I am not Ximen Qing.

I miss the days when he worked at the insurance company, smoking non-stop like Song Yu, one cigarette after another, without ever stopping! Cigarette forbidden is very difficult. There's a reason why tobacco from Native Americans spread all over the world. The initial motivations for smoking in modern times and among Native Americans are different. Of course, modern people don't have any other thoughts; they want to make money. City people are always thinking about money, almost to the point of madness. No one laughs at that; thinking about money can drive you crazy. It's part of human nature!

However, the pressure is immense, so people turn to smoking. Tobacco has a therapeutic function, especially in relieving mental tension. Those working in insurance and finance are almost all smokers. On the surface, it seems like there are fewer smokers in China, but this is just an illusion. The number of smokers in China will only increase, not decrease. In the past, the area under Caesars No. 9 was full of people working in finance; those who knew a little about it were all dealing with money. Therefore, any job involving money is extremely competitive and fierce, living in a huge pressure trap every day. This is a kind of city culture. Men and women under skyscrapers choose to indulge their cravings outdoors at this moment! The area under Sohu's iconic skyscraper has almost become a space and time for smokers—the allure of tobacco! Almost everyone in the internet finance industry experiences immense pressure! Tobacco can make everything seem more loving; just a little smoke and it's all good. The hallucinations produced by tobacco can make everything rational, not anxious—that's the beauty of tobacco! Unlike alcohol, which makes people crazy and lose their rationality...

Zhang Sheng had been trying to end this irrational conversation. Judging Song Yu's financial situation solely by the frequency of her smoking—basically, she smoked .5 Zhongnanhai cigarettes almost without any breaks—indicated extreme anxiety, worry, and a lack of security. This was a stark contrast to Song Yu's past at Foshou Company. Now, a paradox could be raised. Zhang Sheng had pondered this for a long time: in her life's journey, Caesar was actually Song Yu's benefactor! Without the support of internet finance, Song Yu wouldn't have been able to marry and have children. It was precisely because Song Yu was at a crossroads in her career... Road, choosing Caesar, escaped the fate of a bachelor. Previously, Song Yu's ideal life was one of freedom, celibacy, and wandering the world. But for a man with money, changing ideals and dreams is easy, sometimes even a natural progression. Money is the true driving force shaping human nature. Think about it: before, Song Yu wouldn't have dared to even dream of it because the experience of buying a house brought him endless pain. He had experienced that pain. But the enormous wealth brought by internet finance quickly made him forget the pain of his past home-buying experience. Human nature is fickle, especially after becoming wealthy; it's very forgetful. After being baptized by the internet finance boom, he finally became incredibly confident and powerful, as if the world was so small in his eyes. He became a giant of money, not a slave to it, but its savior! See how, once people have money, their ideas become incredibly inflated, their confidence soaring! Others struggle for generations in Beijing just to buy a house there. Song Yu barely blinked. Even with loan problems, he remained confident. What was there to fear? At worst, it was just a full payment. If all else failed, he could turn to Caesar for support. Caesar was the financial giant behind him, and this was Song Yu's true source of confidence. Although this was his last resort, the sheer aura of confidence from Caesar and his bottom-line thinking made the banks and developers realize that this game was hopeless and offered no benefit. They wanted a piece of the pie, but then they discovered that Song Yu had the true godfather of internet finance, Caesar! Caesar was a leader in the internet finance industry, and his overseas expansion plan was a brilliant, far-sighted strategy. Going global allowed them to avoid the pressure and competition from domestic capital giants, and more importantly, the profits. At least internet finance was more pragmatic than real estate, without the bubble problem, and it was an invisible driving force for economic development. At least for now, it's proven that even money from internet finance can't escape its clutches. The engulfing real estate bubble is a vivid example and proof that real estate is like the Buddha's palm—no industry can escape its grasp. This is just a metaphor to illustrate the multifaceted, deep, and broad reach of real estate. In an economic recession, the whole world is ultimately paying the price for real estate. While internet finance still represents innovative development, real estate can sometimes reveal human greed, and irrationality can bring destructive power!

Song Yu said she was attending a conference on "Internet Finance Resonance and Sharing for Global Expansion," which was filled with experts, scholars, elites, and key figures from major companies in the internet finance industry, as well as dozens of seasoned pioneers in internet finance. These innovative elites would deliver keynote speeches on the globalization of internet finance at the conference; it was a grand event for internet finance, Song Yu said.

"Dude, listen to this. The industry leaders and bigwigs are sharing their business theories. Listen to the elite theories of industry experts; you're bound to gain something. Let's listen for an hour or two, get into the excitement, and share the resonance of going global. That's a really awesome slogan!"

"Going out to sea must be really chaotic."

"Dude, how did you make that judgment? You haven't even been abroad, how do you know it's chaotic?"

"Marx and Engels's *Capital* clearly states that capital, with a profit exceeding 20%, is willing to risk its life for anything... Think about the overseas expansion and shared benefits of internet finance. Internet finance is merely innovation, simply achieved through Web 3.0. Anything that deals with money is inherently dangerous."

"Don't worry, they won't even glance at you if you go out to sea. You're too old, aren't you? Even if you get tricked into going to a major Southeast Asian country with high electricity rates, being old is a liability. Calling home won't help; being old is a liability."

"I'm referring to the internet finance industry, its connection to overseas expansion, and its relation to the Southeast Asian market."

As Song Yu and Zhang Sheng chatted, they walked to the hotel opposite Taikoo Li. At the hotel entrance, they remarked on the sheer number of young people dreaming of getting rich. The 70s and 80s generations had almost disappeared; it was almost entirely the 90s generation, and even the 00s generation. The domestic economy was volatile, making it difficult to succeed in any industry. Going abroad or overseas offered a chance to find a foothold, a leverage point. With hard work, one could become wealthy in just a few years—that was the current situation. Attending this grand party at the hotel, part of the Chinese dream for young men and women, Song Yu and Zhang Sheng seemed to have returned to their youth. The hotel's crowd truly resembled a high-society fashion party. The hotel lobby was filled with all sorts of delicious and artistic dishes, and a table overflowing with red wine, tuna, salmon, Japanese cuisine, and grilled oysters—it truly felt like a feast for the senses. There was a sense of striving, a sense of desire, and these feelings evoked boundless imagination, filled the soul, and filled one with longing for love and romance, and fantasies of trials and tribulations! Various French and Italian-style competitions created a feeling that entering the venue would be strict. Song Yu added that he was free because he was invited, but attending the conference to listen to senior experts and elites in the internet finance industry was considered "bitch-like."

"Fine, we have to spend the money!"

How much did it cost?

"299 RMB per person, join the global expansion and share the benefits of the internet finance overseas expansion plan."

"Dude, this isn't a pig-butchering scam. 'The Last Supper'—I've always worried that there's no such thing as free food. Spending 299 yuan on a meal might turn you into a pig in the end."

"Don't worry, he's getting old, he's a liability, at least in the Southeast Asian black and gray industry. A liability means he has no value, and everyone understands that when you get old. Nobody will pay for an older person. I told you the story of Nigeria, it's very chaotic there, and some guy just wouldn't listen to reason, he didn't give a tip, he was locked in a dark room and sodomized, and when he got back home he couldn't take it anymore and jumped off a building. Money in internet finance is also full of risks. The company has trained many internet finance talents, and they've all gone overseas, to Africa, and I don't know how things are going in South America."

"You were wrong. You should have stayed in Mexico City. At least it's a vibrant, emerging market with many foreign companies, Chinese multinationals, and multinationals from all over the world. It's a bridgehead to America."

However, considering Song Yu's situation at the time, it was quite dire. He was ostracized at work and pressured by his wife at home. Song Yu was utterly overwhelmed. Furthermore, life abroad was fraught with risk, as he worried that if a systemic crisis occurred, all his capital would be lost in the Mexican internet finance market. Although he was a partner in the company, partners also bear enormous risks.

"I'm scared. I could become penniless overnight. I'm afraid of losing money. My little capital isn't enough to play this game..."

Song Yu hesitated, then said, "Of course, I'll send you back home from Mexico." He then sailed to Southeast Asia again, returned home, and rested for a few months. Then he began to repent. I don't know if he had read Rousseau's *Confessions*, since Rousseau's confessions were all for women, never for his own love! Yes, Song Yu was heavily influenced by leading French writers. The most shameless person in the world is now Song Yu; he imagines himself as faceless, wanting to disappear into a crack in the ground. He feels like he has no face left in this world. The French are good at exaggeration and satire, good at using absurd humor in their works about human nature. One is *Molière's Nose*, another is *Zhang Sheng's Teeth*, and then there's Song Yu's facelessness. I wonder if "no face" can express facelessness—finally, an invisible face, like in Kafka's *The Metamorphosis*, where the protagonist suddenly wakes up to find his face gone, but actually, it hasn't disappeared; it's become invisible. This kind of facelessness is full of magical realism! My idealized version of Song Yu is an invisible face. InvisibilityFace! However, the entry check was very strict; you needed a code. Those with codes were free, those without needed to buy tickets at 299 yuan each. This was in accordance with the law of the universe and the principle of society: some things are free, some things are paid—this is the principle of conservation. How is this any different from throwing a party? Anyway, trying to sneak in and infiltrate the "Internet Finance Overseas Resonance Sharing" conference is impossible! Because the purpose of this "Internet Finance Overseas Resonance Sharing" conference is to make money; making money is the most important thing, cash flow is the most important thing, because the organizers are already very short of cash flow. A keynote speech at a conference can generate tens of thousands of yuan in cash flow—that's a pretty impressive income!

"What will these guys become once they go out to sea? They might just be a bunch of scammers..."

"Sir, you need to buy a ticket."

"Come on, come on, buddy, this is clearly just a business meeting. The real purpose isn't what it seems. It's not about internet finance going global, or about sharing and resonance—can't you see? Form over substance, and there's no real meaning here. The most important thing is the 299 yuan membership fee per person. All that talk about internet finance going global, resonance, and sharing—internet finance companies are bowing and scraping to achieve that 299 yuan cash flow per person in this way. It's too difficult for both the organizers and those going global to do it. Paying 299 yuan is a rather extravagant expense."

Suddenly, Zhang Sheng and Song Yu lost interest in this so-called "Internet Finance Elite Conference" about going global. Thinking about it carefully, they decided to attend this supposed "Internet Finance Going Global Sharing" event. Was it really a "resonance" event? The organizers clearly knew that in this competitive economic climate, the company was operating discreetly and discreetly. The food was only 299 yuan; by inviting 100 Web 3.01 participants, they could easily make tens of thousands in cash flow. It was a completely smokeless, environmentally friendly feast. As long as you had dreams, as long as you wanted to get rich, as long as you wanted to go global, as long as you wanted to share, as long as you resonated, you could attend this Internet finance feast!

"Ah, buddy, we were so close! Thank goodness we realized it. If we had paid, we would have been scammed. That's the cruel reality of internet finance—it's not about the customer anymore, it's about our own people."

"Yes, that's right, how about we go to Sohu to get something to eat?"