Cosmic Love Affair

Chapter 12 Oort Cloud Four

Fang Xian didn't expect that when Shen Zhichuan called him in to teach English, it would be to a doctoral student. He was quite surprised, and Xie Li also felt very uncomfortable. He read through Xie Li's manuscript in a standard London accent. After listening, Xie Li felt ashamed and couldn't even read a sentence when it was his turn. Although Fang Xian didn't show it on his face, he became more puzzled inside. How did this person with such poor oral English manage to get admitted to the doctoral program at Lan University?

Tan Ke was wrapped in a bathrobe, talking with someone, while his phone in his pocket kept ringing incessantly. He apologized to the person he was talking to, took out his phone, and saw several messages popping up.

[Fang Xian: I caught your wife at my wife's house.]

[Fang Xian: My wife asked me to teach your wife English. I'm just letting you know.]

[Fang Xian: I mean, your wife is a doctoral student at Lan University, right? Why is her oral English like something haggled on Pinduoduo?]

Tan Ke was puzzled and sent a question mark back, then put away his phone and said to the person in front of him, "Please continue."

Sitting opposite him was Song Yi's brother. The Private Equity Fund Association had invited people from the Securities Regulatory Commission and the Economic Association, as well as a group of private equity partners, to a wild gathering at the hot spring villa on Tianhua Mountain. Song Yi's father and brother, both researchers of monetary policy, were also on the guest list.

"The policy direction is like this now, and you know it too. The country's intention is to rectify the market, not to completely wipe it out, after all, they still expect you to boost market liquidity," Song Yi's brother lit a cigarette and changed the subject, "By the way, I heard that Song Yi has been looking for you these past few days? He actually wanted to come today, but my dad didn't agree."

Tan Ke's parents were also scholars, and the two families had known each other for many years. Just mentioning this name annoyed Tan Ke, and he pushed the teacup in front of him, "He doesn't like girls, does your old man know that?"

Song Yi's brother shook his head, "The old man is not foolish, he just doesn't want to point it out, treating it as a young man's playfulness. The family has already started arranging blind dates for him." He gave Tan Ke a wry smile, "Please bear with him a little longer, it will be fine once he gets married."

Tan Ke neither agreed nor disagreed, and didn't respond. As Tan Ke came out of the villa with his suit jacket in hand, he happened to see a group of people teasing the female waitresses in the villa. A bunch of men were holding wads of bright red banknotes, egging on two young waitresses to fight like puppies. On the financial street, there were all kinds of partners, traders, deputy presidents, executive directors, senior vice presidents, executive vice presidents, supervisors, directors, and supervisors. The reception area at the entrance was piled high with business cards, the titles on which could be used to play a game of match-three. But once these people shed their elite facade, they were no different from the hooligans on the street staring at girls' skirts. From one side of the ocean to the other, the hobbies of these brokers remained the same, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. The only difference was that the objects of their attention had shifted from the female strippers in the bar across the red-light district to the waitresses in the Chinese-style hot spring villa. Wealth made the noble remain noble, and the vulgar even more vulgar.

In the first couple of years after Tan Ke entered the financial district, he particularly despised this money-making culture filled with indulgence and the survival of the fittest. He enjoyed the thrill of holding huge amounts of funds and winning from afar, the excitement brought by the index curve's sudden ups and downs, but he also suffocated from the stench emitted here. It was a world completely different from the academic circle. Senior traders would curse at newcomers at the top of their lungs, using words so filthy that one could never forget them for a lifetime; one second they would be flattering clients on the phone, and the next they would call the back office, spewing demands mixed with dirty words insulting the other party's female family members. Everyone was calculating how to use the information gap to package garbage as good stuff and sell it to others, even if they knew the other party had a wife lying in a cancer hospital. In the ivory tower, credibility was considered as important as life. If someone dared to falsify data or copy a few pages of content without citation, it would already be a huge scandal that researchers would talk about for half a year. However, on the financial street, credibility was not worth mentioning, and the smell of fraud permeated the air. Greed was like a huge wave, sweeping everyone here along with it.

In Tan Ke's first year on the financial street, he worked overtime every Friday until the early morning of the next day, then drove from the office on the financial street back to Princeton. The financial street was still crowded on weekends, with the bronze bull sculpture always having tourists waiting to take photos. The outbound direction of the Manhattan Bridge was usually empty at this time, enough for Tan Ke to step on the accelerator of the GLC to five thousand revolutions, like a wild horse running freely. The moment the back push feeling traveled from the seat to the spine, he would even feel a bit eager to go home. The town of Princeton was small, usually quiet and peaceful, like a rural beauty still living in the seventeenth century. Tan Ke would park his car in the public parking lot, buy a bacon and egg sandwich without sauce from a street food vendor, and then jump on the 606 bus, all the way to Palmer Square in front of Princeton University. He sat by the square in the standard dark suit without stripes and black shoes without decorations on the financial street, standing out from tourists holding cameras and students wearing school logo shirts. But he felt relaxed, like lying barefoot in his own bedroom.

When Tan Ke walked to the parking lot of the hot spring villa, he happened to meet the general manager of Chenghua coming out, with something bulging in his pocket. He nodded to the other party and greeted briefly, but was stopped. "You were just telling me the other day that you had no money," the general manager of Chenghua was a middle-aged man with a big belly, patting Tan Ke's shoulder vigorously, "I just found out that Changjing's net profit last year was 23%, how much does a UNICAT cost? You can't even afford sixty million? Tell me the truth, don't you want to play with the older brothers?" Tan Ke smiled with the corners of his mouth: "Really have no money, the total liquid funds in all accounts are not up to this number." He gestured a number with his hand. The general manager of Chenghua didn't believe it: "Don't give me that, last year's profit was enough for you to build a house with banknotes." Tan Ke showed a little moderate helplessness, and at the same time pulled away from the other party's physical distance: "Bought something at the end of last year, all thrown on that." The general manager of Chenghua was curious: "What did you buy? A villa? A car? Didn't buy an island, right? Hey, speaking of this island, it reminds me, last year..." The other party was interested and had the momentum to talk at length. Tan Ke was already impatient with this kind of conversation and interrupted: "Nothing much, just a piece of equipment." He was thinking of making an excuse to get away when the phone rang just in time. He pretended to apologize: "Sorry, it's the vice president's call." The call was from Fang Xian. Tan Ke got in the car before answering. Fang Xian's overly energetic voice came out of the receiver: "Took you so long to answer, did I interrupt something good for you?" Tan Ke pinched his eyebrows: "Just say what you want." Fang Xian drawled: "Why didn't you reply to so many messages I sent you? I saw the young man you brought to the company a few days ago at my wife's house." Tan Ke took out the Bluetooth earphone and threw the phone to the passenger seat: "When did you get married? I'll buy you an advertising space to thank the person who recycled your love on behalf of the whole nation." Fang Xian chuckled: "Just my neighbor, that university teacher surnamed Shen, she's so beautiful, now that I've won her over, I'll bring her out to show you guys." Tan Ke's hand pulling the seat belt paused: "Which university?" "Lan University," Fang Xian showed off with delight, "seems to be working on astrophysics, pretty impressive, right?" There was suddenly no sound from Tan Ke's side, and after Fang Xian called out for a long time, he spoke again: "Just deal with those diggers, don't harm the pillars of the country." Fang Xian was not happy: "That's too harsh, why do you say deal with? I truly love each one of them." Tan Ke sneered: "Right, the true love that breaks up with you if you don't give money." Fang Xian was exposed and immediately retorted: "You're the one who's into younger guys, messing around with twenty-year-old boys, and you have the nerve to criticize me?" Tan Ke turned the steering wheel and drove the car onto the mountain road: "When will you and Tan Xin get rid of the habit of illogical reasoning? That student is my aunt's assistant, I've just run into him once or twice." Fang Xian spoke sarcastically: "Oh, just met once or twice and you brought him back to the company to have Tan Xin read his palm, how caring of you." "I'm not caring," Tan Ke rolled down the car window, and the evening wind blew in vigorously, "I'm hanging up if there's nothing else." "No, no, no, there is something," Fang Xian stopped making a fuss, "there really is something." "What is it?" The sky was about to darken, with ten thousand feet of rosy clouds like brocade. Tan Ke took off his sunglasses and for some reason, he thought of a patch of sunset glimpsed from the open aluminum top. Fang Xian was chattering on the phone: "That Teacher Shen asked me to teach his student English, the little doctor. I was thinking, how bad could a doctoral student's English be, right? But guess what? He really is bad, so bad that he can't even speak." "Looking at him, do you know who he reminds me of?" Fang Xian teased. Tan Ke didn't respond, so Fang Xian had to ask and answer himself: "I thought of Carson. When Carson first entered Lancaster Public School, the way he spoke English was exactly the same as him. Afraid of eye contact, repeatedly confirming the pronunciation of a vowel, nervous, hesitant. I think this kid is not that he can't speak, but he dares not to speak." Fang Xian became very interested: "My neighbor seems to value this student a lot. Do you think if I can help him solve this problem, he will fall in love with me at first sight, pledge his body to me, and kneel at my feet?" Tan Ke was very annoyed. He thought for several seconds before saying: "Do you know that Carson had a long-term Asian ex-boyfriend who broke up with him later?" Fang Xian was puzzled: "The one who cried loudly? What does that have to do with me?" "It does," Tan Ke said, "Carson's ex-boyfriend is your neighbor. Surnamed Shen, named Shen Zhichuan, currently at Lan University's Physics Institute. You can check his resume on Lan University's website, he is also a graduate of Princeton." Carson is Tan Ke's senior at Princeton. Speaking of which, he got to know Fang Xian through his senior Carson. When Fang Xian was in high school in the UK, there was a genius mixed-race boy in his class, with a complicated background, who was only recognized by his father's family from Mexico at the age of twelve and spoke authentic Latin American English.

The public school is a magnifying glass of capitalism. Adolescents who have just finished developing their secondary s****l characteristics are best at reciting titles and classifying people into different levels. Wealthy Chinese like Fang Xian are ranked at the bottom, and a bastard mixed-race like Carson, who can't even distinguish between 'r' and 'l', is not even qualified to be the last. No matter how high his intelligence is, it can't cover his brown skin. He was called a "Dalit".

It's natural for the last and the negative one to hang out together. Carson later turned his life around and entered Princeton at the age of 16, and has been on a winning streak ever since. Fang Xian was obviously shocked by this relationship. He and Carson don't meet often, maintaining a gentlemanly friendship by exchanging postcards at Christmas. The last time they met was four years ago when Carson returned to the United States from Antarctica and happened to meet Fang Xian who was meeting with Tan Ke. The three of them got together that day. It just so happened that it was the day Shen Zhichuan left without saying goodbye. That night, Carson got drunk, and Fang Xian only then found out about this story. Tan Ke signaled to change lanes and slowly merged into the city's traffic flow: "You should give up on him." His voice, transmitted through the electric current, contained a hint of compassion: "Shen Zhichuan can't afford to play, nor will he play with you."

The author has something to say: *Back office: The back office of an investment bank, mostly referring to the support and core departments, which do not bring direct benefits. It is in contrast to the "front office" referred to by traders. *Diggers: gold diggers, people who are materialistic. *Dalit: refers to the untouchables in the Indian caste system.

Fang Xian: I've thought it over carefully, I'm determined to pursue Shen Zhichuan.

Tan Ke: ?

Fang Xian: Let me explain it to you. Your wife is my wife's student. The sage said, "One day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father." Your wife calls my wife's father, and the husband of your wife's father is also a father. You should also call the father of your wife, dad. Therefore, it can be deduced that I am also your dad.