Chapter 30: Do You Have a Swimsuit?

Xia’s mother got off work at five and was home on her bicycle by five-thirty.

After dinner, Xia An lay in his small room, reviewing his performance for the day. Reviewing was a habit of his, and it was a habit that had earned him money. It was highly effective. Many people think making money is difficult, but once they have succeeded and look back, they realize it isn't complex at all. In life, if a person masters just two things, the probability of becoming wealthy is high: discover what is effective and repeat it; discover what is ineffective and avoid it. Furthermore, by using reverse thinking—starting from the desired result and working backward—one can always find a solution to a problem.

Xia An’s initial goal was to dissolve the Tang Group from within, much like a spider consuming its prey. With this result as his starting point, his solution was to weave an invisible web around the target and then inject his venom.

On his way to meet Tang Wan that morning, he had called Lin Jiajia, recommending a certain stock code under the guise of an "analysis by Old Xia," and learned that she would be returning in a day or two. Through this inspection tour, Lin Jiajia had successfully persuaded Zhao Zhijing to create a website promoting the hospice care project. Thus, the first drop of venom and the first nail had been driven into the wood.

Zhang Chunmin... thinking of him, Xia An felt once again that Tang Wan was his assistant sent from his rebirth. She was just too perfect—the type of person who provides a pillow the moment you feel sleepy. Her inspiration and luck attributes were maxed out.

Zhang Chunmin’s family structure was simple: a son and a daughter from his original wife, with the daughter just eight years old. In such a situation, wanting to earn a bit more while he still could to save up a dowry for his little girl was perfectly understandable. Xia An analyzed that Tang Tianxing had likely exploited this mindset, using twisted logic and false sentiment to induce Zhang to take over the real estate company and become the future scapegoat.

Xia An was exploiting the same thing, but on a deeper level. Given the precedent of Tang Wan’s family, Zhang Chunmin would never dare to take such risks. Therefore, by acting mysterious today and throwing out two stains on the Tang family that Zhang could easily verify if he looked, he had hooked him.

*You use profit to lure people into a pit; I use their lives to make them regret their move and turn against you.*

Xia An felt as if he were playing a game of chess against Tang Tianxing from afar. But in his mind, the rogue-level Tang Tianxing wasn't even worth considering. Having determined that Zhang Chunmin needed time to investigate and shift his mindset, Xia An put his thoughts away and stopped planning. This was enough; the groundwork was laid, the mines were buried, and now he just needed to weave the net quietly. Action is not always better than inaction. He knew well that his current strength was weak, and all the fuses could only be lit after the domain name was sold. For now, he just needed to wait patiently. Money is, after all, transferred from the pockets of the impatient to those of the patient.

Looking at the deep blue night sky outside the window, Xia An whispered to himself: "Long live patience."

***

Le Ning was losing her patience. After waiting all day without a word, she was so anxious she started gritting her teeth. What was the meaning of this? Last night, they had just... been like that. Why hadn't he sent even a single message all day?

She opened and closed the copy of *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber* she had intended to reread, over and over. By 10:30 at night, hours later, she hadn't even finished a single paragraph. Finally, she threw the book onto her nightstand, covered her head with her quilt, and cursed Xia An for being ungrateful.

*Ping.*

A hand shot out from the corner of the quilt, snatched the phone, and quickly retracted.

Xia An: [Asleep?]

***

[I was asleep, you woke me up. Something up?]

On the other end of the screen, seeing that Xia An had replied in just twenty-six seconds, she furrowed her brows. They exchanged a few messages, and half an hour later, Le Ning initiated the end of the conversation.

[Very sleepy, goodnight.]

The small room became quiet. After a long while, a deep breath came from beneath the pink quilt. Le Ning sat up, straightened her messy hair with a cold expression, picked up the martial arts novel, and leaned against the headboard to read with dignity.

Page after page. She finished the first two chapters, then skipped to the end. Finally, she closed the book and muttered, "What a fool, Zhang Sanfeng." She turned off the light and went to sleep.

When rejecting others, the stubborn little Le Ning liked to comfort herself with that famous quote from Li Wenxiu. When she felt sad because of Xia An’s indifference, she would always recall the plot of *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*. At the beginning, the *Nine Yang Manual* was remembered in parts by Master Wuse, the heroine Guo Xiang, and a young Zhang Sanfeng, leading to the rise of the Shaolin Temple and, decades later, the Emei and Wudang sects. When Zhang Sanfeng came out of seclusion at age one hundred, he was ambushed and injured by Zhao Min’s men. He then took out a pair of iron-cast Arhats, gave them to Yu Daiyan, and said they had been a gift from Guo Xiang a century ago. At the end, after the "Lion Slaying Conference," Zhou Zhiruo showed Zhang Sanfeng a posthumous letter from their founder, Guo Xiang. "Zhang Sanfeng looked at Guo Xiang’s letter, and before his eyes, he seemed to see that bright and elegant young girl once more. But that was a hundred years ago."

Little Le Ning, who knew the martial arts world well, could recite these passages by heart. Every time she thought of them, she felt suffocated. A hundred years—the stories of those people’s lives, wrapped in an overwhelming sense of destiny, made Le Ning feel incredibly bitter. *Why didn't you do it sooner?* You kept the gift she gave you a century ago by your side the whole time. Reminiscing over an object! Why didn't you do it sooner?

Little Le Ning would think: *Xia An, if you miss me, will you feel regret?* Then she would think: *If I miss him, I will surely feel great regret, right?*

***

The next morning, when Tang Wan called, Xia An had already left with his computer tower. He dropped the case off at Zhang Tiancheng and Liu Youwei’s basement for safekeeping, intending to bring it home only after his "miracle stock" exploded. While there, he checked on the progress of the website development. The two told him they would definitely have the hospice care website finished by Monday, and the other two would have their frameworks set up by the following week.

Xia An pondered. Tang Wan would be leaving Dongshan on Sunday. He had asked Le Ning last night and learned that his ex-wife was heading to Shanghai next Tuesday for a professional music exam; he had promised to see her off. It seemed that starting next Wednesday, his summer vacation would be over, and it would be time to get busy.

Leaving the two coders a box of instant noodles and some milk as a gift, Xia An went to the rental unit to find Tang Wan. The person who had lent Tang Wan a blank HSBC card was her classmate from Zhejiang University. Tang Wan said this girl had immigrated to Singapore with her entire family after finishing her undergraduate degree and was currently living in Hong Kong, enjoying life. She was extremely wealthy and very reliable.

"How wealthy?" Xia An asked.

"Much wealthier than me... than Tang Tianxing."

"Whoa, she must have embezzled quite a bit."

Tang Wan leaned over and gave him an annoyed smack, saying her classmate’s family did legitimate business. Xia An didn't believe it. Overseas, they fleeced the wealthy even harder. Doing legitimate business was relatively safer domestically.

The two tinkered for a while before figuring out how to use a VPN to "climb the wall." This was Xia An’s first time seeing the PC interface for sports betting and the wagering process of the era. They spent some time playing with a virtual account to get the hang of it. Finally, he realized he had overlooked the most important, the most critical issue: the odds for individual sports betting change by the second before the event begins.

Take the newly added badminton category as an example: five minutes before the match, the odds might be 1:1.3; in the final minute, they could shift to 1:2. This was a real-time market adjustment based on backend statistics. If a match featured opponents with a vast discrepancy in skill, the odds might even skyrocket in the final thirty seconds before the start. The bookmakers’ objective was clearly to harvest the bets of pure gamblers who dreamed of winning big with small stakes. Yet, there were always people who would bet, hoping to turn their lives around in one go.

Exactly—and with his "prophet" cheat, Xia An was just that kind of person. Therefore, he absolutely could not use a wireless network card. Although the Chinese team swept all thirteen gold medals in the nine events at the 2006 FINA Diving World Cup, Xia An didn't dare to spread his bets too thin. The bookmakers weren't stupid; they knew the Chinese team was dominant and offered extremely low odds. Betting everything on China wouldn't make him any money.

Xia An only remembered the exact results of three of those gold medals. To win money, he had to place heavy bets on those three matches, especially the one that was a massive upset. Tomorrow was the 19th, the day of the competition. He couldn't place bets at an internet cafe where power outages or computer crashes were uncontrollable. And the hotel’s internet speed wasn't up to the task...

After thinking it over, Xia An decided to urgently install the newly launched gigabit fiber-optic service for Tang Wan’s rental. It required a minimum one-year contract, with six months free, costing him three thousand yuan—five hundred of which was for the expedited installation. By the time the technician arrived, drilled through the walls, and finished, it was already dark. He tested the speed, and Xia An felt it was good.

The two transferred the one hundred thousand yuan from the card into the legitimate betting site and waited for the next day.

***

July 19, 2006, afternoon. The Diving World Cup was officially held in Changshu, China. In official interviews, the Chinese national team declared their intention to win their 100th gold medal in this cup series during the four-day event. No one, including Xia An, doubted that the Chinese athletes could do it. It was practically a sure thing.

But relatively speaking, Xia An was a bit nervous. He had showered at home and even sprayed on some of that sweet, cloying perfume Tang Wan used. Right now, he was pressing his palms together in front of Tang Wan, chanting, "Koi fish, bless me." Tang Wan was cutely munching on potato chips, sitting cross-legged with a serious expression.

What Xia An feared in his heart was: *Could space-time be distorted? Could the results be different?* Therefore, for the first event, the men’s 1-meter springboard, Xia An decided to bet only one hundred yuan to test the waters. If he won, he would earn 16 yuan. Tang Wan mocked him mercilessly for it.

During the opening announcements, Xia An gradually calmed down. He teased Tang Wan, who was sitting beside him looking cute with her bare face and oversized glasses.

"Want to set the mood?"

Tang Wan didn't understand and opened a second bag of chips.

Xia An said, "Do you have a swimsuit?"

Tang Wan looked at his smile and then at his finger pointing at the computer screen, and she understood immediately. She wanted to call him a pervert, but as if thinking of something else, she lowered her head shyly and asked him, "You want to see me wear it?"

Xia An chuckled.

Tang Wan said, "Then go wait in the bathroom. Come out only after I've changed."