I am not Ximen Qing.

After much deliberation, I decided to invite Song Yu to watch "Much Ado About Nothing" together, and maybe have a few drinks in Nanluoguxiang. Song Yu apparently said Wagner was the real charlatan, and the teacher of the eccentric Nietzsche. Song Yu is quite well-read; he has a Balzac-esque father who neglected his studies by playing the stock market. However, it's worth mentioning that the number of people worldwide who have read the complete works of Balzac's *The Human Comedy* is roughly the same as the number who can understand Einstein's theory of relativity.

In fact, Zhang Sheng's greatest wish was to meet a blonde, blue-eyed goddess so he could have a romance with her. Jiang Tao would say that love is dangerous, just look at Helen, the woman from the Iliad Paris who had an affair, which led to the destruction of Troy, the loss of her family, and the beginning of a painful relationship.

"Go for it, look how slim that Russian girl is, not a Belarusian girl, her skin is pearly white, and her figure is slim."

The girl was walking into the McDonald's restaurant on Anli Road near Tianchuang Siyuan. "Coward."

"Stop making trouble out of nothing."

Song Yu drives a rented Jetta. He's been wanting to buy a car for a while, but unfortunately, he hasn't been able to earn enough from his projects to afford one. Who would believe a manager like him without a car would go to bid? The company has entered a new phase, moving into a newly purchased 130-square-meter office building with two bedrooms, a tennis court, and a monthly mortgage payment of 7,500 yuan. Wagner, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Beethoven, the Beatles—going back to the Beat Generation, Song Yu most wants to express that kind of life on the road, and the dark, absurd life of Bob Dylan. The life of a bluebeard-blooded aristocrat is absolutely great.

Have you ever heard of the dangers of love?

"It's more accurate to say that marriage is dangerous; marriage is pure deception, self-deception."

"You're not married."

“I saw a real marriage.”

I visited Song Yu's new office location, which is situated in the core business district of the Asian Games Village, near the Celebrity Building and the Hyatt Regency Beijing. There's a bar opposite the office; it must be quite boring during the day, but at night the music is deafening, filling the air. Beijing is full of pub-style bars, whether in Zhongguancun or Sanlitun; the night is always filled with restlessness and a surge of hormones—a naturally harmonious presence.

Zhang Sheng's work meals were almost always at Da Gutouzhuang in the evenings and Tian Shang Tian Roast Duck Restaurant during the day. The service there was harmonious and warm, and almost all the customers were clients from all over Zhongguancun. Over meals and drinks, the friendships grew deeper than the sea and higher than the sky; business was business, and personal relationships were personal relationships. The spicy blood curd, roast duck, and boiled fish were definitely the most authentic in Beijing. After earning enough money, he'd indulge in a big meal and drink here—it was commonplace. He ate and drank there every day, occasionally bumping into familiar merchants from the market and exchanging greetings. If he wanted a stroll, he'd wander from the south gate of Peking University to the shore of Weiming Lake, but opportunities for leisurely strolls were rare; the phone would ring incessantly. Customers were buying computers, printers, laptops, servers, and even things not available in Zhongguancun—they were used to one-stop service.

Song Yu always said that Zhang Sheng was full of inexhaustible energy. He didn't realize that from morning till night he ate nothing but duck, spicy blood curd, and sweet and sour pork. He was sick of McDonald's. At night, he would party and drink red wine and cocktails. He did this every day. These delicacies had become part of his mind and spirit. Basically, they were desires.

Song Yu said Zhang Sheng was practically a drunkard. That night, he ate late-night snacks at Dongpo Restaurant, enjoying Dongpo pork knuckle and other snacks—a wide variety. The street was bustling with activity. He drank several large pitchers of beer, getting quite tipsy, and then went to Sihai Kaiyue for a bath, sauna, and massage—a one-stop service. The first time he visited was in an office that Song Yu and his partner had crowdfunded with a down payment of 300,000 yuan. The only advantage was that Song Yu had permanently abandoned his old Anzhen Bridge, which would be flooded with lightning and thunder during storms, turning the building into a waterfall. Everything was new, more modern, more avant-garde, with a simple yet wildly unrestrained beauty in its decor. The office was the manager's workspace, with a folding bed set up at night. Song Yu confidently described the nighttime bars—how wonderful! No need to go to Sanlitun, no need to go to the bar street behind Renmin University in Haidian Huangzhuang. Zhang Sheng was more familiar with Weigongcun, Haidian Huangzhuang, and the nighttime scenery around the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Beijing is a wondrous city. It's a city that seems to fold and transform, a city brimming with magic and fantasy, a city where modernity and historical sedimentation intertwine in a spiral of physical and chemical evolution, a city of quiet, distinct seasons. Some say, what's so special about this city? Crowds of people and buildings, crowds everywhere, especially in the summer—it's so hot, humid, and stifling, you can't breathe, even with air conditioning and fans running all day. What's the advantage of living in this city? Well, you only stay for a short time. Once you get a feel for it, what is that feeling? You breathe with the city, share its breath, breathe its soul. You become addicted, you don't want to go anywhere else, you'll miss Beijing's spring, Beijing's summer, Beijing's autumn as the ancient capital, and even its winters are unique.

Song Yu usually keeps a few bottles of foreign liquor in his office—vodka, whiskey, or some other fruit wines, and imported German dark beer. He'll proudly pull out an old newspaper, boasting about his time as an editor right after graduating from school, when he won an award for an article about technological development. Lately, Song Yu has been somewhat troubled by his work. Engineering projects involve bidding and drawing blueprints. For someone like him, who excels at writing, writing dozens of bids a day is no problem. The issue is, according to Wang Qiang and Meng Liang, writing so many bids seems like he's paving the way for others. Under the night sky, we went to Wangshi for drinks, then to a Xinjiang restaurant for roasted whole lamb and roasted lamb kidneys, strolling along Fifth Avenue. The young man's heart resonated with the rhythm and cadence of this restless city. Back in the office, he angrily complained that everything was a copy, all of it Song Yu's ideas, but there was no proof that the completed ideas belonged to Song Yu, because he had only submitted the bids and sent everything out. Seeing the designs Song Yu painstakingly created, they do indeed resemble Fifth Avenue. In China, there are just too many similarities; you can't really argue with that. From designs from several years ago to the latest, and then the tender documents—Song Yu calls himself a cheap bidder. Remember the difference between "paying out" and "losing money"—for Song Yu, wisdom without monetary gain is meaningless. Song Yu enjoys many avant-garde books. What is avant-garde? Wagner's operas and recordings—he never understood this stuff before. While listening to Wagner, he put on boxing gloves and kept punching the sandbag hanging in his office. He dodged and weaved, jumping and hopping until he was panting heavily.

In "The Flying Dutchman," it says, "If I could find a love that lasts until death, I could be rescued on shore during this seven-year period, but I have already given up hope."

In "Tannhäuser," the line "Venus, let me return to you" ultimately leads to Elizabeth's salvation through her prayers and sacrifice.

"How sweet it is when you call my name, and I cannot call your name in response. I believe that one day you will tell me your name." (Lohengrin)

In "Tristan and Isolde," Isolde deduces from the wounds that Tristan is the murderer of Morold. In the instant she raises her sword to stab Tristan in revenge, their eyes meet, and the flames of love are ignited.

"The Craftsmen-Singer of Nuremberg," "Die Walküre," "Siegfried," "Götterdämmerung," "The Ring"—do the finale of love mean destruction and immortality? Everything returned to calm. He drank heavily, living a life of debauchery, his decadent spirit lamenting—these were days without hope. What did the new world bring? A love that lasted day and night with Nie Xiaoqian. The girl was crazy, experiencing the fervor of love, and told Song Yu not to worry, that it was unnecessary because of oral contraceptives. Song Yu said those would have side effects. The girl preferred raw flesh, the flesh of the soul—that was real. She hated hypocritical, fake love; it wasn't real, and there was no better experience. If you said Song Yu chose to move to a new office for his career, who would believe it? He was now frantically trying to get a new car, instead of renting a beat-up old Jetta from a rental company, costing thousands a month—all for the sake of finding the girl.

An old, seasoned market veteran muttered impatiently, "The world is undergoing suicidal changes, and people don't know it. Who can feel it? Because the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Sales) are just different names for the same old thing, like girls' favorite cosmetic surgeries: breast augmentation, skin whitening, liposuction—you can change your mouth, nose, and teeth. Beauty is a constant change. The 4Ps are similar to this. The great 4Ps, the eternal 4Ps, haven't felt the evil of capital yet." Isn't Haidian Book City just a replica of the past and future fate of all the large and small bookstores in Zhongguancun? Haidian's advantage is its cultural heritage and accumulation. Large and small book wholesalers have watched Zhongguancun Book Building rise, with big capital swallowing small capital; the power of capital is becoming apparent. Here you can buy original, genuine copies of Oscar Wilde's complete works of Shakespeare and Milton's Paradise Lost. In the past, Amazon, Dangdang, and JD.com have been secretly fighting each other in the online book market. JD.com is no longer the JD.com that focused solely on the IT industry in Zhongguancun. Its unchanging 4Ps have been transformed by the internet. Zhongguancun's Moore's Law has continuously iterated and evolved, until it became bewildered, completely unable to adapt to the constant emergence of new wealth elites whose rise and levels of wealth are simply unattainable.

Zhang Sheng used to frequently use a beat-up van from a fellow Henan native when he went to Yanshan Petrochemical. This man's life has now undergone a dramatic transformation; he's sold CDs, invoices, and various document forgeries nationwide. He often jokes that selling computers won't make him rich anymore—a seemingly lighthearted remark. Another unlicensed driver, driving a secondhand, beat-up van, is intimately familiar with Zhongguancun. He knows the entire black market chain, from recycling toner cartridges to producing counterfeit ones. The buyers are never as shrewd as the sellers; the profits are too high, making it impossible to resist the temptation. But even this can't hold much appeal for him. Life doesn't need many opportunities; one land expropriation is enough. Real estate around Beijing is springing up like mushrooms after rain. He's now a developer, a nouveau riche from nothing.

The Tianchuang Shiyuan Past Events Bar in Xinjiekou, Sanlitun, Gongti, and Houhai are all teeming with the surging hormones of young men and women, their souls overflowing with love. At Chaoyang Rolling Stones, a group of people revel and dance in the heat, dancing, dancing, dancing. The impulsive rhythm of life is lost in endless blind dates and dinners with girls, wine and sex, sex and wine—what about Dionysus, what about Nietzsche's Zarathustra, the eternal will? Only the nirvana of desire can give birth to the eternal will of the immortal soul.

Bian Cheng's sister married Wang Tianwei. According to the "Gate of Eden" theory, he was a prime example of the "lost generation," marrying a Manchu noblewoman—gentle, virtuous, and, most importantly, her love for Wang Tianwei was purely a moth drawn to a flame. It's unclear why Wang Tianwei possessed such charm, capable of making such a beautiful and alluring woman give up everything. Wang Tianwei went to the beach and got some fresh abalone, and friends also brought over crabs and shrimp from Baiyangdian, filling the table to the brim. Bian Cheng's sister would laugh heartily at Zhang Sheng's latest news; shrimp was plentiful, and the crabs were plump and fresh. The abalone, prepared by Bian Cheng himself, tasted amazing. She began to envy Wang Tianwei's happy life; he was definitely the most enviable man in the world. The house, the wedding, the food, the clothes, everything—all were provided by the woman's dowry. It's clear that Bian Cheng's sister was proactive, while Wang Tianwei was passive. Zhang Sheng didn't know what was wrong. This era was changing too fast. In the future, it would be a digital age. Movies, music, literature, novels, and all art would be digitized and become part of the virtual world of the original universe, a parallel universe.

All the major markets in Zhongguancun are quietly changing, almost like a revolution. Who could have imagined mobile phones? Like that old man from Henan driving his dilapidated van, he found an opportunity in the economic circle surrounding Beijing amidst the harsh realities of the world. At first, people thought it was illegal fundraising, but he was incredibly lucky. He suddenly became a developer, with banks begging him for loans and to keep building, offering him comprehensive support. The mobile phone industry is making a huge impact. Nokia and Microsoft collaborated, and Google's Android partnered with Taiwan's HTC, resulting in many new products and brands: Oppo, Vivo, Newman, and Samsung. Motorola was acquired by Lenovo because of the ubiquitous iPhone, which sparked a revolution of innovation. In this era of rapid iteration and fleeting opportunities, if companies can't seize them, they will be eliminated immediately. The pavers aren't necessarily lacking in innovation or drive. Zhongguancun's perpetual spirit of transformation raises a question: Is *Jin Ping Mei* (a popular Chinese novel) the world of Ximen Qing or Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng (another famous Chinese writer known for his innovative approach)? Wandering through various disco venues—from Shangdi and Xinjiekou to Wangshi Bar, Sanlitun, Gongti Bar, Rolling Stone Banana, and Huguosi Disco—Wang Tianwei was shocked by the inside story. He finally understood that the problem with his record store wasn't the weekly inspections or financial issues, but rather the emergence of a new world of digitalization and virtualization. Computers were rendered obsolete by the times, replaced by mobile phones. AI-powered phones from Google and Apple were the victors; everyone else was merely a paving the way for the future.

Song Yu said he would never forget the nightclubs in Seoul. That Korean goddess only cost a few hundred US dollars—not expensive, but they were all so pretentious. The bodyguards were only three thousand two hundred US dollars, and they were top-tier beauties; you can't find girls like that anymore. A house and a car—I only needed one to win over all the girls. Actually, buying a house in Beijing at that time was too easy. Passing by the Colorful Coffee Happy Station, we finally arrived at the Huaxin Building.