Free Web NovelChapter 742: Chapter 592: Second Update
After happily sharing the good news of her niece’s pregnancy with Ning Youguang, Ming Jinxin asked,
"Wangyue has been on a business trip for so long, it must be quiet with you alone at home. Do you want to come stay at our place for a couple of days?"
"It’s not quiet at home for me." Ning Youguang smiled. "I actually quite enjoy the days when he’s not home."
Ming Jinxin couldn’t help laughing. "Don’t let Xiaoshi hear you say that, he’d be heartbroken."
Ning Youguang gave a sly smile. "I quite enjoy it when he is home, too."
"You and your mischief." After laughing, Ming Jinxin sighed. "But what you said isn’t wrong. We don’t just need the ability to get along harmoniously with others, we also need the ability to be alone."
"If a person can’t be alone, it doesn’t mean they’ll get along harmoniously with others either," Ning Youguang said. "Because their inner world isn’t steady."
Ming Jinxin strongly agreed. "I just like dealing with emotionally stable people. Dealing with people who are emotionally unstable is like being with a bomb. You never know when you’ll suddenly step on some sensitive nerve of theirs and—boom."
"They’re not happy themselves, and the people around them aren’t happy either," Ning Youguang said. "Because at our core, when we’re pursuing a stable life, the basis of happiness lies in stability—peace and ease." freewebnσvel.cѳm
"So this is why after starting a family, a lot of people insist on buying a place instead of renting? Even though renting is actually cheaper?" Ming Jinxin said.
"Yes." Ning Youguang said, "The heart always loves feeling settled."
"I think so too." Ming Jinxin nodded. "But people’s hearts are often unsettled."
—"They’ll often, because of some things that happen, swing into feeling very good or very bad. Their feelings change constantly with changes in the outside world. Yet the nature of the outside world is impermanence."
"Most people’s hearts follow their feelings. This is a very serious blind spot for us. Because feelings have no fixed nature; they keep spinning with the external environment. Just like you said, when something good happens, their mood is great; when something bad happens, their mood is terrible. People like this, as long as they’re alive, their hearts will live in their sensations, live in their own heads. And that’s the problem. Because when they live in their sensations, their hearts become like waves on the sea—whenever an external wind blows, they rise and fall, rise and fall, over and over. They can’t sustain, and they can’t settle, so lasting happiness naturally can’t be attained."
"Most people are like that." Ming Jinxin said.
"Does ’most people’ automatically mean they must be right?" Ning Youguang shot back.
"Not necessarily." Ming Jinxin thought for a moment, then asked, "Then what should people who are used to living in their feelings do if they want to settle down from this kind of restless, turbulent state of mind?"
"Normally, really pay attention to your first stirrings of mind and thought." Ning Youguang said. "When you’re facing your own thoughts, you need to slowly learn to keep some distance, not let yourself be led around by your feelings. After a period of training, you’ll be able to settle."
Ming Jinxin nodded, then picked up another piece of sponge cake. "Why does our heart always like to project outward?"
"Because it’s very hard for people to face their own shortcomings and flaws." Ning Youguang said. "This also has to do with each person’s history of growing up."
...
In S City, a thousand miles away from the capital.
The continuous rainy days had cast a pale gray over the entire city, everything damp and clammy, making it easy for people’s moods to sink.
Not to mention Shi Wangyue, who already hated rainy weather.
So, even though he was currently surrounded by a circle of top big shots, his mind still floated outside the crowd. Aside from the necessary pleasantries and socializing, most of the time his gaze fell on the rain-splattered floor-to-ceiling windows opposite him.
This was the third day Shi Wangyue had been staying at this hotel. The only thing in front of him that made him feel even slightly better was the hotel’s environment—elegant design, lush greenery.
His sister had said, when you’re in a bad mood, look at more flowers, plants, and trees, absorb the qi of heaven and earth, and it’ll wash away the foulness of the human world.
Like right now—
After more than an hour of passing glasses and changing drinks, many of the big shots around the table were already tipsy and high, arms around one another, calling each other "Brother Chen" and "Brother so-and-so," chatting away with flushed faces.
"If we don’t scrape money off the poor suckers, whose money are we supposed to take?"
"People change."
"Young people nowadays are too impatient. They only look at the surface of things; they don’t think things through. When it comes to learning, it’s not just about what you’ve learned, but also about what you’ve absorbed. Because a person’s cognition, like their life, has both depth and breadth."
Some people’s arrogance was on full display.
Despite the fact that right next to him sat a young hotshot whose social prestige and wealth status both surpassed his, his mouth still ran on autopilot, repeating the lines he was used to saying.
With a brain soaked in alcohol, naturally it didn’t work as well as usual—unless someone was faking drunk, they might still squeeze out a few human-sounding sentences—
"If someone lives in this world and doesn’t pursue the Dao, has no creativity, then aren’t they basically like a computer? You’ve just trained them into a computer, crammed with knowledge and skills."
"Those classic products that never go out of fashion, you definitely have to invest effort and hard work to keep them going."
"In every era, ordinary people just live their lives. When the times are good, they go along with the debauchery and excess. When the times are bad, they can still live on plain porridge and pickles. I’m just an ordinary person."
"There’s nothing inherently dignified about making money. If you think a certain group of people make money in a very dignified way, it’s only because their grandparents and parents already walked through that undignified part of the process for them."
And there were those reeking of alcohol, face full of smugness, spouting nonsense:
"What kind of men and women can catch your attention?"
"I’m actually quite superficial. A woman has to be good-looking and tactful. A woman’s tact is just as important as her looks—without tact, it doesn’t work. As for men, they need to be capable and have ideas. Actually, it’s the same for both men and women—if they want me to appreciate them, they definitely have to have ideas."
"So whether it’s men or women, we still value talent a lot."
"Yes, yes, yes, talent is definitely the most important."
"Then what if a woman has talent but no looks?"
"Then I’ll leave her to those who can better appreciate her talent."
In the capital world, interpersonal relationships are taken very seriously.
The famous internet magnate sitting next to Shi Wangyue, wearing glasses and well-known in the industry, shot the breeze with his friend for a bit, then turned his head and caught sight of Shi Wangyue’s deep gaze resting on the rain outside the window, his expression indifferent, a kind of chill detachment around him that kept people a thousand miles away.
So he chuckled and spoke up, "President Shi, I was just talking with President Liu about how human nature is complicated, and how people always like to use their own hearts to gauge the world. I wonder if you have any insights on that?"
Shi Wangyue slowly turned his head, the gaze behind his rose-gold frames sliding off the man, as if brushing off a speck of dust.1314
