I took a deep drag of my cigarette and suddenly realized how naive I had been. My long-standing poverty had limited my perspective, which was why I hadn't been able to see the full picture from Ye Zhi's point of view. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come to her so recklessly.
Ye Zhi then turned to me, who was still silent, and asked, "Didn't we agree to transfer the inn? Why did you change your mind?"
I finally looked up at her and asked in return, "If you were running this inn now, would you treat it as a tool to make money, or as a place where you could settle down and make a living?"
Ye Zhi replied without hesitation: "The most basic nature of an inn is to pursue profit, so it is of course a tool for making money."
“We don’t think so. We all came to Dali from other places, and every stranger has a longing for home. So, in addition to making money, this inn has been given more meaning by us strangers. It is a harbor for us to dock in Dali. We really can’t bear to transfer it... unless one day, none of us want to stay in Dali anymore.”
Why are you so determined to stay in Dali?
I didn't want to mention Wang Lei, so I simply replied, "I believe that staying in Dali was fate's arrangement."
"Then can I say that the inn's many twists and turns were also an arrangement of fate?"
I was speechless for a long time before replying, "I'm just not reconciled. The inn is the result of our hard work, and we should all be rewarded instead of being cruelly manipulated by capital."
"Have you ever considered that our group's success today is also due to exploitation by capital?" After a slight pause, she asked me again, "Are you truly interested in this industry?"
"yes."
"I have a suggestion, would you like to hear it?"
I nodded.
Ye Zhi continued, "Come back to Shanghai with me. I can arrange a job for you that will give you access to the core of this industry. What you need most right now is to accumulate experience and connections. Once your horizons are truly broadened, you'll find that controlling capital isn't so difficult."
"Can I ask you, in your eyes, what kind of person am I?"
Ye Zhi paused for a moment, clearly not having really thought about me. After a while, she replied, "I think you are a very resilient and righteous man; however, your impulsive nature might prevent you from handling some things perfectly."
"What you're saying all exists, but you haven't hit the nail on the head... I still have a conscience!"
"What's the meaning?"
I replied in a deep voice, "It was your company that directly caused our inn to go out of business... I went back to Shanghai with you and got a job in your company. How am I supposed to explain this to my friends? What's the difference between this and defecting to the enemy?... I understand that in the eyes of you capitalists, there is no need to consider morality except for profit, but I, Michael, cannot do such a thing as betraying my friends for personal gain."
"Don't you understand that I gave you this advice precisely because I value this friendship?"
"This is charity from you, I won't thank you."
"This kind of thinking will ruin you!"
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