single wrinkle. According to Huang Ruoyu, this is because Beth is all about "technology and hard work," and because the wealth of money is beneficial. However, Chengshi doesn't see any of that technology or wealth Huang Ruoyu mentioned. To Chengshi, Beth's makeup looks like she's completely bare-faced; he thinks she's naturally beautiful, and he even suspects Huang Ruoyu is jealous of her.

To be honest, if Chengshi hadn't spent every day with Huang Ruoyu, he would never have imagined that makeup was such a complicated task. In Chengshi's understanding, he could only tell at a glance that Candy, who basically didn't know how to do makeup, was wearing makeup; as for Xie Yiling's level of makeup skills, if it weren't for Huang Ruoyu's repeated guidance, Chengshi wouldn't have been able to see any problems at all.

However, in Chengshi's heart, he always believed that Huang Ruoyu had reason to be jealous of Beth, because Beth liked Chengshi very much. When Chengshi won the scholarship, Beth openly showed her affection for him in front of everyone, praising him in public and private for his good looks, solid professional knowledge, and high overall quality... Therefore, Beth once strongly invited Chengshi to work for her company after graduating with a master's degree, promising him a generous salary and a very tempting position—Special Assistant to the President of the Asia-Pacific Region.

Chengshi didn't go to Beth's place after graduation, not because of Huang Ruoyu, but because after he peeked at Beth's WeChat Moments, he discovered that she was a workaholic who was always working, in meetings, traveling for business, and flying all over the world. Beth's indiscriminate work-life balance really terrified Chengshi, who was then hanging out in Shucun, a village full of rock singers, poets, and artists.

Even after graduating with his master's degree, Cheng Shi still hadn't figured out what kind of job he wanted to pursue. However, he felt that continuing his studies seemed pointless, so he decided to end his academic career. Cheng Guo, on the other hand, was actually very willing to support his younger brother's continued education, believing it was a stroke of good luck from the Cheng family's ancestors. But since his brother decided not to continue, they let him be.

Cheng Guo, who was a full twelve years older than Cheng Shi, believed he had no affection for children and decided to never marry or have children, choosing instead to live a carefree life. In reality, however, he spoiled his younger brother as if he were his own son.

Vaguely, Cheng Shi felt he should pursue an extraordinary career to fully utilize his intelligence and contribute to human civilization. After graduating with his master's degree, he spent a considerable amount of time pondering this question. At that time, Cheng Shi was still receiving substantial living expenses from Guo Cheng every few days, so even without working, his survival in Beijing was not a problem. However, after only six months of contemplation without finding an answer, an unexpected event occurred, forcing him to join Haosikai. His initial plan was to quickly earn enough money at Haosikai to last him a year or two, so he wouldn't have to ask Guo Cheng for money anymore, while continuing to ponder the question he hadn't yet fully resolved, and then contributing to human civilization later.

Although theoretically Beth's company was a better choice than Haosikai, Cheng Shi was still too afraid of the kind of work style Beth presented—he didn't want to end up like Cheng Xinhua and Wang Xiuhua, who worked desperately in the factory when they were young, bringing back a bunch of model worker certificates every year, only to be abandoned by their jobs when they were about to retire, and died without even understanding what life was.

Of course, this might be because Cheng Xinhua and Wang Xiuhua's generation was born at the wrong time. If they had been born twenty or thirty years later, they might have become Beth even with their work ethic, just as Cheng Shi, theoretically, could have become the next Beth if she had worked hard. But Cheng Shi felt that, in the long run, wouldn't everyone eventually die? That's human destiny, so why waste precious time working so hard?

To everyone's surprise, about six years ago, during Beth's fourth year of her zodiac cycle, the workaholic Beth suddenly changed her ways. That year, she went to Tibet several times, and after a long period of silence on social media, Beth suddenly announced that she had resigned from all her public positions and begun a new chapter of retirement.

Beth's resignation even caused a great stir in society and affected the stock price of the company she used to work for.

Chengshi was shocked to hear that Beth had resigned. He always thought that a woman like Beth would work her whole life; could she survive if she didn't? He couldn't imagine what Beth would do if she wasn't working, let alone what the future held for Beth, who was not even 50 at the time. Would she stay home to be a wife and mother? As far as Chengshi knew, Beth's husband was a very busy lawyer, and her son had already graduated from university and settled abroad. So, why was she resigning at this crucial moment? Had a bigger, better company offered Beth more lucrative terms?

Although Chengshi had pondered this matter for a long time, he didn't ask Beth why she resigned. Although they had known each other for a long time, apart from Beth inviting him to join her company when Chengshi was still in school, they hadn't had much contact. Over the years, they were at most just acquaintances who exchanged likes on WeChat. In fact, Chengshi always felt that in Beth's heart and among her WeChat friends, he was probably just a nobody who hadn't been deleted yet.

A year or two after Beth officially announced her resignation, she added Chengshi to a WeChat group she hosted called "Beth Salon," which had about 300 members. Chengshi browsed the group members and found that there were many well-known corporate executives, the kind of people whose names and faces were instantly recognizable; in addition, there were some well-known scholars, experts, and religious figures. In short, although the group seemed to have a diverse range of people from all walks of life, it was basically a highly educated and high-net-worth group. Therefore, Chengshi did not leave the group as he would with other boring groups, but instead began to lurk. He thought that some of the connections Beth had in this group might be useful in his future work, even though he didn't have any ambition for a job, he couldn't be without a backup plan. Then Chengshi thought again, Beth was still a social butterfly. Although she was officially retired and had indeed traveled around the world for a year or two, perhaps someone as restless as her had had enough and was preparing to start a new career. Cheng Shi still thinks, how could a career-oriented woman like Beth not pursue a career? What a joke!

But not long after, Cheng Shi realized that he was wrong again, because Beth might really want to start a business, but not the kind of "business" he thought it was, but a different kind of "business".

But how should we describe this kind of "career"?