New Year's Eve banquet, fireworks bloomed in the sky.
Duoduo was playing with sparklers on the lawn with a few uncles. Though the fireworks were fleeting, the moment they lit up, they illuminated everyone's eyes.
"Daddy, Daddy, you're back!" Duoduo, holding her sparkler, rushed towards Ji Zhiyuan. "Look at my sparkler, isn't it pretty?"
Ji Zhiyuan bent down and picked up the little girl. "It's beautiful."
"Such beautiful fireworks, I want Auntie Wen to see them too." Duoduo wrapped her arms around his neck, pleading. "Daddy, can you call Auntie Wen? I want to wish her a Happy New Year."
During this period, as the resort project was under construction, Wen Yan was occasionally sent by the hospital to negotiate with the Ji Group regarding project matters.
He had run into her in the elevator. She was wearing a proper business suit, with a professional smile on her face, polite to everyone yet maintaining a distance.
It seemed that only when facing Duoduo did she show genuine warmth.
Perhaps that was why Duoduo liked her so much.
Ji Zhiyuan took out his phone and handed it over.
Duoduo found Wen Yan's WeChat and dialed a video call, which was quickly answered.
"Auntie Wen, it's Duoduo! I wish you a Happy New Year and happiness every day!" Duoduo beamed. "Auntie Wen, where do you live? Can I come visit you tomorrow to wish you a happy new year?"
"I also wish Duoduo a Happy New Year." Wen Yan wished she could pinch the little face on the screen. "I'm on holiday back home. My home is abroad, so it's not convenient for you to come. When the holiday ends, I'll return to Haicheng and play with you. Oh, and please say Happy New Year to your daddy and family for me."
Duoduo nodded obediently.
She chatted with Wen Yan on the phone about this and that for quite a while before reluctantly hanging up.
Wen Yan returned to the dining table. A man in his thirties spoke up calmly, "You've been in Haicheng for three months. Haven't you had enough of this? It's time to come home."
"Brother, give me a little more time," she said, lowering her gaze. "Six months, at most six months. If I still can't find it by then, I'll never think about Haicheng again."
For the past few years, she had been having dreams.
She dreamed of an unfamiliar city with a beautiful riverbank, a towering pearl tower, bustling nightscapes, and countless skyscrapers...
The dreams were so vivid that they slowly formed a picture.
A few months ago, she finally learned that the city in her dreams was Haicheng, China.
Without telling her family, she found a job in Haicheng and flew there without a second thought, settling in temporarily. An intuition told her that she had left something very important there, something she had forgotten.
She had to find it.
Fireworks bloomed one after another in the night sky.
Ji Yanting sat on a rattan chair, his eyes deep and thoughtful. At such a beautiful moment, he surprisingly didn't know who to call.
He picked up his phone, took a picture of the stunning fireworks, and posted it on Weibo.
Fans went wild.
"Oh my god, my idol is posting! This fireworks picture is gorgeous."
"I'm setting off fireworks too, which means Yanting and I are fated. We should talk."
"Husband, my family runs a fireworks factory. Where do you live? I can deliver for free!"
"Ridiculous, as if my husband can't afford fireworks?"
"..."
"What a coincidence, actress Chi Fangfei also posted a fireworks picture at the exact same time."
"It really is the same time, down to the second. Did these two plan this?"
"Whoa, is this confirmation for the Best Actor and Best Actress?"
"I'll drink to this dog food first."
"Please no, my idol is better off single for life..."
"Definitely not, my actress queen is meant to shine alone..."
Fans online were in an uproar, but Ji Yanting didn't pay attention to the aftermath, continuing to set off fireworks with Duoduo.
Ji Mohan was a diligent researcher with a particularly narrow social circle. On New Year's Eve, the only person he could bring himself to contact proactively was the professor who had mentored him for several years.
He spent a moment psyching himself up before dialing. "Professor, Happy New Year's Eve."
"Happy my foot," Professor Chi started off scolding. "You've been under my wing since you were sixteen. From sixteen until now, how many years has it been, and you're still just a junior researcher? Did I destroy the Milky Way in my past life to be shamed by a student like you!"
Ji Mohan wished he could hide his head in the sand. "I'm sorry..."
"What use is your sorry to me!" Professor Chi was furious at his lack of progress. "Back then, you won triple gold medals in the Olympiad and got into Tsinghua's Chemistry Department on recommendation. A genius like you comes along once in many years. How is it that after graduation, once you entered the Chinese Academy of Sciences, you became just ordinary? Look at Lu Jiaojiao, who graduated the same year as you. She was inferior to you in every way, but this year she was rated as a senior researcher. In a little while, I reckon she'll become an associate professor, while you're still a low-level lab hand..."
He paused. "It's just strange. Wasn't it you who went to the Qaidam Desert? I even heard from your colleagues that it was you who discovered the new substance. Why does the materials institute list the discoverer as Lu Jiaojiao... The Lu family is a major clan in the capital. Could it be that capital interests set you up?"
Among the students who entered Tsinghua that year, Ji Mohan and Lu Jiaojiao were considered the top talents.
Someone from the Lu family had approached him, asking him to accept Lu Jiaojiao as his student and nurture her vigorously.
He detested capital meddling in academic circles the most and refused without hesitation, immediately accepting Ji Mohan instead.
Ji Mohan also lived up to expectations, performing excellently during his university years and contributing to various major projects. After graduating with a direct Ph.D., he was directly recruited by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and assigned to the Materials Institute.
Someone so outstanding should, in theory, shine brilliantly upon entry and easily attain a senior researcher position.
Yet, he was buried just like that.
"Tell me, is Lu Jiaojiao coercing you?"
Ji Mohan struggled to explain. "The new substance was indeed discovered by me, but I didn't manage to analyze its properties. It was Lu Jiaojiao who conducted the experiments... In short, she completed the crucial parts. It's not unreasonable for the paper to be published under her name."
Professor Chi hung up with a slam.
In the conservatory, Ji Jingchuan was tending to his orchids when his phone vibrated on the table. He glanced at it; it was Tang Jin.
Since that blind date dinner, Tang Jin would occasionally invite him to watch movies or have meals. Their relationship, though still rather placid, could be considered to have progressed by leaps and bounds.
He didn't dislike Tang Jin.
On the contrary, sometimes his inferiority complex acted up. In the dead of night, he would often think that if he were still He Jingchuan, he probably would never have had any intersection with the Tang family heiress in this lifetime.
For the past twenty years, he had lived in a village. He lacked all the hobbies and interests typically cultivated in wealthy families.
The only thing he liked was gardening.
Tang Jin accepted the Ji family, not him, Ji Jingchuan, personally.
Of course, from the beginning, his goal was also merely a marriage alliance, to set his great-grandmother's mind at ease and to reassure Old Master Tang.
Having clarified this point in his mind,
Ji Jingchuan then calmly answered the call.
Upstairs, Ji Zhouye was biting his pen, struggling to solve a physics problem, nearly pulling all the hair out of his head...
