Chapter 3 Past and Present
Although Ye Fan couldn’t be considered a professional success, due to some special experiences and reasons he still had quite a bit of economic capital. Not long ago, he had coincidentally bought a Mercedes-Benz whose price was much greater than Liu Yunzhi’s Toyota. But using such a method to compare status was something he felt to be quite tasteless.
After ten or so minutes, Ye Fan arrived at the party’s venue - the Brightmoon Maritime District.
This was a super recreational part of the city used for entertainment that had integrated food and leisure activities. It was in its prime, and the surroundings were bustling with activity. The various high-grade vehicles in the parking lot implied just what kind of clientele it served.
His classmates had only graduated from university three years ago, so most of them had not yet reached an extremely successful point in their careers. Ye Fan felt that picking such a location for their party seemed to be more or less superficially extravagant.
Walking out of the parking lot, he had just arrived at the front of the Brightmoon Maritime District when he noticed quite a few familiar people. They were all old fellow classmates who had come to participate in this get-together. Amongst them were some people he hadn’t seen in three years.
“Ye Fan!” At this moment a handsome and refined young man noticed him. “You messed up. You’re the one who stayed in this city, but you showed up late! It should have been you who organized this get-together in the first place!”
This refined young man was called Wang Ziwen. He was the one who had started and planned this whole reunion. In university, he had been an extremely lively character. Now it was reported that he had already smoothly transitioned to starting work in another city and already had accumulated quite a considerable amount of assets.
The other people also greeted him. Although it had been a long time since they met, they were still extremely friendly.
Obviously, Wang Ziwen was waiting at the front of the Brightmoon Maritime District in order to welcome his friends, so it was easy to guess who the figures beside him were.
Wang Ziwen was a smart person; instead of continuing waiting there alone, he continued to chat and banter while leading the way to the fifth floor of the Brightmoon Maritime Supermall. The fifth floor had a business room that was used for meetings of thirty to fifty people that they had reserved in advance.
The sky had already darkened at this time, and basically everyone had arrived.
Seeing Ye Fan’s group enter, the room’s atmosphere burst with liveliness. Many people came over to greet them excitedly. Being able to meet once again seemed to give them a sense of how much time had passed. Seeing the changes that had occurred to them since the time they were all in university caused them to feel a bit distracted.
Having graduated for three years, every person was already twenty-five to twenty-six years old. Some of them had even married, and two women had already become mothers.
Each person had their own life trajectory, but altogether, most of them were just normal people. The huge dreams and ambitions they had in their former days were slowly ground down by time. Their great dreams had almost completely disappeared, and they simply became ordinary people in an ordinary society.
Their dreams were far too distant for them, and for the most part, everyone had already realized that they were nothing more than ordinary people.
Wang Ziwen brought Ye Fan to one side of the party. Observing carefully, he realized that this side appeared to be his classmates who were somewhat successful in their careers; they were mostly those whose families had some background.
“Ye Fan, you arrived so late. We definitely have to punish you with three drinks.”
“Three drinks is too little, you guys are looking down on Ye Fan’s capacity for liquor.” Lin Jia was also sitting on this side. Her red phoenix eyes shot a slanting glance towards him. She was tall, thin, and her large curves caused her to be extremely sensual.
“Which beautiful woman wants to punish me?” Ye Fan and his fellow male classmates all wanted to get into the good graces of beautiful women.
“Trying to get an advantage when you’ve only just arrived! We definitely have to heavily penalize you!” The men and women were all united and began to prepare for battle.
Liu Yunzhi had quite the background and his words had quite a bit of weight in this city. Naturally, in this small group he could casually say whatever he wanted. “Huh, I thought it would take you quite a bit longer to get here since you waited for a taxi.”
An awkward silence descended after he said those words. Everyone present was aware of the grudge between Liu Yunzhi and Ye Fan. Now, Liu Yunzhi had become quite a professional success and he ‘unintentionally’ mentioned how Ye Fan had to take a taxi to get here… his attitude was very obvious.
The other old classmates also noticed what was happening over there and started to gather over. However, Ye Fan only indifferently smiled and didn’t say anything.
“I’ll go outside to get Zhou Yi,” Wang Ziwen changed the subject before turning to leave.
Lin Jia began to discuss makeup and the latest popular brand clothing with two other female classmates, and other people also started to talk about interesting topics from their former days. The previous short period of awkward silence was quickly filled just after it had arisen.
But after what had just happened, the atmosphere was still somewhat subdued and no one brought up ‘penalizing’ Ye Fan anymore. Moreover, talk centering on Liu Yunzhi increased.
During his time in university, Ye Fan had been an influential figure. But now that he had left the campus, none of that was important. Now, the most important thing was whether or not you were a professional success.
The people around him would occasionally glance towards him. He was sitting in a rather dignified, special tight circle; the people sitting in that section were all classmates who had gone on to quite successful careers. At this time, there seemed to be a tendency to marginalize him.
The whole time, Ye Fan continued to stay very undisturbed, but in the end, he still decided to get up and sit beside some other of his old classmates so that his classmates wouldn’t get the impression that he was an exception.
Makeup and brand name clothing were what the women always liked to talk about the most. As for men, their conversation topic had gone from soccer to the current events, making it seem that their discussion range was quite a bit wider.
Half an hour later, the twenty-five people who had agreed to come had all arrived. Their class had a total of thirty-three students; amongst them, three people had gone abroad to study while the other five couldn’t come due to some special circumstances.
The organizers of the reunion all got up and made some speeches, causing the mood to become very ardent. After the speeches, everyone gathered into some smaller social groups and started to freely chat.
Only after a long time did everyone decide to leave the small business room, and they raised a toast towards their reunion. There were no planned events, so friends simply grouped around tables.
Ye Fan decided to not go sit with the group containing Lin Jia and Liu Yunzhi. Instead, he very naturally sat at a different table.
After another round of speeches, the party became very relaxed, with everyone simply doing as they pleased. Some people wandered around the various wine tables to raise toasts, while some people were surrounded by others raising toasts to them, making it difficult for them to take even one step away as toast after toast was made after them.
Many things had happened over three years; everyone had greatly changed. Maybe it was due to the influence of the alcohol, but many classmates opened up and chatted about their own personal lives. Some people were proud; some people were disappointed.
Some people detested their boss’ harsh demands. Their bosses always wanted them to work overtime, and their pay was so low it was pitiful.
One female classmate said that her boyfriend was a famous company’s department manager. Another classmate said that her husband had been promoted to the company’s vice president. And another person said his fiancée was some bank owner’s niece.
Contrarily, there were even more people who stayed silent. Many people’s lives were not going as they wished.
Amongst them was a female classmate who was particularly wan and sallow. People said that she had gotten married to someone she didn’t even like and that the marriage was not at all happy since her husband spent the whole day drinking. One classmate who had been passing by the city she lived in had gone to visit her and noticed that there were some unexpected bruises and scars on her body.
“If there’s anything you need help with, you can always come find me…” Ye Fan felt quite a bit of sympathy towards this very wan female classmate. He still remembered how she looked back in university, standing outside the soccer field as she cheered him on.
With her life not at all going the way she had hoped, she sadly but also gratefully nodded her head as she quietly thanked him.
“Ye Fan, how about you go fix your own life first…” That female classmate who had bragged about how her husband had already been promoted to branch manager started to say some rude things under the influence of the alcohol. “Look at Liu Yunzhi - see how well off he has become?”
The classmates at his table turned to look at Ye Fan, and then looked over to where Liu Yunzhi was. The table Liu Yunzhi was sitting at was full of classmates who had gone on to very successful careers.
“Ye Fan, it’s not that I’m criticizing you, but back in university, you were definitely a big figure. But now that we’ve left the campus, everything has changed. If you don’t put in enough effort, it won’t be good enough,” preached the person who said his fiancée was a bank owner’s niece.
Noticing the people from Liu Yunzhi’s table, the classmates from Ye Fan’s table couldn’t help but sadly sigh. In university, some of the people from Liu Yunzhi’s table were not even comparable to them, but now they were so much more successful, it was a complete reversal.
There were also some people who were extremely cynical who drunkenly said that these people had come back to their hometowns in glory in order to show off their wealth and influence.
There was even one female classmate who joked with Ye Fan, saying that it was fortunate that in university she only secretly liked him, but now she regretted declining Liu Yunzhi’s wooing.
It was still the same city and they were still the same people, but after meeting up again, everyone’s attitudes had become greatly different.
Translator notes:
The Brightmoon Maritime Supermall (海上明月城) is something I believe to be fictional. There is a reference to a district in the city of Rizhao in China that has a district called the 海上明月城, but I don’t believe the two are related. The last word in 海上明月城, 城 generally means city, but in the context it doesn’t make sense for it to be a city, and as it’s the title of something, its meaning is more flexible. I also checked the one in Rizhao, and I think it was constructed after the book was written, so this one should be fictional. Based on the writing, I believe it to be a supermall. As for the concept of a supermall in China, they’re generally huge, and are actually something that people go to just to hang out, with enough attractions to entertain people for whole days, so it’s not just a shopping mall.