I am not Ximen Qing.

Just think, Yang Yulei and Song Yu met because of a painting, "The Beauty of the Goddess in Deng Tu Zi's Ode to Lust," which is one of the most evocative works of Chinese painting by Tang Yin, as well as a painting of Guanyin in the Water Moon.

"But it's a good thing that someone is willing to pay for a building to use as the company's office space! It shows that the shareholders are optimistic about the company's prospects."

What did your company's shareholders do before?

"Those in the renovation and construction industries have made a fortune. They have plenty of spare cash."

"How much spare money do they have to buy buildings and start companies?"

"Several million in cash is not a problem."

"Oh, cash? That shows you have some strength."

“Our company has 50 yuan in cash on hand. I calculated that it’s only enough to support operations for two years. If there are no new business revenues, we will go bankrupt within two years.”

In fact, the shareholders understood the company's situation. They trusted Song Yu's judgment implicitly, though they also felt some pressure. The company accountant closely monitored the daily financial situation. Everyone in the company was quite optimistic; it was just the beginning, after all, so there was nothing to worry about. The company's operations required numerous expenditures, and all the shareholders had experience running industrial companies.

Yang Yulei kept shaking his head. "This is the first time I've ever heard of buying a house to start a company. A house is a fixed asset, but you are a service company now. Shouldn't you be focusing on development rather than asset-light operations? Buying a house will tie up a lot of the company's funds. The company's development is just beginning. If there are funding problems, it will be difficult to handle. Cash flow is the lifeblood of the company."

"As I said before, it's okay if the rent is a bit high, but once I buy a house, the mortgage interest can be quite frightening, which puts pressure on me. The mortgage alone costs seven or eight thousand yuan every month."

"But there are advantages too. The company's new office is all renovated. It's a nice place with a great surrounding environment. The future is definitely promising. At least it will be much more convenient for you to pick up girls and have romantic encounters. You can come to the company to sit down whenever you want. It's much better than that lousy place Anzhen Bridge, which turns into a waterfall every time it rains. You won't need to rent a house anymore. You can just live at the company. It's a good mix of business and residential use."

Yang Yulei greatly admired Song Yu's artistic qualities, which were innate. He also appreciated that Song Yu, despite graduating from a purely STEM university in Beijing, pursued literary creation, newspaper editing, and journalism. Now, he was the CEO of a startup. Yang Yulei, having studied philosophy, possessed sufficient rational thinking; those with a purely humanities background could always absorb scientific methodologies from those with purely STEM backgrounds. He was currently a department head at a department store; his law school background made finding a job incredibly easy—he could submit a few resumes and headhunters would swarm him.

However, seeing Song Yu's antics ignited his passion. According to his favorite novelist, the era of entrepreneurship empowers people, but people must emulate the German will of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kant, and Hegel. Once will takes flight, one can instantly transform into Zhuangzi, soaring like a roc to the heavens, reaching the Northern Sea and the Heavenly Pool. If you understand this, will determines everything—it's that simple. Song Yu has amassed a considerable collection of books: Kafka, the German Philosophy series, and a few overly avant-garde American novels. By the way, Song Yu can also strum a few notes on the guitar, and when flirting, he can strum the strings while singing American country music—or rather, country music. What subject did Song Yu study most diligently? English, of course. Ironically, his mother leisurely went to America to work as a nanny for his American aunt for six months. My aunt graduated from a top medical university in Beijing. Amidst the wave of people going abroad, she dragged her husband, a government official, along to study overseas. After arriving in the US, she had a change of heart and decisively divorced her uncle, who couldn't speak English. Women in America tend to have a stronger sense of freedom and independence.

Song Yu hated the American fat woman because she robbed him of his chance at the American Dream. Even a mediocre student like Liu could successfully go abroad, so why was the fat woman so mean to Song Yu? Because she felt Song Yu had ulterior motives and a tendency to immigrate.

Yang Yulei, a lover of the arts, listened to Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and a few excerpts from Wagner's operas, thoroughly enjoying himself and extremely excited. He pondered the nature of love. If love is poison, then "Red and Black" perfectly illustrates how adultery can be deadly. He also wondered why Julien ultimately fell in love with the old woman and abandoned the noblewoman. Are all women ultimately as destructive as Salome? He also thought of men's heads, skulls, apparitions, and ghosts, and of the ghost of the Danish prince's father.

If we put Julien, Jia Baoyu, and Ximen Qing together, among the three, Julien "engaged in learning by heart a Latin bible which the priest had lent him"—reading a Latin Bible changed his destiny, and he became the mayor's tutor.

Ximen Qing had an affair with Pan Jinlian, and things spiraled out of control, leading him to become the powerful Ximen Qing.

Like those two, Jia Baoyu had a multitude of wives and concubines, but he didn't cherish any of them. In the end, he discovered that the most beautiful women could only exist in his past dreams.

During this time, Nie Xiaoqian seemed a bit off, saying that Song Yu was being too perfunctory with her and just playing around. Yang Yulei repeatedly told her that Song Yu was currently single and didn't have a girlfriend, and that it definitely didn't mean he didn't love her, asking her to be patient.

"But Nie Xiaoqian, he will definitely not marry you. Don't take it too seriously. It's okay to have some fun."

"Don't worry, Mr. Yang, don't bring up your 'Romance of the Western Chamber' theory again. I won't ask for that much. I just want to find a reliable boyfriend. I'm too lazy to think about anything else. It's too boring and too empty."

"I think it won't be long before your relationship progresses."

"Don't worry, Mr. Yang, I'm keeping an eye on things too."

"I'm keeping an eye on your situation too. He can't escape your control, so don't worry."

Yang Yulei always follows Descartes' methodology in everything he does, methodically integrating resources to maximize profits. He had everything planned out, including outsourcing the project to Song Yu's salary. Everything was going smoothly, proceeding step by step. Now the building was up for sale, the project was completed, the down payment had been made, and his salary would cover the mortgage payments—no problem at all.

His study also had a rich collection of books, but his favorites were still the English versions of American tragedies. He never tired of watching the beautiful young woman, though. Men shouldn't keep having affairs, especially when they're old; it's not worth it to find a young girl. Faust is better; to encounter the devil in a study shows he's no ordinary man. But to have the chance to meet Satan Mephistopheles from Paradise Lost would be a bit too much.

The *Fengyue Baojian* (a fictionalized account of a romantic relationship) should be structured like this: real life is *Jin Ping Mei*, while Plato's life is *Dream of the Red Chamber*. He always felt that the *Jin Ping Mei*, with its four-sided mirror reflecting demons, was a tragic sutra, as if that world were vibrant and not just a book. The characters in *Dream of the Red Chamber* are utterly wicked, each more hypocritical than the last. At least Ximen Qing seems real and relatable, much cleaner than the Jia family's Ning and Rong mansions, at least without the Tianxiang Tower, right? Of course, Chen Jingji's affair with Pan Jinlian is another matter. Pan Jinlian's death serves as a prelude; he didn't even abandon any of the women he had relationships with, showing loyalty and affection. Any respectable person today would have far more women than Ximen Qing.

From an evolutionary perspective on marriage and love, have modern people's views on marriage and love progressed or fallen behind? However, Yang Yulei still loves the author of Wanshou Temple too much. Influenced by his idol, he doesn't care about women's appearance, nor does he have a fondness for gentle singing girls. Perhaps it's just a pretentious affectation, but he even has a unique understanding of the Surangama Sutra. The Surangama Sutra is far more purely rational and practical than Kant's philosophy.

Instead of studying Su Shi, she studied Zhuge Liang, the Crouching Dragon, which can be considered idolizing someone. If ugliness is considered beautiful, wouldn't that be like Notre Dame reborn? However, the objects are reversed. If a princess were to be electrocuted by some medieval witch's spell, that would be quite imaginative.

His girlfriend is proud, without a figure or shape, with a barrel waist and a plump body. He humbly says that this makes him feel safe. The key is not external beauty, but inner beauty, which stems from shared ideals and dreams and the pursuit of faith.

However, if we analyze it from the perspective of adapting Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Regret," the Tang Dynasty was definitely the most open country in the world. The saying "dirty Tang and smelly Han" is not just a random fabrication. For a woman, an emperor could become the ancestor of the Pear Garden (a traditional opera troupe). No one else could do that. In the end, it all came to an end, and even Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had to go to the Hall of Eternal Life to seek love.

Bai Juyi is still Bai Juyi; without him, there would be no Hall of Eternal Life. It was Bai Juyi who sent Emperor Xuanzong of Tang to the Hall of Eternal Life, a fact that cannot be denied in cultural history. First came Bai Juyi's *Song of Everlasting Regret*, then the Hall of Eternal Life came into being. Which of these two poems truly represents the beauty of love: *Song of Everlasting Regret* or *Farewell My Concubine*?

Then think of Zhang Chunhua, the shrewish lioness from Hedong; all that talk of love and beauty, all that messy romance, suddenly comes back to the mundane realities of daily life. And then think of Empress Lü, the jealous and possessive Lü Zhi; even Liu Bang, who ultimately fell from grace, would have realized that men cannot control their own love and marriage.

However, after studying the history of marriage and love for a long time, Yang Yulei suddenly found that he himself encountered an insurmountable difficulty: his girlfriend was becoming more and more clingy, like a snake that existed everywhere in his world, rather than tempting him to eat the apple like Eve.

If *The Story of the Stone* wasn't a novel from the Ming or Qing dynasties, but rather a work from the Jin or Song dynasties, then Jia Baoyu could be compared to Emperor Huizong. Zhao Ji's Grand View Garden was located in Bianliang (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song Dynasty. The luxurious grandeur described in *The Record of the Splendor of Bianliang* wouldn't be inferior even to modern-day Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. The key to Bianliang's grandeur lay in the pervasive atmosphere of decadence and debauchery depicted in its paintings.

Yang Yulei contemplates the tragic love song of Red and Black, suggesting that Julien Sorel is Nietzsche's Übermensch, only Julien was too ahead of his time, thus the Übermensch was stifled. Stendhal expresses a different meaning: the European revolutions failed, and Napoleon, symbolizing the Übermensch, was also stifled by feudal conservative forces, just like Julien.

I used to think that Emperor Huizong of Song was a decadent and intoxicated scoundrel, but now I realize it's fortunate that Su Shi died before him, otherwise who knows what major events might have occurred.

Yanshan Pavilion

I saw apricot blossoms on my way north.

Cutting through ice-silk, layering it lightly, applying a touch of pale rouge evenly. A new and beautiful makeup, overflowing with fragrance, shaming even the palace maids of the Jade Emperor. Easily withered, how much more so by the merciless wind and rain. Sorrowful, I ask the desolate courtyard, how many springs have passed? Entrusting my heavy sorrow to the swallows, who can understand human speech? Heaven and earth are far apart, ten thousand rivers and mountains, where is his old palace? How can I not think of it? Except in dreams I sometimes go there. But there is no proof, and even dreams have recently stopped.

Who exactly is Ximen Qing? Some say he's Zhang Juzheng, some say Yan Shifan, some say an emperor—which emperor? Emperor Huizong of Song was known for frequenting brothels, so perhaps Ximen Qing's prototype is Emperor Huizong. If Huizong were Zhen Baoyu, the country wouldn't have fallen, right? Therefore, Emperor Gaozong of Song being Zhen Baoyu makes sense. Why can't *Dream of the Red Chamber* be based on the history of the Song Dynasty? Because history can repeat itself.

The name "Jin Ping Mei" is deeply rooted in Confucianism and the traditions of the Book of Rites. Whether it's the Zhou Rites or the Yin Rites, Confucius emphasized that the Zhou Rites originated from Yin Rites. Regarding beauty, without carefully studying the Four Books and Five Classics, it's difficult to discern any trace of it. The birth of beauty stems from the worship of death. Life is joyful, auspicious, ecstatic, and optimistic, but the expression of beauty often contradicts the expression of life, valuing sorrow as beauty.

If Lin Daiyu hadn't died, the beauty of *Dream of the Red Chamber* wouldn't have been apparent; if Qingwen hadn't died, Lin Daiyu's tragedy wouldn't have been highlighted. Isn't it like red flowers complementing green leaves? Yellow and red willows, peach blossom streams, willow waists—it's as if one can suddenly see the beauty of the Old Summer Palace, the Summer Palace, and the Grand View Garden in *Dream of the Red Chamber*.

In *Jin Ping Mei*, Ximen Qing's Jade Pavilion in the back garden, Tang Yin's Peach Blossom Hermitage, and the poignant dream of love, all point to the origin of Pan Jinlian's past and present lives as an embroidered shoe. This embroidered shoe, of course, possesses a captivating allure. The plum blossoms in the vase, and the characters of Baochai, Daiyu, and Baoyu, generally represent a state of profound stillness leading to restlessness, perhaps influenced by Buddhist or Taoist teachings, or used for amusement in the imperial court. Serving beauties and alluring women, Pan Jinlian embodies multiple personalities—Wang Xifeng and You Erjie—while Li Ping'er is also You Erjie and Qin Keqing, conforming to the traditions of *Journey to the West*.